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

If we count the week as starting on Sunday, then my achievement so far this week is having a go at playing the right hand melody of Only The Lonely.

I was just flipping through my music & stopped on that page.

My journey has started......

Achievement - really good lesson this past week and good follow up work. Especially on the third movement of my sonatina. The two pages are pretty much on par now, rather than the first page being much better than the second. I've got the tempo pretty even too, lots of metronome work to be sure I don't speed up!
Now it is just being smooth throughout, and then gradually bringing the speed up!
(just...sigh)

On the down side....
I've been trying to work on the Traumerei, and I think it is way more than I'll be able to manage on my own over the summer. I have just a few hours left in June with my teacher and I don't think it will be enough (given we have to finish pieces I am wrapping up).... I think I will have to find something else and leave Traumerei til the autumn.

I suppose he thinks I can do it, because he ok'd it ... but I don't feel very positive about this and I have to talk to him about it.

Any suggestions for something that is not too easy - but not as hard as Traumerei?

This afternoon I had a go at the right hand melody line of House Of The Rising Sun.

Me:
EarlofMar:

I love reading AOTW and seeing what others are working on, and how everyone is moving forward, but don't think I've posted here much.

I wanted to share a real first for me, maybe Achievement of Three Weeks. I was asked to fill in for a friend (who had a family situation) to find and organize the music and musicians for a one-hour benefit concert with three weeks notice. Last night, it all came together! We had a set of songs and piano pieces by children, then a classical segment, and ended with a ragtime and folk segment. I accompanied a singer, learned (after crossing out those unnecessary notes) and played in a cello-piano sonata, and played 3 mazurkas. Everyone survived, the concert was a great success, and my family wants me to promise I will never do this again...but who knows!

I don't know if there's a "take-away." My friend who set the whole thing in motion says, If we want to play like Horowitz, we should aim in that direction and even if we get 3% of the way, that's infinitely more than 0%.

Back to reality and practicing... (Thank you for listening.)

That's what counts......

Well done.

I rarely write here, but I follow you... now I think I have something to say, too.

In my effort to get ready for the European Piano Party, I've been looking for chances to play with people around. Last week I went to the public library and played a grand for the first time (out-of-tune baby grand, and only a few employees passing by!).

Then on Sunday I had my second grand piano experience at a friend's home - a very nice morning with a longtime music lover and wonderful pianist. I got into panic as soon as I touched the keys, because I seemed unable to produce a decent sound (or any sound at all) from her piano, but with some advice I got used to it pretty quickly and in the end I was able to somehow play my pieces. Then she played a Scherzo by Clara Schumann and wow - I understood what it means to project sound. That little piano sounded amazing under her hands. She also gave me a few tips, and urged me to look for a good teacher. I think she meant it as a compliment and encouragement - she still has an instructor herself and she's been playing for at least 70 years.

Earlier this week I also had two friends over and played for them. I messed up most of my pieces but I carried on, and all in all I think they enjoyed it. So on I go, trying not to think and not to worry...

Great to hear from you here sino!

After my recital a couple days ago (described elsewhere), I've been reminding myself that we will never see this headline, "Piano Student Delivers Imperfect Performance" because it is not news.

LOL

Excellent! I think I'll add that to my signature!

Diana - what you're doing is fantastic! You're going to be in great shape for the EPP.

I have my lesson today . I wrote to my teacher giving him a heads up that I think Traumerei should wait til the autumn when we can work on it together and he said not worry "we don't need to challenge ourselves in this way".
I love that he talks about "we" - and that he understood immediately and saw no need to make this a stressful activity.

We're going to pick something else this week or next.

Traumerai looks very challenging. It's so beautiful that it may be worth the effort, but it's good that your teacher understands how you feel. Have you already played other pieces from Kinderszenen? The first one and the last one are much more feasible, and there are others easier than Traumerai in that collection.

No, I haven't played any of those. I have played some from OP 68, but not this group. Thanks for the information - I will look at the others and see about trying them!

Träumerei was listed as grade 7 ABRSM. It is more difficult than what it sounds like. All the Schumann's pieces (from Op.68, I never took Op.15) I worked on have been like this.

Träumerei is a piece I'm very interested in but after spending so much time on another grade 7 piece (actually not sure about this), Bach Invention 12, I decided I'm not ready for it. That Invention is still bad, it is too much of a stretch.

Grade 7 eh Mark? Well, that sounds way too advanced for me

My teacher was super understanding and we will work on it, just not over the summer when I'm doing it on my own.

We picked out some other pieces and he's going to bring me some pieces to look at next week (some Mozart I think).

I played my whole sonatina for him at the lesson and while I flubbed a bit, it wasn't too shabby. It was definitely a "performance" not a simple presentation of weekly work. He said my 3rd movement was " a different planet from what it had been the week before". That was really gratifying.

I was telling my husband about some of my progress and the comments I was getting and he asked if my teacher gave out gold stars. I said , well some teachers do , but mine doesn't. And my sweetie said he would get me some gold star stickers

Casinitaly, often the same piece can be set at different grades but the performance expectations will vary.
Seems like Traumerei might be a case in point?
This ABRSM discussion thread suggests more like Grade 5 in terms of difficulty playing the piece:
http://www.abrsm.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=43936

I liked the comment that "trying to learn it at grade 5 level is nothing short of torture"...... that hit a little too close to home for comfort! lol.

LOL, good point

Oh yeah, that is definitely a gold star comment. It is so great to
see your hard work paying off.... Congrats!

Well my AOTW is music related if not piano related - I've signed up for a singing course over the summer. My piano teacher isn't teaching over the summer, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to try something different!

Hi,

When I see these posts where we are our own worst critic, I keep thinking of the article I saw at the music humor site "Submediant" -

"Pianist Misses Notes in Recital, Says Pianist"

http://www.submediant.com/2016/05/02/pianist-misses-notes-recital-says-pianist/

Jeff

Thanks, Jeff. Got a good chuckle out of that article.... fun site bookmarked.