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Great progress Allard!

That's good Artur!

Make that four!!!

Wow, I stay away for a week and a half, and there are 5 pages of AOTW to catch up on! You guys are making achievements left and right!

Becca, congratulations on your graduation to the next level! So much more good music to look forward to.

Starr, how exciting that you got into the performance class. What a great opportunity for you!

FarmGirl, it sounds like you're getting some good experience in your studio class. It must be wonderful to notice the difference in confidence from week to week.

Dustin, well, that sounds more like your achievement of the decade, rather than achievement of the week! Welcome to the thread. Keep us posting on how things go as you get back into playing.

PattyP - what piece are you working on?

There was a discussion a few pages back about talent. My teacher said that his students who have made the most progress were not necessarily the ones with the most innate talent, but the ones who were the most dedicated to practicing and learning.

Dvorak's Largo was also mentioned. I'm going to hear this performed later this month. The Cleveland Orchestra will be playing the New World Symphony and the Mozart symphony #40 in G minor. Two beautiful works -- I'm so excited!

I've been concentrating on wrapping up my ABF recital piece. I'm ready for something new, and needed to finish this up. Also finished the Mozart C-minor 2nd mvt. I played it at my last lesson, and my teacher said it was "very nice" (that's as good as it gets from him). My grandson was also listening in, and he added his own opinion, saying, "Nana, that was beautiful!" Now that made my day. So I get to move on the 3rd movement.

I also wrapped up another Bach Sinfonia and am starting on another this week. I might be ready with a set of three for the next recital.

We did some ear training at my last lesson, and I seriously surprised myself when I was able to distinguish between I, ii, VI, and V chords. However, I have this fear that it was just beginner's luck, and next week when we add the vi chord, I'm going to utterly fail. I think this might test the limits of my teacher's abilities!

It's been a long time since I've posted, so it's hard to cover everyone's achievements, so somewhat randomly here, except new arrivals first:

Saranoya, Dustin Spray, torquenale, and PattyP -- Welcome! It's nice to have new folks join this little community (AOTW) within a community (ABF) within a community (PW). I'm basically a "new folk" myself, but everyone is so welcoming that you'll feel like an old friend in no time.

PattyP -- I got a good chuckle out of "shazaam!" for some reason. It really struck the old funny bone.

On to the old timers...

MaryBee -- Congrats on the ear training. I doubt it was beginner's luck!

FarmGirl (also Starr Keys and I think there are a couple others doing group classes?) -- Good for you for tackling this and sticking with it. It's a wonderful opportunity and you're obviously making the very most of it. "Well Tempered Cleaver" cracked me up... it does make sense on a certain level! Are you still planning to do Brahms 118 #2 for the recital I hope? I've been looking forward to that.

Cheryl -- Doing jazz?? I am really looking forward to hearing this in 11 days.

Sand Tiger -- Congrats on the PX-150. Glad you were able to make that work. From hearing your last recital submission, it never would have occurred to me that you were limited to 61 keys. I'm looking forward to hearing "Shadow" and what you'll do with the full complement! I've been using an Android metronome as well and it is excellent. "Ostinato" -- never heard of it either, thanks for explaining. Thanks also for your words of encouragement to everyone re: the recital. I've been on the fence, and you're helping push me over.

MaryAnn -- Very happy to hear that your long-running wrist troubles seem to be reaching their conclusion!

To all doing Moonlight Sonata -- I'm a little jealous. What a beautiful piece. I hope you all do well with it and that we get to hear you all in the recital this time or maybe down the road.

RagDoll -- My wife has had some bad mandolin experiences, so I was wincing. Glad to hear you are on the mend now. And Happy Un-birthday as well!

malkin -- Your signature line gives me a big smile every time I spot it.

SwissMS -- We'll hear the Arabesque eventually? I would try the Fazioli. Ultimately, the store really wants you to try the Fazioli, fall in love with it, and maybe buy it some day. I'm reminded of someone else in ABF (I forget who it was but maybe someone else will remember) who really wanted to own a Bösendorfer, which he eventually was able to afford when he retired. As I recall he had it as a goal for much of his life, and he was thrilled to have made the purchase -- and it wasn't something he was able to do casually because he was wealthy. You never know... maybe it will be a possibility for you some day. Or even if it isn't, if you convince yourself that it could be -- maybe you won't feel so self-conscious about trying the Fazioli.

JimF -- I love the graphics! Except for the one for RagDoll... tut tut!

BeccaBb -- Sounds like a big leap forward, and totally unexpected on your part. Congrats!

Wow, and all that is going back just one week! AOTW seems very busy lately, which is a very good thing.

I'll post separately re: my progress.

Marybee - nice to see your post again. I don't think it's surprising that you have good ear. You are very musical.

EdwardianPiano - my experiment (play the piano without looking the keys) is going not so badly. Sometimes I have to feel the black keys to land on certain keys but I'm making some progress.

JimF - well it's been great to use your advice to play 3 against 4. There was a slight problem. In my choir (church, I may add), we have been working on Easter special music. It includes 3 against 4. So I proudly shared my newly acquired knowledge passed from you. It worked so all of us started singing with those (unspeakable) words (LOL) in the sanctuary to get the rhythm. Then our church leaders walked by and was shocked. I explained it but was scolded. Some people don't seem to have sense of humor. You should have seen his face when he learned it was me who shared it.

ATallGuyNH - yes I'm going to submit 118#2. I could not record it today due to super ball.

AOTW is more like AOTM (Month) due to mind-boggling demands of work. I put in 80-100 hours per week for two straight weeks, then dropped down to a 60 hour week and it felt just fantastically relaxing.

A month ago I started maintaining detailed records of all of my playing time (except when I just spend a few minutes doing random stuff). So today I totaled up my time and checked how I was doing vs. my intended 40/20/20/20 plan.

Plan:
40% - New songs (Just The Way You Are)
20% - Method (The Piano Handbook)
20% - Old Songs (Clair de Lune, only partially learned)
20% - Sight Reading (Kid's Hymnal & Mikrocosmos)

I've only had 12 hours of playing time in the past month, but here's the breakdown:

43% - Just The Way You Are
35% - Piano Handbook
13% - Clair de Lune
9% - Sight Reading

Only 12 hours in a month is not a recipe for real progress. I'm moving forward, but painfully slowly.

However, I'm very happy with the ratios above, because the differences from plan are quite healthy. I was worried that I'd find it really hard to back off from Clair de Lune, but this hasn't been the case. I still play the portions I know a fair amount, but I'm totally OK with not learning more (for now -- a couple years at least before trying again). Also, when I play it, it is with a critical ear re: touch, expression, phrasing, etc. so that I am learning from it even if I'm not learning new portions.

I'm also doing less sight reading than I had planned, but this is mostly because I'm just not ready for it. I need some basic aptitude before I can really sight read anything, so it's not a great use of my time to slowly grind through things. I am doing so for variety and because my kids and I like hymns, but not taking all that much time for it.

So, I'm doubling down on The Piano Handbook, which I think is wonderfully written and laid out. I've resolved to continue to play each piece (exercises really, at this early stage) with the metronome until I have them down cold and with proper rhythm. Except Frère Jacques, I just can't take that one!

This has been a very humbling experience. I can play about half of Clair de Lune tolerably well, and Just The Way You Are pretty well on a digital, but I can't play even the simplest of exercises with proper rhythm on a consistent basis, even at 60 bpm. But, as has often been the case on my fairly short piano journey, recognizing a flaw and developing an approach to address it feels like an achievement in and of itself.

Another achievement: I've arrived at a détente with my wife re: the love seat that sits immediately behind the piano bench, forcing me to be scrunched up against the keys. I finally turned the thing sideways so that it faces the piano (since it is wider than it is deep, and nobody other than the dog ever sits on it anyway) and now I have much more space. Not complete freedom to move as far back as I'd like, but enough that I'm in a very reasonable position without me looking and feeling like a folding chair.

What else... I really wanted to submit "Just The Way You Are" for the recital from my acoustic, but this is not going to be feasible for several reasons. First is that my piano is out of tune, and I have a number of keys that are sticking -- which is odd because I thought that this was more likely in high humidity of the summer. It's dry as a bone here, and I had no sticking issues at all just 8 weeks ago as winter was beginning, which makes no sense to me since everything drying out should make it shrink, not expand.

Also, recordings I've done on the phone (.mp4 and .wav) can't be opened at all on my computer, despite considerable effort to fiddle around with Audacity and Windows Media Player. Very odd, and very frustrating. Has anyone had experience with this?

So, I have an out-of-tune acoustic, with sticking keys, no proper recording equipment, and I can't convert the files recorded with my cell into something usable on a computer. Oh, BTW, my pedaling and touch are not up to snuff. On the acoustic it's not totally awful, but it's not at all crisp either. So, it's not looking good right now.

Still, I do have the DGX-500 in my back pocket, and I've recorded from it directly to the laptop before (in mono). I may give that a try. The acoustic setting on it winds up sounding rather "blah", but there are some settings that can be used to sound somewhat close to the original recording. I'll give that a try and see if something usable comes out of it.


Yay!


Of course this sent me scrambling to wonder what on earth Jim suggested... but I can't find it.

Farmgirl

OMG. You got me falling on the floor laughing at the mental image of your whole group chanting my mnemonic in church...and getting caught!!

For the baffled: I pm' d farmgirl with a little saying that helped me internalize a 4 against 3 rhythm. Definitely not church material, however.

aTallGuyNH, have you tried emailing the clip to yourself and downloading. My computer does not like the MP4 format. I need a separate converter program to make a MP3. I believe the one I have is called AnyVideoConverter, but there are several utilities to choose from.

As for 12 hours for the month, I was on a similar schedule from late September to December, 15 to 20 minutes a day. I found it difficult to make any head way, but at least did not back slide. Some folks use a phone app or tablet app to help learn the notes while away from the piano. If a person has commute time, listening to recordings, or tutorials might be of some value. Some listen to recordings of their own playing.

FarmGirl, Well Tempered Cleaver? instead of Clavier, that is funny.

aTallGuyNH - Yes, Arabesque will show up in recitals eventually - probably in August. I am targeting the Nocturne for May. It is almost ready to start trying to record. I would like to be ahead of the game for once.

FarmGirl & JimF - now I am dying to know your 3 against 4 rhyme! Mine is easy and can be sung by a choir "I -will not - make a mistake - today".

Well, I think I caught the "bad lesson" flu this week. It was a near disaster. I woke up to 10 centimeters of new snow and knew my usual bus - train connections to Zurich would not work. So, my wonderful husband drove me, but with the traffic it was harrowing for both of us. I arrived on time, but totally stressed out. My hands were literally shaking. I plowed my way through the first 1/2 of the Arabesque, not exactly the way I planned. This was the first lesson where I was supposed to play the invention hands together, and it looked like a foreign language to me. So my teacher reminded me to practice in small sections from the end. At least I think she understood why I was so brainless.

JimF, you know you're going to get pestered about the 3-against-4 ditty you gave FarmGirl until you 'fess up. Might I suggest you use pig-latin so you can get it past the PW censors? Just kidding.

Sand Tiger wrote (boldface mine):

Cool. Though I had heard of the word, I didn't know what ostinato meant either until a couple of weeks ago. I happened to be listening to the old "Shickele Mix" program on my mp3 player while out for a walk and he mentioned 'ostinato' and then explained what it meant. The thing that fixed the definition in my mind was that he said its origin (Italian and Latin) was the equivalent of 'obstinate,' which is what ostinato is-- repetitive, pushing onward, etc.


My AOTW. I've been getting Canon in D in fairly consistently at 6 1/2 minutes. I now need to slow it back down again and do some work with the metronome. I also returned to Chopin's Waltz in A minor (posthumous). I worked on it for a time this spring, and then my kitty cat died and the minor key was hard on me. But I picked it up again a few weeks ago and it came back pretty quickly--along with my problems with measures 17-24, wouldn't you know. It helps if I watch (glance at) my left hand. Right hand seems to know pretty well where it has to go.

Thanks Sand Tiger, the email idea worked!

I have no idea why, but for some reason a direct copy via USB to the PC results in an unusable file, but emailing it works. Very strange! The problem w/ the email is that of course it can't be used for MP4 or WAV files of any significant length. Even an MP3 (see below) is extremely slow to upload when emailing from the phone.

Any idea of what the root cause might be? I've Googled to no avail re: why the USB transfer results in a useless file. One thing I noticed is that the emailed files are ~50% the size of the USB transferred files. Not sure if that's a useful clue or not.

Since I can't email the large files, I got an app (free!) called MediaConverter that converts from all sorts of formats to MP3 or MP4. Lickety split I had an MP3 from both WAV and MP4 files. Woohoo!

Still, even the MP3 files have to be emailed to work. Moving across USB doesn't do the trick.

Bonus -- I found out that my phone is recording in stereo! I had no idea... awesome.

So... can you help with my sticky keys?

I admire all you guys who consistently keep going through this thread and commenting on each individual achievement — and I have to admit that it's nice to receive that kind of feedback with a personal touch. So that will be my goal for next week: not only read every post here, but to respond to each one individually.

For now, let me just say that it's delightful to read about everyone's accomplishments, and I'm cheering you all on quietly.

That said ... It hasn't quite been a week yet (although, technically, it's already Wednesday here ... barely, but still), but my AOTW will be that I managed to play every day this week despite not having a piano at home.

Last Wednesday, and then again this Tuesday, I played at a local pub. This was not quite as scary as I had feared, since there was a lot of background noise and people pretty much ignored me, if they heard me play at all. Thursday, I went to the piano store, as I explained up thread. Saturday, I pulled the same routine again at a different piano store. Sunday I played at a friend's house. The piano was dreadfully out of tune, but beggars can't be choosers. Monday, I played in class before and after music theory. On each of those occasions, I played for at least an hour total. Friday was the outlier. I had to sing in a choir at City Hall that night. Between rehearsals, I snuck in five minutes on the Bösendorfer concert grand.

Today (well, at 6 PM today, it's now almost 1 AM) will be my piano lesson. Which makes the circle round.

The bad news is, I still don't have a good e-cital recording. Turns out it's tricky, when you give yourself only one take because you are hogging someone else's piano and people are listening. Apart from the one magical time on the Fazioli at the store, I haven't managed a single note-perfect rendition .

I guess my ideal AOTW for next week will therefore be the same one as last week's: find an empty room containing a reasonably in-tune piano, and get that recording in the bag.

Hi All, I haven't posted all week as I have been taking pictures up river of the bald eagles. They winter here every year. Also playing around with the new Q3HD and finally got it almost figured out. I did record a couple of my practices this week (a humbling experience) and was disappointed with the results. I am not sure what bit rate and htz to use or what 'gain" low high or auto. The "auto" setting gives a very "ringy" sound to the audio. The furnished manual leaves a lot to be desired.

My lesson today was good and I have asked teacher to let me pick a different piece (other than Canon in D) for my intro to any classical effort. She agreed and I chose to begin with Night Song. It doesn't look too complicated but who knows yet <shrug>, looks can fool you. I also played Amazing Grace for her which hadn't been assigned, just something I had worked on to practice my triplets. She said it was "lovely" and that made me feel good. Thumb is doing great with only a bandaid so that's a relief.

I have also puchased Hannah Smith's "Progressive Sightreading Exercises for Piano and committed 15 min a day to it. My sightreading is weak right now, especially in the bass clef.

Well sorry for writing a book.

You're not really going for note-perfect, are you? I don't think I've ever submitted a piece to one of the recitals that had no mistakes.

Ragdoll, ouch! I sliced off the tiniest bit of the tip of my finger once with a rotary cutter, and I can still almost feel that sensation. (I'm so much more careful now!) Hope yours heals up well.

It is hard to keep up with all the input,and to respond to everyone --- sometimes we can do it, other times...well, we just send a group cheer!

SwissMS, sounds like your teacher was very understanding and supportive - but that's tough, being so stressed for your lesson.

Stubbie, you're working on 2 of my favourite pieces ! I am smiling just thinking about them - you must be having a wonderful time!

Tallguy - that's great you can record now! We'll be waiting to hear you !

Saranoya - you must be going nuts waiting for delivery of your piano!!!!! Good for you for getting in your playing every day, that IS quite an achievement!

Ragdoll.... Is photography your passion or your profession (or both!)? Great to get such nice feedback from your teacher!

Saranoya, I agree with MaryBee. You can't stress about note-perfect.Even if you do get all the notes right, you might flub the dynamics, or just as you finish your final chord the phone will ring...What we all do is to play as best as we can at the given point in time.

My ATOW ..hmmm... Well, I had a good lesson and best of all, I've seen an osteopath (who also happens to my one of my students) - and he is working miracles with the muscle tension problems I've had in my neck, shoulders and arms. Even the lingering problems with the trigger finger seem to have disappeared since the last treatment. I'm thrilled.

If that was a book, then a lot of my posts have been libraries.


Thanks... but I realized that there is one more overriding factor that I keep forgetting, which is that I haven't performed it for my wife yet.

I'm looking forward to sharing it, but it is first and foremost a very personal/intimate gift for her. It just wouldn't be OK to record it and share it with others before performing it for her. Theoretically, I could record it (piano only) ahead of time and have it ready to go, then post to PW on the evening of 2/14 after performing it for her live (with vocal). Valentine's Day would be the perfect occasion.

This is really unlikely to work though. My voice is a wreck (I've been sick off and on for weeks) and I don't have the simultaneous singing/playing thing at a level where it flows properly. Grrrrr!

And, there is literally not a single other thing that I know how to play. I'm half tempted to post Mary Had a Little Lamb as an act of humbling myself... but I'd need to learn it first.


Exhibit A for ignoring sub-optimal playing conditions and posting something quite good nevertheless: CebuKid's submission to ABFR #28: http://recitals.pianoworld.com/recital_files/Recital_28/play-all.html

Neither, it's just more a hobby. My daughter gifted me a wonderful Canon SLR for Christmas 2 years back and I love taking photos with it of lots of occasions but wildlife especially.

Yes, I do enjoy compliments from her and they are very encouraging to me when I have nailed something other than lesson material.

AOTD: Successfully posted my first ever YouTube video, of me playing the piano.

The "catch" is that nobody will want to actually listen to more than a few seconds of one of the most out of tune pianos ever.