Very quick and dirty - I posted this mostly just to check my timeframes and see where I end up at with a fairly minimal amount of time to memorize something.
Yes, it's rough. Yes, it needs some work; I'm on it. I thought I'd share it in the meantime. Thanks to Josh Goldberg for posting a version of the tune with a tutorial that inspired me to take a swing at it.
Now, I had sightread through this piece a few times from beginning to end prior to embarking on this, but reading is just not the same as memorizing something; Memorizing is the best way to really get to know a piece...
So, prior to yesterday I had transcribed the piece when Josh initially posted his take on it to have a kind of "worksheet" to work off of, and I have included my score. I wasn't sure when I was going to tackle it, but i knew I was going to at some point. As it turned out, I ended up being busy all last week with no Stick practice at alll (booo
) So yeah, I included my score for reference; It's not the same as Josh's, but influenced by... so be sure to go head over to Josh's Patreon site and drop him a fin.. Also, What I played is a wee bit different, as I didn't initially plan on dropping that big Amin Arpeggio into it at the end...
All good, because Saturday I thought I'd get an early start on it. Didn't work out that way, so I ended up getting started at about 3:00pm. I had sight-read through it about 20 or so times before that, so I had an idea of where I was going to be at with it. Here's what I did...3:00 go over each measure, about 10x each (from memory)
3:15 Go for a run
3:30 go over 2 measures right next to one another 10x each (from memory)
3:45 do some chores
4:00 Practice entire piece in it's entirety from memory - 10x each (from memory) Very slowly...
4:30 go over each measure, about 10x each (from memory) with a metronome starting at 50bpm, keep going until about 120bpm. Pay attention to the spots that fall apart the earliest.
4:45 Practice entire piece in it's entirety about 10x each with metronome, cycle up to 120 bpm.
Now I was going to record a video, but I got busy with some other stuff. This morning I got back at the piece at about 10:00am
10:00 Cycle through the trouble spots with metronome starting at 50 BPM, up to 120bpm
11:00 Play piece in it's entirety with metronome from 50 bpm to 120 bpm.
Play through it a few times just for fun.... Hit record, and see what happens....
Keeping in mind that when going through a piece like that there are a million things that "could" be addressed at once, trying to address all of those things right at the beginning is not conducive to learning a bit of music quickly; SOMETHING has to go. If I nitpick over every detail it not only kills the fun, but it exponentially increases the time it takes to learn a piece. (I refuse to waste a month on something when I can get the same results within hours) I choose to focus on one thing at a time, yep you heard me ONE thing, and one thing only - Remembering it!
It's all I care about, and really nothing else matters until that is dealt with. Hours vs months...Now that I have it memorized, and can play it with some facility I can start working on those "other" things (nuance, dynamics, perfect time, accent etc etc)
Again, raising the bar on what is considered terrible on this instrument or is that me putting the "terror" in terrible?hahaha
All right, fellas! Enjoy and have a great day!
