This is The Little White Donkey by Jacques Ibert. Please feel free to comment.
Mike White


http://www.savefile.com/files/1776873

I love this piece, it's so playful and light and humorous and is one my favorites! I'm going to be playing it a recital next month. I noticed that your interpretation is a bit different from the score, but your playing is even and enjoyable to listen to. What is your piano and what equipment did you use to record it?

Thank you so much for your response. Six sharps was a challenge, but I really wanted to learn this piece. My wife used to play it and said that you should be able to hear the "hee haw" of the donkey throughout the piece. That's what I tried to concentrate on.

I used a Yamaha P-80 to record with. It is hooked directly to my computer with midi cables. The soundcard is a SoundBlaster Audigy 2. The recording software is Audacity from audacity.com.

Good luck on your recital.
Mike White

Hee-haw! That's the word I was looking for! During my lesson today, my teacher was trying to describe the sound a donkey makes, but she only got as far as hee-hee.

We are working on refining the piece, and she said my left-hand staccato movements should come from my wrist rather than my fingers. I was also a bit confused about the pedaling, especially since there are some parts that are supposed to be pp[/b] and pedaled at the same time, which makes it louder, so I had difficulty keeping it soft. I noticed that your rhythm is quite even. Do you use a metronome to help maintain a steady tempo? I have trouble doing that.

Your recording quality is great! I'd like to record my own version of Little White Donkey as well, but don't know how. I have a MIDI cable connecting my Yamaha Clavinova to the serial port of my PC. I have Audacity but have no idea how to use it. I click the red round button to record, and I start playing the piano, but no sound seems to be coming in.

No, I didn't use a metronome. Believe it or not, I just tried to remember what it sounded like when my wife used to play it. She passed away eight years ago.

As for audacity, assuming that you are playing the clavinova throught your computer, you will see a pull-down box in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Select "what you hear" Using this feature, any sound that goes through the computer will be recorded. Simply hit the red dot which is the record button. After you have finished recording, hit the stop button and use (file, export to mp3, give it a name and location to save the file). That's it. One other thing, when I first started using audacity, it recorded in mono only but I can't remember what I did to change it to stereo?

I hope this helps you and I'm looking forward to hearing your piece.
Mike White

That's a great performance! I never heard it before but now I want to play it - where could I get the music?

dvdiva, if you want to record from your clavinova you are not at all helped by the MIDI cables. No music goes through those.

Connect the headphones output of the clavinova to the mic input of the PC. Then you have to fiddle with the volume control to get it right. I also used to use audacity, it's fine for these purposes.

This piece is a lot of fun to play.
http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/store/smp_detail.html?cart=33396810153155788&item=3698788

The copy that I have is old and tattered. I had to make a photocopy of it because it was falling apart.
Please record it and upload it to the member recordings. The only other person that I have ever heard play it was my wife.
Mike White