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I often talk about delicious food and wine, and I have posted places I've been, but I'm not in the photos. I even went back through my set of uploaded pics to check. I "almost" posted a pic of me with my bicycle last year, and even uploaded it....but I didn't post it.

It is possible that this will change after the European Piano Party.
Maybe. We'll see.

Cathy, thank you. But no worries. My piece is not so exciting as others. It's Bach and not so much you can do with it except trying to play accurately which I never accomplish. I posted it just to prove I've done it. I'm really bad with technology.

FarmGirl, that was very good. I think there's a lot you can do with Bach, it just takes a long time, at least for me, to get past the technical difficulties and get to the music.

FarmGirl - Very nice job with the fugue !!!!!! Would love to have you post the prelude - it's one of my favorites !! Also it's fun to see someone playing a piano on youtube that I've played as well (YOUR Baldwin at our recent piano party).

Carey, thank you for your kind words. It's kind of embarrassing since I know how good you are. Now I know you are also very encouraging. Looking forward to our next piano party. Please please take good care of yourself.

Farmgirl, I'm listening to the fugue; I like very much!
I love Bach, and I wonder when I will be able to approach WTC...

My AOTW, actually two of them: my lesson yesterday was very good, the teacher praised a lot my Chopin prelude, and decided it will be included in the June recital; and I decided to perform my recital pieces for two of my mother's friends, one studied piano for many years and was involved in music for a lifetime, the other used to teach piano. I hope to get their honest feedback and sort of train myself in the art of performing for a real public. Now I need to plan this event, it will not be easy to find the time...

For me, getting an arpeggio that was dogging me. The arpeggio itself was fairly easy, but the rhythm was odd (11 notes RH played evenly over 4 notes in the LH) so I kept kind of tensing up when it would be coming up, and then just brain cramp and blow it. But I got it! Let's see if I can demonstrate it at tomorrow's lesson!

Farmgirl,

Nice job on the Fuge. No it wasn't perfect but still had all the elements that you are trying to learn. I believe the benefits of large doses of Bach come out in the other pieces, even those from other eras, that you play in the future. Bach seems to be the calisthenics of serious piano iron-pumping. (Not to say it isn't serious in its own right, just that it is great for developing piano chops)

Weird, I swear I wrote a post here a few days go, but it's not there. Oh well, it said I'm finding it doesn't take so long to learn the pieces in my book now. That was the achievement.

FarmGirl - I really enjoyed your Bach. I love the intricate weaving of the voices and I think you played both of them in a beautifully balanced way. I hope you record more, soon!

Torquenale - what a great idea to practice with an audience! and having a good lesson gives you quite a "high", doesn't it?

TwoSnowflakes- that sounds very tricky --- what's the name of the piece? Good luck strutting your stuff in your lesson!

Toastie - it is a great moment when you realize that you're moving along at a new pace. Congrats!

For the past couple of weeks I've been learning to play scales in contrary direction - not too difficult for CM, GM & DM. I've also been learning to play them a third apart - C was pretty easy, G took a bit longer, but last week when I tried D, I got it the first time!! I amazed myself! But I don't think I want to try F#M for a while.

Chopin Nocturne C Minor (Op 20, No 2).

And I did it! I demonstrated it for the teacher yesterday and didn't freak out and brain fart the whole thing. I even got to put a small amount of expression into it, so things are coming along. It's so, so bad though. Ugh. Why did I ever quit piano?!?!?

Yay Carol! I'm doing the same thing! I never really did them contrary, but my new teacher is way into contrary. No matter what it is--arpeggios, chromatics, scales, chord inversions--she wants to see them contrary. And in a very particular way, too. Up an octave (or two) then contrary the same distance, back to the middle, up to the top parallel, down to the middle, contrary, together, parallel back to starting point.

So that's what I'm doing. I actually put a video up for the "first recordings" of me doing this because there's no way I can muster the courage to put up a piece. I'm only three weeks in after 25 years of not playing. It's rough. Off the beat, tense, and not as smooth as it should be.

Here it is (only the scale is contrary, obviously the thirds don't really work that way, and the chromatic I didn't do contrary on the video):

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/89452048/IMG_2076_small.m4v

Chopin's Nocturne Opus 9 No 2 in Eb has almost the same thing except that it's 11 against 3. My teacher told me I was overthinking it - it wasn't supposed to line up, just make it sound natural. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't!

You know what? @#$^& it. I'll put it up. Gotta get over this anxiety that someone might hear it. Here's the descending arpeggio, which is at the end. I clipped the video in the middle because nobody needs to hear more than a minute of this. I played it nicer a few days ago (even just turning on the camera makes me freak out) and I've got a lot of work to do here. What the heck is my left wrist doing? I've got a stranglehold on my fingers. That's an almost laughable amount of tension there. When I can relax, I get a lot more elbow rotation to move the arpeggio down. I can see that if I really focus on getting the tension out, things will come back faster.

But here's what I've managed to learn in three weeks after 25 years of not doing anything:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/89452048/Movie%20on%205-17-13%20at%2010.07%20AM.m4v

FarmGirl, your Bach piece was so pretty. Thanks for posting a link to it here.

Very nice! I can't imagine trying to start up after a 25 year break. It must feel great to get back to it, despite the frustrations.

Is it just me, or was that video flip-flopped?

MaryBee, JimF, Cheryl, Touquenal and Plowboy, thank you so much for listening and giving me kind words. Honestly I have been feeling down after I recorded it. I hated it for two reasons. One - I could not manage to submit the recording on time once again. Two - It sounded awful. I made effort but still not satisfactory. I thought about not submitting but I wanted make it a true reflection of how I'm doing at this point. Someday, I hope to make a performance / recording of which I can be proud.

I don't know how I missed your link, Farmgirl. I love Bach, and you did a fine job with that fugue!!! The voices are very balanced and it was a joy to listen to/watch. I hope you get your recording issus resolved so you can join the Quarterly recital in August!!