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My AOTW: join PW and sign up for MOYD 2013.

It's a wonderful and supportive community, I'm so glad to be here!

Welcome Torquenale.

Congratulations on finding PW, MOYD, and this thread. That's three achievements and its only the first day of the year!

How long have you been playing and what kind of music do you like?

Happy Birthday (belated) FarmGirl, and Happy New Year, all of you!

I like the AOTY idea... my keyboard time has been very limited lately, but on that longer timescale, I'd say my AOTY has been to learn Fur Elise, which was my first piece not written, I think, explicitly for "beginners". Also my first from my favorite composer, Beethoven. Hopefully not my last.

I'm not sure where 2013 will take me, piano-wise... I have one classical piece I'm working on, a couple more in my sights, but also just got a couple blues-piano books (one of them based on recommendations from you all!) that I'm very interested in working through... so looks like it may turn into a smorgasbord.

Happy playing, everyone! I hope 2013 treats you all well.

Hi JimF!
I took piano lessons when I was 12-15 year old, but I did not practice much (volleyball and swimming were in the way), so my parents stopped paying for it and gave back the rented piano.
I started again in september 2011 because my husband bought a digital piano for me to start again (he plays saxophones, mainly tenor) and for one of the children, who wanted to learn!
So I'm studying with a teacher and very happy. I'm 43 so I can negotiate with her repertoire to learn. I love playing classical music, so far no R&B duets with mu husband.
I love Bach (working on Invention n. 8 - almost OK), Scarlatti (Sonata K78 - still much to do on it), Chopin (Prelude n. 20 op. 28 in c minor); my teacher insist that I have to play Schumann (album for the young), but I try it very hard (working 6 months on May, Sweet May and still sucks).
Unfortunately my job and my family are always in the way, so I can't practice a lot (especially now that both the children study piano I have to negotiate my time late in the evening).
I'll keep you posted with my next achievement!

Happy piano in 2013!

Learned HS of Snowflake Rag @ tempo and the RH part of Vivace in cut time and part of the LH but not at tempo yet.

Signed up for MOYD13

I found Snowflake Rag is based heavily on a simple chromatic scale and was pretty easy to do BTW

Here is my accomplishment of the moment:
http://youtu.be/fUDrn2dTDas

We emailed the link out to everyone as a Happy New Year greeting for 2013.
Happy New Year to all of you too!!!

Good job malkin, I've never played a rag as a duet before. Makes you really pay attention to your timing eh?

Wow, you've all done so well! Toastie well done for reaching grade 1! That's very quick.

Happy New Year to all.


I haven't played much over the holiday as the lady next door is very touchy at Xmas so didn't want to upset her. So no acievements to report.

JimF, BeccaBb and Bessel ,
Thanks for the birthday wishes. Happy new year

That was great! Not only did it sound good but it looks like you're having a grand time

My teacher told me to go get the level 3 book! I was working in level 1.

bobby

Malkin - Great job on the duet! What fun. You guys never missed a beat.

bobby - Skipping a book? Terrific! Don't you love it when someone, especially your teacher, recognizes your progress?

Thanks everyone!


That take was kind of a miracle!

My AOTW is my first improvisation, using simple techniques learnt from yoke wong and by useing chord progressions from pieces i already play I was able to play for several hours in total just improvising - my beat needs more variety but im sure I will improve as I learn new techniques and practice more.

I had my first piano lesson in a month due to holiday vacations. It sure was good to get back to "work". My teacher was pleased with the fact that the Chopin nocturne and the Bach prelude were both learned and memorized. Of course, now the real work begins! Both pieces have a long way to go to be played to her satisfaction.

I did something I have never done before, and told her about the AFB quarterly recitals. I asked if she could help me polish something for February. She really liked the idea, and decided the Bach prelude would be the best choice. Now she wants me to send her recordings each week, so we can go over them at the lesson. Eeeek! I find the polishing stage of mastering a piece the hardest, so it is wonderful to get her help. I am a little nervous about such close scrutiny, but I asked for it!

Week 43: I accomplish my first goal for the new year, which was to set up the piano keyboard in a permanent spot. It was a major undertaking. I got rid of 20% of my clothes, and 20% of the other junk to make it happen. One hurdle is that the new spot on a desk is much higher that the x-stand. So I needed to fashion a booster seat out of a cardboard box (pillows were not high enough) so I could reach the keys. Anyway, I will be looking for a stool or better booster or something, but it makes a huge difference not having to pull the keyboard out from under the bed and set it up on stand every time I want to play.

I am into week 2 for Canon in D. The four-part traditional chamber arrangement in ABC notation is tough to work with, but then so would any printed score for me. I download a couple of performance versions as well as a couple of tutorials. Pachelbel's work might be the most arranged piece ever on piano. Some arrangers do a good job, some not so good.

I found one version under 2 minutes, many more at 4 minutes, and some longer. For my arrangement I think I will aim at 3 minutes. The fast notes are going to be a hurdle, so I may take them at 2/3 speed or less. I am a beginner still. Fast notes were always a difficulty for me on whistle and near impossible for me on flute. For my own music, I sometimes create the illusion of speed with a change in tempo. Speaking of whistle, I am getting close to my arrangement for In Dreams (from the Lord of the Rings). Like so much else, it sounds like music, but isn't performance ready.

I attended a concert for organ and trumpet. The trumpet has always had an appeal to me, something about the tone and timbre.

I hope everyone has a good week and gets back to it. I am sure many had limited time during the holiday period.

I found a quote from John Coltrane which I identify with and included it in my goals for 2013:
My music is a spiritual expression of who I am.

I am going to get there on piano. It is a long road to be sure, but I have glimpsed it, approached it, on whistle and in my songwriting (10+ years).

Excited for tomorrow's lesson. It's been almost a month, with holidays and the Muse concert I attended earlier. But I have three pieces to present to my teacher!

Woohoo! Very happy for you on this. I know it's been a long-standing logistical nightmare that has held you back, so it's great to see it resolved -- particular since it was not at all trivial to reach this point.



Where do you stand at this point in terms of your level of desire to learn to read music more effectively?

FWIW -- I think it would be tremendously helpful to you and I would encourage you to make it a priority. You can come at it systematically, building up individual skills of note identification, key signatures, intervals, and chords with these exercises: www.musictheory.net/exercises/

I think this approach might make it seem less overwhelming.

I treat it like a video game to get my competitive juices flowing -- trying to get a better accuracy %, or do x number of exercises in a certain timeframe, etc. -- to make it not feel so dreary and to keep the focus on both speed and accuracy.

It's really just pattern recognition. Repetition will help you start to get the natural communication and aptitude that you already have between your ears and your fingers to exist with the printed page as well.

I would avoid the ABC stuff like the plague. It's just time invested in something that is a dead end in terms of communicating (in both directions... i.e. sharing your compositions as well) with most of the rest of the musical world.

If "ABC notation" means what I think it does, the question must be "For G**ds sake, why?" ! It's a complete dead-end.

what is it ABC notation???