Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Achievement of the week - what got you excited?

I hope you choose to do something that you really love in your heart. That will get you focused.

That has done a ton for me. My teacher still said yesterday: "I still can't believe you're actually playing this."
I do still have a bunch of work to do on it. Then, go to the hard version. Then, she seemed to hint that I would probably personalize it in my own version. I do have to admit. I'd kinda like to do the best of what John intended in the first place. I think alot of John.
Then, this idiot has talked about it so much on a piano website. He's probably gonna have to make a recording and upload it to the Piano Bar. Doh!

That's great!
Sometimes I try this as well but it allways ends up as a flop. Right now there are only two intervals I can identify clearly.
What I would like to know - how do you figure out the right starting note of the melody? Or do you choose a random note for the start?

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My AOTW is not a specific one. But this week I have a strong feeling of making progress. The last two days I had something like a "flow"feeling during practice - I've really enjoyed it.
Too bad that this feeling can not be captured and preserved!

yester:

I found a simple version on youtube and I just play it over and over again till I could play the first note, then I'd get a bunch in a row and get stuck. next day same thing. Took me about ten minutes to get that first note.

yeah I do it like that, too. Lot of work but fun isn't it.
Thanks for answering!

Gradually getting all the similar runs in Chopin's 28/24 sorted out. They are so similar, just separated by a couple of intervals that a lot of negative transfer was going on. I couldn't concentrate on one at a time. I have to practice them sequentially otherwise I get thrown off.

I think I know what you mean, Andy. My teacher has told me I'm a good pedaler, but the truth is almost all of my pedaling is purely instinctual. If there's technique, it's an accident in my case.

Let's see ... what got me excited this week? Well, I bought my first piano, got my first lesson and am totally excited I finally decided to learn how to play piano. My enthousiasm must be contagious because my wife also got interested and is also going to take lessons soon. Her first lesson is in 2 weeks.
Our piano will be delivered at our home next tuesday. Man, waiting is not my best quality

BeccaBb and yester, Good for you. It seems find that learning by ear is a sadly neglected skill. On the forum, any post on learning to sight read tends to get 20 to 40 responses. Posts about learning to play by ear might get five responses.

Anyway, off my rant. Sounding out the first note as Becca describes is fine. If I can't find it, I sometimes cheat and look up the key, which is often also the first note. A person can search on the guitar tabs or use a preview function from a sheetmusic sale site, which will give the first page of output as a preview. With the key in hand, it is much easier for a beginner.

As a person gets better at ear, they can discern intervals, perhaps identify the key, perhaps pick out the harmony. Many say that starting with the bass line is the best way to transcribe a piece. I am still a beginner at ear, but enjoy doing it.

Week 68: I go back to A Thousand Years. I am making slow progress. My simple arrangement is complete and printed, so now I am to learning it. It is a convoluted process that I go through for these covers.

Virtually everyone else gets sheet music from their teacher, learns it, and moves on. I pick a piece, find it online or sound it out by ear, arrange it, or simplify the existing arrangement, twiddle back and forth on the arrangement which tends to takes weeks. Some pieces get dropped because they are too difficult. Then I am the point of everyone else, learning the piece. If an eventual goal is to be able to sing and play, simple arrangements are preferred. Arranging also helps with my songwriting, which I see as the more important than learning these covers, as nice as they are.

I go back to working on my other two original pieces, these are instrumentals. I seem to be stuck. Each piece feels like they need more, but at the moment I can not find more. I may shelve them at some point, if more can not be found.

On a different note, for anyone reading along that might be interested in writing songs with lyrics, or music for someone else's lyrics, or even instrumental compositions, the 50 song challenge is coming up. It is an Internet event that starts July 4 and last 90 days. Search for 50 songs in 90 days, and it will come up. My participation in that is what jump started me as a songwriter. I went from a person that wrote one song a year, like so many other hobbyists only writing when inspired, to someone who could do much more. The craft I learned has helped me. In some ways it has been life changing.

Speaking of life changing, I will put in a plug for my friend's CD. It is not piano music, it is classic rock, mostly guitar leads. The curious can find short samples of each song.
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/glentrujillo
Glen says writing music saved his life. He came to Los Angeles to make it big in the music industry. It never happened for him. This CD is a legacy project. He wanted to record his old songs with studio musicians and modern technology, so as to have it.

King Norre - this could be awkward! Now, who`s gonna be best out of the two of you? (Hope you work well together!) Both me and my missus play. . . .

Congratulations to the Norre family. Hope you all love your new piano.

Cathy

Yester -"how do you figure out the right starting note of the melody? Or do you choose a random note for the start?"

A basic knowledge of guitar (and keyboard) simple chords helps here. I`m amazed that people read and play music and find it hard to play by ear (as opposed to memory from music). On reflection, it`s probably the better way round for all practical purposes. I struggle to read. Definitely in the infant class. . . (bottom of) But who cares?

BeccaBb - ear training is such a great idea! Today I was goofing around with some old Girl Guide songs, the melodies weren't too hard, but getting my chords to work was a bit trickier.
Were you practicing for Monday?

Torquenale - Which Schumann are you working on ? I went back a few pages to check but I didn't see it. I'm having a similar problem with the end of Sicilienne.... the last few bars are pretty tricky for me.

Andy - you're one step (oh, at least! lol) ahead of me -I've never heard of flutter pedalling! Sounds like you are coming along bravely with your Debussy!

Rmaple--- I am sure I'm not alone in looking forward to hearing your recording of Schindler's list!

Yester: Enjoy the feeling of making progress - and don't worry - it will be back! For playing by year I usually start to sing the song and find the first note - or actually any note that matches any part of the song and then work from there. If I find I've ended up in a really nasty key I try to sing starting from a different note.

Frycek : Sounds like a very complicated piece, but you've found a way to tackle it that works for you - that's what will get you moving forward on it!

Jim: I'm a good pedaler too --- on my bicycle Sadly, not a transferable skill in this !

King Norre - how exciting ! A new piano! Your first Piano! Good luck sharing it with your wife. I think if I had to share my piano we'd actually end up getting his and hers !!!!!

SandTiger - I think there are more posts on sight reading (or reading in general) because a very large number of people want to play the classics and that's pretty much the only way to play them - by reading. I also think that for a great number of folks the whole idea of reading what is in front of you is easier than the idea of "finding" the notes.
Guitar tabs only help me so much because I may know how to play the chord, but I have to really think about which notes are actually in the chord (learning arpeggios certainly helps with that!)
I've only recently figured out how inversions can really make a difference to simplifying the left hand work. I think your approach of finding a piece you like and making your own arrangement is very interesting - and that you must love pulling it together very much. I personally would get frustrated with that approach, but I'm fascinated that you use it as such an effective learning tool.

Not sure that I have much of a specific AOTW. I'm already missing my lessons very much. I've been working on pieces for the EPP and am starting to feel a little less nervous about playing for others (and really - am I likely to find a more supportive audience? I think not!!) I think my general "global" achievement is that I see I'm much better at reading and playing at a more reasonable tempo, compared to even 3 months ago. That's satisfying.

Hi all,

King Norre, wow, thats quite an AOTW. Though I would call it an achievement of life. Your decision to learn to play piano shall have very many positive influences in your life. Enjoy your piano and the journey to play piano.

Well, my AOTW is playing the Chopin's nocturne c-sharp minor, which has become in polishing state recently, for an 18 year old kid at someone else's house. After the beginning he lies down at the couch to really enjoy the music with his face looking at the ceiling. I'm sure he didn't know the music. Thanks to the composition of Chopin, not so much of my ability to play piano, beauty came to his ears.

I love those moments. It remembers me of having Chopin's mazurka op 24 no 1 very loud in my little car. Stopping at a traffic light, a mother crosses the street with a sibling. It was very cold, freezing. I've all my windows closed. I noticed her watching me. After crossing the street, she stopped to enjoy the music, which is somewhat modified, because the sound has go through the exterior of the car itself. Despite of the modification of the sound, beauty is perceived. It wonders me.

Thanks for all the support guys! I'm just picking out melody's in the right hand for now. Start small and work my way up.

Cas: it's a complete coincidence. It was one of the suggestions from my teacher because I know it really good. She wanted me to start with a song that would be ingrained in me. I doubt I'll have the whole thing done by Monday! But next year that would be neat.

Thank you all for the kind words! I don't think that's a problem Peterws. For my wife it's her first time ever to take music lessons. She has to learn music theory and piano. I "only" have to learn the piano and practice my reading again So, in the beginning, I'll have an advantage but once my wife learns the theory we fight with equal weapons It's going to be fun and we're both looking forward to it.

It's taken this idiot over 50 years to realize what marriage is all about! Thank you! It's about who you love to fight with the most!

Number 23, Reiterstuck (The Horseman).
I'm playing it at 2/3 of the nominal speed, and still I feel tension in the right hand when I play the part after the first repetition. I already tried several exercises my teacher assigned to me, I did also a lot of slow studying. My progress is painfully slow...

First day at SummerKeys. Five hours of piano time in all. with my teacher we dissected two pages of Mozart for me to work on. I'm sharing my experience on the thread that SamS started a couple of days ago.
Should be fun.

Another rainy day in the boondocks <sigh>. I spent 2 hours on the bench this morning and the time just zipped by. I don't think I've had so much piano enjoyment learning these last three songs I'm working. I completely love that Gershwin and have made some great progress with it. BHT quite slowly still though... I'm liking them all.

I guess my AOTW is that I'm stunned at how much my reading has improved by branching off of the lesson pieces into more supplemental stuff. I mean they have practically forced me to READ the scores. Not to say they are complicated either it's just they are a bit more sophisticated I guess. Hope that doesn't sound too pretentious.

For unknown reasons I am having some very slow improvement on my Bm scales and arps, mostly the scales (wrt speed) and have only accomplished 170 bpm. Teacher wants 200 by next lesson. This is strange for me to get stuck on this 170 as I seldom have a problem with 200 on others. <shrug> I hope to practice some more tonight.

Thanks for the explanation, Sand Tiger. The tip with the key sounds great, I will try it!