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Pianostudent88, congrats on learning to play through mistakes. It is a huge step.

As for my week (#5), the big project was finding a Youtube tutorial for "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." It is a good beginner song, being in the key of C, and most have heard it before. I made good progress, but still need a lot more work and polish. I don't think I got through it all the way without mistakes yet, even at a slow pace.

I found myself simplifying the chords, or making up my own. Back to my whistle/flute days, I made my own arrangements all the time (repeating the chorus or what I saw as the main verse, editing or eliminating entire sections, lowering the hard to hit high notes). Instrumentals tend to provide a different audience experience than songs being sung. I believe that I have a good ear, and I trust that ear.

I spent a bit less time on piano this week than previous weeks, but at least an hour every day. I am still spending considerable time on basic scales. One exercise I found useful was two hands, half a beat off. So play a C with the left, then half a beat later C with the right and so on, until the scale is complete. Then reverse, with the right hand leading by half a beat. This helps my brain with the two hands being independent. Hands together and each hand alone are still part of the regimen.

My harmony arpeggios are sounding better, but I still have to count beats, can not keep the rhythm otherwise. As for my four original compositions, I am streamlining them and simplifying, so I will be confident enough to perform them in public. Short pieces are ideal for playing a bit during TV commercials.

I went to the local library to look for the sheet music for "Tonight" from West Side Story. I struck out on that. I did find a lot of other sheet music and felt totally intimidated. Again, sight reading is my weak point. I feel like it is like trying to learn college level physics, with only 6th grade math, when calculus is required. For now, sight reading is not a priority. I am happy with ABC notation for notating my own material and wrote out a version of ABC score for "Rainbow."

My weakness with sight reading has limited the utility of the book "The Musician's Way." I spent little time on that book this week. It is designed for 1st year university level music majors or minors, so with my poor aptitude for sight reading, of course I am frustrated. Again, it would be like a person that never studied math beyond fractions trying to tackle college level physics, which requires full knowledge of calculus--it isn't going to happen. One year of remedial work would not make up that kind of gap either. It is more likely 5 or more years of dedicated time to catch up. The notes are bad enough, the rhythms are equally as difficult for me from dots.

For now, I will continue to work towards my strengths. I have no interest in making piano (keyboard) a second job. It is a fun hobby. I know I can get very far leaning on my strengths, which include a good ear, a real talent for original composition with strong melody lines and decent harmony, and good dexterity from years of fingering melody instruments. I also feel like I am ahead on what some in the Effortless Mastery book thread are calling the Zen aspects because whistle/flute is all about breath, and staying relaxed yet focused.

I started typing this in a separate thread but the middle mouse button closes the tab and I pressed it by mistake. Hate that, hate that!

So, quick version - I played twice in recitals this weekend. Yesterday at a retirement home I played Für Elise and Debussy's Arabesque #1. Für Elise (first time I have played in public) had a memory slip right at the beginning and a couple of other glitches but the Arabesque went pretty well.

The worse thing was that everything was set up for kids to play - I didn't particuarly like being up there and asked (with all the others) what school I went to ....

There was a 12 year old there who played Khatchaturian's Toccata - absolutely phenomenal.


Today was just for our studio's more "advanced" (my teacher's word) students. Für Elise (again, but much much better) and some of Rameau's Gavotte Theme & Variations. The last variation I played wasn't really ready for performance ...

But it was really fun!

Sand Tiger - you wrote week #5, does this mean it's only 5 weeks since you started piano? if that's the case, it's incredible that you can read through a piece like over the rainbow. You sound like a very creative person. I cannot make up my own chord. As for mistakes, it may be helpful to mark those spot you made mistakes. Practice the measures that contain the mistakes first before you play it again. My teacher used to tell me that the worst I could do is to keep playing from the beginning - hoping that playing a lot will eliminate mistakes somehow.

Andy - you are fortunate to have so many playing opportunities. I do understand your feeling about being with kiddies. My playing session is May 19th. My teacher has a few college students but I am the only true adult (=dinosaurs). She actually has older students but no one else wants to play in front of the kids. Yeah, these kids are good. Especially the college kids, they are playing Chopin ballade, etc.. Even some of the small ones know how to phrase the music. My childhood teacher never taught kids how to phrase from the beginning, we learned it 5 or 6 years into the piano. I am proud of you playing in front of the kids. I wish I had an adult like you in my studio.

Cheryl, my doggies like Chopin. They came to sit under the piano when I was noodling around my waltz, mazurka and nocturne. Especially, Charlie the puppy was so cute that he put his head on my foot while I was pedaling. Emma was lying on her back with her eyes half open looking like mesmerized. The only person who has no interest in piano is my husband (LOL).

FarmGirl, thank you for the advice, I will try that. As to your question, yes #5 means I am five weeks in. However, I've been playing whistle for over ten years and Irish flute for over five. Most of what I play is original tunes. I am an amateur and I consider myself a good songwriter. I have vast experience at composing and/or altering melody lines. I am also near fearless as a performer. Learning harmony and chords has been the big leap for me, never mind playing with two hands, and arpeggios.

As for reading through "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," the YouTube tutorial that I found, goes real slow, highlighting each note, and then repeating each phrase. With the video, I rewound and replayed sections as needed. I eventually wrote out a score in ABC notation with my simplified chord arrangement so that I don't have to memorize it or lose it, or recreate it from a recording again.

As for the chords, I watched another video about simplifying songs down to three chords. While I didn't do exactly that for my arrangement, that video showed a quick and easy way that most musicians could adapt for their own purposes. I understand that some might not like that idea. I go back to trusting my ear. If the arrangement sounds okay to me, that is enough. I have in the past, done much deeper changes on popular tunes for whistle, by altering the melody line, repeating verses, and/or eliminating entire sections.

Congratulations on your recitals Andy! Playing not one, but a total of three different pieces in two recitals is amazing. I am glad that everything went well for you.

Sand Tiger, you have really accomplished a lot for five weeks of piano. Pretty impressive.

My accomplishment for this week was recording an error free copy of my piece for the next ABF recital. Six months ago I could not do even simple pieces without errors. With more time at the piano focusing on correct practice, the error quotient has been steadily declining. That was one of my big goals with I started lessons last fall.

My two sister-in-laws are coming to visit us for the next two weeks, so I needed to get this recording done before they arrived. We are taking the sisters to the Germany Rhine area, to Colmar France, around central Switzerland, and to Italy. So there won't be much piano playing in the next two weeks, but there will be lots of good fun!

I actually don't mind playing with the kids - I think it helps them to see older folks playing too. It was the fact that it was billed as talented kids and feeling very uncomfortable. My teacher finally got it and said she would look into having something that was billed as adults & kids.

Not a piano achievement but none the less. I'm standing in a post office with a tax extension. Yay, I made it this year. I don't need to pay fine and interest on tax I owe ( phew). I have until October to file my returns. I have to play a celebratory tune tonight. Folks, no advise is needed on my tax return. I used to be a CPA, well I still am. I just don't practice it any more. It's a really good thing. I love the fact that I now can enjoy Spring time. Happy extension !

Sand Tiger...sounds like lots of accomplishment to me. They say "do something for 30 days and it's yours"...you're sure past that time frame. You make me think about what beginning is all about. Counting is harder than it seems and it just gets more and more complicated with more challenging music. Sight reading some level one stuff for a few minutes a day will quickly increase your speed without sacrificing your time too much. I've gone to sight reading something every day because I want to decrease the time it takes me to learn something new. Ahhhhhhhhhh....yes a hobby but certainly a compelling one.

SwissMS: WOW!! Already recorded a PERFECT one???? That's really an accomplishment. What do you credit with giving you better error free playing?

Ha Ha! I wouldn't say "perfect", just no wrong notes. Of course when I listen to it I can hear where I could have improved it!

I use slow practice a lot. I do not allow myself to go faster than I can accomplish error free. Then I use the metronome to increase the tempo gradually. Somewhere I read that it takes 7 times consecutively playing accurately to move things into long term memory. (I think it takes more than that for me sometimes!) However it takes 35 times played correctly to remove an error. I keep 7 little notecards on my piano and cycle through them as I play each chunk. It seems like a slow process, but it actually seems to take less time than trying to get the errors out.

Yes. It's no secret but still deserves regular reminding that practice is not about working until you get it right once, but about getting it right every time. Maybe very slowly, maybe in sections. But play all the right notes, every time! Else what are you practicing?

Yes...I've adopted SLOW practice as a great tool for learning pieces...I work on it phrase by phrase and then connect the parts. Still...flawless is a great accomplishment.

I got an email from my teacher last night. Apparently my Arabesque and the Khatchaturian were voted jointly as "giving the most complete performance". I'm not sure who was voting but I'm happy

Andy - woo woo woo!

Cathy

Good for YOU, Andy. Gold stars (metaphorically) still feel good when we're adults. Motivating too

Yay to that! Andy good for you.

congrats, Andy! Sounds like you did a bang-up job.

I agree, slow practice (my Waltz sounds like a dirge some days ) !!!

Andy - complimenti! What lovely feedback.

My AOTW is 2fold. I "tweaked" a unison on my piano and put it back in place (we have had fearsome humidity, RIGHT after I had the piano tuned .grrrrrrr). And I ordered my Korg tuning device, so I'm hoping to gradually develop some skill at "tweaking" my piano - not necessarily doing a full tuning, but keeping it in better shape between tunings.
(and my tuner is very supportive and helpful on this front,so that's very nice).

My teacher is really pleased with my progress on the Chopin piece. She told me on Monday that she had been quite concerned that I would get fed up with how long it would take to learn it, and she is really pleased that I'm not the least bit discouraged. AND she is noticing that my study habits are really improving. Finally so many of the things she has been talking about over the past 2 years are really falling into place and making a difference.
Apart from any praise I am getting from my teacher, I have to say that my personal satisfaction with what I am getting from this piece is greater than I had ever imagined.
I am learning so much more than "this piece"- I've developed a whole new level of interaction with the piano that is (though still in rough form) very exciting.

Cheryl, I am so happy that you got compliment from your teacher. it sounds like you are in the expansion mode. I cannot wait to hear your interpretation of the piece. Everyone played it slightly differently.

My AoTW - just a humble one. went to my lesson today. O-boy! she had lots of comments on my Rach 23-5. I just reviewed all 13 points. I thought it was almost done (sigh) but now I know I have a long way to go.

I know that feeling so well! But I keep telling myself that it's only when you've got a piece in good shape that you get the 13 comments ... before that it's too broken to really sense what needs to be fixed and what just isn't ready yet.

Andy - Congrats on the recent recital performance. That kind of positive feedback must feel very rewarding.

Cheryl - It sounds like you are really connecting with your instrument these days - even at the end of a tuning wrench! Enjoy the good feelings of your advancement...you have earned it by staying the course through the tough time. You are MYOD, after all.

Farmgirl - Deja vu all over. I came away from my lesson last week thinking "holy cow, I've been learning/playing this piece for four months and NOW, with a month to recital, you tell me about the dozen things that I didn't yet realize were wrong with it?" Nothing to do but put nose to grindstone and keep on fixing, hopefully before time runs out or panic sets in.


I do have a sort-of-AOTW, however. Last week I suggested to my teacher the idea of an informal "practice recital", which I offered to host, for her half dozen adult students. She really liked the idea and told me she would see if others were interested. Well, they all liked the idea, so it looks like the second weekend in May I will be putting on this event. Trying hard to put myself in performance settings and hoping this helps.