I keep asking because lately my memory stinks!! Sorry to be a pest, but I'm really happy to hear that we may get to hear it earlier than expected! I'll try not to repeat the question for a few weeks at least

Ragdoll.....As you say, there isn't a rush or a deadline. What you will probably find is that learning this pattern now, even if it is in a somewhat simplified form, will hold you in good stead when you move on to a more elaborate version. I found this when I worked on a simple version of a Clementi sonatina-- I still haven't "officially" studied the piece - but through working very hard to figure out the fingerings and going over and over them very slowly, I find that now when I work at reading through the original version it goes remarkably smoothly!

Casinitaly is right, there are local differences in the pronunciation of Italian, and not only: for example in northern Italy we use the past forms in a not completely proper way. In Tuscany people may have a strong aspirated "c", that is not correct.
By the way, after Dante Alighieri the second step in establishing a common language in Italy has been the great novel "I promessi sposi", written in the 19th century by Alessandro Manzoni (ho was from Milan).
Ron, when you need help...

AOTW, perhaps: I think I'm ready to learn Chopin's Prelude in Db major Op. 28 No. 15 (a.k.a. the raindrop prelude). Among other things, I seem to have developed the skill to play the raindrops appropriately softly and smoothly. Also playing through Op. 28 No. 4 in E minor I discovered that I could do the same with the LH chords: make them appropriately soft and smooth.

I didn't do any particular exercises to get to this point; I've been recently paying more attention to listening for appropriate balance, and this seems to have just emerged.

I sure appreciate it. Right now, no serious help. I can't help but wonder though if Lara Fabian's Caruso is natural. Seems like she prounounces the words strongly. While Pavarotti and Andre Bocelli both seem to not prounounce as strongly. I know they're native Italian. They do sound more natural. I think a whole lot of Andre.

My grandparents were from Italy. Grandfather from Sicily. Grandmother from Northern Italy. It was very confusing visiting as a child in their house. The words would be Italian one second, English the next. Going back and forth constantly. Yes, it was known that the two of them had to work in communicating at first. Their dialects were very different. My mother spoke Italian fluently. She was born and raised in Syracuse NY. Interesting she could always tell what spanish speaking people were talking about. Sometimes I would ask. She would tell me I don't want to know. With a frown.
I'll see on the singing. Have a gift. Trying to develop it to the point of Opera. Takes years. I truly admire Andre Bocelli's singing.

EDIT: I hope in the future. I might be able to extend the definition a little and refer to you two as; My Paisan's.

Thanks Cas, I was thinking the same thing, glad to see I was right about that. Also you were right about there being sooo many versions of this piece about. I have found several, some good and then some not so good as far as my attempting them goes.

The version Allard (think it was him) posted of David Lanz I could listen to for an hour or three. Oh wait... I HAVE listened to it that long

Hi Ragdoll, I learned another version of Canon in D. i hope you'll listen to all the variations first... and picked the one you like the most. i just lose all motivation to learn another variation of the first song i learn in piano. Good luck! it's a great song!

My AotW, is to be able to read and play slowly debussy's clair de lunes. I hope in another month it'll sound much smoother compared to now and that i can play from memory.

You people caused me to listen to this. It's an absolutely beautiful melody! I can understand why there are many versions. It is something I can obsess over. I look forward...

This week, I googled Mozart's first-ever composition (K. 1a) and committed the piece to memory. It is by no means difficult or demanding - it's 10 bars in length and spans roughly 25 seconds.

I just thought it would be cool to say to a friend, colleague, etc., "Have you ever heard Mozart's very first composition when he was only four years old?"

Who can turn that down?

Also this week, I finally can play Liszt's "Consolation No. 3, S. 172" all the way through without making a mistake.

Someone please pat me on the back!

Way to go maestro57!

I will pat you on the back! This a a gorgeous piece. I just had it added to my assigned list. I absolutely love it!

I had an impromptu performance with my new piano last night. Our upstairs neighbor was instrumental in our deciding to go ahead with purchasing the grand. She encouraged me to get it and said she really enjoyed hearing me practicing . So we had her over for Prosecco and piano. I didn't bomb too badly. I played Chopin Waltz in C# minor and the first 1/2 of the Arabesque. Fortunately the Prosecco made the mistakes less noticeable.

I don't have a specific AOTW this week, just steady progress. The Arabesque is learned and all memorized except the last page, the Invention is memorized and up to speed but the left hand trill is too slow, and I am starting to record the Nocturne. I still have a couple of spots in the Nocture that are not to my teacher's (or my) satisfaction. But, it is close enough that I am starting to look at the next piece. Liszt, here I come!

Maestro57, that is so cool! I just looked it up on IMSLP & downloaded a copy for myself, & just tried out the first couple of bars. It looks doable; I'll take it with me to my lesson today & ask my teacher if he thinks I'm ready to take on a composition by a 5-year-old.

On the subject of 5-year-olds, yet another prodigy from West Vancouver is scheduled to perform @ Carnegie Hall, among other places. He's the 2nd 5-year-old in less than a year from the same area. None of the news reports mention whether they both have the same teacher but if so, his/her rates will skyrocket.)

" all the way through without making a mistake."

Now then. Who else was listening? heh heh . . . "two or more witnesses . . ."

Well, I hesitated to post anything because my AoTW is not as impressive as most here are.
But for me it is an achievement- I am perfecting a few pieces. The reason this is such a big step is that I've spent my eight years on the piano not practicing or not understanding how to practice.
I read a really helpful article on the site http://www.musicalfossils.com/. I was hoping that would be a link but it doesn't seem to be. It was like it was written for me- I wanted a 'secret' or 'easy' way to learn but there just isn't one.
I have come to really believe the adage that if it were easy everyone would play piano. And I am enjoying the process.

I discovered this site some time ago, and it is gold. The practice method recommendations were very helpful to me. Discovering the site is an AOTW!

It hasn't been fully a week yet (not even close), but I have two mini-AOTW's nonetheless.

One, I went to my piano lesson on Wednesday, even though I had nothing new to play. For me, at that moment, it was the mother of all AOTW's. I know that if I had convinced myself not to go to that particular lesson, I may never have gone back -- and then my piano progress would have slid into a painfully slow crawl.

Two, I just recorded and uploaded my first Piano Bar submission, partly in response to the fact that casinitaly and joyoussong both seem to be working on the same piece. It is Händel's Impertinence, which I played for my December in-class recital.



Thanks for the pictures! And thanks for taking the time to figure out how to upload them, too. /me adds the making of an album of piano pictures to her 'to do' list, because surely people will be clamoring for them shortly.



Needless to say, indeed . And I'm sure now that you have a grand again, you'll be playing it so much that your skill level will justify having it in no time! Besides, as a relative n00b who now owns a grand, too, I think everyone should get to play one, even (perhaps especially) the true beginner!



Take the opportunity. Nothing makes you 'practice until perfect' like knowing that you'll be playing in front of a live audience of more than one shortly. And nobody will care, except for you, that it's actually a children's recital; you might even inspire some of the parents there to take up piano for themselves!



That is an achievement I will bow down to! I am kind of indecisive about this one. I tell my teacher I want to sight read better, but then, I notice, when I'm actually playing, I sometimes don't even bother getting the score out. I like playing without a score, and am not *really* properly motivated to learn to play with it.



Sincere congratulations on the analysis, and focused practice based upon it. This is another achievement I will bow down to because I don't do nearly enough of it myself.



Hey! I played that piece at my December in-class recital! I just uploaded it to SoundCloud and posted it on the March Piano Bar thread, here -- because of your comment, and to show off my Boston (which does badly need to be tuned, now).



Fantastic! (Also: I *really* need to get started on my chosen 'first' Chopin Nocturne -- number 19 -- but I got distracted by a Chopin Waltz, which I heard on the radio by accident recently, and then promptly downloaded from IMSLP).



That's a great place to be, I think. And you got there the old-fashioned way: by putting in the exercise until you could do it in your sleep. Nice!



That's not an easy piece by any means. Congratulations!



Cool! You just inspired me to follow your example!



This may be the single most important realization you will ever have in the course of your piano learning years. Which makes it a big achievement, indeed!

Started the birgmuller opus 100 number 5... 3 days ago and can play it smoothly all the way through with now working on dynamics.... shocked how quick this has sunk in.... seems to be a welcome experience and a change from the slog of daily progress which is habitually very mich slower!!

Bought a new upright piano. That's my AOTW!! Seriously, 1st and 2nd inversions clicked with me today. I don't know why they haven't in the past, but today they did.

What a week, my favorite AOTW is finding this lovely redition of DBTSGs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQDa_aZyoR0. I have found several scores for it and have yet to decide which to attempt, the simpler ones are much too simple.

Decided to drop out of the spring recital for various reasons. My teacher will not be pleased I'm sure. <shrug>

Back burnered the Canon for a bit (not giving it up though) as it was taking my time and focus away from my other musical studies too much. I'll get back to it in a couple weeks, I made remarkable progress on it so far.

I wanted to post something in the March piano bar... But, EPIC FAIL after 12 straight takes to get a good recording of a piece I've played dozens of times. Arrgg, that red-light. Maybe I'll try for April

Awesome x 2! In ABF tradition, pictures or you didn't really buy it ...

+1
And anyway, your user id indicates that you might already know something about taking a picture!

My AOTW, or more like miracle of the week is that I played one piece better at my lesson than I do normally. What's up with that?

That's amazing. That's never happened to me, and I doubt it ever will. Congrats!

My AOTW for those who asked ...





My daughter kicks off her shoes first thing after school and heads for the piano

Night song from second Alfrred book

I previously started learning piano for four months then had just over a year away , so effectively starting from scratch again.

Week One : Can play 5 times correctly on first sitting;
A major scale 4 octaves hands separately, 2 octaves similar and contrary motion.
A, D, E major broken chords , hands together, standard and compound pattern.(ABRSM)
A, D, E major arpeggios, hands together (and not looking at keys , yay! lol) Root, I and II inversions.

Not a lot and played real slow, but it is a start, and hopefully I can stick to '20 mins practice, get up and walk away from the piano' routine. Currently an hour a day total.
My plan is to do D major scale this week, E major the following and a week to consolidate after that. I chose to practise A, D and E major chords together as finger stretch and pattern is the same.

AOTW. After having a mild bout of tendinitis and having what turned into the cold of the century I took my grade 8 exam and it was the best exam I've ever taken. Probably something to do with it being the most prepared I have ever been for an exam. I was nervous yet somehow confident. Even had a lovely chat with the examiner half way through as I had gone in early! The only thing to throw a spanner in the works was being asked to play B melodic minor 3rds in the left hand with crescendo diminuendo and staccato!!

Wow! It's awesome"

Thanks Jim! It seems perfect for us

Casinitaly, it's so much fun!

Beautiful picture!

Heather, that is a nice picture.

Dulcetta, how interesting that you are so focused on scale work and basic technique so early in your studies (vs. learning pieces).

Week 53: I attend a concert featuring Andrew Moses on clarinet, and Dr. Tania Fleischer on piano. The program includes pieces from Debussy and Gershwin. Mr. Moses is 13 years old. He is already conducting a youth orchestra, as well as being a virtuoso musician.

I spend some time with an ear training app. My first tries at the higher/lower game were disappointing. My scores are in the 60% range, slightly better than chance for higher/lower. Then I attached the mini speaker to the tablet for better sound, and figured out that I could try and find the notes on the tablet keyboard and my score improved to the 80% range. My go at the note identifying game was similar. At first I was near hopeless, then after I figured out I could try and match the note by pressing keys, I got to 90% correct. It took an average of seven pokes on the screen keyboard to isolate the note. If I can get that down, it will be a big help in playing by ear. There is also an interval game and a chord identifying game.

At Songmakers I do three pieces. I hack my way through Ashokan Farewell. I lead a sing along for Misty Mountains Cold. I perform my new original The Passage of Time. I grade myself 3, 5, 7 on a scale of 1 to 10. I got through all of them, but with major flaws. There are wrong notes, wrong chords, hesitations, uneven rhythm, sloppy pedal work, complete halts. Had it been an audition or a formal recital, my level of play would have felt like a disaster. Thank goodness it is a casual group of musicians. Though some of them are life long musicians who likely cringed as I stumbled again and again. No matter, it is what it is. Performing live is one reason I write music. I am far more comfortable with my original work than playing cover pieces, though that too is something for me to work on. I didn't do Canon in D. I'll keep working on it.

Despite the low level of performance, it is my first time leading a sing along on the keyboard. First time that I sing and play in public on a keyboard and I can't really sing. I play on the host's Roland D20. For its time it was a high end unit, but it is old, with 5 octaves, a slot for 3.5 floppy disks, and plastic keys. I set the sound to acoustic piano-1, but some said it sounds like a harpsichord setting. It is a strange feeling, looking at the keys, with my nervous mind telling me that the keyboard layout looks alien, as if someone stuck in some extra keys or moved some of the black keys. Of course it is not, but it feels that way.

Also at Songmakers, is a new person, a young singer songwriter that wows the crowd with original songs, guitar and mandolin music, and vocals. One positive of my playing with so many mistakes, is that it makes everyone else feel quite comfortable, because they are all sure they will do better .