Symphony no. 3 'Simplicity is elegance, elegance is a complex thing' for chelsea

Ello everyone <3 [is there even ANYONE?? O_o]

I've had the experience of being oddly challenged by simple, easy pieces, etudes, whatever, just like you all do. Even NOW I have problems...of course this occurs because I'm too cocky and don't seem to realize the complexity of a simple piece [Like Mozart's Adagio...or and adagio for that matter...]. My dear wonderful friend, one of my 'rays' of sun shine, Chelsea, is having the current problem...

So...well...why not make a blog on it? =D? I mean everyone runs into this problem a the time.

First off, no matter who we are, when we see anything simple, nothing too complex, no high notes, not too many accidentals...or any signs in the key signature, no funny time sig---------none of that...we think this;

its such a simple piece.

But simple pieces have the reputation, in my opinion for being hard psychologically. We dismiss them as easy, we can do them, piece of cake...and its because of that our mind gets LAZY. Don't deny it everyone, I know its good that we get confidence...but we actually get blind. It goes for boring pieces too, our concentration wanders.

It relaxes us, to see easy pieces, thus making us lazy...but when we try to get it right...

we all get frustrated.

Why? We looked over the fact that its NOT EASY! no piece is ever easy, it has its complex nature, its odd interpretations. I'd like to think of pieces like friends, odd...friends...with many personalities....and these friends? Well, you're being rather mean to your friends, you're not caring enough for these friends D: you're not paying as much attention to their details...

and so here is a solution to that.

Actually, there are MANY solutions, I'm just trying to think of the ones that my teacher has shown me.

Now, the MOST common way is practicing it slowly, I think everyone knows this way.

But, we shouldn't look at the big picture yet, its like judging someone on first appearance, you SCREW UP!

i HATE practicing it slowly....all together...GOD thats way too complex, its like...writing a story backwards or something...

speaking of backwards..I find this a good way;

practicing backwards
When I say this I don't mean to play this: backwards...not like this;

o_O PLEASE DON'T DO THAT DX might as well turn dyslexic...

When I say backwards, I mean start from the last group [READING THOSE NOTES FROM LEFT TO RIGHT MIND YOU! don't go all manga crazy on me =P....how do orchestras in asia read their notes...O_O hmm...huh...interesting...]

Practice it slowly, this is the only time I actually play slowly when playing fast pieces...erm anyways. Add one note on from there, USE YOUR METRONOME! YOU SHOULD BE USING YOUR METRONOME 100 PERCENT OF THE TIME [stuart lectures me on the metronome ALL the time]--80 % IF YOU'RE TIMING IS WAY BETTER THAN MINES.

What I'm about to say mixes in wiht the previous method, which is practicing different rhythms, use that method along with this, like I said, doing it 5 times mixing the rhythm up...IN TIME, USING ONE RHYTHM EACH TIME, and keep on adding a note, I'd suggest a 6th time, but the 6th time I'd say would be playing the exact rhythm [I think my teacher makes me do that...whatever..it works =D]. Sometimes you have to even repeat this boring proccess many times, believe me, I remember sitting on my butt for 3 hours playing etudes...or maybe it was the all southern scales..no...it was all twelve scales....and i forgot them...

OKAY! and then practice the whole passage and or group together, it usually comes together. I'd suggest starting at a slow tempo, repeating the proccess adding 10 more beats.

Now, this all is frustrating, yes I know, so once you feel frustrated, go on to playing something else..taking a break basically. then come back to it :].

When you do this you should use the exact dynamics, articulation adn all...these are the two best methods for ANY piece, it unravels the simpleness of any piece and makes anything, even the 'simple' things easier to play.

A method that comes not from practicing, is interpreting the piece, both as how you want it sound and what you think the piece says--this is one way of defining perspective, we should look at pieces with different perspectives, change them, you know?

In addition, motivation [again] is really what gets us to actually think of the pieces in a new perspective, we should never take it for granted.

I know this belongs for a time when one is frustrated with a hard piece, I think not. LIke I said about the 'friends' theory, you should treat every piece the same, don't get frustrated over it, try enjoying the piece before actually getting to the technical aspect of it...only once though...NEVER go off playing it without a metronome besides that time...

and now, no matter how unorganized this blog was, I hope that you understand what to do...I just did this right off the bat, I did think while I did my hw...but thats about it...:];.

If you have questions tell me! ^_^ I'll even try helping if I can...somehow =P.