Nice piece. You did it justice!

I discovered my new problem today. I discovered that I 'sing' when I play baroque (Cheryl, is my spelling ok?). I had no idea. My teacher told me that I don't want to be like Glenn Gould. Not my playing obviously! It must have been quite audible because they were all laughing when she said that. Does any of you have the same problem?

Yup... I get compared to Glenn Gould all the time.

Its not a problem. Instead, it is the opposite of a problem.

I always try to get my students to sing the melody or the rhythm when they play...it greatly smoothes out the music, and always makes it more "musical".

If you look at videos of great musicians, not just piano, you will find that many "voice" what they are playing, perhaps not audiably, but their mouths move.

Check out any video of BB King, for example.

How this works I do not know, and neither do the several doctors and psychologists I have asked about it. But experience has shown me that when people play mechanically or stiffly, audibly singing (da, da, da, or something like that) fixes it immediately, like a switch that was off is now on.

I think that trying to get someone to stop singing while playing when they sing naturally is in the same destructive style of forced management as is forcing a child who is left handed to switch hands. Very destructive, that one.

ps...ok, it could be a problem if you are performing Baroque music on stage, or for a test or admission to a music program. Not sure what level and what goals this student has. But if it helps you to play better, I say use it without guilt. As you progress, you probably will be able to do it more silently, or not at all, when that is essential.

Classical and Jazz piano maestro extraordinaire Keith Jarrett is another who is known for "vocalizing" what he plays.

Casinitaly, I'll repeat that AOTW is my favorite thread across all the PW forums. It may be of the highest value to us beginners as well. I do a lot of volunteer work in mental health. A useful phrase is: endorse for the effort not the outcome. For the average beginner there are many minor peaks and valleys, often with many weeks of muddling through before another small hill might be summited. The weekly reports about small victories, small bits of progress are valuable for those posting and those reading. It is important to endorse for those small victories, because what might be considered big achievements, tend to be rare events for average beginners.

Farmgirl, hosting a piano party is a big achievement. From all reports you played very well and that all had a nice time. Given the expertise of the attendees (three performance degrees, plus a doctorate, plus some other advanced players) that is quite an achievement. Next up for you, is being a featured guest performer at another recital, good for you.

Allard, congrats on the new piano. It looks stunningly beautiful. From reading the Piano Forum, what JimF wrote seems to be common. A new piano often needs a few weeks to settle before being tuned. The room acoustics are different from the dealer's, the ambient temperature and humidity might be slightly different. The piano may have gone through some temperature changes and minor jostling during the delivery process.

Saranoya, congrats on your piano too. Maybe you can use some gloves like I just bought (see below). There are also small electric heaters, though a person has to be careful using them because of fire risk and possible circuit overload.

For everyone else, thank you for your reports.

My Week 50: I use MuseScore (free composition software) to add my simple harmony to someone else's transcribed melody line for Misty Mountains Cold from the Hobbit movie. The end result isn't much, but it is new adventure for me to work with composition software. I watch a 10-part video series on getting started with MuseScore, about 30 minutes total run time. I learn the word Coda. Coda is used when there is a large repeating section in the music, and then the music jumps to a closing segment labeled Coda.

I buy yet another pair of gloves. The new gloves are full fingered (the others I have are fingerless or I cut the tips off) and have conductive fibers in the fingertips so a person can wear the gloves and use a touch screen. They seem to help with my chronic hand problems and may allow me a bit more practice time, which is currently about one hour a day. I will see. As for pieces, I keep pecking at both Misty, and Canon in D. I memorize my level one arrangement of Canon in D. Neither piece is close to performance level.

I hear a short melody in my head and bang it out on the Casio. I am almost sure the fragment is from a published piece of music that I heard, but I still want to do it. It is in the key of F major. I find out that the F major scale has odd fingering on the right hand, with the thumb crossing after the fourth note, not the third. On pennywhistle, a pretty melody line is the whole tune. On piano, a melody line alone tends to sound weak and tinny and might only be 10% of a tune. It may be some time before I have the skill to embellish a simple melody into a full sound. The harmony arrangement I did for Misty gave it a bit of flavor, but is not close to what an experienced pianist or arranger might add.

I borrow two books from the library to work on sight reading. One is a book of tips which I found disappointing, and the other is of folk songs with easy piano arrangements. I'd guess difficulty level 1 to 4, depending on the song and how much of the arrangement the pianist tries to play. There is a melody line only on a treble staff, and then a full piano grand staff arrangement below that. I spend some time away from the piano, calling out the note letters on the page, note by note. This activity saves my hands, which was an excuse for me spending so little time working on sight reading. That and I find it to be so boring. Right now I have time in my schedule for this reading of notes out loud, but still want to limit my piano practice time because of previous injuries.

At the church monthly coffee house night, the 75 year old jazz pianist that I mentioned some months back, returns and does about an hour. She plays and sings. It is all from memory, there is no sheet music, no set list, no nothing. Wow. The performance, the piano playing, the singing, it all feels so effortless, so natural, so seamless, as one might expect from a musician that has a lifetime of experience.

Have a good week everyone and keep those reports coming.

Whizbang- THANKS! That piece was one of the first where I really felt I was truly making music

FarmGirl - lol. Your spelling is nothing to worry about! I'm an English teacher though, and I am pretty tough on myself when I make that kind of mistake!!!
As for the singing - here teachers encourage you to sing the score! I guess you have to be able to turn it on and off though.
My niece (11 years old) tends to play a lot of pieces that are actually songs, so she has learned right from the start to sing and play at the same time. I know that's not what you're talking about though!
I don't do it that often, but sometimes I do find that it helps me through a difficult passage.

SandTiger, I really appreciate your reply: endorse the effort, not the result. And again and again - we all know that this is not false praise, but simply encouragement to not give up. Thank you for putting it so eloquently.

I think your idea for practicing your sight reading is a great one,- and it will open up doors (so to speak) for a lot more music you can enjoy! I hope your new gloves work out well too.

Your pianoversary is coming up quickly! We'll have to get Jim to organize a piano cake for you

Last night we were out with friends, who are pretty much all musicians - some of them had been checking out my youtube channel and they were really impressed with my progress. It was fun to get "live" feedback.

I accidentally ended up playing for about 550 - 600 people last week. I massively sucked, especially at first, but many of them said they liked it.

This was at the Hollywood Post Alliance Tech Retreat. I got in very early, only the staff were there, and there was this stiff, untuned Schafer & Sons (Samick) 5-1 baby grand in the lobby. So, I played a little to pass the time. The feel was very different than my Knabe at home, it took much more force to get any sound. I made way more mistakes than usual until I got somewhat used to it.

Anyhow, they liked it enough that they moved the piano from the lobby to the dining hall, and asked me to play during dinner. I did, and so did three other attendees, all better players than I am. But it was loads of fun to do, and I got to see some better players up close, and get some advice.

AotW: Played in my teacher's informal "recital practice" sessions last night where we play pieces at whatever state they are in to get feedback and get more used to public playing. They are fun.

Yesterday's ran the gambit from a real beginner playing Schumann's "A little piece" to some fool who thought he could play the first two pages of Chopin's Nocturne in Eb after only a few weeks (umm, that would be me.)

Actually it went pretty well, I had plenty of stumbles but recovered each of them very quickly and played through it all quite well. I was actually surprised that the comments were universally good and that nobody commented at all on tempo (probably a teeny bit indulgent.)

FarmGirl - I really liked your visualization of Brahms and Clara Schumann from your Brahms Intermezzo. Clearly you are very in touch with the piece.

Andy - Our teachers must think alike. Invention #6 is next on my job stack also. Congratulations on you first live performance of the first two pages of the Chopin Nocturne. That is pretty fast progress!

ATallGuyNH - Have fun with the improv. It looks like a lot of fun!

Sand Tiger - I really enjoy your weekly reports of your piano journey.

Casinitaly - It is really an achievement when someone else notices your improvement. I think as adult beginners we often do not recognize that we are making progress, because we are mired in the the day to day. It sounds like your friends recognized growth in your playing though!

JohnSprung- Congrats on your impromptu public performance. It sounds like you did great!

I accepted my teacher's offer of two lessons/week. Now she is thinking about more repertoire! Eeek! I had a very good lesson today. I felt like I made some real progress this week.

The invention is in hand, and the trills are starting to work pretty well. Now I need to learn independent choreography for each hand. It is coming.

My AOTW is getting the first two pages of the Arabesque to flow well. It is starting to finally click. Another AOTW is consistently getting my scales in threes to work in all keys. Boy did I have a hard time getting my brain around this. I have always counted scales 1234-12-1234. It works for four octaves. Threes just felt illogical. Got it though!

I had a bit of remedial learning this week. I have been struggling with the arpeggios at the end of the nocturne, and it finally dawned on me that I wasn't moving my whole hand and repositioning for each section, like I have been taught to do. I was just "walking" them, which can't be done fast. With moving the whole hand and repositioning I can go much faster.

JohnSprung - I believe it is the first time you've posted here in AOTW - Welcome! I had to think how on earth one could play in front of hundreds of people "by accident" ! Good for you for rising to the challenge.

Andy: could be that the folks at the recital were inclined to be indulgent - but whatever their level of indulgence it does sound like you're making a very good start to the piece. (BTW: isn't the very nature of a recital somewhat indulgent? I mean...it isn't a concert...it is an effort put forth by students..there's leeway permitted!)

SwissMS- I call that a real achievement - figuring out what you've been doing wrong and knowing enough to fix it and move on!

I can see how you could read what I wrote that way but what I meant was the tempo was a little indulgent, not the comments. There's a wide latitude for the Nocturne and I feel it slower than some. But nobody commented on that aspect.

Pretty neat. Not many of us can claim to have publications on our name in Italian!

Joking aside, still very nice

I imagine John falling into stage. Sounds pretty exciting!

Andy,

Congrats on playing the first two pages of the Nocturne at recital rehearsal.

It amazes me how fast you are able to learn pieces. If it were me, I would definitely still be plodding through HS. My little one page from Chopin's Sonata is still HS after two weeks....haven't even thought of trying HT, let alone playing in front of people.

Whatever you are doing, it is remarkably efficient.

My teacher & I have been discussing this a lot because compared to other pieces, it's lightening fast. We've put it down to a few factors. Yes, one is my improving technical abilities; Two: The piece is relatively straightforward to analyze and therefore memorize; Three - possibly most important - I just love, love, love this piece!

I wasn't sure which way to interpret what you said either, but the first (and apparently correct) interpretation made me think of Simon Cowell, naturally:

"It was, uhhh, a lih-uhl, induulllgent I thawt"

Hi friends, first of all my apologies if I miss anyone's comment. I've been using my phone to read and post my comments. I know I should buy iPad or something.

Andy - I think your teacher is great to give so much performance opportunities. I notice you are not nervous any more playing in front of others. Good for you.

SwissMS - thank for your kind comments. I like the way you learn Bach. I'm just about there where you are = got the notes and enjoy making it musical:)

I enjoy it most when i reach to the stage where i can actually figure out which voice to bring up etc. The f minor prelude is an absolutely fun piece. There are deceptive cadences, passages sound like violin, full of surprises. I recommend it to anyone who can play inventions. The prelude is one of the approacheable ones in WTC. The fugue is very deeply Bach. It will be fun to play the piece like a high speed chase if I could.

Now I have to practice. My teacher gave me homework - I have to put fingering to Mozart sonata I'm doing. She gave me general principals of good fingering. She is going to correct it in each lesson so that I khan learn how. In a way it's a good trick. It forces me to sight read.

Andy- thanks for the clarification - sorry for my misunderstanding. I'm still very impressed

FarmGirl - I like to hear about your teacher giving you the homework on learning how to figure out the best fingerings on your own. Helping students to become more self-sufficient has to be a teacher's goal and is a very good sign!

I am very pleased with my lesson today. I got some really good feedback from my teacher on how I'd improved my technique and expression recently and that I had actually done BETTER than he had expected on fine tuning the baroque piece! woohoo!

We went over some questions I had on the Heller piece and I'm really enjoying the sound of it. I also showed him the new jazz piece I am working on and he was very supportive, which is nice because I'd work on it even if he wasn't

I asked him about playing some duets and he said "Why not!" very enthusiastically. I'm going to look through my material and see what I want to bring - and he will bring something too. Yipee!
I'm on a lovely little "high" right now!

I wish! But these informal settings are much easier nowadays. Thinking back - two years I remember my hands shaking during my lessons. Luckily that doesn't happen anymore

Andy, you are so right, when you love a piece you learn faster.

In fact, my AOTW is that my Invention (I love it!) is really improving: I had an easier week so I could practice a bit more, and I put aside, for the moment, Czerny and Schumann. Now, I'm at the point where I can play it properly at decent tempo, and I have to start working make it look like music! I hope to improve more before my next lesson (Monday).

Ragdoll -- I sincerely congratulate you on figuring out the optimal placement of your Q3HD. I recently bought a Zoom H2 (audio only, if I want video I'll use my iPhone and sync up later), and have been experimenting a little with different recording positions. But I haven't had much time with my new grand yet, so I haven't quite figured it out. If you have any suggestions, they are welcome!

Whizbang -- Kudos for making the best of your vacation, despite less-than-ideal circumstances! I hope it was your left knee that got twisted (because at least you're still able to use the damper pedal, if it was ;)). Oh, and if you're getting tips from perfect strangers, you must be doing well. I'd be so stoked if I were in your shoes!

Allard -- How's your new piano working out, so far? Still in love, I hope? .


jaredm2012 -- Congrats on getting your scales down. I'm sure having those securely in your fingers will help you in many ways that you can't even anticipate yet.

casinitaly -- So, how did it go with your Baroque piece in the end? Did you get your teacher's blessing on it yet? I think it's rather sweet that you found a way to involve your husband in your music studies, even though he doesn't read or play! And getting 'live feedback' on your piano playing must have been very enjoyable, indeed, especially if the feedback was good . Also, your teacher sounds great, being supportive of things that you bring to your lessons yourself. And duets are fun!

EdwardianPiano -- Consistently practicing for an hour each day *will* really help your progress. Or at least, that's what I'm hoping. And I must say, now that I'm not practicing an hour daily due to my living circumstances, I really do feel the lack of progress, so that would seem to indicate that I was making relatively good progress before. I wish you the same!

FarmGirl -- Your teacher must have great confidence in you, asking you to perform on a 'real' stage. Good for you!

SwissMS -- Congrats on the progress you made with the Nocturne. Having an 'aha'-moment like you had with arpeggio's at the end is a great experience. I'm happy for you. And learning to play the piano does indeed strike me as an excellent way to spend your retirement; especially if you can get two lessons a week. Delightful!

MaryBee -- I talk to myself while playing, too. All the time. Even during lessons I occasionally do it (which has already earned me a few weird looks from my teacher). I think a lot of people do this, actually. It's not really a problem, so long as you don't do it during recital performances!

aTallGuyNH -- Congrats on your first improvisation. I started watching the YouTube video you linked, and I thought "he's calling this *basic* ... wow." But then the guy started talking and I got that this isn't you. Still. Great achievement, indeed.

JohnSprung -- If you played for 500 people, and 'many of them' liked it, and then they *moved the piano* (not an especially easy or effortless thing to do) and asked for more, well ... then I think you can't possibly have sucked, especially not 'massively'. Learn to take a compliment when you see one!

Andy Platt -- Congratulations on the 'informal recital'. As one who has been forced to play only in public for weeks now, I can definitely confirm that it gets progressively more comfortable as you do it more often . So good for your teacher to give you many opportunities to do it, and good for you for taking your teacher up on them!


I accomplished quite a few things this week (among them, I got the owner of my as-of-yet unfinished apartment to cough up the money for two weeks of hotel accommodations), but alas, none of them are piano-related. In fact, I had a pretty bad lesson yesterday, where I plowed through the same simple Burgmüller piece for the third time in a row, and still didn't get it right. I'm starting to doubt that I should really continue with this taking lessons thing. I feel like I'm wasting my teacher's time.

Oh, it's no temporary infatuation

She's feeling a little sick, however. Doctor says she needs to wait a few weeks before getting tuned, but I'm not so sure! A few dampers aren't working and now there's an awkward vibration in some of the higher bass strings. The sound reminds me of my earlier attempts at playing guitar, where I couldn't get a proper grip on the strings.

Practise time has gone up a few hours since I got the new piano. I think it'll only go up more once she's tuned.



Good job on getting the hotel accommodations! Now to pick a hotel with a piano so you can practise properly

Hey Allard--If you just can't wait a few weeks, you can go ahead and schedule a tuning now, knowing that you'll likely need another one in a month.

The tricky bit is that I don't know (nobody knows?) how long that first tuning would last. I'd gladly pay for it if it's like two months, or even one, but my teacher thinks it might go bad again in as little as a week. Hard to make a decision without that information available.

I hope I'm not wasting my ears forever by playing on the untuned piano. The problem is mostly in the middle section, where you can hear each tone slowly going up and down.

Don't give up Saranoya! It takes sometime to settle in with a teacher, especially if you have been away from the piano for a while. A teacher wants to hear where you are having problems, and they know that you are nervous in the first few lessons.When I first started back with piano I felt like a dunce. I could not play "mary had a little lamb" without an error. Hang in there!

I had such a fun lesson today. I am at the point with the Nocturne that we are mostly working on dynamics and interpretation. I nailed my troublesome arpeggios and ornaments at the end in the lesson today. My AOTW was my teacher telling me that I played the best she had every heard me play today. That made my day! Hopefully I can start trying to record this soon, and move on to the next project.

I have been using my piano practicing to avoid writing a dissertation (not in music). I finally decided to cut down my practicing and work on my research. I have found that more focused practicing is really helping my improve some rough spots in my favorite pieces. So my achievement: more efficacy while practicing piano and ummm, not using piano to avoid my thesis .

If I am really thoughtful, I can make more noticeable progress in .5 hour of focused studying than in an hour of playing. This site has really helped inform my practicing.

You know what? I kinda like his singing. I'll be in my car listening to a recording and hear the odd noises come through. It's all very comforting. Maybe it's not so bad?

And to everyone else: It's so much fun to hear about your achievements. It's like a newspaper or magazine column with installments and its fun to "watch" everyone grow. I lurk(erratic poster syndrome!) a lot in this thread because it's rather motivational and keeps things in perspective.

Finished Unit 4 in Faber's Adult Piano Adventures! Also learned how to recognize Key Signatures!

So my teacher thinks my 3rd/4th finger trills and mordents (esp. right hand, my worst hand) have improved tremendously. And I sound musical. Hurrah! The hard work is starting to pay off.
(This is on Couperin's 7th Prelude from L'Art de Toucher.)

Three weeks ago, 3rd/4th finger ornaments in RH were virtually impossible for me. The two fingers felt tremendously tied together, this is not my good hand, and I am not at all young.

Hey Half Step
What's your topic?