[audio:113-keys.mp3 | titles=113 Keys|artists=music2work2]I've started every day this week by practicing to "the click" - to a metronome. I'm a big fan of prime numbers so Monday was 101 beats per minute, Tuesday 103, Wednesday 107, Thursday 109 and today was 113. I will continue up the primes until I can't keep up and then I will start at 101 again and go down as low as I can go.
The way I set up my practice sessions is to start with scales - after a few hand exercises I work the keyboard, running 1 octave then 2 octaves, 3 octaves then 4 octaves then change key; if I make a mistake along the way I have to start again at the beginning- as the metronome gets faster so do my fingers. After scales come arpeggios with a similar game and then a break. I started practicing to a metronome 10 years ago and found that it dramatically improved my playing.
After the basics I then play whatever comes to mind - having been away for so long I'm playing with very basic simple themes and only with one voice - the piano. This theme has been developing for a couple of days although it was previously in a major key. I like the tempo of 113 bpm - it seems to be a nice pace for the left hand to work in 3/4 time while the right hand picks out the melody - I'll probably continue developing the theme at this tempo and see where it leads. It is a little similar to scary movie music which might make its first appearance on the site later on this month!
