Two weeks ago I posted another cover piece on my YouTube. It is one of many beautiful pieces I want to learn (and hopefully master). Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Oh how I wonder why it’s so nice.
This piece was arranged by David Nevue and was published as recording probably in CD form. I actually had not found it but saw some others playing it on piano. On YouTube as well.
Last December (on Christmas Eve) I wasn’t able to play this piece yet and had to stop half way reciting it live on my Twitch. I guess I can say it took me another half a year to be able to fully play it. Slow. Yeah?
It took me 2 takes during the recording to get to one with minimum mistakes. I didn’t try to take a perfect one because I knew I would screw it up. I couldn’t get it right most of the time during practice sessions so far. Not even now. I guess it was a lucky 2nd take.
Initially I wanted to play an excerpt instead of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I wanted the Swan Lake Theme by Tchaikovsky. The arranged piece was much smaller and should only take about 40–50 seconds. I guess I wasn’t much satisfied with the length.
I hope this Christmas the recital on this piece would be smooth. I’m still practicing it daily.
For the next piece I think I’m facing a wall blocker. As of now I’m still learning this piece called Reprise (ふたたび) from a Japanese music score book. (It is a Ghibli sheet music.) I have been learning this piece for a year now – give or take. Up until today, I have memorized half of the piece. Two out of four pages. Like it or not, taking so long to learn would some way get it into my memory anyway. And yet I still stumble with the memorized half. The other half untouched.
Reprise is taking much longer because it is really different from all the simpler pieces I have learned so far. The fingerings are all difficult and tricky. It also requires me to hit octaves, which I find it difficult since my right hand has problem “gripping” an octave. It doesn’t require left hand to hold any octave though.
If it takes me a year to learn half the piece, I guess I can only get full piece by next year. Let alone mastering it. Let’s see.
What makes me grateful so far is that there are requests from friends for me to play specific songs/pieces. I feel flattered. I took a look at them in MusicNotes and MuseScore.
Mission Impossible seems to require some techniques that are new to me. A good chance to learn them. But it may take a while for me to reach to this piece for now as I have my own backlog.
The other request is Dire, Dire Docks. Or also known to gamers as Jolly Roger Bay. Which is a Mario game’s music theme in Nintendo 64 I think. It sounds good. I love it and may want to learn it soon. Again, not so soon since I have my own backlog. I don’t think this will make it to this year’s Christmas Eve personal recital.
So, let’s get going and continue practicing. See you live on my Twitch this Christmas Eve. Hopefully. Cheers.
~Poh