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Sorry that I didn't answer your question, Jim. Yes, I hate the fingering of the scale. Just different enough from all of the others that I have learned that I reliably play it HT incorrectly. I have worked on it "turtle-slow" this week and might have it down though!!!
Which Schubert did you play BTW? I adore Schubert and am looking forward to playing some of his dances soon!!

Wow, I don't think that Fur Elise is a beginner piece. I have been playing for almost 2 years and my teacher considers it a "doable stretch." I memorize very easily and have the "easy" (most recognized) part down, but I am betting that I will work on this piece for several months to even make it sound acceptable. My teacher chose it for that reason.

Farm Girl your stories amaze me! What adventures! but do be careful.

I should , in fairness, let you know that Italians are (in general) rather loud.... sometimes it seems as though a brawl is about to start, but it is just a discussion. They aren't necessarily even all that wound up!

When we first arrived here, my husband was on the edge of his seat at work for weeks - thinking that his colleagues were about to start a serious fight, but no, it was their "norm".

Fur Elise I think gets a bad wrap because it is so often simplified to make it approachable. Thus people say, oh, easy piece. Probably (like me until about 2 months ago!!!!) they don't realize there is more to it.

And Italians have a lot of arm and hand movement while talking rather loud. Making it more look agressive, while it's just their culture.

I'm happy that I'm not the only one seeing Für Elise as a difficult piece. Lucky that I don't started earlier to work on this piece.

Teacher has me working on Debussy's "Reverie". I have the first 18th measures down. That RH triplet in the 5th measure gave me fits for weeks but I finally got it. Now it's on to a more interesting part of the piece with all the octaves... and more triplets.

VicPinto - Reverie is one of my favorites and definitely on my "to do" list for the future. I hope you will put up a recording for the piano bar or ecital when it is finished.

Christine - The Schubert is just a short one page Ecossaise (in G). Very easy but I'm playing it at a fast tempo (for me) that does present a challenge on a few big hand position changes. Sorry, but I don't know the Op. number or any other identifier.

Farmgirl - Your dedication is amazing! With all this work in semi-public places you should be bullet-proof when it comes time for a recital.

Vic, I love this piece! All the sections are so beautiful, but my favorite part starts at measure 76 where you have the melody switching back and forth between the right and left hand. Let me know what you think of it when you get to that part. This was the piece I submitted for my first ABF recital, so I have lots of warm feelings about it. I still like to play it, although parts of it have faded from memory by now.

I just had a light dinner of sandwich and am writing this before I go downstairs to the 26th floor to practice:)

Carlos -- Yes I am fortunate and should not complian. My company does not have a piano in all the offices though. My office in Phoenix AZ does not have one. Only in our headquarter in NY. I think they have all the instrument. I saw violine cases and other instrument cases piled up next to the piano.

Cas and Paperclip -- It explains it. I was probably afraid for nothing. I am just not used to it and not brave either. Italians out there, I have no intention to offend you.

JimF -- No it's totally different to play in front of people who know music vs don't. Anyway, I am hoping that my experiences help me develop nerve of steel.

Lastly but not the least I concur with everyone that Fur Elise is not a beginner piece. I got to play it after I played the piano for 5 or 6 years when I was a kid. That is an incredible piece. I loved it so much that it was the only piece I could remember by heart when I came back to piano after zillion years of break... I even remembered where I got stuck during the recital.

Your adventures with the piano are amazing, FarmGirl. Thanks for sharing them with us.

This week I’ve managed to play the Chopin’s prelude (Op 28 No 4) complete. This has been so difficult…, although to be honest I have to say my playing is not very good, or rather, it’s completely mediocre.

The next time, when I choose a new piece to learn, I’ll check the difficulty of all the bars, before starting .

What about Prelude no 15? One of my favourites.

It's on my to-do list; I'm not sure if you were mentioning it to Recaredo - if so, it's worth pointing out that for someone tackling prelude no 4 (arguably the easiest of the Chopin preludes), no 15 would be quite a leap. It's a late intermediate piece.

AotW - I became a "1000 Post Club Member".

Flub of the week ... I was supposed to make this my 1000th post but, just as I predicted, I wasn't keeping track and it passed me by ... this will be post # 1009 instead!

Andy, for some reason (probably because I remember your prediction) that really cracked me up!

Happy 1000 to you! May the next 1000 treat you (and us) well.

Difficult but rewarding? It's a poem in the music literature we could not do without.

lol...... Well, you said you'd probably miss it.
Wishing you fun with the next 1000!

FarmGirl - I wasn't at all offended (and btw, I'm not Italian, I just live here!- ) I just wanted to explain what could be a misunderstanding, given what I have seen and heard here.

I am at a weird point this week. Missed my lesson last week, my teacher had to cancel, she had a good reason, but it always bothers me to miss a lesson. I really feel like I lose a lot of momentum.

However, I did enjoy "escaping" from assigned work and playing with my new Martha Miers book. I am having a blast with a very simple "rag".

My rather oddball aotw was I went to test a 2nd hand digital piano and I played some songs that I've been learning lately. At first I was nervous and kept the headphones on but of course I had to take them off at some point to hear the built in speakers. The lady who was selling it was very nice and she clapped for me after my first song. Then for some reason I found I was NOT nervous and just concentrating on playing! I still made silly errors but nonetheless I wasn't making a big deal of it inside my head. I think maybe because I was concentrating so much on the sound/feel of the piano the internal chatter in my head temporarily stopped! This is big for me. So much so that at my sons lesson yesterday the teacher told us about the March recital. She suggested that adults who are going to be taking exams (me) may find this a good thing to do. I may just consider this if I can keep these nerves under control and just have fun.

You can do it!

This might help, just saw it from another thread:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html

AOTW: during my lesson today, for the first time nearly the entire time was spent on dynamics and expression, rather than learning to "hit the right notes"... and it was quite eye opening. I'd been playing my sonatina pretty flat (ie with little expression, not off-key!), and I just worked on it again tonight and it's so much more "alive"! Very fun, this is... Long way to go, but that is good.

In another AOTW, I read "Grand Obsession"; very interesting and fun book, which kept me up a bit late a few nights. I feel both fortunate and unfortunate to not be blessed with her ear...

Hi Bessel, glad to hear that you find the way.

I also read "Grand Obsession" before and this book brought me to this forum