Rip Tide
Warmup/technique – chromatic exercises (scales, m3/M3) with unison 8ths at 1/4 note = 160bpm; octaves as alternating 16ths at 1/4 note = 160bpm
ALL (starting at end and working backwards section-by-section) – LH as written with RH playing 8ths on single pitch at 1/4 note = 140bpm; RH as written with LH playing 8ths on single note, and in two-note patterns; both ways focusing on playing the moving line at notated dynamic while maintaining speed… it is easier to play soft at this speed, but need to push volume and tempo together.
Tempo progress report to self (hands together comfortably and accurately) – page 10-end at 1/4 note = 70bpm; pages 8-9 at 1/4 note = 80bpm; pages 6-7 at 1/4 note = 90bpm; pages 3-4 at 1/4 note = 100bpm; pages 1-2 at 1/4 note = 130bpm
For future practice… hands together should generally not be slower than the tempos indicated above, and pages 1-5 should almost always be hands together; pages 6-12 still need hands apart, but need to focus more time on hands together.
Cold run (later in the day), without metronome, but approximately (at least) 1/4 note = 80bpm
Surface Drifts
Warmup/technique – DV exercises = octaves, interval changes, etc.; SI chromatic exercises playing 8ths, triplets, 16ths, and 5s with metronome at 1/4 note = 70bpm (all mallets separately)… 5s are tense (in all mallets) at this tempo, need to work on building this up, summed up from best to worst mallet 3421 ;-(
measures 60-end – worked all at 1/4 note = 80bpm, RH alone and LH alone playing unmetered SA rolls
Recorded 60-end in the following ways (all at about 80bpm):
- DV block 16th note chords
- DV (alternating) regular rolls
- SA unmetered rolls
- SA unmetered and ripple rolls combination
Click here for recordings. These are definitely flawed recordings… of course, as soon as I pressed the record I made mistakes that I haven’t been making in practice. That’s partially why I did it…to see what would fail under pressure. Regardless of the mistakes, I am posting them, so Michael Gatonska can start getting an sense of what affect these four versions offer.
Page five – worked on 5s, hands separate RH at 65bpm; LH at 55bpm; both mostly memorized; wrists definitely tight when playing. I need to warmup into it better. (I stopped playing for a bout 45 minutes, then went right into this…)
Measures 1-25 – worked on memory, hands together and separate, tempo about 50bpm (no metronome practice)