Wow, what a day! I definitely started the morning by getting up on the wrong side of the bed - I couldn’t sleep last night (I think the coffee I drank at noon kept me up ‘til 1:30am!) and then I was feeling fat and bloated because of what I’ve been eating lately (overall, too much salty food).

But wow, what a difference a day made. I still feel crummy physically, but pianistically, I feel terrific.

Warm-Up: Key of B Maj

I did my normal routine (finger taps, note slurs, scales, major/minor blocked and broken chords, scales in thirds, arpeggios, and Hanon), but I also added contrapuntal scales and 7th chord blocked inversions, as well as some octave exercises. At this point, I wasn’t feeling all that great overall, but I felt my playing was very supple with lots of dimensions - I felt a heightened sensitivity and could play much more delicately than even yesterday.

Fast forward a few hours (after lunch, a nap, and some other goofing off), and I have not done a single musical thing I intended to do (42nd Street, 17 Again, VCO 10th Anniversary Concert rep), but have done something much more important: I found a piano coach who seems to integrate well all the concepts I’ve been working for years to wrap my head around.

This pianist’s name is Aleksander Woronicki (http://aw4piano.info/en/info1), and I stumbled across one of his YouTube videos while searching for “thumb over vs. thumb under” scales technique. If his videos had been available 9 or 10 years ago, I would have been thrilled - it is exactly the resource I’ve been looking for. He explains things clearly and consistently and in just the past hour, I feel like I’ve made tremendous strides with minor fixes (which, at this point, is what I need - the small, subtle shifts in approach that will unleash new horizons).

For example, one of the simple but previously unarticulated concepts (to me) that he points out in fast octave work and jumps: keep the sagittal movement of the thumbs (towards and away from the body) minimal - as you move horizontally across the keyboard, make sure the thumbs stay fairly consistent in how far away they are from the fallboard.

Simple idea, and verrrrrry obvious once it’s been pointed out, but I had never once in 25+ years of playing thought to pay conscious attention to that. With that one simple tweak, I was markedly more consistent in my ability to execute large jumps of chords and octaves.

That’s just one example of the simple but insightful help that I’ve garnered from Friend Aleksander. I’m hoping to uncover a lot more pianistically over the next few months. I may even actually make myself into something of a pianist one day.

So for now, I’m using my blog as a practice log. I’m doing this because:

1. It’ll force me to keep track of how I practice, and…

2. Since I practice every day, it’ll help me build the habit of blogging!

So today, here’s what I’ve done so far:

Warm Up: Key of Gb

• Finger Taps and Note Slurs

• Scales @ 104bpm

• Block Chord Inversions @ 92

• Broken Chord Inversions @ 84

• Double Thirds @ 84

• Arpeggios @ 84

• Hanon 1 and 8 @ 104

Feeling pretty good about the progress I’ve made in the last day or two. I’m noticing that I’m more articulate in my scales, and I have an easier time getting into the minor scales. Also, I noticed that I’m having to learn a new coordination for my left hand - I think it wasn’t level before when I was practicing, which limited my speed and accuracy. I notice it especially on the broken chord inversions, which is why I had to take the met down. Curious to see how things develop from here.

Repertoire:

Worked through a lot of 42nd Street today. I have about 2 1/2 weeks before I’m going to be knee deep in it for rehearsals. I made it from numbers 5-7 (Go Into Your Dance through the end of Dames) with the metronome. I’m much slower than I’d like to be, but the metronome is rapidly increasing the quality of my playing. I actually think that, once again, I’m learning that 1) Haste makes waste, and 2) Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

First blog post! Just a quick brainstorm to get the ball rolling. Here are 5 Non-musical Things I've Learned Working as a Musician:

1. How to Navigate The City

   Being a freelance musician in the Entertainment Capital of the World has taken me all over Las Vegas - from extravagant private parties on the Strip to accompanying opera singers at the county fair, I’ve played and rehearsed all over the Valley. Thirteen years later, I definitely know how to get around Sin City (and where to find good food in every neighborhood!)

2. How to Hone Something so that you Own It

   Being a working musician isn’t just about fooling around at the keyboard and playing what you feel like/whenever you feel like it. Music-making can be just as easy as pie - but to make a living at it, you have to cultivate the patience, discipline, and consistency of a Master Craftsman. Working as a musician has taught me what it’s like to push past my boredom and impatience and to keep deliberately practicing the music I’ve been hired to play until I “own it” and can play it well when the crowd is roaring and the pressure’s on. That’s what I get paid to do - and I love it!

3. How to Get Over Myself

   One of the peculiarities about being a pianist is that there are lots of different ways you can make a living at being one. Some people are concert pianists, who tour the world and astound audiences by playing virtuosic classical music; some are lounge/cocktail pianists, who provide upscale, jazzy entertainment for classy parties. I work mostly as a collaborative pianist and orchestral player - I accompany singers and I play in the orchestra pit for musicals. Unlike the concert and lounge pianists, who are the central musical focus of their respective domains, I’m just a cog in the machine, a supportive partner in musical crime. And it’s wonderful - I love being able to make music and friends at the same time, and I’m more than happy to share the stage or just be in the background.

4. Most Things Are Just Made Up

   A lot of people I know get excited every Friday afternoon and sad every Sunday night. Is there anything inherently special about those days? No. But most people who work a conventional, 9-5, Monday-through-Friday job just assume that’s how it has to be: you get the Monday Blues and then can’t wait for Friday night. People are always surprised that I don’t feel that way, but it’s because I made the choice to not live out that particular version of reality. Sure, I get down and out about plenty of other stuff - but I’m grateful I don’t suffer from weekly up-and-down cycle of dread and delight that runs other folks’ lives.

5. Life is a Mental Game

   Any time I’m struggling to play something at the piano, it’s inevitably because of a defect in my mental approach. Either I’m not being sensitive to the finite details of the movements I’m making or I’m misperceiving what I’m doing physically and I should record a video to assess the problem. My point is, there’s almost never a “problem” with my hands, fingers, tendons, and muscles themselves - rather, the issue is in my brain, how I’m thinking about playing. In fact, most people have all the musculature and physical elements you need to play the piano well - but they’ve never trained their minds to coordinate the fingers, hands, body, etc.

   Life is like that a lot of times: we physically have everything we need to thrive - or to work so that we can eventually thrive - but our minds don’t know how to execute. To really live at a high level, the real challenge is to teach the mind first - your body, and eventually your entire Life, will follow.