I finally did it I managed to post one of my videos to the ABF December piano bar forum! It took much battling of the red dot and all the associated techie steps afterwards over 2 and a half days but I finally did it. Now I have to try and get some of my Christmas songs up.

Thanks to everybody for your kind comments!

Andy, Impressive achievement! I like to read about recitals, I find them very inspirational.

MatyAnn, I think Exalted Wombat is right. You are playing the correct notes, and you are getting a more fluent playing. That’s very good.

FarmGirl, have a very good trip! I hope you can post from Japan.

Cheryl, if I was you, I would not be worried. That girl had a headache, and that’s just circumstantial. Enjoy those little steps, which are the most important ones.

MaryBee, I loved your anecdote about Mozart’s sonata.

Zoe, I’ve listened to your rendition on that Fantasia by Telemann, and I’ve loved it. Very well done!

Cas, I missed this. I hate that kind of behavior. I can relate. When i was in uni (long time ago:) I lived in a duplex apartment. That was when I first returned to piano for a while. I had a very old upright piano equipped with hand made devise called snake - a removable silk screen placed between the keys and hammers - to quiet down the piano sound. Behind me a male college student was living there. At the beginning, he was very cordial and said nice things about my piano. He told me he loved music and wanted to listen to my piano in my room. I said "(heck) no!". One day he asked me out and I turned it down as nicely as I could. He looked like a loner and sickly. Then he started getting mean. Whenever I practice, he used to bang the wall between us. I was so annoyed. So I remember ripped the snake off and started doing scales up and down, up and down... I wasn't afraid of him. I wasn't thinking, I was pure plain angry and reacting to the situation. The situation lasted until I met my husband. He was bigger than now in those days and looked stronger than my neighbor. I explained the situation to him and asked him to walk me to home a couple of times. The next door neighbor finally moved out. Like your situation, I really did not appreciate my neighbor's passive aggressiveness. I would have negotiated practice hours if he had come to my door and complained.

Sam and JimF thank you for the information on Piano Row. I cannot wait to check them out next time when I am in NY. I had no idea such place was hidden there.

Paperclip, Recaredo and cAS

thank you for your kind words. My parents bought a new house and I am going to help them move from the quake destroyed house to a new one. I hope at least one of the pianos survived the quake, I will see. My mom used to run a kindergarten - that's why we have 2 pianos. 1 is for business and 1's ours. I am planning to log on to PW as much as I can in Japan.

YES an accomplishment this week!!! Invited piano friends over and we played Christmas music for one another. Then played name that tune for just Christmas music. Good laughter, good food, and good music. I played David Lanz's version of Christmas Waltz/The first noel. Also accompanied my husband singing Gesu Bambino. Looking forward to the PW Denver group coming in January...gotta have something to play...better get busy

haha exalted wombat. I am thick-skinned so my surprise was more that she would ever say anything vaguely mean. She was absolutely right about it sounding robotic before--I go through that phase with every piece where my biggest concern is playing the right notes, and it is completely un-musical.

I might be away from PW for awhile. I just got some new kitties and they hate when I play the piano. I really hope they get used to it, otherwise I'll have to use the headphones. They're really eating into my practice time.

Have a great trip to Japan, Farm Girl! There was snow in Shikoku this week, so I imagine it's really cold up north.

ZoeCalgary, congrats on winning your battle with the red-dot! I loved both your Christmas carols and your piano bar piece.

CasinItaly, sorry to hear about your neighbor's complaint. I'm sure it was just because she didn't feel well. This is the first time I have lived in an apartment so I live in fear of that kind of incident. I can understand how it could cause you to be nervous about practicing.

Farmgirl, enjoy your trip to Japan. I hope you find a surviving piano to play!

MaryAnn, I think most people go through the "mechanical" stage with a new piece when they are just assuring that they play the correct notes at the correct rhythm. Maybe your teacher was just saying you were at the point of adding your own expression to the music.

My achievement this week- I successfully played Clementi 36.1 from memory and my teacher was satisfied with my interpretation. We decided that I should keep polishing it, but also add a Mozart Sonata to learn. So, I am beginning Sonata in C Major K545. I think I will be working on the Bach prelude (851) forever. I have half of it hands together now. I just discovered the LH voice (Hello?). One of those lightbulb moments!

I have no great achievements to report this week, having had my nose to the grindstone, but glad to read of others - it's inspiring. Sorry to hear of your neighbour issue, casinitaly. I feel for you.

Next week I shall hopefully have more to report, as client h**l will be behind me until the new year, and my first ever harpsichord arrives this weekend.

Just to clarify about my neighbours - they are super nice people and we get along really well - it just bothered me that they banged on the ceiling instead of calling - . Yes, I realize the daughter wasn't feeling well, but now I can't help feeling uncomfortable about the sound levels.
I'll get over it, I'm just laying low for a bit... Thanks for the encouragement.

AOTW: my teacher says I have good technique and really understand the piano! I joked that I wouldn't be able to get out the door of the studio, what with my swelled head.

Eglantine, how exciting about the harpsichord. It's going to be fun playing your Bach pieces on it!

I realize it's a different situation, but I felt uncomfortable with the sound level when I first got my acoustic piano. I had been so used to playing on my electronic piano, either with headphones or with the volume turned very low, that I was too timid to play at anything above a p. It took a lot of reminders from my teacher and several months to begin feeling comfortable with making myself heard. In fact, for quite a while, for this reason, I had as my mantra: "Play it like you mean it." No problems now with feeling comfortable creating louder music -- as my husband points out from time to time. Hopefully you'll get back to your comfort zone soon without that much of a struggle.

My grandson and I were listening to a George Winston CD last night. He really liked one of the songs and asked me if it was a piano. When I said yes, he told me that he wants to learn to play the piano ... and he asked me if I would teach him. and *yikes*! Don't know how that will work out, but I'm going to have to look for some pointers on how to get started with this.

Been struggling with Yanni's One Mans Dream and also learning various other songs - kinda fell into place this week - it's a great feeling to think the 2 steps forward and 1 step back is actually achieving....

My AOTW.......I have managed to let go of bombing my second recital. I worked so hard to perfect my Christmas pieces only to crash and burn on the very first piece! I managed to pull myself together and played through the next 2. I played Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Carol of the Bells, and O Holy Night. I was really depressed when I got home from the recital. I didn't ponder quitting.....but I did start questioning why I bother to play in front of strangers. I'm over it now.....can't wait for the next chance to play kamikaze pilot on the piano

Michael, crashing and burning is good for you. Once you've done it, you know what it's like. You've lived through it. suddenly you will find a huge weight made out of stress lifted from your shoulders and you will come back so much stronger.

The difference will be due to your new casual attitude and the removal of a formerly unknown fear that you have now conquered. This is also the point where your confidense in your playing will grow and build from.

It happens with me all the time. Especially when recording for a recital piece. Once I have a decent take, there seems to be such a stress load that has been removed. It becomes so much easier to play after that.

This will happen to you too. You'll see!

I keep thinking I'm not making any progress (though my kind teacher tells me I've come such a long way in a year). Especially when I hear people here and the wonderful music they are making when I'm still plodding away at very simple tunes. But last night, inspired by yesterday's discussion of "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miz on the board, I had a look through my books and found a simple version in one of my books (More Popular Piano Solos, Level 5 - John Thompson, I think). I managed to sight-read it all the way through, HT, the first time - very slowly and some pauses, of course, but with not a whole lot of effort or frustration. So I guess I am making progress, cause I sure couldn't have done that a year ago!!

I spent the first ten minutes of my piano lesson enduring the praise for my performance of the Debussy Arabesque #1 from my teacher. So, like PianoStudent88 my head is a little swollen right now ...

Can I have your old hats?

Cathy

This is a good thread, I need to read it. Y'all are doing great. Nice that people are having fun and enjoying their pianos.

I played Chopin's Prelude in e minor at the winter recital without driving off the cliff. Some parts got fat fingered, other parts sounded really nice.

My teacher told me that in the last year I've learned to play delicately.

And my piano got tuned a couple of days ago. It sounds REALLY nice.

Oh, you poor guy!
But good for you! So is it complete, and are you moving on to something else now?

Realised that my right pinky straightened a bit when playing keys with other fingers on my right hand. Only noticable when recording a recent performance. I've just started to address this by focussing on relaxing it when not playing using that finger. It started out with a loss of control but after a couple of days I feel much less tension in my whole hand and can play quicker and with more control already.

Yup, check out my signature. Well, still need that recording ... got to have something for the next ABF recital!

Andy - hey, you need to enjoy the success sometimes:) BTW, is "swollen head" expression similar to "so and so is getting too big for his britches"?

Let me tell you I learn a lot of words in this forum. In my notebook of colloquial English, I make entries like this. I note the words , who I heard from and definitions.

Benpiano - real hum-dinger (something extraordinary large or an excellent person or thing)
Mr. S/H - It's frigging xxx ( I think he is emphasizing something with a hint of frustration)
Andy - Swollen head (sudden surge of self esteem?)

I think I start using these words. It sounds cool.

Wow, another busy week.
Zoe - congats on getting over the red dot - I'll pop over to the piano bar to check out your piece!
Eglantine -a harpsicord- that is very very very cool. Do let us hear it soon!!
Msirukandjisting - yes, sometimes progress feels like it is slow to happen, but keep going - you'll see changes - especially if you record what you are doing!
Lisa - Congrats on your progress!
Plowboy - I laughed when I read you have to learn to play more delicately - I pictured you "plowing" through your pieces!
Ukbuk -good work on the relaxation!

Andy - enjoy your swollen head - we all need our moments of glory!

Michael, good for you for letting go of the train wreck. I think it is easier said than done.
MaryBee - I too had a really long adjustment period to my acoustic piano - (which in retrospect was maybe a good thing - my neighbours had a chance to "acclimatize" along with me.
I was upset because I just thought it was rude to bang on the wall, and because I've always thought we had a very nice relationship and she should have called. I know what migraines are like - but you know, that's no excuse for being rude.
It isn't a train wreck, but like Michael, I'm going to put it behind me and let go of it.
So there!

Farmgirl - I hope you find your folks in great shape when you get to Japan and that the transfer to the new home goes really well. And I hope they still have a piano!
Safe travels!!!!

Turned in my last paper... Now I can finally take a break and practice. Since I've been away from the forums for a while, here's a quick recording of the Scriabin and Brahms I've been working on. WARNING: They're both works in progress, especially the Brahms, which I just started...so I will take them down soon (Edit: Done)!

Oh, and my Mozart is so terrible I won't record it, even though I worked on it longer than both the Scriabin and Brahms.

Very good renditions as usual, Lain, Brahms included.

Glad to see you’re back!

Lain,

Just finished listening to the Brahms and have the Scriabin going right now. These are both very beautiful pieces that I'd not heard before. Thanks so much for posting them. I now have two more things in my "some day" pile, and can't wait to go home and check my McGrath's to see how far away that some day might be. Oh, and I thought your playing was excellent on both, with lots of expression. I don't know how you could have "just started" something like the Brahms and then proceed to play it for 8 minutes! When I've just started something I can usually play about 8 measures

After a gentle reminder from my teacher that we should get back to scales soon I bit the bullet and did some today after a 6 week long break I took while doing Christmas music. I think the break did me good. Some of the scales with tricky fingering seemed less daunting. I am happy to have gone back to these now as it won't be a dark cloud hanging over my head through the holidays. Plus I think this will help my Clementi piece that I'm working on but which is a big mess right now.

Plus as some of you have seen I battled the red dot and finally recorded some pieces and posted them here. I also started a web log to track my own progress.

Thanks To everyone for all the nice things you wrote on my postings. You made me smile!!

ZoeCalgary, which scales do you think of as the ones with tricky fingering?

Good question! I think the HARDEST scale is C major. There are no landmarks - a multitude of wrong fingerings are possible. The easiest is B major - in the RH at any rate - as the notes absolutely dictate the fingering. It's a pity the LH fingering doesn't fit the "C major" pattern. As a comprimise, I often start a beginner with E major. It fits the pattern, and only presents one opportunity to go wrong!

An added advantage is that it kills dead any idea that black notes are "hard". They're just notes.