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We had another of our informal "adult" practice recitals last night. It was the first time I played a piece that I was still reading (e.g. not memorized) and that actually went well! It was the first movement of Beethoven's Sonata in G, Opus 49 no 2. It's close to memorized so relatively fluid and I got great comments. I thought the performance was OK given I have been working on it four weeks, which for me is just starting.

We were supposed to dress in Halloween costumes but I don't have one and didn't fancy making one for the occasion so I brought a surprise musical offering: I played (and sang) a little of Michael Jackson's Thriller

Good for you. I remember your post of your first recital. Great achievement. Love the MJ thriller thing too.

I will be teacher less for a while. Her mom just passed away. She is going to play in the funeral (of course). That must be one heck of a concert. I really hope her mom's spirit. can hear that.

Not too much achievement. I was able to practice a little during the weekend. I can play through the mazurka and schubert piece with my interpretation. Did my best to bring out the voice and emphasize the rhythms (dotted eighth notes for Mazurka) and communicate subtlety in Schubert's modulation. I will see what she says when she get back. Resumed Elergie. This piece is not easy. Will take at least a couple of months or more if I don't practice regularly for a chunk of time. Talk to you soon. Happy practicing.

Thanks, I'll give that a try. The other difficulty I have is that I own a (gasp) Digital Piano, which is not super ideal for working out dynamics. But, I live in an apartment with paper thin walls so getting a real piano is out of the questions right now. But, on the up side, it makes recording and playing back super easy. I found that hearing me play (even on a digital recording) is an invaluable feedback loop.

My goal was to memorize the entire piece this past weekend. And I have all but one last section to go (the last variation of the 2nd theme: http://www.notablescores.com/clips/73). Then I think I'll post a recording in the Member Recording section and get some feedback.

Wisebuff - I am glad to hear that you received an "all clear" report on your mammogram. cancer is scary business! And congratulations to Mystique!

CasinItaly - I love Clementi 36-2. It is so cheerful and uplifting. It sounds like you are making great progress with it.

FarmGirl - Your comments on your Mazurka rhythms sounds like what I am going through with mine. The accents and slur marks are not what I expect, and it has taken a long time to ingrain them.

Neuralfirings and Ataru074- I can't wait to hear your completed Ballade. That is quite an accomplishment.

AndyPlatt - Congrats on playing the Beethoven Sonata in a piano party after only four weeks of study. Very impressive. I would have loved to hear your "Thriller".

My achievement this week is having consistently good practice performances of my Villa-lobos piece. My recital is two weeks away, so, several times a day I do "pretend performances" and sit down at the piano and play the piece cold. I am sure my neighbors think I am crazy. I am gaining more confidence for the day, though. My teacher told me I will play last, which means I will have a long time to sit there and worry about it. So I've decided to just live the piece for the next two weeks.

My teacher is consistently making me go last (well, except for her), specifically to try and get me more nervous. But I'm not sure the practice recitals we have will translate when it's time for a real recital in terms of nerves. We'll have to see. Anyway, I was pretty calm yesterday.

I have O Sole Mio as this weeks song for my lesson. I know the song. When I first looked at it. Made no sense whatsoever. Even after my teacher went over it literally with me. Still didn't click. Been working on it. I can't believe it. I'm actually getting it now!
This is great. Making sense out of something that made no sense whatsoever.
This song, my grandfather thought was the funniest thing on earth. Whenever music was mentioned. He would laugh out loud singing this. This seemed to be his definition of 'music'. He came to the US from Sicily when he was 14. I hope to make his memory happy in playing a glorious O Sole Mio for him.

Just wanted to check in and say that I'm always amazed reading about everyone's achievements! I've been incredibly busy with work this month, but being able to periodically check in and see all of you making progress while living busy lives really motivates me to find time to keep going.

Re: zrtf90 -- Thanks for the advice! I listened to a few recordings online and I think I figured out a way to make these passages coherent. It's in the left hand, as you pointed out. In each of the section I can find a way to play the left hand notes so it has that heartbeat "bebung" or "bebungbung." I think that beat ties each section together, as well as the transition to the other parts of the music. I'll show you what I mean using my handy sheet music clip embedder.

In the waltz there's the heart beat from C to Bb, then from A to Bb, etc.


Then here, there's the heart beat in the eightnote/quarternote pairing:


This one was tricky to find, but Zimmermann's recording called it out. There's the beat from Ab to G, Bb to A, etc.


Then the last section there's the heart beat again in the eighth note to quarter note pairing:

I want to share with you the results of this contest:
The winners are a group of guys playing this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME6TcsCxQHk

I wasn't the winner but I received tons of compliments and congratulations from everywhere. The organizers were amazed with the number of votes I collect and I was almost winning the contest, they said. "Your music is different, hard to perform, but beautiful and peaceful. It's an "unknown" music, so we didn't expect that your video could collect such number of votes... Comparing with the other performers, you are in another level. In amateur world, anyone can sing, but few can play as you did."

To get the idea, the other finalists were:
Ana Azevedo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeW-cutV4V0
Luis Ribeiro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpqfln7lRSA
Sérgio Pericão: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA1ubx5tRR0
Tony Alves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtMzr6ulW_0

For me, it was a great experience.
Thank you guys for your support.

Carlos what an amazing achievement!!! I just watched your video and am blown away. Truly awesome.

Congratulations Carlos! Well the winners' song is certainly "easy-listening", although I don't like it very much. There is a totally different level of musicianship and refinement in your performance.

Wow, what a quality set of performances! It's incredible what level each of them brought their performances to. Most of us here have participated in recitals/gigs of some sort and know what kind of work goes in to them for those of us who aren't full-time musicians. BES certainly does have talent!

I, too, liked your performance best, and thought it was the most musically satisfying, altho I know how hard it is to make vocals sound good, and the soloists were great. As for the winners - I'll admit to being partial to bands They were just having so much fun! They made me laugh And they had fun with their video, too.

What a bunch of winners You were in great company. And so were they - yours was beautiful.

Cathy

Ron, I totally remember having that same experience with O Sole Mio - having the pieces finally fall into place & make sense. My achievement this week is similar - I was able to figure out the answer to one of my own dumb questions. I’ve just started working on the duet from Bizet’s The Pearlfishers, & working on the RH, at the end of the first “sentence” there was a G where I thought there should be an A. Eventually, when I was working on the LH, I realized the chord at the end of the LH in the sentence held the A. Actually, getting the timing right helped too - the G was actually in the next measure. But I recognized the A because I heard it - while I was playing the LH, I must’ve been hearing the RH in my head. I was so relieved to find the missing A!

Yesterday I had a good lesson. I got a pass on two pieces, the Bach Polonaise I started al least 6 months ago (I should check), and Schumann's Little Romance that I started studying in August.

Good going Carlos. I think you were number one. I would have voted for you.

Me too! Carlos, you are my inspiration.

Indeed!

I did like the fellow playing the guitar and singing - and the woman had a lovely voice too....The band was fun, but ...:)

It has been so much fun following this adventure with you Carlos!

I agree! Carlos, your performance had so much heart. You did a beautiful job.

Thanks!
Believe it or not, I thought of you guys in some moments of my playing.

As I told, my goal was to be one of the finalist to do the video. As an amateur pianist, the chances of making a professional video are very few, or close to zero. That was an achievement for me. Also, all the experience was unforgettable and rich.

But, there are some fresh news:
I received a phone call from a company's board member asking if I want to be part of a show that my company wants to produce with the finalists in 2014. Usually the shows are in Lisbon an Porto, here:





I accepted the invitation.
... but this is another level of compromise...

Also, some of the singers are going to participate in the annual Christmas party of my company with three Christmas songs. Due the budget limits we can't do any rehearsal to work with (live) instruments. That to say, we are happy but we never imagined the implications of our participation in the contest...