Will we get to hear you in this recital?

Yes, I am going to record it. I asked my hubby to get out of the house for 2 hours with the dogs on Saturday. Don't expect anything good though. I will give myslef 2 hours and upload the best one.

Well, I don't know if it has been a week or not, but what the heck....

I am enjoying hearing about what everyone is doing - Farm Girl I guess you are happy you don't have to do the Christmas piece and a little bit disappointed you aren't finished with Beethoven....I understand you LIKE Beethoven, you would just like a change for a while!

I forget who - maybe Burt? - said it was a challenge to learn at 35 years of age. Hey, what about those of us who started after 50?? Jim is right, just imagine what you'll be able to do when you hit our ages.

Sam - I knew who Chopin was before I started piano, but there are a lot of other composers I had never heard of before coming to this forum. I learn something new almost every day and I have so much exposure to music I might not otherwise ever hear. I am always grateful for the wide range of experiences and tastes in this forum. (One great example of this is that I didn't know Albeniz and Granados and now I just love their music! - So does my husband. )

My piano is hideously out of tune. A combo of the heat being turned on in the middle of October and the rain we've had for the past week. Poor baby. Even my husband, who has never before really noticed the piano going out of tune, has started to comment on it. Tuner is coming on Monday, and if all goes well, I will record for the recital .... I should just squeak in under the wire (I have the advantage of being in an earlier time zone ! )

I started playing some Christmas music this week. I still find it a bit tricky to play the full left hand, but I am doing well with just playing chords. I'd like to refine O Holy Night, just for my own satisfaction.

A month or so ago, my teacher assigned me Album Leaf to throw me into the deep end of triplets over eighths and eighths over triplets. Almost drove me crazy.. but it feels really good now that I get it.

+1

Oh, there's an idea for a fun game. Naming composers you never heard of before PW (for me, that's the same as saying before taking up piano)

I'll start.

Albeniz, Ginastera, Scriabin, Granados, Burgmuller, Clementi, Attwood, Turk, Prokofiev, Scarlatti (either Domenico or Alessandro), Clara Schumann, Vandall, Medtner, Glinka, Einaudi, Khachaturian, Kuhlau, Gurlitt, Elgar, Diabelli, Franck, MacDowell.

Wow, that's a long list - what an ignoramus! I think the list of composers I'd heard of would be shorter. LOL There are many many more if I just look through the excessive pile of music books I've acquired. The above are just folks I've heard of here and acquired recordings of, or composers my teacher has assigned.

Debussy Arabesque #1 has that too. Have I got it? Yup, right up until I play something that isn't quite right

Oh, I get it enough to play a measure smoothly, but never all 6 measures smoothly in a row!

I envy you being able to pull off Arabesque! I'm looking at the music to that one now, and it makes me want to hide under my bed.

I loooove that piece. It's so peaceful; it makes all problems fade away. I learned the first half page of it a few months ago, but was too lazy to practice those triplets. I have to get back to it. Remind me when I've finished Chopin Ballade no 1, Chopin Prelude in E minor, Chopin Nocturne op 9 no 1 and 2, 3rd movement of moonlight sonata, David Nevue Sweet Dreams and Starlight, Jarrod Radnich's arrangement of Pirate of the Carribean and Chopin Waltz op 64 no 2 (all pieces I have partially completed). That's ADD for you

I've been working on Heller's op 47, nr 12. A great little piece, and somehow it really suits me (very rhythmical). When I played it in my lesson last night, it was far from perfect, but my teacher was still very impressed. He told me that I played it exceptionally well, considering that I only started 3 years ago as an adult (at 31). That last part now keeps going through my mind: does he expect less of me than of his younger pupils?

Anyway, my achievement is that my teacher considered that piece to be good enough, so it's off the homework list, and replaced with Heller's 47, nr 22. I'm a bit scared of it, my teacher warned me that it's about the most difficult piece of the book. But tonight I started with the first page, and so far I haven't seen anything that's really difficult. Guess what will be next week's achievement

My second achievement: last week I started on Le Petit Nègre. I've managed to get the notes of the first page down, and need to focus on articulation now. Difficult, but doable....Once that is done, I can start focusing on tempo, but that is going to be a battle. I have no idea how I'm ever going to get it up to speed while maintaining proper articulation and dynamics.


Sorry for the long post, just needed to clear my mind!

Oudeis, I heard Le Petit Negre for the first time in June - what a delightful piece - have fun with it.

JimF- I like your game!

Let me modify your list and and some of my own...The ones I have crossed out, I still don't know the ones in pink, I already knew.

Albeniz, Ginastera, Scriabin, Granados, Burgmuller, Clementi, Attwood, Turk, Prokofiev, Scarlatti (either Domenico or Alessandro)(ah, an Alessandro you say?, Clara Schumann, Vandall, Medtner, Glinka, Einaudi, Khachaturian, Kuhlau, Gurlitt, Elgar, Diabelli, Franck, MacDowell.
A few more...Rousseau, Kabalevsky, Bartok.

JimF and CAS,
I am liking the game as well.

Here's mine.

Still donno list:
Albeniz, Attwood, Turk, Alessandro Scarlatti, Diabelli, Vandall, Glinka, Einaudi, Elgar, Kuhlau, Glinka, Kuhlau, Gurlitt, Elgar, Diabelli, MacDowell, Rousseau,Vandall,

Heard on the forum:
Ginastera, Medtner, Einaudi,

Already knew before I joined:
Scriabin, Granados, Burgmuller, Clementi, Prokofiev, Domenico Scarlatti, Clara Schumann, Khachaturian, Franck, Kabalevsky, Bartok

Yeah, well my version isn't quite that relaxing ... it so happened that it was playing on the radio when I came back from work and I was reminded just how far I have to go!!



That's how I used to be (not with pieces this advanced): That's one of the reasons I needed a teacher - to keep me on the straight and narrow!

JimF,

Before I signed up for PW and started to learn piano, I was soo ignorant about classic music. I found it also a bit intimidating.

I learned so much about classic composers since then, but I don't know for sure where I picked up the names. It could be here, but also from listening to the radio in the car. Or from my teachers. And even from my collegues of work.

To be sure my list would be everything I know, except for Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms. Those composers I knew before PW.

SwissMS,

If you manage to communicate rather decent in your new language with your teacher after being confused by counting and scales, then I would call it an achievement.

I remember my first spanish piano teacher. When I messed something up in my first year, I couldn't even speak the simpliest english words. That was quite emberrassing.

I hope you do fine saturday with counting and scales.

I'm sure your version is excellent. You said the same thing about the Chopin Waltz you did for a previous ABF recital and it was beautiful, so I have no doubt I'd love hearing it. I definitely see the benefit of being your harshest critic though; there's always room for improvement.



I'm in the process of finding a teacher. I've been told that credentials do not necessarily make a good teacher, so even though I'm in touch with a highly credentialed pianist, I'm keeping my mind open. I'm looking for someone to not only teach, but to inspire me and open my eyes to possibilities I've never imagined.

Cheryl,

I should have listed Kabelevsky too. Rousseau? Wasn't he a famous philosopher ?

Alessandro Scarlatti was Domenico's daddy. The son appears to be the more prolific composer, at least for keyboard. Daddy wrote the short aria I've been working on.

I could have also listed all the Bachs not named Johan Sebastian! And there's a bunch of em.

I just got back from a great lesson. My teacher assigned to me Satie's first Gymnopedie. I this piece so much. I hope that I can make it sound good. She also had me start on Burgmuller's Ballade. It seems like it will be great fun to play.
Fur Elise is coming along very nicely too.

Just this week I received the music that I will be playing with a cellist. My part is quite easy, but the piece is really beautiful (if you like minimalist music). I have pasted a link to a wonderful youtube clip of it. Of course, we will never sound as remarkable as this, but it will be awfully fun trying!!!!

http://youtu.be/E-t5Nk49yZs

I had a quick discussion with my teacher about what pieces to start on after our recitcal is done (so basically in a couple of weeks). We had already decided on Rameau's Gavotte & Variations (her suggestion). I then told her two easier pieces that I had always wanted to play - Gymnopedie #1 and Fur Elise. So we'll be doing two of the same pieces

I wondered if my teacher would be fed up with Fur Elise but she said, in fact, only one of her students has done it. She cautioned me that the hardest part would be "making it my own" because everyone knows it. But people only really know the 'easy bit'

Is it necessary to make a piece different from how everyone else plays it?

Or is that not what your teacher was implying about making it your own?

Christine,

Burgmuller's Ballade is fun to play. Falls easy under the fingers if I remember right and lots of room to be dramatic.
Gymnopedie is on my to-do list for some time in the future.

The piece with the cellist sounds like a great way to work on keeping a rock steady tempo. Should be fun.

Rousseau was indeed a philosopher, but he did compose. I have played his "Village Prophet"!

Christine, your duet is going to be marvellous. I see it is 8 minutes! Yikes! That's a long piece. I do hope you'll share a recording with us.

Christine, blavo! It sounded very beautiful together. Great job for 8 min on stage. Wow.

Yes, her point was that it's harder to make a well known piece "your own" than one that's not well known. I can see her point but, to be honest, if I could play it identically to (for instance) Valentina Lisitsa's version I would be jumping up and down with joy

Oh gosh, I hope that it was clear that the youtube clip IS NOT ME!!!! I just posted it so you could hear the music.

I love this piece and most of the work of Arvo Part.

+1,000 That version is sublime. I listen to it regularly. BTW do you recognize her mistake?

Did she made a mistake? I only noticed the violist dropping his bow against the piano in the beginning.

Or maybe you mean the missing notes at 1:40? I have two versions, one without the notes and one with the notes. But they are both interpretations from the original. Also because modern piano's have a greater resonance.


Btw, nice that you have your duet with a cello player. I hope there is more to come.

Hmm, I just watched it again but I don't think I hear it. So, if I manage to copy her exactly, I'll have made a mistake?! Rats!!

My bad. I totally assumed it was you. Sorry!

rofl. Right.

My achievement is that my teacher complimented me on my study of the Kabalevsky waltz

She has also given me a technical exercise for this week, from my Duvernoy book. It is the most brain twisting thing I've come across in a while. Both hands move up and down in a scale-like pattern, in the key of D, but the left hand starts on D and the right hand starts on F#.

MY BRAIN HURTS. Mamma mia!!!!!!

Checking back in - never quite sure if I should, but anyway I just finished re-recording one of my favorite Christmas songs: "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", which will probably show up in Mr. Super Hunky's annual Christmas music thread (he usually starts this around Dec. 1st) - anyone else working on Christmas music?

Trap

Just for the record, I didn't hear it myself, but learned of it reading the Piano Teacher's forum thread regarding simplified classical music. I believe "Gary D" pointed out that beginning with measure 14 you play a series of D sharp then E (six times total) in the pattern left hand, right hand, left hand, right, right, right. She repeats only 5 times.