Self Evaluation

My style of practicing has evolved over time. When I first began playing piano in keyboard skills one, I used to just sit and play the entire piece through over and over until I could do it at least three times through without making a mistake. I took about an hour every morning to accomplish this and found the process relatively easy. In keyboard skills two, I realized that by using this method, I was practicing my mistakes and in turn causing myself to have to practice for much longer than was necessary to accomplish results. By the end of the semester I realized that I should really slow down the tempo while learning a piece and take only two or three measures at a time to master before going on. This is how I approached my midterm piece, Promenade.

The first two measures are repeated three times throughout the piece, so by learning them in this way, I was able to learn more of the piece faster. Time is always an issue with me this semester because of starting a new business and seeing clients after school and on weekends. I find that some days I only have half and hour to sit at the piano. I like to warm up with scales and have gotten pretty good at them. By learning a piece in small segments the sight reading on for treble clef has become more confident. I feel that I could always do better, learn more and grow into a decent accompanist with time.

So with this piece I was flowing well until measure 9 where there is a shift in hand position. I always try to smooth this part out, but sometimes the anticipation of shifting puts a bit of a stutter in my flow. This happens more when I allow myself to get nervous and so in anticipation of being nervous for the midterm, I tried to let this transition become as effortless as possible. In the end, my nerves got the better of me, but I will none the less continue to try to become a better player this semester. I think there is so much value in being able to noodle around on the piano and accompany oneself and others.