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JF,

Glad to be back. I didn't realize how long it had been since I posted until I looked at my profile. I'd lurk around probably every two weeks or so to see what was up and such but just didn't post for whatever reason.

Here are the books I'm working on/finishing:

Romantic Impressions - Book 2 same as IrishMak, I loved "Frosted Windowpanes"!
Jazz, Rags and Blues - Book 2
Alfred's Hymn's (not the name of the book though) - Book 2 or 3
Alfred's Top Hits! Christmas Book 3 (FINSIHED January 8th!)
Alfred's Top Hits! Solo Book 3 (FINSIHED the first week of December!)

I've recently finished the Christmas and Solo books but they are early intermediate/intermediate books. I won't get the next Christmas book until September, so I won't have that for awhile. I think my teacher will get the next Top Hits! book for me soon though.

The Hymn book must be Early Intermediate since I pick up on those pretty quickly. The Romantic Impressions and Jazz, Rags and Blues are intermediate/late intermediate books and I'm almost done with those. I believe there's one piece left in each book for me to complete.

Also my teacher likes to pull out some special surprises out of her folders for me to work on.

I have the first Jazz, Rags and Blues book, but have set it aside for now. I just don't "get" the feel of those pieces like I do the Romantic Impressions pieces. I also need to get back into my book of standards and the Fresh Aire book. Yikes! So much music!

IrishMak,

You don't have to tell me about "getting it" because I don't either. I like them (soundwise) but they are tough as can be for me to learn. When I'm assigned a piece out of the book it takes me quite a while to get the piece completed. Last year, my teacher asked me to perform a piece out of Book 2 for my recital. Oh my, I didn't want to say no but I wanted to do another piece instead but someone was already doing it, so that was the piece I ended up with. I think jazz/ragtime folks are unique musical beings. I want to get "it" because "Maple Leaf Rag" in on my long-term to do list.

I love the Romantic Impression Book 2. I'm glad to see there are at least two more of them to go!!!

This is somewhat off topic but...

How do you become better at playing trills FASTER. And by faster I mean the way some of these people on youtube rip them out. Beyond a certain speed, for me and my clav dp (maybe the problem?), the trill just falls apart. But these guys on youtube seem to play them at the speed of light without batting an eyelash.

HOW do you PRACTICE trills to increase SPEED?

Well Waltz, supposedly on pg 118 there is a trill exercise which I'm sure you probably already tried. I was thinking my keyboard maybe the reason I can't do trills and tremelos very well.. But like you said i see people on Youtube with cheap keyboards that look like they were purchased at Walmart and they are ripping out trills.

I finished "Steal Away" and "Dreams Bright and Beautiful" from Romantic Impressions at yesterday's lesson. My teacher looked at my lesson book and couldn't find "Steal Away". I saw that she was looking in the page 60-70 area. I said something along the lines that I'm nowhere near there. After realizing how far back I was she said we should keep going in the lesson book. She added "Come Back to Sorrento" or something like from the lesson book to my surprise. She also, assigned "Nocturne" from the Romantic Impressions book. Also, I think "Nocturne" is the last piece of music she assigns in the book and for good reason as it appears to be the most challenging in the book.

She asked me if I was interested in performing "Dreams Bright and Beautiful" for my recital piece. I really like the piece but my wife said she was sick of hearing it. I think I'm going ask her if I can do "Nocturne" even though I'm just starting the piece because our recital isn't until the end of May. That should be plenty of time to learn the piece and then memorize it.

Nocturne is one of the prettiest pieces in Romantic Impressions. I liked that one!

We cleared Frosted Windowpanes this week. I will use it as a warm up for a while. Started on Glowing Embers. That one is a bit different for the Meir books. A bit atonal and more modern sounding, to me. It will be interesting to see how it goes.

How funny! We won't be working on "Glowing Embers". My teacher has outright told me she doesn't like the piece. I guess the atonal and modern sound must be why. I've never heard the piece so I don't have an opinion on it.

I was just sitting here thinking that every time a new piece is assigned to me in the lesson book I kind of cringe. I really don't care for most of the pieces in Book 3. Also, I haven't got to work on any of the ambitious pieces, which I want to do. I want to get through them and be done with it but I got a ways to go.

Cyborg - I mostly agree and have pretty much stopped working in Book 3 - however, there's a real good chance that you will like "Come Back To Sorrento" - it's a beautiful, old Italian love song - if you've never heard it here's a good vocal version to use as a potential guide:



JF

Hi everybody!

Where has everybody gone? Nobody working in book 3 anymore?

I am moving slow but steady. Worked on an American Hymn this week. It's kind of fun to tackle some short pieces of music, and be able to work on something new regularly! American Hymn is not too complex, and quite sweet, in my opinion (not to insult any of you, but the 'typical' american classics in the Alfred books are usually not my favourite style of music. And since I lack the 'bond' that the average american probably has with these pieces that doesn't help either. But this one was nice. Let's see if my teacher thinks it's ok to move on this afternoon.

Doing (as usual) etudes on the side (new book, with ao Czerny) and working with my 2 sons on a cute version of the pink panther theme, and on some Micheal Jackson stuff. With Daughter (8) it's all ABBA the moment. She is currently trying to play all kind of chords, and sing the melody. So cute. It's really fun to work with them on the things they pick out....


Ingrid

Hi IngridT – I’m still plugging along in book 3. I had been going through a period where everything seemed to be taking me much too long to complete, but now I’m back into some more manageable pieces and am enjoying being able to move along at something above a snails pace.

I enjoyed playing American Hymn but I must tell you, sometimes it’s better to “lack the bond that the average American probably has with these pieces”. A few of them, while still nice pieces, I’ve just heard far too many times and they have become rather tired or cliché to my ear.

Anyway, I’m currently working on Blue Rondo and having a look at Chopin’s Prelude in A Major at the back of the book.

Undone

Congratulations and job well done to our fellow Book three’ers JohnFrank, Mark, and TTigg on their great recital submissions. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to them all.

Undone

Thanks Undone - I was hoping to hear something from you there too!

JF

Strings & Wood/CarlMc – I didn’t mean to leave you out of the congratulations, quite to the contrary. If I had submitted a piece to this recital it was going to be Chopin’s Op. 28 No. 4 which I just recently completed. Now I’m kind of glad I didn’t; it would have paled in comparison to yours.


Undone

I've been away for a while but congrats everyone here, Mark..., JF, Ttigg, and CarlMC on your great performances

Undone...



Lol! you might be right! To be honest I never heard that american hymn melody before. It was completely new to me. Teacher was happy with it, so I'm working on the next piece now, which is 'adagio in A major'.

It does seem like I'm back inbook 3 for a while!

Ingrid (I do need to listen to the recital, but I didn't yet..)

Thanks Undone for the confidence builder:-) yes, it is hard and harder still when you go back to it and forget parts!!!!!
Anyhow, I'm working on "Trumpet Tune" and as usual, there is always one part that gets me! The seventh measure sounds off and the timing with the trill in measure eight is giving me a fit:-)
Also, I'm moving in slow motion through book 3. Will get to practicing a bit later today!

Welcome back. So what have you been working on?

Undone

Hey, thanks for asking . I had been working on many "late beginner" pieces with my teacher. However, about two weeks ago I began learning the 1st Bach Invention (c major). It's going well, and I really like the style (two voices, both hands carrying equally important melodies etc.)

How about you Undone? Are you still working on A3 or are you doing other things?

Waltz – I don’t know if all of Bach’s Inventions “are created equally”, but some of them are pretty high up there on the old difficulty meter.

I’m still working my way through Book 3 but now I’ve also added more extracurricular stuff on the side. Most recently I’ve been working on a few of the shorter and less difficult Chopin preludes.

Undone