I was just reflecting on how my āpiano activitiesā changed, sort of abruptly, when the academic year ended here. For those of you who have a crappy memory like me may not remember, I work at a uni and since last fall have been taking piano lessons at the uni music school as well. Because of that, both my piano activities and my work-related activities are heavily influenced by the academic calendar. My work of course has always been influenced by the academic calendar, but this is the first time my piano activities have also been so influenced.
Because I had to play the piano jury the end of the spring semester, in April and May I was doing all these things to prep for it. The āone shotā recordings, going to play at the public piano at the art shopā¦ And of course I wasnāt really working on new music for about two months. But I was heavily geared to the performance aspect, to the issues of performance nerves, performance focus etc.
Once I finished my jury (on May 2), all that just stopped. At the same time, my work duties also quite suddenly decreased. Last summer I did a research trip in the middle of summer, so I was overseas for 7 weeks in June-July (plus prep for the trip beforehand, and then analysis and school prep afterwards, so I was super busy all summer). This summer, no research trip, so Iām home for mostly the whole summer. And although I have projects I need to complete, my work schedule is much more manageable.
Because of that, I have more piano time than Iāve had in years. And I love it so much. On most days, Iāve been doing about an hour of practice in the morning (which is glorious!). Then I go into my office around 10am or so. Then Iām home by 6pm (which never happens during the school year). And then I have a good two hours at the piano after dinner. During the school year, my piano practice time rarely starts before 9pm, and sometimes not until 10pm.
So on the one hand, my piano time right now is quite intensified. But on the other hand, I donāt have the jury to prep for, so the way Iām using my piano time is very different. Iām working on three new pieces (two of which are quite challenging) and also working on maintaining and building my repertoire.
At the same time, Iām not doing much performance-focused practice. No recording, and I havenāt been to play the public piano in about a month.
I do think Iāll plan to do some recording in July, and I want to go play the public piano again soon, so Iāll build some of that performance practice back into my routine.
But this little shift in focus has allowed me to pick up some harder pieces, which is very nice. Also this āebb and flowā has also made me realize how nice it is to have different piano activities that let me shift my piano focus in a sort of cyclical wayā¦
TL;DR: I wish I could retire right now. š