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Okay, here's one of my few longish videos.

Augustina, you even submitted 2 pieces!

philip wesley
clear sound. Good job with a cell phone. good pedaling. Nice even playing. nice work with dynamics.

Just one small thing,
on the main theme (the three times up and down run of the same 8 notes), You play all the notes the same, all legato notes. I think this might get a bit more shaping.


Hungary: Rapsodie Mignonne, Opus 410 by Carl Koelling

Really nice job so far. Looking forward to the rest. I prefer this by a large over the philip wesley, much more variations. but that's just my taste

Check your timing at 1:28, sounds like you lost a beat there

Weiyan - Nice job on the Bach. You had a good balance between the hands, and the ornaments were a nice touch!

ElleC - Excellent job on the Minuet! The second half is a little tricky and you handled it very well. Your progress in three months is amazing.

Teodor - You captured the darkness of this piece well. Great performance for "not having studied it yet"!

Keystring - Another take on the same piece! Your chords were nicely voiced, and I like the dynamics you gave it. I could see the sad processional.

peterws - Very nice Schubert, very well played. Did you create your own arrangement? If so, your did an awesome job! I can see that Gb major wouldn't be the best key for someone who does not like black keys, ha, ha. And, I agree, Horowitz's version of this is wonderful.

Maechre - Very well played. You gave it a nice flow and effective dynamics.

Maechre: Very good. Your playing is fluent.

Finally got to record from my U1. here are the 2 songs I played at my 1st recital 2 weeks ago.

https://soundcloud.com/elle_c/menuet-bwv-anh-115-js-bach

https://soundcloud.com/elle_c/arabesque-burgmuller

Still playing catch-up. This is proving to be a great month.

Augustina - The Approaching Night - I remember your previous recording of this piece. Good job.
(I didn't find the background noise distracting.)

Teodor - Whole tone scale - I like how it sounds too.

ElleC - Clementi Sonatina Op 36 no 1 - this is a pretty piece, you are already playing quite well. I look forward to when you have it completely mastered.

Codi - Cruella De Vil - that piece gets a nice honly-tonk feel on your piano. I'm impressed in what you've done in only a week.

Maechre - Kingdom Hearts: Traverse Town - good arrangement

ladypayne - Amazing Grace - that is one of the most beautiful hymns.
You played it well leaving lots of room for the singer.

Augustina - Rapsodie - I look forward to the comoplete piece.

Elssa - Take the A Train - they are indeed 2 perfect ending notes.

casinitaly - Melody - well played, good control of tempo

peterws - Sack the Band! well done as usual.
( I see you had to drive on the correct side of the road )

Maechre - Kingdom Hearts: Kairi - I like this one even better

sislermi - Chopin Etude Op 10 no 1 - Wow, almost there.

Weiyan - Back Minuet in Dm - two hands now, nice progress. You managed the jumps quite well.

ElleC - Minuet - very fluent, nice tempo.

Teodor - Chopin Prelude in Cm - I always liked the mood of this prelude.

keystring - Chopin Prelude in Cm - they are both good, but I think I like the dynamics of the newer version better

Maechre Your Kingdom Hears was lovely! Is this from a game? You play very well and you piano sounds great!!

Sisleremi I can tell this was recording attempt number one. It was indeed really awful… NOT. Wow! your fingers are from another world!!! Thanks for sharing!!

Weiyan You are our Bach master here now! Loved it!! I can tell that you really enjoy the music too.

Elle C - More Bach! First month of lessons??? Loved it. You play very good! That piece seems quite hard to play. Thanks for sharing!

Teodor That is a great piece and you play it really good. Not studied it yet? As in analyzed or was this sight reading??? Thanks for sharing!!

Thank you, Glen. My copy probably says the same as yours - the pp doesn't crescendo until later, and it finishes strongly per markings in the music. One of the things I'm learning is what following a composer's intentions in a score means. The first recording I listened carefully to was Rubinstein's, and he puts his ritard's differently than written (for example). This dynamic at the ending was suggested by my teacher, and it made sense to me. You have the call-answer phrase thingy. Do you state the theme softly, and then emphasize it at the end? Or do you crescendo early, and then restate it softly? The soft ending seemed more sad - more like a farewell (if it's a funeral march).

(It's my first time at the bar, and I'm still catching up listening to everything - wow, there's a lot of participation! Fantastic.)

It sounds quite nice. This is something that want to learn eventually. One thing I've wondered about. When you start, do you only learn the range of the instruments, or do you also go into the characteristics of the instrument that might affect how you write. Must it stay in the same key? Or does that kind of thing come later?

Yes more Bach! Partially because Ana Magdalena's Notebook was my first exposure to Bach's works and it happen to come with a cd. Needless to say, I fell in love with his music. I wanna play everything in that notebook! I've only completed 4 thus far.

For reddit's Piano Jam #15, in honor of Women's History month, I prepared May Audferheide's rag "The Thriller!"

I'm not quite caught up yet, but after listening to the Chopin, I had to record this little gem.

Chopin prelude op 28 no 7 in A major.

https://www.box.com/s/dt8984qr9zaxfit9cix1

Elle, nice job on the Araesque. Thanks for posting the new version using your new U1! Sounds much, much better than the DP version. Again congrats on your new U1!

Still have issues with Soundcloud.... Got it to work only with safari.

Maechre – that was great – flowing and elegant – nice to hear a longer piece! (btw...How is your name pronounced?)

Elle C – your new piano sounds wonderful – and your Arabesque was sparkling!

Whizbang – that was a blast! I liked all of it, but got a particular kick out of the big stretch chords in the last minute. What great fun!

Stumbler, thanks for your feedback on my Melody! Your Chopin prelude is charming – delicate and wistful.

Classical pieces orchestration has many limitations. You cannot change tempo, cannot create new rhythmic variations or models and you can't change key and transpose parts.

You can learn the range of the instruments, that's not difficult, you don't really need to remember it, you can get a quick reference anytime online, eventually you will know them. You will need basic knowledge of writing notes on different clefs, it's just 2 clefs for piano but violas use a different clef and that changes the position of the notes.

Then you get yourself one of those note editing programs such as finale or Sibelius and you start writing. The good thing is those programs have playback ability so you will be able to hear how it sounds and change things all the time until it pleases you. Also Sibelius highlights notes that are out of the range of the instrument in red, so it will tell you if you are wrong there. http://www.noteflight.com is a free alternative that is used only online and without installation.

I have just entered an intro class into orchestration, so I am not really deeply involved with it and my knowledge is very limited.

If you look at the piano score and see my score you will notice that I took notes from the chords and placed them in different instruments. I gave the contrabass the lowest harmony notes, then I gave the cello those above. I gave the melody to the violins and the violas are playing a supportive role most of the time in this case as they keep the harmony too. I changed nothing and simply redistributed the sounds.

You can also double some of the notes in octaves if it fits the mood of the piece. The most important thing is to choose instruments according to the mood of the piece and in some sonatas it's quite obvious what Beethoven imagined when he wrote them in terms of orchestra instruments but in other cases it's not so and it's up to you to make sure the general air about the piece stays the same.

You don't have to have all the instruments play at the same time either. Have them all play at the same time at important moments such as cadenzas but also have passages when for example only the violins are playing with occasional pizzicato from the cello or so on. The variations are infinite and it's up to you. It's more interesting then I tell it if you are into this sort of thing. And it's easy to start.




I picked it up for a few days in September last year. I was only at the point when I could go through it without making mistakes. I had one lesson on it only with my teacher then I forgot all about it till a few days ago when I found it. To my surprise I was able to play it better than before and with no mistakes. My hands just knew where to go, especially the left hand, it just went up and down those octaves and I was pleasantly surprised, I didn't even look once to see what's going on down there at the keyboard.

But now I recorded it and when I listen to it I cringe at some spots there are many things that I wish to do better. I am not following the dynamics plan, the piano and pianissimo are softer but not really sounding too different from my forte. Sometimes I notice I partially arpeggiate chords (as in, my fingers don't press the keys simultaneously and there is a part a second delay between notes of the same chords, I did not mean to do that)

Overall there is no concrete musical idea, no real direction most of the time. And this can all be avoided and put together with some studying and analysis, which I have not yet done.

Teodor, thank you very much for that information! It all makes sense - including deciding which instruments to choose, when to double parts and such. I guess here you are using your inner ear and understanding of the music to make good choices, so it's not just a matter of plucking the notes out of a chord that match the range of an instrument. What you write places limitations which are a special challenge. Thank you for the info. on Sibelius. Does this have the same handicap as Finale, where the introductory version doesn't allow you to do much, but the complete version costs a huge gob of money? (I don't know if Finale does the same thing).

I was wondering about the ability to change keys, because I studied violin for a number of years, and sharps signatures are often easier. Now I have my answer. In fact, I played your opening measures.


I would love to hear what you do with it after study and analysis.

Thank you very much, everyone!

Amaruk: Yes, this is from a game.

casinitaly: My name's pronounced the same as "Maker".

Thanks - I like to get people's names right, even if I am just reading them.

Whizbang - Very lively performance. It was wonderful!

Wouter and casinitaly - thank you. Enjoying the U1 very much

Whizbang - I love the ragtime! You really voiced this well and kept it hopping. It sounded like a lot of fun! Great job.

Stumbler - I love that little prelude. You gave it time to breathe and let it gently flow in a wistful way. Very nice playing!