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Farewell LASALLE!

My journey at LASALLE is coming to the end... It has been an extremely long and difficult journey for me, and I would like to thank my dear friends and teachers for being there for me throughout this journey. Special thanks to Mr. Frank, my favorite teacher, who has forever changed my life as a pianist. Without your guidance, I would have never been able to play comfortably, and various pieces which I had technical difficulties with, and I would not be where I am today. You have helped me to transform from a pianist constantly having to live with pain to a pianist that can learn difficult pieces with ease. You have taught me so many things - the way I learn music, memorize music, listen to music, view music, is on a whole new level thanks to you. I am so thankful that I had the chance to learn under your guidance, and it is amazing how meeting one great educator changes everything. I am also very grateful to my other teachers Mr. Allan and Dr. James for their guidance and wisdom during our lessons. I will miss the lessons we had and the fun shared with my friends.

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Week 13 Performance Class

This week's performance class was held by Mr. Frank as Mr. Allan is away. I played my half recital repertoire in the following order: 1. Samuel Barber's Ballade Op. 46 2. Debussy's Suite Bergamasque: Prelude 3. Debussy's Suite Bergamasque: Menuet 4. Debussy's Suite Bergamasque: Clair de lune Overall, I was not satisfied with my performance as I felt that my Prelude sounded a bit shaky due to the fingering changes and I did not feel comfortable when I was performing the piece. I had a lot of memory slips while playing Menuet too. Mr. Frank's comments on the performance was:

Barber Ballade: Overall, good command over tone, pacing, pedaling. B section, voice the melody more and keep the rest more in the background.

Debussy Suite Bergamasque: Prelude - Fully release the pedal to clear too dissonant harmonies. Focus on the longer line. It sounds a bit fragmented.

Menuet: good tone and awareness of musical lines and direction. Work on memorisation.

Clair de lune: good sound and overall pacing. Bass ostinato section, keep the tremolandi quieter.

The comments about my performance was better than I thought about my own performance. I realize that I am my own biggest critic. Which is not necessary a bad thing, but not a good thing either. It's hard to find a balance. I feel more confident now!

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Week 13 PS

For today’s lesson I played Brahms Intermezzo Op. 117 No. 1-3.

Brahms Intermezzo No. 1

M.1: Keep the rhythm “moving” at the start, slow down slightly only at the end of the phrase highlighted in blue.-

M.6: Play the LH octaves LOUDER.

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M. 16: This part should sound eerie. Pedaling - Put the pedal down after playing the F-flat octave, then change it at the next octave so it sounds cleaner. Voice the top note in the RH.

M.17-18: voice the lower note for both hands

M.18-19: voice the thumb for both hands 

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M. 21-25: Make the bottom note on the Lh sound more equal and static. It should sound very soft, like in the background, to allow th RH melody to be brought out. 

M. 26: In the LH, bring out the melody line E-flat-D-flat-C, E-flat-D-flat

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M. 38: Keep the rhythm steady here, make sure I am counting the beats! Practice with metronome here to help with the rhythm. Make sure the top note E-flat is ringing softly in the RH, and voice the melody nicely. 

M. 43: LH octaves should sound GRAND, like a return scene in a movie.

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Brahms Intermezzo Op. 117 No. 2

M. 84-86: Play softer on the LH B-flat.

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M.36-39: Voice the bass line one the LH as well, together with the top melody line in RH, highlighted in red. Breathe before playing the octaves in M. 39. 

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M. 40-42: Voice the half-step motive, highlighted in blue Pedaling: put the pedal down after playing the first step note, change pedal on the next note

Brahms Intermezzo No. 3

Mr. Frank says that the middle section sounds compelling! I am happy.

M. 75-81: Move faster on LH at the start of the phrase in M.75, slow down only at the end of the phrase in M.75.

Next week will be my last PS lesson, but I have yet to play my entire repertoire for my PS lesson.. I am very anxious and worried. I'll try harder this week.

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Amazing performance of Brahms' Intermezzo Op. 117 No. 3 by Yuja Wang. So calm, gentle, touching and full of emotions.. I teared while listening to this. I admire her so much, always presenting such beautiful performances, together with her iconic outfit and bows. I wonder how good of a pianist I have to be before I'm allowed to dress however I want on stage...

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Week 12 PS

For today’s lesson, we went through some technical difficulties for Debussy’s Menuet and Prelude.

Menuet M.1: I was having some technical problems with the appoggiatura in M1, due to the large interval that led to some stretching when playing at a faster tempo. To prevent this, I should practice without playing the appoggiatura first, then add it back in while taking note of the different hand position.

Menuet M. 38 and 40:

In the blue circled notes, I was previously using fingers 3-5 that caused some strain due to stretching, During the lesson, we tried changing fingering to 2-5 and it worked fine. I remember using 2-5 before and it was causing some stretching too, but I realized that the cause of stretching may sometimes depend not only the fingering but more of experiencing tension during performance and practice. 

Prelude M. 30-31:

I was also experiences some stretching in the right hand in M.30-31 due to stretching, but after trying out redistributing the notes in RH highlighted to be played by the LH, it worked pretty well! No stretching was caused after that.

After going through the technical difficulties, I proceeded to run through the Prelude and Menuet. 

I was advised to practice the Menuet with metronome at 60bpm for crotchet beats. 

M.14: More technical work here to be done on the appoggiatura, highlighted in blue: I need to rotate more down to then chord.

Reflections:

I realize that I tend to experience when I speed up my pieces, and Mr. Frank said that it's not about the speed but the correct movement. I understand that, but I feel that the reason why I suffer from strain when speeding up is because my body tends to be tense when I know I have to attempt something that I have never done before, or maybe I have a misconception that speeding up is very difficult, leading to more tension that would lead to fatigue during practice. It is quite frustrating, but I'll have to keep working on my movements and be more aware of how my body feels during practice to make sure that I do not get to the point of straining my body.

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One of my dream pieces...Amazing performance by Zimerman. I wonder how much practice he does to be able to play the notes so cleanly? Each note is filled with intention and the piece sounds so.. alive. I remember trying to learn Chopin's Ballade No. 3 in A-flat major back in year 2, but failed miserably due to a technical difficulty that I was unable to overcome in a short span of a semester. It is a demoralizing and frustrating process when failing at learning pieces I really like, but isn't that life? We fail, fail, and fail...and try again until we finally achieve our goals. I'll be patient and gentle with myself, and work on my foundation slowly and steadily. I'll get there one day!

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Week 11 PS

I performed Brahms' Intermezzo op. 117 no. 3 for the first time since last semester in today's lesson. M 1-4: Connect the notes legato instead of playing it as 2-note slurs

M16-18 Bring out melody in the LH.

M 21-25:

Melody in the RH sounds a bit static as it is all played by the thumb, try to make each note sound different and let it flow as a melody line instead of separated notes

M41-45: Large chords were causing me pain on the LH, let go of the chords immediately after playing them instead of holding onto the notes

M103-107: Similarly, the large chords in the RH were causing pain so let go of the chords right after playing instead of holding onto the notes

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Week 10 PS

For today’s lesson, I tried to play my half recital for this semester as I had to perform for tomorrow’s performance class. However, my hands, especially the left hand, started to fatigue as I played Debussuy’s Passepied due to some issues: 

Twisting and stretching on the left hand in M59-73:

Playing the staccato notes on the left hand with a down motion instead of grouping them into one motion: 

Before: (arrow markings of how i would visualize playing each staccato notes individually)

After: (arrow marking of how i would visualize playing each group in one motion, instead of individually)

Tension in the arms and forearms 

In addition to the fatigue and strain in my LH forearm and arms, I’ve had some issues with my RH 5th finger that contributed to fatigue and strain in the muscles that extends all the way to my outer elbow. The circled notes shown in M24-27 are those that cause the strain, due to twisting, perhaps stretching and key-bedding in an attempt to hold onto the highlighted minims.

Similarly, in Debussy’s Prelude, I have experienced the same issues in M26-29, M45, M51,53, M55 and 57, as shown below (blue circled notes).

The prelude piece was mostly alright, though I still have to work on making it sound like an improvisation piece and play more freely. This however, is another challenge I have to overcome as I tend to be more rigid when I have to perform in front of an audience. 

I’m used to visualizing the idea of playing staccato as a down and up motion, which is essentially two motions on each note and causes extra assertion of my muscles when played this way. It’s difficult to visualize them in groups, especially when playing at a fast tempo and having to perform it in PS lessons or performance lessons which further adds tension to my muscles. This is an issue that I have been struggling with for a long time, for example, my Schurbert impromptu in G-flat piece that I’ve played back in Year 2 that requires my RH to move lightly, though that was easier to execute as those were no staccato notes and the intervals were not as large. It is a frustrating process, yet I have to accept that learning these motions do not come easy and will take a long time of consistent and correct practice motions in order to correct the wrong habits I have been doing since young.

Though I’ve been excused from playing Passepied due to the strain it is causing me, I still need to work on the same kind of motions required to play the passages. 

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Week 9 PS

For today's lesson, I played Samuel Barber's Ballade.

M1-5: Bring out the LH as secondary melody in contrast to the top melody line in the RH

M.12: Start softly and gradually increase loudness and tempo

M.13-14 and M. 20-21: resolve the notes (highlighted in blue)

M.16 and M.23: Make sure that last two notes sounds like they are dying away, followed by a fermata 

Take note of marcato sign (louder and more forceful) as well as ff dynamic sign

M.31: take note of soft pedal sign!

M.34-36: Focus on bringing out the LH, which is an augmentation of the secondary melody in the beginning of the piece.

M.40: middle notes should be soft, as marked sub. in M.41 which means beneath. Bring out the top melody line.

Reflections:

Explore more on the different melodies in the piece, as well as the marked dynamics

Notes are a bit rusty, find more patterns to memorize the piece easily

Not every note has to be brought out or it will sound too noisy, muffle the inner notes and bring out the melody lines more

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Week 8: Project Week

PV is FINALLY OVER!

Finally, a week of break... to catch up on dissertation and practice. This week, I invited some friends over to play some mahjong and poker cards for a belated chinese new year celebration! Sweet Nicole bought us some very good donuts that we gobbled up in 5 minutes. We ate the donuts heartily while listening to some very juicy gossip.

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Taking a break from my pieces today to work on dissertation, and I was researching different interpretations for my pieces. I stumbled upon Pallavi's performance of Debussy's Suite bergamasque. I really like her interpretation - not too fast of a tempo and full of emotions. It feels really authentic, and the whole performance was elegantly played.

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Week 7 PS

I was really expecting today's lesson to be rescheduled, since it was the day after PV. The performance ended pretty late, and I have NOT been practicing the rest of my pieces due to the last few days of PV rehearsal and preparation. Kudos to Mr. Frank for teaching a full day of classes the day after PV, you are a legend and an icon. During the lesson, we have some discussions regarding my performance of Clair de Lune for Piano Voyage: 

I was really nervous and ended up tensing up during my performance which caused strain and pain in the climax section:

I need to practice allowing myself to go as slow as I want in front of an audience, making sure that I’m as comfortable as possible with no tension and pain.

We also went through Debussy's Menuet.

M94-96:

Some difficulties with the RH placements that was solved after some fingering and positioning changes: Use two separate motions for each note, making sure that i’m rotating from one chord to the next note, in and down motion

Pick out the main line for each section of the piece, focus on the main melodies

M4-6: Don’t blur the pedal, bring out bass line

M12-15: Play melody lines in RH separately, LH should sound static

M.19-21: Play sf on the octaves

M38-41: Practice dropping and letting go on the full chord on RH first to relax, make sure I’m not stretching my thumb to reach for the bottom note on the octave

M58-59: RH less staccato at the end of the slur, bring out the bass line

M73-74: Time feels like 2/4 rather than ¾

Reflection:

I need to pay more attention to the bass line and melody lines!!! Also, I should choose the melody line I want to bring out when I first practice.

I'm glad I was able to have a lesson today because I've learnt a lot, especially technique for Clair de lune! A lot of details to work on, but again, slow and consistent.

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PV Reflection

My last PV performance as a student.. it was truly a bittersweet feeling. I am thankful for the opportunity to perform under the guidance of such wonderful teachers. I am really going to miss my friends and teachers after I graduate.

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PV week part 2

From left to right: boyfriend, sister, bro-in-law, favorite teacher, dear friends of 10 years <3

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PV week part 1

Special thanks to Stella, Magdelene, and Nicole for helping to do my hair <3 Glad to see some old faces! Thankful for the support.

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Week 6 PS

For this week's Principal Study lesson, we worked on Debussy's Prelude.

M1-2: Needs to sound more expansive, give more space from tonic F to Dominant C

-Needs to be flexible, but still in time 

-Practice with metronome at crotchet = 80bpm and minim = 40bpm

M20: Play last beat in time

M22: Play B-natural on the first beat of bass clef with the RH

M26-29: Use LH to sub for notes circled to help play in time

M30-31: Bring out voicing in bass line 

M42: Use the metronome to help play in time

M44,46 and 48: Use walking arm to hold onto C and E on the RH

M52-56: Take note that the F and E octaves on the bass clef are quavers, not crotchets!

M76-77: Needs to be sped up

M87: Hold the minim for the correct number of counts, use metronome for this

It's a lot to work on, but reminder to myself that slow progress is still progress. SLOW AND STEADY.

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Week 5

No principal study this week, because I have been having some stomach issues. I went to see the doctor for a check, and I was diagnosed with gastritis. The doctor said that it is likely caused by stress, diet and lifestyle... Time to start sleeping early, eating healthier and more yoga.