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Well done! After flirting with various relaxation "techniques" I am convinced that the only useful approach is to (a) recognise when you're tensing up and then (b) don't!

And that's the main blessing of course! You can't put it right until you know it's wrong! Onward and upward ;-)

SwissMiss and EW, thanks for the encouragement.

Yes, I knew that the feedback I got from recording myself was (a) going to make me cringe and (b) was a very useful teaching tool. I am also using recording to try to desensitize myself to "red dot"/performance syndrome. A challenge, but I'm game.

Yes, indeed--onward and upward!

Hi everyone! I just popped in to say a quick hello. I've had a crazy month, with not much piano--limited practice and no lessons in awhile. In spite of that, Schumann's Melodie is coming along. It's just so thrilling to be playing Schumann for me. I hope I can make it sound better soon.

I woke up this morning at 5:30am. Been trying to do that for a few weeks. Now, I feel much better.

SwissMS, I am surprised that more piano teachers don't talk about breathing. Breath is so related to tension. Yoga is a one way some learn about breathing and tension. The neck, and the shoulders are areas where some tension accumulates. Obviously, from where I come from, flute and whistle, breathing is so much more critical. However, for every musician, breathing and phrasing can be a piece of the puzzle.

Stubbie, as you already wrote, recording oneself and listening is a big part of the improvement cycle. Every musician that wants to improve would do well to record and listen at regular intervals. The piano bar and recitals can be motivators.

My Week 20: I am back from vacation, almost two weeks away from the piano keyboard, and I wasn't sure what to expect. I know nine pieces, seven originals, two covers. I played all nine my first day back and six came back to me relatively easily. The next two took some effort, some restarts and fumbles, but I didn't have to resort to the paper. For the last one, an original I was lost, and I had to open the book, and it wasn't the way I had remembered it.

During my trip, I had my Android tablet, and I spent maybe 40 minutes total with a sight reading app.

Oh wow it fell off of the first page!

SwissMS, glad the tension is going away! That teacher really seems to be paying off.

STubbie, it's amazing how different a recording can sound compared to what you think you're playing. My digital has a recording function, so when I have a piece that's supposed to be ready for my teacher, I hop off the acoustic and play it on the digital. Then I usually have more work ahead of me

MaryAnn, Melodie is in my repertoire book and we just got to it. It's tricky. I also have Wild Rider and Soldier's March after that.

My accomplishment - I've been trying to get a piece up to speed. I put it away for a couple of days,tried it today , and I'm thisclose to having it. A week ago I would have said impossible.

This week: learning to use Synthogy Ivory. This technology is incredible!

side-note: this achievement pales unequivocally compared to the 15-year-old girl who just won olympic gold in 800m freestyle swimming. Wow

I've been practicing this exercise since the user uploaded the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RUrHr-9NiE

(Anyone else follow this guy's videos?)

Anyways I can now reach a C# G# E natural chord with 1-3-5 comfortably. I couldn't do that before practicing this exercise. Maybe one day I'll be able to play the Dflat Aflat F natural chord in CHopins' funeral march one day

Hi Everyone,
I haven't been joining in much lately. I have been extremely frustrated with lack of progress and achievements and the fact that in June and July I had 2 lessons, my teacher cancelled the rest. We are supposed to be doing a lesson swap, but it isn't working. I don't get treated like a regular student. I do understand that paying work has to have a priorty, but I also feel I should be getting my lessons.
It is a situation that I have to remedy come Sept.

For now, I am mostly away from piano as I am spending time with family (I will have some serious 'fessing up to do on MOYD when it all comes to an end).

I hope to be back with positive things to report in September.

I think my biggest musical thrill last week was that I did get to play a duet with my niece. That was tremendous fun!

Hi Everyone,
I haven't been joining in much lately. I have been extremely frustrated with lack of progress and achievements and the fact that in June and July I had 2 lessons, my teacher cancelled the rest. We are supposed to be doing a lesson swap, but it isn't working. I don't get treated like a regular student. I do understand that paying work has to have a priorty, but I also feel I should be getting my lessons.
It is a situation that I have to remedy come Sept.

For now, I am mostly away from piano as I am spending time with family (I will have some serious 'fessing up to do on MOYD when it all comes to an end).

I hope to be back with positive things to report in September.

I think my biggest musical thrill last week was that I did get to play a duet with my niece. That was tremendous fun!

Week #21: It is a battle with the red dot as I try to record something for the ABF recital. Two weeks off hasn't helped matters. I try 15 takes of Ashokan Farewall on one day, and end up with a pile of discards and give up.

The next day, I use a trick to help me get a half-way decent recording. I plug in the headphones, place the voice recorder there and play with no monitor, just faint echoes of sound from the headphones. Weird, but this trick got me my cleanest recordings. Even if I choose to use them, it takes some doing to use those recordings, but I may try some more takes as there is still time.

Other than that, I am in a sort of limbo, ready for a new piece or two, but not looking forward to starting a new hill climb. It took 12 weeks to get Ashokan Farewell to its current half baked state. Maybe another 24 weeks before I think I might be proud of a recording. I'm not signing up for that, and may come back to it later.

However, any new known piece is likely to be another hill climb because as much as some of my recordings make me sound more experienced, there is the reality of my five month beginner status (a no-teacher beginner to boot).

One exciting new thing is a new set of used Cambridge brand speakers. The bad part is a feedback loop that causes buzzing, so I am not really using them.

Two lessons total in two months? That is seriously de-motivating. Sorry to hear about your teacher woes. It sounds like you need a new arrangement or a new teacher ASAP. On the positive side, once you get restarted, you will be refreshed and ready to get back at it!

Enjoy your time with family. Your duet with your niece sounds like it was fun!

I finally had a lesson. My teacher was happy with my progress on Melodie. I've realized something though. Working on that piece so hard has messed up my bass clef reading (both hands are treble clef for Melodie). I'm really confused when I try to switch to the other pieces I'm supposed to be learning.

Oh, I hate that. Usually when I practice sight reading I skip those sections. I figure that I can wait until my reading for both staves has become solidified to the point where I can switch things around without it affecting my normal reading pattern. I just want to be sure that my brain will view it as an exception, so to speak.

Sand Tiger- You have made incredible progress in only 21 weeks. I am sure you will get a good recording for the recital. Then, starting a new piece and a new challenge will help you progress.

MaryAnn- It is great that you were able to have a lesson and your teacher was pleased. It lets you know you are on the right track. And, don't worry, your knowledge of the base clef will come back quickly!

I am very excited this week, because my teacher assigned me a new Chopin Nocturne, Op.55 no.1 in F minor. I love this piece! It looks a little daunting, though, especially the ending. I can finally move the Eb major nocturne into my maintenance pile. It is acceptable, but I am hoping it is like a fine wine and will get better with time. We beginners do get better don't we????

Cheryl- Sorry to hear about the lesson frustrations, but I'm sure you will come back from vacation refreshed and ready to find a solution.

MaryAnn - Clef changes mid-stream drive me to distraction too. Don't remember which piece it was, but I had one where it seemed to change every three or four measures. When I whined to my teacher she responded "well, would you rather he write it with seven ledger lines?" That shut me up quick!

SwissMs - Oh, I'm sooooo jealous. Listening to the F minor Nocturne right now. It is one of my all time favorites. Can't wait to hear it.

No AOTW for me, but I'm having fun with a new assignment. It is a beautiful arrangement from Puccini's Madama Butterfly. The chord progressions are so interesting.....I'm convinced Puccini was a jazz guy ahead of his time. But eek, polyrhythms.

Hi,

Along with being back in the saddle again I can report I have met with a new teacher. I'll have my first lesson with her tomorrow. When she asked me to play for her I stumbled and fumbled around because it had been so long But she was good with it all. Said she was nervous too with a new student but clearly she knows her stuff and I think will have patience with me.


She teaches violin too and somehow I've agreed to have beginner's violin lessons too. I'm excited about all this but nervous too. Please keep a positive thought for me.
Thanks

I’ve had a really good week for music.

1) I learned some good theory items about notation and reading music; ie: the key signature extends onto the notes on ledger lines even though they aren’t marked.

2) Sheet music for a song doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to sound the same as how the person who composed it plays it. There’s ‘creative license’ to change it, and it’s ok. Which also means, if I learn a piece but feel that changing a note or two makes it sound ‘better’ to me, then it’s ok to play it that way.

3) Taking a couple weeks off is ok and can be helpful. I have been banging my head on a piece for a month. I got disgusted and shelved it for a while and moved on to a different song. I started to learn that one for a couple weeks, but just decided to play the parts of the old one that I already knew, and blew by the spot I had been struggling with like it was nothing! Such an awesome feeling! Now there’s only about 12 measures left to learn and a full tank of steam to get through it.

4) I’m still floating from my experience playing two $170,000 pianos the other weekend, a Fazioli and a Bechstein!! And yet I still love my little DGX-640. Imagine that!

It's surprising how no progress for a long time can just suddenly explode and seem like a whole new world.

That's a point I would never have thought of making to a student! Thank you for adding to my store of "possible misunderstandings" :-)
For popular music song copies it's more than OK, it's practically essential! The published music is designed to give information as to what the "band" was doing on the original recording. It's up to you to make something of it. Be more respectful towards legitimate music though (for want of a better term). The composer took a lot of trouble over the detail, better to look for his meaning than merely reject it.
Yes, the benefit of a good practice session generally shows up the NEXT day! Take a tricky passage, go over it hands seperately, very slowly - whatever it takes to get it right - that's the most important thing. Practice getting it RIGHT, even if it is half-speed. Don't worry that this doesn't immediately enable a full-speed performance. That comes tomorrow.