Waltz - whatever issues you were having with the Prelude in D seemed to have been solved - nice playing - well done - yes, maybe a little more uptempo, or maybe just a little more dynamics here & there, but good job.

JF

Thanks Undone and JF.

Hopefully within the next week or so I will have the 2nd movement of Clementi's Sonatina finished and recorded and published in the piano bar...

Thanks for the comments on Prelude in C everyone. I’m still trying to put a wrap on Swan Lake and have just started looking at Scheherazade. Scheherazade is definitely going to be a challenge!

Undone

Well, I'm off to WV today! Gee, a whole week without a piano! Can't wait to hear what the (already pretty shaky!) first two pages of the Moonlight sound like when I get back!! I have also started on "This Is Halloween" from Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas. Fun! In A minor so it has that nice spooky, Halloween-y sound!

Let’s get this thread back on page one! I’m still plugging away at Scheherazade. I think this may be the toughest piece “to get started with” that I’ve encountered so far. I have it pretty well under control now, but I’m still having trouble playing through the entire piece without issue.

Undone

I'm finishing up my week on Prelude in C Major - agree with Undone, very much a keeper. Now I just gotta get a recording done (sigh) along with all the other stuff I'm missing. Need to polish it up to get to Undone's level, very nice indeed

Waltz, Nancy, what's everyone else up to?

SC

I've been hammering away at non Alfred stuff. We've totally set aside book 3 and am working on my repertoire pieces.

Lately I'm working with the metronome on Hornpipe in B flat. It's the trickiest timing ever! I'm at 80 and need to be at 92 or 94 to play it the correct speed. I can play it all the way through correctly about 89% of the time at 80. I'm also working on Clementi's Sonotina in C major Op 36, I. That one is super easy compared to the Hornpipe one! At some point I'll record them; I have to be able to play them for my exam in may.

There's a recital for my piano school coming up in December too; not sure if my daughter (who turns 8 tomorrow) will want to play a duet or something on her own. If she plays on her own I'm not sure I'll be playing anything or not

-Nancy

I'm with Nancy in that I've been mostly working on non Alfred's stuff. Star Spangled Banner has come along nicely, but I'm lacking the motivation to put in the time to "finish" it.

I finished up the first movement of Clementi's 36/1 and put it on youtube. I've actually "passed" the second movement last week, but haven't recorded it yet. I'm currently hard at work on the third.

I also finished and recorded Bach's (or whoever's) Minuet in G Major on my youtube channel. I'm currently at work on Bach's Minuet in D Minor (which is as beautiful as the G Major one).

I've also been doing Hanon, sight reading, and technical exercises. My teacher has assigned me two other pieces I have yet to start...

I'm putting the finishing touches on "Jazz Ostinato in C# Minor" this week (which uses a constantly repeating figure in the bass - hence the term "ostinato") and was just wondering if anyone else here (especially, but not limlited to, those who have already worked on this piece) found it unusual that a study that uses jazz like passages and has a tempo indication of "moderate blues" is in the rather strange key of C# minor - aren't pieces like this typically found in the flatted keys such as B-flat or E-flat or even F?

JF

Glad to see everyone is keeping busy, even if it’s not in Alfred Land. Now you’ve got me thinking that maybe I should get one of the Clementi books and have a go at some more of his pieces. I hear “they’re good for you”.

Undone

Hi All!!

After a very extended summer break I decided to jump back in here, if that's ok with you all! Don't know if I need to re-introduce myself for the newest members her (I disappeared shortly after you joined in, purely accidentally...it had nothing to do with any of you..LOL!)

Anyway...just for the sake of completeness...I'm 44, from the Netherlands, and have been playing for 2 1/2 yrs right now. No prior musical experience. Weekly lessons with a very nice teacher. I've been hanging around here for about a year I guess, but took a few months break over the summer, and now, oops...it's suddenly october already!!

Alfred-wise I am currently working on 'Come back to Sorrento' which seems nice, and not terribly complicated. Next to Alfred's I have a passion for Satie (worked on the 1st 5 gnossiennes last year, and am still playing them all!). This summer I worked on Yann Tiersen, which I like a lot as well. I completed the famous Comptine d'une autre ete, as well as the beautiful Valse d'Amelie. Still finetuning it and trying to get the speed up a bit more, but I am rather happy wtih the way it sounds so far!

I am going to read back a bit to find out what everybody has been up to..at a first glance it seems that more and more of the book-3-ers are broadening the horizons to other stuff then just Alfreds..great! I saw that there has another thread been started as well for Afred-graduates? Is that were the non-Alfreds-experiences are going to be shared? Or are we supposed to hang around here untill we're all done with book 3?

I'm glad to be back! I'll go and read and listen in some more detail to what's been posted recently (I heard a beautifull recording of Bach's prelude In C, by Undone? great job! I love that piece..it's a keeper for me as well!)

Ingrid

Welcome back! That thread is just so we can track who's "Graduated" from the different books..


Agreed, beautiful recording. I'm going to have to get mine down now since I was given a "pass" by my teacher on that piece this week..
- SC

Hello Ingrid,

I'm Waltz, I'm 23 and I live on the east coast in the US. I started book 3 in August (I think). I just gave myself the pass today on "Star-Spangled Banner" and started the next piece (don't remember the name).

I finally recorded myself playing movement 2 of Clementi's 36/1:

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

Hi Ingrid, welcome back to the Book 3 thread and thank you for the kind complement on my recording of Bach’s Prelude in C Major.

The “Alfred’s graduates” thread is a little something Mark started; a place to list the ABF members who have finished one or more of the Alfred books. Let him know which books you’ve finished (in that thread) and he’ll add your name to the lists. He’s also looking into getting an icon creates that people can add to their signature if they so desire (like the MOYD or recital icons).

Undone

Waltz, I enjoyed listening to your recording of Clementi’s 36/1. Very nicely played! I’m not all that familiar with Clementi (other than the pieces in Alfred’s). Is his Opus 36 a good starting place for someone at our experience level?

Undone

I managed to put Scheherazade to bed (hopefully not for one thousand and one nights) and have started on Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony. Another challenging selection, and this time there’s no chance of “finishing” it.

Undone

JF

Thanks Undone! Yes, 36/1 is the easier of op. 36/37/38, the Sonatinas, and is a joy to learn and play. You definitely could master it. There are three movements in the keys of C maj, F maj, and C maj. All three movements are very different from each other. Here is the first movement I submitted in the Sept. Piano Bar in case you care to see

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib5fI3F0VuQ


I've almost learned movement three, but I still have a bit of work to do on it.

Cool

Are you working on any non Alfred pieces now? Also, what did you think of the Make Up Your Mind! piece? Seriously, we all know A min is the relative of C maj by now... Do we really need a silly piece to have to learn to "reinforce" that haha. It's actually kind of fun to play, but it isn't very rewarding.

Waltz - I liked your performance of this in the Bar and I still like it - very well played

JF

Bravo Waltz, playing is coming along VERY nicely!
- SC

Waltz – Thanks for the info on Clementi. I think I like the first movement even better then the second, and you played it very well. Recently I’ve been sticking to just Alfred pieces. The last few have been enough of a challenge for me and I needed all the practice time I could get one them. As far as “Make Up Your Mind”; yes, it was a silly little piece, kind of fun to play, but nothing of much consequence. It is nice to have such pieces scattered throughout though, just to give one a little break now and then between some of the more challenging selections.

Undone

JF, TTigg, and Undone:

Thanks so much for watching and giving feedback on the Clementi Sonatina! It means a lot

I feel like I'm falling far behind you all with respect to Alfred's 3

Waltz, I liked your Clementi a lot too! Nice, 'clean' playing!!

I guess I have the 'other' version of book 3 then some of you. (it's the not all-in-one I work from). I don't have any song in there that's called 'Make up your mind', but reading the comments so far I am not missing anything really important or special...

And Undone...hmm..the unfinished symphony. Not the easiest piece of the book as I recall. It was the last piece that I worked on for the summer break, and I seem to remember we left it still slightly unfinished, and picked up spooky story in september. hahaha! That one, and the next one (Steal Away) as well as Come back to Sorrento, which I am currently working on seem top be slightly easier then the previous pieces (at least, that was my impression, it may be different for you)


The going is pretty slow here in book 3, with all the extra things I am working on as well, but I don't mind. I guess, being fairly close, I'll finish at least the tutorial part of book 3 sometime, and pick from the 'for fun' and 'ambitious' part only the pieces I like. I'm doing at last a few (short) etudes a week currently, and there's more interesting stuff in my Yann Tiersen book that I'd love to start working on.

John..wow! You are really moving fast through the book! I guess you are, and will be the leader of the pack for the time being!

Ttigg...your recording of the prelude in C is still coming?? I'm looking forward to it..i've heard quite some people play this piece so far (both live, and here at the forum) and it is so nice to listen to and learn from all the different versions!

(still no recording device here. But my teacher has promised to record me playing whatever, if I really want to. That means you'll get a real one-time-recording (no 25 takes during a lesson I guess). You want to vote? One of my personal favourites...Satie? or Yann Tiersen? or something more 'standard' out of book 3? Somehow I feel that I do need to post at least one or 2 recordings to share in order to really participate here!)

Ingrid

Waltz - don't worry about where you are in Book 3 with respect to any of us (or all of us) - it's not a race - take your time with each piece & enjoy the journey.

JF

Where did that come from? Sorry to disappoint or disillusion you but I'm not the leader of this "pack" or any other - that's not the way I look at things here, and I don't think anyone else does either. I'm just doing what I can to get thru the Book 3 pieces and trying to encourage others to do the same.

JF

Thanks, I will make a promise to get it done before or on Thursday. I may even try to record it upstairs on the digital since I'm kind of "digging it" with the piano+strings..
- SC

Apologies. I just meant to compliment you on the fact that you seem to be moving through book 3 rather smoothly.

Ingrid

Ingrid – I would have to agree. I think Unfinished Symphony may be the most difficult piece yet. Then again, I thought this about Scheherazade when I first started working on it, and it was difficult, but I didn’t wind up spending as much time on it as I have some of the other pieces.

Undone

Ingrid and Undone, my candidate for "the most difficult piece" is "Trumpet Tune" which requires a very distinct rhythmic style that makes the piece sound "martial" as if we were all marching into battle, happily, which is a bit strange. Also, there are sections where the right hand is going in one direction (up or down) and the left hand is going in the other (down or up). It took me several weeks to get it and I never would have gotten the feeling of it had I not had my teacher's Zoom H2 recording to work from.