Day 51: At home today I learned Variations I and II without pedal. When I am at the church I will add in the pedal part: two straightforward statements of the Passacaglia theme. Little by little the piece is being "burned" (to use George Fung's totally suitable expression) into my fingers.
Tempo. When I first play a piece, it is as close to the imagined end product that I can make it -- like a sight-reading session. As for fingering, I play a short passage up to tempo and then write the fingering and pedalling in; not for every note, but for more complex pattern changes, and usually the beginning of each measure. After dividing the piece into sections (most times according to structure, but sometimes quite arbitrarily -- a line, or a few bars, perhaps) I slow down the tempo to at least 1/4.
Each section is then slowly repeated as musically as possible. Richard Troeger, a man who doesn't need to play ANYTHING slowly, once told me that, okay, it is fine to practice slowly, just be sure ALWAYS to practice musically, adjusting your interpretation to the tempo.
Slow sectional practice predominates, although sometimes an occasional up-to-tempo "sprint" lets me see how the piece is progressing. Sometimes I work a piece up to tempo in increments with the help of a metronome.
Rarely will I practice over-tempo -- the "faster than a speeding bullet" phase. Most of the time I play only as fast as I can control. Not as much fun, but helpful later. I think dicipline during the learning stage makes it possible to forget about technique during the performance stage, focusing on the music and, most importantly, just letting the music play itself freely through you and the organ.
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