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I'm working on "Festive Dance" right now, and it's coming along nicely, but still at a rather slow tempo. This is another one where it wants you to speed it up, but my fingers just don't work that fast. LOL!

And in the Greatest Hits Book 1, I've learned "What a Wonderful World", "It's a Small World", and most of "Tomorrow". I'm enjoying this book now that I can actually play them. I know a lot of people are disappointed with the arrangements, and how they leave a lot out, but at my level I really like that I can play show tunes that I love and they come out recognizeable.

I've also surpassed my 40 pieces for the challenge - and I haven't even counted many others that I felt were too short, or had titles that were too childish sounding to post. But I think learning all these pieces is really helping with my reading ability. Plus, it's fun.

mom3gram, congrats on finishing your 40 pieces already! Good luck with festive dance. Some of those faster songs cause me problems too

I had my lesson today and it was a good one. I am continuing to work on Waves of the Danube which has a nice left hand melody which takes some getting used to. I have the hands together but I need to work on the phrasing and the dynamics this week. I might pass it next week with some more practice.

Also my teacher and I decided on another outside piece to work on. I had another Chopin prelude the I could work on or a Bach Minuet in G Minor. I selected the Minuet in G Minor because I wanted to try something completely different than what I usually like to play. It has a really nice sound to it and I'm looking forward to learning it. I think it will take me quite some time to get under my fingers.

I'm also continuing to work on a Dozen a Day technical exercise and slowly working through Waltz of the Young in my Masterworks 1-2 book.

Overall it was a good piano week

mom3gram, good going on 40 pieces! I thought about joining that thread but decided I wouldn't get close, I think I learn kind of slowly.

blackjack, I think you'll end up really liking the Minuet. I did the Minuet in G Major - the second section of both pieces are fairly similar, I like the sound of the minor key.

I'm going to need more time on the two Alfred's pieces I've been working on - Solace and La Bamba. I'm getting there, but I don't have the rhythm down for either one, *especially* La Bamba. Although I am enjoying it I'm still at the stage where I'm breaking down small sections and counting out loud one and two and, etc to make sure I'm getting it at least semi-right.

March in E flat is coming along, it's still difficult but I do think I'm not struggling so much with the the key. And to some extent I mostly get where it's going.

I'm almost done with Guantanamera although it still needs some improvements to get it passed. Besides that, I got assigned "Hungarian Rhapsody #2" and finally getting into the Latin tunes that we've neglected so far, so got "La Bamba" as well, which looks not that easy. Next class will be the last due to summer break so I hope to advance by myself with "La Raspa" and "Mexican Hat Dance", as that would mean I'd get into more interesting things starting from "Plaisir d'amour" in September.

As I was feeling a bit boring during the weekend I tried the "Scherzo" and quite enjoyed it, regardless it's rather low difficulty when compared with other peaces. I mentioned that to my teacher so she also assigned me that one, so I guess it's going to be a very hectic week ;-)

Have a good week everyone!

meganR Solace and La Bamba were both difficult pieces for me. La Bamba took me forever probably 4 or 5 weeks to pass with my teacher. And Solace, even though it is relatively slow I remember that one was tough because of the syncopation. Good luck with all of your pieces you've got a heavy load with those two and the March!

Daneel Olivaw Nice update and good luck with the mexican songs those are definitely a challenge to get through. I was happy when they were done.

My update for this week is a pretty good one. I had my lesson this morning. And I almost passed Waves of Danube. The only reason I didn't is my teacher wanted me to fix my arpeggiated chords. So I will work on that this week. I knew they weren't that great but I thought I could sneak by without working on them and I got caught

I passed my technique piece in Dozen A Day which was lucky because they're really starting to get challenging and I'm starting to take longer than a week to get them down. Maybe she felt bad that she was already keeping me back on Waves of Danube

My Minuet in G Minor is about half way memorized. I need to work on the second half this week and then hopefully start working on dynamics and other fine tuning. I think my teacher was pleased with my progress.

At the end of the lesson, I did notice she was flipping though my Alfred's book and she remarked she was surprised with how much we still have left to do. Ha! I wonder if she is thinking I'm progressing a bit slow....

Good luck to everyone on their piano learning!

blackjack, no way are you slow! It would take me far long to memorize a new piece like the Minuet and I wouldn't be surprised it it took me longer for La Bamba too. But, as I keep reminding myself, it's not a race, no one cares how long it takes me. Part of my challenge sometimes is turning off the critic in my head that wants to care about this kind of thing.

My teacher is taking a vacation trip, so it will be 3 weeks till my next lesson. She has me going back to basics on La Bamba, i.e. listening to her recordings and clapping the rhythm, since I wasn't really getting it right. And of course, reminding me to go slow. I think this morning, I was starting to feel what the piece is supposed to be. Solace has some of the same difficulties but La Bamba is the one I want to get.

The March is getting there, I'm able to increase the speed on the first section and working on the second section is going OK. I spent my time on this piece this morning working hands separate again.

I've also got the Beethoven Sonatina going. The 1st movement is pretty good - I'm at the low end of the target tempo and I think I'll be able to get one more click up on the good ol' metronome by the end of the weekend. The 2nd movement is a lot of hands separate and really slow hands together on the first section. I really like this piece, it will probably be a recital piece at some point (not the next one coming up though)

Back from another trip and finally had another lesson today. Looks like I won't be travelling again anytime soon, so hopefully I can stay put for a little while

I played through the Sonatina in C Major by Clementi (First part) and it went well. This week I just need to pay attention to the dynamics. The tempo is good. Unfortunately, it's really hard to get a big contrast with the digital piano I have. Next week I'll go to practice 45 minutes early and use an extra room to practice on a real piano prior to my lesson. The same room will be available after my lesson, so I may take advantage of this while the room is opened. It could change at anytime if they get more students.

As I mentioned before, we aren't doing anything out of Alfred's anymore. Next week we'll begin looking at the second part Op 36, No 1. - Andante, and then the 3rd part, Vivace, at a later time. We'll also begin the composition part of the program I mentioned previously. We do sight reading at the beginning of each lesson.

The school is planning a trip to play at Carnegie Hall in NYC in February. I signed up for it

Right now I'm working on Mexican Hat Dance, Festive Dance, Scherzo, Streets of Laredo, and Plasir D'Amour (which I just started today). And in the Greatest Hits Book 1 - What a Wonderful World, It's a Small World, and Tomorrow. Probably too many pieces at once, but they are at various levels of doneness. In fact, all except Plasir... and Tomorrow are mostly in the polishing stages. I don't know how or why I kept adding pieces, as I don't usually have this many going at one time. LOL!

MeganR Your progress sounds great. La Bamba and Solace both have tricky rhythms in my opinion so I think your efforts on clapping the rhythm and listening to recordings is going to pay off. I don't know how you manage two big pieces like the March and the Sonatina. I have my hands full just working on one! Good luck on your practicing and hopefully your teacher gets back soon!

bSharp Nice to see your updates. It sounds like your music school is really well rounded with the composition part of your classes. I'm not learning anything like that. Your Carnegie Hall trip sounds incredible, I definitely think you should take advantage of that! I would love to have an opportunity to do something like that.

mom3gram I think you win the award for most pieces being learned simultaneously!

My update this week is pretty good. I passed my Waves of Danube, although really the only thing I had left to do was master the arpeggiated chord which I have to say still didn't come out particularly well. But anyway, I made it past it. I also passed the D Major scale she assigned and so we have moved on to working on Rock a My Soul which looks pretty fun and there is a lot of repetition so should be hopefully easy to memorize.

In the Dozen a Day I passed my technical exercise and was assigned a new one so that went well.

My Minuet in G Minor by Bach is coming along well. I have almost the entire piece memorized and hands together, I just have 3 measures left and I can start working on the dynamics. I'm really enjoying this piece and will hopefully be assigned another Bach piece after this one.

I also bought a subscription to sight reading factory about a month ago, and I've been using it daily and I think that my sight reading is improving. I'd recommend checking it out if you want something to help your sight reading. It can be used on your ipad, tablet, or laptop but I print out 6 or 7 practice sheets a day and really can see improvement.

Hope everyone has a good week practicing and has a good weekend!

Blackjack, it's interesting that you say that, since for whatever reason this week (probably work overload) I feel a bit underwater with my piano practice. In some pieces I almost feel that I'm playing worse than I was a week ago. So I'm putting La Bamba on hold for a few days and I'm going to focus on Solace for Alfred's and aim to get passed on that the next lesson on the 9th when my teacher's back. Then I can really go after La Bamba.

Today, after Solace practice, I decided to really focus on the March and tomorrow will be the Sonatina. (Side note: it's 108F at our house right now, so I am not distracted by wanting to go out hiking or gardening)

MeganR

I think your plan sounds like a good one. Sometimes I will have a bunch of things going on at the same time and none of them seem to be making any discernable progress and I'll basically do what you're doing which is to start focusing on a couple and put aside one or two. I usually select the one that I think I can get to a passable level by my next lesson so I can take it off my plate.

I have been complaining about the weather at my house because it's been in the high 90s for the last few weeks but at 108F you've got me beat. Stay inside and keep cool and enjoy that time with your piano!

I enjoyed your recording, Blackjack! I would not be able to record anything as good as that.

I did "Bourlesq" in today's lesson, which I believe is the first piece in Alfred's which appears exactly as it was written by the composer, so that's quite exciting! (Even though I am not really trying to learn classical music.) I am still a bit shaky on the left hand of this piece, which is quite difficult. I am going to start working on Musetta's Waltz for next week. My teacher decided to skip "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

I spent about six or seven weeks working on the Chopin piece in Alfred's (which is a simplified version of the original.) It is quite fun to play but I had great difficulty with one section.

Utkonos, thanks! It took me way longer than I expected to be able to play that piece. I am working on something much simpler right now.

You're making good progress. I'm looking forward to that Chopin etude you mentioned. I saw someone else post and say that it was a difficult one to work through.

Last lesson until September and quite a few pieces to work on during this month. Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 is in good shape, but still a few things to work on, specially the scales with stacatto. La Bamba is slowly getting on, which is relieving judging for the first times I was trying to play it, so I hope that the rest of the month would be enough to get it passed. Then La Raspa and Mexican Hat Dance are both almost untouched so more for the list for this month. Finally For He's a Jolly Good Fellow that was my fault not to get it passed as it seemed simple enough but when I played it in front of the teacher I made enough mistakes to insist working on this.

Anyway, let's see if after this break I can get rid off most or all of these tunes and get into other stuff. Enough Latin rhythms for a while!

That's really cool! Had my doubts but after checking some online scores it seems to be the case! (although there was another version of the 'Notebook' that had a slightly different score) I thought that original pieces were only shown in Alfred's #3. Do you know if there's any other in original form in book #2?

Daneel Olivaw it sounds like you are making a lot of progress on some pretty difficult pieces. I was also quite happy to get past the Latin section. Not my cup of tea...

My update this week is a short one.

I found a local piano group on meetup and decided to join it! It's for adult amateurs and they hold monthly recitals! Unfortunately it's very popular so the next recital that was available was all the way out in November. I'm looking forward to it and as an added bonus it gives me a chance to perform prior to my teacher's recital which is in December. So hopefully this year I won't be so nervous!!

Ok Alfred's update - I am almost finished with Rock-a My Soul. It is an easy piece to memorize, I think it only took me a day or too. The rhythm in this one is a little tricky, there is some syncopation and a whole lot of eighth notes, so I built up speed with a metronome assisting me over the course of the week. I also got some dynamics in. I should hopefully be good enough for my teacher to pass me next week.

Since my progress on this piece was good my teacher went and assigned me Calypso Carnival which I'm looking forward to try out. It's all staccato in both hands so that will be interesting...

My Bach Minuet in G Minor is now hands together all of the way through the entire piece. It's a nice break considering what I went through on the Chopin prelude. I am going to work on dynamics this week. I think another 2-3 weeks and it will be ready to be passed by my teacher.

I passed a Dozen a Day Technique piece and was assigned another one this week. I think things are moving along well.

I hope everyone else is progressing nicely, and hope to see your updates soon!

My goal for the weekend: get Solace recorded. It's in pretty decent shape *finally*, and darn it for being so stubborn anyway. With a clean recording in hand, if I play it reasonably well at my next lesson on Tuesday, I think I can move on from it. Fingers crossed.

That's awesome that you found a piano group to join up with, Blackjack! And you seem to be doing great with all your pieces.

Congratulations on getting a good recording of Solace, Megan. I found that one difficult, but I liked it anyway.

I'm working on Introduction and Dance now, and having trouble remembering the left hand chords. Also Streets of Laredo, which is pretty easy, and Plasir D'Amour which I've learned about a third of the way. This one will probably be a keeper for a while.

I bet most of you are aware of it but just in case, this tune was familiar at least to me from the famous movie "The Sting"



And of course:

Megan R Congrats on getting Solace polished up! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you that you will get it passed in your next lesson

mom3gram All 3 of those songs that you're working on were some of my favorites. I enjoyed that section because of the very melodic and some what moderate paced pieces which appeal to me.


This weekend I started working on Calypso Carnival and I have to say that it is really causing me some issues. It looks extremely simple but it's not and I can't figure out why. The staccato in both hands is strange and the continually alternating left hand pattern is not helping either.

Definitely go slow and count this one out when you get to it. It's not a difficult song to memorize but getting it under your fingers is not easy even with the moderate tempo.