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Yes, it's also incredibly beautiful to be able to play it.



I'm not sure I understand transcription? I can understand taking it for granted the piano solo would be a transcription from the original? I chose this piece. I very much admire John's work. John composes music with a keyboard, paper, and pencil. That's all. The old fashioned way. No computers. John doesn't like technology. The original of all his work is on piano. All of his creativity is in his head, and heart. Where it counts.
Also, John thinks this is his most brilliant work. I thought his work on Close Encounters of the Third Kind was brilliant. John doesn't think much of that at all.

EDIT: Thought I'd mention. Besides the above. There is at least one place in the movie where this is played as a piano solo.


Please take care of yourself, FarmGirl. I used to have a sister. She was a real party animal. Party all night. Work all day. Go back out and do the same the next night. She could drink most anybody under the table. She died at 28 years old. Please take care of yourself.

Ron, transcription is to turn the music composed for some instruments into some other instruments. Many of the classical guitar pieces are transcribed from original since there weren't modern guitar at that time. It's often more challenging because piano has to do something intended for other instruments. Think about doing trills forever to immitate the sound of string or flute or whatever. I heard your piece in strings. So that's why I made the comment.

Transcription also means providing more clarity or interpretation as in Busoni transcriptions besides literally providing musical notations.

Check it yourself. I only have enough amount of music theory to be dangerous.

Soon leaving for UK.

Wish I was leaving for The States . . . .somewhere nice and hot, wi that slide guitarrr blues music playing in me `ed . . .and the sidewinders playing a safe distance away! A dream . . . .

mine is a small one but i learned to read the staff notes and the piano key notes i've got down. something just happened and clicked and i knew it all like instantly after trying to memorize it for a week or so... must be the after effect learning i've been reading about! once that happened i cruised thru this weeks assignments and am hoping to surprise my teacher tomorrow at lessons!

~Casinitaly, learning a Cole Porter song, excellent idea. I have always wanted to learn to play one his songs after dancing to them for years. Your post has inspired me to go look through some of his sheet music to see if I can learn one of them now that I am further along with my studies of the piano.

My victory this week is trying to play Chopin's Waltz in A minor, at reasonable tempo, it dawned on me that I had been rushing the piece losing too much character in the process, so now I am trying to focuse on the beauty and not be such a slave to tempo. We shall see how this experiement works out. I was really quite happy today as I found a treasure trove of sheet music at my local library book sale, and I found a collection of RCM grade V sheet music, all this beautiful music by C.P.E. Bach, Schumann, Mozart and Beethoven, and there was not a mark in it. I was so pleased to find it but a little sad there was not one notation in it, like it had never been used. The lady at the desk said they only were asking a dollar for it, I felt a little bit guilty walking off with all these music for so little. I guess they weren't aware of this treasure they had.

Carlos, what a great shot of you playing the lovely white piano! What fun!

Sand Tiger - Congrats on your new song! There's a lot of energy in it, and you have definitely created a mood. The lyrics match the music very well indeed.

Stumbler - Congrats on surviving your recital. Even though one piece didn't go as well as you liked, the important thing there is that you recovered! Everyone says it gets better the more often you play in front of folks - so on you go to the next on!

John - that sounds like the start of something that could turn out to be a lot of fun! Good for you!

Ron - what a great teacher - and what a great realization on your part. That's pretty thrilling to realize you're on the right path for something that's obviously very important to you!

Earlofmar - small steps is what it is all about - enjoy them!

Toastie - what wonderful encouragement!!!! woohoo! You are coming along well!


Palmpirate - welcome home, welcome back to your piano!

Ragdoll - this is going back a bit ...You said you didn't know how folks studied 5-6 pieces at a time. I don't think I've ever had that many on the go, but at the moment I'm working on 4..... The thing is that they are rarely ever at the same stage, nor are they the same length or level of difficulty. When I've got multiple pieces on the go I work on them a bit at a time - the ones that are farther along get checked out for weak spots and for corrections and improvements, the others are worked on for tricky bits and for getting the fingering set. I find that I have a certain level of tolerance for repeating a set number of bars, so when I get fed up with one piece it is nice to have another to slide in and still feel I'm being serious and dedicated to my practice (versus playing) time.

FarmGirl- I hope you are feeling better, especially as you are travelling. Buon viaggio!

Sweet06- that's one of the most important achievements you can make! Now your feet are really on the path for your piano adventures!

Irene - glad I inspired you -- and it was Ragdoll who inspired me--- can't beat a chain reaction of that sort! I love the waltz in Amin (I presume you mean the posthumous one?) I agree that many play it far too quickly - it is a pity because it doesn't need great speed to sound lovely. My first teacher told me that Chopin liked to play it for his friends- doesn't that just warm the cockles of your heart?
Your new sheet music sounds like a treasure chest of delights! Have fun with it!

I have no new AOTW, but we did have a fab anniversary getaway weekend. We were up at Lago di Garda, at a little town called Salò. There was a sailboat regatta, a vintage car rally, and a water parade of amphibious cars -too funny. The weather was gorgeous, the food delicious..... it was a wonderful celebration.
Thanks to all for your kind wishes and congrats!

Cheryl, those "amphibious" vehicles were pretty funny - hm. Pretty homemade, too It looks like when we used to describe our 1957 convertible as a "boat" we were right.

Cathy

Almost memorised the notes for Rach's G minor prelude. The piece is so fast my brain cannot catch up! Very very slow practice for now :-)

I think that goes for both of us.
I put this in terms of an Arranger. That's what he does.
Glad I'm learning more. Always learning. Never stop. Keeps us young.


Glad you had a good time this weekend, Cas. Those cars that go in the water. I remember those. So cool! When I was a little boy. My brother and I figured out that there were cars that went underwater. Those were the ones with the four covered up chrome exhaust on the fender. We figured out that they opened up when the car went under water for the exhaust. It was all a fantasy.

sweet06....Glad you're learning. Welcome to the forum.

Hi All!

I don’t think I’ve participated in the “Achievement of the week” thread yet, but here goes…

I learned a valuable lesson about the power of social media over the weekend. I’ve never thought of myself as much of a piano player, just a dabbler and an amateur at the very early stages of the learning curve.

However, just for the fun of it, I’ve recorded several music videos and uploaded them to YouTube. This past weekend, someone posted one of my YT music videos on “Redd.it”, which I’ve never heard of, and it sort of went viral… I got over 250,000 views and hundreds of emails just this weekend.

I didn’t even know about it until another PW member posted a thread about it on the Piano Forum, where I’m a moderator.

Here is the thread, if anyone is interested. Reddit thread

So, I guess you could say that got me a little excited!

I still don't know what to think about it all or what it means, but I'm flattered that so many people enjoyed watching the video...

Rick

Wow Rick that's great! Love the Southern drawl

Ricky - that is SO MUCH FUN! I love your pure delight in playing that piano - you just radiate happiness. I suspect that is a good percentage of why so many people are falling in love with it - it isn't just your playing (which is great) - but the unadulterated enthusiasm. Wow, you just can't beat it!

Rickster, you project a lot of positive feeling in your videos. You are having just too much darn fun. Of course people will love your stuff.

Rick- Your playing is awesome and that piano is a great find. What a wonderful Honky-Tonk sound! I can see why the video has gone "viral". What fun!

Congrats Rick... does look like fun... you're up to a half million views

Well done Rickster and well deserved ...........but will you still come talk to us when you are rich and famous?

I doubt that will ever happen!

Ever heard the old saying "The best things in life are free". On the other hand, I do wish I had a dollar for every hit/view.

I've received more than a few emails from YouTube (and others) about monitizing my music videos... allowing advertising in my videos. I honestly don't want that... not that I couldn't use the money, but I want others to enjoy my music videos without the irritation of advertising/marketing. Besides, we all know that I really ain't all that good of a musician... just a decent showman.

I'm still waiting for the call from the Today Show with Matt Lauer.

Rick

Rick - that's an amazing piano. I played a few cranked when I was on the road (actually I am playing one if them now), yours is a real find. It has a Buffy base and beautiful soprano. Amazed that you could even make sound out of the higher register. You looked very happy too.

Well I just had the best lesson today and to think I nearly cancelled it for lack of prep (IMO).

Played though "Someone to watch over Me" hands separate for teacher and then we did it as a duet twice. I played melody and she harmony and then me harmony and her melody. It was so fun! Did this a few times.

Also(a biggie), instead of an hour lesson a week, we are going to take 90 mins twice a month for a test drive. It seems we always run out of time before we get to everything we want to cover. Same money, fewer hours for her, less driving to lessons for me...WIN-WIN If it doesn't suit us we'll go back to weekly lessons.

She suggested some different fingering for me to try on CBTSorrento that seems rather awkward to me (now) but she showed me how it will help with two transitions further in so I'll give it a shot. Sally Gardens comin' along, (amosey alongo tempe)

Altogether a great lesson today except for this blasted HEAT. T&H running neck and neck at 90+