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

Andy and JimF - Thank you for your kind words and encouragement. I at least know 13 places to fix (LOL). What was stocking was that my teacher told me that I was playing the repeat of the B section with a different tempo when it comes back towards the end. Also I had memory slip at the same spot as I did previous week. My teacher marked where I had memory slip in the score. Interestingly, I tend to have memory slip when there is a large down ward jump in the left hand. She basically told me that I had to do this kind of detective work by myself and fix the mistakes before I come back to the lesson. So basically I got scolded. I know she is right but did not enjoy that. Anyways.. I suppose that's why she told me to memorize the left hands Ok, Jim, I think you are right. I will get back to work at it.

JimF, what a fantastic idea to have a practice recital.. It's kinda like master class for adults, isn't it. Too bad I don't live in FL.

JimF - Good idea, sounds like fun!

Cheryl - very cool that you are tweaking your piano... Sorry it's necessary so soon after tuning, though!

FarmGirl - sounds to me like you're well on the way to having it pretty polished... once you can enumerate the issues, like Andy said, you must be getting close to having it under control... I look forward to hearing it!

Yesterday I discovered something almost startling at the keys. My father is in the hospital (in another state, so we've been traveling a lot), and late late last night I sat down to play. The first thing I played was my latest Clementi sonatina, Op36.2, 2nd mvment, which I normally think of as a lively, jaunty, happy piece. Well, it came out of my fingers as a sad, almost haunting piece, thinking of him. It surprised me that, with the very same notes, it sounded so different, but there it was. Music is... deep.

FarmGirl - one way to help yourself hear the weak points is to do recordings.I started doing this a while ago and it really makes a difference. I might think I'm doing ok, but then...REALITY CHECK! lol. Also, it helps with reducing the red light jitters!

JimF - what a great ideas to host a of pre-recital performance!!! You and your piano-mates will have a great time.
I do believe that MOYD pays off - but what is really making the difference at this point is improved study techniques. Nothing new in terms of what my teacher has been telling me, but simply the fact that I'm actually DOING what she has been suggesting - I think I needed to reach a certain level of understanding (and reduced tension) to be able to carry out the instructions she's been giving me since we started.
Also, I think that this might be a "growing spurt" so to speak. Things are clicking, falling into place!

Bessel, - I'm sorry to hear your father isn't well. I hope he improves soon. I can well believe your mood influenced your playing.

(as for the piano wobbling out of tune a bit - a great deal is due to the humidity- grrrr - but I must confess (as I did to the piano tuner when she arrived) that I had been tinkering with the tuning before she came and I really made a mess of A3. She fixed it up at the start of the tuning, in the middle and at the end but warned me it might slip a bit again as I'd gone overboard with fiddling (and learned my lesson!)..... so I was expecting it to go off (during the tuning she also had me make adjustments with my own lever - she is really fun to work with!).

My electronic tuning device will arrive in a few days and I am hoping to put it to good use in between professional tunings.

I'm working on page 2 of my waltz now - (not that page 1 is 100% ready, but the second page is relatively simple and I want to get it under my fingers and then keep up with the focus "chunking" for the tricky parts on page 1....and then bring it all together at a faster tempo than I've been using during the study period. .......Fun, but wow, lots of work!

Were you trying to make it A#3?

I originally read what you wrote as "A number 3." It took me a few seconds to realize what you meant. I need to pay more attention to this whole music notation business.

Well, something like that....:) lol.

Or A4? Pulling the wrong pin? :-)

Well, let's just say I got mixed up, turned the pin too much, then couldn't find my way back.
I purposely exaggerated the change, to hear the difference, but then got interrupted and when I went back I was disoriented and .....well, as I said, I only did it because I knew my tuner was booked to come over very soon!

Live and learn!

One of the reasons I love this forum is it will suddenly trigger realizations - whether this will help is another matter

I read this and thought, hmm, same with me - I find it harder to memorize some "harder" bits more than others. And those bits slip quicker from my memory if I leave the piece for a while.

My realization is they are no worse memorized than any other section. But the stumbles I have on them stop my "muscle memory" so it appears I had a memory slip (well, I did but that was the secondary cause). So I think this will help me in the future by getting me to focus on more solid memorization of those sections. (Yeah, yeah, should have it all solid and when somebody identifies how to have more than 24 hours in a day I will do that).

Yesterday I did my first ever RCM exam and survived! Grade 4!! About a year ago I was contemplating starting the kids on piano, realized I wanted to play too, got a piano, started lessons, and now got through my first exam. It wasnt my best playing because I was so nervous but I think I passed. It was a ton of work but for the experience and all the learning it was worth it

Thanks to all the fine support I've received from everybody here along the way!

Congrats to Zoe on getting through the grade 4 exam. In about a year, that seems quite amazing to me. And good for all those that have reported their progress. This thread is my favorite on the forum. My posts here help reinforce the progress I am making, rather than my tendency to focus on the setbacks and frustrations of the week.

The forum has helped with these ideas:
* slow practice, better to practice very slowly and accurately.
* finding areas of trouble, and having separate restart places for play or practice.
* playing with eyes closed to get a better feel for the keyboard.
* practice for 20 to 30 minutes then break, then resume.
* basic fingering on chords
* basic rhythm on harmony arpeggios
* tips on posture, body and seat position

I also found a blog about learning to sight read:
http://pianosightreading.blogspot.com/2008/01/background.html
The blogger's background is similar to my own, so I enjoyed his story.

Ok, on to my progress report for my week #6 with the keyboard. Setbacks include setting up for video recording and just not having it. I kept making mistakes, even on the piece I have the most confidence on. There was a buzz in the microphone or something, so I decided to shelve it and try again next week. I picked out a couple of new cover pieces that I might want to learn and decided against them. One gave me a headache even though the difficulty looked reasonable, and the other seemed too intimidating once I got into it, for this beginner.

As for progress, I think the biggest thing was playing with my eyes closed to get a better feel for the keyboard. When I perform whistle for audiences, I tend to keep my eyes closed. My hearing feels sharper, the mind more focused. With the slow practice, and other tips I am playing better, my mind calmer, which I see as a big deal, a significant step forward. The harmony arpeggios are smoother. I got through "Over the Rainbow" a couple of times without errors. It is still like 50/50 on clean play throughs, but last week it was 0/100, always errors, always glitches. I practiced some with headphones and heard some subtle overtones that I could not hear with keyboard speakers.

I mentioned that I decided against working on two different cover songs. Instead, I began work on a fifth original composition. It is interesting to observe how my compositions are evolving as I progress in my playing. I am still doing at least an hour a day of practice.

Thank to all for sharing their information. Congrats to all on their progress.

Congrats, Zoe! What pieces did you play?

I too started because my son did, with the same kind of realization you had... also a little over a year ago. I'm impressed that you had the fortitude to knuckle down and study for and take an exam... kudos!

(And now you'll have to update your signature!)

thanks for the sight reading blog link. The flash cards for practicing intervals that can be down loaded are great!

Thanks SandTiger and Bessel.

The pieces I played were:

List A: Baroque -> Minuet in D Minor, BWV Anh. 132, attr. Johann Sebestian Bach
List B: Classical -> Sonatina in B flat Major, op. 4, no. 8, Samuel Wesley
List C: Romantic, 20th and 21st Century, The Wild Horseman, op. 68, no. 8, Robert Schumann

Though I had also learned Fantasia in E Minor, by Georg Telemann and Sonatina in G Major, 3rd movement by Clementi. I opted out of doing Clementi as when I'm nervous I found it very difficult to control the scale like passages and keep them smooth. I really liked the Clementi though and I learned alot from it.

SandTiger, this really is a great forum, isn't it?! I've learned so many useful things here, and what's more, been inspired! Learning piano is such a solitary pursuit. So it's nice to have this place to discuss our passion for it.

Congrats, Zoe! People seem to be of two minds about exams here, but it's clearly got you so motivated.

Thanks MaryAnn, you're right about how people feel About exams. It was a ton of work but for me it works.

Congratulations Zoe! What wonderful achievement!

ZoeCalgary, congratulations! What did you find hardest about preparing for the exam? What did you find easiest?

Thanks Casinitaly! - now just to wait to see comments and mark.

Pianostudent88 - good question! The hardest part for me was 'catching up' on all the technical requirements. I had to learns scales that were new to me so first I had to get the notes/fingering and then memorize. Let's see 4 major scales and 4 minor harmonic and melodic. Hands together 2 octaves and 4 needed to be learned 1 octave with a staccato touch. And then I had to learn the tonic chords, broken and solid for each of these. Broken/solid could be 2 hands plus cadence over 1 octave or one hand over 2 octaves. I was learning a scale a week so that was a good pace but it took time to be able to pick a scale out of the hat and play it in whatever form (1 hand, 2 hands, chords, etc. This was something time and patience could help you through this. But you had to have it all memorized!

But then there is the ear training! Yikes! For me I really really struggle with this. I'm just getting the hang of identifying intervals now. But melody playback has given me grief to no end! With this you are played a tonic chord from one of the scales and told it's name. Then the teacher plays a short melody around the first 5 notes of the scale. You have to then play it back with the right notes and rhythm. I struggled so much with this. I have to concentrate so much on hearing he notes and listening for steps, skips, or jumps, I start to forget the melody. I have to really work on this aspect. I found it the hardest to learn and the hardest to practice!

The repertoire and studies though at first seemed difficult started to come together in good time. And as time went by I noticed other pieces and studies were easier to sight read and play through and didn't appear as challenging as they did at first.

And in case anybody is wondering...yes all that time spent on scales is worth it! Many of the classical era pieces had longer and longer scale like runs so it all comes together in the pieces.