Practice diary 2024 - Andre Bernier
Starting a new practice diary for 2024 with few comments on what I have been working on in January.
My practice routine has been at least one practice a day (sometime 2 and even 3 on some days). Each practice is about 45 to 60 minutes. It starts with a 10 to 15 min warm up using about 5 of the 120 Guiliani's Right Hand studies. I have so far worked on 30 of them and I introduce 10 new ones every month. I hope that by the end of the year I will have make good progress on them.
I also came back on the Sergio Assad Sketch no 1 that I put aside in November and December. I progressively worked on the 4 parts of the piece. I am able to play each part at different speeds and still need the metronome for the last 3 parts. Still a lot of work to do but I made some progress.
I normally finish my practice routine by practicing one or 2 of the pieces I learned last year.
Here are the separate recordings of the 4 parts of S. Assad sketch 1 .
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Andre Bernier Well done Andre. Sounds like you have them flowing well, just the tempo to work on. I recall that the hardest part for me was getting that fingering in the last line of No. 4 to work well. Looks like you have it figured out. I don't expect it will be long before you have them up to tempo.
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Jim King Thanks Jim. For me, this was the second line of part 2 that was and still is a challenge. The bar 45 that needed the fingers 2,3 and 4 was very hard. There was no other option because you need the 1 finger in the next bar.
Anyway, thanks again
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Great work, Andre. Your playing has much more confidence now.
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Well another month behind us.
Despite many engagements to babysit our grand kids during the month; I have been able to keep my practice routine which include:
- warm-up -20 Guilliani's RH studies (working 35 of them so far) and some chromatic scales
- Practice - S. Assad sketch no. 1
- Practice - Going back in rotation to pieces I learned last year.
I was finally able to make a recording of the full four parts of Assad's piece today. This is the longest recording so far for me. I still need a lot more work to polish it up but it's going in the right direction
Now I will move to the Carcassi's piece for this month challenge
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Andre Bernier Well done, Andre! Not only is your playing improving technically; it's becoming far more 'musical' as well! This 'sketch' flows very nicely. Looking forward to hearing the Carcassi!
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David Krupka Jack Stewart Thanks for taking the time to listen to my recordings and for your support.
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Andre Bernier Nicely done. You maintained a nice steady beat throughout each section. I find that tough to do without the metronome. My one suggestion is to watch that you are giving the notes at the end of each line their full value in beats. In this piece each line ends with a half note or a dotted half notes and it appears that you are cutting them off too soon.
Looking forward to hearing your Carcassi piece.
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Jim King Thanks Jim. You are right... I use a metronome as long as I can't get very comfortable with every section of a piece and a reasonable tempo. If I don't do that, I have a tendency to speed up gradually and just crash where the section is more difficult.
You are also right for the end of every line. Again this is my bad habit of trying to speed things up.
Are you considering participating in the challenge?
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Andre Bernier The piece I am working on for the Carcassi challenge is Carcassi's Allegretto in C from his Op. 59, his method collection for the guitar. I think I am getting close to doing a slow play to post in the challenge.
How is your piece coming along?
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Jim King Good choice Jim. This is a fairly short piece and with few repetitions. This should be easy to memorize. However, there are some good challenges in the RH arpeggio. Good luck, I am looking forward to your first recording.
I am a little late with my piece. Just started a few days ago but it is going very well. I should be able to make my first recording this week.
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Andre Bernier This is really good, Andre. You have maintained a consistent musical expression throughout. This shows great improvement. Great job.
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Jack Stewart Thanks a lot Jack
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