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Congratulations Sand Tiger that all sounds promising and looking forward to hearing Canon in D when the recital opens.

Hardly an "achievement", but if you count successfully lifting and lowering the lid of my 7' piano without incident?? Yeah!!!!!!

Haven't had the lid fully up in a while. Got to fall in love with my piano today all over again. Mason & Hamlin sure got it right during the Golden Age of The Piano!!! I am so lucky.

Not quite an achievement per say but I'm about to watch my very first piano concert. Just saw Christopher O'riley walk in. And boy this Steinway grand looks gorgeous. can't wait to hear it

Sandtiger....I look forward to that. Canon is one of those I just gotta...

dynamibt....Yup ....that's a pure AOTW. Some piano's are just spot on. Glad you love your M&H.

ElleC...congrats...sounds like a real learning experience.

[quote=JimF]Warlock - Great job on your first rectal. Don't forget to grab one of those piano icons for your sig line.

Oh my goodness! Do you really have to have a rectal before you can sign up for the recital? I don't think I will be participating any time soon!

(Sorry, I couldn't resist! Being a veterinarian, rectals are a frequent part of my day - for the patients, I hasten to add, not for the vets.)

Where do we find the little pianos and such for our signature line?

[ img ]http://www.pianoworld.com/ABF_Medals/medal_c_1.jpg[/ img ]

Just remove the spaces before and after "img" --- this will give you 1 grand piano - - for the next live performance just edit your profile and change the C_1 to C_2

Thank you!!! I'll even get to add another after June 1st!!!

There is though... and it was within the past few months. It was you playing, and the camera is from behind, but we get to see the side of your face a bit. I wouldn't be able to spot you in a crowd necessarily, but I think I could pick you out of a lineup (not that you would ever be in one, of course!). I'm pretty sure... or am I making this up entirely?


Well, it wasn't a good take, just a clean take -- i.e. no wrong notes, but several large hesitations. I wouldn't submit it as is. Actually my run-through on the YouTube clip (Chopin Op 28/7) above was better than the mono take I was referring to, despite a big flub at the beginning.

Edit: Oh yes, and some pauses in the middle to demonstrate how out of tune certain notes are! So, I can't really submit that one either, unfortunately.


That is Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind"... and it gets better from there.

For your listening pleasure, 3 versions below that demonstrate Mr. Joel's extraordinary musicianship and versatility as a performer across a 25 year span:

1) 1976 -- Album version. Actually, this is overlayed with an alternate Phil Woods sax solo as released on Greatest Hits I & II. Most people are probably more familiar with this version rather than the original.

2) 1978 -- Live on BBC 2. At the height of the excesses of the 70s, and it shows. He's pretty clearly plowed, baked, or something... but the man can play, with major jazz chops on display here.

3) 2001 -- In the darkest time in the USA since Pearl Harbor and the assassination of JFK, the song takes on a different significance and Joel brings a mournful, plaintive mood. And it's not because he's too old to rock it any more... he does in a subsequent 9/11 benefit concert (Miami 2017 is worth a listen here too, very poignant in context): 9/11 New York State of Mind

[video:youtube]ol0dPJdzm1M[/video]
[video:youtube]UZh8YjbDiVk[/video]
[video:youtube]Ylxw-nG5VWI[/video]

Highlight of my week was finally nailing measures 27-34 in Jennifer Eklund's "Reflections". It has been killing me for weeks, and now I'm finally able to do them almost at speed. While "Reflections" get seated, I will begin working on David Lanz' "Nightfall"

Nope... not making it up. Found it -- not on PW, true.

It's your YouTube avatar! I don't know where I got the whole thing about seeing you from the side.

What's the occasion on 6/1? Stay away from that lawn mower!!


Great idea! I tried this approach the other day for just a little bit of time and it worked much better than the traditional one-take-at-a-time method.

SwissMS -- Thanks for the kind thoughts on the piano struggles. I like the HS idea as well. I've done that a bit, but not really adopted it as a regular approach. I'll have to try it some more.

Saranoya -- Sorry to hear about your seizure. To me, you are the definition of a "trouper". Keep plugging away!

MaryBee -- Those guys are a lot of fun! Interesting re: the perception of pauses vs. Cheryl. I actually have both directions. My short pauses are not as glaring as I think at the time, but my long pauses last a century.

Cheryl -- Congrats on the improved spousal humming!

warlock -- Congrats on the recital!

TallGuy, 6/1 is the NHMTA Honors Recital up at UNH in Bratton Hall. Not sure of the time yet. My guess is around 2pm because it's a Saturday. They are usually at 3pm when on a Sunday. I'll PM you when I know for sure.

JimF....love the birthday cake!

SwissMS - sounds like your HS approach for the polyphony is paying off. My Grieg piece has a few bars (which are repeated several times) with 3 voices and I'm finding that a challenge to master!

Sand Tiger - great that you took a calming approach to recording your recital submission - I look forward to hearing it.

Dynambot...well, glad you didn't have any slip ups while lowering the lid! That could have been a very sad story indeed. Good luck at your 6/1 recital!

ElleC - there is something especially wonderful about going to a concert when you know how to plan an instrument!

TallGuy - thanks for the Billy Joel clips! I appreciated your pre-viewing commentary. I find it interesting to hear how little his voice has changed over the years.
And..as I said, there are no pics of me on PW
You did do your research though

Barney - nailing difficult measures is always satisfying! I'm not familiwar with the Reflections piece, I'll have to check it out.


Very nice lesson today --- My teacher had no specific corrections or instructions for Sicilienne, and just pointed out a couple of little things in First Loss. I did some work on a duet (Radetzky March)with a fellow student. We made it through 2 pages (of 5) and didn't do too badly. It was good fun

Ooops, spoke too soon about the 6/1 Honors recital. Apparently UNH is doing some major power re-boot of their system generator. So, the recital will be held at Seacoast Academy of Music.

Yikes! Well, Warlock did fine so I'll have to admit this was a slip-o-the-keyboard. Obviously I was thinking of my own first recital, which definitely resembled a rectal...and I was not the vet!

Had my music lesson yesterday and was able to play Chopin Etude Opus 10, No 3 (albeit at half speed at the moment) as it appears in the Alfred's book 2 (only a 1.37 mins).

This was a definite AOTW, as I attempted it about eight weeks ago and could not get past the first measure it was so foreign to me. I was thinking if this is what you have to play in book 2 what is would book 5 to be like (if there was a book 5). So I waited and last week tried again and after much work things clicked into place, wonderful.

non achievement again - i could not figure out how to convert a video to mp3 again. the old method was to use a free software called Win ff but now it does not seem to work. It appears that it has converted the file to mp3 but it will take me to itune store whenever i click to listen. also my zoom is dying.. perhaps due to frequent fall to the floor, whisked off by my Charlie dog's strong tail.
Prelude file was not usable.. sound was cut off at many parts. fugue was ok - it has lots of charping sound and so on, some issue around syncronization, it says. So I am posting it in my youtube (below) and piano bar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-fKOuYmsCU

I'm sorry, farmgirl I'll try to get over to the bar next week - I'm going out of town for my niece's college graduation so I won't get to everything till then.

Cathy

But I'm thinking about the intentional pauses, not the ones I do just because I can't figure out the next note! For the intentional ones, I always want to rush them, because I think they're lasting so darn long. But when I go back and listen to them on a recording, I think they could actually stretch out a bit longer. I think I need to get used to what seems to me an "uncomfortable silence".

I don't know, cas... I seem to remember that you posted photos of a vacation trip you took at one point, with you enjoying a either a glass of wine or delicious meal (or both).