Hi Babs

Glad to hear you're trying the piece out. Hope you will post a recording soon.

I unfortunately don't have a zoom. I'm just recording the old fashion way and that's using my laptop. I was actually looking into the Zoom since it's so much simpler to do recordings with.

That's my line!! :p

Just what is IN that Sam Adams stuff?

Possibly a problem with codecs or something. You aren't missing much from the visual side of things, just glad you got the audio ok.

Kawaigirl:

Beautiful once again as usual.

I must say that I am kind of mad at you as you've set the Einaudi bar so incredibly high that there are no more rungs on the pole to raise it!!

We simply cannot improve on your performances and can only strive to someday match them.................someday!!

Anyway, I submitted my Nefeli piece yesterday to Bob and once again added a bit of "flair" to it including a home-made prelude and some other goodies .

Just remember that "flair" = too stupid, lazy, lack of concentration (pick one) to play the entire score as written so I just make stuff up as I see fit. If theres an easy way out, trust me, I'll find it!

S-H:

You're making my head swell so big that I can't fit through the door

My definition of "flair" = creativity. Not everyone is able to add flair to a piece and make it sound as good as you. I would fail miserably in this area.

Now you really got me curious on your rendition of Nefeli and I'm sooooo looking forward to hearing it. Any chance of a sneek preview??

Well, since I've been shooting my mouth off about it for so long now, I had better hope that it at least sounds respectable so I don't come off looking like a total loaf! :p

Besides, there is another fantastic rendition of Nefeli out there performed by Monica and I am kind of hoping that yours and her recording fall off the first few pages of posts so that other members don't compare my recording to you two. should that happen, I'm sunk!

Here are a couple of lesser-known Einaudi pieces. I started them last week, so they are a bit rusty:

Dietro l'Incanto - www.box.net/public/04szuhnezu

Due Tramonti - www.box.net/public/xxoor678vs

I found this site seems like you can download just nefeli but it's currently not available

http://www.tuneheaven.com/Sheet-Music-Tabs/Nefeli.html

Euan,

Well played, I especially liked incanto...you and kawaigirl are so prolific it makes me feel like a beginner, haha.

Euan:

Just listened to your Einaudi pieces and they are very nice. I have'nt heard either one of these before which is surprising since I have been searching and listening to many of his songs.

I think you are "hooked on Einaudi" like me but then again, that makes sense since you were one of the first to introduce us to his music.

Are you playing an Einaudi piece in the Feb recital?.

Yes, great job, Euan! It's funny, sid; I liked Due Tramonti better than the Incanto piece. (The music, Euan, not your playing! ) The beginning of Incanto was just a bit too tense for me.

Euan, that was a wonderful rendition

Now I have 2 more to be learned pieces to add to my ever growing pile of music

I'm currently listening and relistening to kawaigirl's nuvole bianche and thinking that's another definite one for learning, just as soon as I get past the current crop of pieces...happy sigh...

Just a passing thought, but it seems I'm the richest man in the world these days, so much lovely music and it costs me nothing but time. What fools those mortals be who burn their lives at the alter of materialistic consumerism and force-fed mediocrity when sublime beauty and wealth such as this exists and is theirs free for the taking, if only they knew.

Thanks Euan Now that I have the book, I can follow along! It's always nice to hear different pieces. You have a nice touch!

Kawaii Girl: Remember I told you I was working on that La Linea Scura? Well I got through the first 2 pages until I got to the bottom of page 2 , Measure # 33 and I started to have some trouble, the notes I played just didnt sound right? And my hands were starting to get a tiny bit tired from all those 16th notes! I still say Kawaii Girl..........you have been blessed with some mighty strong hands! Now the Nefeli song is starting to look a little easier, but I am having trouble keeping the rythym going as smoothly as it does on the recordings. I may put it down for now and come back to it in a few months. Right now I am working on the Vigil and Deep Heaven and a couple of classical pieces which is enough to keep me busy!

What a beautiful thought, sid, and one that deserves to be much more than a "passing" one! Yes, we are all truly fortunate.

Euan, you sly sandbagger you! "Due Tramonti" was so beautiful I thought I might want to tackle that one next, so I looked it up in the book.... and it's the very last piece!! In a book where the pieces are sorted in order of difficulty!!

Monica,

To be fair the piece itself is fairly simple. The difficulty lies in crossing the voices over between the hands - you need to omit a couple of chords as the left hand is crossed over. But the tempo makes it easy as well. Don't know why its at the back of the book, really.

Euan,

After checking tour dates I found that Einaudi will be appearing near you!!

You are not going to miss seeing Ludovico Einaudi LIVE in EDINBURGH on March 4th?

UK Tour [/b]

Daria

haha, yes its in my diary!
I just need to nip across the water and pick up some tickets. But you can be assured that I will be there (unless they have sold out already )

But I can't understand why the venue website doesn't mention the concert on its 'calender of events'??

You don't already HAVE[/b] your tickets?!?

Ahah, I worked out how to get to the seating plan / booking section for the concert. They are having 'technical difficulties' with the site etc, so its not listed properly.

The middle section of the ground floor is roughly half full. The left side is strangely empty, and there are tons of seats higher up if i want. So there is no hurry at the moment.

I think I'm right in saying that left side is preferable so you see the keyboard better? (never been to piano gig)

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Babs1:

Kawaii Girl: Remember I told you I was working on that La Linea Scura? Well I got through the first 2 pages until I got to the bottom of page 2 , Measure # 33 and I started to have some trouble, the notes I played just didnt sound right? And my hands were starting to get a tiny bit tired from all those 16th notes! QUOTE]

Hi Babs,

That section you're referring to had given me trouble when I was learning that piece. When you play that section slow, it will sound like you're playing wrong notes but in fact you may not be. I encourage you to continue on learning that section as once you get over this part, the rest of the piece is pretty much repeated.

Hi

Bella notte I think is one of the nicer works he wrote for piano, I learnt all his works by ear off the cd's I have anyway, they are very simple to learn by ear, but at the same time very effective in their own way. You need a nice toned grand piano or sampled grand such as on a top-end digital to really do justice to these pieces IMO.

So simple, minimilistic music infact, such a rare treat by this italian composer, I have adored his works for a long time, the cd he released based on an african theme is by far the best compellation he has recorded, it has bella notte and I giorni etc.. on the album, its the best he ever did. Beautiful music.

MWF

After mwf mentioned about Einaudi's piece called Bella notte, I had to check it out. Well the good news is that if anybody out there has learned In ultra vita, this piece Bella notte has a section that is the same as In ultra vita.

http://www.box.net/public/jei4rv0tc8

When it comes to playing by ear, I'm not very good at but I thought I give this Einaudi piece a try. It's call "La Casa Nel Bosco" This piece I believe is not in any of his books. I've added strings. For all the play by ear experts out there, if I didn't get all my notes correct, please forgive.

http://www.box.net/public/nqjmj1o2cs

Kawaigirl:

Once again your music is incredible. I don't know how you get through these 5+ minute pieces without a single mistake, I mean you are non human!

Einaudi's music can be much more difficult to play than it sounds. Many of the notes are all over the place and you have to do incredible finger stretches everywhere.

Today I started to look at and learn Le Onde as that is my next challenge. The song seams to start off fairly simple and then WHAM, you start reaching all over the place.

After stumbling through page one and part of two, I can already tell the effort will be worth it.

Uhhhh S-H, I'm afraid to say that there are mistakes in my playing.

Le Onde is certainly a very beautiful piece. Will you be playing Le Onde for the May recital??

Yay! My favorite section of in un altra vita

...I had a mini-breakthru on this section yesterday, finally went back and added all the notes I had taken out from my simplified arrangement and managed to get all three voices going at once (something I didn't think was possible initially), been doing a lot of back and fill of late, now I have to repolish the entire thing all over again just when I had the previous arrangement memorized

That said, the new complexity sounds bloody marvelous.

Just when I think kawaigirl can't get any better, she goes off and plays an Einaudi piece by EAR!! Bella notte was gorgeous, kawaigirl. Maybe that will be my next attempt.

But Einaudi's music seems so complicated to me with all the arpeggios and multiple voices I can't conceive of ever playing it by ear.

sid, those breakthroughs are what keep us going as pianists. Congratulations! I look forward to hearing an updated recording.

And I'm looking forward to your Le Onde, super-hunky. I was playing that piece yesterday and gnashing my teeth at my utter inability to play it through without major mistakes, let alone any kind of musicality. It is my Waterloo.

I think it's a psychological thing. I can already play Giorni Dispari better than I can Le Onde, and it's probably technically more difficult. For whatever deep-seated neurotic reason I'm just hung up on Le Onde. I need a shrink.

Monica,

If you can play bella notte, you'll have in un altra vita in the bag as well, the pretty middle section is lifted straight from altra vita (as kawaigirl has noted), and is the hardest section from altra vita.

Monica:

I've got some real good "cheater" method for Le Onde. I'll try to explain it as best I can.

First off, you probably already have the first two pages of Le Onde down pat. I know your ability now, and you can play page one and two fairly easily I bet.

Page three gets really hairy and here's why; Instead of playing primarily 3-note arpeggio-like notes in the left hand, it goes to five! As a result, everything slows down. (At least for me).

So, once again, how do you fix it....cheat!, yes CHEAT!!.

First off, play only three note arpeggios in the left hand. I know this is NOT correct, but the song...oops, I mean "piece", will sound very similar.

Second, try playing these 3-note left hand arpeggios in a fake book type method in which you right down only the root note per bar in the left hand and just play the arpeggio based on the denoted root note.

By doing this, you will [easily[/b] be able to play the piece all the way through in corect time.

Once you get very used to playing the whole piece several times through, you can slowly add the correct 5-note left hand notes in as your ability allows.

Now get this, I just got the sheet music for this piece yesterday and I can play it all the way through in almost correct time!

NO, and again I'll say it, NO, I am NOT playing the piece as written. I have VERY much simplified the score so I can actually get through it.

I have today just started to add back in a few left hand notes, (i.e, starting to take the training wheels off), and crap, have things slowed WAY down!!; but, I am now starting to play the exact written notes....at about one mile per hour!!.

I'm wondering if you are possibly trying to learn a complicated piece all at once instead of smaller "baby steps"?

When I first looked at page three, a giant "impossible" banner popped out of my score!. There is absolutely no way I could ever play that without cheating my arse off in the left hand (so I don't even have to read the music), and practicing the right hand only many times.

After I practiced my right hand only (several times), I added back in the mindless fake-book type of left hand arpeggios and played both hands together.

Again, even though I am NOT playing the left hand as written, it does sound very similar.

Next step is to slowly add back in the correct 5-note left hand notes and play it as written...someday!

Then again, should it get to tough, I'm just going to toss the score out the window once I memorize the main body of the piece and start making stuff up!.

I know this may sound like a joke, but it's actually true!. Have you ever noticed that most of my improv sections just happen to be in the most difficult part of a song?

How many times do I have to tell you that I really am a hack!!