Chopin’s “Fantaisie Impromptu” has always been a bucket piece for me. What’s a bucket piece? The same way people have a bucket list, where they list all the things and experiences they’d like to accomplish before they kick the bucket (aka die), a bucket piece is something you just have to learn at whatever the cost. Hopefully not due to some weird kind of social expectancy, but ideally because you just like the piece and it would make your life more complete, fulfilled and enjoyable.

I’ve always liked the elegance and that nostalgic, yearning, melancholy quality in Chopin’s music. The funny thing is that I heard the “Fantaisie” for the first time either by Tony MacAlpine or some other neoclassical shredder. After reading the CD liner notes, I became intrigued and then researched the source. Similar to what happened with one of my other fav pieces, the Adagio by Albinoni (or not?), which I wrote an article about a few years ago: The Albinoni Adagio Mystery.

Anyways, the “Fantaisie” is a virtuosic piece. Arpeggios, runs and speed – all the necessary ingredients of a virtuoso showcase. But there are also extremely beautiful lyrical and flowing passages.

Chopin is such a master. Due to his deep understanding of the piano and the idiomatic writing many of the passages actually are not as difficult as they initially seem. Don’t get me wrong, they are still hard to play, especially when you bring them up to speed and try to maintain the required lightness and elegance.

The big hurdle however is the polyrhythm between the left and right hand. Triplets in the left hand accompaniment while the right hand plays 16th notes. It doesn’t look that difficult on paper, but when you haven’t played pieces using that polyrhythm before it’s a frustrating initial experience.

One of the unexpected awesome fringe benefits of running a site is that you get in touch with some really cool people. After publishing my initial 12 Great Android Apps for Musicians article I got contacted by guitarist Stuart Bahn.

Stuart wanted to know if I’d be willing to test an app that he had developed. I checked it out, it worked great (really useful for any improvising musician) and featured his app in my follow-up post More Great Android Apps for Musicians.

We stayed in contact via e-mail and recently Stuart mentioned that he had a project going on of 1,000 hours of practicing in a year. Initially I thought it was some sort of New Year’s resolution and the cynic in me immediately thought, “Yeah, right, let’s see how long you’ll be able to keep it up.”

But to my surprise, shame and delight (I’m always happy to see people succeed) I found out that it wasn’t something in the beginning stages, but rather a project close to the end.

I immediately asked Stuart if he’d be willing to answer some questions in some sort of interview for AdvancingMusician – since I find the topic of how to optimise practising fascinating.