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Andy and Cathy,

I am sooo jealous to both of you. I like my teacher but we don't have adults only recital. I am the only dinosaur in the room. Also in AZ no such thing like Piano party. I feel like I am living in a cultural desert here...

Piano party at the Super-Hunky lodge this coming summer remember?

First 10 people get King crab legs for lunch. 10-20 get snow crab and after that...spam!

Yay, I am happy to hear that. I almost gave up:)
I will definitely be one of the 10. Who can resist crab legs with the fun evening in Mr. SH lodge surrounded by his llamas? I am looking forward to it:)

I'm hoping to make that one, too You're outside of Flagstaff in the summer, no? That's about the same distance as Denver. Scottsdale's a little further, but heck, we're in the west, right? Eight hours doesn't mean 8 states around here! 8 hours is just a hop, skip and a jump.

I'd love to have one here, but you've seen pictures of my abode. Not a possibility. Particularly if everyone is staying with me and we have to pile bodies on the floor. But maybe I can think of some creative way to do it. We could rent the Odd Fellows Hall and pile bodies on *that* floor, I suppose. People might not like the piano, but maybe we could rent one.

It's a thought.

Cathy

Suddenly managed to figure out the 6/8 counting in my version of Liebstraume. True it's a simplified version but this time signature represents a largish step up for me.

It just fell into place when I wasn't looking and now I can begin to hear a bit of a flow in the phrases and in the general line of the music. I couldn't even do the reaches a few months ago either so i had set it aside for a bit.

I also had a crack at analyzing the thing too. So, I have a better handle on it than I did when I started. I used Phillip Johnson's Practeopedia [amazingly useful book for ideas on how to do it].

I also to have the beginnings of an idea of what I want to do with it as a result. Once I get this one down I'll try the original. Be a while yet I think.

Hooray. This all represents good solid forward movement to me in how to approach a piece in my mind before I get to the keyboard. Going to be very useful this way of doing things

I feel, oh so much in control? Maybe I'm trying to say I feel so much more in command of myself and the keyboard.

I'm busy with work stuff, but I have few minuts to write my AOTW, so in short:
- I started to work on Einaudi "Snow Prelude #15" piece;
- Last week I provided an online copy of the ABF Recital #24 submissions;
- I'm commenting all the 50 pieces of the ABF recital. I'm very happy with all submissions.

Carlos - U da Man! You saved the ABF recital #24 by providing the on-line copy when it's most needed. I wish i had something to give you like a medal.. Can someone create one for Carlos? You totally deserve it.

Double thanks! You are all very kind.
I just wanted to provide an alternative way for everyone to hear the recital. Luckily I had a copy of the pieces, and it would be a crime not to share them with you.

btw: I loved the "Super Carlos" star!

Edit: a gift is a gift, so i put the star in my signature...

I purchased a new book. J.S Bach Inventions & Sinfonias by Alfred (includes CD.) This is way over my head, but I like to have something different to try. My goal is to play #1 next year.....hopefully soon! My other achievement is I can play 4 Christmas songs: The First Noel, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Carol of the Bells, and Oh Holy Night. O Holy night is pretty challenging for me, but I am doing pretty good! It is quite slow and has alot going on with both hands (which is new for me) but I really love the way it sounds. I will be performing (again) with my music teachers young students in December at the Christmas recital. If you think red dot syndrome is bad.....try a room full of kids and their parents (where you are the old guy) being righteously outplayed by 10 year olds!

Michael - I loved the way you handled your first recital The Christmas recital should be a blast. I haven't gotten my Christmas carols ready yet :\

super-hunky and Carlos - I love that star!

cathy

Mr. S/H - I think we should make it a new ABF tradition to award the star for someone who went above and beyond for the forum and forum members. Yay!

Carlos - the star looks good in your signature.

Michael - Inventions are really good for anyone. Have fun.

My AoTW - I can finally do the Hanon exercise 49 of the 6th now. I thought there was something wrong with my pinkies since I could not do it. I was becoming very tense which was very unusual for me. I was looking at the top of the exercise and realized that it was an exercise of the wrists... So I tried the exercise with flexible wrists then all the sudden I could do it. I am at 80 for 4 notes and I am confident now that I can play faster. Interestingly the sound quality is entirely different between the tense wrists vs. flexible wrists. Now it even sounds good.

@FarmGirl.....Wow! That's encouraging. I'm stuck way back at Exercise #4. Do you master each one before moving onto the next?

Done!

I move on as I accomplish the goal of each exercise.

For #4, it could be building finger strength and learn how to play evenly into the keys. If i were you, I would set the metronome low (40) and try to play as evenly as you can first. Evenly means your left hand and right hands are together, play each note with the same volume (nu sudden bumps and ghost sound) with the metronome. Then slowly increase the speed to 60 or so. Some people even add dynamics (crescendo and decrescendo) to the exercise. I would not get too greedy since you learn any of those things eventually. So I would pick one or two goals and move on to the next as I accomplish them. But this is my way. So ask your teacher if you have one.

I think you should have an award of some kind recognizing those people who comment on all the recital submissions. It's quite a task, but the inspiration participants get from the comments is tremendous, so everyone should be encouraged to do it. The amount of inspiration I've received from the comments is enough to drive me at full throttle for months, maybe even until the next recital!

Michael, I'll start the "Holiday Performances " thread somewhere around the beg of Dec. I should probably just open it up on the 1st so people don't confuse it with the Dec Piano Bar submissions.

Non holiday performances should go in the Dec piano bar. Anything holiday related should go in the Holiday Perfomance thread.

It usually hangs around for the month or until people start getting sick of all the x-mas tunes etc. I expect a pretty good turnout this year. Especially if you know it's coming, you can be one of the early bird submissions.

Looking forward to hearing everyones submission.

Yes I agree 100%. Members like Dennis who have been there from the start. They spend an incredible amount of time providing positive feedback to other performers which in turn is so rewarding for the performers. It really is.

We should have a way to recognize these people as they are SO important in supporting the players.

I hope I didn't start too early! It takes me a while to learn a piece well enough to play it for others. Sorry if I'm on Christmas overkill!!! I am actually pretty excited. Over the course of the last month, I have learned 4 pieces out of my Christmas book and completed a couple of chapters out of my Faber Adult beginners book.....it's actually starting to make sense!

This is the first year (actually only my second Christmas as a beginner) that I felt comfortable enough to learn to play songs that I intend to play during the holidays. My wife asked me to do this last year, but I didn't think anyone would be entertained by listening to me play Yankee Doodle with one hand!