hahaha Oldfingers....if any 'beaming up' is needed you'll have to send us a telepathic message. but whatever you're going to do and where...Have a good time! I'll start asking you again about Satie after your return! Resistance is futile!

On subject..Prelude in D is done. It was OK but the Prelude in C major is in my opinion more beautiful, and nicer to play & keep in repertoire.

Now on to the famous star spangled banner (with tremolo!)

Gymnopedie 1 also done. Just some minor details to work on. I guess I'll start on nr 2 next!

Ingrid

(and JF. 'Make up yor mind' in book 3? Guess you have the all-in-one version, because i don't see it in my book!)

Ingrid - thanks for the comparison of the two preludes - I'm looking forward to the one in C by Bach in the ambitious section but it will be quite a while before I get to it (assuming I keep playing all the pieces in order).

And, yes, I am using the AIO version of Book 3 - I was assuming that all the pieces were the same in both, and that the AIO just had more theory. I guess not.

Regards, JF

P.S. Do you know what happened to Mark? - I haven't seen him anywhere in any of the Forums for awhile.

John, I honestly don't think the Alfreds 3 book was meant to be played from front to back in order. At least not the 'for fun' and 'ambitious' parts. It even mentions explicitly after the prelude in D to use it as a 'warming up' for the well tempered clavier one! Use the experience you gained learning that one to play the Bach as well!

To be honest, I thought the Bach was not only more beautiful but also easier to play then the Clementi. And the style of the 2 pieces is so similar (pedal wise, structure wise) that it would be a pity to waste your fresch learnings & to wait half a year before you go for it. Just play around with it for a week or so! And don't be intimidated just because it's in the ambitious part. And if you need guidance...there's loads of versions on youtube to listen to (and I need to arrage some recording machinery!). and I'll be there to help as well for what it's worth.

Main guidance by the way from my teacher on the Bach (and the Clementi)..focus on the LEFT hand. That's where the power of the piece is, that's what carries it. The right hand is more of a frivolous ornamental type of thing that makes it more beautiful.. It's easy to think of the right hand as the melody, and the left hand as a kind of 'bass', but that's not the right approach.

Ingrid

PS..and no, I haven't seen Mark either. It is a bit quiet over here isn't it?? I'm haveing a pretty good time though, but I wouldn't mind a few extra 'members'. How's the book 2 gang doing? Any people getting closer to the canon in D that will join us shortly??

So, where am I at now?

Rock-A My Soul- is done. Not perfect, but it is time to move on.

Variations on a Sea Chanty- also done, tho I think this will be one I go back and play now and again, "just because." Maybe as a warm-up piece.

October Morning (Romantic Impressions book)- We're calling this one done, as well. Finally got the chord jumps on the last page reasonably smooth so the flow of the piece doesn't halt completely at that spot.

Still working on:

Dreams Bright and Beautiful (Romantic Impressions book)- Having a hard time keeping the 3 feel of this one. Keeps slipping into 4 and then the 8th notes end up as quarter notes. Just working it slowly, measure by measure, and counting.

New stuff added:

Prelude in C minor by Morovsky: Lots of crossed hands work in this one! I don't know about some of these little prelude things. I know they were supposed to be exercises and all that, but (other than the Clementi), they just haven't appealed to me. Of course, this one is a minor key, so it has that odd, minor sound as well. It's short and not overly complex. It "should" go ok.

Dry Bones: Whooo boy! This one's gonna be interesting! For one, it's long- a bit over 3 pages. And drags you thru the major triads in all positions in all the following keys: A-flat Major, A Major, B-flat Major, B Major and C Major. I think I'm going to be spending some time reviewing triads, just to get them back into my head. Otherwise, the reading on this one is going to be a bear- so many accidentals!

I have quite enough to keep me busy this week!

I'm still plugging along with Bach. Finally on page 4! Now with a little breathing space away from grad class, I can concentrate more on that and on Hanon.

Mak & piano4 - thanks for the updates - nice to know that you're still plugging away & making progress.

Mak - the Prelude in C minor sounds interesting - I really like pieces in minor keys and this sounds like it could be fun to play - I'll get to that later.

Ingrid - nice try and you're very persuasive - I'm tempted, but I think it will have to wait to get into the Bach Prelude - my practice schedule is full right now with working out of 3 books, all of them fairly challenging. But thanks for the encouragement.

Regards, JF

Hey!! We almost made it all the way down to page 3!! Yikes!

Well, a quick pre-easter updat from me then.

I hardly dare to say it out loud here, but I was allowed by my teacher to skip the star spangled banner. It's the 1st song in all 3 Alfred books I skipped (or let's say dropped before being able to play in a more or less satisfactory way). But I really,really,really didn't like it. (sorry again, for all you americans) I told her I'd rather learn the dutch national anthem instead, but she looked me in the eye and told me to go and work on the swan lake for next week/ Ahhhh.... a lot better. I did mess around a bit with the famous JF-tremolo, which was the most fun part of the piece, so thanks for the tip John!!

Any news from you guys??

Ingrid

Ingrid- Don't worry about it. I can understand dropping SSB. you certainly would not have the "attachment" to the thing like we do here in the US. We've all run into things we are not fond of.

As for me, we worked on the right hand in the Morovsky Prelude. Specifically, not moving the right hand as much as I had been doing. The left hand is jumping across the right all thru this one, and I guess I was so intent on that, I didn't pay attention to the right hand. I was re-positioning it with every chord and that just isn't necessary. So, basically, relearning fingering for that one.

Dry Bones- it's long and, yikes!, the accidentals! But the pattern is starting to make sense, so we'll see if that doesn't make it a bit easier.

In the Mier book, Dreams Bright and Beautiful is coming along much bettter. Just one section that needs smoothing out and this one will be done. Moving on to the first few lines of the next piece, Nocturne. I think this one is going to be pretty, and it's slow- Andante! Yay! LOL But lots of dotted rhythms that will be a bit tricky till I get them down.

That's it for now.

Ingrid, Please don't feel bad about passing over that piece:-). I tried it, couldn't get the feel of it and figured I'll come back to it!

I'm still plugging along with Bach's "Toccata". Got page four and am tying up "loose ends" with pages 1-3. When I do get this piece done perfectly, I will put this on Youtube. I know, I know, nothing's perfect, but I figure that for me to play this piece that I have heard others play, I want that perfection :-)

Started with Hanon and I'm up to 4. And I'm working on some communion music for my kids... need to relearn two of them. Other than that, enjoying a bit of break from grad courses.

Still having fun!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ingrid - the "Star Spangled Banner" piece is a good one from a technical standpoint (good hand movements & dynamics, especially in the 2nd half) and hopefully you'll have a change of heart about it someday - if not, there are lots of other good pieces in Book 3 to present a challenge.

Mak - too bad you don't record - I'd like to hear some of the pieces you talk about, especially the non-Alfred ones.

I'm putting the finishing touches on "Scheherazade" in Book 3 - delightful piece overall, although it tends to "wander" a little in the 2nd half - it would have been better to have a repeat of the opening theme somewhere here, but I guess it's more faithful to the original orchestral suite this way - not too much of a technical challenge as a whole 9even the triplets at the end were relatively easy).

Before this I finished up the "Swan Lake" piece which is a lovely work (from the ballet suite) - I enhanced the ending a little where the melody goes into the LH by repeating the theme in measure 4 additionally, thus extending it. Good, solid piece!

In looking ahead I see there are only 6 more pieces left in Section 1 of Book 3, which is a review of old keys (from Book 2), and then Section 2 starts with a new key (A Major, 3 sharps), which for me won't be a problem since one of the hymns I'm now playing as a supplemental piece is in E major (4 sharps).

I've also started a new Minuet in the "Essential Keyboard Repertoire" book I'm using - this one by Wilhelm Freidaman Bach.

That's all for now.

Regards, JF

Hello All,

New member of the club here. As I'm self teaching now I was after a method book to follow to fill in some gaps, particularly on the theoretical side and my copy of Level 3 arrived this morning.

It looks good and I've been noodling around with a few pieces. The Clementi Prelude in D caught my eye - I like that piece a lot.

Unfortunately, when we remodeled the dining room a few months ago, the Kawai dp got taken down and is sitting, unplugged and forlorn, in an unused room upstairs. There just isn't anywhere, at the moment to set up the recording area again. And trying to record the M&H just never worked out well. Once we get things settled a bit more here (and that means yet more remodeling!), I want to get the dp up and running again. I just don't know when that will be!

Hello Gerry and welcome! There aren't too many of us here in the Book 3 thread but we're enthusiastic and try to be encouraging and helpful.

You're right about the Clementi piece - it really is a good one - I worked on it and really enjoyed it and uploaded a recording of it to this thread a few pages (or more) back.

Stay in touch here and keep us up to date on what you're working on.

Regards, JF

Finished up work on the "Scheherazade" piece (nice arrangement overall) and got a good recording of the "Swan Lake" theme - started working on the next piece which is the theme from Scubert's "Unfinished Symphony", which starts off interestingly with the melody in the LH and then switches to the RH after about 9 measures - looks to be a good, solid piece.

Also reviewing the "Serenade" from the String Quartet with the Alberti bass - needs a litttle polishing.

Regards, JF

Oh boy!!!!

Where is everybody??

And why are all the threads so horribly mixed up? I had to use the search function to find us back!!

Anyway, back to page 1 now, I hope!

We had a school vacation over here, so 2 weeks without lessons, but I got Swan Lake done, and am close to finishing the scheherazade part. Nice pieces, both!!. Scheherazade lookde pretty difficult, but once I got into it it wasn't that hard. Lovely melody!! (didn't know it)

How is everybody else doing????

Ingrid

Still working the ambitious section of book 3 and some other intermediate pieces.

Doing lots of technical work which is really helping...

Hi guys - I'm still working on the "Theme from the Unfinished Symphony" by Schubert - good, solid piece - melody starts off in LH and then switches to RH (I really like the effect when the melody switches hands/registers like this in pieces) - also some great booming chord sequences at the end which jump around the keyboard nicely (to be played with or without the "tremolo" technique Ingrid!)

Got a fairly good recording of "Swan Lake" which can currently be heard in the May Piano Bar.

Also working on the hymn "He Leadeth Me" (beautiful melody) and a minuet by Wilhelm Friedamen Bach from the "Essential Keyboard Repertoire" book.

Ingrid - glad you like the "Scheherazade" piece - I enjoyed that one a lot too (it's part of a much larger orchestral suite).

Mark - good to know you're still with us and still plugging away - was worried you had "dropped out" for awhile there.

Regards, JF

Mark...how's the Satie going?? Weren't you working on Gymnopedie 1?? Did that one as well over the last month, beautiful piece!

John..I listened to your Swan Lake in the May bar. Interesting to hear somebody elses performance. Just curious...your version sounds really very different from mine.(I should get recording facilities!!! Grr!) Just wondering where that comes from. Your left hand (the continuous repeated chord) has a kind of 'beat' in it that I don't play that way. There's a little accent/break every measure. Like 1-2-3-4-and-1-2-3-4. When I play it it's much more continuous (at least, that's the feeling I have when playing it) Like if you would play only the left hand without the melody as a listener you wouldn't have a clue where the '1' '2' '3' or '4' was when you hadn't been counting from the first sound onwards

Is that something you did on purpose?? ( I know you are creative often in how you deal with a piece!)

Ingrid

Thanks John, I've been around keeping an eye on the threads but after the last recital I wasn't happy with my progress and decided to post less and practice more.

Ingrid, I am still working on Gymnopedie 1 and its very close to being finished. I'm working many pieces and it takes me a while to finish them. Its really helped my overall playing because of the hand shifting. Its also a great piece to listen to while you play.
Its a keeper...

Mark

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?




I have no idea - I was as surprised as you when I first heard it - I didn't notice it while actually recording - but it is there , as you say, but not everywhere, just starting into the second section (theme) - I wasn't sure if I liked it at first, but then I decided I did because I told myself that this "crowding" or "pushing" of the rhythm is a mark of "increasing Technical expertise" (or so I'd like to think)



You play it correctly - I think that what happened with me was that I was really "caught up" in the music and was in a hurry to get to the "good part" - the crecendo of the melody in the RH and the switch to the melody in the LH - I don't know how else to explain it, but I think I like it - I consider it "performer's license".



As I said - no, at least not consciously - but who knows what goes on in the deep recesses of our minds I did get a little creative by entending the ending though - hope you liked that part!

Regards, JF

It's time to reconnect to cyberspace and report my lack of progress on Alfred Level 3. It's interesting that the last piece I chose to work on, Fur Elise, is giving me the most difficulty. Unless I slow everything down, the 32nd notes in the third section continue to give me problems. I would hate to admit that my old fingers are letting me down.

As I mentioned earlier I am also working on the Lee Evan's arrangements of the American Songbook. I'm pretty happy with Early Autumn and have started working on That's All. Some of the chords are really complicated and I need my teacher to help me figure them out.

Ingrid, I haven't decided what to do about the Satie yet. Would you say that the pieces you suggested are at Level 3 in difficulty. Although not part of my original goal, I have rather enjoyed playing classical pieces.

OldFingers - welcome back! Glad you found your way here from "beyond cyberspace" - sorry to hear you're still having a few "technical difficulties" with Fur Elise, but I have confidence that you'll work them out - also, interesting that you're working on some of the great American Songbook classics, which is one of my ultimate goals too.

I also noticed that somewhere along the line you've changed career objectives from being a cocktail lounge pianist to being a retirement home lounge pianist The atmosphere might be a little quieter there and you actually may get a few people paying attention and listening!

Regards, JF

Mark....

Glad you like it!! And I completely share your experience of enjoying listening to yourself playing when it's Satie. You'll notice that when you will start working on a Gnossienne (at least the 1st 3) or another Gymnopedie that you'll probably pick it up a lot faster. They are much alike in the way they are built. the left hand moving back & forth and the right hand playing those beautiful melodies!!

John....Thanks for sharing your Swan lake experiences. So when you recorded the piece and listened to it it actually sounded different then what you thought it would sound like??? Intriguing! Maybe mine sounds way different too then what I think it sounds like. And...yes, I liked your ending!! (you always have to do something to a piece of music, don't you??)

And Oldfingers...Welcome back!! Hope your Elise-troubles will disappear with more work..usually they do!! Or a short break...that sometimes helps as well!!

On Satie...I would say that the 1st 3 Gnossiennes, and the Gymnopedies are easier to play then Fur Elise or the Moonlight Sonata. And they are SLOW...which you might like. In my experience they are all pieces that need time though to 'grow'. They are like good wine, they get better and better over time. The notes are fairly simple, but to make them sound beautiful requires a lot of emotional attachment to the music, or something like that. They are lovely pieces to hang on to for a long time, and to watch their development. And like Mark said (and I share that)...they are really nice to listen to when you are playing. If I want to enjoy myself playing piano I play Satie!! So I would say go for it! (and start with Gnossienne 1, in spite of the huge nr of flats it's pretty easy. And with your focus on chords the left hand shouldn't give you any trouble at all. Then after that nr 3, and then 2 , a bit more challenging rythmwise with a lot of triplet-like stuff)

Ingrid


PS...oh, and Oldfingers...even though it's classical, I think Satie would be well received in either a cocktail lounge or a retirement home lounge...so that shouldn't stop you!!

Yes! Always! It's a compulsion! My Alfred books are filled with notes, revisions, additions, re-arrangements and other possibilities. There's so much more that can be done with these basically simple arrangements.

I've even thought about making copies of my notes and sending them off to Alfred so that the compilers of our methods can get some tips and hints on how to improve these books - pretty arrogant and presumptuous, huh?

Regards, JF

HA!! John. I suddenly remember that you were pretty outspoken a while ago when I said (a bit too bluntly, I admit) that hardly any Alfred's piece was as satisfying to play as a (excusez le mot) 'real piece of music'

And now you admit yourself that the average Alfreds piece could do with a little improvement here or there....hahahahaha!!

I like that!!

Ingrid

edited to add :

PS: John....just to make sure...this post was not meant very seriously....

Well, don't laugh too hard - you may wish you hadn't - I will admit to three things: (1) that most of the pieces in all 3 books of Alfred are just fine as they stand in Alfred's; (2) as such, they are all "real pieces of music" at each given level; and (3) I personally like to enhance some of them which I consider an "improvement", but that doesn't negate or cancel out (1) and (2) above, which remain true no matter what I personally do with them.

But, just because I do enhance or improve certain pieces doesn't mean that they aren't real music, nor does it mean that they aren't already a challenge, which most of them are. In addition, when I do get to the point where I'm playing those advanced and complex pieces I'm sure I'll do the same with many of them.

Your contention a little while back was that they (the Alfred pieces) were mostly not "real music" compared with the more advanced or complex or demanding pieces that you were/are working on, which was erroneous - they are very real, but just not as advanced or complex or demanding as the "real" pieces you were working on. It's that simple.

All things considered you might have been better off not "beating this dead horse" again and should have "quit while you were behind"

Regards, JF

Still here!

I've been working on other non Alfred 3 pieces for awhile now. Finally, with my recital piece ending tonight, my teacher finally assigned me "Star Spangled Banner". My initial observation is that this version is easier than the one my teacher gave me to work on last year which I think took 2-3 months. It's nice to be back in this book.

John,

Am I mistaken or did you adapt your post after I added my PS??

If I offended you in any way..sorry! It wasn't meant that way. Let's put it on cultural difference, or lack of subtlety when writing in a non-native tongue, but I promise you I won't come back to it again, and be more careful when going off topic. Promise!

Only remark that I do need to make though is that you misunderstood me regarding difficulty or complexity of the non Alfred pieces I've been working on. A lot of my recent Alfred's pieces (Classy Rag, or even the Scheherazade) were in my opinion technically more difficult to master then eg Gnossiennes 1-2-3 or even The Well Tempered Klavier in the ambitious section (which I thought was easier then the Clementi prelude). It's just that these pieces seem to be more 'keepers' then the average Alfred's piece. And maybe (for me personally!)it's because of just the fact that I keep on playing those pieces that they seem to develop more over time, and that I get more 'attached' to them in a way.

Sorry, that got again longer then I wanted. Topic closed OK??

Ingrid

I'm here too! Still plugging away on "Toccata" but I am on the last page!!!! For me between grad course, which this time around seems to have more to read and post ( this time almost every night) and work issues ( grateful to have), I manage to get in at the most 30-45 minutes and if there is nothing going on for me on the weekends, 2hours. take care, everyone!

Cyborg - good to hear from you again - glad to know you're still at it - have fun with SSB, it's a fairly good arrangement overall.

piano4 - nice to hear from you again too - "toccata" seems to be a fairly long-term project for you - glad you're making progress and sorry you don't have more time to devote to your piano studies right now - I admire your tenacity!

Ingrid - no problem - I agree that most of the Alfred 3 pieces are challenging - it usually takes me two or three weeks (and sometimes longer) to get a good handle on many of them - same as when I was trudging thru Book 2 - I wasn't sure if you were mostly serious or not, but I wanted to make clear the point that while I sometimes "play" with a piece in terms of extending it or enhancing it that I still consider them difficult enough as presented and that my so-called improvements don't mean tha I think they are not "real music" - there is a big difference between improving a piece because you simply can (because you have "ideas") and improving it because you feel it's lacking in musical substance. But, everything is ok and cool!

Regards, JF