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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 18,356
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
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I really enjoy your progress reports, CozyWriter, and I hope you are finally done with all the meds. Do you have a link somewhere so we can see your piano swoosh logo?
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 1,614
1000 Post Club Member
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Hey, CozyWriter-
Just wanted to say I hope things are getting better for you. One of my sisters finished up a round of chemo the week before last. It's tough stuff to go thru. I think having goals, short and long term, is a fantastic way to keep yourself moving forward. All the best.
-Mak
1889 Mason & Hamlin screwstringer upright Kawai MP-4 digital
--------------------------- When life hands you lemons, throw them back and add some of your own. Stupid life.
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Joined: Jan 2007
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I'm still battling the swoosh. It's starting to hold me back so I might design "around" it for a while.
It'll still make a cool embroidered polo shirt logo though (CW knows how to make a website right!)
I'll throw together the logo-with-swoosh and stick it online this weekend, between rounds of Tax prep.
Inspiration is the act of pulling a chair up to the writing desk. Pramberger JP-185 (a 6'1" mahogany-red Grand)+ Glenn Gould-ish piano chair (no cushion)
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 790
500 Post Club Member
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Mak: Short-term is good. Those days when you need the goals like "get out of bed" or "do NOT watch Oprah and Divorce Court!!!" Nows the time for me to start making those "this time next year" goals (like the "Maple Leaf Rag Insanity") to keep moving out longer. (AND it's going to take me a good year to knock out that song correctly... and then butcher it on here!) I need to crack out the video camera that the father-in-law gave us so I can practice getting ready to horrify YouTube with CozyPlaying on the Red Piano.
Inspiration is the act of pulling a chair up to the writing desk. Pramberger JP-185 (a 6'1" mahogany-red Grand)+ Glenn Gould-ish piano chair (no cushion)
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 790
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What a "Taxing" week it's been! I had so much stuff going on with talking to folks about the goings-on in Virginia that the week really flew by. And by the end of those long days I was feeling pretty non-musical. I ended up spending more time in the Centering Prayer chair (right beside the piano) than I did at the keyboard: the music wasn't in me for a few days there. But in one of those midnight watches, I sat at the keys are started playing "I Must Tell Jesus" (from the prev. New Music lists) over and over (and over and over) until it was all played out. Went to bed and rested. Got up and hit the piano again the next day. AMAZED the docs on Friday with my followup - my left hand pretty much works the way it's supposed to now, with just a few shaky days when a glass of water looks a little wobbly when I pick it up, or my handwriting goes south. But that goes away. I'm off the "fever watch" now and can eat all that good stuff like medium rare burgers, sushi, etc., don't have to sanitize my hands 5000 times a day, AND get to go back to the gym! The oncologists also cut me loose for a couple of months until I have to go back at the end of June for the 3 months CAT Scan to make sure I'm still doing "textbook" recovery. And did I mention it was tax day in there somewhere too! Rule #3 from the "things they don't teach you in Chemo School" book is: find somebody to keep up with your taxes while you're "away from your desk" to prevent a pileup on April 15! Done and done! So here's Whazzup for this week, April 23, 2007: File Away"I Must Tell Jesus" I think with the Talk 'n Play gig over the easter weekend, plus last week, I'm good on this one but it showed me some stuff I needed to work on: Pick UpsBach's "Air on G String" - My left hand needs help with volume and speed control and expression. The left hand in this piece is so "even handed" (as it were) that it will help. Plus it's a very meditative piece. I have an Easy-Intermediate transcript so I'm going to take on the entire piece - it's only 3 pages. The Bach-Gounoud version of "Ave Maria" - with speed and volume in my left hand, I need to smooth out the phrasing as well, to work on other apreggic pieces. This one is a GREAT teacher for smoothing out arpeggios. I have a medium-Intermediate piece so I'm going to tackle the first 12 bars, get that smoooooooth before moving to the next page. It's not difficult it'll just take some practice. And I need to add more pieces to the Talk 'n Play gig so I'm putting together a more fluid George Winstony arangement of "Amazing Grace." for a piece in the first half of the "talk." It's kind of an ongoing piece but I'll post something in a Piano Bar once it gets to a playable place. Be nice about this one! I'm writing the same sort of arrangement for "Come By Here" (you know what it's really called in Gullah!) as the opening piece to the Talk. I want to write something that DOES NOT sound like Campfires and Smores, but rather a contemplative call to a receptive space for people of any spiritual stripe. That's an interesting goal for such a cliche' song. Continuing PiecesI put a few current pieces on hold for a bit but they're still around. But I've been so immersed in the Elton John "The Last Song" that I'm comfortable enough with Page 1 to go on to start Page 2. 1 still needs a lot of work with the expression (see the clssical pieces above) but it'll pick up as I continue through the piece (the whole song is 4 pages long, so this will have me halfway through the song by mid-late May.) That's what's new for this week!
Inspiration is the act of pulling a chair up to the writing desk. Pramberger JP-185 (a 6'1" mahogany-red Grand)+ Glenn Gould-ish piano chair (no cushion)
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 790
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yes I know it's mid-week (more or less) but here's what's been going on since about Tuesday.
I must be doing something "right" here because every time I sit down this week, it's been Song Resistance! "Oh nooooo! Not this song ONE more time!"
But then as soon as I get into digging through it and talking to myself over the music "You missed it AGAIN!" or "That's a G!" I get into the mood and it goes very well. Keeping in mind that a new week does not HAVE TO mean new music, just a new week.
But then, that's why in addition to calling it "practice" this is "A practice." I get up every morning, drop some coffee in a cup, and start ironing out my fingers over the keys. 30 solid minutes of time with just me and the keyboard and good cup of joe before the rest of the day starts.
With this way of building a piano practice, I'm also finding that there's less crashing of the day around my head, too, if I start out with a session at the keyboard.
That way, I can start each morning with a "Let's Go!!!" and end each day with a peaceful "Oh well."
Inspiration is the act of pulling a chair up to the writing desk. Pramberger JP-185 (a 6'1" mahogany-red Grand)+ Glenn Gould-ish piano chair (no cushion)
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 790
500 Post Club Member
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A productive week last week even though the Elton John Piece "slipped" on the radar a lot, while we were living out of bags with stuff piled EVERYwhere in the house: before the Pramberger gets here this summer, we pulled all the carpet out of the back half of the first floor and put in tile floors, so we could build a "dog proof" area for the Kidds and they wouldn't be using my piano legs for fire hydrants! So now that I have a large empty space in my living room where half of my belongings used to be, we're back to it: I'm still building up speed on the three main pieces I've been working on this week. Sir Elton is going to have to get pulled back up to front burner, because we started the second page, and didn't get too far with it: Filing Away I'm happy enough with my Come By Here arrangement that it's noted out, and ready to get some serious metronome action going, to pull in the timing correctly. I'm then calling this one "done" though it'll stay in the practice rotation because it eventually has to be played from memory. A LOT. So it'll move down to an "extra playing time" piece now. The Amazing Grace arrangement is also worked out and going to the metronome. That one filled out nicely in about 2 weeks, and it's going to be a nice one on a large piano with a boomy bass. I'll keep working on the timing, and this one has to be memorized, too. Staying inI'm bringing Elton John's Last Dance up closer to the top because I got into the second page of it, and progress just stopped. I'm transposing the choppy vocal section (repeated quarter notes) into something more instrumental, but my heart of hearts says that I should be moving through this piece a lot quicker than I am: I got sidetracked with the other songs and got lazy. This one moves up to the #1 slot I'm continuing with Air on a G String as I've made it up through the first page (the easy part) and I'm moving on to page 2 on that one. Still working phrase at a time, because I want to get the fingering better on this piece. It's like a "future reference" piece that I need to get down really good in order to play other pieces at a higher level. A "building blocks" piece. New PickupThis is probably cheating, but I'm picking up a quasi-tranditional arranement of Brethren We Have Met To Worship that's not at all as new-agey as the two hymn pieces I'm working on now. It's very quick, very chord-heavy, and fun. I should have it knocked out in 1-2 weeks, but don't whack me if I'm still talking about it here in July! That's it for the week beginning April 30th
Inspiration is the act of pulling a chair up to the writing desk. Pramberger JP-185 (a 6'1" mahogany-red Grand)+ Glenn Gould-ish piano chair (no cushion)
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 790
500 Post Club Member
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OP
500 Post Club Member
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Posts: 790 |
It's that time again! I noticed this week that I'm not Completely free of the neuropathy, as my fingers still get shaky in some fast bits, but overall performing nicely. Even to the point this week of finding a "pickup" piece mid-week, and getting it pretty much to a state of Done by the end of the week! So the good news is that my fingers are back working a lot more than I expected at this point. Bad news is there's still enough "Chemo Brain" rolling around that I still can't memorize, AND some days, sitting down with these pieces is like starting over from day one - I have to re-learn what I re-learnt yesterday. My favorite days are now the "Oh NO! Not THAT song again!!!!" days, as that means my body/brain are actually reacting to the repetition of the Practice, rather than spending SO much time re-learning old material every day. Fun Fun! ...and I found my body stretching out in a way that we've not done yet (this go round) at the piano..... Put AwayThere's a lot here. I'm still letting these linger around because I can't memorize them quite yet, but they're officially off-radar now. My mid-week pickup from Wednesday/Thursday was a beautiful/light arrangement of the Doxology ("Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow.") That one just rolled right off my fingers the first time I played it, so I snuck it in for the remainder of the week and got the phrasing all worked out. LOTS of arpeggios (which I've been working on, to even out my touch across both hands.) This will become a performance piece in the "Talk 'n Play" I'm sure. Amazing Grace
Come By Here (Kum Ba Yah)
Brethren, We Have Met To Worship - Now this one was a 1-week piece that went out to two, I think. I started out ok, but as the week wore on, it became a VERY bombastic piece and I started playing it from the wrists and elbows. Up to this time, I've been very finger and fingering focused, but my body/spirit wanted to STOMP and so STOMP we did! I played this song until my hands were just exhausted (in a good way) and the fingernail on Left #1 was starting to bend under. The result was getting out of that mealy-mouthy little pp that I do a lot of, and Really just lean in and bang away. That felt SO good to do, and I kept decent control of the notes!! Who knew?? Keep AroundLast Song (Between a Father and His Son) the Sir Elton song won't go away just yet. It's giving me timing pains and it's not nearly ready for the metronome yet. I even backed up to just page 1 only, and re-inched back to page 2 (of 4 - see "re-learning what I re-learned yesterday," above) We're plodddddding along, but this is a beautiful, very healing piece that I need to play. Air on a G String is at Metronome. BOY do I have "performance anxiety" with that little clacker going! I'm not to the point of being totally relaxed, playing with a metronome (never have been!) so it's taking a while to get a good flow on the second page of this one. New Pick UpsSeasons of Love from the Musical Rent. Actually I have a techno remix of this in my ipod that I use on the cardio machines at the gym. As 10:00 Songs in Broadway shows go, this is a good one but the movement through the piece is coda-heavy so this one will be around a while, I think. Starting with the intro, and as much of page 1 (of 6) as I can get. No Rush. Down to the River to Pray Mostly I'm doing this one because I finally was reunited with my "Selections from O Brother Where Art Thou" book that I mislaid in my room, immediately after buying it. I used "Down to the River" when I was trying out pianos... a LOT!... so now I want to see how the rest of the song goes. That's it for this week! I'm doing the "Perp Walk" here for the local Relay for Life walkathon for the American Cancer Society (I'm sure they won't appreciate me belighting the Survivors' Walk that way though!) I'll be out there (late) Friday night with my Gandalf-ish walking stick I had to use, my priest garb, and my "I'm a HOTTIE with CANCER" t-shirt on!
Inspiration is the act of pulling a chair up to the writing desk. Pramberger JP-185 (a 6'1" mahogany-red Grand)+ Glenn Gould-ish piano chair (no cushion)
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Joined: Apr 2007
Posts: 31
Full Member
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Teacher Lesson-1 hour weekly 1-Clementi Sonatina-op,36 No1 polishing up and memorized. 2-Spanish Gypsies by Willia, Gillock-finishing up- accent on rhythmn book. 3-Czerny opus 299-exercises, boy do they challenge me 4-Burgmuller progressive pieces-working on Gracefulness, pretty piece, works on turns shown in classical. Gives you the sign and also shows you how to play it. 5-Mendelsohn easy piano solo-On Wings of Song-New...finding it easy but enjoyable..works with arpegio fingering.I won't tell my teacher it's easy. 6-Pathways to Artistry by Catherine Rollin-working on Technique Personal 1-Numerous intermediate solo pieces by Martha Mier,Joan cupp,Catherine rollin etc-cleaning up and trying to play smoothly from last year 2-Patriotic Solos-small pieces 3-The Prayer 4-Think of Me-Phantom Book 5-4 solos that are challenging for me by Lori Line. I love my piano lessons and make practicing my lesson a priority. The other is previous pieces that were not polished or new ones for me for pleasure. I'm in my 2nd year with a new teacher that is really teaching me. My previous teacher was very nice but wasn't what I needed and was encouraged to find a new teacher. I didn't realize what I was missing out on...I practice and play all the time...like at least 3 hours or more a day....I'm addicted and can't get away form the piano....
Struggling Musician!
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This week, I'm keeping everything Stet to where it was last week. The Keep stuff is still linging at about the same place, and the new pickups are off to a decent start, so there's really no news to report this week.
Down to the River to Pray will probably get one more week and then we'll move on with that one. I'd like to start getting back into the Thompson books to see how long it would take to finish those up. I'm in the middle of Book4 now, and have a clean copy of Book5 (the last one) when that one's done.
So I'm thinking that in the next week or so, I'll start picking up pieces from there as well.
The BIG News this week is that I put in the last payment on the Pramberger last week, and so now it's being prepped and scheduled for delivery. I should have it here and in place some time over the next ~4 weeks.
Of course there will be pics when The Red Piano arrives!
That's it for the week of May 14th - a short and sweet one!
Inspiration is the act of pulling a chair up to the writing desk. Pramberger JP-185 (a 6'1" mahogany-red Grand)+ Glenn Gould-ish piano chair (no cushion)
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 18,356
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
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Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
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Originally posted by CozyWriter: The [b]BIG News this week is that I put in the last payment on the Pramberger last week, and so now it's being prepped and scheduled for delivery. I should have it here and in place some time over the next ~4 weeks. [/b] That is truly big news! How exciting! Is it really red?????
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not red-red but it's African Pomelle (a more purplish red than the Bobinga, which is a more orangy red.) Here's a pic of it, still set up in the store: Pramberger JP-185 6'-1"
Inspiration is the act of pulling a chair up to the writing desk. Pramberger JP-185 (a 6'1" mahogany-red Grand)+ Glenn Gould-ish piano chair (no cushion)
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 790
500 Post Club Member
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OP
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Posts: 790 |
Inspiration is the act of pulling a chair up to the writing desk. Pramberger JP-185 (a 6'1" mahogany-red Grand)+ Glenn Gould-ish piano chair (no cushion)
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 790
500 Post Club Member
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OP
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Posts: 790 |
It's time to put together a new playing gig! I was making a pastoral call at UNC Hospital last week, and saw that in the main hospital lobby they have an open Boston player grand with a sign on it that says "the only thing that belongs on this piano is clean hands and music books," and I took that as a personal challenge So I'm putting together an ~1 hour long gig of the quiet contemplative/new age hymnody to play there in the hospital lobby. Since it's pretty far away from patient rooms, I won't feel so bad about messing up notes here and there, and since we hope that there's not a LOT of repeat traffic, week-to-week, it won't be boring for the people passing through. Plus it's a free chance to get to play a really nice piano, and do something good for people who are probably walking around in something of a stressful situation. I'll start this week, with some of the pieces that I already have down, and have pretty much left the microscope here. I'll give a brief report later about how it went. Meanwhile, no exact word on when the Pramberger arrives, but I am expecting it this week. If not - next week looks good too Put Away As expected I finished up Down to the River to Pray this week. Even though it was a reasonable level when I first bought the book (easy intermediate) it's too easy now. But it was still a fun one to play. I'll probably file away the O, Brother book now that I've done that song. The rest of them are either too simplified arrangements, or songs (like Big Rock Candy Mountain) that don't interest me. Keep AroundThe other songs I'm going to keep around a bit - Elton John is still so slow as to start moving backward any day now. The rest are moving along, though, now that I've gotten past that initial spurt of energy and I'm settling down into a more "normal" learing curve for the pieces. Pick UpAnother chestnut like Minuet in G, this week I'm starting on a long (Intermediate) transcription of Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. That one will be fun! It's a lot of timing and fingering, but the arrangement itself doesn't look that difficult. But it's 6 pgs long so I'll be in there for a while, too. It should sound really nice at the hospital when I get all the pages workable. And... pulling out my first "surprise" Christmas tune that I've been putting off a while. I'm going to start with that one on the Pramberger when it arrives. And start pulling together a Christmas playlist for parties, etc. That's it for the week of May 21!
Inspiration is the act of pulling a chair up to the writing desk. Pramberger JP-185 (a 6'1" mahogany-red Grand)+ Glenn Gould-ish piano chair (no cushion)
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 18,356
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
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Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
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Posts: 18,356 |
What a great idea, cozywriter! I wish our hospitals had pianos in the lobbies. I would do the same thing. And kudos to the management for the sign they put on the piano rather than roping it off and saying "Do Not Touch."
Let us know how the first venture goes.
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It might have to wait till next week: the new piano is arriving Thursday morning so I'll probably be staying at home Thursday night, Coveting
Inspiration is the act of pulling a chair up to the writing desk. Pramberger JP-185 (a 6'1" mahogany-red Grand)+ Glenn Gould-ish piano chair (no cushion)
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Week of May 21st. Completed and have memorized Clementi Soanatina Op36, No 1. I have never memorized a classical piece before and I feel like a star when iI sit down to play it. Teacher now has me starting another Sonatina..Kuhlau Op 20,No2. I'm excited...I call these projects....I don't know if I'll memorize yet. It seems harder this piece...has anyone ever played it and what are your thoughts....
Struggling Musician!
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It's here! Pics are on the way as soon as I size them down for posting. And NO lyre tipping!
Inspiration is the act of pulling a chair up to the writing desk. Pramberger JP-185 (a 6'1" mahogany-red Grand)+ Glenn Gould-ish piano chair (no cushion)
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 790
500 Post Club Member
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Posts: 790 |
Inspiration is the act of pulling a chair up to the writing desk. Pramberger JP-185 (a 6'1" mahogany-red Grand)+ Glenn Gould-ish piano chair (no cushion)
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Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:34 PM
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Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:23 PM
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