I suspect if we all had a few shots of whisky, EVERYTHING would sound just . . . . fine! Always does . .

Finally submitted a decent recording. I've been working on the hard part for weeks (not exclusively) and always messed it up in earlier attempts. Only... now I got some wrong notes in an easy part. Might try for a better recording during this week, but I fear it will take months before I'll play the hard part "always right". It can get so frustrating.

So, the piece was in last month's recital. This is a different version though; hopefully you guys don't mind

OK, I'm in ... not with the planned first movement of the Moonlight Sonata ():), but still: in.

Since I don't have a piano at my own apartment right now, it has proven tricky to find empty rooms to play in where I can afford to do several takes in a row of a seven-minute recital piece (because, unfortunately, I haven't quite gotten to the level of confidence that I need to do a single take of the Moonlight, and be done with it).

I will be doing the Moonlight (probably movements one and two) for my in-class recital in April, though. By then I will also have a grand piano at home, so for sure, Moonlight will be ready for the next ABF recital!

This little Haydn piece I ended up submitting was the first one I learned after deciding to get back in the saddle last September. The end result is a little disappointing (I should really be able to play it more cleanly, and with better dynamics, than this!), but perfect is the enemy of good (enough). Remembering that mantra is the only way I will ever be able to participate in the ABF recital. Because when I play a piece in a live recital and it has a few mistakes or hesitations, but is otherwise pretty decent, people will be left with the impression that I played pretty decently, and forget about the other stuff rather quickly (unless the flubs were super-obvious). Here, though, it's a recording. People can listen to it over and over again, should they so choose. That's an entirely different bag of chips!

However, I had promised myself I would participate in this recital, and now I did. Another one of my goals has been met.

Allard, it will be interesting to compare the two versions!

Saranoya, I get what you are saying about the live performance versus the recorded one - but I doubt anyone relistens to any of the recital pieces with the purpose of picking out the flubs.
Everyone who listens truly does understand what the red dot jinx is all about ---hey, do you even know about the
Order of the Red Dot ?

Even if folks do go back to listen (and, yes, it does happen) it will be to see how much you've come along between recitals, or maybe someone with less experience will follow the score and listen to you - they'll still appreciate your performance.

And and and...?

When/where/how did you record it? After hearing about your practice adventures in AOTW, I'm dying to know!

Thank you, Cas! Your words are very encouraging. And the Order of the Red Dot is rather cute .

For you, TallGuy, and for anyone else who might be curious, here are the comments I wrote on the submission form:

Oh good... I can sleep now.

She's so darn encouraging, there's a rumor going about that she just might be a "bot", created to roam around PW and make people feel good about themselves, regardless of whether they truly have anything worthy of feeling good about or not. She/it even PMs people to be encouraging. Amazing technology... I mean, a real person couldn't possibly be so consistently nice and supportive. Right?

Saranoya, what a great venue to record at! It would be perfect for recording pieces for the ABF Piano Bar by the way...

It seems like a great line-up of pieces this time too!

The piece I submitted is a fun piece and very different from what I have done here before. Our youngest son loves to sing along whenever I play this piece.

I came across the piece for the first time during the holidays and it was love at first listening so to speak. But I was quite disappointed when I learned that the sheet music was not available anywhere. In fact, the song has never even been released on CD (heard it on TV)... I quickly turned to YouTube and same thing again, I could not find anything...The song is only about a year old but still... As a result, I decided to try to transcribe it on my own. I had a blast doing it (and entering it into MuseScore) and I learned a lot at the same time.

Amaruk, you have picqued my curiosity - and that of many others, I'm sure. Good thing we don't have long to wait.


ATallGuy....:) Bots don't know how to respond to such positive feedback.....we are not programmed for this. Let's just say, what goes around comes around --- in one form or another, and when you least expect it.

Looking forward to Friday! ...but darn! I'm working most of the day....It will be a super-music weekend though, won't it?

Isn't every weekend super-music weekend?

Well, ..... there's weekend football and there's the Superbowl.
There's Saturday baseball and there's the World Series.

How very very odd for me to make sports analogies.

OK, everybody move up one. I resubmitted and dropped to #45. I also played the whole thing faster and took a minute off the recording! I realized while listening to it that it was painfully slow. I guess I was being too cautious. On the other hand, a faster tempo equals more mistakes...

Sam

Nice. I think you can get the recording you want by F. I thought about doing it but decided not to. My work is crazy busy and I have to prepare for my Piano party this weekend. It will be attended by PW members! Next time. I will be better someday.

Casinitaly "Looking forward to Friday! "

Is that when it all starts? I better get the beer in...

That's right Peter - the recital goes live on 15 Feb! woohoo!
I think I'll start my listening with coffee, then move on to Prosecco later in the day

Depends on where you are though. In the USA it will be 2/14.

Just checked the timer to see if it's correct this time - last time it had DST problems. The timer runs out when submissions close, and some time after that the recital goes live - it takes time for hard-working Monica to process everything and make the recital posts. There is no set time for it to go live...

Sam

And keep in mind that February 14th is Valentine's Day. Fortunately for AB forum, Mr. K will be out of town at a coin show that day, so I will have nothing to occupy my attention other than the recital, but in other years that might not be the case.

With the caveat that "past performance is not a guarantee of future results" though, Monica usually has it up very quickly. A bit more than an hour last time, just over half an hour the two times before that.

I have no time to look up stuff like this, but I do it anyway.

It seems slow to us because in our daily repetition we hear it so much and know it so well. I have found over long years that if I keep playing a piece I need to keep expressing more emotion though it.

When you reduce the tempo it helps to increase the dynamic range and exaggerate the phrasing. And remember that few listeners have had to listen to it as much as we ourselves have lately - apart from our poor spouse/children/pets etc

I'm in, it's good to see everyone.

Like Monica, I too am a lady of leisure now (guy version) and thus I will have plenty of time to listen and comment on the performances.

It's nice too see the ABF veterans continuing to participate in our recitals as well as listen to their progress.
(I'll have to keep an eye out for Peyton However as I think he's wanting to whip me or something!)

PLUS, I'm going to my first piano party this weekend at Farmgirls house. She has already indicated from her posts that she likes getting a little boozy from time to time so who knows how things will go. Things could get a little crazy where we all end up playing piano in our Speedos and dancing on the table tops before the night is over. Who knows. I'm not sure if I should be nice and behave or just go completely nuts. Well after giving it 3-4 seconds of thought, I decided that I must be true to myself which means I'll probably end up going nuts along with all the other party animals in the room.

A Super-music weekend certainly WILL be here soon.

Now how wonderful is THAT! I'm sure a great time will be had by all.

I would pay good money for video of the event.

I'm not sure if I'll be participating in the recital (probably not), but I think I'll be driving from Los Angeles for FarmGirl's piano party. I'm not gonna lie though. I'm really only going so I can see Super-Hunky in his Speedo.

So, um, about how much we talkin'? When it comes to money I get weak! Who knows what I'll do on film if the price is right. Unfortunately, grainy, big -foot spotting quality video is all my digital camera takes so I can't charge too much.

High def will cost you however. lol.

OK... I agree. A youtube vid of this is needed... Unless of course SH is pulling our leg and in fact they are all just going to sit around sipping wine and discussing the finish on Farmgirl's piano... Yawn.