I slept badly with worries about geopolitics and my sore mouth, which erupted with a (sadly common) huge blood-blister last evening. In the waking hours, in my dark bed I mentally practised some of the rhythms in the piano score. The triplets were interesting: X-X-xxx in a measure. There is a slight 'panic' to them, as though they are catching up. Chained together, that beat makes a 4-in-a-row and I suddenly thought that Beethoven's 5th Symphony was inspired not by four normal beats, but a triplet exactly like this; 4 beats played as 1-gap-3 because it has an unusual urgency like the churn of a bicycle pedal.
The day started with work on the cover for Deb's next book. First, I checked the sizes and standards. The drawings for her last book, Tolstoy, were scanned with a near-white background, rather than grey, so I tested the scanner with various colour settings and worked out the correct ones, making a note. The grey looked better. I still have all of those drawings so could re-scan them, but the old scans are the ones in the book (all drawings are on white for the books so none of this matters regarding the final results).
Anyway, I created a generic template for this and future covers, then took some source photographs in the garden. A first draft of the cover was complete by lunch. I watched the end of The Card, old old film starring Alex Guinness. It's set in The Potteries but everyone had Yorkshire or upper class English accents. I can't recall a Birmingham accent in any old film, and Stoke accents are almost completely absent in culture.
Then, time for drawings, but I realised that I had no white card myself. I messaged Deb and we went to Alexander's to get some, myself wearing a mask in the car with window-open, as I'm still at the tail-end of my cold. Card purchased, we took a short walk in the park, then I returned home.
I calculated the correct sizes, and noted the card sales etc. By this time, it was too late to start drawing.
I practised playing the first 13 bars of Concerto #1, playing it about 40 times. I can now play it at nearly full speed, though rarely perfectly, full of haphazard mistakes, and no expression, a mere clatter. The expressiveness is the last step, possible only when the basics of note and timing and technique are perfected. These 13 bars are wonderful practice. They have everything; a nice mix of left and right hand, some different dynamics, a grace note, some staccato and some legato, triplets and a fast scale. I love it for the technical aspect.
The next bars, for a page or two, are fast arpeggios, difficult for me at my level, but it will be fun to try one day. Tomorrow I'll attack those illustrations.
