A BIG CONGRATS to you, Cheryl. I am green with envy. Yes, you should play Chopin. I just started Chopin myself and wish I could play it on a nice Yamaha.

Hi CebuKid,

Congratulations on your choice of Waltz in A minor (posthumous) by Chopin

Here’s the first page of 2 for reference .

Explaining the “posthumous” tag ... on his deathbed Chopin asked for all his inferior works to be burnt (and he set very high standards) ... his close friend with an unpronounceable Polish name was the trustee ... in spite of this however ... certain works slipped through the cracks ... and this is one.

Clearly a very youthful Chopin work ... possibly at the age of 17 ... the key is C major ... with early showings of his rhythmic LH “twin double chord” waltz motif ... in later years he was to vary the 2 chords to great effect ... the tinny RH top register tweak of the last four measures on p1 would have had Chopin pitching the work into the waste-paper basket ... someone obviously fished it out and hid it away.

Don’t we all wish someone might discover yet another Chopin posthumous work.

Just got a decent recording of Schubert's lovely little gem "Waltz in B Minor" - will probably submit it to an upcoming Piano Bar or Recital.

JF

A-minor actually.

cas, congratualations! Yes, definitely try some Chopin when you get a chance. The Chopin 28/4 was one of the pieces I was playing when I made the transition from my digital to acoustic. Oh, what a lovely difference!

That sounds like a seriously good breakthrough joyoussong. Hope the teacher was impressed

My big breakthrough was to start up my practice log notebook again. After just 2 days I already feel more focused. I've had 4 months of just playing my known pieces, relaxing and enjoying myself. But I'll become bored if I don't put the effort in and learn some new pieces!

Wow, this piece is far from being an "inferior work." It's such a beautiful and sad piece. I've been listening to lots of different versions this past weekend. I can't wait 'til I'm able to play it too.

PS- Ah, here is some background info. on this piece:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waltz_in_A_minor_%28Chopin%29

We've had company so I've not been online much.
Looks like a lot of us are becoming Chopin lovers !

I've been getting back into my Blues book. I like classical, indeed, very much so but I grew up on rock and all those dominant 7's and flat 5's just sound like home.

Kurt

Have fun with it, CebuKid. Measure 21 eventually got the better of me, but I'm sure with your background playing those fast rags you will be handling this in no time. I can still hear meas 21 in my head, both the way it should sound, and then also the way it sounded (ugh) when I played it. Its a lovely piece. Wasn't it first published in something as recent as like the early 1950's?

Jim

Placing my order with Sweetwater for my brand new Roland RD700NX piano!!

Cebukid... well, it seems it was Chopin who called it inferior, so ....hey, it was his piece of music, - we don't have to agree with him. He was probably is own worst critic.

Greg -getting a new piano! Yipee , how exciting!

Today I managed to maintain my volume while playing at the school, even though the piano was in the auditorium (which made it seem MUCH louder) - and even though there were still a lot of (non-music) teachers, and some workmen in the building. I'm definitely getting used to being louder. This is good.

Great news, Greg!! Let me/us know how you find it!!

PS

I'm off sick so no real news..

I can now play Lady Di, one of my next exam pieces, through note for note. Now, just to increase the tempo.

Well, we've been quiet lately? Nothing satisfying going on?

I had a "piano party" to celebrate the arrival of my acoustic - it was loads of fun. My teacher (and now friend), another pianist friend, and an accordian playing friend came over and we had a blast.
The accordian player's wife and my husband took care of some of the in-between course things as the rest of us dashed back to the living room to play (please note that I HAD prepared all the major stuff, I wasn't abandonning my role as hostess!)

We had a super time with duets, trios, quartets, improvising (um, not me, but the rest of them!) - and we've planned an evening of Christmas music for December.

My satisfaction recently has to do with
a) starting to use the pedal a bit more (still makes me feel weird but I'm also getting used to the whole sound and feel of an acoustic, so that's to be expected I think)
b) getting a great book of Christmas carols (Joy of Christmas) which I can "grow into" but also am able to enjoy by cutting out some of the double notes thoughout.
c) helping myself memorize a piece by studying the relationships of the notes (which fit into common chord structures)alternating between left and right hand.

What is everyone else up to?

Cheryl, sounds like you're really enjoying your piano and all the new things you're learning. And a piano party too -- how fun!

My accomplishments lately have been to finish three of the pieces I was working on: the Mendelssohn Song Without Words 19/1 that I played for the online ABF recital, J.S.Bach Prelude in C major from the Well-Tempered Clavier (which I found to be a little boring), and Mozart Sonata in C minor K.457, 1st movement. I got a high-five from my teacher on that one when I performed it at my last lesson , and I'll be playing it tomorrow at a family recital. Now it's on to my first Beethoven piece. I'm listening to some of his sonatas now, and will choose a movement from one of those. This is always an exciting time, picking out a new piece to work on and getting to know it.

Well, this was actually the achievement of a couple of weeks ago, but I've been off the boards for a while, so I'm sure nobody minds if I report it now: I finished another method book and am now getting started with book 4 of the Suzuki Piano School. Starting a new book is always a great motivator for me. Give it a few more weeks before I start getting fed up with the first two pieces.

Cheryl, nice to see you got your acoustic. Sounds like you're really having fun with it. Your teacher sounds a lot like mine with respect to memorization: she'd love it if I could do it, but I just don't have the capacity any more. I can sometimes play a melody from memory, but both hands together? Not happening.

MaryBee, what fun to get a high five from your teacher! (Do you know, I only recently realized that the Song without Words was not 1 single piece but a whole slew of pieces?...ah live and learn, that's one of the beauties of this forum, so many people to learn from!)
How did your family recital go?

Thumper - congrats on your progress, how satisfying!!!
I know it can get a bit boring to repeat pieces....use other material to work on sight reading or just play pieces you've got down pat so you can really feel this move forward.

My week has been pretty low key. With the help of my teacher I "clicked" into a fixing a problem with my scales. Somehow no matter what I did I was far too often finishing my scales with the right hand in the wrong position.
A single comment from my teacher made me realize conciously what I was doing and now, almost effortlessly, the problem is solved.

I've been working on sight reading and trying to improvise a bit - I'm working on Oh Holy Night as an exercise in keeping left hand soft and right hand strong.......so far my success is quite limited, but I'll keep at it. (I wonder if the neighbours will object to Christmas music in July? lol)

My achievement this week wasn't in my playing. It was a realization I came to while I was in the practice room. I made a promise to myself that I would take advantage of this wonderful benefit we have at work a go the the practice room during my lunch break a couple days a week (still practicing daily at home).

While I was there the other day some thoughts came to mind as I was hearing some of the other people playing (even thought they have the sound proof stuff on the walls you can still hear others play). At first I thought that I really shouldn't be there or that I didn't deserve to be there because I'm not that good and wondered if my playing was distracting the "real" piano players (I know this sounds ridiculous but it was this type of thinking that I learned growing up and despite all the work that I have done it still seems to pop up once in a while). Then I came to my senses-of course I deserve to be here! and this kind of thinking isn't getting me anywhere.

I also realized I was really only putting in enough practice to get by/to get through my lessons. It was like this is what I believe is possible for me to achieve and so I kept myself at that level. So its time I start seeing myself as a better pianist/musician and believe that this is possible for me. I will only get out of it what I put into it. (I know that is obvious but I had to believe first).

Finally, I need to play on an acoustic piano more often so the sound will be more even.

Don't you love when that happens? I've had moments like that too. At first it's great mystery. Why is this happening? Then "Oh? Is that it?" Ok fixed!

One thing I got from this teacher that other teachers never showed me before is to know what note the fourth finger plays while doing multi octave scales. Just one of the many neat little tricks that have really helped me a lot.

I haven't posted much lately, mainly because my search for an accoustic grand has taken up a lot of spare time.

Still working on perfecting the Chopin E minor prelude, adding una corda in places in addition to the regular pedal, lots of rubato pushing forward here, pulling back there, and trying to shape the melodic phrases. This is the first time I've really spent a lot of time on this type of thing and I'm amazed at all the choices you face. These are essentially new techniques for me, so there's a lot to learn. Things like trying to hold onto the repeating left hand chords until the last milisecond and then only allowing the fingers to rise just barely to the escapement point of the keys before sounding the chord again - wow, what a different effect this kind of stuff produces!

After working with my teacher on three or four of the lounge lizzard standards from the Dan Coates books, we decided that I can tackle these without her help - er, which is another way of saying its time to return to the heavy dosages of Bach. She assigned me the G minor minuet from AMB's Notebook this week and its coming along. Seems easier this time around, although she may just be warming me up with this tidbit for something tougher in a few weeks.

The Khatchachurian piece is really different and interesting. Kind of a haunting little melody that sets up some tension and then has a beautiful release. Its in C minor, so has a bit of that "off to the gulag" sound to it.
I'm hoping to finish it up in a week or two.

Oh, almost forgot, I pulled a fast one on my teacher this week - was supposed to assign myself a "throw-away piece" (those are too hard to sight read, but too easy to study seriously, just learn as well as you can in a week then toss them aside) but I chose one out of Coates 1960's book "Sounds of Silence" by Paul Simon. I'll get as far into it in a week as I can, but I doubt I'll really toss it aside at that point. So far so good. It has all these pretty broken chords - I don't think I've played a piece with broken chords since "Almonds and Raisins" in the old Alfred AIO days - LOL.

Well, thats about it. Hope you all are having fun.

Jim

Can I play too?

Nice to see people sharing their achievements regarldess of how big and how small. An achievement of any level is worth while IMHO! Also interesting to hear the word "Coates" mentioned a few times. When I was doing lessons at school a long time ago, Dan Coates books were the only thing that kept me interested and even then, some of those books had the most dreary and boring modern music in them....But it appears that things may have changed a lot since! - Mental note, must check them out as some good practice material....

OK, I have achievements I would like to share as well.

• Firstly, I have started regular practice! Last Friday, I found an online copy of a Bach Minuet. I remember doing this piece at a recital a long time ago, so I thought I would use this as a bit of an introduction. I am not sure whether it is what it actually is or it is a simplified version (I believe its the later), but it has been a good starting point, as I am familiar with the tune.
  
  My wife also bought for me an Alfred's book of Christmas Tunes (level 2). I have picked two from that book - Frosty and Rudolph - and have been practicing them as well.....looks like I am off and running!
• I ordered our new Digital Piano! It's a Korg SP170. I know, a bit basic, but its a starting point. I pick it up today...but then I have a bit of a problem. It's a family Christmas present, so it has to remain in the box and under the bed until Christmas day. Oh well, my family will have to just get used to me playing on the out of tune acoustic a little longer.
• Started the arduous task of finding a tutor. My original intentions was to go it alone for a while and see how I went. The more I thought about it, the more sense it makes to get some lessons. At this stage, I may use the group I send my daughters to, but if they don't do what I want to do (I want to learn Jazz and more modern music), I might have find someone else. Yes, to me, this is an achievement. I can be a big procrastinator....

Anyhow, glad I could share!

Cheers

Hi Hoffy, welcome to the thread.

A while back (in this thread?) we were discussing a book of Dan Coates arrangements that a few of us have purchased. If you go to Amazon's site and type in "Dan Coates - 50 Lounge Standards" it should come up (its the one with a blue cover). They are nice arrangements and playable with some effort by what I would call late-elementary/early-intermediate players.

Congrats on your new digital, even if you do have to keep it hidden for a few more weeks.

Jim

I finished memorizing The Beatles' "Two of Us".

I'm intrigued... how do you use the notebook? Do you just log your practice hours, or do you write notes about things you're puzzling through?

Hi NPgal
There are many ways you can log practice, you can choose what suits you at the time. I don't actually log the time (But that's a good idea, perhaps I should!). I log what Ive worked on. It can be very specific and detailed, or brief and general. Some days all a piece gets is it's name and a short comment of how it went. I can see "Bach fugue - a bit of work" as one entry.

But when I'm really working hard on a challenging piece I'll note the bar numbers, and the kind of work I did, I may note the metronome speed I reached. At one stage I even counted repititions for a particularly sticky bit in a piece. Anything thing that helps motivation and organisation. It helps move me out of the comfort zone of playing through known pieces, learning only easy pieces and grazing some easy sightreading, towards a period of real work where I tackle challenging (for me) pieces and try to improve generally.

I was logging the details of my armchair memory exercise too, which was very inspiring because I improved so much each day.

So I would say that my log helps me go from comfortable grazing to focused work.

Ah, great to hear from everyone! Welcome HOffy. I now have the Dan Coates book too Jim, and I'm enjoying it. My husband really wants me to learn As Time Goes By I wonder if my book is slightly a differentt one - I have Bridge over Troubled water, not Sounds of Silence?

Kymber you have piqued my curiousity about the 4th finger in multi-octave scales. I've never particularly noticed what happens there....lol... I know what I'll be doing at practice today!

Blue Engine - what fun to be working on the Beatles!

As for keeping the digital in the closet Hoffy...... at least you HAVE an acoustic and will be playing.
Last year we got my digital at the end of November, and I wasn't allowed to open it til Christmas.
If I had known how passionate I was going to be about piano, I would never have been able to wait it out.
When we started talking about getting a digital my husband said...ok, how about for Christmas - and I said "why do I have to wait that long?"
So, it is still my Christmas present - (and my birthday, and next Christmas too I think ) but we're both enjoying it ahead of time !

I was interested in reading about your log Cannonie. I keep notes but nothing so meticulous as you do. Mostly I make observations about where I'm having trouble solving something and I want to talk to my teacher about it, and notes about what I feel is starting to come together.
My teacher enouraged me to keep a "journal" of progress so that I could look back in 1 year and see how far I've come. She says that adults in particular have trouble evaluating their progress. I know she's right - I see it in my students (ESL) all the time.....one of the fascinating things about starting up with piano is being in the position of beginner learner myself. I have to put into practice what I preach to my own students about looking at how far they have come and accepting that the progress they want isn't going to happen overnight.

Cheryl - The family recital was such fun! This is the second year we've done this, and I hope it becomes an annual tradition. We had singing, dances, flute, violin, guitar, electric guitar, and piano performances. My parents, most of my siblings and their spouses, and many of the grandchildren were there. My performance had several flubs, most notably when my little nephew, who is not quite 2 years old, burst out singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" right in the middle of it. How do you play when you're laughing so hard? But the only one who noticed the mistakes was my husband, since he has heard me play it so many times at home. Everyone else just said how beautiful it was. I'm glad I got to share that with them.

Kymber - How lucky for you that you have a place to practice at lunch time! My lunch break is sometimes an exercise class, but often much less productive -- usually reading this forum!

JimF - How is the grand search going? Sometimes I long to have a grand piano at home (especially after playing on the one at my lesson). However, after playing on a little tinny Yamaha upright at my brother's house (see family recital note above) on which I could get no volume or dynamic range, I went home and apologized profusely to my upright, promising never to covet another piano again.

hoffy - Yes, you can play too! Welcome to the discussion. I think this was a great idea of Cheryl's to start this thread to celebrate our achievements. It helps us realize that we truly are making progress.

My achievement this week was getting through a difficult lesson and learning something from it. Now that I "kind of" have the notes down for two of the pieces I'm working on, my practice sessions were becoming a bit sloppy -- just playing through to enjoy the music, and letting the problem areas slide. My teacher saw this right away at Wednesday's lesson , and didn't want me to continue like that. So we spent most of the lesson going over how to practice. And practicing how to practice! Not a feel-good lesson, but a good lesson. Because then I went home and tried it, and I seem to be making some good progress again.

Last year I bought the David Lanz Christmas eve book. Played the Christmas Waltz but struggled with the octaves on the fourth page...this year it sounds like music and I'm so enjoying it...I love Christmas music

How cool. Isn't it great to revisit things and find them easier??
Perhaps you should record it and share it on the Mr. S.H. link!!! Just a thought!