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Peter L, welcome to the AOTW tribe.
FarmGirl, helping out your teacher is going to bring good karma to you.
Sinophilia, congrats on the Bach. I have not tried that hurdle yet, and fear the result should I attempt it.

CasinItaly, I saw the birthday thread, so will wish you a belated one on this thread. Between AOTW and MOYD it is remarkable how one person can have such a positive influence. 35km used to be an easy bike ride for me, but these days it would be difficult.

SwissMS, even reading about the 3/4 arpeggios is daunting. Already having a recital recording done, is another reminder for the rest of us.

I am sure I have missed many, because of my absence from the forum.

Week 72: I've been missing from the forum, busy with other stuff. I still had time for piano, though I also skipped my Songmakers meeting this cycle. I have been working on the same pieces: A Thousand Years, and my new original Avenue E, as well as maintaining some legacy pieces. Avenue E eats a lot of time as I wander up and down the scale. I get lost in it as I search for another phrase or try to smooth out an existing one. It feels like a guilty indulgence, but I tell myself, that may be what I am here for. Who knows what an audience will make of it? Sometimes I spend weeks and weeks on something that I think is the cat's meow, and the audience yawns. If I can get it to where it feels like a complete piece, I will use Ave E for the recital, but time is ticking away quickly.

I have been working on something that King Norre mentioned a couple of weeks back: highlighting the melody, playing it louder than the chords.

I played in my piano studio's adult "practice" recital that we have once in a while on Sunday and it went really well. I played the Clementi Sonatina in G Major, Bach Invention in E and the Grieg lyric piece I'm doing - Folkweise. I hadn't planned on performing that last one but we were a small group so we did extra if we could.

Hardly any slips on the Clementi, which I think went really well. The Bach, ack, well it was fine but there was an unnecessary slip towards the end (concentration). And the Grieg started really shaky because I hadn't planned to do it and lurched off slightly wrong. But it came into focus towards the end.

Now, if I just had a good recording for the ABF recital I'd be all set ....

SandTiger, thank you for your birthday wishes and your kind words.

I don't think you should feel guilty about meandering in your search for a pattern, a sound, a flow of music that fits with the ideas and feelings you are trying to convey. It sounds like these activities are very soothing and contribute greatly to your enjoyment of the time you spend at the piano. That sounds like a good thing, not something run away from.
If you're not ready with the piece for this recital I'm betting that for the next one you will be!

Andy - I'd say that was a decently successful pre-recital event. I'm really looking forward to hearing the Grieg piece in Sept. I am listening to a youtube video of the Clementi sonatina right now - Very pretty!
Good luck with your recording for the recital!

My AOTW will happen tomorrow when I record my piece for the recital

Congratulations to everyone for their progress.
Me, I struggle to find any AOTW lately. After some vacation we moved to The Netherlands for one month. I have a very basic Casio DP here, and I am doing my best, but still... Without lessons it is more difficult...

Hang in there torquenale. Good thing you have the digital so you are not totally piano-less in your adventure in the Netherlands.

I'm with you on not being sure I have an AOTW because my work has been phrase at a time and that hardly feels like progress. Ideally the next day some of the work is supposed to show as better sound but for me it may be weeks of phrase work. I'm working on two Grieg Lyric pieces; a Mozart Viennese Sonatina; and Bach Prelude #926. And I couldn't help myself but pulled out Schumann's Reverie (Traumeri) and Teresa Carreno's Bercuese to relearn (I'm having to dig deep to find any evidence that they remain in my memory).

Good for you Andy having two pieces performance ready and another not too far off. Which one will you play for the recital?

Sand Tiger: sounds like AOTW to me...bringing out the melody can take eons to master and just when you think you have it...a piece will have 4 finger chords and you have to get that 5th finger to sing over the stronger ones. Good for you.

PHEW!
Star Spangled Banner is beginning to wave. It's not exactly waving proudly yet, but maybe by lesson time. Topping it off, the silly Make Up Your Mind, which follows is already pretty under control too--days before lesson time.

Now, if the rest of my life could only shape up...

Well, not the Grieg because that's for the Grieg recital. Hmm, I'll guess you'll have to check Bach later and see ....

AOTW... instantly became exponentially better (on the piano, not as a person in general ).

How, you may ask?

By having the opportunity to play a fantastically well maintained and, to my ears anyway, nearly perfectly tuned Yamaha baby grand in this venue:


6000 sq. ft. of all wood construction. The ceiling soars to ~50 feet high. All I can say is, "Holy acoustics Batman!"

The reverb is simply heavenly. I tried some staccato fff chords and the sound just goes on and on, a solid full two seconds of delicious echo. It's something that just can't be replicated by something like Audacity.

As regular AOTW readers over the past year or so may recall, I've played a succession of pianos, including my own (two now) that ranged from "barely tolerable" to "complete and total train wreck" since I started ~18 months ago. I've played about a dozen total -- not a single one was remotely up to snuff.

The Yamaha is very well maintained, touch weight was extremely heavy, which took some getting used to, but was completely consistent... the fact that any unintended difference in dynamics was solely due to my touch limitations, and not inconsistency within the action, was fantastic.

I could go on and on, but to sum up I'll relate my thoughts after a minute or two of playing -- as others have described as well in similar circumstances -- where I realized that my everyday piano sound was going to be difficult to really like all that much now (not that I was remotely satisfied to begin with). Still, I'm very glad to have made & heard some sounds that I'll likely only have the opportunity to make and hear on very rare occasion in my life.

I only had a bit of time with it, but was able to record a small amount with my phone. The Droid audio doesn't do the piano or hall justice, but the difference from my home pianos is still pretty darn dramatic. I'll post it at some point, I have to decide if it makes sense to use for the ABF recital or not. If not, then Piano Bar.

I was chuffed!

This thread scares me, guys ...

I tried to get back into the swing of things here after my scouting trip and the European Piano Party, but it seemed like such a daunting task to once again bring myself up to speed on everyone's achievements that I've been avoiding the place since mid-July.

Now I've decided that everything I haven't kept up on since June is water under the bridge. So, sorry everyone. I'm sure you all had great things to report, but I won't be reading most of them.

I do want to say one thing, though: Welcome, Peter! There seems to be a mini-influx of Flemish beginners here, lately. Will you be taking lessons come September?

My AOTW: well, we're halfway through the summer, and I haven't accomplished much, yet. I got Burgmüller 100 / 16 out of the way (but that was mostly already there at my last piano lesson), and the second Grieg (opus 12 n° 7) is ready to record. But that's about it.

That said, with a little nudge from casinitaly (who else?), I made a plan. It looks like I'll be able to more or less finish most of the pieces assigned for the summer, including about 78% of the Chopin piece. It feels like I'm finally getting back on track, which is good. Now, here's to hoping I'll actually stick to the plan, and get the things on there under my fingers.

Torquenale : I hear you on how difficult it is to manage without your teacher! I need that weekly routine - specific objectives - a discerning listener! It must be hard too with only the dp, but that's better than no piano at all!

Wisebuff -I love the music you're working on. Traumerei is one that especially grabs me everytime I hear it!

Malkin: I want to hear that Star Spangled performance!!

Andy: Will we hear your Bach in the recital? (ok, lame joke but by now I feel obliged to ask ) I look forward to it!

ATallGuy - what a great experience! I hope it doesn't ruin you for having fun on your own wee beastie!

Saranoya: I find this thread scary sometimes too..there are times I just can't keep up either, but that's ok. I don't think anyone expects anyone else to keep up, comments are appreciated as they come along.

Your study plan is also scary! I am so impressed with what you plan to tackle over the next few weeks. And don't give me too much credit - you asked a question and I just offered some brainstorming -- (and now I'm working on my own plan!)

My AOTW is confirmed as being the successful recording of my recital submission. I know it could be better - but that's the case for many of my submissions. I am content to use them as benchmarks of what I can do at this point in time. I had another AOTW too --- I had a Skype conversation with a friend in Canada and played for her. I played my recital piece (Schumann), Gypsy Legend, Sneaking Round and my Grieg piece. It was the first time I'd played the Grieg all the way through -- for an audience. I was pleased with how it went.

torquenal - Hang in there. Sometimes we just have to keep chipping away at it even if there seems to be no progress. Maybe try conquering something really really small, but getting it really, really solid. Usually that makes me feel good when I've struggled without direction a bit.

Wisebuff - Feeling the same way with my Mozart piece, day after day of phrasework, hoping for the great sleep consolidation to take hold.

Malkin - You're not going to make us wait until the next July 4th to hear your Star Spangled Banner are you? Hey opening day of preseason football is just around the corner.(...there I did your work for you Cheryl )


Andy - I'm rooting for the Clementi as I think he is really under-appreciated.

ATallGuy - You are toast. Start saving up now. People seem to buy new cars, which are rusting hunks of metal going inexorably to a value of zero, without even blinking an eye, whereas they consider it extravagant to buy an expensive piano that will probably hold half its value and nearly all its utility twenty years hence.

Saranoya - If I had to totally focus on everything in this thread every single day I'd never get anything done!!

Cheryl - You gave a Skype recital and didn't invite us?? How could you be so rude? Just kidding of course. But that is a great way to work on getting over the live recital jitters....and you get to pick your audience!

My AOTW....ah, well, I was thinking of actually doing a recital submission. But I just couldn't get a take of the Scriabin that pleased me. All kinds of funny things were happening. Dog howling, phone ringing, door knock, oven alarm... it was actually comical somewhere around the 18th take when during the last phrase of a near perfect recording my cellphone (which is on the music desk) got a text and loudly announced "DROID"..arggghhh. Anyway, I put the best I could get in the August Piano Bar and was done with it. The MacDowell should be finished this week, so maybe......

Well, my submission is in and apparently my big hint to check Bach later wasn't big enough ...

I also believe Clementi is under-rated. In fact one of the big problems I have with the Andras Schiff lectures on the Beethoven Sonatas is me knocks Clementi more than once. I'll have to see about getting a recording of it and having it in the bank for some other occasion!

JimF...go with the dog howling one...it would sound like my place with my chorus of three.
Cas...so glad you got yours in.

My AOTW...I'm going camping (of COURSE I have the keyboard) and I'm very close to smooth on several phrases...granted they are way slower than they need to be. inch by inch it seems.

My colleague in the music department says he can get me into the theory class. I just want to be be the fly on the wall and absorb the lectures.

It has been a great seven days and so many little things have nourished my soul. Friday 4am in the dead of an Australian winters night I began crewing for a runner attempting to run 275km along one of our most arduous trails. After 200 km I got relieved and with over 24 hours gone without sleep my first job was to get onto the piano for a few minutes before I crashed in a heap of exhaustion.

Tuesday my teacher returned from sick leave and we recommenced our weekly lessons. She said that from the first note I play people will stop and listen, such a nice compliment.

Wednesday was my birthday and all the hints I gave my wife for present suggestions came to pass. Needless to say our local music store reaped the benefit.

The week came full circle with a recital submission. My Bach minuet seemed simple at first, then it became complex before becoming impossible and taking me to the depth of despair. But slow steady progress as usual was made by never giving up.

TallGuy -- So how did you swing that? Were you invited to play there, or did you find the door unlocked and sneak in?

JimF -- several of my attempts at recording had some interesting ambient sounds: power tools from the basement, dogs chasing each other and chewing squeaky toys, dishes clanging in the kitchen, police sirens, and the best one -- my husband yelling from the other room, "MaryBee... are you busy right now?" I changed my strategy to only do recordings after midnight.

WiseBuff -- the theory class sounds like a wonderful opportunity. I wish I had longer lessons so we could spend more time on theory. Although I did get some of that at my lesson last week. I think I only played about four measures, and we spent the rest of the time talking about different types of scales (pentatonic, whole tone, octatonic, church modes), and other topics to help me understand a new Debussy piece I'm starting on. That was fun and so interesting.

I went to a concert last weekend at which my teacher performed a few pieces. One of them was a group improvisation which moved through 6 different note collections. So we spent some time at my last lesson talking about that and then having me try it out a little bit. This is really stepping outside my comfort zone!

Happy Birthday, earl!

My Mozart is finally getting to be close to performance speed. 90 for Quarter note. I may be able to get 104 before going to SummerKey but it's highly doubtful. I really underestimated this piece.

Finally touched on Grieg. Someone in PC posted Puck. Much better than mine. Oh well. I played Puck a couple of times today. I guess I have to up the speed. Summer's eve is a pretty piece. I like it. It's kinda jazzy.

Oh I better go to bed now

My second achievement of the week is very closely related to the first. After having made my practice plan for the rest of the summer, I went out and bought myself a big Moleskine weekly planner and some coloured pens. It has the days of the week on the left, and a notes page on the right for each week.

From now on, each Friday after I've made my FOYD post for the week, I will be writing my daily goals down in the planner, and then keeping a daily progress log on the right-hand page as I move through the goals. I can easily put this planner on the music stand of my piano, and I will probably be using it at lessons to make notes on what my teacher tells me.

I haven't actually made much progress yet, but I'm feeling very energised regardless!



I see a theme here. Contentment. Contentment, as a certain someone told me not too long ago, is underrated. Good for you .



You could have just submitted that to the recital, you know. I'm pretty sure it would have gone up there with (among other things) my first submission as 'a fine performance under less-than-ideal circumstances'. But oh, well. Maybe next time . Good for you for posting it *somewhere*, though.



Going camping with a keyboard? Wow. Talk about hardcore ...



I won't comment on each of your individual achievements, but they all sound delightful ... especially that comment from your teacher. Keep at it. Clearly, you're doing something right!



Improvisation is really fun, isn't it? Especially when done in a group. We did a really, really, really basic version of that on the Friday night before the EPP, and I had a ton of fun in those few minutes. Yay for stepping out of your comfort zone!



There you go (again!), looking for reasons to devalue your own accomplishments. I understand the impulse. I'm more like you, in that regard, than I would really like to admit. But stop it, OK? I've heard you play. Trust me when I tell you, you're much better than you think you are. Take a hint from casinitaly, and learn to be content .

Jim - thanks for taking care of my work for me, I'm so busy, it really helps
I will make a point of going to the piano bar to hear your piece as you didn't want to put it in the recital! Mind you we have had pieces with dogs, kits and cats in the background before... I think you should still go for it

Wisebuff - how neat that you're going to participate in the theory class!

Andy - I'd love to hear more Clementi from you in the future - I remember when you played ...the 4th of Op36, I believe it was.... (a slow, serious movement). You did a great job on that


EarlofMar- happy belated birthday. I thought it was your bd, but when I checked your profile it says your bd is 30 June? You should fix that! How nice you got music! (details please!) (I got a book of Chopin's easier (ha ha ha) pieces, and Nikolas's new duet book!
Glad that your determination paid off for getting through the rough spots for your recital submission! I love Bach and will enjoy listening to your performance.


MaryBee -your teacher's performance sounds very interesting - and so do your theory and experimentation lessons! I suspect we'll hear some original work from you in the future! Which Debussy are you working on?

FarmGirl --- Ok....hmmm. I'm going to nag you a little bit. The only time I have ever thought my playing was better than someone else's was when an 11 year old played "Sneaking round". There's always someone who can do it better, and in my experience the folks who post on youtube are either really good or really awful. You shouldn't take it to heart if you find one of the really good ones! I think part of your difficulty in accepting how well you are doing now is that you often play with / for people who are farther ahead of you in their piano journey - and perhaps you are still carrying some of the baggage from when you were a kid, trying to "compete" with your brother. Compare yourself to yourself. Listen to your recordings from six, four, two months ago. Sometimes you talk about fixing one thing, only to discover that there are now new technical details to fix --- this is actually good because you're moving to layers of refinement that others (like me) aren't even close to yet!!!
Try not to beat yourself up so much my dear!


Saranoya : you are very organized! I'm sure that will help you in keeping on track. I don't really want to write down so much but I am going to have to do a bit of note keeping. I have found that even in the last 2 days just with having written the list of what I want to get through, I've been able to focus better. I guess I needed that extra "report to someone" stimulus! I'm glad we got that ball rolling!


I am feeling quite content today.
Have a good weekend everyone!

My AOTW.... I survived!
Rally week has begun. Doh!
They're getting more aggressive. They think they are allowed all of their lane and part of your lane. I ran up on an intersection of two highways on Wed. Bikers all along the sides because there was shoulder there for them to park. Right up to the white line. I slowed down. Still had one biker coming the other way who pulled his little dive over the yellow line game to get me to move over. Move over to where? There were bikers parked right up to the white line!

I got a week of this to put up with! Oh may God have mercy on us! Seriously most of them are really nice great people. But when you have half a million of them. You end up with easily 50 thousand who are complete idiotic donkeys. Yes, we do have to be nice to them. They spend lots of money here. .... Doh!

Sara and Cheryl, thanks for your encouragement. But I'm not depressed about it. I'm quite used to be outplayed by others. I was commenting on it as a matter of fact. When I saw his recording of Puck, this lazy part of me started thinking if I might ask him to post it to ABF Grieg recital instead if me. I can play it through 2/3 of the required speed. It will be a work to bring it up to speed as I like. It's doable. Nothing complex about the piece. It is an exercise of articulation with dynamic change. I was debating if its worthwhile to spend time on it especially when someone in the forum (PC) completed it. I guess I lost interest after playing it a couple of times. Does it happen to you guys? I mean you like it when you first see / hear it but then become disinterested in it as you work through the piece. I will do my best since i commit to it. So that's my explanation.

I love Summer's Eve. It grows on me every time I play. Close the eyes and I see a bunch of flowers, bees and birds enjoying the very short Scandinavian summer. I have never been to Norway but been to Sweden three times on business. One of the trips coincided with the Swedish Summer Festival. I still remember the beautiful summer day. It's quite different from Arizona summer or Japanese one. It has a different intensity and marked with a touch of sadness - like everyone knows it is short lived.

On the subject of comparison - I think I got over it a couple of years ago. I'm fine with playing the same piece with anyone. My interpretation is different anyway. I think I started feeling that I will go somewhere with my piano. It's not like I could be a concert pianist which I never wanted but I could have my own modest future. In my retirement, I would like to teach piano to fellow retirees and work as a substitute pianist/organist in my church. I have never had that kind if goal when I restarted piano. Everything seemed to be out of reach then. I was happy if I could play the pieces I played as a child. I recently added up how many hours I played the piano. It's not exact but it's close to whopping 5,000 hours. It may be a bit less since I cannot remember if it was 2009 or 2010 I came back. I used 2009 since I know I was playing 6 months to a year before joining the forum. I'm in the middle of 10,000 hours journey. Yay! Anyway that's why I decided to do RCM. I would like to earn credentials. I entertained the idea of getting into a music school for a while but I decided against it. I went school for a long time. It's enough. I want to do things on my own pace. I may take classes but no more regiment like a full time student.

It's getting to be a huge post. I may add its also unavoidable to play the same piece with others. My church director plays all the pieces in my repertoire list. She just played 3rd movement of Pathetique and Bach f minor P&F. I noticed she fumbled a few notes in Pathetique. We are all humans and its quite normal. But the rendition was very musical. I like her touch and incredibly improvisation that she adds when she needs it. F minor prelude, was equally musical but I liked mine (my interpretation) better. I'm not saying that I play better. She made a choice to play it like a romantic period piece, I happened to have a different opinion. In my community college studio class, two people are working on g minor Ballade. In Phoenix piano club, a friend of mine is performing Rach ellegie. I will perform the same piece to the same audience next year. I'm looking forward to hearing hers. I know it will be very different from mine because I know her.