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Piano must be the only instrument where study isn't linked to an immediate performance. I guess I know a few composers with the same attitude. But e.g. a trumpeter plays in a band. What else?

I guess the huge crowd arrived later? :-)

No...those are just his groupies.
He is standing with the crowd.
Congrats Teodor!

Hi, I knew someone would make a comment like this. So to answer your question, the huge crowd only gathered when I was playing then they went home.

But seriously, I am standing in the crowd front there in this picture. And let's hope that we get older groupies next time.

Check out the guy though, his music is cool. Anyone could play a few tunes like I did but he plays for hours upon hours straight and well into the night when it's dark.

You are so right Whizbang, I'll start this evening; a friend is coming for dinner, I'll ask her to arrive a bit earlier so I can play my recital pieces for her (little more than five minutes)!

Of course the huge crowd is sophisticated enough to stand on the open side of the piano for the best sound!
The small crowd went to the other side to get into the picture.

Whizbang - that's the spirit! Great encouragement and look, Torquenale took the challenge almost instantly! Woohoo!

Teodor - that's pretty cool - it must have been fun!

Excellent!

I feel elated. Today I practised 'properly', starting with 10 minutes of arpeggios that I need for pieces I'm working on, then focused sections of said pieces. 10 minutes of 'chord grips' for one song that I tend to fumble. 5 minutes of crazy hard left-hand double octave arpeggio for a previous recital piece. 10 minutes of practise on the hardest section of my Grieg piece. Finally, 35 minutes across two sessions on several parts of an Einaudi piece I started last week. It feels like I've accomplished so much in only a little over an hour!

Normally, I start with just playing a few older pieces before focussing on (sections of) one piece. It helps for warming up and keeping them in memory, but I don't always feel motivated to practise too much after it. Now I had time for technical work, and can still add half an hour of playing pieces if I want to.

Hi the piano had an amplifier it could be heard everywhere, half a mile away. Today this guy moved to a more central location and even more people stopped by. You should have seen, people who walk down the street stop and gather around him and make pictures and videos.

He was also on national tv today. Several tv stations came to make a story on him for the news.

People who came did not want to leave, some even sat on the ground for hours listening to him. I've never seen this in my life before. People of all types were just drawn in to his music and it was magical.

Davide Martello, look him up.

And my friend told me she wanted me to play for her but didn't dare to ask!
My Scarlatti was not perfect, but a lot better than at the recital...

Recital #2 in 5 days is done!! Playing from memory Saturday made playing from the music tonight a piece of cake! I was hardly nervous at all. And that's a first!!

Torquenale and Dynambot - congratulations on 2 important successes!

Teodor...sounds like a great event with the outdoor venue and the crowds enjoying piano as if they'd never heard one before. There is so much tech music that the beauty of an acoustic must just blow them away.
Congrats to Allard on a productive and satisfying practice/play session. Making those improvements just feels so good.
Whizbang, great suggestion for Torquenale...I'm betting Torq that you'll do great dinner hour performance. That will for sure get you past your nerves. Our public speaking students have nerves about speeches but that goes away with encouragement and repeated performance (my hope is that piano is the same process). PW gives us encouragement and we just have to take advantage of performance opportunities...Casinitaly has noted some and Jotur has a variety she participates in...I know there are others as well. It doesn't have to be a stage. AND it doesn't have to be flawless on the notes. Now...if I can just do the same myself.

My achievement is recovering quickly from the dismal performance of technical skills on my exam and moving on to new music. Another Bach, more of the Mozart sonatina, and some David Nueve for fun. Summerkeys first of July.

Today, I finally finished learning all of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 5 in C minor, Op. 10 No. 1. Down to the fine-tuning stage. I had a heck of a time, and it's supposedly his 7th most difficult out of the 32. I could only imagine what the Hammerklavier would be like.

Theodor - congrats for your public performance experience. Not easy to do it spontaneously like that. You compose too, that's great.

WiseBuff - would love to hear everything about SummerKey. I'm so excited about it myself.

Dynamobt - congratulations on your successful performance at your recital. Thank you for sharing the happy news. Happiness is infectious.

Maestro57- Congratulation on your accomplishment. Completing any of Beethoven's s sonata is a daunting task. It is a beautiful sonata. Look forward to listening to a recording someday.

Not so much of achievement. I just have lots of stuff to do. Summer did not slow down things for me. My teacher recorded the piano 2 part of the sonata. I played with her yesterday and realized that I still have to up the speed for certain runs and keep the same "fast" tempo throughout the piece. I also have to brush up Bach prelude, Mendelssohn piece and Brahms (at least for the first two pages). I'm going to take them to SummerKey and may play them for our church. You all have a wonderful day.

I don't really have the time or the energy to catch up with everyone else's achievements right now (sorry about that! I'll get to you all tomorrow!).

I do have something to share that I'm pretty excited about. I got 90 out of 100 on my piano exam today.

I think I could have done even better, if I'd gotten in a little more practice this past week. I got none as it is, which reminds me: I need to go confess my sins on MOYD.

I also think that the grade I got reflects the level of effort I put in throughout the year pretty well, but it doesn't really reflect the quality of my performance today. Based on that, I should have gotten at least 10% less. Probably 15% less. I had a false start on my Grieg piece. Started over completely after measure 4 or 5 (I forgot which). And then there were the dozens of little imperfections.

The Burgmüller went pretty well, but way too slow.

Regardless, I got 90 out of 100, and even though it may lean more heavily on what I've been doing throughout the year than what I did at this one point in time, I think that's something to be proud of.

Congrats Saranoya. Please don't be so hard on yourself. You have worked hard and it paid off with a good grade as it should.

And congrats to Dynamobt on another successful recital. Doesn't it feel great to have that weight lifted?

I have really goofed off more than ever this week. Although I did get to the bench every day, it has mostly been scales, arps, and some trilling exercises. No lesson this week as my teacher is vacationing, so I've gone softly on starting the Scriabin. Want to make sure I get that 3 on 2 right from the start. The Canon is a really nice, interesting piece, so I am looking forward to it.

Maestro57 - What a great achievement. To play an entire Beethoven sonata is one of my dreams. How long have you been studying op.10-1? I just listened to the prestissimo Finale again....so beautiful...and sounds so difficult. You must have some real piano chops.

WOOT! WOOT! that's great Sara. You shouldn't judge yourself so harshly, be proud of this as it's quite the AOTW girl.