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Many thanks to you too CMohr This is like Christmas time as a child to me ! Glad to hear from others who feel the same , sometimes it's a bit isolating learning on your own and I never dreamt that I would be chatting with other people from around the world giving out such encouragement.
I won't post anything again until I've got something musical to say as I don't want to hog the thread with my jabbering.
Anyway, thanks again and good wishes to you too :))

Coffee said:
I think there are more people watching these video lessons out there other than people in this thread if you look at YouTube video comments.

Woody said:
I only put about a 1/2 hour a day to CDL due to all my other Chopin and Pop music practice.

to both. I haven't been participating in the discussion much, but I'm dutifully putting in 15 or 20 minutes a day to CDL, along with learning my first Chopin, my 3rd Bach Invention, and polishing a pop song for the next recital. I'm only starting the second page but I've said all along that for me this is a long term effort. Bet there are some others in a similar boat.

Lesson #38, Measure 27 Pt. 3

We now work on adding the melodic notes on top. The last beat involves a little bit of tricky right hand work, as we will need to stretch a bit wider than an octave to get the top note. Don't worry about holding the top notes too long if it strains your hand, as the pedal will help to connect everything.

Bumble bee

Sorry if I'm a bit late with a response to this

Munkeegutz said;
And how about the single run through Clair with an overhead camera angle (so its easy to view fingerings/techniques)? Is that a good idea, or am I the only one who would use it? Man I feel like the annoying kid who just sits in the back asking questions all class.....

Good idea. I also think this would be helpful, especially with the degree of difficulty of where we currently are in the music.

Julius

Julius,

What I have been doing is going back through the YouTube lessons and reviewing the measures that I have been having problems with a measure at a time. It's the major advantage of doing these lessons over the internet. Yes, it's slow - one measure at a time - but so am I so I guess it's even.

I know that Hugh had mentioned early in the thread when munkeegutz first asked about the overheads that he would eventually post the overheads along with all of the notes he is generating but so far he hasn't. My guess is he is too busy at this time since he is only posting the lesson and not reviewing or at least commenting others posts. Hopefully we'll hear from Hugh in the near future and find out what's going on.

Woody

ooh I didnt remember seeing him say that--my bad! Either way I have tons of patience now because I'm also learning Melodies of Life (thanks to Quagles for inspiring me!)

My deepest apologies, Class! I've been such a negligent teacher in not responding promptly to so many great questions! Here's my litany of excuses: i've been busy working on a new website as a repository for these lessons, www.PianoFromScratch.com

The other item, of course, has been preparing for the live webinar on Oct. 24th. I'm pretty sure we'll use Ustream.tv - it looks like a really fun site that makes it relatively easy to broadcast, and even share the webcam with other users!

It's taken a good bit of research to find ways to incorporate multiple camera angles, as well as screenshots of the music, all in a live setting as opposed to something that can be edited/spliced together afterwards.

I'd like to share a VERY rough first run for feedback. Yes, I know the front camera angle is pretty grainy (the dreaded computer webcam); that's because I saved the "good" camera for the overhead angle, and the medium-good camera for a foot pedal shot to help answer that back pain roll question. Going forward, I'll probably ditch the webcam and use the medium camera for the front shot, but this question required an unusual 3 camera answer, so there you have it...

The audio also needs work, i think - the voice mic seems a bit low, and the piano might be too high; what does everyone else think?

So, here we go, warts and all, a first beta run-through of what "Clair de lune from Scratch" might look as a "live" show - keep in mind, we still have real time chats to play around with, so that's another layer to work with next time!

Piano from Scratch Webinar Test #1: Clair de lune

One nice thing about the webinar is that I wouldn't have the same 10 minute time constraint that YouTube imposes on their submitted clips, so we could really take our time to explain things and answer live questions - and possibly, if i can figure this out, even share the camera with participating members! Wouldn't that be fun?

Thanks in advance for your patience as I work out the bugs!

Hugh , is there any chance you could do a few 'Bummble Bees' in actual time for these fast fingering measures, so I can see what speed I should be aiming for ? For example,how many notes should I have played by the time I have said 'Bummble'?
Many Thanks
Tracy

Wow, Hugh. Piano lessons by YouTube. That's cool. Now you're trying a webinar. The concept looks alright to me. I'm amazed at the total package let alone the lesson plan and the musical piece you have chosen. It would be interesting to find out what piano and music software you are using.

Just watched the demo webinar - very cool, Hugh! The sound was good for me, the video a little less. On full screen the score was kind of blurry, but maybe that's me? I even posted a chat - a first for me!

CMohr

Hugh,

I too left comments on the Webinar. My only concern was the sound levels. The "talking" microphone was at a much lower level than the piano mic.

I didn't try to go to full screen since the main cameras was grainy, but the other cameras looked fine and could have been expanded. This really does have potential!!!

Woody

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HUGH!


Just noticed on the Birthday list - Congrats!

Happy Birthday, Hugh

Thanks for the birthday wishes! I'll try to get around to posting an extra lesson or two as soon as possible!

Lesson #39, Measure 28

We start off with a quick review of measure 27, then go into transitioning into measure 28. Rather than just focusing on where fingers go, we talk briefly about how movement at the piano is broken down from larger to smaller segments - from arms, to wrists and hands, then fingers - and that being able to coordinate between all the elements will make for more effective playing technique. I also re-emphasize how using "cookie cutter" hand shapes can make it much easier to jump around the piano with greater accuracy.

Lesson #40, Measure 29, Pt. 1

We start out by focusing on the right hand alone, using a fingering that might stretch smaller hands a bit. Don't be afraid to let you pedal cover over a "multitude of (legato) sins!" We also explore how differentiating between hand, wrist, and finger motions can help speed up jumps and transitions. We end the lesson by starting the first few notes of the left hand. We'll focus on the left hand part in the next lesson.

Lesson #41: Measure 29, Pt. 2

In this lesson, we just focus on the left hand notes. Rather than use "traditional" fingerings which require you to stretch your hand and flip over on top, I resort to smaller fingering groups that utilize more comfortable hand shapes. I try to show how to jump between the groups comfortably and end up with some additional practice strategies to make this beautiful passage flow more smoothly.

I watched the webinar demo, and although the video quality appeared worse than the normal videos you post here (even when you switch to the "good" camera), it was still good enough and I thought the sound was very good.

Now about switching to the left foot when practicing the rolls to alleviate my back pains, that was quite a surprising suggestion. In the end, it doesn't work for me mostly because I'm even worse at pedalizing than doing rolls (humm, maybe the two are related and explain why I'm having trouble there...) Anyway, what did help was watching you play the whole thing. We could see your head move a lot from side to side while playing. I know some of it is "artistic" play, but it did remind me to not be afraid to move the whole body to comfortably reach the notes. You know, when you don't have a teacher, it's easy to get bad habits. Mine was being way too rigid, like a robot.

Since watching the webinar demo, I've allowed myself a lot more body (head/shoulders/arms) movement when playing and that made things infinetly more comfortable. I can now repeat the rolls almost a dozen times before feeling tension, at which time it's a good idea to switch to something else anyway. Before, I felt pain after the third roll practice.

I still have a hard time getting any velocity on these rolls, but I guess it will come with time.

A great thank you for taking time to answer my question in your webinar demo.

Today's lesson will be a little late, but in the meantime i thought the class would enjoy a little preview of the new Sony webcam that will be providing improved front camera quality to the upcoming webinars!

http://www.pianofromscratch.com/piano-from-scratch/piano-from-scratch