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

Thank you, Gary D. That is very interesting, and delightfully analytical and organized.

I avoid the reach of a ninth by taking the top note of those chords with the RH (or two-three notes, in the case of the chords in the measure before the A minor chords at the halfway point and at the end). I wonder if I can reach it as a one-hand chord; I comfortably have an octave, and can touch (but not practically play) a tenth. Ninths are terra incognita.

Since I learned it all on my own, I would be an ideal student for you to teach it to .

I should tape myself playing it to check if I'm bringing out the melody enough.

I got an invite from my teacher to play at a retirement home - April 14th, should be fun. It's actually the day before our "advanced students" recital (bear in mind, like most studios, the majority of students are very much beginners so take "advanced" with a large pinch of salt).

I'm playing Für Elise and Debussy Arabesque #1. She didn't really mind which of my current or past pieces I played though when I reminded her that everyone loved the Satie Gymnopedie #1 (YET another mention in this thread!!!), she teased that it was a retirement home and I shouldn't risk putting them to sleep

I finally had my third lesson today! It's been very hard for me to find the time to make the trip to the teacher (it's an hour and a half or so each way by public transit) but he's really excellent and it's always a treat.

The lesson went a bit over two and a half hours, but I barely even noticed the time passing. He said that he normally likes to see students at least every other week, but in my case it works well to only meet once in a while since it gives the ideas we discuss (which are mostly very technical and somewhat abstract) time to settle in and become part of my playing.

With some of the teacher horror stories I've heard, I think I really lucked out in a big way to hit it off perfectly with the first teacher I tried. So YAY!

Sam, you might possibly have the most unique lesson situation around, given the infrequency and time it takes you to get there! I will now stop complaining about my 35 minute drive. Lucky you to find a teacher who will work with you this way!

My teacher is always trying to get me to play more "freely". She notices I am sort of timid or that I am holding my self back. But, she also notices that I do play freely sometimes. Usually when she shows me something and then will tell me to try it. I will play it just like she showed me. But then I revert back the the "timid" way again. Since I started lessons with her I have only played while reading the music and my reading has improved quite a bit. But this week as I was in the middle of playing....timidly (lol) she pulls the music away and says "look at your hands!" I was like "eh?" because usually people are trying not to look at their hands. She asked if I thought I could play the song I was working on by memory (prior to taking lessons with her I played everything by memory because I could read well. Since, my reading improved I never bothered to memorize anything anymore). I thought that I might be able to play at least some of it. And I did. She said that she thinks that when I read I get timid a stiffen up. So, I asked if she wanted me to memorize the piece for my next lesson. She said yes. That night I went home and started work on memorizing. I got it down in about an hour and she was right. I played the song with very little hesitation. Not timid or stiff at all. It felt really good to play so freely, I really needed that little boost.

I was quite pleased the other night when I was practicing to find I seem to have made a good bit of progress on my current project. I'm getting both hands to work together better.

However, my timing seems to need a bit of work as I tend to speed up as I get further into the song. I also need much improvement on my note reading as I still have to reference my cheat sheet for what note is what key on the piano. That seriously slows me down.

Maybe I should stop the project and go back to my Alfred's book 1 and carry on. I kind of stopped a third of the way through after I learned enough to frustrate myself with hunt-and-peck note-to-finger translation!

I couldn't help it though... I just want to play!!!

Hi all,

Long time I've written on this forum.

My life gets very busy with all the cooking stuff. 70-80 hours a week, working in a restaurant, going to school and doing my homework. It's fun to do, but I'm not used to work so hard, heh.

I've 10-20 minutes time for playing piano each day. Wish I had more time.

But at least I play

Gary D. It was very interesting to read your thoughts on what makes a piece interesting (or not) and fun (or not) to teach -thanks for joining us!

Andy - another opportunity to play in public! What fun! I'm sure you will be a big hit and much appreciated.

Sam I'm glad you're enjoying your lessons. Personally I don't think I could cope with that commute, but I'm glad to hear you feel it is worth it!

Kymber, that sounds like a really positive experience, being able to relax and let the music flow!
I agree - I feel more tense when reading too - I tend to do a lot of memorization.

Stryder87, that's great! It is exciting when you can feel the progress happening! I think it is normal for us to speed up and slow down - probably it happens the most for the measures where we are most comfortable.

You definitely don't want to get into the hunt and peck situation - that is just frustrating and not musical - it won't be satisfying. Why not do a mixture of what you long to play, and "study"time for note recognition?

PaperClip, wow, what a routine you have! I'm glad you still manage to get some piano time in!
Nice to see you here again!

I continue to chip away at my Chopin, and I've gone back to the Musette in D (Bach) which I abandoned a while back because the stretching required was aggravating my tension problems. Last night I was goofing around trying to play the first part of both these pieces with my eyes shut (to see if I could "hit" the right notes on the leaps). I was pleasantly surprised at how often I actually could do it!

MaryBee, it is great to find someone else working on Chopin's Waltz in C#minor. It is a fun one isn't it? I just managed to get the "C" section under my fingers, so I have finally played through the whole thing! The 8 against 3 in the C section threw me. I can do 2-3 or 4-3 all day, but 8-3? That gave me pause. I think I have it now, slowly. I am a long way from final tempo for the waltz, though!

CasinItaly, playing the Musette with your eyes closed is quite an accomplishment. It is a great piece for keyboard familiarity, I think.

Kymber, that is really interesting about being more tense with the music, but it makes sense. If you are not sure where your hands should go, you are more likely to be tentative. I like your teacher's approach. I have only recently started to try memorizing more pieces and I think they do flow better without the score in front of me. The Bach prelude that I am working on is fast and complex and the only way I can play it without tension, is by memorizing it, section by section.

This explains why I am struggling so much with Musette. I apparently have no familiarity with the keyboard. It's so frustrating because most of the parts are not so difficult, it's stringing them together that I can't get... Anyway, I feel I'm almost there with the minuet I'm working on. It seems being away from the piano for most of March helped with that piece.

PaperClip, do keep on playing, even if it's only a few minutes.

I had a bit of a shock this week, when I played my piano instead of my harpsichord, for a change. The sound seemed so... muffled. The keys were too big (long). Everything was the wrong colour! It's amazing how quickly you get accustomed, and unaccustomed, to something.

On achievements, my teacher says I've now got a good driving bass ground in the Croft/Purcell Ground in C minor I've been learning, which is the key to the piece. This was achieved by going back to the beginning and learning the LH from memory, before going back to HT. I'm still working on a couple of the five or six RH variations, to bring them up to the speed of the rest. I'm also managing to 'feel' the notes at the top of the RH, without looking. On the whole, I'm pleased with what I've achieved with it so far.

I used to have exactly this problem switching between guitar and ukulele. Eventually this disappears and you find you can spend a while on one then go back to the other without missing a beat. Funny how the brain works.

Hi there,

This week for the first time....working at Italian concerto BWV 971 of Johann Sebastian.....nice guy who is always suprising me...... Part one and three....

Part three is a really nice 'alla breve' composition....I like that beat in it....

Part two, Andante.....I have really to study.....heavy

Next weeks...I have to polish this work.........

Cheers,
Johan B

I love how this forum educates me. I just found Bach's Musette in D major on youtube, and recognized it! I hadn't heard the label "Musette" before... And the Chopin waltz that SwissMs and MaryBee are working on... didn't recognize it, but great to learn of. I think I'll have to start youtubing things I hear about here more often...

My AOTW is that we went to another piano concert... this one a duo (the Westhuizen Duo), playing Shubert, Rachmaninoff, Polenc, and Mack. I get a charge out of hearing (really good) live piano music; in this case, what was special was the connection between the two of them, the communication you could see back and forth. Very cool.

In my own piano playing, I continue to make slow progress on Fur Elise, though today's lesson was spent entirely on the sonatina I thought we weren't going to work on anymore. Playing in that context really shines a light on the weak spots, and a few were really glaring.

Oh, and just before leaving for the concert last night I played for 10 minutes before we left, with everyone in another room... and our sitter heard and complimented me on my playing. Does that count as a public performance?

An accidental one, but yes, it counts!

Hi everyone, I could not read or post for a long time. I missed it. I finally have AOTW. My scale playing got better all the sudden. It may have something to do with Hanon #49. My teacher told me to play it in two ways 1) play into the keys (p) in legato with high fingers and 2) staccato also in p. I tried the technique to scale and then, it worked.

I am still working on the same old Rach 23-5 since I am going to play it for my teacher's student recital. It's got better than before... but I still have long way to be performance ready. My teacher is having me memorize the left hand alone as one of the strategy to prevent sudden memory loss. She told me it will prevent me from relying on muscle memory alone. I will see. I think it's a good idea.

Good to see you around again, FarmGirl!

I've had a pretty achievement-free week. Stupid cold, go away!

managed get a really loose relaxed wrist going on some scales amazing the difference in sound (deep and rich) it makes not to mention less wrist pain yahoo

Wow that's great, pg2! Tension is something I need to work on. I guess it's something that pianists continually work on? Congrats everyone else on their achievements, too.

My achievement: I have graduated from baby Bach to baby Handel--Gavotte, to be specific. Even though the second Bach minuet wasn't perfect, my teacher was happy with it. I'll try to get a good enough attempt recorded for the piano bar.

Tangleweeds, thanks for welcoming me back. Yeah, I am back for good now. As I mentioned in my post, I am very happy for my scale. I used to think I know how to play the scales. I just realized that I did not know how to play the scales! It makes me feel so good to press the keys. I mean, it's almost sensual. I feel the strings beyond my fingers. This morning, I grabbed my Pianist magazine and tried my fingers on a couple of pieces on the last edition. When I sight read Schubert's waltz, I realized that the change was permanent. I am not beating up on the keys any more. You might feel that I am totally out of my mind... well, it's ok. I am sincerely happy and excited with this latent discovery. I just can't get over it.