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JEFF Great job!
I'm proud of you, I know you worked hard on it. I even like hearing the song at a slower pace , it gives the song a different "color". I liked the way you accented the notes!
As for me, I still have the music ( and I intend to hang on to it!) I still play around with it from time to time because it is a FUN song to play, I just haven't been putting in as much time with it because I am involved in some other projects as well as some projects outside the forum. However I sure am enjoying checking up on the progress of all you guys!

Opus, great job!!! You are making wonderful progress.

Ok, now let this be a fire under my piano-bench to get me to do another recording.

Re tempo, I don't think you have to worry about it, it will speed up alittle bit naturally on its own, and then your own abilities will give you the extra boost.

But, if you're worried about speed, you might do what I'm going to do (in addition to the crank and drop and all those others things I posted a few pages back.) Take two smallish sections, one easier and one harder (like maybe B and I or something) and work on getting those two sections really fast. I'm hoping this will give me two things: 1) The feeling of playing this piece fast, so I know what that's like and what I'm aiming for. And 2) the confidence that I can actually get the speed up.

Usually I don't worry too much about speed until I'm further along, but with CR, I'm also worried I'll have trouble picking up the tempo, so I thought I'd try as many speed-tricks as I could think of, and work on speed the same way I work on everything else (i.e. little by little and from an early stage of my practice of the piece.)

Does anyone else have any speed-tricks or other ideas?

BTW Jeff, are you doing any metronome work?

Opus, I believe establishing fingering is extremely important.

It's probably the most important 1st thing to do when learning a new piece.

Good fingering really simplifies learning the music, because the correct keys to play are almost naturally right under the needed fingers.

Also, one section of a piece flows smoothly into the next, if the fingering is good.

If the fingering is not good, it makes it much harder, if not impossible, to play smoothly.

So I'm always willing to devote as much time as necessary to finding the best fingering, and to revise it as needed.

Mel

You guys are great. Your comments are always motivating! Thank you everyone, but I still think I have much room for improvement at this very tempo (mm=50). My plan this week is to begin work on sections G & H while also polishing A-F.

Shiro, did you read what Piano*Dad wrote to Debussy20? "What helps him a lot is memorization. Once he memorizes something, the pace goes up." This is what I was talking about when I was asking if anyone used memorization as a learning tool. I'm thinking it might be worth it for me to actually memorize the Croatian Rhapsody, even though the thought of this actually intimidates me. But, wouldn't it be cool to sit down at a Piano anywhere & rip out the Croatian Rhapsody from memory?

Mel, I agree with about the fingering being important, and all of you were right on with your fingering suggestions last week.

Petrof, thanks for continuing to hang with us while we struggle through this. Have you actually already reached your own personal level of satisfaction with the Croatian Rhapsody? Awesome.

Memorization helps me enormously. I feel like I don't really have a piece perfected until it is memorized, because that's when I can apply all my attention to dynamics rather than looking at the notes.

Actually, Croatian Rhapsody doesn't strike me as a hard piece to memorize; there's so much repetition and patterning in the piece. It's just a &^%&* to play!

I have family in town so I have been struggling to keep up with all the posts...

Debussy20: Are you having any difficulties switching back and forth between versions? I quit playing the "B" because I felt like it was actually hindering my progress in the "K". Maybe that means I am relying too much on muscle memory...

Piano*Dad: Thanks for the latest audio posting. He did a great job, and in such a short period of time. Plus, it is always a pleasure to see how proud you are of your sons efforts.

Opus45: Very happy to see that you answered the call and posted your first song segment. Sounds pretty good. It is fascinating to hear how already everyone has had their own idea of how to express the dynamics of this piece.

Re: Memorization
I think it will definitely help to start memorizing this piece now. My only thought about memorizing while still learning a piece is that I think it becomes even more important to frequently go back and read through the music to make sure notes and/or dynamics are not being left out.

Its basically the same, I've begun page 2 of "B" version and not started on K yet. I'm going slow and steady and hopefully ill win the race (of technique of corse, I've already lost the race to Piano*Son )

Petrof, thanks for continuing to hang with us while we struggle through this. Have you actually already reached your own personal level of satisfaction with the Croatian Rhapsody? Awesome. [/QB][/QUOTE]

OPUS: Oh no, goodness no, I have not reached what you would call the personal level of satisfationwith the Croatian Rhapsody, what I meant was I just play around with a few of the measures, you got to admit, some of those measures are great finger exercises!
In all honesty, I've decided to do the Victor's piano solo (easier!) and since I already had the book before they started the group , the improvising blues piano group. I am also doing a few classical pieces outside the forum. That is actually more than my fingers can handle! I must say Shiro and Opus must be blessed with strong fingers to be able to handle this song in addition to the others. :p

I am proud of the rest of you for all the progress you've all made on this song in such a short time too! I enjoy reading about your progress and I enjoy listening to all your recordings!

Dynamics? Ummm, I wasn't doing dynamics...I was just concentrating on trying to get all the notes in without missing any .

The Croatian pop star Maksim does a really nice version of the Kamenasu version in his album, I listening to in right now. Its really good!

Jeff,

I just listened. That was really good clean playing. I think you're going about this in precisely the correct manner. You're not trying to speed up until you have complete control over a section. I also liked the phrasing where you lightly lift off to separate a section. As far as I can recall, no phrasing is marked, so it's dealer's choice.

On memorization, I know Gyro would disagree. He regards memorization as positively harmful to musicianship and to music reading. My obsvervation is just the reverse. I view memory as almost essential for elevating the pace and for allowing your interpretation to mature. On the other hand, you can create problems if you try too hard to memorize and thus train yourself to stare continuously at your hands as though they might somehow escape from the keys if you didn't watch them carefully.

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I just found a version of CR by Maksim.

Does anyone know anything about this version?

Mel

ok this is all i konw...
Croatian Rhapsody was originally writen by Tonci Huljic ( who wrote it after leaving his country and rembering his homeland)
In the latest years the Croatian star, Maksim, rewrote the piece to the funky beats of the "06". When we got the Burrows version, If you look on the site... Its actullaly a transcripion of Maksim's work!

Take a look at page 2.

It seems kind of ponderous.





Mel

Lately I've been really interested in left hand parts. It's the left hand, this version, the B version and the K version all have these subtle (or not so subtle) differences in the LH, and that changes everything!

I have only heard an excerpt of Maksim's recording of this on his CD, and it had synth stuff that I wasn't very interested in. But I am pretty sure that the K version's arrangement was mostly based on Maksim's CD version, and Maksim's popularity in Japan is surely the reason for the K version being published in the first place.

I thought this piece was a more recent piece, but I could be wrong about that. Tonci Huljic seems to have been involved in a lot of non-traditional, classical-influenced musical endeavors, like the "rock-classical" group Bond. I wouldn't be at all surprised if someone told me he was part of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Speaking of which, I wonder if their music is available in piano arrangements... As if I didn't have enough to play already!

I don't think I can handle another version!!! I already walk around singing endless verses of Croation Rhapsody.

Things are kind of quiet in here, so......

Progress Report: I have not had a lot of time to practice this past week, so I have been trying to sneak in occasional 5-10 minutes sessions. It seemed as if I hit a brick wall in my progress. I have been trying to drill the last two measures of section M. My left hand just wasn't hitting the right timing. In the meantime when I went back to keep the prior sections fresh my right hand fingering fell apart in sections G and H... It felt like I was starting from the beginning all over again. Finally last night I broke through the barrier and got everything back under control. I also have started to hit the right notes in section M.

So one week of fumbling through the darkness and I feel like I am back on track. I will try to get some time tonight and make a new recording.

True, but that doesn't mean I'm not still working on smoothing out sections A-F . I'm nearly up to [1/4=66].

I'm not even going to print out the Maksim version until I've learned and memorized the K version.

Mel

good plan