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Thank you Monica for both the information and the warning (it is not taken lightly)but I'm afraid it may already be too late. Besides, what's one more healthy addiction anyway?
Woody

Ah, there really is no better feeling than the one you get when you get done learning the final few measures to a song and now can play the whole thing.

I think this is also a bit of a record for me getting ready for the online recitals. It feels nice to get to this point of learning a piece with so much time to go.

I even feel good about mentioning the piece I'll be playing for the online recital this next time around since I'm so far along with it.

I'll be playing "La Nascita Delle Cose Segrete" from I Giorni (Somehow I keep learning pieces from this album and I've yet to do I Giorni itself!)

Do we have any idea yet how many Einaudi pieces we can play for John Frank in the next recital?

Way to go, Anthony!

I'm (probably) playing "Africana Melodia III" for the recital. I've got it maybe 80% there, so it depends on whether I get it polished and recorded by Aug. 1st, or *gulp*, the 14th. A safer backup plan is "Bella Notte," which was super-easy to learn because half of it is identical to "In un'altra vita," which I did for the first recital, and the half that ISN'T identical consists of: quarter notes. Nonstop quarter notes. But given the overlap I'd rather play AM III for the recital, especially as I don't recall anybody playing that here in PW yet.

I gave the beginning of III a try a while back but it's the ending that gets pretty quick that scares me. I also had laughs when going from practicing the beginning of III back to playing I Due Fiumi as I'd easily mess that all up...

The part of La Nascita that I need the most practice on is the part starting at measure 52. I seem to mess up there more than in any other part I've been playing. Luckily that part only comes around once in the song as the second time it would come there is a variation before leading into the ending. I really like playing the last part especially when compared to the part that always gets me tripped up. I also am a bit choppy on the g#-a-b-a-e bit when compared to the one that starts on the e. Sometimes it comes out alright and other times the fingers don't want to hit the notes smoothly. At least I've got lots of time to work it all out.

Yeah, it's that ending that I'm still working on polishing. This may sound pretty weird, but the only way I am able to play it is by going on pure autopilot and letting muscle memory take over. If I try to concentrate on fingering or the notes or anything, it's hopeless. Maybe because the two hands are playing such different patterns at the same time. It's great hand independence practice.

Well, I made enough progress on I Giorni this past week to where there may be a possibility of my recording it for the recital. So add that to the list.

I Giorni, unlike IDF, has extended measures of both hands playing 8th notes. IDF had a couple of measures here and there, and indeed, those were a lot of fun once I had them down. More than a couple of measures' worth of concurrent 8th notes... this is new ground for me. If / when I get I Giorni down, I may take a look at In un'altra vita, which was probably the first Einaudi piece that captured my attention around this time last year. At the time, I wrote it off as something to return to, oh, maybe in 2 or 3 years. But maybe not.

So, Monica, to that end... I Giorni has a repeating pattern of 8th note arpeggios in the LH, which has made progress on the piece come more quickly than I expected. (I believe there are 4 chords that just keep repeating, in roughly the same order. I am sure a little music theory would help here.) Is the same true for In un'altra vita (and hence, Bella Notte)?

Yes... and it's actually true for most of Einaudi's music. He sure likes those repeating ostinato bass patterns. The challenge is when he uses a right hand pattern that goes in the opposite direction of the bass. For 'In un'altra vita' (and many of his other pieces), it's often just a matter of brute force playing LH and RH over and over separately and then HT slowly until it clicks.

BTW, Monica, you are seriously jeopardizing your "I don't do Allegro" status with Melodia Africana III. Don't think we aren't paying attention to these things.

LOL!! You're right about that. One of the sneaky things about that Einaudi book is that he doesn't put metronome markings in it, and since I'm one of these clueless self-teachers who is too lazy to look up the Italian terms, I often don't realize just how fast it's supposed to be until I sit down to play it. (I just try to make it sound like the recording, so my estimates of tempo are based on aural memory.)

I'm still slogging away on the beautiful Elijah Bossenbroek piece, "Song for Simplicity" (there was a thread about it a while back). It's got a section in there where dotted quarters are slated at MM=168. Now THAT's fast!! If I master that section, I'll probably consider it my biggest piano achievement of the year. (But that's a big "if". )

Wow, this thread was buried on page 6. ABF is a busy place.

2 things.

1. With I Giorni, I can pretty much play all the passages, in isolation. Putting them together, however, is going to take some time. Since I have put a lot of focus on the (for me) trickier sections, those now sound great (er, acceptable). The slower (ahem, "Easier", but not really) sections are rougher. And if I had a recording for you (I don't) you'd hear the seams between sections I have been practicing. Whether I get this in for next month's recital depends on whether I can iron out those rough seams.

2. Since last month's recital, I have now had three people email me for suggestions on I Due Fiumi. My latest blog post is a summary of lessons I learned from IDF, as well as some tips y'all were kind enough to pass along. If you've got a moment, and if you have some sort of magical tip that made a difference for you on IDF, I'd be honored if you could throw in a comment on the blog.

Thanks all.

I just did... and then after it got published I noticed a typo. I hate typos.

Monica,

You warned me and I went ahead and got a copy of "The Best Of" anyway. It arrived last Thursday which co-insided with a 4-day weekend. I'm like a kid in a candy store! 4 days of Einaudi. For anyone thinking about getting a copy read Monica's warning post above and they are available on Amazon for $23 plus shipping.

OK, so many of the songs are way over my ability at this time, but quite a few of them are easily workable (Limbo & Giorni dispari to name a couple). His music echo's my playing style perfectly and sounds great on even my little POS spinet!

Thanks again for the recommendation for my exposure to Einaudi.

Woody
(yet another believer)

Welcome to Einaudi-addiction, Woody. Yes, Giorni Dispari is beautiful. It's one of the pieces I've maintained in repertoire just because it's so pretty. I just love the bridge at the end when you're playing all those VERY VERY high notes. *shivers* I actually think it's harder than a lot of his other pieces, so if you can play that one, you should have no trouble with Nefeli, I giorni, I due fiumi, just to name a few.

I hope this means we can hear some recordings soon.

It will, as soon as I can get my Zoom H2 to make Molly (my spinet) sound like a real piano instead of toy piano. Between Molly, Zoom and I, we have had some really amazing recording disasters! Some of the them were actually quite funny. But we are learning!

Since my piano time is limited due to work (that nasty 4-letter word), I focus more on the playing than on the recording. But I'm actually making progress on both so who knows - maybe in a month or so I can share my recording efforts with the world - we'll see.

BTW, I didn't see Giorni Dispari on your YouTube channel. Some of the other efforts on YouTube are, well, interesting! Do you have a recording of it posted elsewhere? I like to play, listen, learn, play, listen, learn, etc.
Woody

It's on my list to get a video made. (I recorded it before I got my Flip). But here's a link to the audio-only recording:

Giorni Dispari

Wow, Monica, now that's more like it!! Thank you
Woody

At the risk of getting my head over my skis a little...

Has anyone here had any experience learning or trying "Monday" off the Divenire CD?

Guess I could do a search...

I've not even considered it yet. It's got a section of triplets in the right hand with a regular 8th note pattern in the left hand. I'm positive the timing issues on that one would give me fits for now. (Actually, there's a lot of that type of pattern on songs from Divenire.) I've got enough stuff that isn't so difficult that I'll get around to playing first.

I was listening to it on the road yesterday, and thought, "Hey, this doesn't sound so bad." The RH triplets, to my naive ear, sounded as if they followed the same timing pattern as Stella del Mattino, but I guess they don't.

The Divenire book is tough. The easiest selection in it is Primavera, but even that's hard (for me) if you play it at the proper blazing tempo. I've also happily butchered "Divenire" itself but decided to let it drop for a while with an eye to tackling it again next year.

On the other hand, the 3 against 2 is a crucial rhythm/skill to develop, and it's something you'd use in lots of other pieces in the future, so if it's a piece you're hooked on, I'd say go for it. But if it's just one of a whole bunch of pretty Einaudi pieces, I'd suggest working on something easier first.