Music Education

I made two small decisions last night, to resume piano studies and to get my music studio somewhat functional. The latter decision was prompted by the keyboard not being connected the studio, requiring me to unplug my headphones from the studio and plug them into the keyboard synth for each practice session. Problem solved, after some re-cabling and moving of furniture to get cables to reach. Now I can hear myself practicing on either studio monitors or studio headphones. See the Studio pages of my other blog site for studio details.

Practicing some chords and scales after a year layoff from my studies, my fingers at first didn't seem to remember what to do. But in five minutes, their muscle memory came back perhaps half way. Amazing. I had taken three semesters of group lessons at the local JC a while back, and will continue with self study for the immediate future.

My first goal is to be able to play well some simple pieces that my children played in grade school. One of their books, Eugénie Rocherolle's Simple Pleasures, always appealed to me. I had a couple of these pieces well in hand before I last set aside piano work, so perhaps this spring I will have some success (success at the 3rd grade level, that is. sigh.) My intermediate goal is to be able to play something by Brahms well. Hah, I'm still searching for something simple enough (in its original un-simplified form) that I can reasonably take aim at. Such may not exist.

In conjunction with keyboard practice, last week I purchased the music textbook Tonal Harmony. I checked some college bookstores online to see what book was in vogue, and TH is The One. I found a nice used 5th ed. with CDs for under $30, in unread condition. Also, yesterday I purchased a old 3rd ed. of Kennan's Counterpoint book for $1 to use as a change of pace. It's in pretty nice shape, looking unread except for some highlighting in the intro, and with bumped corners. Thanks, Amazon used books.

Overall, I know most of the information in TH, but not at a crisp, working level. That's my goal. I used to have Walter Piston's book on Harmony from my college days, but I recall not getting much out of it and apparently gave it away at some point.

It seems I have many interests that I visit cyclically, as I am revisiting keyboard practice today. When getting absorbed intensely in something for a period, it starts to get old. Then I leave it temporarily and move on to the next. I envision my interests in a circle, and I eventually get back to the one I just set aside, at which time it seems like a new adventure again. I did not start out with this large circle of interests, but have added them along the way. The circle may get larger yet. I don't see it contracting.