Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum don't mean to sound like i'm full of myself, but....

ChopinLives81:

Nice playing! Were those first two your own compositions? They were nice.

One thing you might want to consider is bringing out the melody line a bit more... your left hand is often at the same volume as your right, whereas it should be more of a supplement, providing the foundation but not overwhelming your right hand. The melodies in your own compositions are very lovely, and they should be clearly out there at the forefront.

My teacher once said, "They're paying to hear the melody, not the accompaniment!"

You are quite talented to have accomplished this on your own (or heck, even with a teacher).

I know what you mean and i do, but unfortunately the recording are in midi, so i loose alot of the volume differences between the melody and accompaniment...but believe me, when i play the piece i really do play them with alot more feeling than what you could hear in those recordings, but anyways thanks for the replies.

-And yes those first two were my own compositions. The first one "Romance No.1" I composed as a Valentine's Day gift for this girl i liked back in High School..lol

WOW! You play beautifully! And I absolutely love your original compositions!

BTW, what equipment did you use to record those?

I have a Yamaha Clavinova CLP-950 and i hooked it through a midi cable to my computer, but some were recorded through a microphone. I also have a SoundBlaster Audigy 2ZS soundcard (best soundcard on the market

-btw thanks for the opinion

Okay, I have another question. When you started learning, which method books (if any) did you use?

Let me know if my questions get annoying, LOL!

non..i just picked up pieces that i liked and worked on them little by little....lol

Are the pieces still uploaded?

no they got wiped off i don't know why...can someone send me a link to where i can upload the pieces again

I downloaded one called Casals - Prelude.ogg

Is that yours?

It is very nice!

no it isn't Mark...i recently re-uploaded just me two compositions here:

www.streamload.com/chopinlives81

let me know what you think.

Precisely. Though I'm not the director of music, I help out where I can. Often that involves hiring supplemental musicians. I don't care about their skill level in general, only as specific to the type playing I need. I also get hired for church and other gigs. Do they like my playing? the only way I can know is if the phone rings again and I have another gig. Similarly, when I hire somebody, I'll never say anything bad about them, to their face or to others. But if they didn't play well, I don't call again, nor recommend them to others.

The example I gave of playing hymns is a very narrow specific requirement. It tells nothing about accomplishment in general. It is simply one example of very quantifiable, operational definitions of skill level. And market forces determine whether you have succeeded or not.

There's at least one flaw in using the "hired again" evaluation process. Sometimes I don't hire a good player because he's a jerk. (sometimes I suspect I've been hired over better players because I'm generally a nice guy) But generally it works. For those who make their living playing, it works too well. <g>

If you never play for hire, maybe this doesn't apply to you. But maybe you should try it. Like being hanged in the morning, it tends to focus the mind. I learned to transpose Bb treble by doing it live in front of a paying drunken crowd - sink or swim. Several decades later it hasn't faded.

i agree.

i'm not the most secure repetoire wise. Mainly because I have a crappy memory (why'd i come down the stairs again...? hmmm). But I can sight read alot of things and at church people like me to accompany them because i don't get nervous and i don't mess up. And just because i can't memorize **** (generally... under great stress i've memorized long pieces before).

But my point is that what you can play doesn't necessarily mean you're a good pianist.

I'm not trying to offend you, ChopinLives, because for being self taught you are hella good (and I like your compositions too... good for a first timer). But I'm saying that there is a line of piano playing that comes only from experience.

I said this one the Pianist Corner, but I'll say it here to. Keep up the good work chopinlives.

i like your composition, very very good,
did ya get the girl btw? hehe

hmm... it took me a while to remember what "did ya get the girl btw" meant.

haha

No i didn't, she was already involved with someone else.

However, i still keep in contact with her and she still secretly asks me to meet with her a few times a year so i can play it for her.
( not exactly a socially smart move for my feeling, but i can't resist such a request).