Exercises of Scale and Arpeggio

Just tried playing G-Major scale with the right and left hands in the opposite direction. Metronome goes from 60 to 145 bpm and cool down. The F-sharp key really helps me to have a more vivid mental image of the keyboard. A wonderful exercise.

Thoughts on Piano Key Touch Techniques

[somersault touch]

In this video, the runner tripped over the beam, but she instinctively somersaulted forward, winning the championship. It stimulates me the think that one kind of touch technique is based on the same principle. Your drop your hands and when they touch the keys, you immediately let the fingers roll forward, which creates a downward momentum to press down the keys. 

This is kind of advanced touch technique. [Youtuber ..] explains it very well in his Youtube video. 

(link to the video will be put here later)

It can also cure a problem corrected by Dorothy Taubman in a video. The problem is that the player already press down the keys before touching the keys. 

 (link to the video will be put here later, maybe if I can re-discover it.)

Bach WTC Prelude in C Major, practice updates

 This post is intended to be a collection of my thoughts, ideas, experiments, reflections, mistakes, improvements, and so on, during my practice of Bach WTC Prelude in C Major. Whatever I think would be valuable to look back in the future will be recorded here. So, this post won't have a 'final' version; instead, it will be revised, updated; a renewing company for my musical engagement with Bach that this will be. 

[Technique]

Technique-wise, I found a wonderful way to play the RH arpeggios: subtle, tender rotation of elbow, which powers relaxing wrist, which rotates tenderly would transfers gentle power to the fingers for musical touch. This approach produces nice legato effortlessly. In comparison, if focusing on finger tips as the starting point for touch, both the music and muscles will feel tensed.  

Taubman Approach works better. Moving elbow and wrist too much isn't efficient. Focus on rotation of forearm with slightly in-and-out motion.

[Tips of practicing challenging points]

Isolating first four notes in each bar to practice. This is a good practice to smooth out bar change.

Isolating the right hand arpeggio in each bar to practice, keeping beat counting continuously. When the RH is in rest in the first two beats, lift and relax it. The key of success is mental mapping of key positions.

[Practice Relaxation]

Ruth Slenczynska suggested a way to practice relaxation and confidence in her autobiography.  She wrote, "Whenever hands are raised off the keyboard for rests or phrase endings, wrists should be up with the hands handing in order to insure relaxation. If this becomes habitual you will have endurance even in a difficult composition." BWV 486's right hand phrases as great opportunities to test it. So I tried and it did make the playing much more relaxing. I will incorporate this technique into my practice. 

Bach Prelude in C Major, BWV 846, bar by bar studies

Bar 1. C major chord 

Bar 2. Henle Urtext suggests for the left hand fingers 2, and 1(thumb) while Czerny edition 3 and 2. I prefer Czerny. Henle uses Schiff's fingering, which makes the left hand and the fingers too busy. That violates the peaceful, at-ease spirit of the music. 

Bar 3. 

Czerny fingering is preferred. 

Bar 4. same phrase as Bar 1.

Bar 5. First time encountering hand spanned over an octave, A to A. 

Bar 6. D Major 7 chord.

Henle suggests right hand for the F-sharp note. That's too much a jump. Czerny uses right hand thumb, which, though putting thumb on a black key, feels quite natural. 

exercise flash point: moving the right-hand thumb to the F-sharp accurately. It's not that difficult. The fifth finger on D would not bump with the edge of the key of C if the knuckle bridge is kept in natural arch.  

SAT Writing- 句子的連接邏輯

Writing 能考到 280 的學生，基礎文法通常沒太大問題，剩下要克服的題型有句間邏輯和兩文間指涉關係的問題。

句子次序要不要調整？句子要不要刪除，because ...？學生在時間壓力下，出錯率很高。

要如何克服？

熟悉  transitional words and phrases 是基本功。Similarly, however, by contrast, ... 大約有幾十個 '語義邏輯元件‘ 要整理出來單獨練習。

再來是根據段落的主題和目的，判讀句子之間該有的語義邏輯關係。常見句句關係有 正/負，支持/衝突，通性/特性，概念/實例，前提/暗示 ... 等。

最後要壓抑跳 tone 的中文習慣。

Winston Churchill 如何學好英語寫作- 熟練 parts of speech

Churchill remembered how he learned writing

From 'A Roving Commission' by Winston S. Churchill

Page 16-17

I continued in this unpretentious situation for nearly a year. However; by being so long in the lowest form I gained an immense advantage over the cleverer boys. They all went on to learn Latin and Greek and splendid things like that. But I was taught English. We were considered such dunces that we could learn only English. Mr. Somervell—a most delightful man, to whom my debt is great—was charged with the duty of teaching the stupidest boys the most disregarded thing—namely, to write mere English. He knew how to do it. He taught it as no one else has ever taught it. Not only did we learn English parsing thoroughly, but we also practised continually English analysis. Mr. Somervell had a system of his own. He took a fairly long sentence and broke it up into its components by means of black, red, blue and green inks. Subject, verb, object: Relative Clauses! Each had its colour and its bracket. It was a kind of drill. We did it almost daily. As I remained in the Third Fourth (beta) three times as long as anyone else, I had three times as much of it. I learned it thoroughly. Thus I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence—which is a noble thing. And when in after years my schoolfellows who had won prizes and distinction for writing such beautiful Latin poetry and pithy Greek epigrams had to come down again to common English, to earn their living or make their way, I did not feel myself at any disadvantage. Naturally I am biassed in favour of boys learning English. I would make them all learn English: and then I would let the clever ones learn Latin as an honour, and Greek as a treat. But the only thing I would whip them for would be for not knowing English. I would whip them hard for that.

dunce /dəns/, dunces
a person who is slow at learning; a stupid person.

pithy: clever and expressive

epigram: a clever and expressive saying