Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Alfred's Basic and All in One Adult Piano Course Book #2

Thanks Waltz!

I just checked the specs ... unfortunately, the CLP320 does not have an aux output. But you might try the headphone jack instead. (Not ideal, but worth a try.)

You can shoot from either side, but I prefer the camara on your right (which is what you did). It's easier to see the right-hand action from that viewpoint. (Which is more important to see ... right-hand or left-hand? That depends on the piece you're playing, but right-hand more often than left.)

The camera shows your hands high and to the left in the image. Meanwhile, we see a lot of the upper octaves of the keyboard, untouched by hands. I'd suggest pointing the camera to (roughly) center your hands in the shot. Also, you might lower the camera so that we get a more "level" shot, rather than a downward shot. You could even to something like this: Side View

Of course, you could put the camera overhead, shooting straight downward ... that gives an interesting alternative viewpoint. But it's not easy. A tripod won't accommodate that. (The pros know how. I don't.)

You could even dress in tux and tails! That would be a standout, eh? (Okay, I'm having too much fun with this.)

Waltz - Huge improvement on the ending to Olympic Procession! Don’t be afraid to carry the slower tempo (“Magestic”) through to the end of the piece. It’s realy sounding good now.

TTigg - You mentioned something about getting some recordings down on Zoom recently. I hope you can get some downloaded; I know we’d all love to hear them. You and I are in about the same spot in book 2 right now; I just fishished Deep River today. What did you think of this piece? I hated it to begin with - I didn’t see how I was going to get thoes arpegiated bass cords to be piano, let alone pianissamo, and I just couldn't seem to make it "musical". But then suddenly it started to click, and I wound up really enjoying this selection.

Undone

Haven't done any recent recordings (but may try) I've gotta alot some time so I can "check out" how the 1st batch of Zoom recordings went, hopefully by this weekend. Deep River, yep didn't care for it much at first but grew to enjoy it as the week went on etc. If the Zoom stuff (1st pass) turned out ok I will probably attempt to get a recording of Deep River..

Hi Undone,

Yes, my appologies for causing you some confusions as well. Although, I'm quite sure that your tiny bit less than perfect version of Hava Nagila will still be a joy to listen to, not to mention will also serve as a wonderful example for us beginners as well. So, no pressure what so ever, but perhaps someday we'll get to listen to it.

BTW, thanks for sharing that funny video of Victor Boge's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, I enjoyed it.

Best regards,

Key Notes

Hi Waltz,

Congratulations on your new camcorder! It sounded very nice.

Thanks for your kind compliments on Scarborough Fair, and the request for other recordings from book 2. It's very nice of you but it's also quite embarressing to be sharing my recordings since I'm not that good yet. Although, I could use and would appreciate some inputs and feed-backs from everyone from time to time. So, here it goes.

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2

Theme from the Overture

Cheers,

Key Notes

Key Notes,

Nice job on the recordings! It's always a little scary putting something out there for all to hear. I especially liked your recording of Hungarian Rhapsody. The first half was really great, in the second half I think there may be a little timing issue in a few measures, but I don't have my music here with me right now.

Also, how's your "playing without looking at the keys" coming along? I ask because there are a few places, especially in Overature, where you hesitate for a bit and I can just picture you either looking for the keys or doggedly determined not to look at the keys. Either way, if this is something your battling with (and I may be all wet on this - it's just an image I had), it's something that takes everyone both time and a lot of hard work to get used to.

Undone

Key Notes,

Way to go! I agree with Undone regarding HR2 and Overture. Besides perhaps some timing issues near the end, HR2 was masterfully played (much better than I remember playing it). The tempo and rhythm were beautifully held at a very quick pace. Overture had some hesitations, but the rhythm was certainly on point and the LH staccato sounded great. Thanks for sharing and you certainly have nothing of which to be embarrassed.

W

Pomp and Circumstance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VJF4WlQT5Y

This was actually recorded the very first time I decided to play through the piece as a coherent whole.

Your recording of Pomp And Circumstance sounds great Waltz! Isn't it wounderful when a first recording just all comes together like that? If your like me, when you start getting toward the end of a rcording that's going so well, you start getting nervous thinking "please, please, please, don't goof up now!" You did a fine job.

Undone

Thanks Undone. I can certainly concur regarding the "end of recording nerves", an adrenaline burst does not assist in coordinating hand movements and ruins the ability to think. P&C is very tricky to nail down but once you figure it out it can be slightly forgiving to play (and it's fun, I think).
Hope everyone is well,

W

Oh, and just to mention:
I start the theme from 10/3 once I finish "Dark Eyes". Chopin is certainly one of my favorites and many of his songs are my "dream pieces". I've always loved this etude. As trivia (that may not even be correct): the actual etude is sort of in an A B A structure --- the A representing the "theme" and the b representing the more "etudish" part. Part A is the bulk of the actual piece and, for me, what makes it beautiful. I can't wait to turn to page 90.

Thanks Undone and Waltz for listening and for all of your wonderful inputs and encouragements. I love those two pieces and will continue to work on them.

Undone, I also sensed that my timing towards the end part of HR2 could use a bit of fine tuning as well, and would definitely appreciate your advice as to how I can better improve upon it.

And, thank you so much for asking on how I'm doing in regards to whether I'm able to play without having to look down at my hands or the keys. So far, except for the few challenging sections of certain songs, such as the big octave jumps of Light and Blue, I've been able to play most of the pieces, sinced book 1, without having to look down at my hands or the keys most of the time.

My method of learning has been that once I've figured out and familiarized myself with all of the notes and chords of a new song and are able to play it slowly with hands together. I simultaneously and quickly tried to play the whole piece without looking down at the keys, even if it's at a very slow tempo.

In regards to my hesitations in the Overture piece. While it was my intentions to play it a bit slower the indicated Andante, more like Adagio?, thus the pauses and hesitations. But perhaps they were a bit longer than necessary, and I may be wrong in my interpretations of the musicality of this piece.

You are absolutely correct however, in your observations of the possibilities of my having to look down at the keys at some point. While I'm able to play most of it without having to look down, for some reason the transitions between measures 10 & 11, the Dm into the Gs for both hands, I've also been finding myself looking down on more than a few occasions. Strange, since it's not even a hard shifting of positions for the 1st and 5th fingers. And now that you've also pointed it out, I'm going to put a stop to that, starting tonight.

Thanks again for all of your great inputs and observations, and I look forward to hearing much more of your advices on HR2 as well as future pieces.

Best Regards,

Key Notes

Very nice as always Waltz!

And whenever I think of goofing up, I surely and usually always do, especially on the endings of the repeated sections.

Same here. Is there only one Chopin piece in this book? I only saw the one that you mentioned in the TOC, but then again my eyes are a bit tired at the moment. Enjoy!

I have been working on correcting this same problem as well. Weirdly its often happening when I'm playing really simple parts with my fingers already on the keys I'm looking down to check!

Key Notes, I think it is the only Chopin work in the book. He didn't really write much for beginner students so anything included would have to be "simplified" to a varying degree. Thanks so much for the compliment on P&C.

I look down at my hands in certain places of nearly every piece. I think the key for me is this: being able to quickly look down without any hesitation of my playing to simply increase accuracy of certain "jumps" or other transitions while being able to immediately look back at the score and continue reading. For me, there is absolutely nothing wrong with glancing down at your hands from time to time during certain difficult jumps to improve accuracy as long as I can keep the rhythm. I think the main criticism is those that stare at their hands throughout the entire piece AND make a habit of doing so.

Key Notes – I’m glad to hear that the “not looking” is going well for you, and I too find I need to take a quick glance here and there, especially if there is a large hand movement involved. As Waltz pointed out, I don't think there is anything wrong with this so long as one gets over the initial tendancy to do so, and it doesn't become a crutch.

The timing question in the latter part of HR2 that I was refering to is a small thing. Once I’ve played a piece long enough and gotten it down, any slight difference in sound kind of stands out when I hear someone else play it (something that a person who hadn’t worked on the piece may never notice). Then I have to figure out if I’d been playing it wrong all along, if it’s a question of “interpretation”, or something else.

Anyway, as I now have my music in front of me, I see that the part that sounded different to me was after the poco ritard. (where it changes from the A to the B part). The tempo here is marked as “gradually faster and faster to end”. What I was hearing was the first bar being played at a steady tempo, the second bar being played much faster, then the third bar going back to match that of the first, etc. Or to put it another way, a slow –fast-slow-fast sort of change from bar to bar. I think that if you concentraight on keeping the left hand steady at four beats per measure (though gradually getting faster to the end of the piece), you’ll hear what I’m refering to.

Once again, this is just nit picking, you did a fantastic job on this piece and my feedbak is only meant in the spirit of “adding an ear” where may be of some help.

Undone