Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Achievement of the week - what got you excited?

Great work, CarlosCC You couldn't make it to the EPP, but this is even better! I look forward to seeing you play at the next party.

I actually have two achievements. Yesterday, my sister came over for dinner. After we finished, she asked me to play something relaxing on the piano. So I played Leaves on the Seine, which I've been working on for the last three weeks or so. She liked and said it sounds much better than the 'easy piano' version that was my first YouTube video a year ago. Progress

And just now, I finished recording my piece for the upcoming recital. In one take. One!

Carlos, you are a star!!!!!!!!!!!!!! now gimme some skin...

Allard: It is really something to be able to take note of your progress so clearly, isn't it? Good for you!

Jim: love the graphics - again!

aTallGuyNH, jotur, Palmpirate, rnaple, PaperClip, FarmGirl, casinitaly, tangleweeds, SwissMS, and Allard, thanks for your support and enthusiasm. I love you guys!

You're right: this is my prize. Of course winning a contest is always fine - at least the winner will increase his ego for a while -, but for me, with less that 4 years of experience, learning for myself, knowing nothing about music - I'm not a PRO! -, it's a great great experience and oportunity. And, of course, I'm enjoying and appreciating all the moments.
As far as I know the video will be ready in late August, so, we have to wait appr 1 month to see the result. Of course I'll try to share it with you as soon as possible. As you, I'm looking forward to see the final result...

Sand Tiger, I wanted to comment your kind words, but I don't know what to say. I only know that nothing is reachable without work, dedication and love. I just love to "pull" the music from the piano.

And Jim, what a funny hand! Of course I'll give you 5!!!!!!! (One more graphic for my signature!)

CarlosCC, what an amazing experience to have! How was it with all of the cameras around? Was it distracting/difficult? It must have been a tiring (yet fascinating) experience.

Hi Anne, and thank you.

To be honest, I did not feel intimidated in front of the cameras. The technical team was very kind and made me feel very comfortable. They said I have a big capacity of abstraction which turns the job easier; I just thought about getting the best sound of that beautiful piano.

I knew I had at least 3 cameras shooting every take, but the production team was almost "hidden" during the recording. At the end of every take they made a break of 10/15 minutes to verify the recording and to decide the next angles. During this time I played other pieces just to relax and to not lose my concentration (funny story: during the breaks there were some technicians who stopped work to listen the pieces, and the boss was very, very angry :))
So, I was 3 hours in front of the piano playing several pieces ("indaco" for the video and others during the breaks). It was a little tiring, yes, but it was a pleasure. I confess that I was surprised, but in fact, I didn't care about the cameras.

Note: I'll write some more details about this experience next week (when I come back from Brussels)

Followup re: my "new" piano...

Here is my younger daughter playing Mabel:


My wife has declared that we're going to be a one piano family by end of the year, so I'm trying to get my daughter to warm up to Mabel and get over our 1978 Vose & Sons spinet that we have had her entire little life.

So, good news/bad news on this front...

She loves Mabel...


exactly


as


she


is...


"I want to keep her, but don't change anything."

She loves the honky-tonk sound, doesn't even want to get her tuned. Ugh.

So now I have not one but two dysfunctional pianos, a wife who is only willing to keep one, and a daughter who will be devastated if I sell her childhood memories, and will also be devastated if Mabel goes away -- and just between us, ain't nobody going to buy this piano, it's gonna get scrapped if I don't get it fixed up. Double Ugh!

At least I got Mabel into the house and saved her from the town dump (for now), so there is hope.

More info on Mabel and her many fine features, such as:

Genuine ivory key tops!: http://www.pianoworld.com/Uploads/files/IMG_20130708_074438_406.jpg

Top notch refinishing craftsmanship: http://www.pianoworld.com/Uploads/files/IMG_20130708_075151_259.jpg

Another shot of the loving care put into refinishing over the years. This is the top hinge: http://www.pianoworld.com/Uploads/files/IMG_20130708_201006_062.jpg

Lightly worn hammers: http://www.pianoworld.com/Uploads/files/IMG_20130708_201056_589.jpg

Finally, my favorite feature... an integrated note letter reference system: http://www.pianoworld.com/Uploads/files/IMG_20130708_074454_992.jpg

She's a peach! "Great potential," says my tuner/tech. I believe him... it's a diamond, at least for my price range, in the rough -- very very rough.

JimF:

Add another achievement to your list. You just made me feel good about my old clunker. And congrats on getting Mabel. I hope you can work it out so everyone is happy.

Congrats to our exam passers. Just WOW guys.

CarlosC, another huge congrats! What a fabulous experience. Will we get to see the final cut?

And congrats to everyone else for their AOTW. You guys keep me in hope mode when I'm not doing well at the keys.

I have to admit. I'm excited with my teacher. Without explaining in detail. She just keeps pointing out the simplicity of what I'm playing. The simplicity of music. She's teaching me understanding. Even though she uses a much more in depth complicated system of teaching. We're finishing out through my Alfred book. She keeps pointing out the wisdom of Alfred. How he's trying to get this and that out of me at this time.
She loves that I notice that this piece could have been written different. Even at this level. But it's that way to get me to do something. She just smiles at me.
She loves that I keep playing without looking at my hands. Going back and forth on chords and not looking. I only look when I get confused and wonder where the heck am I? She would comfort me and tell me about when she was being tested by a team of professors in college and she lost it mentally.
This because Alfred threw a curve ball at my autonomic mind/nervous system. Changed my hand position in C to have my thumb and little finger play two notes. I was completely lost mentally.
She'll go and play something in a higher octave. While I'll do it in a lower octave. Then she tells me to go to the right octave and play it.
She'll say: Look....this is the bottom note on your 7 chord...then the other two....melodically. Or this is the 4th note on this chord. Then the other's. All you're doing is playing your chords.
She's simplified Schindler's List to the point that I feel like I'm falling into playing all of it with both hands. I'm practically already there she says.
So on goes the battle. The battle with my autonomic mind/nervous system, not wanting to accept training. That's the only problem I have right now. The winning is slow. But I am winning the battle.
She notices everything. Teaching me understanding. The simplicity. Not letting me get confused thinking it's more complicated than it really is.
I'm lucky to have such a good teacher.

Carlos, that's fantastic!! You are a professional!

For the last 2-3 weeks I have been practising 1 to 1.5 hours every evening after work and several hours over the weekends! I struggled, was patient, and enjoyed every second of it! This has been the most discipline me ever! Let's keep it up!

Watch out teacher, here I come with my Chopin and Rachmaninov!

Carlos, that is fantastic that you made the finals. The pictures make me feel like we can watch you as you record.

Tubbie0075, you are really working on some challenging music. So glad that you're enjoying the process.

Tallguy, the saga of Mabel just shows how personally we see our pianos. So the tech guy says refurbish her?

rmaple, the "little" things is what I'm working on now with my teacher and what I worked on at Summerkeys. Some of them are so difficult but make such a difference in the sound. When we start with Alfred, we learn it but don't always appreciate the elegance of what we're learning. Now years after Alfred, I'm discovering the magic and hope I can cement it to my playing technique.

And thanks to all of you who believed in me when I studied for the exam and your applause for passing it. Sometimes this whole process makes me feel like a young kid again...wanting the gold star. We must laugh at ourselves for that.

Piano playing is one of the few things in everyday life that requires sustained, organized effort leading to a tangible, verifiable result. With other forms of art you can hide behind "Well, it wasn't MEANT to be figurative!". But a recording of your piano playing doesn't lie.

That's one reason why playing can be so satisfing.

I'm reading on my phone all your amazing achivements. Congratulations to everybody, but especially to Saranoya who hosted a fantastic EPP, Wisebuff for passing so well her exam and Carlos for entering the finals in the contest and facing cameras and videomakers like a real pro!

cas, I read about the problems you had when performing live at the EPP. I have no good advice, but do understand. In a self-defense class I took, they talked about the effects of adrenaline on the body. These include loss of peripheral and near vision, reduced fine motor skills, time distortion, and changes in hearing. No wonder we have a hard time playing piano when that hormone kicks in!

But we do need to spend some time on self-analysis and reflection. Understanding yourself and how you work and learn can ultimately help us make better progress and become better players. (I wouldn't have said this five years ago, but my view has been expanding lately.)

What an interesting analysis, keystring. I too have been working on learning how to add expression through rubato. I think it's so difficult because it's not formulaic or prescribed. And it takes a lot of careful listening, experimentation, and in the end, trusting yourself.

Carlos -- wow, what an awesome experience that must have been. Looks like it was all very professional. It will be so fun to see the end result.

LOL! When we were little, we used to do this to our piano. We used pencil, so it erased very nicely.

rnaple -- I think that's one of the qualities of a good teacher. They can take something that seems so difficult to you and make it simple and easy to understand. You must have found a great teacher.

---

I had mentioned back in December that I had won a set of three voice lessons at a silent auction benefit. Since I have had very few piano lessons this summer, I decided it would be a good time to "cash in" my certificate. What a fun and interesting experience it was.

Singing is so different from playing the piano. With piano, if you press the right key, you get the right note, and you don't really have to think about that part of it too much. But with the voice, you have to really be focused on what note you want to produce. Also because your voice is so individual, it seems more revealing, and therefore it's easy to feel self-conscious. There is also just so much to think about: the breathing, where the voice is placed, forming the vowel sounds, hitting the right note. I am now doubly impressed with those people who sing and play piano at the same time!

But I did learn a little over the past month, and even sang "Happy Birthday" quite boldly at my sister's party. I also learned that singing will never take priority over piano for me. Singing isn't something that just naturally springs forth from me, and practicing for my voice lessons was something that I had to remind myself to do. On the other hand, playing the piano is something I feel almost compelled to do; it's something that cannot be held back.

AOTW - nothing. The more I play the more things I notice. Mozart pieces seem to expose my weakness. I'm still struggling with Mozart 2 piano piece. Have to admit that it was not a great idea. This is the piece for SummerKeys because I signed up for 2 piano.

Not piano related. I managed to get a gig for my piano teacher. I recently joined a cultural organization that holds "salon" events, like home concerts (in a gigantic homes), visiting artists homes, listening to scientists and other interesting things. We invite local talent and ask them to play something interesting. She and I discussed the pieces today. It was very exciting. Since these folks are dilettantes, we decided to pick the pieces not played very much and interesting pieces. All totally difficult pieces for me. It must be nice to be able to put together an hour concert !

MaryBee, thanks for sharing the insights from your self-defence course - that was very interesting. And congrats on the singing. I'd love to do some voice lessons - I think that learning more about breathing techniques would be helpful on the piano too.

FarmGirl - ok, your Mozart is bringing out your weak areas but don't lose sight of where you HAVE made progress. Also work at being aware that you wouldn't even be working on these Mozart pieces with out that progress. And then think of how much progress you're going to make as you work through this AND you have the bonus of SummerKeys to get you over some rough spots.
It is normal to be frustrated, but if I'm not mistaken you haven't played a lot of Mozart in the last year or so, and so this is something new and you have to be a little more patient!
You'll get it. Maybe not as quickly as you'd like -but that's true for all of us, isn't it?

My AOTW is not piano related. We just got home from this year's longest bike ride - 35km. That may not be a lot for some, but it is a lot for me. Woohoo! It was so much fun.

I think that the biggest benefit is going to be helping with my ear training. You can't fake it when you're singing -- you either know what the interval sounds like, or you don't.

That's not an easy distance, so go ahead and woohoo. Years ago, I used to bike-commute to work often, but stopped when family circumstances changed. Just this summer, I've started it up again a few days a week. It's an exhilarating way to start the working day, and a nice wind-down at the end. It's only 6.5 miles away, though, so that doesn't compare to your distance.

FarmGirl, think how lucky you are, though, to have to opportunity to play Mozart with someone else! That's not something that's available to everyone. Enjoy your struggles and what you learn through them.

Cheryl and Marybee
Thanks for your kind words. I will continue to work at it.
I hope I can play it half way decent by the time I go to SummerKey.
Anyway this piece made me realize that I better spend more time for classical repartor. I did not know I had this many technical issues

Well, I guess my AOTW is that I haven't been charged with treason for the way the Star Spangled Banner is sounding. Perhaps no one can take offense because it isn't even recognizable as such yet. I proudly butchered the tremolos as badly in my lesson as I do at home and came away with some specific and concrete instruction for a practice sequence.

35km is a respectable bike ride cas!
It is too hot here for me to ride, except indoors on the trainer.