Song Application Week 1 Day 1 Agenda
40 min Custom duration

2026-02-26: Week 1 Day 1 — Song

Feb 26, 2026

Songs worked
Fly Me to the Moon

Wins

  • Practiced Fly Me to the Moon changes through the full form in C
  • Played full 7th chords (no shells) with both hands with smooth voice-leading
  • Could play confidently around 120 bpm when playing matching 7th chords with both hands

Still working on

  • Keeping steady tempo when combining LH chords + RH melody with smoother voice-leading and/or Charleston (or other comp rhythms)
  • Coordination - adding rhythmic variation + voice-leading while maintaining tempo
#piano#practice#week-1#fly-me-to-the-moon#key-c#voicings#time-feel#comping#voice-leading

Pre-practice ritual (10 sec): visualize one clean voicing move and hear your first phrase before touching keys.

What I practiced

  • Tune: Fly Me to the Moon
  • Key: C
  • Worked the entire song’s chord changes (not just first 8 bars).
  • Voicings were matching full 7th chords in both hands (no additional colors beyond 7ths).

Notes

  • Two-hand chords with smooth voice-leading felt good; tempo felt solid up to ~120 bpm.
  • When I switched to LH chords + RH melody, it worked if chords were whole notes and in root position.
  • If I tried to add smoother voice-leading and/or a Charleston (or other rhythm), I started losing the tempo.

Insights

  • This trained: mapping full-form changes in one key; basic voice-leading; time feel under increased coordination demands.
  • Next time (tiny): keep melody fixed and simplify LH voicings/rhythm; add only one new variable at a time (either voice-leading or rhythm).

Teacher assessment

You got a genuinely strong “Day 1” outcome: full-form changes in C, clean 7th chords with smooth voice-leading, and a confident 120 bpm when the task was harmonically focused. That shows your chord map is already forming—and it’s a real win that you went beyond the first 8 bars.

The tempo slip when adding LH comp rhythm and RH melody isn’t a lack of ability; it’s a layering problem. Right now, harmony and melody each work in isolation, but whichever one you don’t actively attend to drops out. That’s normal at this stage and it’s exactly what we want to train.

For the next session, be disciplined: keep two things fixed and vary only one. For example: keep RH melody steady and use a very simple LH shell (or even root only) while you internalize one rhythm (whole notes → then Charleston). Don’t “test” 120 bpm here—earn it by getting one no-stop A section at 60–80 bpm with steady time. Once that feels boring, then add the smoother voice-leading back in.