Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Alfred's Basic and ALL in One Adult Piano Course Book #3

A Special Thanks to all my Book 3 buddies who had very nice things to say about my Recital piece - I really appreciated you listening and commenting. And I very much enjoyed listening to all of your pieces - excellent job, dudes!

I'll probably (hopefully) finish up the "Toreador Song" piece in Book 3 this coming week (it's one of those "more difficult than it looks" pieces) and then move on to the Steven Hiller "Prelude" next. Beyond that I can see maybe 3 or 4 other pieces in the regular section before taking on a couple of the "Ambitious" pieces. I have too many other works in other sources screaming out for my attention these days to spend a whole lot more time in Book 3.

JF

Who in here uses a metronome?

Hi All, thank you for all the "Congrats". I have been sick this entire week with a cold and didn't even touch the piano!!!. But I was determined to learn a difficult piece and still had two errors on it last week.
Waltz, I have memorized parts of it and still have to turn the page for the ending. I feel good about this accomplishment! And yes, I will play it for everyone, that's a promise! I hope everyone has had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Peace,

I have used a metronome when practicing Bach and Ragtime (where keeping a constant tempo is important). It helps in finding the areas I tend to either speed up or slow down. Practicing these areas with the metronome then helps to train myself to keep a constant beat once I stop using the metronome.

Undone

I must confess I don't BUT I am going to put a nice one on my Xmas list for the wifey to pick up.
- SC

Thanks for the replies. I wish I would have begun using a metronome from the start. Over the last month I've tried to train myself to using one, but it's really not easy to move from strict counting to counting and using one of those devices...

Here is the second movement of Beethoven's Sonatina in G Major:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUl5uf1di5Y

Only had a few minutes to record so it's not the best but it's all right I think.

Now strictly focusing on Fur Elise; God help me lol.

Very nice playing Waltz - You're becoming quite the beethoven specialist!



No fair getting help from the Grand Master Pianist in the great beyond

JF

Very nicely done mate
As for me I'm "knew deep" in Forest, or should that be wrist deep? Anyhow, this is my current "Nemisis" and I will be learning this until it's done
- SC

I freak out when my teacher turns on the metronome. Esp when I'm still working on the song and not very confident with it. Any ability I have to play it well goes straight out the window. I highly recommend using a metronome right away - even on simple songs a few times at least to get used to the idea.

Waltz - forget the metronome - it's far too restrictive - consider this: as you progress in your studies over time you'll gradually learn to keep a steady beat to your own inner "rhythmic counter' - and so what if you occassionally speed up or slow down a little - it adds "character" to your playing - and in the future many of the pieces you'll play will have built-in tempo changes, or you'll develope your own style where you'll just naturally incorporate tempo changes into your playing, whether called for or not in the notation, as part of your advanced artistic interpretation skills.

March to the beat of your own (inner) drummer!

JF

JF

Thanks for the comments on my video!


you'll develope your own style where you'll just naturally incorporate tempo changes into your playing, whether called for or not in the notation, as part of your advanced artistic interpretation skills.


This is what I said! My instructor grimaces at even the slightest tempo changes.

To Nancy,

I agree. Basically I've just been doing SCALES with it, and I still have trouble lol.

I like JF's idea of trusting intuition and throwing the darn thing out of the window!

TTigg,

What is Forest? I'm guessing New Age?

Nope, Forest Gump "Feather" Theme by Alan Silvestri. I actually tried to play this last Christmas off the back of doing my Wayne Gratz 5.30s piece. Needless to say it was a little "too challenging". It's kind of my "mental gotta get past it" and of course, another "Movie tune" I love.

However I'm getting it broken down, lots of 10ths and massive stretching and moving hands about. It will be a real challenge to get it to sound smooth but that's the fun part
- SC

Waltz – Great job on Beethoven’s Sonatina!

As far as “going your own way” when it comes to things like tempo, I’ve always believed that, like so many things in other art forms, it’s okay to “break the rules” but only once you know and can follow “the rules” and then make a conscious decision not to. I’ve seen far too many people produce work of a lesser quality and then fall back on the “I did it my way” defense when it was really a case of “I wasn’t able to do it the right way”. Of course this doesn’t apply to anyone here.

Some pieces are meant to be played fluidly (sometimes marked expressivo) while others are not. If a piece was written to be played with a clock like precision and you choose not to play it that way fine, but do it because you tried it as written and decided your way sounds better (just be prepared to have other’s say “your playing it wrong” when it comes to the well known work of the great composers).

Undone

Cool TTigg. 10ths would be pushing it for me, but I know you'll handle it well. Can't wait to hear it; maybe next recital?

Undone, Thanks for the comment. Also, what you wrote are words of wisdom, thanks for that.

W

Metronome. Ah, yes, the device we all love to hate! It's frustrating and can be difficult to adjust to if you haven't used it from the start. Yes, it's hard to make the switch from counting internally to paying attention to the click, click, click, click, but the question I have is: If it is painfully difficult, maybe that means your internal metronome isn't as precise as you thought? I know that is often my problem. I truly think I am counting perfectly, but turn on the unforgiving beast and ouch! That said, I do agree that the metronome should not be any more of a crutch than anything else. Use it to get the beat going well inside, then turn it off. Or to straigthen out a tricky rhythm and get it right. And certainly there are many (if not most) pieces that are better played with a little relaxation of strict tempo. But you have to know what the strict form is first. Too many players or even singers (myself definitely included!) ignore that and end up sounding sloppy. It's certainly a love-hate relationship and there are many days I'd like to run the thing under the car wheels!

Yep that's the plan. I mean it's not going to take me that long to learn it and I'll be going back to #3 in Jan. I would hope to have it "polished off" in time for the Feb one
- SC

Prelude in D Minor.. pg 36 and 37. Whole note next to 8th note what is the deal with that? and on the last measure on pg 37 the notes seem to "hang down" into the LH area. Seems to give me no choice but to play with the RH.. Why did they choose to write it like this? It seems that it is middle C # why wouldn't they just write it on the top. Can someone explain, thanks.

Whole note next to eighth note - this is an example of "two-part writing", or a doulble part to be played together by the LH in this case (more often than not you'll see this in the RH part) - play the whole/eighth note combo at the same time with the same finger and hold this for the entire measure while playing the "upper" LH notes with other LH fingers as indicated - a compositional technique that adds depth and harmony to the part.

Last measure - yes, play all of the eighth notes RH - it's simply easier to notate them on the lower staff than to use a series of ledger lines under the upper staff - but sometimes you will see a passage like this written with the ledger lines, as long as the notes don't go too far down.

JF

On the metronome: I'm not a big fan either, but it is good to at least be able to stick to it when necessary. I agree with Undone & Mak...artistic freedom only comes into the picture once you know how to play something perfectly 'as written'

My favourite use of the metronome is to keep me from speeding up too soon when learning something new. I set myself a speed limit by regularly checking my playing against a pre-set metronome tempo. Works pretty well. Once I got something under control at a fairly low speed I use the metronome again to speed it up little by little to the desired tempo. (and then I am mostly using it to 'set' the right tempo, and turn it off during playing)

Ingrid (working on X mas songs right now, still no Alfreds pieces)

If you can "hit the ground running", why must you learn to crawl and then walk first?

Nobody plays anything "perfectly as written". But, why must you play a piece as written before you can attempt, or are "allowed" to play it the "non-written" way? Tell that to a jazz pianist. Tell that to one of the Great Composers (good luck finding a way).

Even the great composers never played their own works the same way twice - there was lots of variations and improvisations, including with tempo - maybe especially with tempo.

Their notation was only a general guide intended to serve as a framework to which the performer was expected to "flesh out' the heart & soul of the piece.

Unless a piece is marked with a specific MM indication it's anyone's guess at what the exact tempo of a given piece should be, and it will be played at different tempi by different performers, or by the same pianist at different times.

And if the tempo of a piece can vary from performance to performance, then why can't the tempo vary somewhat within any given performance, at the performer's discretion?

Who's to say which performance is the right one or the wrong one? If you want to play the "Moonlight Sonata" as an uptempo jazz piece knock yourself out!

Use the metronome to play "Jeopardy"!

JF