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Wow, an identical piece to the Rameau I'm working on! And my metronome doesn't go that slow ...

Except the variation I have right now ties your arms in knots too because there are tons of hand crossings going on (with repeated notes, CAS would go ballistic ).

I'm feeling very good today.

This moring I was able to play the MacDowell for my wife from memory, without practice first, without noticeable glitches, and pretty much exactly as I was trying to have it sound. It has finally come together and not a moment too soon.

The practice recital/piano get-together is this Sunday, and the recital a week later. On Sunday I will play both the MacDowell and the Ravel, but I'm leaning toward choosing the MacDowell now for the real recital. I may not actually play it as well as this morning at recital, but now I know that I can.

Oh, and one more thing. That funny speed thing with the mistaken metronome setting a few weeks back was actually a breakthrough. I have been leaving the setting for scales at 84 bpm, 4 notes per beat - and that is now quite reachable - which leaves my old speedwall at 70 in the dust. Better yet, I believe the breakthrough is driven by improved technique leading to reduced tension, something I have worked hard on with my teacher.

Did I mention I'm having a good day?

Andy, isn't it amazing how we keep on discovering these new pieces?

I don't like the sound of the hands crossing. A lovely thing in and of itself, but not nice on the piano sometimes, and it all seems a little complex.

Now, if you were playing a double-manual harpsichord, you'd be able to play each hand on a separate keyboard, eh? Which is probably what Rameau had when he wrote it I don't have a double manual, so when I'm confronted with one I 'forget' that there's two keyboards you can use, each for a different hand if necessary.

JimF, you have a year on me. Glad you're enjoying your day!

Cheryl, as long as you're playing and listening to good music your tastes will change and grow. Don't feel bad about dropping either Mozart or whole periods. It's not necessarily a permanent decision. Don't play what you don't enjoy.

Changing fingers on repeated notes, btw, is a hangover from the old escapement mechanism. Harpsichordists don't do it. It was a way of making sure the key rose fully before being struck again. Modern mechanisms don't need it but there is still an advantage to be had using three fingers for triplets and four for semi's to bring out the correct accents. Whatever; a frustration is a frustration and shouldn't interfere with our therapy.

I object to composers or teachers telling me what hands or fingers to use. They have neither my hands nor my experience. These are decisions I can make myself, thank you all the same.

My AoW is finishing my first pass of a Liszt piece one week early. I had planned to spend three weeks going through it putting it into immediate memory (memorising each fragment for that day, not necessarily recalling it the next day). I do the last 6 bars tomorrow (of 152) and can still remember almost two thirds of the piece. This is the best I've done since returning to the piano last Christmas. If only I could memorise Bach this quickly!

Happy Birthday Richard!

And thank you for the musical history lesson - very very interesting!
I do feel that my "dropping" Mozart for the moment is exactly that... I need a different moment. I'll come back to him at some point.
As for being told which fingers to use... well, I'm still at early stages and don't mind some suggestions - but I don't really feel that these suggestions are written in stone. There are many cases where I've been able to get the swing of a piece reasonably quickly, having saved time by not being obliged to figure it out for myself. I certainly hope that some day I'll be saying "oh for Pete's sake, I can figure it out"


Andy - me go ballistic? Never ! (Well, hardly ever! ) - Any G & S fans around? The music sounds very interesting I would love to hear you and Eglantine playing these pieces!

Jim - you hit one of the nails right on the head. There is a chord in the first bar of one piece that has C#, D and F# and it just grates on my nerves (and it is repeated several times. ) Plus the fingering is very uncomfortable. I don't have any problem making tweaks to fingering suggestions, (especially as I have a couple of particulary sensitive joints I have to treat tenderly!!) - nor does my teacher have any objection to logical changes (or even simply more comfortable ones) - but the combo of a physical discomfort and the aural irritation -- deadly, just deadly.

Your words of wisdom with regard to taking each new challenge at a time are not falling on deaf ears. Thank you. And good one, quoting me back to myself!

Jim, I also really enjoyed reading your report of your very good day. How lovely that such a series of good things are happening on your BIRTHDAY!!!
Buon Compleanno caro mio!

(hey, are you and Richard twins?)

Tonight I went through several of my books picking out Classic period composers and looking at different pieces to (temporarily) substitute the ones from last week - I've got a very good selection to choose from.

Thanks for the encouragement folks. Today I really needed it.

C,

Molte grazie, il mio amico!!

But now you've got my curiosity aroused. Can you tell us what the piece is with the grating Dmaj7th in the 1st bar?

Glad you've found a suitable list of substitutes. No reason to play something that makes you grind your teeth.

At last I can write one achievement: I’ve finished the first volume of “Mikrokosmos” by Bartók. It has been very helpful for me to improve my poor sight-reading. And I’ve used the metronome in every exercise, so my erratic rhythm has got a bit better.

Now I’m going to try the second volume, where the music is even more beautiful. I love these little works.


BTW ¡Feliz cumpleaños Jim!

wow that's great. I've been doing scales a lot since my tension issue started. I find I can release tension doing scales easier than when I'm playing a real piece. But I can't do HT yet unless it's contra.

I guess that was my AOTW a few weeks ago. Recognizing tension while I played and figuring out how to relax.

Recaredo - good for you - I've heard lots of good things about that first collection, but know nothing of the second. You'll have to let us know what you think of it.

MaryAnn, learning to relax is one of the fundamental keys to success - good for you!

JimF - the piece is Diabelli's Bagatell Op 125, N10. In and of itself it is quite sweet - just not for me at the moment.

I haven't thrown any achievements in here in a while, so I'll take a shot at it.


I'm becoming much more comfortable playing around people. I'm getting better at keeping focus on the music. It's still a challenge, but I'm seeing progress.

I'm becoming very aware of tension in my shoulders and wrists when playing quickly, which means I've been able to almost eliminate it. It still needs more work, but much progress has been made.

And most important: I'm starting to really HEAR what I play. This is good and bad. Good because I'm able to see how much room there is to improve; bad because I can't fudge anything. If I can't REALLY play it at tempo then I can't play it at tempo. And if I try to, I hear that it's a total mess

Sounds like lots of accomplishments this week!

Sam Rose- congrats for being more comfortable playing around others. That is a big step. Recognizing and eliminating tension is really an accomplishment!

CasinItaly, I can relate to the difficulty playing pieces that grate on you. My teacher has me playing the Bach prelude staccato like an etude, and I keep changing the enharmonic progressions so they sound better to me. I don't think Bach would appreciate that. She is using this piece to improve my concentration, speed, and accuracy and it isn't any fun. I asked to set it aside, and she said "No". But, I think I am getting better after 6 months! I still have trouble with the last section before the finale, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully your teacher will find other pieces to teach you that will have the same skill set. In retrospect, I think I might have progressed faster if I liked the piece!

In fairness to my teacher though, her technique is working. I no longer make errors from lack of focus, and my physical accuracy and finger independence are way better. I have far better keyboard control. So, clearly, she knew what she was doing. In our first lesson I said I needed help because I make too many errors. I guess she helped me a lot with that problem!

My achievement this week is that I have Chopin Nocturne in Eb major fully memorized and can play it at speed relatively error free. I love this piece! It is a great one to let yourself sink into, far from the cares of the day. That is what playing piano is all about for me!

Sam, getting rid of tension is super -and getting to the point where you really HEAR what is going on...another great plus! I'm looking forward to hearing what you do over the next few months!

SwissMS - Sounds like your teacher was really helpful and you have made some veyr significant progress! Good for you. And congrats on your Chopin! What a joy!!!


My teacher was - as always - very understanding about the pieces I've taken a disliking to. She said that she had no specific goals for technique in the assigned pieces, she is simply working at exposing me to a lot of different music. We took a little step backwards in time and went with a piece by Leopold Mozart and 2 Handel pieces. She discouraged me from going back to pieces I've worked on but never polished up to performance level, saying that it was too soon to go back to them.

Fair enough. There's so much music available!!!!

We're doing my lessons at the school this month, instead of at my home, because my neighbour is studying for exams and asked me not to play the acoustic at certain times. At the end of my lesson there is a young lady of about 14 who comes in. Today as I came out the principal was there and we were having a chat- then she needed to speak to my teacher, and as I heard the young lady playing the Ragtime Do.Si.Do that I played a while ago, I popped back into the piano room. We chatted a bit - and I had my jazz books with me, so I showed her the Soft Shoe Blues piece and then we played it as a "duet" (I played bass, she played treble) til our teacher came back. Then she coached us through another one.

When I got home I sent a message to suggest that we take some time from the end of my lesson and the beginning of hers to play duets for the next few weeks and both the teacher and the teen were enthusiastic! I'm really excited about this.

Btw, if anyone is concerned that the girl didn't get her full lesson -don't worry - I know she did, my teacher does sometimes "slide" with lesson times, but no one is ever short-changed.

My achievement: my teacher suggested that I do exam for 8th grade in june, so I'm practicing more and not "just" playing my assigned pieces. It's so hard to practice! Well, I'm thrilled about this exam. I took the exam in 2009 for 6th grade, it was my first exam and I was very nervous. All went well then. Of course I'm nervous also for this exam, but I already know the procedure so it's more like: ok , let's do it.

And another sad story; my dear friend (60) died one week ago, she had cancer. Every night I used to phone her and play whatever I practiced; and almost every night it was her piece of choice, the For Elise, on the repertoire.

Great achievements from everybody, congratulations on your piano journey.

I am just checking in, not necessarily with an achievement. I took most of my week #9 off because of soreness in the hands. I have a history of problems related to repetitive stress from typing, flute, whistle. I just practiced for the first time this week for about half an hour. I remembered some stuff, but stumbled on a lot of stuff too.

casinitaly, what a great story. Duets sound like fun.

Ina, I'm sorry to hear about your loss. How nice that you played for her; I'll bet it meant a lot to her. Good luck with your exam.

Sand Tiger, I'm having to take it easy right now, too. My left hand is better than it was, but still hurts sometimes. I need to see a different doctor. I also need to sort out the Alexander technique lessons.

I'm such a klutz with rhythm. It was that figure in the 2nd measure. That same rhythm pattern is repeated many times throughout the movement. We started by tapping together, just the quarter beats, but included the sixteenth note just before the trill. Then I tapped it on my own. Then I played the notes on my own. Then we added in the rest of the beats (but without the trill), following the same method: tap together, tap by myself, play by myself. Finally we added the trill, in the same manner. It took 15 or 20 minutes, and it was tough at the time, but it sure was effective!


FarmGirl, good luck with your recital this week. Let us know how it goes.

MaryBee, I am still at half the speed of professionals. I am now able to include melodies but it's still extremely slow. I recorded it and hated it. My teacher told me that I don't need to play like pros. Metronome mark is 108 for a quarter note. I play 108 for an eight note (sigh). If I play at 150, it will totally mess me up in the middle of the piece. She told me that I could polish it further after the recital if I want to bring up the speed. So I will play the piece with the current speed for the recital and work 4 more weeks to get the tempo up to at least 84 for a quarter note. Thank you for your encouragement. I needed it. I wish I could have practiced more. But it is what it is.

What good advice! I know that I sometimes get discouraged when I listen to professional performances of a piece that I'm working on. Of course mine will never sound like that! I have to try to remember to enjoy the music for what I can do with it, and concentrate on what I can bring to the piece, rather than worrying about playing it like the pros. It might also help to remember that luckily there probably won't be professionals playing along side you at the recital.

MaryBee, I can see why it would have taken a while to sort out that second measure. I can "think it" in my head after looking at it (for what some might say is a rather long time ) but I don't know that I could get my fingers to do it.

It is for this sort of thing that we really value our teachers, isn't it? In 20 minutes we can get a handle on something that would either have taken hours on our own, or that we would never have managed to get quite right.

Sometimes I find that just listening and watching my teacher's fingers gives me the input I need to get over this type of stumbling block (though my stumbling blocks are (ahem) a tad less tricky )

FarmGirl - it is great that your teacher helps you keep some perspective. We can always aim to improve - but we can't set impossible goals for ourselves. And that is not to say that we will never play at a certain speed or never be able to play certain pieces - only that we have to have realistic ideas on how long it might take for us to get up to those levels.

I think MaryBee brought up a good point - we have to pay attention to enjoying what we play and recognizing our own progress without comparing ourselves to others who have been playing for a lifetime.

I'm a bit envious of your recital. I was going to participate in one but they are holding it on an evening I work oh well. Another time.

Well done, Mary Bee.
I too am back to going through counting the beats super-strictly in this piece, as I feared the addition of ornaments had streeetched time in various places, and not in a good way. Counting is an excellent way of keeping things under control.
Doing it without the trill first, as you did, seems the most sensible.

This last week, lots of progress on the Baroque ornaments: there are now 5 I can recognise and execute. Colour coding each type with a different colour highlight pen - at the suggestion of a fellow student - really helped the de-coding process, and now they're automatic. There are 105 ornaments in the piece, an average of one per bar or so, so it's been a fab piece for practising ornaments, and learning them has been key for getting the piece right.