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OK S-H and Rocky you goaded me into this.

I guess I have a similar story to yours, here it is in brief.

I got the Alfred's book a year ago for Christmas and I've been playing almost daily since. I've probably averaged about 6-12 hours per week.

Last Spring I decided that if I could learn to play the Bach Minuet in G I'd buy myself a decent piano. At that time I was using a Casio CTK-571.

Why that Minuet? No reason in particular, it was just a handy choice that seemed to be a reasonable challenge. Anyway, by June I was able to hack my way through it and bought a Yamaha P120.

Like Rocky, I have yet to play on a real acoustic piano. I got the second Alfred's book for Christmas this year and I think now that I'll probably be able to stick with this.

One of these days I'll pick a challenge piece, and after I get through it maybe I'll get a real piano.

I created this .mp3 by recording it on the P120, then connected the audio out to the PC's audio in and recorded using Creative's Wave Studio.

Here it is: http://savefile.com/files.php?fid=6000912

Copper! Way to go!!

I enjoyed listening. I have played that in the past myself. I actually started my playing on a Casio CTK-496 and have only since June been using the Casio PX100...huge difference!!! I wanted a P120, but didn't have the money at the time.

I am amazed at the quality of recordings on this site. I would be so tangled up in nerves, I wouldn't be able to play a note! Very nicely done and thanks.

Copper;

I'm really looking forward to hearing your piece, I can't however seem to pull it up.

I click on your link, and the savefile program comes up, but no where to download your file.

Hey. it only took me about 5-attempts and who knows, maybe I'm doing something wrong....again!

Yeah that was cool cooper Im new on here and would like to wish everyone on here a happy New year and all the best.
I seen the thread about The Heart asks pleasure first earlier on and thought i would try and share with you my miserable attempt at the first couple of parts,It was the song that made me think right im going to learn the piano Im about 5 months down the line now and enjoy every moment of it
I did try to upload a couple more tracks for you guys but could'nt seem to get them to upload?
Anyway happy christmas and keep on sharing the
tracks,it's great to hear all you guys
http://savefile.com/projects/776150

Welcome Shaun, thanks for sharing. I definitely would not call that a miserable attempt...sounded great to me!

Mr Hunky, if only you could work these dang computers as well as you a do the piano!!

Cheer's Rocky,You inspired me to do it earler as i dont get to play in front of anyone apart from my teacher,and get dead nervous for some reason in front of her lol.

Ive managed to get a couple more to upload,one from a guy called Craig armstrong(glasgows love theme from love actually)and the other one is a simple piece which also sounds quiet nice called Mad world.
There's a few duff note's in there but what the heck,give me another 5 months and i'll have cracked it? (-:
http://savefile.com/files/7555363
http://savefile.com/files/3676050

copper and shaun, they all sounded great to me! So...ahhhh. musical!! You sound like you are really feeling it. I hope everyone keeps posting their music and those who haven't are inspired to do so!!

Thanks guys. As I said before, making the recording helps me to focus instead of just goofing around.

The recording that I posted took many 'takes' before I got the flubs down to something reasonable.

Shaun - nice work for 5 months, keep it up!

Goldy - I agree with what you said about the nerves. That's where the recording helps with the focus. The nice thing about recording in private is that you can just keep throwing it away until you like it.

S-H - The link looks OK to me. On the first page to come up you should see an Orange button with the word Download in white. Then on the second page you get the "Download the file now" link.

They send you through 2 pages so they can show you some advertising, that's how they pay for the site.

Copper and Shaun-

Nice work. COpper you and I are almost exactly at the same point in time as far as what books we're working in. I remember playing Minuet in G. It was at that piece that I thought, "this is really neat. I can do this!"

Keep up the great playing, everyone!

Mr. Super Hunky, I had the same problem the other day when I tried to play Rocky's piece on Realplayer. At the suggestion of Argen I tried it on Windows Media player & had no more problems, didn't even have the "2 pages of advertising" just the music.
Shaun & Copper: Wonderful job!

Ok Copper;

I got it to go this time. For some reason the orange "download" button never came up earlier; this time it did, so no problems.

Your playing is very fluid and flowing. I like that as thats how I try to play. I like a song to sound as if the pianist is just playing it, without a sense of struggling to read the music.

Many people "sound" as if they are reading music as they are playing...i.e not fluid, but rather a little choppy. Your song did'nt sound like that at all. A very nice piece played very well.

You guys are all fab!!!

Well done. You're all giving the pianist corner a run for their money. Heck, I'd rather listen to your music rather than RACH 3, anyday



Dorrie

Shaun:

I just listened to your songs as well. very, very expressive. You have a natural nack of expressing emotion through your playing. Not everyone can do this.

Very , very good.

You should make your own post with these songs as I think they may get lost under someone elses post. Your playing is to good to go unnoticed.


Please, make your own individual post, it would be a shame for these songs to fall through the crack so to speak.

Copper, very nice Minuet in G! This is a lovely piece of music, and you play it quite well! Listening to how you play, it's very solid, you sound really comfortable. Which makes me want to suggest that you get a different version of the sheet music for this piece, if I may be so bold. Do you have a teacher? If yes, ignore what I'm about to say and do whatever he/she tells you. If no, consider my comments just to food for thought or extra information that you can take or leave as you like.

As you may know, with Bach, it's common to add trills and little fancy bits here and there, and I am sure you could do those in this minuet. IIRC, originally these trills etc were not written on the score, and it was left up to the pianist to play them however they saw fit. But for the rest of us in the beginning stages, there are scores that have those trills written in (or sometimes they're written at the bottom.) I think this piece is not copyrighted, so you might be able to find a few different versions for free on the net somewhere. I don't mean to suggest that there's something lacking in your rendition, there isn't. Not at all! But since you've done such a great job of bringing it to this level, I am sure adding a little more icing to the cake (as it were!) would be easy and fun.

Also, now I would love to hear you play the other minuet that is often played with this one. What is it? It's in a minor key, I can't remember.. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll look it up for you. It's pretty much exactly the same length as this one, and the two fit really nicely together.

Please post more of your recordings as you make them, they're very nice!

Seconding S-H, Shaun, please make your own thread so that everyone can hear you, your recordings are also really great! The AB forum is really exciting these days, with all this music to listen to! I hope it doesn't suddenly disappear when we all have to go back to work and get busy again!! :p

Cooper (and anyone else)

Here is a website with 3 free versions Bach's of minuet in G

http://www.pitt.edu/~deben/freebies.html

a one pager, a full, one one with some arpeggios and trills

ShiroKuro, thanks for your comments.

I am self-taught, which means I don't have a teacher. I guess you could say that this forum is, at least in part, a teacher.

I think one of the best things I would get from a teacher is more advice on which pieces I should be playing. I think I have tended to spend too much time on things that are over my head - Fur Elise (the tough parts), a couple Chopin Preludes, some MacDowell and Schumann.

Anyway, I ordered a couple of beginner sheet music books from Amazon and look forward to backing off for a while and just trying to play some simple things well. I have a growing pile of Piano related books and it's hard to resist trying some of the more difficult works.

In my "Library of Piano Classics" book this Minuet is the 1st Piece in Bach's "Four Pieces From The Little Notebook". The second of the four pieces is also a Minuet. I have worked on it a little, but it's not up to speed yet. I remember seeing someone here post a video of it here a couple months ago.

I haven't been doing this long enough to get worried about any comments. I think I'll wait at least a few years before I take it too seriously. I remember when I was starting in business many years ago someone told me that in the beginning I was expected to make a lot of mistakes so I should take advantage of it, keep my eyes and ears open and just learn.

Dorrie - Yes thanks, I've seen Gilbert DeBenedetti's Home page - it's a great resource for a beginner. I think I've downloaded most of the music there.

I can't believe I missed this thread!

Copper and shaun, you guys are great! I loved the minuet, Copper. I don't play much classical music (Canon in D, that's about it...although rugrag is convincing me to try some Satie again.) But I've always liked that minuet and I'm going to look up the sheet music for it on the site that Dorrie so kindly posted for us. I feel I should have at least a couple of classical pieces ready to play on demand.

And I know what you mean about being tempted by the harder stuff out there. I don't see any reason why shouldn't go ahead and work on one or two pieces that are beyond your current level, though you'd want to keep working on plenty of stuff more manageable so you don't get too frustrated.

Shaun, I liked your pieces as well. I was delighted to hear your "Mad World," as that is one of the songs I play (and my husband's favorite). I goofed and accidentally ordered an arrangement for piano-voice-etc. rather than piano solo, so I have had to improvise a little on it (nothing in super-hunky's class, of course, just trying to fit the voice melody line in with the piano accompaniment). Listening to your version has given me some ideas about how I can make mine better.

Thanks for posting your recordings, both of you!