Hour 220+

Oct. 14th, 2010

Wow, it's been forever! I've been gone all summer, and finally got back into the swing of things last month. While I was gone (I drove from England to Mongolia) I didn't have time to practice. All I had was this crappy piano in a hotel lobby in Novosibirsk... but it was great playing Rachmaninoff in Russia.

So, where am I? I finished the cadenza (as you can see in this video) and, although I'm not fully done with the first movement, I jumped to the second movement a bit for some variety.

I'm feeling good, making progress. The most difficult thing about this is pulling yourself away from practicing parts you've already memorized. Eventually, you'll spend a bunch of time nailing the same section, until it's very fast - but then you'll forget how to play it slow because you've consumed all the time playing it quickly. Then you have to deconstruct what you learned, to play it slow again, all realizing you could have spent that time memorizing new sections...

Stay tuned!

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Hour 130

Mar. 30th, 2009

THANK YOU

This goes out to Mara Mikialian. I worked with her at HBO and spent Easter with her husband and mother. She is an incredible woman and her 50 dollars is GREATLY appreciated.

So as updates go, not much new. I've gotten in 30+ hours since the last time I blogged. I am currently working on the part at 1:18 of the video to the right. By far the creepiest segment of the first movement. Sounds like a nightmare on crack.

This is Evgeny Kissin playing. He's probably got some form of Autism and he's clearly one of the best piano players in the world. A lot of people pin him against Lang Lang, who's also good. But he's all dramatic when he plays. It looks like he's having a 45 minute orgasm. Which is very gross.

But look at Kissin's technique. Look at his hands. So alarmingly amazing. It would take me 20 years of 6 hour practice days to get close to that. Oh yeah, and I need to be Autistic.. ;-)

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Hour 102

Mar. 6th, 2009

NEW VLOG FORMAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AWESOME!

Special thanks to JARRET IZZO for throwin' down 40 bucks to the cause. Thanks Jarret!

I'm soooooo sorry this sounds messy. I think you're gonna have to deal with it! ;-)

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Hour 100

Mar. 1st, 2009

I've finally reached the 100th hour of practice! Wow! That's awesome. I'm doing well. I actually made a video of myself playing the new part, but the sound was all messed up (the trials of using "iMovie" to record... screw iMovie!) I promise to put up a vid real soon. I'm finally finished with the roaring opening 2 1/2 minutes. That was tricky. Now it's a bit easier.

For reference, I am up to minute 6 1/2. I'm not exactly as good as ol' Vlad here, though...

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Hour 60

Feb. 1st, 2009

So I got some badass music from "musicminusone.com". Basically they take big orchestra pieces and subtract the piano sound, so you can play along with the orchestra. they ALSO have two speeds: normal and 25% slower, so you can into things a bit... so in these videos, that's what music you hear. I'm sorry if it's dark watching these... I can only use one outlet at a time, so, obviously, it's being used for music at the time being.

Right hand

So I'm getting a bit faster... sounds sloppy a tad. I'm still trying tediously hard to do things slow enough to make sure I'm hitting the right notes. I don't wanna slop through this. I also met a kind couple from Topanga that give me 20 bucks in a cafe. THANKS PHILIP AND MICHELLE!

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Hour 36

Jan. 11, 2009

I am pleased to have finished the initial creation of the memoryrach.com website. I hope it raises tons of money for alz.org. As for practice, just wrapped up things for today. I made a recording of my progress so far, check it out.

Right hand

The 4 and 5 fingering in my right hand is causing nightmares for me.

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Hour 23

Jan. 08, 2009

Repetition Never Ends

I found a video of the exact section I’m learning, played by the master Vladimir Horowitz.
I’m intensely studying from :53 to 1:50 at this point.
1:53 demands extremely difficult fingering with the right hand. it basically makes me cantankerous

Fast

Horowitz is playing this at like 130 beats per minute. I have from :53 to 1:45 at 90 beats per minute. So that’s some good friggin progress!

Mood

optimistic

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Hour 18.5

Jan. 03, 2009

Playing at 50 beats per minute. This is very, very slow.

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