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Thanks so much, all. I appreciate you thoughts very much.

Cathy

I'm still here as well! It seems my report slips a day each week! The good news is I have been madly practicing. Terror will do that. I have my first real live recital coming up. I have done piano parties, but this is the first formal, walk up on stage and play in front of kids, parents, and fellow adult students. Eeeek!

1. Villa-Lobos - I play this at tempo now, and have started recording every other day. My current practice on this is slow error free, then at tempo, then work on any error spots. This is by far the most challenging piece I have done to date. My teacher is trying to teach me complete hand independent in the "salsa" section such that the right hand is rhythmically correct, but the left hand melody is more relaxed rubato. I can do it slowly, but at tempo I lose the relaxed sound. It is getting there though. I hope to get a good recording this week for the quarterly recital.

2. Chopin Mazurka - I have spent a lot of HS time ingraining the slurring and phrasing. Now I have HT and I will start recording this week.

3. Kuhlau - The first and second movements are getting close to final tempo. Practice on these will continue to be focussed on good hand position and even runs. I am holding off starting the Rondo until after the recital. This is another piece that I try to do error free, or slow down. I will do a baseline recording of this as well.

This is a challenge for me, too, tho I try it more conventionally with a solid LH and a rubato RH. Pop dance music has a lot of this if it's going to sound really cool. I can't say I've got the "really" part yet

Cathy

Cathy, I missed the post about the sad events in your life - I'm so sorry for your losses, that's heartbreaking.

May you find great comfort in memories of your dear friends, which warm your heart.

Ouch, last week was olive picking time and I didn't have any energy left for the piano! But I'm finally back to the city and to Wally

Where was I? Well I finished and recorded Mozart's German Dance, but I'm still working on Haydn's Gipsy Dance. It is coming together but will take more time to speed up.

Today I started Tchaikovsky's Italian Song for the themed recital - it was on my list anyway - and it looks very feasible and quite entertaining.

On the other hand I must press on with Maple Leaf Rag, haven't finished writing down the simplified arrangement in Ab yet.

I think these three things will keep me busy until the end of the month, together with the hymns and Beyer's op. 101 that I'm trying to sight-read, so no short-term goals for now. Most of all I have to get used to the acoustic piano. Actually this place is so noisy that it doesn't stand out very much, plus the lady downstairs said she doesn't mind at all. I think she's a bit deaf, her TV is louder than Wally!!

I need to join this. Having joined MOYD, at least I'm stopping the piano gathering dust, but as day after day goes by with me just tinkering I'm not making much progress and deadlines are getting closer.

By next Monday I intend to:

work out fingering for my Chopin mazurka

practice and embed this fingering - hands separately til embedded

to RESIST the temptation to play both hands together until they are ready

Welcome Dipsy!

Progress report for this week:

1. Villa-Lobos: I made a satisfactory recording for the ABF yesterday, and this piece seems on track for the live recital next Sunday. I am feeling pretty confident about it now. This week the focus will be slow play and "cold" performances.

2. Chopin Mazurka: I did not get this recorded last week, so it is on the list for this week. My teacher introduced some choreography changes that I need to incorporate. Work this week will be focussed on better expression and crisp phrasing to bring out the spirit of a Mazurka.

3. Kuhlau Sonatina: Work on breathing in the running passages in the 1st movement. Begin the Rondo. Goal: 1st two pages HT.

4. Joplin- Chrysanthemun: This goes on the active pile now. This week "A: section HS to tempo.

5. Tchaikovsky - March: Read through to see what I have gotten myself into!

SwissMS - looking forward to Chrysanthemum (that's one of those words, like Mississippi, that I'm always afraid is going to run away from me as I type).

I was so bad at refreshing some of my repertoire that I've moved the goal posts I love being an adult that can do what I please. So I have on my list now only those great swing pieces I've learned, and some of the older stuff that gets me moving and was revived in the 1940s, and will only play the songbook stuff that I can play be ear, at least for repertoire. I'll visit other stuff as I want something a little lighter. There's still around 30 pieces, so enough to trade out and not do the same set every month. And I can add Original Rags as it comes on line, and up the tempos on some of the others, which is a project I can really get in to, and play a few others of the band old-time/traditional as they come along for fillers. So I feel lighter now.

I really do "focus" better on this kind of stuff, instead of feeling like I need to add things I *should* add. And there's enough of it that I still end up with a nice variety of tunes/songs for my gigs.

So it's my early Christmas present for myself.

Cathy

Hello, Helen, and welcome to the thread. I hope this works for you.

My main objective for the week was to get the Brahms Ballad ready for recording and that went OK but I developed the sneezles on Thursday, as the Irish weather turned towards winter, and I've since been unable to get through the whole thing in one go so I may have to prolong this another few days. I've spent the rest of my practise time investigating the Joplin, Tchaikovsky, Chopin and Beethoven pieces for my future commitments so I can plan my time better for the coming months.

This week's aim is to get a recording of the Brahms and get back to finishing this year's pieces while sorting out the details of my plans for the next six to twelve months.

Feel better soon Richard!

My hopes for this week:

Tchaikovsky 10/1- Start working on those groups of 5 notes and the rhythm of those measures.

Bethena-sections D and E. Time to get going on this piece!

Mazurka 17/4: Little notes (each 3 groups of 5)-play faster (same tempo as rest of piece) and lighter! I must have played these 100 times today. Sigh. Still little improvement in the lightness department; Page 3—how to make it musical? Also trouble spots page 3 (measures 2 and 4 on that page and their 3 reappearances that follow); Memory last half of last page plus 37-44; Legato throughout.

Mazurka 68/4-Same as last week--Legato for the middle section, and legato before that in bars 32-39. Also some dynamics.

Moonlight-3-This week I worked on a lot on the development section. I’d like to get each section in the piece to a tempo of at least 72-80 per quarter note. I can play faster than this for some sections but for others my memory in particular holds me back. Probably the biggest trouble spots are the turns in M30, 32, 125 and 127, and then the same place in both the exposition (53-56) and (especially) the recap (148-151) where my memory slows me down tremendously!

I really like the rhythm of this thread, most of us updating each weekend. It has a nice pulse to it that drags me along to look at my progress (or lack thereof) on a more structured basis.

I'm not happy with progress on BWV 846, but it's mostly a lack of time vs. poor habits (although those don't help). I've got it mostly memorized, i.e. I know it but not with full confidence. I have to stop and ponder the next measure sometimes.

Not much time left to get it up to speed. 2nd half still needs a lot of work to get up to even a slow speed consistently. Haven't even set a target tempo, maybe 30 bpm? Blech.

(The management requests that you please refrain from Bleching in this thread. Other people use it, too. Thank you for your consideration.)

I have no idea what got into me there. . .



Cathy

LOL

Welcome Dipsy! I hope you find this thread as helpful as I have.

Most of my time was spent last week on Clair de Lune. I am making a lot of progress with memorizing. This week my goals are pretty much the same as last week. It's pretty repetitive stuff, yet so important. Today I had the pleasure of practicing it on a grand piano. I sure found this helpful. I'm so close to getting it memorized.

I also decided to spend more time practicing O Holy Night. Last week I recorded it on my piano to get a sense of how much more needs to be done with it. This week I'll spend half of my practice time getting it done. I hope to be able to record it late next week.

This morning I practiced Prelude in D-Flat Major, Opus 28, No. 15 (Chopin) on the grand piano. I have far more work to do with this. I have decided to change my goals with memorizing this piece until after the holiday season. As Cathy said, I'm an adult now and I get to decide. Especially since I'm paying for this and not Mom and Dad!

Gymnopedie 1 - I will just do a few small practice sessions this week. I'm not setting any immediate goals with this for now.

That's it for me. Have a great week!

I'm fine now, Valencia, thank you.

It wasn't easy finding the thread this week. I used to be near the last to post on Sunday nights but there's been little to read this week.

Recording the Ballad hasn't gone as well as hoped. I've a take ready but I'm hoping for better. I'd like to take the piece slower but I don't seem to have the tone to do that.

More work on Child Falling Asleep but the last phrase (3rd phrase, last to learn) is more elusive than the others. I may need another week at this. Schlummerlied is making progress but I'm not sure it's enough. I've taken my first tentative steps at Heliotrope Bouquet.

The Ballad will take all my attention now until I submit it. Strangely, this has been the easiest recital piece to learn and the least punctual to submit.

I like the rhythm of this thread too TallGuy. Richard, I suspect that there's less and shorter posts here because lots of folks are preparing for the various online recitals.

Last week my teacher and I discussed my work for the next few weeks. Right now it's difficult for me to do much justice to the Chopin piece because I'm naturally wanting to spend lots more time with Clair de Lune. The majority of my work on Clair this week will be continuing the work on memorizing and working on dynamics. I'm only doing minimal amounts of work on the Chopin piece because it's not nearly as close to completion as Clair de Lune is.

O Holy Night is a much easier piece and I'm having fun with this one! I'll be doing a private recording of it by the end of this month for my friends.

My teacher liked the Christmas song book I selected and suggested I play some of these pieces in my practice sessions this month to help me advance my sight reading skills. That's what else I'll be doing this week and through the month.

That's it for me this week. I hope things are going well for others.

This is "reset" week for me, adding some pieces and putting some others in the drawer. I played Chopin Mazurka 6 2 and Villa-Lobos Na Corda da Viola in recital yesterday, so they are ready to move to repertoire maintenance status. I still am trying to get a perfect recording of the Mazurka for the Pianist Forum Mazurka Recital. I am a little afraid of submitting anything less than that! I decided I should organize my pieces by due date going forward.

Feb 15 - Mendelsohnn 30 6: I worked out the left hand fingering with my teacher today, and worked on LH choreography. This week I will practice HS, working on phrasing and ingraining fingering and preparation.

Mar 15 - Joplin Chyrsanthemum: Slow play HT "A" section until memorized. Begin "B" section HS until fingering in locked in.

April 15 - Tchaikowsky March: Work HT through m6. Make a decision whether to play melody in baseline with RH (crossed hands) or to switch to LH. Work out fingering through entire piece, HS.

Kuhlau Sonatina - This went on hold last week while I focussed on recital preparation. Now I need to bring it back. 1st & 2nd movement: focus on accuracy gradually increasing pace. 3rd movement: basically start over with HS and slow play.

Congrats SwissMS on the live recital... sounds like it went well.

Griffin, I'm looking forward to hearing your Clair de Lune at some point in the future. My bunglings can be heard here, liberally redacted.

I've been totally overwhelmed with work, hardly any sleep and hardly any bench time. I slept ~28 out of the 48 hours from Saturday morning to Monday morning in order to catch up.

I don't really have any time available to record before Thursday evening, but today is a holiday here in the USA, so I decided to record today and see what I come up with. So far, one half-decent take -- a couple flubs, but I plowed forward so they don't sound as bad as they would have if I had stopped to correct. Biggest issue with the recording is that I have the sniffles... I should have just let myself drip (ewwww, I know). Oh well.

Hopefully I'll have a shot to improve on it later today.

One thing I'm happy about though, I figured out that my phone only records in VGA when flipped around to record from the front, and the sound suffers as well (see link above). By using the "normal" way I can get HD+, and it sounds a whole lot better as well. A little awkward to line it up "just so" prior to recording (I don't have a stand of any sort, just leaning it against stuff on the mantle), but worth it.

Hope everyone is having a great week! My main focus the last week has been the mazurka for the upcoming recital. For the next few days I will focus on:

Mazurka 17/4: First and last bars—bring melody out, legato; use RH and LH together; add rubato to ‘little notes’; slow down 37-42; delicate and legato for repeated Ds in M62 and M64 and their reappearances through the section. Subordinate D to E also. Do a practice recording.

Moonlight 3: Exposition-try to get all bars to 84 per quarter note with metronome; reinforce memory bars 53-56 and 148-151. Figure out how to approach turns on the octaves! Fingers 5, 4, 3, 4, 5 make for a weak turn for me and I can’t get my fingers moving fast enough! I fear no amount of practice will make it so. Maybe I should practice 3, 5, 3, 2, 3, 5? Also for alberti bass, practice away from the piano with metronome. I can do a simple pattern sans piano pretty well up to about 100 but at 108 it starts to come apart.

Nocturne 10/1: Bars 1-24 familiarity and prelim thoughts on shaping; Bar 68-get familiar with.

Bethena: Section B-ID stumbling blocks. Decide whether to memorize parts in order to play it.

Mysterious Barricades: Part B and C-work on trouble spots and try to get each section smooth in entirety. Might need to memorize at least a few spots so I can watch my hands.

For fun: go slowly through some troubling arpeggios from Ocean etude.