January 24, 2020--Practice Blog

It has been a busy and hectic day. Lots of practicing, but lots of running around as well. It began with teaching my classes from 10 until 1 pm with preparation filling up most of the time before hand and between them. I would think of something I wanted to add and look for a video or photo to help with the concepts. Then I didn't get through it all. Ah, well. Came home after classes to check on dogs and practice piano. Spent some time watching videos of Andre Schiff discussing two Beethoven sonatas I am working on and incorporating ideas he was presenting. Also stole ideas from Alfred Brendel, Richard Goode, and Emil Gilels. Went to practice organ for a couple hours. Didn't get a lot done as I was trying to speed up a particular piece of music (come back to that later) and decided it wasn't ever going to go as fast as the suggested tempo marking. Did my recording for Secrets of Organ Playing contest. It is here:
https://steempeak.com/@jeremyowens9501/secrets-of-organ-playing-contest-week-56-submission-mit-fried-und-freud-ich-fahr-dahin-from-orgelbuchlein-bwv-616-by-j-s-bach

I then had a lodge meeting and came home.

On the organ, I spent a lot of my time working on BWV 616. The suggested tempo in the book I am working out of is QN=48. I found two recordings that went that tempo and it felt rushed (plus I don't think I could get my fingers moving that fast) so I settled on a compromise between the tempo on a recording by recording by Marie-Claire Alain and the one by Ton Koopman. I also spent some time working on the finale of Vierne's First Symphony. Learning notes....
I was asked to play a movement from a sonata at a contest this weekend as the featured artist. The request came Thursday night and the recital is on Sunday. Luckily, i have been working on two Beethoven Sonatas (Op. 101 and Op. 10 No. 2) The first movements for both feel pretty comfortable, but I woodsheded out some ideas from YouTube videos to incorporate into my playing. That chewed up a lot of the time, plus working on memory work for the second movement of Op. 10 No. 2.