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The Greatest Challenge is to Remain Attentive and Practice Effectively Through the Entire Hour
I succeed some of the time
I have always had ”a touch of the ADHD”. Plus I am 72 and have a lot of things, information and emotions and memories, stuffed into my brain. Paying attention when I only have one precious hour to play the piano is always difficult but is critical to my success. My most challenging task is to find ways to ensure that I am learning what I need to learn during each portion of the hour. Not daydreaming about being discovered or becoming enraptured by the gorgeous sounds I am making or wandering off on a memory, even a nice one. They call this “teaching the piano.”
This morning I am playing unfamiliar versions of Christmas carols as my sight-reading practice. It is a quiet contemplative start to the hour. It is only 7 a.m., I am alone and the fire is blazing in the pellet stove. The sun is just up and flaming in the windows behind me. After ten minutes I move to technical issues.
I have been hard at work on scales this month, F#, B, and E so far in 3rds, 10ths, and 6ths -together and in opposite directions. My repertoire work is learning the Bach Two-Part Invention of the month(#13) and redoing minute parts of the Presto in ”my” Beethoven Piano Sonata number 14. I enjoy this work – carefully…
