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Thanks. I indeed most of the time flub at the same two places. One right hand and one left hand flub to keep it balanced
If I concentrate too much on not flubbing it's indeed very machine like which I don't prefer either. When just playing I don't mind a flub and then the pleasure comes out
I suppose I just have to practice the "weak spots a lot" before I add speed.

You do realize that you are required to make at least one mistake?
With two "flubs".... That puts you twice as good as our benchmark!

Bstark--way to stick it out! Just be patient. Getting your hands to move independently requires re-training your brain. It takes a long time.

While I sometimes practice as much as three hours a day, I don't do it at one sitting. Play piano is actually quite mentally and physically taxing. Break it up. This gives your brain time to digest what you've done, and your fingers time to rest.

wimpiano,

I think you are ready with just a little more very slow practice of just those parts you say are prone to flub. Just do it very slow, exactly correct at least 5 times in a row (just the small part that needs it) and stop. Do that at the end of your day's practice session each day for 5 days and I will bet you that you never miss those spots again.

Your musicality is very nice on this, so don't let it become wooden with robotlike over-repetition run throughs of the whole piece. Not being perfect is part of the deal....there will always be room for improvement.

My AOTW is deciding to host a pre-recital piano soiree for the adults that plan to play in my teacher's upcoming recital. Looks like there will be four of us getting together for some piano fun and adult beverages about a week before the recital.

Now I've got to step it up on the Jarret arrangement. My teacher and I recently changed two of the chords that were already baked into my fingers, so I've got some unlearning and relearning to do. That plus the need to really speed it up has me putting most everything else on a back burner. Have a piece I might submit to ABF, but have not touched it this week and have no recordings yet. Busy times.

Happy Happy Joy Joy (obscure reference to some thing that used to be cool). Being a beginner is a roller coaster of emotions, yesterday I was ready to hang up my sustain pedal today I want to give Chopin Ballade No 1 a go (but better not chance my luck).

The bad news: I don't feel my Clementi Sonatina No 2 is progressing, but then again it's only been 132 days since commencing (not that I am counting or anything).

The good news: I got one past the red dot and submitted to the PW recital today (oh the relief).....but wait there is more. My teacher gave me Satie's Gnossienne No.1 casually mentioning it was grade 6, way above my paygrade. Whether or not it's a grade 6 is debatable but the achievement was getting the recurring bass to chord jump which I can do without looking and get right most of the time. This is my first real exposure to a significant jump and now I just want to jump jump jump....... May have had way to much chocolate in celebration of getting into the recital.

Jim that sounds like a great event. I have agreed to play in the end of year recital at the school this year and I dread being the only adult, but I want the experience of playing in public. (Why? I ask myself...why?....)...Well, to prepare for the piano party in Lisbon!!!

Good luck with the "unlearning" and submitting to the ABF recital!

EarlofMar - that Clementi N2 is lovely - but hard to improve once you it a certain point. I decided to put it aside for a while and take it up again in a few months.

I got my ABF recital piece submitted this morning - whew. The red dot started to get to me... I won't say I beat it completely but I did have it cowering (and glowering )in the corner til I got my recording done.

I'm glad I was using the silent feature: Sunday morning is a bad time to record with acoustic because of all the church bells!

Phew! I survived my daughter's wedding.
After that, playing in a live recital will be a breeze!

Now that's an achievement if I ever heard one!
Congratulations!
Attending your son's or daughter's wedding must be a rather surreal experience?

I am glad to read so many reports. Sounds like some are making major strides.

Malkin, congrats on the daughter's wedding.

Week 112: A relatively quiet week. I have yet to try to record for the recital. I'll do what I've done for the last few, record a few takes over the course of several days, and then pick the best of those. I have a Songmakers meeting in two weeks and have to decide if some of the pieces in the oven are ready for the public or not, and whether to try and have the group sing while I play or not if I do Tonight or Colder Weather.

Here's one for the beginners.... hehe

Still only plunking away on an easy version of Adele's Someone Like You. Only on page 2, but it sounds better than it did a few weeks ago. Little to no pause before my left hand has to do something. The left hand is actually hitting the right notes more often that not. I admit I don't practice every day, so these are little wins, but wins for me.

But my achievement is getting the first 6 exercises in my Dozen a Day book down without tossing the metronome out the window. AND... I even started Bach's Minuet in G Major (No. 1) from Bastien's Easy Piano Classics just to give myself something else to play besides my assigned song. Right hand picked it up pretty quick, left hand is still a little slow.

Malkin, - felicitations to your daughter and her new husband!

SandTiger-good luck getting your recording done for the recital!

OddSox: May you be blessed with patience as you get used to working with the metronome. I drives me mad, but I am finding its uses...gradually! As for your improvement on the current piece - "little improvements" is what this thread is all about - rejoicing in our baby steps!


My ATOW: NAILING the piece that has been giving me grief for the past month. I got another "great" from my teacher. That's 2 in 1 month...(I told him I wouldn't let it go to my head)....
I feel like after 4 years of baby steps I have finally taken (at least ONE) giant step!
Truly, the last few weeks I have felt a tremendous shift in what I'm doing and I think the next few months are going to be really interesting. I'm feeling a lot more confident and super-enthusiastic about tackling the next pieces!

Cas..... a very very serious congratulations to you...
I hope we might be hearing some of this in the recitals?

malkin - wow, that's a great achievement. We want a video!

Sand Tiger - You've plenty of time to submit the piece. Relax.

Oddsox - Oh, there's a big distance between Bach and Adele Good job!

Casinitaly - I know what you mean. I felt a shift last year too, when I played the piece "Life".
It feels wonderful. And I'm still waiting for more shifts in my piano playing...
Congratulations!

No special AOTW for me. On the contrary... I felt some pain in my elbow and I went to the doctor. The diagnose is a Lateral Epicondylitis (known as Tennis Elbow). I told him that I work with computers, and I play piano and tennis regularly. He smiled and said: "Oh, really? These are the three activities that can cause this injury... and you do all of them?".
So, I've stooped playing tennis, and I'm doing smaller piano sessions (max: 45 minutes) - I really can't stop playing piano... -. So, I've to do a treatment during the next 3 weeks to see if I get better.

Cheryl,

Way to go! Conquering a troublesome piece is big, but feeling like you have taken a big step forward is huge.

I'm curious....what specifically do you think has changed or improved overall? I ask because with about the same learning timeline as you I have had similar feelings of having taken a big leap forward...yet I have trouble putting my finger on what exactly is so much better or even what specifically has led to that feeling.

@Casinitaly, very nice. I can imagine it must give you quite a boost.
@CarlosCC be careful! And get well soon!
@JimF don't try to explain, just sit back enjoy the ride

@SandTiger I'm sure you will submit something wonderful. I ended up submitting my first recital entry a couple of minutes ago. Since I couldn't make a better recording up till now I just submitted the "practice recording" I posted earlier in this thread. I might change it before the 15th or I'll keep it this way. It feels a bit like the Olympics. The most important part is to take part, not to win

Oh and my AOTW, as just mentioned I submitted my recording for the recital.

Carlos, sorry to hear about your tennis elbow. Hopefully will improve soon with some rest. Please see below re: my day...

My job is extraordinarily stressful at the moment (to wit: I couldn't sleep so got up at 3am yesterday to start work, then put in a 17 hour day), and I'm feeling very grumpy/snippy with everyone.

My work can be extremely complex, so I keep a minute by minute log so I can refer back and keep myself sane regarding current status and various technical aspects. An ellipsis ("...") indicates that I've taken a break of some sort. Sometimes I'll put a brief explanation thereafter, as in this instance yesterday morning:



It helped. A lot.

Ron, yes indeed - but for the August recital at this point I've already done my piece for the May recital!


Carlos--- be really really careful - I hope you can heal quickly - you may want to see a teacher to understand if you have some tension issues you didn't really realize....I've been through similar problems and it is really awful to have to cut down on piano time!!!


Jim - I have to say that there are a couple of things that I've just really been able to focus on at different level.

One has certainly been slowing down. I'm playing so slowly that there could be a count of several seconds before I depress the Keys. What is happening here is that as I go through the piece I am playing it so that every note, (albeit at a snail's pace) is CORRECT - with the correct fingering, with repositioning coordinated. This way I'm not giving myself any opportunity to learn any wrong notes, and I have vastly improved my ability to be in the right place at the right time. (Before my movements were always slightly delayed).

The second is learning to breakdown difficult transitions into their segments and understand what I'm doing immediately rather than just plunge in and hack away.

And the third is improved focus repetitions - so starting just a few notes before a trouble spot and not playing much beyond it, focusing on "bridging" between 2 difficult spots. My concentration seems to be better.

Overall though, I'd have to say that the first point has been the most critical.

Two other things have helped - both comments from my teacher. One comment was (after some improvement) "You're not trying to just play your pieces "at any cost" , you're doing what you're supposed to be doing" -- -and the other was "There's no reason you can't do this". So when I'm tempted to try to rush the process I (literally) hear his voice inside my head telling not to rush, and that I can do it if I take the right approach.

My confidence levels are much higher as a result of the past few weeks too, and I think this is also a contributing factor!

Ok, thanks everybody. I'll be careful. Don't worry.



And aTallGuyNH, be careful too. Stress is not good and you need to rest. Don't enter in a vicious cycle of working. That's not good. There isn't nothing more important than our sanity and health. Think about it.
I'm glade you like my Einaudi. Take a break, have positive thoughts.

Wow, great advises! Bravo.
I'm increasingly convinced that playing piano is mainly a cerebral workout. It all depends how we "see" the challenge before doing it.

I look forward to hearing you live at the EPP