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

:-) that is a VERY nice piece. the cadenzas are indeed way easier than what they look and sound like... the central part, where you have the melody in octaves and the ornamentation in the middle... that is another story.

Briansaddleback- I know what you're talking about with having to sustain a note while you play Others...(I had to read the paragraph twice before it sunk in, but hey, it is early here ) I find that as I progress I notice more and more detail quicker - it is a comforting sign of progress!

JimF - that's a very nifty accomplishment! Good luck with taking it farther!

Jonathan D - Good beginning!

Andy I had to look up Love's Dream -wow. That's a gorgeous piece! I can't wait to hear you play it!

N17 - getting set up with a new teacher is indeed an achievement - a building block for the ones to come! Sounds like you're off to a very good start!

I had a good lesson this week too - nothing spectacular but I feel back on track. I'm having fun Learning my part of a Diabelli duet and I hope that next week I'll be ready to play it with my teacher, and hear what the whole thing sounds like together!

LOL Andy, that cracked me up.

Can't wait to hear your Liebestraum 3. Another piece that has been on my "please, please, someday" list since day one. Great fun as always watching your rapid ascent through the literature.

Today is my PW anniversary lol - 4 years of membership and fellowship!

congrats casinitaly!

Happy Anniversary CasinItaly

Welcome to the new people to the thread.

Week 103: The songwriting Coursera ramps up to swallow up most of the week. The lectures double in length. The quizzes are twice as hard. The assignment is four times as much work. After four weeks of focusing on the beginning of a song, the assignment is to start a new song from scratch. We are asked to find a new song idea, develop a story, write the full song lyrics, compose matching music (or use one of the music loops provided), record the song with music and vocals. Turn in the storyboard, a rhyme scheme worksheet, and upload the recording with vocals.

My song about pancakes was coming along nicely, but goes to the back burner. Someone on the Coursera songwriting forum suggests using book titles for song titles. Using that process, I find the book Looking for Alaska, which I twist to Looking to Alaska. The new song is moving along quickly, but the list of tasks to complete is daunting. I have no idea how any of the true beginners (which is probably more than half the participants) are going to get it all done. I can see how Berklee music students do it, because unlike the Coursera participants, most Berklee students are pretty good musicians and singers.

I attend the church coffee house night. One of the performers cancels because of blocked roads due to rain. I volunteer to be a last minute fill in. Yikes. I spend a few minutes warming up on whistle and flute to get my set together. I don't have that luxury with the piano. I open with my Pancake song on the Kimball grand piano. Bad idea. I haven't finished writing it yet, much less having it performance ready. I choose it because I have spent more hours on that than anything else for the past month.

The train comes off the rails, but the cars don't flip over. I manage to get to the end after a lot of missed notes. I keep going despite some horrible sounding wrong notes. The audience doesn't know for sure that those are the wrong notes, perhaps dissonance is the effect I am after. But I know they are mistakes. I keep going, wanting to hide, but thinking to find a way to the end. I redeem myself with two tunes on whistle and one on Irish flute.

Despite maybe one hour of practice on wind instruments in the past month, the performances are pretty good. The sound man gets some credit. No, I am not that good on those instruments, but I have a couple of goto tunes that I can rattle off when there is a need.

For the Coursera I will do what I always tell others to do. I will follow the process, make a good effort and let the chips fall where they may. I am Looking to Alaska.

@casinitaly, aren't you a week early? Wasn't there to witness of course but the forum says registered since march 3.
Congratulations anyway!

Hey wim-
When would I celebrate my registration?

Thanks - and no, I'm not early Maybe you haveprofile set to show American style and numbers only ?- my set up shows very clearly "registered Monday March 01 2010".

Malkin - just look at any post you make and under your name and avatar you can see the date you registered.

Congratulations casinitaly - four candles on the cake - your just a kid

In terms of internet forums, that is a long time! congratulations casinitaly.

Cas- I was just pointing out that if you registered on March 3 then I must have registered on the 4th day of the 18th month--whatever that would be!

My teacher asked if I was teaching anyone piano. I said no. He said I am ready to teach. I won't but I'll take that as an achievement of the week :-)

Tubbie good for you! I think piano comes to you easier since you are already accomplished string player in addition to your natural talent.

I'm here sipping wine and basically celebrating today. Yes! My recital is just over and I played my pieces well (for me). I was not concerned about Bach because its my strength. But I played the nocturne much better than I played for lesson, studio class or at home. I knew it was only half way cooked product. Honestly I am still learning how to play this. Because of the forum recital I picked to the piece in January. I picked the easiest nocturne of all the nocturnes Chopin composed and still had the trouble trying to make it sound good. Today I just decided to forget all about it and focus on playing as musical as I can. The sight of audiences helped. I get super excited when I see people watching me. I totally got into the piece. Enjoyed playing through it rocking with the emotion contained in the piece. After the recital I was ready to celebrate but it was too late so I just came home. Wine tastes super good tonight.

Malkin---sorry, I didn't get the joke! A belated chuckle !
EarlofMar: Imagine how well I'll play when I'm a "teenager"
Briansaddlepack : actually folks really do stick around here - there are some like MonicaK and Mr. Superhunky who have been around since 2005!


Tubbie- that's a wonderful compliment from your teacher!

FarmGirl - that's one of the best accomplishments you could hope for! Being in that "zone" in front of an audience and keeping the nerves under control. CONGRATULATIONS! Enjoy that wine!

Actually it was 5 years after I dropped out of piano classes when I studied the violin. So it's really piano that helped me with my violin. Then when I studied the piano again, the violin helped my piano back :-) I know I am not ready to teach anyone really... well maybe beginners?

Congrats on your recital. It is nerve wrecking playing in front of people. And to do that while you can still focus on the music and enjoy it is really really hard! An accomplishment indeed :-)

Congrats to you all! Anniversary, compliment from the teacher, recital, improving... Well done!

For me my main achievement is getting a bit more comfortable with the red dot. I'm following your advise and recording my practices so there is no pressure. I make a lot of mistakes, of course, but knowing that I can just delete the recording without the pressure of a deadline makes it much easier.

I'm also going to start keeping the pieces when I am happy enough with them and start making my own cd compilations. It will be good to see my improvement when I play them again in a couple years time.

I bought a couple of easy piano books from the 80's! Funny to play hits from my teenager years

My AOTW is completing the tough week end. During the spring season, my music calendar is crazy for weekend usually starting from Thursday on top of my regular busy work days. I performed Bach f minor prelude from the book I of WTC and Chopin Nocturne Op 15 #3 for the Phoenix piano club on Thursday (well… it went just oookay) , for my community college recital (went well) on Saturday night (which I talked about on Sat while drinking wine). I went to Opera (season ticket) on Friday night and monthly Sunday classic meeting (local chamber music and other ensemble group) on Sunday after I sang two services for my church on Sunday. Glad completing every thing.

"I bought a couple of easy piano books from the 80's! Funny to play hits from my teenager years grin"

The 80`s imo had the finest popular music ever written. Classical pop I`d call it; the musicianship was exceptional. SO much good stuff to get your hands on, here. It was a bit after my time though. Well, maybe a lot after my . . . .

I"m writing this to possibly help others.
It's to let you know that you can have your cake and eat it too. I'm very excited!

I sadly left my old local teacher. I loved her. I couldn't take that music store environment. Someone too often paying close attention to what we were doing. At the very least, distracting to me. Was a major distraction to her also.

I went looking for a teacher online. Found some that I really liked. Still felt a little like Goldilocks. Just not quite right.

Then, on Saturday I had a free introductory lesson with a man. I was overwhelmed. I won't go into details. Lets just say I now Have my Cake and am Eating it Too. This is possible if you look hard enough.