I don't usually have an 'achievement of the week' but I do feel a bit chuffed at the moment!

A bit of background - last December I returned to the piano after ~40 years absence (initially buying a Techics DP to test the waters, then getting Kawai CA63 DP). Even when I was playing the piano, as a teenager, I was pottering rather than systematically studying. Subsequently I seriously took up the classical guitar and have played that off and on (more off than on) over the years.

Anyway, last week my piano teacher gave me Schubert's Minuet D334 to look at, in addition to continuing to work in the interpretation of Shostakovich's Prelude in C maj (from the Op 87 set).

I found the Schubert quite difficult - the fingering and the various voices made it a real challenge for me. I concentrated on the minuet section (which seemed to me by far the most difficult) and left the trio till later.

Last night I had my lesson and started with the Schubert, playing the 'minuet' section through.

At the end my teacher was quiet (ominous, I thought) and then said 'remarkable' a few times ('remarkably bad' I wondered). He then said he would bring his mother in to hear (who is also a piano teacher) but he, correctly, thought that would make me nervous, so didn't.

He said I had done remarkably well (it's Grade 6 standard)!

Kokomo61 - now that is great fun! I haven't seen Little Shop of Horrors for years, but remember being very entertained by it!


John, you must be chuffed indeed! Complimenti! Bravo! I'd be chuffed too!

(note: Canadians and Americans don't use "chuffed" - I only learned it a few years ago when I started hanging out with Brits and Irish folk!.....The first time I heard it, my friend said "I was really chuffed yesterday"....andI cautiously said "Oh, yes..?" with a question in my voice, inviting him to continue (I was wondering - angry?, irritated?, amused? I hadn't a clue. He went on to tell his story and all was clear - but it was a funny example of how two English speakers don't always communicate at first try!

Cas - thanks for the clarification. When I saw John's post I didn't know if chuffed was good or bad.

Chuffed.

One online dictionary gives "very pleased, proud or happy with yourself". I suppose it is all those things but, to me, there's also an element of "quietly very pleased, proud or happy with yourself" about it.

let's see these week I learned a new arpeggio and I almost have half of the 1st page of Heller op45 no1 : )
I'm feeling more motivated to play again... Bach was killing me... D:

I'm stoked.
Just got my results for Gr3 AMEB last night, A-Honours.

I had some lessons 35yrs ago when I was 12, not having touched a piano since then, now 48 and now had 7months of lessons, and loving it. I did put in lots of practice though. Now onto Gr4, and got to get a good result there. I guess its true, you get out what you put in.

Congrats! That's something to definitely be proud of!

I'm just thrilled that my arm's healed enough that I'm easing back into something like a regular practice routine, & I didn't lose that much - back to learning Festive Dance & Scherzo from Alfred's Book 2, working through Hannah Smith's sight reading exercises, some Hanon, scales, triads, etc.

Kudos!

Might I ask what was wrong with your hand that made you stop practice?

Getting this in an email from my teacher:



I love non-native English speakers. It always sounds so much better!!

I love non-native Enlgish speakers because my job is to teach English
Kidding aside, isn't it great to have such clear positive feedback from our teachers?

Lilyanna: I am not familiar with Heller OP45, but I'm going to look it up! Good for you for finding something that keeps your enthusiasm up!

Billy4030 - WAY TO GO! That's pretty exciting!

joyoussoung: I had to slow down playing in February as I was straining my forearms...it drove me nuts - I can imagine your excitement at getting back to the ivories!

Seems everyone is on the verge of wraping up a pretty good week! Well done!

My big achievement of the week: Now that classes are over for the summer for me, but the kids are still in school, I have had the luxury of being able to spend an hour or so each morning in a quiet house in an effort to get some recording done. I managed to get good takes of two different pieces.

Wow, what an up and down ride this piano thing can be.

Last week dogs trying to suicide on poisonous snakes and a lesson gone awry.

This week the Bach HT is proving much easier than the last Bach piece, my first sonatina is down to working on dynamics, and I've almost learned the new Tchaikovsky piece. Best of all, after the lesson I asked my teacher how hard is the Chopin A-minor Waltz and she suggested it be my next piece. Really looking forward to that.

I got my living room cleaned up after the re-roofing and the junk that came down from that

It's not piano, but it makes playing the piano more pleasant.

Cathy

I fell & cracked a bone up by my elbow about 7 weeks ago. Also mangled my wrist & the soft tissue in between. So I've been having physio & gradually getting it working again. I started back playing about 2 weeks ago, just for 10 minutes a day at first, mostly scales & working through old repertoire that I had been able to play. But now I'm back working on the pieces I was supposed to be learning. My teacher's on holiday right now, so I have about another 3 weeks before I'll have a lesson.
btw, sorry for the delayed answer - I'm in a different time zone, & it's been a really busy day. First chance I've had at the computer.

Big achievement this week, managed to find some sheets to the lovely Genesis song "Anyway", and to my surprise managed to get the right hand down in one evening without much trouble. (Not up to speed though! Some parts are a tad tricky, like spanning a minor fifth between my 3rd and 5th finger, and more awkward fingering I have to work out :D)

The left hand is proving to be quite bothersome though, but I'll get it eventually!

Here, have a listen to the original recording;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpGUV5IkyLc#t=5m22s


Having progressed this far on Anyway, I think I'm going to put it aside for awhile and continue on with the musette from the Anna Magdalena notebook, and the prelude in C from WTC.

Let's see how well I do on those.

Carol;
Really sorry to hear about your arm, but it's good to see you are slowly picking up where you left again! Good luck with it, let's hope it all heals well quickly!

Monica – how satisfying! Have you uploaded the new recordings? Which ones are they?

Jim – I just started on the Clementi sonatina too! I have managed to walk my way through it a couple of times. I made this choice on my own and will be talking to my teacher about it this week, but I think it is a great project as it incorporates so many of the exercises she’s been giving me since January. I looked at the score and thought “hey, I can do THIS!”…. I can do it…s.l.o.w.l.y. but that will pick up. It is by far the longest piece I’ve looked at, and I’m very keen. Very cool that you are moving on to Chopin as well! Sounds like you’re really doing some great work.

Jotur, - Cathy, getting your surroundings in order makes for a more tranquil frame of mind! Good for you. What are you working on these days?

Joyoussong – Another Canadian! Which time zone are you in? I’m originally from Ottawa, now in Italy - so we’re Ottawa +6 hours. Be careful with your arm – don’t over do things!

Pianosaurus Rex (love your nickname btw) – Anyway sounds like a lot of fun to play. You’ll have to let us hear it when you feel ready to perform!

My satisfaction this week came mostly from doing a TON of sight reading – and feeling that I’ve made a significant improvement, in accuracy if not in speed . As I mentioned above, I’m also starting in on the Clementi Sonatina. I downloaded a very simple version of it in January and last week got the score for the “real deal” –I’m very UP about this!

Sure, if you want to I'll upload it, but it still needs a lot of work. The left hand is an *insert vulgar word*, and I'm still quite a bit from the original speed.
I may need to look for some better recording gear too, but I'll see what I can do.



Oh, dang! I really need to do that too, I was gonna go to the library for some sheets to practise this on but I keep forgetting. =/
Might do that this afternoon! Good luck on the sonatina, by the way.

I'd love to hear where you are with it. As for being at the "original speed"...I'm in slow motion for the moment, still very much just getting the feel of it.

Where in particular are you finding the left hand awkward?
Maybe we should start a thread for newbies to this piece!


I wonder if I can get pieces from the library? I will have to check.
I use the links in the sticky post at the top of this forum for a lot of my sight reading music.

Yeah, I was thinking of opening a thread for Anyway to ask some questions about recommended fingering for a few of the bars. But I wanted to play around with it myself for a bit before asking. :P

I'll see if I can make a decent recording of it on my DP using my laptop, since that's all I have to make recordings for now. Sound quality will probably be horrendous. =/



Hehe, I'm not even sure myself, actually. XD
The library is pretty close though, so it's worth checking. Especially since it's just sightreading material, I only intend to read it once, so I'd much rather rent a few books than to buy them for that one time I read them through.

That's the only way I can do it as well. It isn't stellar, but it isn't horrendous!

I may pop over to the library even today to see if they have sheet music
That could be very interesting indeed.

casinitaly,

I think you will like the Clementi. Are you going to learn the whole thing? My teacher only assigned the third section, the Rondo, for now. Not sure if we are going to continue with the rest of it. I don't know about the "doing good work" stuff - my teacher just seems to really like loading me up and doesn't dwell on pieces once they've reached a certain stage of proficiency. Usually she'll say something like " OK, I don't need to hear that anymore." Of course, that could mean she thinks I've gotten most of the mileage out of the learning experience, or that she's tired of me assaulting her eardrums!

Jim

Hi Jim,
Well, I don't know if my memory is up to learning the whole thing right now. I haven't talked to my teacher about it yet. She may suggest tackling it one part at a time.
My teacher has a similar approach to yours - she wants to expose me to a lot of different pieces and at this point isn't concernted with getting all of them to performance perfect. We're working on developing memory skills, and finger techniques (breathing techniques too as I tend to hold my breath when playing something tricky! gasp gasp).

I think the "ok I don't need to hear any more" simply means you've got a handle on whatever the point of the piece was.

I'd like to learn the whole thing.... we'll see how it goes.

Casinitaly,
I'm in PDT - in Vancouver. It's about 7 o'clock Monday evening here right now.

My biggest moment this week was getting through my first recital in...well, more than 20 years at least. The last time I had played in public(accompaniment for church)the soloist ended up singing a capella for several measures when I froze completely. So, I was really dreading the recital, but also knew that pushing through this milestone was necessary for me.
I did not have loads of time to prepare-sort of a last minute decision, and while I did flub a little on my last piece, I was happy overall.

Congrats happykah! That is a real achievement. I bet that audience didn't even notice your small mistake!!!!

My achievement was: I FINISHED ALFRED ALL IN ONE LEVEL ONE
My new pieces are very nice. Bach Minuet 114 & 115 and a very nice romantic piece from a collection of music by Dennis Alexander. The piece is called Summer Dreams (certainly appropriate for the season
I rushed home from my lesson and started right in!!!

Well, this is kind of a small achievement... But I think I managed to find a good teacher . Which is a great start. I miss playing so much.

Still waiting for my new piano to arrive (it's on its way from Germany now - it should take a week). I can't wait!

[quote=GlassLove}

My achievement was: I FINISHED ALFRED ALL IN ONE LEVEL ONE
My new pieces are very nice. Bach Minuet 114 & 115 and a very nice romantic piece from a collection of music by Dennis Alexander. The piece is called Summer Dreams (certainly appropriate for the season
I rushed home from my lesson and started right in!!!
[/quote]

Thank you!
Isn't it great to be done with a level!!! I am so looking forward to completing JT's grade 1-getting close!
I'm working on some Bach now, too-and one of my recital pieces was a Dennis Alexander-his 'Falling Leaves'. Such a calming piece-just what I needed ;~)

Happykah - what an achievement! Good for you for making that leap of courage!
Glasslove - yipee! done with level one - now you can get one of the Alfred boxes for your siggy line!
Your new pieces sound like fun - are you moving on from Lilla or still perfecting it?

Everdream - how exciting! I think finding a good teacher is fundamental to your success on this adventure!
Joyoussong - I have had the pleasure of visiting Vancouver several times - lovely city!

I will be continuing withmy Clementi, and I'm looking forward to seeing my teacher after our little break - I heard from her today and she passed the exam she was working on so at least her withdrawing fom lessons temporarily has paid off! Now to make up the lessons !