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Mine was finally passing off the Menuet in G Minor from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena! My teacher gave it to me ages ago, but I never seemed to fully "get it", but this week I finally could play it all, with some expression too!

Also, I can play F, G, B, Bb, and D major scales four octaves in 16th notes at about 76. The D and Bb scales took me a while but they seemed to click this week =)

I really love the "blog" aspect of this thread too. It is so much fun to go back a year and see what we were proud of and how far we have come!

I LOVE that version of Canon in D - but I've yet to tackle it --- good for you! The thing about the piece is that even played slowly it will sound beautiful!

I shared your "fist pump" moment when I nailed a trickly part in my recital piece! woohoo! For a while I had despaired I'd be able to pull it off - and was really blue because it seems like such a simple simple piece. Ah, live and learn!

MaryAnn - I'm sorry you're having wrist pain again. Aside from rest, what are you doing to resolve the problem? Heat? Massage? Is it caused by tension or by overuse or some error in position? I hope you get to the root of the issue soon so you can solve the problem and be pain-free!

Jared - good for you! The Menuet in G is charming piece. I haven't "studied" it, but I play it (not very well) sometimes just for the fun of going through it.
Working up your repertoire of scales is good too - I'm going through a revew process of the major scales with my new teacher, and then we'll start on the minor scales.

Ah... it is a rainy grey weekend - perfect for staying home and playing the piano!

My AOTW was simply surviving the week without a piano. They think they will have it there next week, so fingers crossed. I have four new pieces to work on this week, though am stuck using only a keyboard and the piano at work (which is lovely, but I can't always use it).

Didn't do all that much this week as felt rather disillusioned. Am back on the right track now though and have lots to do. My sight reading seems to be getting much better now. Obviously, I am still at the level of a small child, but slightly less small than before

No achievements for me. On Thursday, I badly injured the 4th finger on my right hand playing softball. It's still badly swollen, and I just hope it's not broken. I don't know when I'll be playing piano again

get well soon, Sam.

Toastie, you'll be over the moon again soon, when your piano comes home,--- and in the meantime it is great to be recognizing that your baby steps are lengthening!
Progress in reading will make such a difference to what you even think about doing in the next while! Good for you!

Sam!!! Ouch!!!! I really hope it is just a sprain, not a break. Be careful not to overstress as you heal.
But wait a minute --- you write on Saturday that you hurt yourself on Thursday but you don't know if it is broken or not? Have you not been to the doctor? ??

Week 33: Injuries. A cold pack has been added to my list of coping mechanisms (soaking in warm water, rest, limiting practice time, wearing fingerless gloves, and now cold pack immediately after practicing).

I wrote out the music to my new piece Shimmer. I use ABC notation and sketch it out in a notebook, so transcribing might be too technical a term for my note taking. I recorded a couple of versions to see how it sounds. I practiced every day for the 4th week in a row.

At my church coffee house, a 75-year old played the piano and sang. She performed about 15 songs, all from memory. Her piano playing was smooth as silk and her voice never faltered. At 75 she is an inspiration for all of us "young" pianists.

On Friday I played (or rather tried to play) a Mozart duet with my old teacher. She just gave me the piece last week and it is written for flute and piano. I am not familiar with it and didn't have much time to practice it. I was going really slow. She seemed a bit worried and asked me if that was my tempo. For a second I couldn't figure out why. Aha! I was going so slow she would run out of breath! Oops! I didn't even think of that!

Even though I couldn't transition very well between chords and sections and kept getting confused by her playing we played for a about 15 minutes. I had so much fun! On the few bars I could keep up and play the right notes it was amazing. What a cool thing to play with somebody like that.

I need to spend more time on my part and see how it goes next week. We may have to start with something a bit easier so I can get used to focusing on my part and staying in time.

I haven't played with anybody since grade 7 band and this reminded me of the awe I felt then when all the parts came together to create something beautiful.

I will ask my new teacher if she will do simple duets with me too. It truly is fun and a real skill builder.

Sam R - I hope you heal fast... and get it checked out if it's not getting better on a reasonable pace!

Zoe - that does sound like fun. I did some brief duets with my piano teacher, back when I was taking lessons, and they were always exhilarating. I'd love to do more with a different instrument...

Here, our AOTW is that my wife arranged for a very lively and fun rock-n-roll piano teacher to come to my house and give a lesson to my 7 year old. He never really took to lessons with a classical teacher, but after 1/2 hour lesson today he's already been back at the piano a couple times to practice and play around. One of his assignments for next week is "write a song". It's great to see him enjoying himself.

Bessel that sounds like fun for your 7 year old! I wonder if my 8 year old would like that type of thing. He recently transposed 2 of his pieces from g to c. All on his own as he was fooling around at the piano one day and found the patterns. I was impressed. He's also got a good ear for hearing pitches. I think he would love to improvise more. He's not really gotten into any classical but every few weeks he gets to a song he loves and masters it right away.

Sam hope your finger heals up really fast. Sounds painful and you probably miss playing the piano.

Thanks, casinitaly! At the moment, I'm not doing anything for it. I'm trying to find a specialist who can help me, but it's difficult in Okinawa. I suspect it is tendonitis, and I suspect it is caused by bad technique. Tension is almost certainly an issue, but there are other things, too, I imagine. I hope it can be solved because it's driving me crazy not to be able to play properly!

Have you tried acupuncture? My dad managed to avoid a surgery in his hand thanks to acupuncture, I assume it will be easy to find many qualified therapists in Japan.

Anyway, my achievement is a very small one, as I'm playing for about 2 weeks, I successfully played a piece I like, Greensleeves(sheet music from Humphries Handbook).

I still need to work on the rhythm a little bit though, for now I still count on my ear to get the timing correctly, I hope it improves when the metronome I ordered gets here.

My achievement this week is small too but after 1 lesson, I successfully played Ode To Joy. I'm very excited!

I still have to work on a couple of things including the p-f (soft to loud)of the piece.

warlock214: I am excited for you! That's an awesome achievement.

MaryAnn: I am very sorry to hear about your wrist pain. Wishing you all the best. Please forgive this uninformed question: Do you have a chance to check out your technique with a piano teacher? I have arm pain, but if I play in the relaxed way my teacher showed me, I can play acoustic piano without problem, even Hanon exercises (beginner here).

Sam: It must be very frustrating not being able to play. Best wishes for a speedy recovery for your finger.

bessel: I'm glad to hear your son has fun at the piano again. It's great that he has found a way to enjoy playing this instrument.

MaryAnn - I hope your wrist does get better soon... I'd hate to miss your Schumann for the recital.

Thanks, anivace - it is fun to see my son enjoying playing... I just hope that it keeps up.

Zoe - it sounds like your son is really interested/motivated... If he hasn't clicked with classical, I certainly think it's worth a shot seeing if someone playing another genre can help spur him on. He sounds pretty talented, if he's transposing at 8!

We found the new teacher via Angie's List... don't know if you have a similar thing there, but it's basically a group that has members rate all sorts of businesses, and this guy had a few reviews that were stellar, in terms of hooking kids. Again, I have no idea how this will play out in the long run, but it's interesting so far.

Yesterday was the other half's birthday. I decided (at the last minute) to find sheet music for Happy Birthday. I was able to play if fairly well! I think I will find a nice composition and commit it to memory......it will come in handy at those special moments!

My achievement this week was that three of my four pieces went perfectly in the lesson. But on the other hand I got very little done after that as I was so tired I could barely see and struggled with really simple things, so ended up doing scales after spending ages struggling through something that actually wasn't that hard. Feel a bit sorry for myself now so going straight to bed and will try again when my mind is fresher in the morning.