OK, I admit, it's a little early for AOTW, for me. But I have to take advantage of the fact that I have something to report right now that genuinely got me excited. There's a piano at my nearest railway station right now. And today, as I came back from my Christmas celebration, I stopped and played it for a while. I garnered applause from three bystanders. But more importantly, I played in public and didn't slip up. Not once. It was wonderful.
A belated Merry Christmas to you all, and an early wish for a happy, healthy and productive 2014.
Just got back from my piano studio's Winter recital and it went pretty well. Plenty of slipups but nothing major, recovered every time mostly without pause. For me that is big!
Oh yeah, that's big. No question. Especially given the pieces you played! A congratulatory slap on the back is in order here. No qualifiers. You did good.
It's funny, when I started writing I was sure I had nothing to report and then I found to things.
That's the point of this thread, isn't it? To help us find little things to be pleased about, even when we don't think there's anything to report. So congratulations on doing exactly that. Sometimes, progress is in the details.
I downloaded a couple of videos about Legato.
I find it a bit strange that you would download videos for the purpose of learning to play legato. My first instinct on how to do it would mostly involve trying whatever you might think works, and then just listening. Try and listen, and listen and try again, until you get it right. The play-doh thing sounds to me like it's messy and a lot of work.
Re: playing legato using the pedal. Sometimes, there's nothing else you can do, given the jumps inherent in the way the music is written. But my teacher always tells me to play without pedal sometimes (and preferably, to play without pedal *first*). She wants me to be able to play legato without relying on pedal at all, except where it is strictly necessary. In order to make a lyrical passage sound truly lyrical, you have to *think* it lyrically, and move your hands in a way that will make it *sound* lyrical even without pedal. If you start practicing *with* pedal from the get-go, the end result may well sound more or less the way it should, but it could be that you're actually playing in a staccato sort of way.
Anyhow, I think the idea behind playing legato, with or without pedal, is always the same: make sure the previous note keeps sounding until the next one starts. Ideally, that means releasing the previous key (or the sustain pedal) just as the next hammer strikes the strings. I don't know how well that translates to a digital piano, though.
Well, if you're willing to come to Brussels and demonstrate to me that you're a halfway decent musician, I'll let you live in my basement and play my piano every day for free :P.
(Don't laugh. I've extended the same offer to a PW member before.)
after two days of crummy, can't-focus-for-the-life-of-me practices, tonight I got in a good, solid practice. *That* felt wonderful.
I'm happy for you. Having major trouble finding focus, myself. I'm beginning to fear that I will show up at my first lesson after Christmas break without much of anything to show for it.
Learned Trällerliedchen (Humming Song) and Melody from the Album für die Jugend (Schumann).
And you've been playing how long? It's a matter of months, right? I'd say you're probably doing very, very well. Congrats!
Speaking of teachers, I finally reconciled with my old teacher who I parted with September 2012.
I'm happy to see you reconcile with someone who seems to have been a true friend to you, FarmGirl
. And don't worry about "putting us through" your reminiscing. Those who are not interested will skip it. It's that simple.
He told me "Whatever is your story, you are a pianist".
Oh, yes you are, Carlos. The music you post here for the quarterly recitals speaks for itself. Plus, how can someone who "regularly tests and plays pianos at a store" not be a true aficionado?
I played at my Boy Scouts' Christmas Program last week!
Must have been a blast. Congratulations!