Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Recital 39 --- Call For Submissions

Recital #39 is now open for submissions!

Believe it or not, it’s time for the 39th quarterly “Beginners and Beyond” recital hosted by the Piano World Adult Beginners Forum! Please note that the deadline is earlier this time, due to a travel conflict I have. The recital will be posted some time late on the 13th of August or early on the 14th, which means that the submissions must be in by 9:00 pm Eastern Daylight Saving Time, August 13. Please note this deadline is very firm; I cannot start working on the recital until it is closed, and once it is closed, no new entries can be added.

While any and all styles of music are welcome, we do ask that it be piano related. Only one recording may be submitted per forum member (although that recording may consist of a medley of two or more very short related pieces).

Editing or digital alteration of your performance (other than minor edits such as trimming long silences at the end or beginning of the piece) is counter to the 'live recital' spirit of the AB Forum Recital and is thus strongly discouraged. In any event, any editing should be disclosed in the "additional information" section of the recital submission template.

If you are fairly new to the piano, please do not be intimidated by some of the talent here in the ABF. We all consider ourselves to be beginners even though we may have been playing for some time. And, we LOVE to hear recordings from folks new to the keyboard. So even if you’re on your first Alfred’s method book, we would *really* enjoy hearing from you.

Recital submissions must be in MP3 format. The maximum size of the file is 20 MB. We recommend encoding the recording at 192 kbs with a constant bitrate, as that works best with the online streaming player. At that bitrate, a 20 MB file works out to be about 7-9 minutes in length. Your recording will be normalized when placed in the consolidated zip files, but your original link will still be available for those who want it.

If you are new to recording your music, there are several threads in the forum archives that address the ways and means. See the "Important Topics in the AB Forum" thread stickied at the top of the AB forum page. Audacity is an excellent free recording application that can be used.

If you’re new to the forum and the recitals, I encourage you to browse through a few of the past recitals to see what they’re like. An easy way to find past recitals is to use Sam S.’s extremely helpful recital index, located here:

http://recitals.pianoworld.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page


Submitting Your Recording:

We will be using again the absolutely marvelous automatic web-based recital program that mahlzeit wrote for us. You will upload your mp3 file to the recital server as part of the recital submission process.

When you have your mp3 file ready, go to:

https://recitals.pianoworld.com/

and follow the instructions there. Please note that this URL reflects our new permanent home for all the recital files. Once you have uploaded your info to the automated recital software, you will receive a confirmation e-mail. You will have the opportunity to revise your submission any time up until the deadline. If you have any problems at all using the new website, or if you do not receive a confirmation e-mail within a few hours, just PM me. If you have not participated in past recitals using this software, I strongly encourage you to submit your recital piece at least a day in advance in case you run into any problems with it.

The recital website uses the following submission template to be filled out along with your attached music file. You may want to have your responses to these fields prepared in advance so all you have to do is cut and paste:

Performer's Name: {forum ID and real name if you’d like}
Where you are located: {optional}
Avatar image link: {optional}
Experience: {Yrs/Mos of piano playing experience}
Link to YouTube or other video: {optional}
Home page link: {optional}
Title of piece/composer:
Source of music: {sheet music, improvised score, play-by-ear, etc}
Instrument used: {Piano make, keyboard model, etc.}
Recording method: {audacity, Zoom, digital to PC, etc.}
Constructive technical feedback wanted: {Yes/No}
Additional Info: {Your thoughts on the piece, what you had for lunch, etc.}


The due date for all submissions is 9:00 pm US EASTERN DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME on August 13, 2015.

Did I mention that the 9:00 pm deadline was firm?

Think "consistency of concrete."

By submitting a piece to the recital, you are certifying that it is a recording of your own performance.

Again, the recital order will be presented in the order the pieces were received, so the sooner you send in your piece, the higher you will be on the list! You can revise your entries on the template (e.g., thoughts about your piece, adding YouTube links, and the like) any time and not lose your place in the recital queue, but if you resubmit your recording at any time, for any reason, you will be bumped to the end of the list.

An AB Forum Recital FAQ thread exists that contains this and other information. Should you have any questions at all on what to do or how to do it, do not hesitate to ask. Remember, there are NO stupid questions, as we have a steady flow of new members in AB Forum for whom this is their first recital, so your questions will probably help to eliminate other members’ problems. Please ask away!

Let's all go out and brave that Red Dot and share a lot of beautiful music!

What, already? Ugh.

Btw before concrete it says May.

I'm not first! I'm not first!

Oh blast!! I thought you had gone first. Now I think I am. I'll trade ya.

Thanks, Moonsh1ne! I fixed the mistake.

Heh. I hain't even recorded yet!

I am in at #5. It feels good to have this done so I can move on to something else!

It seems we have a slow start. Is that related to the earlier opening?

Not in my case I have been ready to record for a couple of weeks, in terms of piece preparation, but haven't felt like recording.
I will probably do it in the next day or so.

Submitted

I spent the morning recording a piece I thought I could play better, only to find that the original recording was better than the few I made today! I know every nuance of this piece so well by now that listening to myself playing it is excruciating. A note too soft, a chord too loud, an ugly diminuendo... Yet I would be happy if I played like that in front of people! Pretty sure they wouldn't notice all that. So I'm in with that recording. Just don't listen too intently

I'm nowhere near happy yet - definitely won't be in the front of the pack this time. I really loved that feeling of having my piece recorded before the submission window opened but this time I *need* these two weeks :-)

Dammitt!!!! Thought it started 1 August . . . . Was determined to be first!! You started without me . . . . . Beware of flying dummies . . . (some people call `em pacifyers . . .)

Mind you, my piece isn`t THAT good . . . .

Obviously I haven't written enough posts in large fonts and scary colors. The thread opened early because the deadline for this recital is one day earlier due to a travel conflict I have.



My ambivalence regarding which Einaudi piece to submit was resolved when I listened to both recordings and realized that for one of the pieces I was a full two minutes longer than Einaudi's version. Clearly it's back to the drawing board and some solid metronome work with that one.

Yea, well.... being first isn't all it's cut out to be. There is a lot of pressure and responsibility involved. (Not to mention that now everyone will think I hovered around the computer just waiting for the "call for submissions" to appear. It was a coincidence... I swear!! I was heading to bed and was shutting off my computer when I took one last glance at the forum and... I didn't want to be first but also felt like getting the submission over. So... hear I am... leading the pack. Sigh.)

Monika, IMHO checking the metronome speed is not the way to check if your piece is ok. But yes if you feel it's a drag then maybe it needs more practice

Oh, I don't try to play the whole piece to the metronome, wouter. Einaudi uses too much rubato for that to work. But I had thought I was playing at the proper tempo, when obviously I wasn't. I'll play along with the metronome enough times to internalize the correct tempo and then just practice on my own.

> 9. peterws - hjkl ()

You lost the composer and title of your piece?

Or is it too explosive to release yet?

Monika I didn't imply playing along with metronome. Instead I was wondering if metronome speed is your yardstick for quality

Heh! Just got the darned thing in. The rest`ll follow. Eventually . . . .