Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Rostoskys serious thread. (by request)

Rossy I hope you get well very soon, my friend.


Today I feel like in folk mode. When I was a teen, I hated the “sevillanas”. Surely because of those guys who could dance to this music, could seduce the prettiest girls, and I had no idea of dancing to “sevillanas”. How frustrating!

But I have to admit this kind of music sounds really nice when is played only on guitars. Especially when is played by two guitar masters like Paco de Lucía and Manolo Sanlúcar are.

It's pretty bad news that our Rossy is ill. I pray to God for your quick recovery, Rossy. And small request from me: please please drink water more and more. I follow a trick to drink water more. Whenever I go for toilet I drink water after that I don't know if it'll work for you or not but try to grow some habit which helps you reminding of drinking water

I didn't get enough time to watch the posts in between but I downloaded some of them. I'll watch them very soon.

Here are some energetic musics from a very young talented drummer:
[video:youtube]I7eC6VRPjvk[/video]
[video:youtube]zAQMfbAAp3U[/video]

Excellent drumming posts Rupak, that guy is so talented!!

On breakfast Telly this morning I heard the most amazing story:

A lady called Tracy here in the UK was visiting her mum, all of a sudden and totally unexpected she collapsed unconcious and was rushed to hospital.

For months she remained in a vegatative state, the doctors said after six weeks, this is probably the way she will allways be now.

She couldnt move anything and was showing no signs of being aware.

Her husband and children kept going in every day to see her.

Gradually over a period of months, first she opened her eyes and then moved an arm.

Over more months she started to make sounds, shouts and the like.

When she started to talk, she remembered NOTHING about her former life.

She did not recognise her husband, her children, or know them.

She had lost all memory of everything.

Except, for one thing:

She could recite all the lyrics to Bon Jovis "Living on a prayer" I jest not, this was the only thing she could remember about anything...

Now how weird is that?

It would appear that the "box" that this song lives in in your brain, the "place" where you keep it, is not connected to anything else at all?

I am pleased to report that over more months she remembered more music, even though her wedding photos and photos of children were not recognised by her.

She is happy to have such a good family and loving husband and is making progress.

But how weird is that?

RUPAK... this is just for you, keep your eye on the drummer.

Steve moore, this guy is heroic!!!

And if you couldnt see exactly what he was doing...check this..

Rossy, how are you doing? I hope you feel better today.

I’ve watched this little report about the development of the keyboard instruments. It’s pretty short, but I’ve found it interesting and well explained.

Sorry, saw all the drumming vids and couldn't resist.

Excellent posts guys and galls!!! Rupak, that was a couple of interesting videos you posted, HOWEVER,
I must do a small "complain" The guy doing the videos states "One of the first pianos to attract attention as a modern piano was a steinway" AHEM!!!

I rather suspect that the piano that got more attention as a "modern piano" would have been Beethovens BROADWOOD!!!!

I really must point out that not everyone in the world aspires to own a steinway, nor thinks they are the best.

David helfgott for instance owns a Petrof Monsoon, and performs on a Petrof Monsoon.

I had a go on a Petrof in a piano storeroom, and it was amazing, the response was so incredibly fast.

We have ( amongst others) Bechstein, Bluthner, Bosendorfer, Collard and Collard, Cramer, etc etc.
(cramer has schwander action the same as broadwood)

Then there is Ibach, Errard, all extremely worthy names.

Hiya all! I'm still alive! Honest!

I'm just working like crazy. I am sooo tired. And spare time is on the piano and cleaning house. Joy! I'll be back regular in April though! March is the busy month.

How is everyone? Rossy you were sick? Are you better now?

Btw: what is wrong with that drummer in the yellow jacket? He's doing some odd bird flapping movements or something while drumming? Bizarre!

Later Gators!

Rossy, Rupak, PPP... My favourite drummer is from The Bays. The Bays are famous for lots of things, including for never having made an actual record, or even wanting a recording contract. They only function as a live performance thing. I saw them at Brixton Jamm once, and was totally mesmerised by their drummer, Andy Gangadeen. (I also saw them doing a fantastic set at Big Chill festival, along with the Heritage Orchestra. Brilliant.)

Andy Gangadeen *IS* Animal, from The Muppets, with his long hair and woolly hat, crouching behind the drums. He's also a brilliant drummer. Incredibly versatile. Here's Animal v Buddy Rich.

Still in recovery from fancy figured bass cadenzas at last night's class...(now do the next one... now do that one in a different key... now do it while standing on your head and singing...arghhh)

I love Margaret Fabrizio's posts on YouTube. Everything from playing Purcell grounds:



to advice on sight-reading:



(listen to her funny rendition of A Tale of Two Cities!)

to attempts to do clearance at her home.

She is a totally fabulous human being.

I'll be learning this Purcell ground next I think - though I'm supposed to be doing something by John Blow. But it's a ground, and that is what's important.

" ANIMAAAAAAL !!!!!!!!!!" is by far my most favorite drummer

heard this today at the gym...(gee, I guess I really prefer songs pre-1990!)

Thanks for all the kind words dudes and dudettes, I am a bit better, I dare go out now!!
Will be back later tonight to post some music, and tommorrow off to visit someone else who plays the piano, and hopefully learn something or three.

Oh Eglantine, excellent sight reading post!!

Oh, here is something you might find interesting:

A lot of us, for various reasons, learnt the treble clef first. maybe this was recorder at school, or singing or whatever.

Then when learning the bass clef, again we started to learn it from the bottom up... but this time instead of it being e,g,b,d,f. it was g,b,d,f,a.

I began to wonder about this, and came up with a theory.. this might be the wrong way to learn it.

Because we are splitting the two staves and making our mind see them as two different things that are "staggered" when it comes to reading them.

I thought maybe we should learn the staves from the middle c up the way in the treble and down the way in the bass...???? To help see it as one overall thing and not two seperate things.

Anyways, I then read an excellent book written by a concert pianist and found out something that I had never thought about before. This was written around 1957..

On Bosendorfer pianos that were made with four extra notes down at the bottom of the bass end, As most things in your average repertoire will not be using them, Bosendorfer fitted a Black felt pad that you pull out to hide the four notes.

The concert pianist said "This is so your geography of the keyboard is not disturbed by the extra notes"

SO, Obviously, certain cues are being taken from the very end of the keyboard...

Is that interesting or what?

I am not sure how concerned with historical accuracy you are Eglantine, but in that video where Margaret Fabrizio is playing Purcell, she is using her thumbs. Basically, for any keyboard music that pre-dates Bach, the historically correct way to play requires that the thumbs NOT be used. (This sounds crazy, I know, but it is true).

Rossy, your 'complain' about calling Steinway to be the 'best' modern piano should go to Recaredo, not me But you're quite right about it. Though everybody has his own choice on the sound or the touch of a piano (for example, I like the singing tone of Steinway very much and I can't help myself liking it I listened to Boesendorfer, Bechstein, Yamaha C7, Malmsjo, Koehler & Campbell etc. through samples and recordings. Of these, I don't like Yamaha at all, at least for classical pieces. I like the bass of Boesendorfer and the middle and higher notes of Malmsjo very much. Bechstein is also pretty fine. But my ear always wants Steinway's characteristic sounds (Sorry, Rossy!! It's my choice, but I completely agree with your complain )
Anyway, your drumming post are pretty entertaining. That guy is playing like heck! He is really good at gymnastics too But I really appreciate his control!

True, Baroque playing focused on 2-3-4, but thumbs were *not* prohibited in any sense. How on earth would you play octaves, 9ths and 10ths without thumbs? and there are plenty of those: just check out the two pages of consecutive LH octaves in Purcell's Dido's Lament (lamento bass cascade repeated seven times), for example.

The difference in Baroque playing is not the use/non-use of thumbs per se, but the absence of that pianistic idea of having continuous legato through use of consecutive fingers in a given arrangement.

And if Margaret does not do 'historically informed performance', well it has to be said that she must have learned to play the harpsichord long before such a thing existed.

Hi all!

Eglantine, how about your Olympus recorder? I’m looking forward to listen to your harpsichord.

This video goes to Rossy, the music lover who never loved Steinway pianos .

I hope you're fully recovered.

Good morning everyone! I only have a few minutes to check in. Rossy, I hope you are starting to feel better. I have just one offering this morning, "One Step Beyond." I've been listening to the music of Karsh Kale, a global fusion composer and producer. Have a listen and see what you think.

I'll be back later today to check in with everyone else. Have a good day.

Well Excellent posts dudes and dudettes, but for today, I think Recardos cheered me the most, a most wonderfull view of the amazing Bosendorfer workshop..

I can understand the USA citizens view, hammered by steinway adds as they are, and also not being as exposed to European Pianos like we are.

And also this will be made worse by the laws that have been brought into the USA statute that makes it damn near immposible to import a piano should they wish to, thus making it easier for folk to buy "home grown" ie. Steinways.

A piano is totally personal of course, and no two pianos are the same, just like no two pianists are the same.

I suppose we are very lucky to have a choice in the UK, it would be awfull to have Hobsons choice.

I fear that Steinways marketing policies would have folk believe there is only Hobsons choice.

Anyways I love you guys.
For many things,
Not least your kind wishes of good health upon my person.

Thanks dudes and dudettes!!!

Recaredo, the Olympus is somewhere in Royal Mail's special delivery process. I've been told by Olympus UK that I shall have to wait for 3-4 weeks.

Tomorrow we have a Froberger workshop at Handel House.

Sorry Eglantine, I feel as if I have annoyed you. This was definitely not my intent and if it seemed as though I was criticizing Margaret’s playing then I apologize. I also didn’t mean to insinuate that lack of thumb was a literal prohibition of the time. However, I realize now that it may have come off that way (it was a hasty and careless post and I regret it ). It is more accurate to say that the thumb could be used, if absolutely needed, but in general was not. By bolding and upper-casing the word “not” I just wanted to emphasize (because I think it is a crazy piece of history) that use of the thumb was not standard practice in the keyboard technique of the time. My post was rather hastily and carelessly written, sorry about that.

Now I feel as though I should answer your questions with a little more care than my last post. Funny enough, your questions were almost identical to the questions I had when my previous piano instructor told me about this strange historical fact. The first thing when understanding how it is they could have managed without using the thumb is to note is that the true harpsichord’s and clavichords of this period had keys that were substantially narrower making intervallic distance less of a problem. It is good to note here that some contemporary versions of harpsichords tend to replicate the same size of keys as modern pianos, thus making use of the thumb a requirement on them. Also, the registers of early Baroque instruments would not have been equally tempered, so a lot of the time the lower notes of the harpsichord would be tuned in such a way that they spanned wider intervals. Note that it is the lower notes of the keyboard that did this because pre-classical compositions only really permitted these large intervals between the bass and tenor voices. Another point to consider is that, as per Baroque convention, intervals of that size would not have been played legato which makes them less of a technical issue.

I am curious, what version of Dido and Aeneas are you looking at? The reason I ask is because consecutive octaves (and fifths) were not considered good compositional style back then, for various sorts of reasons (which I won’t go into here but you can watch the video below to get a sense of some of the reasons). I took a look at the score that is available for Dido and Aeneas on the IMSLP site, and noticed that it contains the octaves you mention. Is this the version you were talking about? (http://conquest.imslp.info/files/im...RCELL_-_Dido_and_Aeneas_-_Full_Score.pdf) I have never seen an urtext of what Purcell actually wrote, but, for the reasons I just mentioned (and the fact that it is inscribed as a “piano” part and not a “keyboard” or “harpsichord” part) I don’t think this copy is historically accurate, and that perhaps Mr. William H. Cummings may have edited this in a manner that is not historically valid. But I could be wrong.