I thought I would start an optimistic thread to share our most recent happy.moments at the piano :p

Today, I was the first to arrive at my music college in London, meaning I got first pick on over 2 dozens of Steinways Model Bs and several angry looks from older pianists who arrived a couple of minutes later than me



Edit: NVM I just realised there are similar versions in the ABF.

The early birds gets the worm, uh bee, I mean B!


I had great lunch with some friends.

Tuned a piano for a violin and piano recital. Made progress on upgrading the stage lighting there. Nice performance of Mozart, Beethoven, Stravinsky, Pärt, and Lutoslawski. Piano sounded great.

I was happy yesterday when I got my Cooper edition of Beethoven's Sonatas. Today has not been a very good day - I have a bad cold and I wanted to watch the solar eclipse (albeit partial) at the beach and it was terribly cloudy and it even rained where I am. (I had already prepared my camera for the eclipse, so it was disappointing.) But I enjoyed watching it online. Oh, I have just found something that made me happy.

I was happy that even though I was in no condition to practice, I successfully got my wisdom teeth taken out, and was not loopy from the anesthesia at all. That made me REALLY happy.

Both yesterday AND today - successfully playing through my first Chopin Etude from memory with only a couple mistakes! Such a feeling of accomplishment. Also blowing away my teacher with the progress made on the etude - let's just say, last time he heard it a week ago it wasn't so good, now it is only a week or two away from being performance ready...

I saw a wonderful concert at the Casa Da Musica (Oporto, Portugal), featuring the "Remix Ensemble" and music of Pierre Boulez and Bruno Montavani. Piano was used throughout, along with celeste, and a large cimbalom (a type of Dulcimer.)

Now I'm on a flight back to the USA.

What do you mean by you got "first pick"? For a recital or something?

I think he means he was the first to choose the piano he preferred (probably for practice?? - it's a college).

yes I arrived first in college I got the first choice on what piano I had for practise.

I really shouldn't go on the forums when I've just woken up..

Rehearsal went well. Dressing up for the rehearsal went well. Audience liked what they heard in the rehearsal! All is well...

I fixed my TV set myself. Saved me $200.

Wanting to test my own powers, I like to play something I have never played before in front of 200 people. Today it was the BeeGee's How Deep Is Your Love. All went well. So did the Black Key Etude...

Mwah!

First 6 pages of Chopin Ballade memorized!

Nothing yet, but even if there is a thread like this on ABF, it's great to have one here too. I think this forum, or any forum for that matter, needs positive threads. OK, so I'm happy this thread is here!

One other thing: I got a photo of the eclipse taken by my nephew.

It's too early yet; I'll let you know later!

I received my monthly box of gourmet chocolates from the Chocolate Tasting Club this morning, and have been chomping my way through it.

Feeling very satisfied and happy, if a trifle sickly....

Our living room is arranged in a way that puts a comfy chair near, but behind, the piano bench. The comfy chair is often occupied by my book-worm daughter, who has become very familiar with my grumblings and admonitions to myself when I practice. Today, I was quite taken with an arrangement of a tune I've been preparing for a Christmas gig, and exclaimed, "My goodness, is that ever going to be beautiful!!!" "Yeah," she said, "If you can learn to play it right."



It was so funny... I am still chuckling bout it.

--Andy

I came home form teaching today, not too happy, because I'd had to deal with too many student problems... So, the teaching part could easily improve tomorrow...

But thanks to this great thread, I realised that there's a lot to be happy:
I - finally - completed making the fingerings for the third movement of the violin/piano sonata in A major KV 526. In my partition, it's 18 pages long and I've been at it for about two weeks This really made my day...

no fatigue in rehearsing all octave-passages in Liszt's sonata, and even, once..., playing them with no mistakes.

Practicing for hour long Christmas program of arrangements by Bayless, Wellstood, Coates, Iles, Garson, Deford, Zielisnki, Rosenblatt, etc. to be performed 12 times at two senior centers starting in December. An elderly woman comes up to the piano and starts singing wildly off key as I play. She tells me the story of how her Mother promised their piano to whichever child learned how to play the best. Unfortunately, their home had a fire and the piano was destroyed. Another elderly man comes up and gazes seemingly transfixed by my performance.

Practicing for hour and a quarter long Christmas program of Xmasarrangements by Bayless, Wellstood, Coates, Iles, Garson, Deford, Zielisnki, Rosenblatt, etc. to be performed 12 times at two senior centers starting in December. An elderly woman comes up to the piano and starts singing wildly off key as I play. She tells me the story of how her Mother promised their piano to whichever child learned how to play the best. Unfortunately, their home had a fire and the piano was destroyed. Another elderly man comes up and gazes seemingly transfixed by my performance.

Yesterday I landed my first paid piano gig. It's just providing some background music to an Art Exhibition opening, but you've gotta start somewhere, right?

Today I got a chance to play a 1914 Dolmetsch clavichord.

I came home from doing errands this afternoon, and my dog, Scherzo, was so happy to see me that she repeatedly jumped up to eye level with me and barked in my face. Actually, this is a daily occurrence, and it never fails to make me happy. Now she's asleep at my feet.

Tomasino

After weeks on a plateau, I'm finally making progress on the last few pages of Ballade #3. Best of all, my teacher has released me from my self-imposed cage and I am beginning to understand that I am "allowed" to express the music much more than I had been. I was always reticent to over-express and as a result, I under-expressed. It's very liberating and I'm liking what I'm hearing, which is making me very, very happy. I've almost conquered the rushing thing too. God, my Liszt sounded really heartrending today!

Tomasino - the dog thing - here too, only times 2! As I opened the door from the garage into the house, one cocker was literally climbing on top of the other to be the first to say hello.

Edit: one more thing: two couples I know, have announced they will soon be getting married, thanks to the passage of Washington State Referendum 74. That makes me happy.

Just attended a fantastic all-Chopin concert by Jeffrey Siegel. It was particularly great not only because of his fantastic performances, but because of his patented conversing with the audience before and after performances about the history of the programmed pieces (in addition to an unexpected encore of op. 64 no. 2 - which turned out to be the best performance of the piece I've ever heard), breaking the norm.

It's close to two years that I haven't had a piano at home. I bought one a short time ago at Emmaüs, which is similar in some ways to the Salvation Army. Cost me 50 bucks.

An upright it is. Made in England, E.C. Phillips and Co, Hackney. Never heard of E.C. Phillips and Co, and never been to Hackney, but I think that with a little tender loving care this is going to be a great instrument. I've had it since Saturday, it's been breathing the air of our home, getting to know the kids, getting to know the odors and the temperatures, the sunlight that streams in the mornings. It is definitely getting accustomed to its new home, I can feel it relaxing, settling in.

So it will be for a few weeks, and then we'll see about getting it into shape.

My rehearsal with my flautist friend went really well :3