It has been almost 2 years since I first set up this blog (April, 2016) … intending to add to it regularly. I have to admit that I have been somewhat sporadic in my additions (just 12 posts in 2 years), but I will try to do better!
Blog wise, I’ve branched out into a couple of additional subject areas:
- Approach and Technique
- Digital Audio
I’m not pretending to offer definitive guidance on Technique, however, I have spent a good amount of time researching. Lots of my research has been by following people on YouTube (and there are some extremely good people there to follow), accompanied by reading books, magazines and other blogs. What I’m trying to do in the Technique part is to give my own thoughts on what I have found out, what I have tried out, and what level of success I think I’ve had with it.
My Digital Audio project is another on-going series which delves into MIDI, Sample Libraries and DAW’s with the end objective being to record the Orchestra play Rachmaninov’s Rhapsodie on a Theme of Paganini – 18th Variation. Once I’ve done my first orchestral project, I think I should be able to add more and more to which I can play along.
So, aside the blog, what have I been up to in the piano world?
Well, I have a Facebook Page of the same name … Tommy’s Piano Corner … to which I have started to upload videos of myself performing the pieces I’ve been trying to learn. This has been great fun and also a good learning experience. You can of course just stick your phone in a corner, shoot a video of you playing and upload it … however, it’s a tad flat and there are plenty of free tools (I’m talking about things like Garageband and iMovie as I’m a Mac user) that can be used and, with a little effort, will help you create something visually much more appealing.
I’ve also spent lots of time practicing of course. This hasn’t really been quite as consistent as I’d have wanted it to be. My job often sees me away from home for a few days each week. For example, in 2016, I actually took 82 flights for work (all economy unfortunately!). This means that enjoying a regular practice routine has been impossible. However, from early 2017 to now, I’ve actually been working mainly from my home base so have got much more opportunity to do some consistent work.
My approach has been to get up that little bit earlier in the morning and spend at least an hour at the piano before I leave for the office. I always thought I would not want to play piano in the morning (not really being a morning person I have to admit), all the same, it has proved to be the best strategy. No matter what the day throws at me, my practice is done and I don’t need to think about how to fit it in later.
I was using an app I downloaded from the AppStore which effectively captured the time I spent practicing on my various pieces – even having cool graphs and things to show. Unfortunately, when iOS 11 ceased to support 32 bit apps, it would no longer work for me. So, I have a detailed record up until I updated to my iPad Pro on my old iPad 2 (which I haven’t updated to iOS 11), a gap, and then a detailed record from October onwards – by which time I basically created my own App that runs on my iPad.
Between August 2015 and January 2017, I clocked up 377 hours of practice – so an average of about 42 minutes per day. Then there is the gap in data then from January 2017 to October 2017 (due to my unsupported app). Since October 2017 I have put in 222 hours at the piano – a better average of 80 minutes per day. Given I was mostly at home from January to October 2017, I think I should have probably done about an hour a day on average. If that’s correct, then I’ve done something approaching 850 hours. They say that you need 10,000 hours to become an expert …. better keep working away.
As for my current plans, well, I want to finish my 18th Variation project (I can almost play the piano part now) and get that recorded. I also want to set up a YouTube channel alongside the Blog and Facebook page through which I intend to make a concerted effort to interact with other returning pianists. Naturally, I want to maintain my improved practice rhythm – hopefully I can get in at least 360 hours in the next year. Watch this space ….
