Yea!

Cathy

I've got a recording of Chopin's op 32 no 1 ready so may submit that unless I make a lot of progress with Mendelssohn's Duetto over the next two or three weeks.Probably not though, it's more difficult than it sounds.

I've not even entertained the idea of getting the camera out let along simply pressing the record button while trying to play my whole piece yet. However, it is still coming along and with some more focused practice on my rough spots I'm sure I'll have it done by the recital deadline.

Yes I'm (my fingers) are just fine, thanks Moscheles! They hurt for quite a while after my stupid stunt, but completely OK now. Now, on to record!

I'm really starting to get bummed out. I don't think I'll have the chance to record before an upcoming vacation, and I'll be rusty after the vacation with very little time to get a recording in before the deadline.

And one spot that I didn't have problems with before now is giving me big problems (I think it's a psychological problem and not a physical one).

Arrrg!

Let's be honest for a moment. Is there anyone who is not sick to death of practicing their recital piece for the millionth time?

Mines now at about 90% (for my abilities of course) and is not budging. No matter how hard I try, (which includes nearly 50 re-takes....honestly!), it's not budging.

That last 10% of polish/fine tuning is just so unbelievably difficult to achive. I swear I am not capable of submitting a piece without at least one honker of a mistake. No matter what.

My piece is hovering around 5 1/2 - 6 minutes now. Yesterday I was about 4 1/2 - 5 minutes into the piece with all the difficult stuff out of the way. Just 30 seconds left of cruise matterial to the finish and as I was playing it, I just knew it was too good to be true and BLEW IT! DAMMIT!, I hate that. I totally had a brain fart and completely forgot where I was.

Piano is going to drive me nuts!

What he said.

The only way I survive is to tell myself that one or two honkers are okay.

With my current piece, the hardest sections are on the last page. The. Very. Last. Page. This means that even if I get through the first 5 pages semi-decently, odds are I'll flub the last line or two enormously. And in this arrangement, the last couple of lines consist of big fat 4-fingered chords played very loud, so there's no way of making an unobtrusive mistake.

Mr. SH - Thought about you and your recital piece last night. Jim Webb was on David Letterman. He can really play the piano - voice is OK, but hey, he wrote some of the best songs. If you happened to miss it, he played and sang Witchita Lineman, supposedly one of the most perfect songs ever written. (Not my favorite of his, though).

Decided tonight after previous post that I would have to resort to recording on my digital in the night-time hours if I'm going to get this done. Tried tonight. Nuttin' worth keeping.

The red dot strikes again. *sigh*

Ben, I'm in the same boat. I'll be leaving on vacation before the recital deadline and it's not looking all that good for getting my piece done in time. But if not, I'll be so close it will be painful to leave it...

Undone

It's all psychological - simply change the color of your dot from red to green - then all systems will be "go"...

My Recital piece is about 3/4 mastered - the piece for the Nov. 15th Recital, that is Sorry. This is the piece I wanted to submit for the upcoming Recital, and which I've been working on for about 3 months now, but because of it's length and complexity will probably not be ready...

JF

Oh, not me! When I get to this point with a piece, I just love practicing and playing it. Maybe because I know it well enough now that I can try different things with it, yet it's still enjoyable to listen to.* And I'm always finding something new to work on with it.

*Can't say that my family is still enjoying listening to it, however! I think we passed that point about 3 weeks ago.

Now I understand why Glenn Gould so loved editing his recordings. (For entirely different reasons from mine, of course!)

One piece of masking tape placed over the light, and one piece of masking tape for each key with the note's name on it.

Glen

What generally happens to me is that once I have recorded it and done that final sigh of relief I sit down (without the recorder going of course) and play it much better. I'm sure there is some kind of law (like Murphy's law) that explains it.

I have recorded mine, an original, and now am suddenly discovering much more interesting possibilities. It's inevitable.

I just recorded a take that didn't suck! Huzzah!!

<-- Experiences enormous burst of envy.

Pianist envy no doubt!

That's awesome!

I got 6 takes tonight of the first movement that are *ok*. (no way in Hades I'm recording this sonatina all the way through in a single take!). Got the second movement in too on a good enough take. The third movement, well... maybe I'll just submit the first two movements.

I think the red-dot-nerves sorta surrendered after last night and moved on to the things they should be worrying about, like family, finances, and cataclysmic asteroid impacts.

I'm definitely tired of practicing my piece, having practiced it every day for almost 3 months.

Yesterday I made my first recording of it.

It sounded so bad I almost decided to give up and not participate in this Recital. But then I realized that quitting is not the type of character trait I want to cultivate.

I made two recordings this morning. The first one was note perfect, but sounded cold and harsh.

The piece is Cesar Cui's Prelude Op.64 No.13 in F# Major. It's a piece that Cui filled with loving thoughts and feelings.

My second recording sounded warm and gentle, but with some LOUD finger slips.

So now that I know what I want the Prelude to sound like, I'll record a few more times this week.

But those days of making 20 or more tries are long over.


Mel

I'm looking forward to hearing this. I know his name, but I don't think I've ever heard any of Cui's music.

Beautiful and difficult sounding piece.Hats off to you if you can get a good take of it.

I am starting to feel despondent. (New word from my dictionary, never needed before...) There is just no way I can get an likeable recording. You will never be tapping your little feet to my playing of The Clown. There is simply to much hand movement for me to get it smooth. First, there is a one second pause as I look at my right hand to make sure it hits the right key, and then there is another second as I look at the left hand. And just when you thought that now it will flow smoothly, there is a huge portion of student rubato when I slow down because I start thinking about the dynamics. I am not used to this much hand movement, and the whole piece is sprinkled with it.

Basia, Aug. 14 is still 2 weeks away. That's a lot of time to get your Clown sufficiently clown-like.

Failing that, reserve The Clown for the Nov. 15 recital and record a backup piece for this recital. That's what I'll be doing if I don't get a better take of my preferred piece...

What backup piece, Monica? It's annoying when I know what I want it to sound like, but don't have enough skill for the jumping around. And it really is such an easy piece. The positive thing is that at least I am having a lot of fun at the piano again. I've had a long break since I don't have the time to practice, but it is hard to stay away now.

That's why I love these recitals. They are such a great motivator to work on a piece until you're (close to) satisfied with it.

25 hours until the recital opens.... I have made no progress whatsoever in the past week on getting a better recital take. Good thing there's a two week submission window.

whew, I think I'm done now. (gotta go back and review some of these takes, eventually) Lots o' flubs, but oh well. This is as good as it gets over here.

Mines ready too. I have reached the point of diminishing returns. It's time to move on to something else.

I am happy with what I've got though and am looking forward to everyones performance in a few weeks.

Early bird gates open in less than 2 days.

Good grief! I hadn't even thought about the recital. Guess I'll submit something relatively easy this time, probably the theme from Chariots of Fire.

Ed