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Congrats Brian, it does seem like just yesterday when we were welcoming you to the board! Three years seems to be kind of a dividing line, to me anyway, where you often see people losing interest or motivation. I'm pretty sure you are not even remotely at risk.

Technical (microphone) problems aborted yesterday's skype lesson....argghhhh . But it was easily fixed and we did the lesson this morning. I knew she was going to have a new piece for me to start work on, but I had no idea it was going to be Ravel's Sonatine - Mvmt No.2 Menuet. Geeeez, that's what she played at our last recital. We spent the whole hour doing fingering just to the first repeat. She says it isn't that much of a stretch, but boy.... it sure looks like a finger-twister with all kinds of skills I don't yet have. Ah, well, nothing to do but get on with it I suppose. One thing I can say is that if I ever get to where I can play this, I will have figured out how to keep my hands very relaxed.

This guy plays some wonderfully expressive piano. I really like his interpretations.



here's the link in case the embedded function misfires Ravel's Sonatine: Menuet

Brian, congratulations on your Year 3 anniversary!

Oh my goodness, yes, the time does go fast and yes, it is a lot of work, but you have the right teacher, the ability and desire to work hard, a good instrument, and the right spouse ( ). What blessings!

Now get back to practice.

Congratulations Brian! Three years is quite a milestone, and you have progressed very well. Well done!

Thanks everyone! On to year 4...

There are two types of complements my teacher gives: Type 1: "That was good, but let's try......." or Type 2: "That was good. That was miles ahead of what you did last week. Good work."

My AOTW was getting a Type 2 compliment on one of my pieces and even getting a "pass" on it. I had worked hard on the piece with the metronome, and it paid off.

Congrats BrianDX on your pianoversary! Great achievement - not just the 3 year timespan, but the attitude, the diligence, and the progress actually made in that time.

Well done too to Stubbie, Casinitaly, Cathryn, SWissMS - and anyone I've left out who's recently shared an AOTW

I'm putting a lot of focus on the 40 piece challenge this month, trying to catch up on lost ground. I'm hoping to be "only" a month behind by the end of Aug .
My small AOTW is that I'm accidentally tackling some trickier pieces within the challenge, and it's not a complete disaster
I picked a piece from what I *thought* was a selection of Gr 3-ish pieces. Thought it was awfully tough at the grade until I discovered it's on the ABRSM Gr 5 syllabus
I'm certainly not claiming to be playing the piece well after just a few days, but I am pleased at what progress I have made, especially as I found it hard to get to grips with initially (ie not just hard to play the notes, but hard to make sense of musically). There's good learning in it for me, for sure!

This is more like achievement of the summer, but I did learn Traumerei (all thanks to casinitaly for giving me a push in this thread!). It was too late for August recital, but perhaps for the next one it'll be so polished that I'll get to share it.

Congratulations BrianDX My third anniversary will be soon in October. I can't believe three years I have been here for passed so quickly. Your 500+ pieces achievement is absolutely fantastic, enormous and something really big to be proud of. I envy you! Shame on me as my score is probably less than 50 -.-

I went on holiday and I could not practice regularly. I came back last week and played pieces for next exam. One piece particularly is quite important to me because it forces me to sight read. It's impossible to memorise it and jumping from one key to another has been really quite a problem to me. Happily I can say I slowly begin to intuitively recognise where my hands should go. It's amazing how much repetitions help I am really happy about it! It might sound like a trivial thing but to me it is something huge. Before, I could not play a single bar without looking at keys and this piece was particularly impossible to play. It's only small achievement but equally very important I can't wait until I tell about it my teacher
One more thing, this piece also requires my pinky in right hand to hold notes (usually minims) while playing melody. It took me sometime to achieve this and I guess I getting on right route

I have also two other pieces to learn but one needs careful attention to the left hand. I must play chords really quietly, gently and equally. I fail almost every time :p My teacher tells me I should keep fingers very close to keys to get this right. This piece starts from piano, and slowly advances to mf and f. Pedalling must also be carefully executed because there are bars in which slurs are broken in the middle and notes should not be joined in legato; even more, I should explicitly put slight breaks. Some parts require legato by left and staccato by right hand. I still need to practise this

Apart from exam pieces, I am practising the second part of Chopin Mazurka, Op. 7, No. 2 in A minor and learning its most difficult part where I would need to play double thirds. I could play the whole piece but not in performance level. I feel like to achieve a goal, I need to exercise double thirds and double sixths in f# minor -.- It is not my level! It's not going to be an achievement of a week

Thanks

Wow, we've been quiet!

I had my first lesson after a three month break yesterday (lessons are at a nearby middle school, which is closed from mid-June to mid-Sept!) ---

It went really well.
I was a bit nervous playing for him, but just a bit.
I felt a bit at sea with the school piano, but that will go away in a week or two.
I think that because I've been focusing on playing very softly for pp and ppp effects on my own piano I am now noticing the differences between the school's and mine more.
It isn't VERY different from my own, but there is something to adjust to. Plus, they've moved it into a different room and the sound felt rather different as well as the touch.

My teacher was pleased with the work I'd done over the summer and had very little to comment on with regards to the pieces I'd been working on. He suggested some fingering changes and suggested I needed to do a bit of metronome work and gave me tips on how to make one piece flow better. Next week we'll touch more on how to bring out the "drama" of each piece

If you remember, I was all excited about working on Traumerei, but then put it off as I couldn't face working on it alone over the summer - so this week I'll be getting into it and bringing it to the lesson.

I am SO PLEASED to be back.

Hi All,

It has been quiet here lately; this is one of my favorite threads to read through... So I will contribute for a change.

I have been going in to my church early in the mornings the past several weeks in order to practice on the grand piano downstairs (it's also used by a local theater group). This part of the church is adjacent to an area that is used for a pre-school.

While I was practicing away this morning, someone came up to the piano, and I stopped playing. It was the teacher of the three-year-olds class; she said that she really enjoyed the piano music that has been "drifting down the hall" the past mornings, and to please continue playing.

I was quite happy with this; I had been shutting the hallway door, but stopped after I noticed that someone kept propping it open each morning.

So that's my accomplishment for the week so far; I will be back to lessons this evening after a break of a few weeks from summer.

Jeff

Cheryl - have fun with Traumerei. I've always wanted to give it a try. Can't wait to hear it in a future recital.

Jeff - Nice job. I would be over the moon with that kind of response to my playing from a stranger.

Nothing much to report for me. Still working hard on Ravel, polishing Liszt and Bach. Have had some minor victories, but nothing that is easy to explain other than I got a "wow" on a scale and a "who is that by?" on an impromptu improv from my teacher the other day. Those made me smile

Lets hear from all you lurkers... we want to celebrate whatever you've got going on.

Jeff, that's a lovely image--piano music drifting down the hallway; small children at work and play. And everyone benefits!

Cas, I know what you mean about having to adjust to a (very) different piano. It can really throw you until you adjust. It's good to get back to lessons, too.

My AOTW is getting two new pieces assigned at my lesson last week, one from Bach's French Suites and one from Chopin's Op. 28. I love getting new pieces to work on, though getting two assigned at once is maybe more love than I can manage at the same time.

JimF, I do post from time to time but must admit to spending a lot of time 'lurking'!

Love that Liszt youa re working on - I want to give it a try!

Stubbie, there's a lot to choose from in the French suites and it was suggested to me I choose something from them when I said I'd like to do so some Bach. I find his music so grounding and soothing and these are a bit more fun than the more mainstream pieces.
And - which Prelude will you choose? I must get those out again too. Been quite a while...

Currently visiting down in CO and although I didn't play during the drive down I have my RD64 up now and am glad I have it here. I've set myself the goal of getting the notes down for Gershwin's 3 preludes for 4 hands while I am traveling around. It's not half as bad as I feared! Off to Tahoe to visit friends next week so hope to keep this up.

Palmpirate, wow, traveling with your own PP (portable piano)!

I am working on French Suite No. 6, first the polonaise, then the menuet, and now the bourree. I actually look forward to practicing these. They're pretty and not too hard.

My new Chopin prelude (which my teacher chose for me) is No. 15, the "Raindrop" prelude. As always with Chopin, beautiful but full of challenges. The one I worked on before that was No. 3. I got no where near the suggested tempo, but got some good workouts with my left hand!

After 3 years of lessons I get to start on Prelude In C by Bach this week.

Finally I will learn a piece that I get to hear all of time on Pandora in original form.

A follow up from this morning...

As I was practicing today, a theater person came up and said "Hi, I didn't want to startle you. I left something back stage." Then "Miles Davis." and then "So What."

So at least some people recognize what I am trying to play....

My teacher is mostly a jazz pianist, and the Davis piece is my first foray into jazz. He has me alternating classical pieces with the Davis piece, and wants me to contrast the swung eighth notes with the classical straight eighths.

Jeff

Mendelssohn op 19 no6...working on musicality now, yeah, teacher gave green light..but now really have to focus on bach invention 13 (with best friend, the metronome 😈)...

I am still piano-less in Spain. My pianos will be in storage until out home is completed early next year. I am seriously into PWS (piano withdrawal syndrome). Next week I will be searching for a suitable rental piano. I am listening to Youtube videos and studying theory, but I really want to get my hands on the keys!

Well I got the notes down for those Gershwin Preludes. Can't wait to start playing with Primo. but won't be back for another maybe 10 days. Maybe by then I can even try primo as well but I'll probably chicken out of that! Most likely will also be watching YouTube and playing the table top piano since my guess is the DP won't come out of the trunk much on this next section of our trip. It'll be a lot of overnight stops and visits with old friends - not condusive to squirreling away alone and getting some key time to myself. Who knows though maybe they might have a piano!.

Nice to see everyone getting back into the swing of things!

I took a stab at Traumerei over the weekend and was DELIGHTED to see that the pieces I worked on over the summer seem to have made a huge difference in being able to figure out what to do, how to move my hands, how to use certain fingerings almost spontaneously. (almost ) Considering that there are two voices in each hand, and that the first time I tried reading it I simply couldn't figure it out....I'm rather chuffed.

It's still very challenging, but it's less intimidating!