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I contacted a teacher here in Los Angeles that my friend recommended, and I'm having my first lesson tomorrow! I'm excited and also a little nervous (but not too much). I need to get myself set on a more sustainable path than the one I'm on right now. Hard pieces are nice, but I need to get more of the fundamentals so I can learn things faster and hopefully learn to read easy stuff without too much effort.

Join the line ... though my teacher told me today that (compared to most) I'm a fast reader. It sure doesn't feel that way to me!

Good luck with your new teacher ...

Good for you:) Once you get the hang of it, everything comes quickly for you since you are very musical. I had to LEARN how to play musically.

Speaking of reading music - I had my lesson today. I was having trouble with the last couple of pages of the Rach prelude. It was extremely loud and i did not like it. My teacher told me that i need to gradually come down in volume emphasizing soft and tender leading notes like "tiera < go up a little, then come down further to start tiera < go up a little, etc etc", I was like, really! and stared into the score. Sure enough. I saw after FF ..... <......< ......MF.....< ....< and eventually pp. Hmmm. How could I miss this. Reading music involves reading more than notes.

A genuine AOTW... I am finally now able to play the major scales of C, G, D, A, E and B, hands together 2 octaves (at reasonable speed and what I think is reasonable but not great uniformity of sound). Until recently it was only C, and even that was only in the last 2 months or so... but my teacher said "past time to do more", and so with a little work they just started coming. Time to add more, now...

(Hmmm, maybe I can submit scales for the next recital? )

Bessel, playing scales may seem a small thing to others, but if a person can't do that much, it gives a different perspective. If your teacher is telling you to do scales there is likely a good reason.

My Week 16 report: Practice time was reduced, because I did a live whistle and flute performance on Friday at the church coffee house night, Namaste Cafe, and spent some time brushing up on those instruments. I got to play on a Kimball baby grand piano at the venue for a few minutes. I didn't want to perform on piano, because a former concert pianist was also booked. I write a lot more about the show in the last half of this report.

I continue the journey up the hill that is Ashokan Farewell. It is sobering to think that I am now eight weeks in and have 16 weeks total. It sounds better and better. I can see and hear significant progress, but there remains much work to do. I record my new composition, Ribbon of Leaves, and listen to it. The recording didn't sound at all like the mood I am trying to capture, so I went back to the drawing board, looking for ways to lighten the mood, to make it sound more lyrical, more gentle. I also tinker with another piece, All the Kings Horses, deciding to alternate between chords and arpeggio, instead of having a steady arpeggio with the left hand. Hand discomfort continues to be a problem. The same solutions continue to help (fingerless gloves, soaking, limiting practice time to one hour max per day).

Guitar Center is running radio ads and one of the items is a Casio digital piano for $300. I have a Yamaha NP11 which has 61 semi-weighted keys, so I thought about upgrading. In the whistle and flute world, acquisition disorder is a common syndrome, and often does not translate into better playing. For a few, the hobby becomes buying more instruments, not getting better at playing them. I have been playing the piano keyboard for four months. I like what I have. The sound is decent. The light weight of 11 pounds is a big plus. Because of the small space I live in, I keep the keyboard under the bed and set it up when I want to play. Setting up a 25 or 40 pound device would be much more of a chore, much more strain on back and shoulders which also have problems. So thinking about all that, I decide to do nothing and may perhaps revisit the issue again in 8 months.

For the curious, here is more about the show. My friend Alan DiCenzo was a concert pianist over 30 years ago. At Namaste cafe, he plays “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and some other show tunes for a young singer. His rendition of Rainbow is effortless, with many subtle enhancements and some fancy ornaments. Some may remember that I did that piece for the ABF piano bar in early May, and it remains in my practice cycle. I think it may be 30 more years of practice for me, or if pianists get reincarnated, another cycle of lifetimes, before I will be capable of a similar rendition. Some of Alan's original piano music can be heard on this site:
http://trishsilver.com/music/

Some may want to stop reading here, because there isn't much about piano in the rest of this post. The other headliner at the Namaste cafe coffeehouse is Shakeh. Shakeh tells a moving story about spending nine months with her dying mom and how performing at the cafe last year, lifted her spirits. She does a new song about Jericho and it has a spiritual tinge to it. Her site is:
http://shakeh.com/

As for my set, I usually open with “In Dreams” from The Lord of the Rings on pennywhistle, and close with my original “Acoustic Whalesong” on Irish flute. I also do a Civil War era melody, and a variation on John Williams' Olympic theme on whistle. So my set is four tunes, each in the 2 minute range, with one instrument change. I get many compliments, especially on the ethereal sounding whalesong (that's why I close with it). The sound man at Namaste Cafe does an exceptional job, and the crowd is almost always attentive.

The cello player that performed with Shakeh said it is one of the best places he has ever performed, mostly because the crowd actually listens to the music (and no one is drunk). I mentioned a young singer, 13 years old and precocious. Because of her presence, there are some friends and family in the crowd. She is a young star, already picking a stage name, Serenity, already landing a role in a local production of Les Miserables. She is one to watch perhaps.

It isn't all pros or former pros or aspiring pros. There was me, the hobbyist whistle player and amateur songwriter, another hobbyist level performer, singing and playing “What's it all about Alfie,” on the piano, and a local author Mark Frederick, with his books of humor, poetry and timeless wisdom. If you've read down this far, thank you for your attention, and Namaste.

I learned in my lesson today that when you think you almost got a piece of music under your belt, there is still so much more that are "hidden" to learn and discover. That is why learning a piece of music properly takes such a long time... you keep digging and digging into it and continuously bring it to the next level and so on.

The other thing that I learned is to avoid letting the physical movements / sensations direct the music. Let the ears direct it. This requires so much dicipline. Satisfy the ears, not the hands or fingers. To be a true performer, your mind and your hands are like two separate separate entities, just like conductor and instrumentalists.

One AOTW is memorizing the rest of Chopin's Ocean Etude and playing it through using two octaves. casinitaly, I agree memory work is soooo difficult. it seems to be the only way i can take on these chopin etudes as I need to watch my hands! good luck with the dynamics! I have much to practice in that way myself.

The other AOTW is just that I've had my keyboard now for 1 year! Unfortunately after a year of getting back to piano, I still can't play that much. But it's been a lot of fun.

Excellent, bessel. I worked on C major (single octave, HS) using a metronome this week. It was pretty excruciating, so I can completely appreciate how proud you must feel making progress with multiple major scales!


Thanks for that thought, Tubbie. I'm working to keep focused on the music and not take idiot shortcuts (as I've done in the past) of getting lazy and relying on muscle memory. The concept of my mind conducting my hands is quite useful.

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My AOTW is two-fold. First, I practiced every day. I won't say it was great practice every day, in fact some of it was pretty poor/frustrating, but I keep getting to the piano and that can be a big deal some weeks. Also, while working on a some American folk songs, I figured out the G major and F major key signatures on my own. Using the music and a scales book only — no lesson/theory book and no Internet. (Shocking, I know.) I think deciphering that sort of thing is rather an accomplishment.

Congrats on your one-year return-to-the-piano anniversary, Valencia!

Maybe we should call them "piannoversaries"?

My achievement was to buckle down and practice the last six measures of Canon in D using the metronome (the dreaded metronome) in order to pare down my hesitations between measures. The hesitations are there because I'm new to four finger chords and they are thick in those final measures. I need better accuracy. And speed. I timed myself playing the entire piece (from memory) and I'm coming in a little over ten minutes, which means I'm at less than half speed.

I've had an interesting last few days. I had my first lesson with the new teacher, and he's fantastic (as my friend who recommended him told me). I don't get to have another lesson until August because they are going on hiatus, but that's ok, because he left me with lots to improve.

Today, I recorded a recital for a friend of my family (in their living room). It's the same person who owns the Steinway M that I used for the Nocturne in C sharp minor recording that I submitted a couple recitals ago. I've bought new recording equipment since then (a pair of Shure KSM141 mics), and I recorded the performance today with that. All the music was for piano and violin. The music was played on the Steinway that I had used, and a really gorgeous violin (the violinist told me it's worth $100,000 and the bow, at $8000, is worth more than my grand piano!) The piano is a bit out of tune, but I think the recordings still sound pretty decent for a hack like me! If you like Brahms, Grieg, or Schubert, give it a listen and let me know what you think!

Grieg Sonata op. 45 in C minor:
1st movement:
https://www.box.com/s/ec429104b5d0fd9515af
2nd movement:
https://www.box.com/s/22e623559c28691d8f2f
3rd movement
https://www.box.com/s/c18667ee71fc26bc8e66

Schubert Sonatina op. 137 no.1 in D:
1st movement:
https://www.box.com/s/e74fb31e7afa21d04d4f
2nd movement:
https://www.box.com/s/32231ba729d2f26ccd18
3rd movement:
https://www.box.com/s/d82569c989d64788b7e9

Brahms Sonatensatz in C minor:
https://www.box.com/s/6c6aca77ac3f89763592

Had a couple yesterday. I'm 6 weeks into learning and have been given two or three pieces by my tutor to practise before the following week's session. However, I got this week's done quite quickly so I tried a bit of Swan Lake on my own.

It's the first piece I've tried where I have to change position with both hands and I'm gradually getting it up to speed:-)

Also, I've started trying to work out "Lithium" by "Evanescence" by ear and have the first piece of the melody down already...

Small steps but I read somewhere to celebrate the little steps so I'm happy with that so far:-)

Bessel
Good for you...working on scales. The work pays off in speed and fluidity of motion. I'm still working scales...I'm learning the minor scales and the chords and arpeggios that go with. The thumb still wants to land hard on the keys but speed is picking up. I'm convinced that some of us (me) will always have a "slow" gene and be unable to play the great fast pieces. :-) I'm learning a Mozart Viennese Sonatina...easier than the sonatas and hope to play up to tempo.

Stubbie...the metronome is your friend (knows all and tells all).

Reaper - I think they're all small steps... sometimes one of them brings you to a great vista... but so far for me, it's one small step at a time. So congrats, both on your recent small steps and for beginning the journey!

My thumb has a nickname: "the sledgehammer".

Scales... ick. I read somewhere that it is useful to try doing scales with the hands crossed. That is, playing right hand below middle c and left hand above middle c.

I think it sort of separates the 'muscle memory' from the 'paying attention' memory. or something like that. I can do this with only two scales at the moment.

I don't know if it's actually really useful but I can vouch for the difficulty.

Hi!

I’ve managed to play my piece of Beethoven complete. The tempo is a bit erratic, but at least I don’t make big mistakes. This has been extremely hard to me, as always, but I think it’s been worth it, although my wife claims that I always play the same “potato”.


I should use the headphones more often .

My AOTW is almost an exact repeat of the one I posted three months ago.

From April 30th.....



Cut to two weeks ago and I was back working on scales for speed again, this time 84 bpm for quarters playing four notes per beat. That rate had been working ok for most scales and not so ok on some for about a month. Then I had a week where it just wouldn't work at all, followed again by a lesson where it also did not work. Once again I slowed it way down and focused on something someone here at PW had written about slowing scales in order to prepare your thumb under ahead of time... so that all you have to do is drop it on the key when the time comes. I did that with a lot of focus for a whole week every day. Then last week I just started playing and slowly speeding it up as I went along. Next thing I knew I had the metronome set at 108 and was actually getting those sixteenths in there for all four octaves....although I didn't think the tone was as good as it should be. Then I backed off to 84 and it was easy-peasy. At lesson today we set it at 92 and it was ok. Weird. Piano learning is sometimes very weird and non-linear.

Jim F...that is a an inspiring anecdote. You DID it!!! I think it IS non-linear and variant for each of us. Thank you for sharing...think I'll go do scales (right after the cup of coffee).

Ah, scales. The never ending battle--but I believe it will be worth it in the end. Congrats to everyone for their progress. My teacher slowed my scales WAY down to be sure I have a relaxed hand and good pre-positioning. She saw improvement today, but still wants me to continue very slowly. Boy is relearning hard!

I am getting this pre-positioning thing though. I played Bach prelude in C minor with pretty good preparation and without note errors today in my lesson. I also have it memorized HS and HT. It still needs some improvement, but the concept is there.

The other thing I learned in my lesson was that to have a relaxed hand, I must be confident. I cannot be tentative, or worried about mistakes, and play relaxed. That seems rather obvious, but was eye opening for me. It is where a teacher's demeanor can make all the difference. Piano playing should be fun!

My other achievement is adding two more pieces to my memorized repertoire list. That makes 6 of my goal of 10 for the year! To keep them sharp I need to play them at least every other day. Of course 4 of them are pieces that are still in the polishing stage, so that makes it easy.

I beg to differ, SwissMS

If you play them too often they may deteriorate from over familiarity. You may well find that a few days away from a piece after you've given it some thorough working will actually lift it a notch (many people notice an improvement in their playing when they return from a vacation). This will also free up not just practise time but brain power that might be better employed on newer pieces.

As a suggestion, try playing them just at the weekends. Use Saturday to give them a once through at a moderate pace, then isolate each section slowly and carefully then finish with a gentle once through again. On Sunday give them a play through at a moderate pace, then up to tempo and finish with a slower more careful run through before leaving them again until the next weekend.

I spend a week on this section by section work and make no noticeable progress. Then after leaving it a couple of weeks I give the piece another run and it just sparkles. It's as if someone else was practising while I was away!