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what a lovely husband you have!

Congratulations to your 28th wedding anniversary, hope you have a wonderful celebration!

Whoo Hoo cas,
28 years is quite an AOT~3decades. Hope your weekend is glamorous and magical.

CarlosCC- Congratulations on making the finals! That is fantastic! We want to hear the recording from your finals performance!

Casinitaly- Enjoy your anniversary! 28 years is an accomplishment.

Happy Anniversary CasinItaly. Congratulations on making the finals CarlosCC.

Week 67: I watch the movie Searching for Sugar Man. It is an inspirational story about a modern musician Sixto Rodriguez, that has part Don Quixote, part Bob Dylan, part biblical Job.

I upload my new song Wits End. It is my first piano song with original lyrics. The curious can listen to a MIDI:
https://www.box.com/s/7vabdrnq5cst1ztorhjy

or view the sheet music with lyrics:
https://www.box.com/s/anucdk1og2tm5wcprzc9

The story behind the song is posted at my blog:
http://sandtigerpiano.blogspot.com/

Have a good week everyone. Cheers.

Lyrics follow:

Wits End

I am close to the edge of infinity
I am close to my wits end
Down on my luck, down on my life,
Turning my back on my friends.

I am close to the edge of infinity
I am close to my wits end
I can't think straight, I can't see straight,
I can't find my way home...

Three young muses sing me their songs,
Songs about love, songs about dreams,
Songs about going home...

Will I ever learn my lessons?
Will I ever dream in color?
Will I ever find my way home?

Three young muses sing me their songs,
Songs about love, songs about dreams,
Songs about going home...

I am close to the edge of infinity
I am close to my wits end

- end -

The title track to the Sugar Man movie has a line about dreaming in color, and I had already written mine. These small coincidences are interesting to me, I take them as a sign I am on the right track.

This week I have an achievement to share. I survived my first ever piano recital. Played two pieces, got through the first one with no big errors. The second one had one major mess, but I was able to keep it moving forward and back under control.

This is a lot better than I feared, as my practice during the days leading up to the recital was getting worse and worse, and the pre-recital dry run was a wreck.

I think the mood set in the recital by my teacher helped. She kept it from becoming formal and competitive. I'll probably do it again next year.

Congratulations stumbler! After the experience of recording me for the first time for ecco fatto Café I can empathize how difficult it must be to perform in front of an audience without the possibility to push the stop-button… even thinking about it makes me scared! So be proud of yourself, well done!

@SandTiger
I can't open the midi-file my player tells me a plugin is missing
But the lyrics are great!

Well I think I made a big step in my evolution this week: I accepted to try and play with someone else along, and the ocasional "audience" that were curious as to what I was doing (I was at work). I say "try to play" because it didn't turn out to be much in the way of recognizable music but hey, I broke the ice, and that's what mattered to me.

John

SwissMS - Thanks! I knew if I got to the finals I would have the opportunity to make a professional video. And I think that is extraordinary, because I will not have many chances in life to make a video like this. Sure I'll share it with you all.

Chery - 28th wedding anniversary is a huge achievement! Congratulations!

Sand Tiger- Thanks for sharing your music and lyrics.

stumbler - Congratulations on your first recital!

John_In_Montreal - That's the way, John. Don't be afraid to play for "others", that way you get more confident with your playing. Congrats!

Cheryl - congratulations on your 28th anniversary. Not an easy thing.

Everyone else seems to be doing so well. I am a bit flush so I write more later

My AOTW .... My teacher told me this week: I'm impressed that you're even taking on this piece. At this level. When we're at this point in learning. And you're doing it!
That along with her statement last week about my first 6 bars with the right hand on this.

She is causing me to face a fact. A fact that she is facing. A lady who has taught all instruments for 30 years. Piano is "her" instrument. She is taking me seriously. That I have real musical ability. That my intention of writing music is not a statement from a fool. I'm not out in right field. I'm not dreaming a fantasy.
This is spite of the fact that I'm no prodigy. It's difficult learning the technical aspects. I do not find it easy even with this one piece of picking it up and running through it the first time. Rather than running it's more like stumbling, falling, crawling, clawing my way through it. I really have to go through a bunch to get it down. Piano is not an easy instrument to learn. Also indications from her that the music store is distracting and she knows it. This is pushing her to all her abilities and wisdom to teach me to get it down. She is a really good teacher.
Actually, to get this piece down. I have to come home, all alone. Much of the time in the middle of the night. Work through it with all my heart. When I apply my heart it comes.

rnaple, you are very dedicated. I'm glad your teacher appreciates this and supports you.

love this thread, everyone is involved and I look forward to reading others improvements. I had a quiet week with nothing spectacular but still think it was a great week with small but forward progress

My achievement was that I did 2 extra pieces last week and when I had my lesson I managed to make an ok job of them. I was worried I might have been playing them wrong as I had worked on them on my own, but they were fine. A nice comment from the lesson was "you're going to be a really good pianist". This made me happy , as it's fun to imagine that I might be competent in future, when I'm at such a low level now. I really get a kick out of all the little bits of progress towards getting there.

I am going to do an extra piece this week too. The one I have to finish from the lesson is quite easy, so I will also tackle the next one in the book, which seems quite hard. But it's not an achievement if it's easy is it?? So I look forward to saying I have done it next week!!! Oh I remembered another nice comment was that I have learned to read the notes "really fast". I have decided I am going to write any positive comments here each week, so that I can remember them, because they just make my day. Love it all, love it all so much.

Stumbler- Congratulations on your first recital, especially for getting over a rough patch and pressing on to the end. It will be easier next year, and easier still the year after that.

That is super awesome! Although I missed you when last in Portugal but maybe see you on the big screen! You HAVE to post that video!

Back at home with my piano, but only one day to report on. I played for 2x 2hr sessions and then did a 'live' play through before going out to dinner - didn't take time out to cook! My hubbie gave me a standing ovation! I can manage the mozart K545 at about 95 bpm so it's a bit on the slow side . Never mind that will come. It sounded great! - and I'm no longer arguing with Mrs Darcy - and I love the 'Bop Goes the Weasel' riff. I think it's unleashed another side of piano playing for me.

It's so great to be doing something that really fills you like that.
Good luck with everything Cant' wait to read all your positive feedbacks!

Congrats to everyone. First recital, getting nice comments and new recognition from a teacher. On the last note,

Maple what is the piece you are playing. Your passion is coming through the lines and it stoked my curiosity. I abandoned my hope to bite into big pieces this year. Too busy at work and I realized that many of those pieces are a bit beyond my reach right now. But I still have the hankering after certain pieces I would love to try someday.

I apologize. I thought people knew from when Cas asked me.

It's the theme song from Schindler's List.

I just received the hardest version. My teacher wants me to look at it now. See where it goes from easy to hard. I look at it and think: Yes...yes.... I"m looking forward to it. For now, the easy version is all I can handle. It's probably 85% of the hard version? Hard just adds to the easy. They say the hard is "about" a level 5.

EDIT: I wanted to add. I'm confident this is the writing of John Williams. There is no arranger. I tracked this down through a fan site for John. It's linked from there to sheetmusicplus.

I hope you're feeling better. I saw another post. You mentioned you're down sick.

Wow Maple, sounds like very fun and challenging project. Keep us posted on your progress. If that's what we heard in the movie, it's incredibly beautiful. Transcriptions in general are difficult. You will be busy for a while. Enjoy!

Thanks for your kind words. Yeah my health is part of my limitation. I get sick a lot and my husband & doctors are telling me I need to slow down. Human body cannot be sustained 5 hours of sleep. Miss my 20's when I partied 2 consecutive nights and still manage to take college exams.