Next Rehearsal and Techniques

In todays rehearsal, I followed the guidelines I previously planned however I practiced for 1 hour instead of 30 minutes so I could repeat the procedure twice. After the second time, I realised that the 4 minute warm up for the guitar is unnecessary and wastes time that could be used practicing. It would be a lot better if I actually reduced it to 2 minutes instead of 4 and that gives me an extra 2 minutes of practice time which could accumulate to roughly half a song or it leaves room for some errors or minor mishaps.

Also during this rehearsal, I focused on the dynamics of my songs using the una corda pedal (Soft pedal) on the piano and differing between the force I use on each string whilst fingerpicking and playing chords on the guitar. I was experimenting between changing the loudness of each section of Für Elise. I decided to play the first section (A) in either a p (piano) form or mp (mezzo-piano) with the help from the una corda pedal whilst playing the second section (B) in a much louder f (forte) form without the use of the pedal. The third section (C) starts off with the una corda pedal pressed down and I slowly release it as I get further into the section. Along with this, I press down on the keys much harder to give it more of a prominent crescendo sound to it.

I also worked on the timing of the pieces by using a digital metronome with Für Elise and Clubbed to Death and for Always Attract, I played along with the original recording of the song to make sure that I was playing these pieces at the correct speed. I realised that I was playing Always Attract at a slightly faster speed than it's actually played at but now I have more of an idea of the speed at which it is played at so focusing on the timing technique was very beneficial.