Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum September Piano Bar

Thanks so much for the nice compliments, Van, Rosanna, and Mark.

Van, then you better start practicing.

Rosanna, the mistakes I was referring to are wrong notes. Anyway, "Suteki Da Ne" ("Isn't It Beautiful") is another very beautiful song. I am definitely going to learn this piece. It is more difficult than "To Zanarkand" and "1000 Words" so it'll take longer.

Lol, actually Zanarkand is definitely going on my to do list, but my backlog is getting ridiculously long at this point.

Honnli and Van, you guys are amazing.

Peyton, that was quite, quite moving!

Rosanna, I was hoping to hear something from you... Gorgeous! I liked the "chorus" effect.

Theowne, as always, parfait Monseuir!

Mark, the simpler pieces are often the most poignant, and you are getting better all the time!

Serge, the "turkey song" I can see the ladies in flowing dresses, the young men dancing, the guy with the chaw of tobacco in his mouth, and the fiddlers. Very nice, thank you!

There's been a good deal of chatter this week on PW about classical vs. improv, so I thought I'd try my hand at the latter:

http://www.box.net/shared/ifd9vxoepk

I was more excited to test the equipment that to get a clean, error-free "take" - the most exciting thing is a much cleaner signal into the computer - no more background hum as I'm now using a M-Audio Transit USB device I picked up on E-bay for $60. It will do up to 24 bits @ 96Khz - and with a second microphone (on its way!) stereo!!!

I still have a problem with unwanted clicks - solving this will just be part of the ongoing battle against Winbloat.. er Windows I think I have heard these in other recordings here, however.

Hey Gerg, that was fun. Did you do that from scratch or is it an improv on something you know?

The sound is excellent. No background hum that I can tell. I do hear an occasional electrical crackle but can't tell if that's on my end. So you put your mic inside the piano for that? And if you get a second mic does that go inside as well?

Wow honli that is really a lovely piece...and nicely played! But whats the "Final Fantasy" Rossana talks about?

Great piece and playing Greg, It sounded like a complicated piece. I'm a big fan of the blues and jazz pieces. It seems I gravitate to those in my practice pieces. I wish we had more submissions in those areas. I'm working on one right now.

And thanks for the kind works on my submission...

Mark

Gerg, That was some improv! Somewhat Gershwin-ish. Love it! Since I am one of the big time participants in the current play-by-ear thread, I am curious what's your training/experience in the respective classical and improv areas? Your classical piece on the recital was so good also - you are master of both play-by-sight (aka traditional classical) and play-by-ear. I am really wanting to know how you "get" here - how you walke and merge both paths. The recording quality is definitely cleaner than the recent recital recording, which had a soft but continuous squeaking beep. There are a few crackles as Peyton noticed, but it's not obtrusive.

Peyton, I looked up Final Fantasy in Wikipedia after hearing the 2 pieces from Honnli. It's a character-based video game that originated in Japan. But it has evolved to include music, CDs, piano music and even live concerts, as well as other merchandising. From the extensive write-up, I got a clear sense that Final Fantasy is in its own way as big as Star Trek or Star War is - the characters, their relationships, history, etc.

Mark - me too! Love jazz.

Peyton, I seem to be plagued by every technical problem under the sun. However, some of the crackles happen while downloading any MP3 while playing it (as on Box). Others crackles are indeed in the recording itself, and seem to be related to the computer being "busy" (i.e. hard drive doing who-knows-what) at that moment in the recording.

I would love to own a simple operating system - one in which the hard drive only spins when I tell the computer to run a program...

Awe, shucks Ma'am I have no training - just some Suzuki lessons (up to about Book 3) as youngster.

Gerg, you can't be serious!!!!! I was (really) ready to hear that you are a music professor or something like that. Book 3 of Suzuki (not that I know details of the method), and that's it???? Arggh, I am sooooo embarrassed by my lackluster skill after all my years of lessons as a kid. I am inspired by your talent and discouraged at the same time by my lack of. OK, go blush more, but I am really sincere in what I am saying! Alright, alright, it's not just you - I am impressed by many other accomplished players on this forum too.

Partly I have my teenage rebelliousness to blame. Stopped practicing after 6-7 years, but made to continue by mom... So I sight-read my way thru the later lesson years. Now I pay for it.

Don't be, Rosanna. You are an incredibly positive person and are yourself an inspiration to others. Wish I had your positive outlook.

Now I feel bad... Are you familiar with Chang? The quickest road to technique acquisition I've found... Learning the piano needn't be that tough and doesn't require a huge repertoire... It's work, yes, but I have found Chang incredibly, incredibly helpful. CC Chang - his "book" is free online.

Well, "inspiration to others..." Now I am the one to blush...

Thanks for the reference to Chang's book. I discovered it thru this forum a month ago. Started reading it but have to put it down for a while - gets dense, but I will finish it. I agree, very useful practice info, it has helped me already. Some of the tips I never thought of, some I discovered on my own, but good to have it codified. In either case, I don't remember my teacher ever told me any of it - grrr [trying to blame someone else for my mediocrity.] Anyway, glad that it's late instead of never.

Same for me. For some reason there are more cracks in my own recordings than in those of other people, even though it's playing them back that causes it.

When Windows gets busy with other tasks while you're recording, the sound buffers cannot be filled quickly enough and that's where the cracks come from. You can usually fix them with an audio editor afterwards. It's best to simply kill all applications and background processes that you don't need when you record. I also notice that Audacity uses more CPU power to record than some other programs I use.

Thanks for the nice words, gerg and Peyton.

gerg, that's a nice improv. That was such a fun piece. I really like it.

Thanks for the help Rosanna. Yes, Final Fantasy is a series of RPGs(role playing games) originated in Japan. Every Final Fantasy games have a very deep story, characters, and of course, beautiful music. It's now much more than just video games. I think it's the most popular thing in Japan and has become a part of the Japanese culture.

Okay, after practicing like crazy for 3 days, here is my first recording of "Suteki Da Ne" ("Isn't It Beautiful") from Final Fantasy X, as requested by Rosanna. This is the Piano Collections arrangement. This piece is very hard because even though the time signature of the whole piece is C (4/4), the left hand is actually playing at 6/8 most of the time. This is a work-in-progress, so there are quite a few mistakes and still needs improvements.

Suteki Da Ne (WIP)

Honnli, you are just the best. Thanks for playing the piece. AND you are just killing me - 3 days!!??? You either practiced hours on end, or I suspect you are super accomplished and talented. 3 days. I still can't get over your *recording* a new piece after 3 days. And I can see (hear, rather) that there is much intricacies in the score. I am speechless. First I gushed over gerg, now I am gushing over you. Help me someone.

Thanks for the super nice comment, Rosanna. No, no, I'm not super accomplished, not yet. I spent like 3+ hours a day on this piece alone, but I split up my practice time so that I practiced in the afternoon and evening. I found that this really helps in learning new pieces.

This is why I'm not getting my prelude down... I practice then set up the mics to record and end up trying to play blues in f. Next thing I know it's 11 and I've gone two hours over my alloted practice time and still no prelude..

I call this "Crosstown". It's not there yet (I still need to figure out all the fingering for F) but has it's moments. I like when I can hear my bare foot start slapping on the floor.

http://www.box.net/shared/rfddq2n20p

Well I thought I was going to be able to post something nice, it seemed like I was finally going to get a good recording, then bamm as if the red dot syndrome wasn't bad enough my dog started scratching immediately after I started playing and all went to heck.

You can hear the jingle of his bells in the recording courtesy of laddie.

I'm posting it anyway, the dynamics are shot, and I think I actually started playing it faster just to finish sorry but he really threw me off.

kawai k-8
1 year 4 months of lessons
zoom h-4
beethoven sonatina g major first movement
accompaniment, doggy scratching adding bell sounds

http://www.box.net/shared/1ce43idov9

same one with yamaha s90es horn and strings

http://www.box.net/shared/uj1lizkrx7

btw as usual you guys are just so awesome. I hope someday I can play as well as you guys.

Great! I love Beethoven, and you play it crisp and sweetly. I kind of like the bells effect