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My non-achievement of the week was to get in a crummy practice last evening. My spouse hooked up speakers to the TV and found 'Sound of Music' was on. I love the movie, but the mix of piano and "The hills are alive, with the sound of music...." in stereo just didn't work all that well. I soldiered on to get in a legit practice, then joined him on the sofa to watch the remainder of the movie.

My achievement was to get in a couple of sub-seven minute renditions of Canon in D. I find I do better when I don't try so hard. I wish I had some of Teodor's ease of public performance (Congrats, Teodor!). I don't even have ease of private performance. The rational part of me knows that practice and experience go a long way to fixing that, but sheesh, convincing the chicken-hearted part of me--not so easy!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! I asked Santa for some piano-related stuff for Christmas, so we'll see if I was good or bad this year.

Congratulations on your successful performances Teodor!

This has been a very good practice week for me, because my husband has a major programming project, leaving me with lots of time! I have been playing piano 4-5 hours a day most days. That has resulted in pretty good progress for the week. I have been recording my playing everyday, and working on the problems that I hear. It is amazing how much more detail that I can hear in the playback, that I do not notice when just playing-- are the chords even and well voiced? Does the phrase flow well? etc. I am appreciating the ease of recording with my Avant Grand. I need to make recording a regular part of practice instead of only doing it when I have a piece ready for performance! My AOTW is realizing that I have a much more critical ear than I did a year ago. I probably would not have heard a lot of what is unacceptable to me now in my playing.

My other achievement of the week was sight reading and playing Christmas Carols for friends and family at a party. I at least was able to keep up with the singers!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

Teodor, that sounds fantastic. I would love to experience that sort of performance euphoria at least once in my life time. Given your youth and talent, you will go far my friend.

My piano achievement - well barely playing through the Brahmes piece. Recorded a couple of times. I can play through but still I make errors. I am able to connect to where I know without stopping (making up notes) when I record by myself. But I'm not sure if I can do the same when I play it on the stage. Bach fugue is still a struggle by getting there. I have to start memorizing the prelude.

Other - I suddenly got invited to a pianists's home party. He is kind of well known in AZ. So I will not say his name. It turned out he knows my teacher too. So we are invited to both his home recital and family dinner afterwards. He is going to play Schumann Scrabian and some Chopin. I'm so excited. Also I met a couple of people who play the piano in my new church. Happy holidays to everyone.

Toastie, I'm still waiting for your piano pictures!!

Lots of practice for me, and it's on an old U3 in beat up shape, so I'm getting a good workout. When I go back home next week and get to play my C3 again, it's gonna be great (and I think I'll be very happy with my progress).

Hi all,

Nice to read your posts. And a happy ending 2012 to you all. Hope that 2013 will be a good piano year to you.

I downloaded the sheet of Chopin's Balade no 1 to see what it's like. 8 pages rolled out of my printer. Ok, looking at them, I had to admit this one is too difficult for me. Too large and too fast to be fun. Pfffff.....

So instead I printed out Chopin's Nocturne in c-sharp minor. 3 pages and it has a slow tempo. I learned to play a thriller in a piece of Granados, so maybe I could play the thrillers in this nocturne too.

My aotw is that I'm almost finished with the first page. The thriller sounds good, but not tender enough yet. The arpeggio's with the left hand, I can barely reach them. But I do, so I'm happy. Wish my hands were bigger though.

There is something strange about the arpeggio's. They are not played in a straight rythm, although the notes are all quarter notes. The first note of the chord is played longer than the other three. Then the other notes catch up to make that 'dreamy' effect.

And there is another thing strange about the piece. I have 3 versions with different editors and they are all different. That's really confusing.

I wonder at which pitch Chopin played his piano too. It does make a lot of difference in sound when tuned to A=435, 425 or 446.

The only thing I had to do with this achievement was writing a check but oh what joy I have now. My RPT came and tuned the Yamaha and it sounds so much better it's just thrilling!! I knew it need a tune but hadn't realized how out it really was. After he left I played for a solid hour.

Oh help and bother.
I spent Christmas Eve day in a marathon of cookie decorating with my daughter. I overused my arm piping icing out of a pastry bag and it still hurts a bit when I play, so my lefty is working a bit more at the piano while my pastry injury rests.

Ragdoll--playing right after the tuner is always a treat!

Wow sounds great! I'd love to try out a Bosendorfer and a Bechstein.

And to be in Zürich!!

Last week I got together with a neighbor who plays the Sax but hasn't played in a while. He had a Yamaha keyboard. I have never played with anyone before. While he played melody I tried to handle accompanamient. We did not do too well. We got through a tune, if you would call what we did as getting through a tune. Basically I did not know what to do.

Tonight we got together again. For me, everything seemed to come together from the first note I played. Somehow I sensed how to shape the chords so as to make smooth changes to the next chord. In the right hand I kept it simple and added a brief amount of melody but stayed away from playing the melody completely. I was able to add a little improv to the music.

We got through the piece several times using the keyboard metronome. We then went on to another tune and had some success.

I am not saying that it was smooth sailing but we took a giant leap in progress. I was able to look at the music in a different light then I had ever done before. It was a moment to remember after having one of my most tension filled weeks in some time. We are going to go at this at least once a week until we can successfully get a number of tunes in our hands. At that point we will try and entertain our neighbors, something I have wanted to do for a long time.

Jerry, congrats for your jamming experience with a neighbor. It must have been fun.

SwissMS - I too envy you for Bosendorfer experience. I haven't even seen one.

My Achievement. I finally registered for Summer Keys. Yay! I'm very excited. My husband finally agreed to come with me. He will cycle around the beach while am at school. I opted for learning Mozart Sonata for 2 piano's in D at the piano camp rather than solo piece. It's not easy to study 2 piano pieces at a normal setting because you do need 2 pianos. My teacher thinks its within my reach. I will prepare the piece before I go though. I would like to try both parts if i can. I also took option to study with other instruments. Cannot wait.

FarmGirl, that is very exciting!!

Malkin, That's the first time I've ever heard of repetitive motion strain from icing - you 2 must have made a LOT of cookies!

Jerry, your duo experience sounds like a big learning leap! Like maybe it integrated your skills, maybe some you weren't aware of, in a new way.

Malkin, I wonder if you relaxed your shoulder and curve your fingers when you are piping those icings (just kidding!). It depends on the quantity and viscosity of icing, I know. When I was in college, I was working as a morning muffin baker and occasional wedding cake decorator. I used to have pain in my arms after Thanksgiving and Christmas season.

A missed achievement - I wanted to reach 1,000 post within the year. I tried hard in this month but I don't think I can achieve that.

I don't see why not - it's only another 6 posts per day. :-)

I don't know if this counts as an achievement, but it sure made my day. I usually play with headphones because I live in an apartment. Today, I played without the headphones and my husband walked by and said in a surprised voice "Your are really getting pretty good!" He may be a biased listener, but I will take the praise! What I nice way to celebrate a year of hard work. I think I will go have Prosecco now.

You could just bump a bunch of ancient threads; there seems to be quite a bit of that going on around the forum!

That's sweet SwissMS!

Swiss MS, I think playing for an audience (even a captive one, like family members or roommates) always counts as an achievement.