@ Apple* and Candywoman: Thankyou and going forward I will respect the anonymity of the other parties involved. I didnt think it would be an issue putting her video up when most of the reply posts prior were indicating that they liked the post and wanted to know more.
@ Pianoloverus and Keystring
I have asked my recent teacher before this current teacher, where he thought I was skill wise and all he would say is "advanced". I asked about the fact that some pieces he was having me learn seemed rather simple to which he would give me a look like and say something like "it's deceptively easy, but it needs to be performed with absolute musicality and there are certain elements of technique that we can work on with a piece that doesnt have many different things going at the same time." And "dont associate a piece's difficulty by how hard it is to sight read".
Not knowing how certain pieces are scored for difficulty its hard for me to say "This was the hardest thing for me to play or this was the most advanced piece". The last things I was playing before coming back to the piano were the Pathetique all three movements completed to teacher satisfaction; Several Prokofiev Visions and Fugitives (not just the simple ones); virtually all of Schumanns Kinderzehnen; Chopin's Berceuse (and recently the Fminor Etude); and finally Bach's Prelude 21. Score me as you may, you can look at my signature to see what Im working on currently.
Yes it is my wish to be a concert pianist someday and Im patient and am willing to go back and work on very basic pieces to develop my technique properly if needed which I think is what my current teachers are helping me with and are doing.
I am also realistic and dont think Ill be there over night but I would rather shoot for being a concert pianist some day and be close to that then settle for mediocrity and always wonder if I ever had it in me to be there.
~ Regarding recent lessons and added impressions ~
The first lesson seemed like she may be very strict at all times but she has been nothing but very pleasent to work with and I dont see those "stops!" as being critical but as a "stop right there because that's where a problem is and let's look at it before going on."
We are revisiting Grieg's Notturno because it is a good piece to look at some of the ways to pull the sound out of the piano.
I have played the piece more with finger movement and she is trying to show me to use more upper arm weight and wrist movements "wrist breathing" and immediate release of tension after playing the note because the sound has already been made and no constant downward pressure is needed other than to keep the note in place for its allotted duration.
We are doing some interesting things with scales and something new to me playing the scale's chords (4 notes in each hand to encompase the octave) through all its inversions multiple octaves using the arm weight drop technique. She gave the example of the Tchiakovsky Piano concerto and said that if you played those opening chords with out the arm weight drop technique youd be burned out after the first page or you run the risk of people not being able to hear you as you need to be heard.
Edited by D4v3 (09/08/10 12:31 PM)