Weekly Warm Up No. 67
This quote by Doris Lessing, from The Golden Notebook, about how to approach reading struck me in its parallel with repertoire and projects:
There is only one way to read, which is to browse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag – and never, never reading anything because you feel you ought, or because it is part of a trend or a movement. Remember that the book which bores you when you are twenty or thirty will open doors for you when you are forty or fifty-and vise versa. Don’t read a book out of its right time for you.”
The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
Wherever you are in your work, there’s always the opportunity to look over your shoulder at what someone else is learning, performing, commissioning, recording….And then you can find yourself, if you’re not paying attention, thinking “Oh, I guess I need to be doing that, too.”
What happens next? You’re headlong into a piece/project and discovering – wow, I do NOT like this…must I keep going?
The answer is: NO!
Some of my most favorite works were accidental discoveries from the library.
And then, there’s the point that Doris makes about “the book that bores you when you are twenty or thirty will open doors for you when you are forty or fifty”….THAT is completely true with music, too.
So, dig around! Use the internet. Try things. And, be merciless with what pieces you keep.
Tempo:
Quarter note set @ 80 BPM
Right Hand Arpeggios:
(Based on this A Major Chord Progression )
- Pim
- Pmi
- Pma
- Pam
- Pia
- Pai
- Pimami
- Pim ami ami ami
Left Hand Slurs: (ascending & descending)
- 12-23-34
- 43-32-21
- 121-232-343
- 434-323-212