Lazy Afternoons #2
Here’s a progress update on this piece from last weekend! I wasn’t really diligent about practicing this piece consistently during the past couple of weeks so progress has been pretty slow, but I’m just about wrapping up the piece as of today, so hopefully I can finish it out this month. This take was from a day that wasn’t quite meant for recording, but I somehow eked this out since I figured the next take would also likely be the final take at the rate I’m going. So, please forgive the wooden playing lol.
Detailed Analysis
I think it’s been a hot minute since I posted a progress update where I just showed the new chunk so this was kind of nice! Takes away the stress of having to play the earlier parts of the piece properly on camera.
So starting right where the last update left off, we enter the more technically difficult half of the piece. There’s a lot of interplay between the two hands, similar to what you can find in other arrangements from this book and also the FFXV book… but I really love this particular arrangement style so I’ve enjoyed learning it! At the time I recorded this, I’d just learned the notes and hadn’t refined anything yet so the balance isn’t very good for voicing. There are a couple of intervals in the RH like at 0:06 that are easy to mess up- either I play both notes too loudly at the same time or I can somewhat play the top note louder but at the cost of the bottom note being played at the same time. Also need to be careful not to slam notes that are landings from jumps like LH bottom E at 0:26… I ended up giving the bottom of the sixth at 0:29 to the LH because I just could not stretch my RH enough to play the sixth cleanly. This way of playing is a lot easier so I’m happy with the tweak!
The next section from 0:31 is a lot shakier than the first half because I’d spent even less time on it at the time of recording lol. The opening phrase took some extra practice with this first arpeggio due to all the twists and turns; definitely not possible at a faster tempo, but just manageable enough at 66 bpm (performance tempo goal- but I listened to the official recording today and the pianist went like 60 bpm so what is the truth?). The LH octaves at 0:38 are very fun, though a bit difficult to play cleanly at tempo. The LH arpeggio at 0:44 is very not ergonomic, while the LH arpeggio at 0:46 is very ergonomic. I actually learned the RH phrase improperly and am missing the top E at 0:52… just found that out today from the official recording, whoops. Big fan of the descending bass line in this section overall in the LH despite all of the huge stretches!
Overall, putting aside the bad take energy from this day, there’s a lot of room for improvement for consistent sixteenths since it’s almost nonstop sixteenths throughout this entire section. I wish I knew more music theory so I could appreciate all the different harmonies happening… but it sounds nice to listen to, which is good enough for me. This section also made me realize I had severely underestimated this piece; while the first half is pretty “easy”, I realized that the second half demands SO much more technique and concentration due to the nonstop sixteenths and arpeggios and octaves and intervals and interplay between both hands- it looks pretty easy on paper at 66 bpm, but I ended up playing myself. It’s very manageable, though, so that’s okay!
Current Thoughts
I can see the end for this piece, which is really exciting!! I think this will be the first piece I’m properly learning in 2021, which kinda makes me sad on one hand because it’s already mid-August, but on the other hand, I know I really Went Through It earlier this year so I’m happy to have made progress towards this milestone. I have put in a lot more time and proper practice for this section during the past week, and am almost done learning the notes for the remaining page or so. Hoping I don’t run out of steam and can see this piece through to the end this month! And then it’ll be time to find the next thing to learn / play…