Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Achievement of the week - what got you excited?

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!

I managed to sight read, with very large bumps(!), McDowell's "To a wild Rose". It's a beautiful piece and, though I murdered big chunks on my way through, I did play some phrases pretty well. It would have taken me three times as long, with five times the errors, six months ago!

WiseBuff, that is great to hear! Inspirational!
Marybee - your family recital sounds lovely.
None of my family is nearby...... if they were I'd suggest we do this too! I'm hoping next summer I'll get to play with my nieces at least. And doesn't it feel good to sort things out during a lesson ? I think I always leave with greater enthusiasm after that sort of lesson.

Andy - good on you! ....and I think you'll have a special update for us soon?

I had a recital today, and I managed to get through it without making a fool of myself, haha. It was mostly little kids and I was the second oldest there, so I wasn't all that nervous (at first...my hands started shaking halfway through.... DX). But it went alright though. I picked harder songs so that it would look like I've actually improved in the last 3 years

Triptych, congrats for your successful recital experience. It nice to come out of a recital feeling good about your performance. I am the oldest one in my teacher’s recital. She has lots of older students but so far I am the only one who does not mind making a complete fool out of herself.

My accomplishment today = I was actually practicing my next year’s recital piece. I am planning to play the 1st and 2nd movement of Beethoven Sonata Pathetique. I practiced the part that has been giving me hard time. It requires me to keep the inner voices soft while the outer voices crescendo with staccato. I played the outer voices only about 10 min. until I get the notes crescendo with staccato right. Then added the inner voices. After about an hour of struggle, I think I finally got it although I can only play them slower than it should.

I've asked for a little ZoomQ for Christmas so I can be REALLY vulnerable and post recordings with PW. Next step...

Now I'm wondering what you are thinking about! If it's the recital then yup ... posted. If something else I'm not sure. Do I need to ask my wife any pointed questions?!

MostImprovedDog when is your recital? These sound like "big" pieces!
WiseBuff, this is the safest environment you could hope for, for presenting your playing- don't feel vulnerable!

Andy, I meant the recital! I will go and look for your post on it!

Ha ha! I thought she meant you were expecting a baby soon.

But congrats on the recital performance anyway. You need to add one of those pianos to your signature.

Canonie. I have a notebook in which my teacher writes my assignments and any practice tips/commentary each week. In the back I keep a chronological list of all the pieces I've ever learned, and there's pages of notes I've made on some aspects of theory, a list of scales I've worked on, etc.

Your post gave me the idea to start writing on the assignment page each week. There is room for me to make an entry for each day's practice, which will be really helpful for remembering what was giving me problems the previous day, or where I need to start out the next day.

Cheryl. Its guilty admission time. You and I have the identical 50 Lounge Standards book by Coates. But <sheepish grin > I also went out and bought his book titled "best of the 1960's ", which is the one that has Sounds of Silence. Er...... ok, as long as I'm coming clean here... I also got his 1950's and 1930's "Decade of..." books. I did skip the 1940's book, so as you can see I have this addiction totally under control Whew, confession is good for the soul. I feel better already.

MaryBee.

We all have those lapses where we get sloppy in practice habits - at least I do. The worst is when you realize that you are banging away at some phrase or couple of measures for 30 minutes or an hour and not getting it right. Its at that point I usually hear a voice in my head saying "nice going, genius, now you've practiced in the wrong way to do it."

Thats why having a teacher is so helpful. The weaknesses come out at lesson time and a good teacher will zero in on the problem and get you to focus on solutions.

The acoustic search continues. I've looked at a 70's era Baldwin, a ten year old Boston, and been to five dealerships in the last three or four weeks. Played on all kinds of pianos including Steinways, Mason&Hamlin, Yamaha, Kawaii, Boston, and a few of the chinese brands. Nothing has really grabbed me yet. The used Boston was very nice and priced right, but it was their smallest model (5'1") and I really want something 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 to get a bigger bass and longer keys. I'm very interested in Masons, but the two I looked at were very old and in poor shape, poorly prepared, and overpriced. I am working with a really good technician who is also helping me find private sale candidates.

Sooner or later something is going to say buy me (I hope).