Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Recital #11 (August 15, 2008): Call For Submissions

Believe it or not, our 11th quarterly PianoWorld Adult Beginners Forum recital approaches! The recital will be posted some time on the 15th of August, which means that the submissions must be in by 9:00 pm EDT, August 14. Please note this deadline is very firm; I cannot start working on the recital until it is closed, and once it is closed, no new entries can be added.

While any and all styles of music are welcome, we do ask that it be piano related.

If you are fairly new to the piano, please do not be intimidated by some of the talent here in the ABF. We all consider ourselves to be beginners even though we may have been playing for some time. And, we LOVE to hear recordings from folks new to the keyboard. So even if you’re on your first Alfred’s method book, we would *really* enjoy hearing from you.

Recital submissions should be in MP3 format. They will be normalized when placed in the consolidated zip files, but your original link will still be available for those who want it.

If you are new to recording your music, there are several threads in the forum archives that address the ways and means. See the "Important Topics in the AB Forum" thread stickied at the top of the AB forum page. Audacity is an excellent "free" recording application that can be used.

Submitting your recording:

We will be using again the absolutely marvelous automatic web-based recital program that mahlzeit wrote for us. This will entail no extra effort on your part, but will save the recital organizers literally hours and hours of effort. And thanks to LaValse's extremely generous offer to host the recital program and zip files on his server, it is no longer necessary to upload your mp3 files to box.net or some other file hosting server prior to submitting it to the recital. You will upload your mp3 file to the recital server as part of the recital submission process.

When you have your mp3 file ready, go to:

http://abf.make247.co.uk/

and follow the instructions there. Once you have uploaded your info to the automated recital website, you will receive a confirmation e-mail. You will have the opportunity to revise your submission any time up until the deadline. If you have any problems at all using the new website, or if you do not receive a confirmation e-mail within a few hours, just PM me. If you have not participated in past recitals using this software, you may want to submit your recital piece at least a day in advance in case you run into any problems with it. (Though there should be no problems, as the last recital went marvelously. Mahlzeit is a genius. )

Mahlzeit's website will use the same submission template to be filled out along with your attached music file. You may want to have your responses to these fields prepared in advance so all you have to do is cut and paste:


Performer's Name: {forum ID and real name if you’d like}
Avatar image link: {optional}
Experience: {Yrs/Mos of piano playing experience}
Link to YouTube or other video: {optional}
Home page link: {optional}
Title of piece/composer:
Source of music: {sheet music, improvised score, play-by-ear, etc}
Instrument used: {Piano make, keyboard model, etc.}
Recording method: {audacity, Zoom, digital to PC, etc.}
Constructive critical feedback wanted: {Yes/No}
Additional Info: {Your thoughts on the piece, etc. etc.}

Submissions are limited to a single piece of music. The piece can be a medley, but the different parts of the medley should flow together like a cohesive piece, not just a collection of pieces. There isn’t really a limit to the length of the piece as long as it’s a true piece of music.

The due date for all submissions is 9:00 pm US EASTERN DAYLIGHT TIME on May 14, 2008.

By submitting a piece to the recital, you are certifying that it is an amateur recording of your own performance.

There will be two separate discussion rooms (threads) for the recital.

In the first, you can chat about the performances, mention something you liked, and ask questions. But this room is NOT for critical discussion of the performance!

The second discussion room (thread) is for the purpose of providing POSITIVE critical feedback and questions for the performers. Performers must indicate in the Additional Info section if they want feedback on their performance. If this indication is not there, then it would not be good form to discuss their piece in this forum.

While real life recitals are not usually the place to criticize the performances, when the student returns to the studio with the teacher, they will frequently receive this critical analysis at that time. This is the goal for the second discussion forum - to provide this critical feedback to the students who would like to receive it and improve their playing.

Again, the recital order will be done in the order the pieces were received, so the sooner you send in your piece, the higher you will be on the list! This serves to reward the folks who feel on top of their game and it's about as fair as I can think of for all parties. You can revise your entries on the template (e.g., thoughts about your piece, adding YouTube links, and the like) any time and not lose your place in the recital queue, but if you resubmit your recording at any time you will be bumped to the end of the list.

Should anyone have any questions at all on what to do or how to do it, this is the place to ask away. Remember, there are NO stupid questions, as we have a steady flow of new members in AB forum for whom this is their first recital, so your questions will probably help to eliminate other member’s problems. Please ask away!

Let's all go out and brave that Red Dot and share a lot of beautiful music!

Okay, so I know it's a few hours before the 1st, but I'm out of town and working for my hubby this week at a coin show, and I won't have time to do this tomorrow morning. I figured y'all would rather have it opened a little early than hours late.

Also, because I'm working the coin show, I won't have access to the internet during the day. So if you have any trouble submitting your piece, please don't freak out if I don't get back to you until the evening. It *will* get straightened out; I promise.

Monica,

Quite a surprise to see the call for submissions so early. I do agree with better being early than late. I am happy with my placement in the recital. I follow a real sweetheart. I can hardly wait to hear your newly voiced piano sing its beauty.

Come home soon. We miss you.

Warm regards,

Lisztener

OMG, Aug 1 already somewhere in the USA??

Mines in .

I thought to be the *early bird* by submitting a day early only to find out that I'm #7!.

The early bird may get the worm but plan on camping out a while to get in front of the line !

It really is great to see such anticipation for yet another great reicital-to be.

Already 7 submissions ?

It's time to practice, my piece is not ready.

Serge

I'm just hoping that my piece will upload from my computer now that I have hi-speed internet, instead of me having to bug Monica. I'll be out of town this weekend, but I think middle of next week I'll just sit down and play through some stuff I know until something gets recorded relatively well :rolleyes: Oh! I can look at the bright side! I have a repertoire from which to pick!

I'm looking forward to hearing all of those that are already in.

Cathy

I really hope that I can get a piece of music down well enough to submit for this. It'd be great to join you all for my first recital online or off in about 10 years.

Just remember you are your own worst critic, Kurisu. I am sure that we will enjoy hearing whatever you record.

Turns out it was a very good idea to get the recital opened up early, as my 9 year old son spent between 10:45 pm and 1:30 am barfing. Poor kid... poor parents!

Mine's in but it's something I posted a couple of months ago in a piano bar - sorry - been sailing etc...

You all have my sympathy - not a pretty thing - been there, done that (as suffering "barfee" and mostly helpless parent) - and I'm certain his ailment was not caused (as some devious individuals would rudely assert) by a "steady diet" of New Age music

Regards, JF

I thought I would give Chopin a break. I just put a song in.

Actually, it was only after I put the iPod in the dock and started playing the 67 Einaudi pieces I have loaded on it that the poor boy felt good enough to fall asleep... no barfing in the past 3 hours so maybe the worst is over...

I'm hosting a piano and pinot wine-tasting/dessert this evening, so no red dot action until after that! I had the piano tuned last week, so at least it's fresh.

Yay! I got a decent pass of my recital piece this afternoon. It's not perfect and has some pauses in it as my 92 year old step-grandmother was in the other room calling for me during the last half of the piece. Hopefully I can get a better recording but this one with the slight pauses will have to do in case I can't do anything better. (A slight pause every time my name was being called.)

I'll now step away from the piano for the rest of the day.

I just peeked at the submissions list. Looking good so far!

Cannot remember since it's been awhile since I've participated in these recitals:

Is the whining on record normal, i.e. clean-up with Audacity required? Switched computers since then, and have been moving the software, and trying to remember. I believe it was normal. Anyone?

Gerg... what kind of whining? I get some hum which gets worse the more lights I turn on in the studio. Thus I can't record at night unless I play in the dark...

Peyton, are your lights hallogen or plain regular lightbulbs?

Meanwhile, I'll be submitting something for the very 1st time and I have to admit I'm nervous as heck. Recording's always a problem for me as I tend to make mistakes if only because I'm recording the performance as opposed to playing casually. Hopefully, I'll be able to get a decent enough recording...

*fingers crossed*

Okay, mine is in. I have a couple of tiny mistakes, but wanted to do this in a single recording as if it were a "live" recital.

Ed