Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Joplin-themed ABF recital signup thread

Not only is tempo an issue, I have the added issue of my tempo magically increasing just because I'm recording!

I've got mine memorized (a must with this type of music, I think). I can play up to tempo (but then luckily my score is marked "play a little slow"). But my teacher wants me to make it "dirty", as in let-your-hair-down and be loose with it. Don't quite know what to do with that. I think I'll take that on after I've got it really solid.

Mine usually increases in the hard parts NERVES!

I just did each section at about 1/2 speed from memory, several times in a row, for familiarity. The nice thing about doing several repeats in a row for a section is that I begin to hear the phrasing and the accents, and it begins to sound like music even at half speed.

If it wasn't for the parts that have octaves in the RH I'd have it up to speed faster, but since there's 3 months or so left, I don't mind taking it slow so it becomes really easy, or at least easy feeling.

As for the "let it rip" - it helps me to imagine I'm just playing in a casual environment, a family sing-a-long or something, and just let it feel easy and casual. I'm even beginning to do fortes doing it that way

Whoa! The quarterly recital is up! Off to deal with that now!

Cathy

Thanks for the suggestion, Cathy. I'll try that!

Beer and bar-b-que, maybe

Cathy

Woot! Some of the RH octave passages came to a par with where I've gotten the rest of it!! I spent a *lot* of time on them very slow, and it's paying off. I could do the other parts much faster than I am, but I don't want to get so far ahead of the RH octave passages that it's tempting to just play them because it's so much fun up to speed

There's a C#-G-C# span in the D part, tho, that I was finding really discouraging. But if I leave out the G I can just bop right along, so I think for now I will practice with the G just to see if I can eventually get it, but when I'm practicing for ultimately playing I'll leave the G out. Then if at sometime it actually works to leave the G in I'll do it.

There's also a section at the end of the A part that "suggests" it is octaves with a third added at the bottom. That's the kind of passage I just turned into 6ths finally for The Entertainer. This time it seems to be doing ok, tho not quite up to the rest. It's all white keys, and that helps. None of the long ways from the black keys to off the edge of the keyboard for octave whites.

Some of the accents are sorting themselves out, too, as the notes themselves become more fluid. I try to practice with all of that even when I'm very slow, but as a passage becomes fluent I can hear more in my head how I want it to sound, and experiment, too, with phrasing.

So I was pretty chuffed last night after practicing this I think it's going to be music.

Cathy

Maple Leaf has left me battle-scarred but cheerful. I found that with so much pounding of the LH octaves (must control that pounding!) I’ve developed a callous mid-way across the rt-hand side of my LH thumb. It was sore for a while but now it’s armour plated. But if I’m to avoid reverting back to the thumb I used to have it means I should probably play Maple Leaf daily for the rest of my life. I haven’t yet weighed up the implications. It might be ok in the house because it’s the only piece Mrs Tonic has ever urged me to play for visiting guests. I suffered what I think might be a bout of costochondritis as a result of the Bb leaps in the trio where the only way I was able to effectively stabilise my upper body was by flapping my elbows and arms like a hen attempting flight. I’m currently taking nsaids for a terrible pain in the ribs.

Bizarrely, whenever I start to play it, I become both the Pied Piper and his hapless victim – I find it very difficult to stop playing. But at least I have that to thank for my improved performance over the last month or so. Altogether a very satisfying physical experience although my fingernails are now beginning to split so I don’t really know where all this will end…..

I think we`ll all have battle scars wi these before we`re done . . .you can`t help but enjoy the ride. Let it all out! With gay abandon . . . sugar, better find a better phrase than that . . . . The Thought Police`ll be after me . .

Battle scars

Yea! Tonight I played the B part at my targeted speed - a quarter note = 100. That's the tempo I played my recital piece at, and for a "big" piece, not just one of the single-note melody/single note bass I play dance tunes with the band, that's close to max for me right now. Although I have aspirations

I played the C part at my minimum-hope speed - a quarter note at 62.5 I put the metronome on 125, tho, and played it as 1/8 note at 125.

BUT - and this is BIG - my foot was tapping in TWO beats per measure, like I want it to feel! I'm not sure I ever got The Entertainer to do that - I always tapped it on every 1/8th note.

So somewhere along the line, over the last 6 or 7 years, I've learned something.

Still have a lot of slow practice to do, tho, to make sure the accents are where I want. I feel them as sort of a shuffle rhythm, rather than on every off-beat, and I want some syncopation even in a run of 1/8th notes, so I'm trying to pay some attention. Not necessarily my forte

But I'm pretty pleased at the minute.

Of course, I'll probably blow my gig Sunday because I've spent so much time on Joplin - well, maybe not. It's only 1/2 and hour, and maybe I have 10 pieces I can review to that.

Cathy

Nice, congratulations! It always feels good to hit a new goal, doesn't it?

It's nice to see others reaching goals in their pieces.

I am playing a simplified version of The Easy Money but I am using the full score and will leave out some parts. It's been a challenge but also a joy because of the inherant radiance of the music itself.

But the reason that I used the full score is because I was able to find a midi file on the internet for it.

I use the midi file with Synthesia, which is the software that allows you to see the notes streaming down the screen. (I also read from the score directly.) Anyway, to make a long story short, I can play along with the midi file at 30%, 40%, 50% speeds, and play left hand only or right hand only.

It's basically like using a metronome except you hear the other hand at the same time.

Anyway - I was delighted today because I played the RH part at 70%, with very few mistakes. And I can play the entire LH part at 50%, with very few mistakes. I haven't decided on a final pacing of the score, and may not even need to reach 100%, but the goal seems reachable now.

Of course, I haven't started to put it all together yet (I can do it but it's painfully slow so will continue working on the LH and RH separately.) I play the entire score about 3 times a day, and the score is currently AABBA, so I am seeing the A part 9 times a day and the B part 6 times a day. So I'm getting a lot of repetition. Am wondering if I need even more and that will be possible now that I've speeded up a lot!

I am wondering if it would be worth trying NOT LOOKING AT MY HANDS OR THE KEYBOARD, at least for one hand, to try and get that hand into muscle memory, so that I can focus most of my attention on the other hand when I put it all together. Any thoughts on this would be welcome.

dire tonic - if you can make noise with your flapping it'd be kind of cool - kind of a precussion part to go with the rag

AZ Astro - I'm impressed with your learning style. Wow, 50 - 70% is good at this stage.

I've always had to look at my left hand for jumps, which is all of Joplin - after several years I'm just getting to the point where I can look up part of the time and see what that shadow was that just passed my window, or whatever caught my attention. Now, at least some of the time, I can use "looking" as just a sort of "spotter" move - just long enough to find the key I need the most.

But mostly I still watch my left hand. Apparently I look rather somber doing it, if my friends' comments are accurate. But I always laugh when I'm done.

But I think if it helps you to watch one hand and have the other memorized, in whatever places it's needed, go for it.

Others may think otherwise, of course.

Cathy

Derulux - thanks. I was kind of excited about it

Cathy

This is funny to me.

When I first started, I almost always watched my right hand. Then, when I got into ragtime, and later stuff like Liszt's Hungarian #2, I usually watched my LH.

At some point, I tried to switch back to the RH and had a LOT of difficulty! But I persevered. Later, I worked with an outstanding classical pianist who helped me completely rework my technique, and now I look where I need to (or not at all).

But I spent a LOT of years looking only at my left hand.. so I know right where this comment is coming from!

Cathy, funny you should mention the percussion thing, it reminded me of this song from the late 60’s – a huge hit in the UK, probably didn’t make it to your shores (he’s taken a few liberties with his lyrics for a non-english speaking audience). Clear evidence of flapping. I’ll need to get measured up for a bass drum harness.

"Something Doing" is coming along nicely. I have it in memory now and just need to make it smooth and flowing. Practice, practice, practice!

When I read the posts about watching hands - I thought of this. Sometimes I watch my hands with a detached kind of wonder. My hands just kind of do their thing and find the right place to go. I know it's the muscle memory, but it really is an amazing thing, I think, that we can do this.

dire tonic - I laughed. Definitely flapping. And lyrics

dpaws - Good to hear it's working for you. I don't know that rag, so I'm looking forward to hearing you play it.

I agree about the "amazing thing" - yes, seeing the playing can be mesmerizing and it's beautiful, and sometimes I'm in awe, as you say, and when I finish playing I have to just sit there for a minute. And sometimes it's fist-pumping time. What a journey, eh?

Cathy

Do you ever catch yourself playing it on the arm of a chair or a desk, a table, your leg with one hand or the other when you're nowhere near a piano? I unconsciously do this sometimes and get embarrassed if I happen to be in public when I "come to".

I think I'm almost there with my B section. This thing is hard! It's scary to think that I will need to be able play the entire piece through to tempo, with the repetitions and all, with the red dot glowing beside me

Well it's just November, right?

I listened to about 10 of these Joplin pieces this morning, and while I don't exactly like all of them, there are a bunch that are just delightful. I definitely hope to learn more Joplin pieces down the road!

The waltz's are particularly eloquent. They are unique and most personal. I can't help but feel that Scott Joplin was an amazing composer, even though his body of work is not particularly large.

In my view, one "Entertainer" or the like, in one lifetime, is a lifetime well spent! And he wrote many jewels.

I can't wait to hear Bink's Waltz, Pleasant Moments, and The Chrysanthemum from the industrious PWers.