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This week...

Chopin Prelude in E minor --- still need polishing but I've noticed that I'm a lot more consistent with hitting the notes at the right tempo on this one problem spot

Burgmuller Op 100 No 7 --- at 50%, a work in progress for sure. Must say, I was inspired by Saranoya to learn this piece. It was the first time I've heard of this song when she posted it on the April piano bar i do believe.

River Flows in You --- I got the easy piano version on the first day I started playing the piano. Of course, I was clueless so I shoved it in a drawer hoping one day I'll be good enough to learn it. Yesterday, I happened to think about it again and I wanted to see how much I've progressed in 4 months. Happy to announce that I was able to play it with both hands....sounded rough and slow but I couldn't even do that 4 months ago.

With only an acoustic to play on, my poor husband has to hear my works in progress way too many times, but he has never complained. Today, however, after my lesson and after finishing my recording for the ABF recital, I told him that I'm staring work on a new piece, and he practically cheered. I have to admit that I'm excited to be moving on too. Next up -- Chopin's Raindrop Prelude.

Earlofmar: Thanks! I'm already having a wonderful time with this music - I love it! I'm rather excited to be taking part in the themed recital, truth be told!

Torquenale: I agree with doing everything possible to remove the stress! I haven't played any Polonaises yet - but I enjoy hearing that you're having fun with yours!


ElleC: I just can't get over how quickly you are moving forward. Wow. wow. wow..... You must be just thrilled to pieces. I know I would be.

MaryBee - Raindrop! Beautiful - you'll have a lovely time working on that. I'm really fortunate to have the dual system (dp built into my acoustic). I either practice the repetitive stuff when my hubby isn't home, or with headphones when he is --then he gets to be delightfully surprised when I present him with the prepared versions.

Wow thanks Casinintaly.I don't feel like it's been that quick of a progress but I do feel that my progress has been slow but steady. So far I haven't gotten to a part where I feel like I'm going absolutely nowhere.

Hey Happy Birthday JimF !

After checking out many options, I selected this for your enjoyment. These two lads play with vim and vigor- tremendous enthusiasm, and charge on bravely despite some rather obvious flubs!

I think it may just bring a smile to your face! Wishing you a joyful day and many happy returns of the day!

my challenge was to get the rhythm just right including 8 th notes at end of measures in What Will I Do and syncopation in Willow Weep For Me a la Wes Montgomery. Using the metronome to learn to hear it and later check myself worked great. Lesson versions went well as a result.

Cheryl - that was cool

JimF - happy birthday -

Cathy

Thanks Cheryl, that was awsome!

Thanks Cathy, I'm having a great day so far.

Oh boy. Epic FAIL on this count. And I'm so tired, and sore, and ... well, it won't do anyone any good if I continue to go down *that* particular list. Suffice it to say that now is not the time to catch up on what I've missed here, but I promise, I *will* get to you all ... tomorrow ... on Saturday morning (yeah ...).

I went to my lesson on Wednesday, but I didn't get to play anything: I had a seizure right before my scheduled lesson time, and when my teacher found me in a puddle on the floor of the lavatory, all she could do was hoist me back into my chair and call a friend to come get me.

But, I did have two new pieces ready to the point that I felt confident I could have played them in front of my teacher without making a complete fool of myself. Which, if nothing else, is an indication that I've left the 'progress plateau', if that is indeed what it was, behind me for now. I'm going to call that my AOTW.

I'm still trying to plug away at the second movement of the Moonlight Sonata, which for some reason won't let go of me, even as it stubbornly keeps refusing to start sounding like anything resembling the second movement of the Moonlight Sonata when I play it. It has become much more of a 'mission impossible' than the first movement, even though it looks easier, to me, on paper. But, I'm sticking with it. I refuse to give up. Which may not be an AOTW right now, but I'm hoping it will lead to one in the not too distant future.

JimF - Happy birthday!
Cheryl - what a cool music.

Ok I confess that I was scolded by my teacher. I was spending time on Chopin piece (oh so much more fun) and tinkering around Grieg pieces while neglecting my Mozart piece. She told me "I don't mean to scare you but you are playing this end of August in Maine, correct? You really have to zero in on it. You have to be able to play it fluently at speed (90 per quarter note or 180 per eighth note at least!) without stopping by the beginning of July. Then we can spend time practicing duet on two pianos. It would at least take 4 to 6 weeks for you to feel comfortable playing with other part. We will get there. But yoy have to zero in on it. So don't touch Chopin or nothing else. We will get back to it when you get Mozart back on track. Otherwise your Summer camp will be Hellish instead of enjoyable experience". Oh gee. And she made me play it with metronome at 160 per eighth note. After I struggled to play it, she wrote my exclamations as I utter and where i did in my score in pencil! So I see "oh sh*t! F*ck! Darn it! " written all over my score. She told me "those are the places that you get off tempo, stop swearing, it's a waste of time". Then made me go over those places I stammered one by one. So my AoTW was that I learned that I needed to surgically operate on those places to fix it. I guess I tend to practice like a robot at home. It took so much work in my lesson that I was completely exhausted. Kinda regret for signing up for two piano thingy for SummerKey. Donno what I was thinking. This is such an ordeal.

That is a real achievement. Is this the first Chopin Nocturne that you got to performance level? If so, way to go, and ... I'm a little envious of you!



I had the same experience recently with the Adagio (second movement) from Beethoven's third piano sonata, which was excerpted in a music theory book I was reading through, but only identified as the Adagio from Beethoven's third piano sonata on the next page. It was a pretty great feeling. I'm happy you got to experience it too, and I think it will help you in your piano playing -- because when you can 'hear' the music as you read it, you're less likely to misread and learn something the wrong way. So, a pretty fabulous AOTW right there.



Sam, given your obvious innate talent, I am sure you can acquire this skill with a little bit of training. Sight singing helps, and so does the opposite of that (melodic dictation). Get yourself some solfège books with simple melodies. These are used here in Belgium (and many other countries, I'm sure) to teach beginners how to read music before they start playing their instrument of choice. It helps your musical 'imagination', if you will, to be able to sing intervals and melodies in your mind, without having to hear them played first.



So, how did the recital go? My guess is, you were selling yourself way too short, here.



Oh man, this is so utterly recognisable to me! It would be hilarious, except for the fact that this is basically destroys all of my recital performances and the recordings I make for PianoWorld. I don't suppose you've magically gathered some great insight on how to avoid this trap since you posted the above?



It's the blood and sweat that make finally submitting it so satisfying, though ... isn't it? Congratulations. I'm looking forward to hearing your submission.



Oh yeah, you should so do this! Great advice! Don't worry, it took me a while to come to this conclusion, too! I only just figured it out last week! And it was such an epiphany when I did! I promise you, if you play this piece slowly -- really slowly -- for a week, you'll be playing it at double the speed you thought you could do two weeks from now! It only took me two days to double the speed by starting slowly, but it was with a piece I basically already knew how to play (I just kept flubbing when I tried to go faster).



I'm in awe of that list. Those are all pieces on my 'some day' list. I'm trying to get the Grande Valse Brilliante ready for the August B&B Recital, but I don't know that I can pull that off. In any case: wow, dynamobt. Well done!



I admire your ability to do this. Because I know that, for me, it's often when I look too far ahead and see how far I still have to go that I get discouraged and almost stop putting in the effort. You have to fortitude not to fall into that trap. Good for you!



This sounds to me like you've got a full plate and are bursting with enthusiasm to work on it. Good! A flying start is half the battle .



I think it's very brave of you to have submitted a recording that is so obviously 'not perfect' to you. Mind you, I did exactly the same thing ... which is how I know that it requires some bravery . So, congratulations.



As I always say when someone posts here about a new teacher: having a good teacher is *essential*, I think, to making good progress in your musical journey, and it is therefore the mother of many AOTW's still to come. So, three cheers for you and the new teacher!



Yay, I get to watch you on video! Can't wait. I'm still waiting on a gadget that will let me attach my iPhone to my music bookcase for a proper camera angle, but if it arrives in time, I'll post a video too.



So then you do have one! Improved reading ability is huge! Obviously, it will not just help you with this particular piece, but with all of your future pieces, too. Don't be so hesitant. Be proud!



This *is* a huge win, even if you don't get it ready in time for the recital. Because hand independence is an awesome skill to have, not just for this piece, but for all of them! Yay for buckling down and practicing that!



That's ... good, I guess? My performance of it must not have been as flawed as I thought it was, then. Or maybe it was, and I inspired you by bolstering your determination that you can do better than that. Either way, I'm sure you'll do much better than I ever could, once you polish it . Good luck!



Yay for the power of the metronome as a learning tool. Great that it's working for you!

Funniest post I've seen in a long time...

Family is out for several hours, I'm sitting at the piano, and what am I doing?

Posting on my phone...

Sounds awful... despairing of getting recital submission together. Piano sounds worse than before it was tuned.

Posting that was cathartic... just got a clean take. It's not very good, and recorded in mono on my phone, but it's representative of my capabilities at this time. I'll keep plugging away at it!

Thoughts? Should I complain?

You get to hear my entire repetoire (don't worry -- only takes a couple minutes), plus Chopin Op 28, #7 at the 3:12 mark:

[video:youtube]7UlHOIMpwR8[/video]

I feel like a spinet is inherently inferior and should not be expected to hold its tune very well, but I really question how it can be this bad this fast. Or, if this is normal, I don't know why anyone would own one.

Don't know what to say, Tallguy. Have your previous tunings on this piano been more to your liking and lasted longer? The weather here lately has been all over the place as far as humidity. This time of year is typically a time of transition from heating to air conditioning. I won't get my piano tuned until July after our A/C has been running for a while.

I used to have a spinet piano before getting my M&H. I don't think there is some inherent flaw in a spinet in general that they won't hold a tune. Mine would tune up well and hold tune very well.

Is this tuning experience vasty different from others on this exact piano? I think that's the question you should be asking. If the piano has tuned up well in the past and held tune, and you are not happy 8 days after a full tuning, then I would say somethig to your tuner about it.

BYW, you play very nicely!! I was expecting a beginner. You are more accomplished than that!!!

I think you should complain, TallGuy. I can't imagine it could possibly be this bad, this fast, unless it was badly tuned to begin with.

Also, I admire your fortitude in learning to play on an instrument that sounds *that* horrible most of the time. This alone should be enough of an argument for your wife to give you the go-ahead on getting the Hamilton from the church. Tell her it will improve *her* quality of life, too, since at least she won't have to listen to that awful-sounding piano all the time anymore.

That is pretty bad!
The accepted wisdom is that a spinet holds tuning less well than a full-size upright. This may be because of the inherent design. Or it may be because spinets tend to cater for the market that wants cheap and small rather than good. The only quality spinets I've come across were made by Challen - the BBC had a lot of them in their London studios.
But that's not acceptable, just after a tuning. If the piano wouldn't "hold" to that degree, the tuner should have said so and recommended you not to waste your money.

It's really octave 4 that's gone completely sour. Octave 5 is reasonable to my imperfect ear, but when you have to play in both octaves the result is unpleasant. The pop music definitely is more accepting of an out-of-whack piano.

It may not be so much that the piano is a spinet, but that the piano wasn't in the best of shape to begin with. If it hadn't been tuned in a long time, then when the tuner brings it into line, the strings will stretch some and bring it back out of tune quickly, requiring another visit.

If the piano has recently changed physical environments, then differing humidity and temperature may require that the piano settle in a while.

(Alternatively, there could be a more substantial physical problem.)

To the extent the piano's form factor is posing a problem it's going to be around the quality of the tone and a hard-to-control, hard-to-service action. Those problems are going to be inherent to the piano regardless of what your tech does.

If you've only just had your piano tuned, I'd ask the tuner to come back in and bring it back in line.