Practice Journal: Day #3

Saturday, January 03, 2009

Time practiced: 47 minutes

Statistics

Time practiced this week: 3 hours, 43 minutes
Total time practiced: 3 hours, 43 minutes in 6 days
Average time practiced per day: 37 minutes
Average session length: 45 minutes

Session #5

Time: 4:05 PM-4:52 PM
Length: 47 minutes

Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonata in E major, K.380/L.23/P.483: Andante comodo

Time: 4:05 PM-4:23 PM
Length: 18 minutes

I tried just practicing what I knew (the first 33 measures) for a while, since I kept having to pause in certain sections. I did definitely see some improvement.

I also worked on the 32^nd notes in the left hand in measures 6 and 8. I practiced them a little more slowly, tried imitating the right hand, played both the left and right together with the same notes, etc. It seemed to help a bit.

Rachmaninoff: Polichinelle in F-sharp minor, Op. 3, No. 4

Time: 4:23 PM-4:52 PM
Length: 29 minutes

I tried playing through the piece a bit. Then I worked on primarily the second half of it, from measure 92.

I worked on measures 107-117 a lot, trying to make that fingering more comfortable. It did go better than last time, when my fingers got sore.

In the second half of beat three of measure 113, I was trying to use fingers 1-3-4 on that G-Eb-G chord, but that was slightly too uncomfortable, so I switched that to 1-2-4. Also, in measure 112, I think I switched that Bb-G-Bb to fingers 1-2-3, as it’s too cramped with the 4 on the top Bb.

Then I practiced measures 121-130. I worked a bit specifically on measures 125-126, where I have to jump up those octaves. I don’t have as much trouble hitting the first octave, but the very top one is a bit more difficult. I usually accidentally hit the F instead of the G. After practicing it though, it is going a little better.

I practiced measures 129-130 to try to hit that bottom C# more easily, as well as the final F# in measure 130.