Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Achievement of the week - what got you excited?

I certainly did enjoy it Rick. I thought I had already answered this post, guess I failed to "submit" after writing it.
I see why you love that piano too, a real honky-tonk saloon sound for sure and so appropriate for the selections you played. Great job and thanks for posting a link to reddit thread as well, I surely would have missed it.

Do you ever think that music is one of the only things in life that isn't completely ridiculous?

WIN for your teacher I would say. You were having 4-5 hours a month (depending on whether there were four or five weeks for your day) and now you will get 3 for the same price .... you sound happy but I think I would have requested to keep paying the same hourly rate.

"Do you ever think that music is one of the only things in life that isn't completely ridiculous?"

It`s not far off, man! Music seems as pointless as smoking, motorcycling (more life threatening than smoking) and toy trains (no point at all in them but they`re fun)

In fact, I suppose everything under the sun is meaningless . . . according to King Solomon. Rumour has it he had hundreds of concubines and wives. . . .blimey, doesn`t sound pointless to me

I'd have to agree with Andy on this one. Why would you pay more for less of your teacher's time? It doesn't really make sense.

You're still paying for 4 hours at least, and only getting 3?
If I have students who want to have longer lessons I might actually charge them a little bit less for the time over 1 hour as it is very convenient for me - but to be charging exactly the same rate for fewer hours.... I can't see how that benefits you.

I know you have just come through a transition with your teacher, but maybe it would be worth reviewing this again before you launch?

Was in Grand Rapids Michigan last week for the Media Ecology Association conference. The hotel concierge hooked me up with the St. Cecilia Music society. A short 5-6 block (couldn't tell how to count them there) brought me to a building with two lovely ballrooms. I played in the upstairs ballroom one day and the blue ballroom two other days on excellent Steinway grands. A wonderful experience. I may have already told you all about this. LOL. Am now in Maine...

Nice, WiseBuff - how cool that the hotel did that for you. I hope you love camp.

Cathy

Well, I am not sure this is an AOTW, but it was eye opening. With my impending piano party, and the European piano party, I went into my lesson saying that I wanted to play my performance pieces cold. So, I started my lesson like a real performance, and guess what? The adrenalin surge hit me, just as if it where the real thing! My foot started shaking on the una corda pedal. I had no problem with the damper pedal. I fell apart a couple of times, but she said "your performing, you cannot stop". When I finished the Chopin nocturne, she had me immediately play the Arabesque. I learned a lot about what parts are not ready for performance, and a lot about where to breathe! It was an excellent lesson. Now I have a clue of what to do when the shakes hit! By the middle of the Arabesque I was into the music and enjoying it. I really have no experience performing (except on the back of a horse), so this was quite the learning experience!

Well not exactly... I was paying for four 1/2 hour lessons per month and was getting four 1 hour lessons for that price. We always ran overtime so this seemed the best solution for me. So in effect, yes I will only be getting 3-4.5 hours per month (again depending on how many of my days there are) but I'll only be really paying for 2 or 3 hours. Man that sound so convoluted written out but I do feel satisfied with it.

Maybe I'm having a cerebral hemorrhoid (sic) due to my head being up my... well, just saying

Feel free to jerk me upright if it still makes no sense and thanks for your posts both cas and Andy

I'm sure you will do fine, SwissMS, when the time comes for you to perform your pieces.

As for me, I know exactly what you mean about the shaking when performance anxiety sets in...

I play mostly by ear, (well, what the heck, I play everything by ear )... as such, my memory and basic intuition is what I rely on when I play; i.e. sight, touch, spacing, hand shapes, basic memory routine, etc...

Now, when you add the high stress and anxiety of stage-freight, it causes short term memory loss, which increases the possibility of musical mistakes.

On the other hand, the more you play in front of an audience, the less apprehensive and nervous you become and you can play more comfortably. Easier said than done!

Rick

Ragdoll- thanks for clarifying. I think I get it now

Wisebuff - sounds like you are having fun - with even more to come soon!

SwissMS - well ... how interesting that just imagining the performance situation resulted in such an attack of nerves! Yikes. But a good idea. I think I will try it too. I may invite my neighbour over for a little "concert" lol.

My teacher has started me on ear training for the first time. I've managed to pick out the first two lines of O'Canada with my right hand. I'm just pumped. Didn't think I'd be able to pick out a single note. LOL

Congrats to everyone on their AOTW! There's just too many great ones each and every week. You guys rock!

Yippee, freedom! Sounds reasonable now you state how it was working.

I've read a lot of nice achievements here - I don't contribute much but I really love to follow all your stories/ progress/ everything.

I feel like... nothing to declare. Maybe I'll have an extra lesson next week, and my Bach Gavotte still sucks. The Schumann is better, but not much improved from one month ago (a small section is giving me tension problem when I try to speed it up).
The fact is that I'm not focused, I'm playing around with other pieces, too many of them. I really hope to see the teacher next week, I would like to choose with her my holiday homework!

BUT I resumed my last year preferred piece and leaned it again; now I can play it by memory, with only minor slips. So, this could be my AOTW.

I should have been more thorough in my first post, I see now why it was confusing. I hope it turns out the way I anticipate that it will.

Have fun at EPP.

Yay for freedom...my favorite!
Somehow I thought that I had related before in this thread a couple months back that I got a double dip on the lessons I paid for. I have a faulty remember gene on my helix I suppose.

Hiya Becca, I haven't seen you around for awhile. Whacha been up to? The ear training is huge.

Not really an achievement. During my last lesson we were working on Debussy's "Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum" (see my rant about tempo elsewhere!). Actually I think it went pretty well; although my teacher commented "that's ambitious" (meaning the tempo) when I started, for once she didn't try to talk me down from it!

But anyway, she said during one of the phrases, a big smudgy arpeggio, repeated twice in F major and then twice in F minor, that I might need to flutter pedal. Gulp. "I'm not sure I know how to do that." "Yes, I've seen you use it."

Great, so now I have to try to use something my foot knows how to do but I don't know how to tell it

Hi torquenale~
That's a good AOTW, I did a bit of review myself on Wednesday just to remind myself that former things that were difficult back then are now easy peesy with a couple run-throughs. We fail to see sometimes how much we have learned so this gives us some perspective I think.

I can't imagine being able to play that at more than about 1/10th proper tempo. Maybe some day, many years from now.