Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Whisper project - things learned, thoughts discussions

So, things learned:

I jumped on the claim cycle (I think it was), and it was fun, but I ended up doing my work till the wee hours in the morning, and my regular practice suffered for a few days because I was spending so much time in here etc.

Time for a re-think. I like this, and I think it's good practice, and I'll keep doing it as the opportunity arise. But, I will have to limit myself to 'extra time available' from now on.

Observations:

My reaction when receiving most of these files (except the very short one) was like, this may be more than I bargained for. What did I get myself into? Poly just turned one around in 5 minutes, dire tonic turned this one around in 20 minutes and I'm going to look like an idiot.

Just kidding, it wasn't that bad. But it did seem like a lot at first. Like any piece though, when you break it down (most of these have been learned, 1st half then 2nd half then record) then all of a sudden it becomes easy again.

The ones where I need to split in 2 and learn this way (Cycle 2, Cycle 3, looks like cycle 1 v2 too) I would call these intermediate. Cycle 1 v1 ... easy. When we get to one that needs to be split into more sections, I will call that one more challenging. But it should just be a matter of taking a bit more time. Which we all know now, we have plenty of should we need it.

Definitely not. Some won't be able to do these tests at all. We're mixed abilities, we have to remember that.

Yes, btw you can divide most of what I say by 5. People that know me say divide by 10, but I think it is only 5.

Conclusion:
Just because it may sound like a lot, it is not really so when you look at it in smaller chunks. Just like looking at a score for first time and thinking, oh my goodness. Slowly but surely it comes together.

Haha Greener.

Well, I did look like an idiot. One skill needed for this project has been overlooked - a social skill for being able to pick up how a group is working, pick out the right information - most people seem to be able to catch the unspoken part, and sense what is expected, so they're just in the flow of the group. There are different intelligences: you can be smart in some, and really stupid in others.

It appears that I've messed up in this respect since I joined this. I had to keep asking how the claims thing worked, and then I still got it wrong, and didn't even clue in that I had joined it (!), and people were now delayed because of me. When I had technical problems first time round, I didn't clue in that someone else might be standing with his catcher's mitt, ready to catch the ball - a brief word "hang on - problems here" didn't occur to me. If you want to say "Are you stupid, or what?" Yes, I am stupid in this area. I am. This is my learning curve.

When I do catch on how things work, then I've got it. I've caught on how both systems work now. But I will not get it as fast as most people, I suspect, and I need some patience in this regard. I'm going to blunder, and while trying to un-blunder, I'll make more of a mess until I get it right. When it's on the level of working with others, and you can't communicate, that's really awkward. I have a big vocabulary and all that, but vocab. alone doesn't cut it. In fact, it can hide the fact that you're struggling. And while you're blundering about, knocking over china left and right, you can also lose friendships - that hurts when it happens. Eventually you'll get it: hindsight gives nothing, so it's just a learning experience for the future - and that does count for something.

Yesterday I genuinely couldn't have participated - I was behind in everything. I'm still catching up today. But besides that, I was afraid of doing things wrong again. I can catch melodies - by nature I'm a singer - and I'm comfortable with making music mistakes because that's an opportunity for learning - no worries about that part. But I'm anxious about "not getting it" at the social end of it - the working with others - giving the right message at the right time in the right way. Even knowing when I've messed up, versus it's not my fault and people are as they are - have their bad days (don't worry about it) - often I can't tell. Which makes you scared of doing the wrong thing. Or put yourself on a guilt trip.

Ok, so if people can overcome the anxiety of taking longer than other people, not playing as well, missing more notes - and all this is ok because we're all learners - is there also room for possible weakness in group interaction / doing with others (I hate the cliche word "teamwork")?

I'm going to post the completed cycles here for discussion as well as in the signup thread.

CYCLE 3 COMPLETE

Original: http://picosong.com/jhHk/
Final: http://users.tpg.com.au/deantsou01/Whispers-Cycle3-Nr5-UnderConstruction.mp3

There are five notes off in the middle and an extra beat added to a note's duration near the end, but nothing too serious. Congratulations to the participants.

Is there interest in seeing a score for this?

Also, can we get an update on the status of Cycle 1?

Does anyone want to do a cycle where it's not just a right hand melody? i.e., if Nikolas and/or Poly would like to write an eight-bar piece for both hands, I may jump on that. I'm also willing to act as a "composer" for a "two hands" cycle, if there's enough interest.

Any takers?

Count me in.

I'll write the piece, somebody just needs to tell me how hard to make it.

My vote: do your worst, we'll see how far we get?

My worst?

Should it be contrapuntal or melody-and-accompaniment?

As an ear training exercise, I personally find contrapuntal music easier because it rarely requires identifying more than two pitches within the same beat. So if we're going for this being as accessible as possible, I would personally vote for contrapuntal. But I may just have weird ears, that way.

dire tonic (and other potentially interested parties), what do you think?

Cycle 1,v2 ... Status = Pending

I'm downtown and my piano is not. I will reunite with my piano in a few hours. It is a beautiful day. A Friday and I'm outta here ... soon.

I think I may have more then one waiting for me by then. I will not delay ... much. All should be done by about 5:00pm EDT.

We did pretty good on #3. Will have a better listen with headphones when I get home, but I would say pretty good job.

Yes - to the score.

I've also had an idea bouncing around in my head. It's been said before that we can learn a lot by following the chain, but that some people might be uncomfortable at having their recording posted in public - understandable. But if some people did want to do that, what about having the group of 7 or 5 (those who want to) get together in private PM and share what they did so they can see what happened. Maybe say "I was no. 3, here's mine". Like an opt-in / opt-out thing.

What do you guys think?

You didn't look like an idiot from my viewpoint Keystring. This project is new and there are bound to be different ideas and understandings of rules/expectations etc.

I'm behind here, and trying to catch up on posts....


What five notes???
I just listened to the original and end result, and I don't hear 5 notes missing???

PS. listening to the end result of cycle 3.... that took some doing to get to hear it all. Instead of getting the 'internet speed from Australia' I got 'slow boat from China' (and believe me I've got some experience with that one)....
so maybe those notes was lost in buffering?

Greener, and others, if this was all easy, there would be no reason to do it in the first place. We're here to learn and practice

Keystring... Geeeez, that's the biggest humble pie I've ever seen And in my humble opinion not warranted. We're all fumbling around in the unknown here. Apart from the wisecracking (which is fun), the ensuing panic at times (equally fun), there's bound to be some frustration popping up here and there till we all get to know what to do, where to do it, when to do it, and how to do it. Hey, that's part of the fun too

@Jytte: above is the melody as originally conceived. Below is the melody as played in cycle 3's final submission. No missing notes. Just a quarter note where there should have been an eighth and two sixteenths, at the end of measure three. That explains the "superfluous" final eighth.

I'll leave you to spot the other difference . Polyphonist is right that there are technically five wrong notes, but I would argue there is really only one, because all the others are "correct" relative to the "mishap".