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Still working on my Joplin piece Weeping Willow. It is coming along quite nicely. I can now play through the first 2 sections fairly well. I like to play it slower than I have seen others play on YouTube. Hopefully, I can have something worth recording soon. I think I am hooked on Joplin. I have to play something different once I finish Weeping Willow.

Have you played "Bethena"? It's not technically demanding and, I think, very beautiful. An excellent training ground for controlled rubato.

Congrats on the scales!

(I'm finding scales don't stick unless I learn a piece in that scale.)

I'm finding the Gymnopédie tricky to memorize (though I will admit I spend 80% of my time for new repertoire on the Rameau I'm learning and the other 20% on Satie and Fur Elise). The main theme is very simple; but the second theme (and the slightly modified end section) trip me up. I think it's the very subtle variations in chord voicing.

I love this piece - my teacher hates it. I always make a point of telling her when others hear me practicing, if they hear the Gymnopédie, that's the one they comment on 100% of the time!

Eglantine, I find sort of the reverse: my learning of the scales seems to be quite independent of my ability (or lack of ability!) to play a piece in that key. Just knowing where to put my fingers in the scale pattern doesn't seem to translate to a knowledge of key geography or key signature if the notes are in the non-linear order of a piece of music.

Andy Platt, I agree with you about the relative complexity of the parts in the First Gymnopédie. I left a good long gap to let the other parts get solid in memory before memorizing the very last phrase. Partly I was waiting for any part of that phrase to sink in by osmosis, as had partly happened for the other phrases. No dice. But once I finally tackled it by concentrated mental effort, the patterns in it became clearer. I sometimes practice by saying the names of the chords to myself. If I'm really feeling energetic, I'll say their inversions also.

Oh, one more thing on the Satie (in contrast to your teacher's hating it). I learned Gnossienne No. 1 first, and would have loved to play it for my teacher's upcoming recital, but she nixed it as too strange for the audience. So I thought, oh well, no Satie. But then as I was learning the First Gymnopédie, she thought it was very pretty and asked if I would play it for the recital. Whoo-hoo!

Everyone plays two pieces, so I'll be playing Beethoven's Sonatina in F, and then the Gymnopédie.

What was the audience? I'd have thought any Satie would be very approachable. Though the Gymnopédies have been so (over) used signature and incidental music on radio and TV that they're already familiar to most people.

Mostly beginner piano students, and their apparently musically-unsophisticated parents. I think the Gnossienne No. 1 is thought to be a bit too minimalist for their taste. For the First Gymnopédie, it's probably an advantage if it's familiar.

That was my 7th piece I memorized, and I learned it last December/January 2010/2011. It sucked. Love it, but YEAH it isn't so easy to memorize. I was playing and playing and playing and by this time last year I was wondering if I'd every play it OK.

And now I do, but I still hit a wrong note every so often--usually confusing a D or E that begins phrasing within a section--and the last few arpeggios or chords still goof me up if I am drifting off. Sometimes I end the piece and go "WTF?!? I PLAYED THE ENDING OF THE FIRST PART A SECOND TIME! DAR!"

But, it comes along. I just play too much stuff to nail down all my stuff precisely. By the end of the year I have to go back and get it right. HOWEVER, as you progress, listen to others playing the song and notice how about 80% of the performances of the piece lack any soul. It is almost a self regulating piece which will rely on the very movement of your hands to create the feeling. It shouldn't be too slow and it shouldn't be monotonously hammered through. You can flourish your hands and achieve a better sounding performance than most of the professionals selling it on CDs; I think they just churn it out for a buck.

Satie wrote it as "furniture music" or what others now equate to Musak of the late 1800s. It was meant to fill a space with music behind the life, meal, conversation, etc. It was never meant to be contemplated and dwelt on. As such it is awesome and never seems to tire--a true classic bagatelle.

not sure if this thread is alive but I want my first post to be a heartened thank you for all the enthusiasm and ideas. I began in Nov 2009 on my 60th birthday figur time was a waistin'! Love making music. Started w Schaum. Now in Thompson gr 3.
Toreodor is a challenge with grace notes and devilish 16ths. Reading your posts is reassuring that this can be accomplished. My teacher is very kind, so that helps make my fluffs less catastrophic. My goal is to someday be able to play entire pieces smoothly. She says pianists never get it perfect, they just better learn to improvise through errors!
this weeks excitement, true arr ival in 3 (counting!) days of a "new to me" Yamaha U1.

manyhands,

Welcome to the thread. I love your PW name..... many hands, well, at least a few extra, is exactly what I feel like I need when I look at a new piece!

If we didn't make mistakes we wouldn't need teachers. Plus, mistakes are the best source of information we have as to exactly what we need to work on. Think of them as your friends, worth their weight in gold in the search for improvement.

Congrats on your new piano. It doesn't get much better than sitting down to your new instrument and getting acquainted. We want pics!!!

Jim

The AOW's seem few and far between for me lately.

Still working on the MacDowell, mostly rubato and voicing issues. I've been recording it and then working on improving the parts I am unhappy with.... alas, still have a way to go.

Ravel is coming along and I should be ready to start polishing it in the next few weeks. Then I'm going to have to choose between it and MacDowell for my teacher's May recital...and I have no idea at this point which one I will pick!

Handel's Gavotte should be the last baroque before I get to tackle a Bach Invention, which I'm really looking forward to. We've been doing all kinds of things to increase finger strength and eliminate tension....all kind of leading up to the more advanced Bach material I think.

The usual reading, scales, Hannon (finished with doz/day-4). My jazzy stuff in the evening. Life at the bench marches on.

Even so, it sounds like you have things very well planned out. A bit at a time... and then you realize that you've made progress! Nice that you're almost to the polishing phase with your Ravel. Do you like that phase the most, or do you like the beginning stages of learning a piece?

manyhands -- welcome to the forum. This thread is most certainly not dead! And yes, it's a great place to come to be inspired and to look back on challenges that have been overcome. Congrats on the new piano -- exciting!

To be honest, MaryBee, I have very limited experience with real polishing like I am trying to do right now. My teacher's preference is usually for me to just move on to the next piece once I get something to where all the notes are in and there is at least some dynamic shape to it. In fact if I had to state what I'm most trying to get out of these pieces it is just that...experience with really trying to mold the music to the way I want it to sound. Unfortunately, I think, (and my teacher has said so, in so many words) that my ear for what sounds good is quite a bit ahead of my skills at the bench.

Just one more challenge to work on.

That is a really nice thing to point out, Jim. I think that one of the interesting differences between child and adult learners is the one you just pointed out in the final sentence of your post. Even though you put a green face after it, I think that you should instead celebrate your refined ear with a . Perhaps you cannot make it sound exactly as you would like it to.....but it is HUGE that you know how you would like it to sound.
My teacher moves me on pretty quickly for the same reason. I sometimes feel very frustrated and I once even argued that I should continue to polish a piece but she said it would be VERY difficult to achieve what I was going for at this stage of my development.
I don't have an achievement this week. Unfortunately, my entire family was hit with the flu (the face fits here!) . I haven't touched the piano in 5 days!!!!

Today I stopped into a piano store that I had never been to before. I got a compliment from two people. One gentleman noticed I was playing a nocturne, and asked me to play it for him on a piano he had just purchased. Later, one of the ladies that worked there told me that I was a "Steinway player", which I took as a compliment--and don't burst my bubble by giving me the most obvious reason for such a compliment!!

They pay you?

That can't be it, you know. It has to be because your playing exactly suits the Steinway sound, and vice-versa. Both top of the line, no?

That's cool -

Cathy

Awesome!! I wish you had recorded it

Welcome Manyhands!
Yes, this thread is alive and well, and I'm really happy to see so many new faces (figuratively speaking!) lately.

The music you're playing sounds like fun!

Jim - which Gavotte of Handel are you playing?
I think your comments on being able to hear where your weaknesses are is actually an accomplishment. Once we get to the point where we really know it can be done better, we've reached a new level of understanding where we are on the voyage and where we can go! What is exciting is when you see that you can't quite get something, but know it is within your grasp.


Christine, I hope everyone at your place is feeling better now so you can get back to your normal routines - not just piano!

Hawgdriver - hey, learn to take a compliment - ok, maybe she was trying to sell you a piano, but you're no fool - you know you can play well, and who knows, maybe a Steinway will be in your future!

I have no accomplishments to report except that despite feeling ill, I did manage to get in a little playing every day.

My piano teacher just rang the bell....catch you later!


Edited to add: I REALLY am making progress with my pedalling - my teacher complimented me on it ! :):):):)

Cathy, Cas, Sam --