The left hand is going to be the trickiest because every measure has a sequence of stretches that go over an octave, and swiftly.

My great piano teacher had taught me a great way to do this: touch the octave note of the note you need to play next, that is closest to the note you last played.  This is because it is easier to gauge the length of an octave than it is to gauge a stretch longer than one.

For example, If you have a low A and need to jump from it to an E that is 1 1/2 octaves higher, you would play the A, then touch the E that is five steps higher, then use that as a guage to play the E that is an octave higher than that.

This song is definitely going to give me a lot of practice with these long stretches, which I normally have a tough time with!

I also spent much of tonight looking for a design for it, but ended up liking my current “Filmix” theme in the end

I’ve always been a fan of Chopin, but didn’t hear this piece until I saw it in the Vietnamese movie “The Scent of Green Papaya,” which was played during a thunderstorm and an emotional storm all happening at once. It was quite effective and I’ll never be quite certain whether I love the song just for the song or because of that scene. But hopefully one day I’ll be able to translate how much I love it when I play it.

The biggest obstacle is some long left hand stretches that have to be played swiftly. My grand piano teacher always said to lightly touch the nearest octave note to be able to measure the distance without looking; hopefully that will work in this case.

Here’s a clip from the movie (not the Chopin, but one of the few clips I could find on YouTube), and may I interject here that Anh Hung Tran is an amazing writer/director, creating seamless movies with amazing visuals and soundtracks.

I have to admit that “Clair de Lune” was part of this movie, too, so yeah, maybe I just really want to play this soundtrack.

While I always enjoyed playing, I never devoted an hour a day to it, so I’m eager to see the results!

This morning I chose the songs that I’d like to start working on (and stumbled through them):

• Debussy’s “Dr. Gradus ad Parnassum”
• Debussy’s “Clair de Lune”
• Chopin’s “Prelude”
• Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody”

I was going to post a before and after of the songs, but the before would just be too annoying.

I also searched for a modern composer and discovered Steve Reich, who wrote a lot of repetitive, layered songs (which I love) like “Different Trains:”

Unfortunately for me, his major piano piece involves two pianos – I may just have to get it anyway and see if I can work some piano/electric keyboard combination out. Here it is, “Piano Phase:”

Christine & Natasha in Grandpa's Jaguar

1. Natasha, Natasha, Natasha, Natasha, Natasha; my sweetest of sweets daughter.  I’ve been ‘in love’ with people and even music and other media/art, but having a child is the best of all.  You miss them terribly when they’re away, you get scared by their fragility, and at the same time you love them like nothing else and they truly are the most charming people you will ever know.

2. A great family including sisters that I can act totally crazy and bizarre around and they think it’s just as hilarious as I do!

3. A thoughtful husband who shares so many common interests with me.

4. Fond memories of people I’ve lost.

5. The ability to focus on what I can learn from tragedies and not on the negative (I was blessed with quite the self-preserving personality!).

M Ward

6. Incessant, uncontrollable… well, passion, for lack of more accurate word – I am constantly amazed by some new song, book, personality, color combination, weather, and it goes on and on – like M Ward sings, “God, it’s great to be alive / takes the skin right off my hide / to think I’ll have to give it all up someday.”

7. The fact that I’ve found a church that I actually like (it’s sometimes hard to be a Christian when you don’t like any of the Christian churches that you’ve been to and find some serious flaws in the members as well (and I’m still trying to figure out how much of that is my own problem)) – I recently started going to a small Methodist church and I think I finally feel like I’ve found a church that I feel I can grow in.  I love the social history and focus of the church, they’ve played an active role in American civil rights issues and to this day they are very socially active.  The church I’ve been going to houses our Meals on Wheels kitchen and is very focused on helping the poor in our community.  The are also spiritual without taking the whole of the Bible literally.  (This could be a very very long item and it’s already past midnight so I’ll leave it at that for now).

8 That I was born in the age of air conditioning, pain medication, movie shows, and teh internets! (Though this one could be a blessing and a curse…)

9 That I’ve found a home-based business that has been successful thus far, and that I enjoy (making sites).

10 That I have a nice, relaxed job that lets me wear jeans every day, and hang numerous plants, music posters, child drawings, and various art/craftwork around my desk until the grey walls are almost completely hidden.

Fuji's IJ Roll & Spicy Tuna Roll

11 Fuji’s sushi, particularly their spicy tuna rolls.

12 Iced coffee.

13 Anh Hung Tran.

14 Woody Allen.

15 Michel Gondry.

16 T.S. Eliot.

17 e e cummings.

18 Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

19 Glenn Gould.

Glenn Gould

20 Sergei Rachmaninoff.

21 Frederic Chopin (so in love)!

22 Claude Debussy.

23 My beautiful black Baldwin upright.

24 The joy of playing piano.

25 The feeling of the air moving against your chest while playing the accordion.

26 The Jersey shore and endless summers I got to spend there while visiting family.

27 Tulsa, with the friendliest people, cool architecture, magnificent thunderstorms, Cain’s, and its thick green-ness.

28 The time I got with a truly amazing piano teacher, Claire Jones.

29 Good friends I’ve kept over the years and friends to come.

30 Sonic Route 44 diet Coke with lots of lime.

31 Being born in an era of countless amazing bands & musicians!  

Rainy Fall

32 Rain.

33 Snow.

34 The magic in the perfect speed of riding a bike.

35 Recording devices.

36 Looking out the window of a moving car.

37 The mystical Tahlequah, OK.

38 The dreamy Peggy Lee tune ‘Where or When’ and the perfect snowy December morning I was awoken by that song on the radio.

Peggy Lee

39 The moment that I first heard Paul McCartney’s ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ (in high school right after a breakup with a boyfriend who I had mentioned this song to and who didn’t find anything special about it) and thought that it was so underrated and awesome that I would marry the guy who told me he intimated the same feelings toward the song without knowing my feelings about it (which is a small part of why I’m married to who I am today and whomever reads this first will be the first to learn this)!

Christian Bale!

40 Red wine.

41 Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

42 M Ward.

43 Christian Bale.

44 Leonard Cohen.

45 New Order and They Might Be Giants (and numerous others) for being major players in getting me through high school in one piece!  …But don’t forget the songs
That made you cry
And the songs that saved your life
Yes, you’re older now
And you’re a clever swine
But they were the only ones who ever stood by you…

46 Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse, Neutral Milk Hotel, Animal Collective, Wolf Parade, The Fiery Furnaces, and Sufjan Stevens for showing up just when I thought there era of good music of my generation was over.

47 Talking Heads for managing to be so hot and intellectual at the same time.

48 NPR for their ‘driveway moments.’

Carlsbad Caverns + Doll's Theater

49 Caves.

50 National & State Parks.

51 Glorious blank paper and a black pen.

52 Magazine collages.

53 Smalti mosaics.

54 The Golden Number.

55 Hello Kitty.

56 Niagara Falls.

57 Growing up with parents who loved to take road trips.

58 Mojitos.

59 Gardening.

60 The Russian language with which I am enamored but haven’t found the time to get past general greetings.  Strastvitya.

From the Japanese folk tale "The Crane Wife"

61 Folk tales & mythology.

62 Shakespeare (I know, yawn, how quaint) – I like Hamlet and Midsummer’s Night Dream a lot, almost as much as the fact the he varied the spelling of his name.

63 Night swimming and that I was fortunate enough to grow up with a pool with lights and an overview of dreamy, spooky woods.

64 My propensity to daydream.

65 Symbols.

LOST

66 LOST.

67 That I got to major in two subjects that dealt heavily in symbols in mirror opposite ways – Mathematics and English Literature.

68 Dreams (“in dreams, emotions are overwhelming” -Science of Sleep).

69 Gael Garcia Bernal.

Gael Garcia Bernal in The Science of Sleep

70 Motorcycle Diaries (I liked the book and the movie) – even though I don’t agree with everything Che Guevara did in his lifetime, I’ve always admired the humanity of this book and his altruistic spirit – this journey really gives some insight into his life before it the politics (and what led him to that), and his love, respect, and care for the people he met.

71 Dark chocolate with orange.

72 Icicles.

73 Coconut lime verbena body spray from Bath & Body Works which gives me a little extra vigor each and every day.

Arctic Wolf

74 Wolves.

75 Language.

76 Silence.

77 Chinese silk shirts and dresses.

78 A cat who has so much personality that she’s more human than cat.

79 Google Adsense

80 Coffee Shops

Mt Fuji woodblock print by Hiroshige

81 The early Christmas present my husband just gave me – a MacBook – yay!

82 Hobby Lobby so my daughter and I can easily find a new craft project to do any time.

83 Hiroshige.

84 Vladimir Horowitz.

85 Hoodies.

86 Banana Republic.

87 Illuminations Candles.

88 Andrei Tarkovsky.

89 Richard Kelly for making Donnie Darko.

Philbrook's 1st Garden Glow 11-29-08

90 College radio.

91 Starry nights.

92 Connections.

93 Noodle bowls.

94 That I discovered the combination of saltine crackers, plain cream cheese, and green olives.

Creepy Cute Crochet: Zombies, Ninjas, Robots, and More!

95 The city.

96 The country.

97 Holidays and the events they inspire, like warm lingering meals, The Nutcracker ballet, and Philbrook’s Garden Glow.

98 iTunes Genius.

99 Creepy Cute Crochet for getting me back into crocheting and sparking some ideas.

100 WordPress for being the most awesome CMS and making this easier than it could have been.

101 You!

No one plays this like Horowitz.

Generally, in my mind walking up to a stranger and throwing a cliche out there evokes an eyeroll – maybe a raised brow at best – but this always stuck with me, and I just realized why – because fewer words have ever rang so true.  Especially if you’re me.

See, I have this problem of waiting until the ‘right moment’ for too many things.  I always hoarded my Halloween candy to have at that right moment, only to find later that my little sister had eaten it all.  I waited to burn my favorite candles only to find that when I finally got them out to burn them, they had lost most of their scent.

And I waited ten years to start taking piano lessons again from my favorite teacher.  Now granted, I had some good excuses this time – it really would have been difficult to wing it money-wise up until now.  And plus, my daughter was young and I wanted to spend as much time as possible with her.  So I’m glad I waited in this case… but what I just found out still leaves a voice inside screaming “don’t you know already – TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!”

What I just found out is that my dear piano teacher who has studied with the finest master pianists, who is a pure joy to be around, and who is irreplaceable, just told me she is moving in a month.  Did I really have to wait ten years to start taking from her again?

So I get it… I’ll take everything I can get from her while I can get it… and live a little more ‘in the moment’ so to speak.

Do I dare to eat a peach?

The old joke couldn’t be more true, though.  Since I started taking piano lessons again last Thursday, I’ve realized that as much as I love to play, despite that love I can still fall into the pitfalls that only self-discipline can cure.

I hear all these beautiful songs and I want to play them so badly, then I sit down and work at them for a while, then get frustrated that they don’t sound like I want them to.  It’s so simple when you say it, but so hard to implement – it just takes practice.

So from here on out I’m making a pledge to practice more, to go over those difficult spots however many times it takes, and to play my Hanon every day.  (Actually, Hanon can be quite meditative and enjoyable once I get into it).

Another area I want to implement discipline is with my diet – I want to start eating better and lose a little weight, too.  I think this will tie in with better playing as well.

Here are what the two songs I’ve just started playing should sound like:

I think the commentor who wrote “like on a cloud” put it best for that last performance by Rubinstein.

Victor Merzhanov played the last one – thanks to a commenter I found out I could play that big chord with the thumb on two black keys instead of making it an arpeggio like the player did and which I was doing.

I was even more excited to find that my previous teacher, Claire Jones, was still teaching and could fit me in!!  She’s just the most wonderful teacher I’ve ever had – she’s got all of the experience being a Julliard graduate and has been a student of a master teacher who taught Glenn Gould – but she also weaves wonderful stories into our lessons, has a natural teaching method, and brings in a great repertoire.

Tomorrow night is my first lesson back – I can’t wait! 

I’ll leave you with Glenn Gould playing Bach:

You see, I have a keen interest in the competition because I have a fantasy of entering it.  And that’s why it was unsettling when I realized that this YouTube competition had happened without me even knowing about it!  So, even though I was a little envious of the folks that were on the ball enough to prepare and enter in time for this, I got past that enough to really enjoy a few of the performances – especially my pick – Calvin Lee:

I think he did a lovely job! Plus, he played a song from both of my favorite composers – Chopin and Debussy!  It warmed the cockles of my heart.