Elssa, Russian folk songs are always entertaining (especially when accompanied by those crazy Russian dancers). Nice job!

JohnFrank, Soldier's Joy is a fun little piece. Great job with it. Now, about that voice . . . it most certainly does NOT sound like a Yamaha grand. Perhaps you could have said "a worn out old spinet."

David Ruzicka, nice job on the Bach prelude. You are too hard on yourself. Good job.

Thanks, Tx-Dennis! I had fun with it. (I used the 12-String Guitar setting instead of just the usual strings this time).

YouTube: TWO GUITARS

I enjoyed your playing of "Shadow..", Studio Joe. Is that your own arrangement? Very nice!

He everyone, for those who commented on my submision, thanks very much, I will be submitting more of my music as time goes by, I only know some George Winston pieces and my own pieces, I want to hear a lot of critique on my songs god or bad I want to hear it, since I am self taught I play by ear and I don't know what chords I play I need all the help I can get, aloha.

Chris

David, love the Bach prelude. You play it very well

Thanks Dennis - you're, of course, correct about the voice - the rap (by some) on the Yamaha grand is that it is too "brilliant" - taking that as the lead I just thought I would "pull the chain" a little of those who make this claim (rightly or not), who I referred to affectionately as "rascals".

JF

Bill I like that song, also you sing good^_^

Rickster, I liked your song too, Your piano sounded really nice also can I have it? lol just kidding some day I'll get my own^_^

Jazzwee, I enjoyed listening to your song,sounded fun,Good job*_*

True beginner, your song was also good, and I enjoyed listening to it^_^

HomeInMyShoes, Your song Schumann op. 15, no. 1 was very well played,
Studo Joe, Very nice, and pretty, I liked the sound of your piano
Z32 Another pretty song, I enjoyed listening to it:P
Elssa I enjoyed listening to Misty very much, I had to look up the song on the computer, I didn't know where it was that well known:0 .. Sounded good to me also:P
Also your Two guitars was another well played song and enjoyable to listen to,I like watching your hands:) and the winter picture in it was nice, Though made me think of snow which is probably coming in a few weeks:(


TX-Dennis
"Augustina, you played that on a 61 key keyboard? Impressive! It certainly doesn't sound like it would be easy to play"
Yes I played that with a 61 key keyboard, I'll record it again when I go to visit my mom over Thanksgiving and can use her piano:)
Riddler

Augustina, if you have only played that three times, you are a heck of a good reader and player! Note: I got a laugh out of the break for page change - there is a law that says if you have a perfect recording going, just before the ending your music will fall on the floor, or the cat will jump up on the keyboard. Never fails."
Well, I've played it more times now, Trying to get the speed right, but yeah Sight reading is not to hard for me, all those years of band and being forced to sight read:), also As you will find out I can not turn pages fast no matter what song I'm playing. So every song you will listen to now, just listen to that " break" for page turning^_^ because I guarantee it will be in almost every song:)

Also I enjoyed what you did with your song, it was very well played:)

Chris for being self taught and not able to read music, Your song was great:)

John Frank, I love all Irish, Celtic, music thanks for soldiers joy. you played it good:)


David, You played Prelude in E Minor very well, I always enjoy listening to anything by Johann Sebastian Bach ^_^
Oh what can I say I enjoyed listening to everyone's music:P

On side note, this is probably the wrong place to ask The last lesson book I completed years ago was Alfred book 6, how much higher do the levels in piano go? and can I put more then one song on here?:)

Woo hoo! A cake! You can't get them by me!

Happy birthday Studio Joe. Here's a my very first "by ear" recording that I did for Seaside_Lee in these circumstances a couple of years ago -

Happy Birthday




Cathy

Augustina - In addition to your November Piano bar submission I also watched all of your videos on Youtube. I was struck by 2 things:

1. You get a very nice sound from your keyboard, and;
2. You play very well and never seem to make a mistake.

I hope you get your piano soon as you are very talented and the 61 note keyboard may start to hold you back.

Thanks Cathy, how delightful!

I had another surprise this morning that was comical. A friend of mine wrote on my Facebook wall and said "Happy birthday amigo, I hope you live to be a hundred and then have another year left to repent".

TB, this is very nice music. I remember listening to it when you posted it previously. It's very evocative.

Mr. Rickster, you are just full of surprises. Just when I had you pegged as a southern gentleman old time rock 'n' roller, you come up with this. Very nice work. The piano does sound good too. I've experimented a lot with mic placement, and it sure can make a difference. Are you using just one mic?

Bill, nice job on Fever. Your voice fits well with the song and with your playing style.

JazzWee "All the Things You Are" was nice. I'm good at improvising too, but I don't think I could do it in the style you do. It's a nice tune, and listening to it makes me want to do my own version.

Ed-Riddler - another one of your patented great jazz pieces. I love the tempo on this one, and you were grooving.

Cathy

Thanks for the complements, Larry.

Yes, I did use only one mic, positioned about middle ways of the sound board on a boom stand about 10 inches above the strings. It’s the one I use to sing. Actually, I use a Shure mic (don’t remember the model#) with a Roland keyboard amp that I use to amplify my digital piano on occasion. The Roland amp has a low impendence plug for the mic.

I’ve noticed that a lot big churches with real grand pianos use the mic’s and amplification.

Take care,

Rick

Still catching up with all the great stuff here this month...

Jazzwee and Rickstser: I really enjoyed your playing/noodling/improv (whatever you call it)! Very creative and interesting! I think improvising is the most challenging thing to do.

Home In My Shoes - I'm not a big classical music fan but I really enjoyed your performance. This was delightful.

Elssa - I'm glad you put this up on Youtube - the boxnet download of a movie file takes forever on my low-rent DSL connection. Very well played!! I like the tempo changes and the energy of this piece.

David Ruzicka - very nice playing of Bach. Pretty good for just a year and a half!

Elssa - You always such an nice touch on the piano

Great job!

bill thank you for the compliment. Though I did make mistakes in all of those 4 songs at least once;-)

kalai1/Chris - I enjoyed your piece very much.

Cathy

Hi Cathy, thanks for the compliment, I will be posting more in the next piano bar, aloha.

Chris

I would like to thank all of you who commented on my Bach video.

I've just listen all contributions in this thread and I enjoyed that very much. Thanks for sharing them.

David

Here's your monthly dose of recorder and harpsichord.



It's a version of the aria Bist du bei mir by G.H. Stolzel from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach. I used the G. Henle Verlag Urtext edition and transposed it to G to better suit the recorder. Laurie's cat Squeaky makes a guest appearance in the beginning.

The words to the aria in English (from Wikipedia):

Be Thou With Me

If you are with me, then I will gladly go
to [my] death and to my rest.
Ah, how pleasant would my end be,
if your dear, fair hands shut
my faithful eyes!

Hope you enjoy it,
Sam

Beautiful job, Sam and Laurie. I'm starting to like the sound of the recorder. I'd never really considered it a serious instrument before. You have proven that preconception to be wrong.

John Frank - Soldiers Joy - That was one of the first tunes we put into a contra dance set, and ~ 10 years later we still play it. We flank it with Fireside Reel and Over the Waterfall.

I don't know why a hornpipe is called Soldiers Joy, but one of the alternate names for this tune is Payday in the Army - which makes sense. It's one of those tunes that went back and forth across the North Atlantic, and there's a Norwegian set dance to the same tune.

When we were looking for a band name we considered tune names to use, and I suggested we call ourselves Red-haired Boys and Soldiers Joys, but alas, we didn't. We're Roaring Jelly, whose folk etymology says RJ refers to a mining explosive - gelignite. The alternate name for that tune is Smash the Windows .

So I think it's fun that you played this tune - nice version, too.

Cathy

John Frank - Soldiers Joy - That was one of the first tunes we put into a contra dance set, and ~ 10 years later we still play it. We flank it with Fireside Reel and Over the Waterfall.

I don't know why a hornpipe is called Soldiers Joy, but one of the alternate names for this tune is Payday in the Army - which makes sense. It's one of those tunes that went back and forth across the North Atlantic, and there's a Norwegian set dance to the same tune.

When we were looking for a band name we considered tune names to use, and I suggested we call ourselves Red-haired Boys and Soldiers Joys, but alas, we didn't. We're Roaring Jelly, whose folk etymology says RJ refers to a mining explosive - gelignite. The alternate name for that tune is Smash the Windows .

So I think it's fun that you played this tune - nice version, too.

EDIT: Oh, I lied. We flank it with Red-haired Boy ( ) and Whiskey Before Breakfast. Liberty is the tune we put between Fireside and Waterfall. How could I forget?

Cathy

Catching up again.

@Elssa: Two Guitars. Now I know the name of the song. Nicely played
@John Frank: I didn't notice until about half-way through that my foot had started tapping
@David Ruzicka: Beautiful. I wish my Bach playing had that much composure and smoothness
@jotur: always good to have Happy Birthday in your back pocket.
@Sam Smith: very cool. Nice recording