Piano Pedaling and musings

Had another piano class on Saturday, that went pretty well. I brought in a piece of game music I've been practising on, and evidently I had zero idea on how to work the piano's sustain pedal, short of holding it down. Permanently.

One the CP33, it is now quite obvious that the sustain diminishes quite rapidly, so I don't hear how each bars clash as badly as when I played on an upright or my teacher's grand. Evidently, I needed to disengage/engage the sustain pedal so that the previous notes don't clash with the currently played notes. It is not as simple as I thought as one needs to lift the pedal, versus pushing it down, to disengage it. Kinda non intuitive physical action. Still, I got it for simple chord changes, and I'm working on the pieces.

(As a side note, now that I've got the CP33, it is very obvious the keybed ISN'T even close to my teacher's grand. Weighted it is, but in terms of feel.... no.)

I think this is another example of where a teacher comes in - instantly he told me what I needed to do etc. What's best was when he played the score first time round straight. Man, how many years of experience does one need to do that?!

In other news, during my visit home I brought back two of my Jamie Aebersold books, currently reading one during my break, it's Volume 1: How to play Jazz and Improvize! I found this, and another aebersold book about major/minor scales amidst a bunch of flute books. I'd bring the flute books back to the UK as well but then reminded myself I just do not have the time for it. Plus I've given up the flute anyways. But that's a story for another day.

Going through How To Play Jazz and Improvise NOW, versus 5, 6 years ago when I had ZERO idea of music theory is a big, big difference. I can actually follow along with the text, and when he says Dorian mode, I actually know what it is lol.

I must admit after this holiday jaunt, I'm slightly at a loss of what to do/practice for the musical side of things. I think for the sax, what I'll do is continue doing the improvisation book, and work on this How To Play Jazz and Improvise at the same time. Should keep me busy.