Things have been a little hectic around here as well. We’ve had our two year old grandson staying with us this past week and he’s been sleeping / napping in the same room as my piano. So my practice time has been based more around his schedule then mine. I still managed to put the final wraps on Serenade and have moved on to “The Grand Piano Band”.

Undone

Hi all! I'm back and working on Fur Elise! Oh boy! And I thought "Toccata was hard! I will concentrate very hard to get that on so that you can hear this, Undone! I played this for some guests last night and completely forgot part of it!!!! AUGHHH

Anyhow, I have a question about "Fur Elise" On the page three in the Alfred's Book 3, on the last measure ( no I haven't gotten there just yet) but does anyone know why it is shown to play the series of sixteenth notes in the 3,2,3, pattern? Is there a technique reason for that? My instructor said that I could try that since it is written that way but that I can use other fingers. Just curious! Thank you all! take care

When I was first learning to play Fur Elise my teacher said I could use the 3,2,3 fingering to help me to get the count right as it's easier to keep track of three packets of 3,2 than six of 3. But as I became more familiar with the piece and the sound of it was better established in my head, he encouraged me to use 3,3,3,....

Okay, I am going to have to get more familiar with the count over all as I continue to practice. The first hard part is getting to me. The beginning I can do but the change in tempo at that point throws me off. Thank you so much OldFingers for your help! I'll eventually get this:-)

I know you will.

I wonder how you are doing with the third section with the 1/32nd notes. While I can play the first two sections fairly well, I can't keep the same pace and get the third section right. My teacher has slowed me down to 1/16 = 144 and I have to use the metronome to get through it, but if I try to speed it up, or turn off the metronome I'm done. I need a confidence builder here.

Bob

Finishing up "In the Hall of the Mountain King" and a review of "A Very Special Day" - this is about the half way point of the regular pieces in Book 3 - now moving on to Section 2 (new keys) with the piece "An American Hymn" (aka "Shall We Gather by the River") today.

Regards, JF

When I was trying to learn this piece many years ago, I was working from sheet music "The Pianist's Repertoire" by G. Schirmer. It has the fingering as 3,2,1,3,2,1. The 3,2,3 just seems odd to me.

Hey JF – I’m working on “A Very Special Day” myself right now. There sure is a lot going on simultaneously in this piece.

Undone

Undone - yes, there certainly is, which is a good thing - I like pieces like this - I've been reviewing selected pieces as I've moved forward in Book 3, and this was one I really wanted to concentrate on and "get down" - usually, I play a piece better on the review, but this one is giving me a little trouble for some strange reason, mostly in the ending, slowed down section, where something always seems to go wrong - maybe I've been trying to play it too "perfectly", which just isn't going to happen -

I think I may need to give it a rest and move on to a review of "A Classy Rag", which was even more challenging the first time thru. Good luck with "Day" - I'm sure you'll end up playing it very well, as usual.

Regards, JF

I just started working on Book #3 this week - so I thought I'd step in and see what was going on in this thread. I'm surprised I beat Waltz here - as I know he's one song ahead of me in #3.

I noticed there aren't as many of the songs from book #3 recorded based on the list in the listing on the first post of this thread). I admit I didn't read back through all 20+ pages of the topic - will I find more recordings buried if I do look? If we wanted to submit a recording to be posted there, is that possible? (ha - I'm getting waaaaay ahead of myself).

I look forward to working through book #3 with you all!

-Nancy

Nancy - welcome! I don't believe there have been too many pieces posted within the 20+ pages of the Book 3 thread - however, you are encouraged to do so at any time - and if you want a song posted back on page one as a sample then Mark will have to copy it there after you post it here (since the Opening Post was his) - just tell him when you post it here (in the body of the thread) that you would like it posted back there also (or PM him).

Keep us updated on your continuing progress.

Regards, JF

Welcome Nancy!! Waltz is "lurking" I believe since he's finished (a very nice rendition) of Cannon in D.. Glad to have you, Waltz and Undone hanging around here. I mean I'm glad to see / interact with all previous Alfridites but you guys were the closest with me in #2

I've had a hellish 3-4wks since I begun #3. Not really because of the content more of what was going on with work. For approx 3wks I was unsure if I was going to have a job come Aug 1st

Found out Friday I've made it through this round of "re-structuring" so now I can get back into the full swing of my practicing and movements. (phew)

1st up will be finishing up of the Serenade from String Quartet which I will do this week (spent 2kws on this one in terms of lesson time). Then moving onto the Piano big band and finishing up on some theory.

Also gotta get my recital piece polished up and recorded (both reg and possibly video too) but time is ticking on that clock!

Glad to hear your job is safe for now... That's always unnerving. My husband is currently contracting and I dread him having to find something new when his current one is up.

As for the recital - I just checked the dates and I have a crazy idea I want to play the Dan Coats version of Canon in D (but it's still an 'easy' version) for it. I didn't get a clean recording of the Alfred version yet; but why should that stop me? :P We'll see if I can get it cleaned up enough in time.. now that the heat has dissipated it's much more pleasant to sit at the piano and practice.

Sounds like a great plan Nancy, will be looking forward to it

Hi all,

Oldfingers, I'm sorry I'm getting back late in replying to you. I FINALLY got the second page ( the first hard part of "Fur Elise") and that nearly drove me to drink (Smile).My instructor is pushing me to get the tempo of those 1/32 notes.. to not slow down and I may just have that drink :-) But I will get this eventually!

Oh, "A Very Special Day" I thought was kind of pretty.Matter of fact, I played that for some guests. I was surprised I remembered it!!!

CarlMC, yes, my instructor thought that the fingering was a bit different and she didn't know why it was written in that matter.But she told me I could try it if I wanted to and if it didn't work then to use 3, 2, 1. I'll get that as soon as I narrow down page two!

Hi Nancy, glad to see" you in Book 3! It's pretty fun, I think!

Thank you all for all of your advice! I always learn a lot!

Karen

In honor of our newest Book 3 cohort Nancy and our soon to be newest cohort Waltz, I humbly submit my “its time to move on already” recording of A Very Special Day:

http://www.box.net/shared/ku9epotq7f


Undone

Karen - I haven't played it for any guests yet, but it is a good, solid study piece, and I finally did get a good recording of it.

Right now I'm putting the finishing touches on "An American Hymn", which dates back to the middle of the 1800s and is more often called
"Shall We Gather at the River" (after the opening line) - Book 3's arrangement is to be played softly and slowly, but the versions I've heard of this great, old hymn are always more uptempo and livlier, so it's interesting to play it and hear it softened and slowed down - and it does have a lovely melody - what did you think of this arrangement?

Regards, JF

Very nicely done! It's a very pretty song. Is this one fairly near the beginning? I've tried to not look ahead too much so far

It's the 8th piece if you count the "Just for Fun" pieces (and you probably should) - these "Fun" pieces leave a lot to be desired in terms of the lyrics, but musically they can be interesting study pieces, especially if you enhance them by using intros, repeats, etc. where none currently exist in the music just to make them a little more challenging.

Regards, JF

Hi everyone,

I guess I'm the newest member of the Book 3 thread . My name is Waltz and I just finished Book 2 and I'm now completely on Book 3. I'm rejoining my friends Ttigg and Undone from the Book 2 thread, and am excited to meet all other people on the Book 3 thread. I also have met John Frank from his help on the other thread.

I tend to post a lot, and will try to bump this thread at least once per day. I also have a penchant for making horrible videos of myself playing Alfred's pieces, and then forcing them into threads:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryVLn572Rvc

Anyway, I recorded Canon in D twice, the second time being my recital piece. I had the second, final version, "locked" on youtube, but I went ahead and unlocked it, so if anyone wants to see it ahead of time, they can. I guess it was kind of silly to keep it "secret" until then.

I'm excited to be here now, and look forward to meeting those I don't know.

Oh, and Ttigg, this is the first time I've actually looked at the Book 3 thread, I was keeping it a surprise lol.

welcome Waltz...book 3 really moves you to the next level...enjoy!

Thanks Mark... Are you currently on Book 3 or have you already finish it?

I haven't had time to read much of this thread yet. I only skimmed the posts on the last page. I have a lot of catching up to do, and I plan on reading this entire thread, from page 1, in the next few days. Thanks again for the welcome

Undone - good job on "Day" - well played.

Regards, JF

Waltz - welcome! Nice to have you here.

If you bump this thread once a day it may crash - it's not used to that!

Regards, JF

Thanks JF, It's really nice to be here!

Thanks JF – this was another one (of the many) Alfred pieces where I started out thinking “Okay, this isn’t going to be anything ‘special’” and then wound up really liking it and wanted to keep working on it. After getting the above recording I had to convince myself that “That’s good enough for now, time to move on to the next piece” which just so happens to be “A Classy Rag” – another challenging number (at least I’m finding it challenging at this point).

Undone

Welcome aboard Waltz!

I'm still in the back working the ambitious stuff as well as my favorite Prelude in D. I've moved to some intermediate books but still in book 3 too...

Thank Undone and Mark... for the replies.

Calypso Rhumba:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p43-gHGBlqo

I'm working on Fandango now, which I really like. Nothing of yet has been too challenging, but I'm sure that's going to change soon. I still have lots of catching up to do with this thread.

I just had a chance to watch this - and you did wonderfully! I think you slowed it down in this second version just enough. Nice job and great recital piece. I spent 40 mins this morning working on my Canon in D (The Coates version); but don't know if it'll be recital ready by next week.

Just curious - what did you use to record the video and sound for you tube? i have a camera that can take video; but I don't know how the sound quality would come out.