MP Day 4 and 5: Oh this isn't so diffic-AAARGH
Day 4 of the Moyse Project went smoothly with no major issues. Some slight uneveness with the right hand pinkie finger, which is to be expected. Tempo raised, overall smoother, and completed in about 40 minutes. Some slight air and tone issues, but it's all there. Even though it's easier, it's still a serious work-out - I would not recommend these on a day where you have a performance or a lot of rehearsals. Once you get beyond the technical issues there are still a lot of things to think about. For example, tonal consistancy, colour, musicality, fluidity, etc.
Day 5, on the other hand...
With frequent breaks I think I clocked in around 2 hours. 2 HOURS! I insist upon getting each and every scale correctly before moving on to the next one, so there were a few I had to play many, many times. Scales in fourths man...that's really tough.
I slowed down to 72bpm and still could barely get through many of the major and minor scales. At times it helped if I played through the scale in its regular form first. I think I may have just forgotten what key I was in. The most difficult made sense - F-sharp and B major, E-flat and G-sharp minor. They're related, even if they don't look it on the page.
The triads were broken into octaves, which really shouldn't be so difficult but I really struggled with them. Maybe it was just going over the top which tripped me up, but I just couldn't match the note I needed to play with the one my fingers thought I should be playing.
Broken 7th chords had to be slowed down further. I found these to be so confusing I think I spent half my total time just on these! After these exercises the chromatic/whole tone scales and augmented 5th/diminished 7ths were much easier. I tended to "read" each exercise instead of knowing that notes I had to play and just continue the pattern which led to more errors.
I need to read without reading....somehow.
Back to the first group today with scales in 5ths tomorrow!
