of expanding on something I posted. It's probably better to read it than much of what I said below. He does philosophy a lot better than I do. You lose a lot of reading time having to practice your scales and other exercises. I doubt most music majors could really count as intellectuals considering how much time playing an instrument takes. Though that did a lot for my typing.
I'm looking forward to Advent.
I often think I should have spent more time practicing piano.
ReplyDeleteI definitely spent more time on Hanon than I should have.
ReplyDeleteI’m all but starting over again after decades of ignoring it, so Hanson is in my rotation. 👿
ReplyDeleteI tell my students that one of the best things they can do is to take the first volume of the Mikrokosmos and to take Bartok's advice and transpose them to different keys. Only I suggest they do so in all keys keeping in mind that the black keys are generally most easily played with the middle three fingers so they should figure out efficient fingerings based on that. It helps to build several skills, a. figuring out fingering, b. figuring out planning for turning the thumb under to change hand position and c. developing the coordination of your ear to your hand. Though any five-finger pieces will work for that, "When the Saints Come Marching In," for example.
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