Overall a reasonable lesson. It's been a tough week but I found some energy to play.

Chopin: Etude Op.10 No. 1: Putting the metronome to this last week helped the evenness. I have a tendency to accent the second and fourth beat. Tempo is OK.

Chopin: Etude Op. 25 No 2: I like this one better but it isn't as good. The balance, getting the L hand soft enough is tricky. I can emphasise some off beats to make the crescendos more impressive. The last few bars need to be in tempo but soft.

Chopin Ballade No 4. : Six pages down, ten to go! There are lots of different stylistic elements. The Etudes will help eg. with sixth's. I need to be careful to register the ends of phrases with dim. The first section should be lighter and cleaner with the pedal, as should the development of the main theme - pedal six to a bar at the moment rather than the two that are marked.

Rach: Op 32 No. 10 : Nearly there - should be more confident next week. The soft start is coming with the correct balance. Need to tidy the cadenza.

Rach: op 23 No 5: Again getting there - just the coda to learn. Already it's tidier. The middle section needs to be softer - it's not a concerto!!

Sunday afternoons

For about three years now, I have been taking a weekly, hour-long piano lesson with my teacher, Arthur. I wanted to start noting down the pieces I was learning and some comments etc. Here seemed as good a place any to do that.

I started learning at age five or so and after a string of teachers, Arthur has been by far and away the best teacher.

Finding time to practice is always difficult and at time progress seems very slow. Writing this blog might turn out to be an incentive of sorts.

I wouldn't expect anything earth shattering here. It's more a record for myself but feel free to browse as the weeks go by.