Self-Evaluation: Graduate Keyboard Skills

The pieces I chose to study for the midterm are on page 43 and page 90 of Piano for the Developing Musician.

While studying the ‘Study in D’ on page 43, I first identified several challenges I would face while practicing for the midterm. At first this piece seemed simple since there are only two melodic lines that move in entirely stepwise motion. Since I am a flute player and typically read only one line of music at any one time, my primary challenge in piano playing is being able to read two lines at once. Sometimes the two lines in this piece are moving in parallel motion and sometimes they are moving in contrary motion. It was difficult to follow both lines at once to see which line was moving stepwise up or stepwise down. In practicing, it was helpful to mark the music to make it easier to see when the two lines were moving in parallel motion. This technique proved incredibly successful and produced immediate results. My perception of this piece changed drastically from the first time I looked at it to the first time I tried to practice it. It was not nearly as simple as it looked.

While studying the ‘Dance’ on page 90, I knew it would be a difficult piece for me to play. There are a lot of hand position changes to keep track of in both hands. Another challenge for me was remembering to play at the indicated dynamic level while keeping track of all those hand position changes. It was somewhat helpful to mark a few of the finger numbers for the chord changes in this piece, but it did not produce the same results as in the previous piece. I practiced each hand separately several times before I tried to play both hands together. This was helpful because I did not have to concentrate as hard on one line or the other. It also made it easier to focus on the dynamics and play more musically as I became more familiar with the notes. This piece proved to be as challenging as it appeared at first glance.