Slicing beets on a mandolin? No pictures come into my head -

Cathy

mandolin. It's similar to an egg-slicer.

But the musical image that comes to mind first is much more interesting .

But much messier.

I confess to a moment of confusion myself on reading about a mandolin being put to such use

Ragdoll - I hope you heal up quickly!!!

This week I have two achievements: the first, I managed to play a bit every evening in a week much busier than usual; nice to have also a digital piano. Still, I miss my upright but I live in a flat and I can't play it late.
Second achievement: after several months my modified-by-the teacher Czerny study is at least decent, so I hope that in the next lesson (skipped this week and scheduled for Monday) the teacher will appreciate it!

Torquenale - good for you for keeping to playing every day - that can be a real challenge sometimes.
Playing late at night really is the upside of having a digital.
I've just been pounding away for about an hour (it is now 11.30pm) on my upright-with the digital (silent) option and having a BLAST.

I'm feeling quite "high" on my music right now and it is amazing how relaxed I feel after just throwing myself into the music and rockin' with it!

I see - yup. I only knew mandolins as something friends pick

Cathy

Quite messy so you have to cover the f holes with saran wrap to keep out the juice, to say nothing of the blood

Thanks Cas, I tried to play pp just now but it just is much too painful, hopefully when the stitch comes out it will be possible (3 more days)

Ouch! Ragdoll that sounds painful!!

AOTW- I have my Arabesque cascade polyrhythms working! However, I am dreaming in polyrhythms now!

Cathy

Thanks for the laughs this morning...loved the image of the mandolin as beet slicer. The image of Ragdoll's finger however made me wince. Ouch! Heal quickly.

It's not quite 5AM and I have the house to myself (my husband leaves early for work and the dogs wanted to go outside). It's MY place (neighbors acres away) and I can enjoy the sound of the piano. Every day I appreciate that I have this freedom and I also appreciate that many of you have digitals to approximate this free space. ACCOMPLISHMENT?? This week I learned another page of my Mozart Viennese Sonatina. Now if I can relax and let it have the speed (allegro) and delight that it should have. I'm wanting to learn this piece and a couple of others to take with me to Summerkeys in July. After the awful experience with the Master class a couple of years ago I understand that I should KNOW the piece.

Ragdoll - it really sounds painful. Take care. Keep your finger high.

Wisebuff - it's 5:50 here now. I have to start working in 10 min. I work from home a lot sine I have lots of phone calls with UK. Wish I could practice:)

FarmGirl, your list of pieces is VERY impressive. My bow to you for the level you've accomplished. Would love to play the Brahms Intermezzo 118. I DO love early morning...

I managed to get half an hour practise in before work this morning. It does feel good The only problem is that I then feel like continuing practise, rather than brave the cold and travel to the office. So I guess the achievement is hauling myself to work on time despite having sweet music to play!

YOU winced? I nearly wet myself. I think the pain and stitch is due to it getting into my cuticle on the right side of my thumb. Thanks to all who offered good wishes Cas, FarmGirl, SwissMs er'm allayall

LOL...I am really bad at the Largo unless it's the super easy one in Alfred's which is 4 bars long! This one I'm now working on is in Really Easy Piano Classical, Wise Publications but they are grade 3 so not easy to me!

I have only managed 3 1/2 bars on it so far. Just been practising Piano for about 40 mins. But maybe one day I'll play it properly and record it..though not sure how I'd record it unless my friend's phone will. Mine does vids, but as it's a £3.75 phone it only loads them to the phone!

The Largo was used for many years in Britain in Hovis bread adverts so it always reminds me of that- they'd show cobbled streets in Lancashire, so for years I always assumed this was a British melody LOL!



I am also working on Lavender's Blue and Cockles and Mussels from Alfred's- they are just to keep my hand in til lesson tomorrow. There are pieces in between to be learnt! I did Kum Ba Yah straight off BHT- that one is easy.





That's good news! Do you teach all levels of English? I have taught beginners- advanced in the past.





Sounds like you are having fun with the jazz. I've not even attempted that!

It is Dvorak's Largo from New World Symphony. You are too kind Allard- if you heard me you'd put your hands over your ears- as it is plonk plonk, wrong notes, plonk wrong note value, etc etc! I'm not even grade 1 and this is a grade 3 book, but keeping at it. If I get good at it one day I might do a recording....

Yikes! Raw beetroot then? They can be hard to slice. I'm making beetroot and apple soup on Saturday but going be lazy and get vacuum packed beetroot!
There must have been a lot of red ( beetroot included...) on your chopping board- poor you!
Have to say I do love beetroot- eat it a lot.

Have you got an upright and a digital or did you just keep the digital? I know what you mean about playing late- I don't play late as my upright 1910s Piano can be loud! Good playing with the Czerny!

Have you had snow Allard? I can't say I feel like playing in the morning- I'm too busy rushing about to get to work ( well on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays..the rest I snooze in bed....)

How nice not to have to worry about disturbing the neighbours! Well done with the Mozart!

As many people may say, It's not the pieces you play but how you play it. I'm not talented at all but have been playing the piano for a long time (7 years as a child, 3 years at my 1st come back and now 4 years since I came back to piano again). That's why my pieces are in the advanced categories. Due to years i put on, i have techniques to play well. But I think you need certain amount of talent and effort to play it well. I don't have lots of time either. So I actually stopped playing big pieces, Beethoven sonata for example. I'm trying to play smaller pieces I like Op 118 #2. This is a very approachable piece for many but not an easy piece to play well. I will submit it to the online recital but don't expect too much. Mine is like an experiment of a person with no talent.

EdwardianPiano - I don't know Lavender's Blue, I'll have to look it up!
As for the levels I teach - I've taught everything from absolute beginners up to Proficiency level, but most of my students are pre-intermediate or intermediate.
My youngest ever (a current student) is 8, my oldest was 73 (he's still alive, just not my student!)

FarmGirl - it is interesting to have you sum up your experience in one post - I knew you had played before -as a child - but I hadn't realized you'd done a bit of stop and re-start as an adult too.
All in all you have obviously been able to lay a foundation on which you can start doing some serious bulding.
Please don't start saying you have no talent! How many of us have "talent"? What we do have in great supply is dedication, passion and determination!

I too have never considered myself talented... others tell me I'm talented, but I'm not exactly sure what that means, though I do take it as a complement.

We are all gifted/talented in our own special way. I like what you said about dedication, passion and determination! Very true!

All the best!

Rick

It's on page 52 of Alfred's book 1.




Funny my youngest were 8 and oldest 70- something as well!

ps to Rickster- agreed, we all have our gifts. Nice post!

Um... .:) Not all of us have Alfred's book

I googled it. Very pretty!

Thanks Ricky! ---Nice to have you join us here!!!!

EdwardianPiano, fortunately I have both! But during the day I work, in the late afternoon, when we are at home, my children practice on the upright and I have a lot to do, so usually I can play in the evening (no TV for me) .
I reserve for me one hour on the upright on Friday afternoon before dinner, when the children are playing football.
I'm happy with the digital, but my upright is... so better!

I completely agree. I'm not musically talented (not even able to sing!), but I'm stubborn. And I consider myself lucky because I love the travel, today I practiced a couple of trills in my Scarlatti piece for half an hour, and I enjoyed it, even if I have still a lot of work to do on them.