Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Achievement of the week - what got you excited?

Bessel, that's a beautiful piece. When played a little fast, it sounds very impressive with a lot of joy. Nice choice for first real piece.

I love Clementi's sonatinas too. There really is a lot to learn in these pieces of his. Don't worry too much at this point about bringing it up to the notated speed, these sound great at any speed. Just make it musical and you're doing ok.

My achievement is that I am pretty confident that I will have my 2 pieces prepared for my very first recital! I'll be easy to identify at the recital since all of the other players will be pre-teens! I'm slightly concerned about being upstaged by a 9 year old. I will be playing America the Beautiful and The Entertainer.

I have pretty much nailed my intermediate Canon in D. I am now working on The Maple Leaf Rag.

Wow, so much good stuff happening!!Trapper John, great to have you pop in for a visit and an update.

Paperclip, I was most intrigued by the visualization your teacher had you doing... I think I should give that a whirl.

Clementi 36,n1 3rd movement - very nice piece ...I can play it but no where near up to speed. I like all three movements and can get through them fairly neatly, but slowly.

I'm impressed with the range of materials we have rolling under everyone's fingertips here - there's something that can inspsire everyone!

I have no real achievement , but I got my Martha Miers Jazz and Blues book1. I've never played jazz or blues(except for some of my Oscar Peterson exercise book but honestly, I never got very far with that.)
This book is for late elementary, early intermediate and I was able to sightread most of the pieces right off the bat,at only a slightly slower tempo than required.
It was a real blast of fun.

Sight reading through pieces right off the bat? That is fun indeed!

I love new music - and jazz and blues is the best! Several people around here have done Martha Miers pieces, and I think she's really a good composer. I bet it was fun.

Oh. I do have an achievement. I've been working on playing tunes I've known forever by ear (I got out an old campfire songs book - shades of my childhood), going thru the scales and chord inversions of them, and transposing them to different keys. So last night I was playing Tennessee Waltz for a band gig we have coming up, and spontaneously did a chord prgression from F to F7 to C at the end, and played it again in C, and thought that was so remarkable I did it from the keys C to G to D to A to E! I was blown away What a hoot.

Cathy

An AOTW! Last night I finally got to work out the piano intro (and the rest of course) to "Walking on the Spot" (Neil Finn/Crowded House. It was an interesting experience. I've had the majority of the chord progression worked out for a while and figured I'd forget about the little intro. I was having a cup of tea and taking a break (but it was still going in my head) when all of a sudden, in my mind's eye I saw - and heard - what to do!

I think I'll call that a leap and qualifies me to say "I also play piano".

Thanks for the encouragement on the sonatina - funny, but I haven't considered what the "right" speed is yet - it's certainly faster than I'm playing it now!

I'm also simultaneously working on something from the Anna Magdelena notebook - Minuet in G - which I've always thought was a great tune. It's simpler than the sonatina but I find it hard to make progress on both simultaneously given the (way too little) amount I can practice per day... so I've been putting higher priority on the sonatina.

After I get some skills in my toolbox, I'd love to learn some blues and some ragtime - very cool what you all are doing.

Cathy - your taste in music is impeccable - it must be - it largely agrees with mine!




Cheryl - thanks for the "welcome back"!

TJ

I love new music - and jazz and blues is the best! Several people around here have done Martha Miers pieces, and I think she's really a good composer. I bet it was fun.

THE SECOND PARAGRAPH IS A QUOTE FROM JOTOUR, NOT SURE WHY IT DOESN'T SHOW AS ONE. SORRY CATHY!!


My AOTW is getting all of the notes for Mier's Beach Buggy Boogie down. Of course, right now, my tempo brings to mind an Amish Buggy rather than a beach buggy, but it will get there.
I bought Jazz Rags and Blues Vol. 2 (Mier) to play a very beautiful piece called Misty Night Blues. I brought it to my teacher and she said "Oh, let's play Beach Buggy first!" I wasn't too happy at first and imagined it would take FOREVER to play it properly. My kids (even my teenager) love to hear it, so learning it has been quite rewarding.

Jotur: old campfire favourites? Girl Guide (Scout) type songs Cathy? I've done that (with ones I used to play on guitar) it is so much fun!Your extra improv sounds like a blast!

Captain Kawai---what an experience ! Yes, I'd say you can call yourself a piano player!

Bessel - I've usually played much more traditional classics, so this diversion into Blues and Jazz is really odd for me, but SO MUCH FUN. I highly recommend it!

TJ - you're welcome!

Glasslove - Christine, I've you to thank for my new found amusement - it was your enthusiasm that got me rolling. I laughed at your "Amish Buggy" comment. I'm also really enjoying another book you introduced me to - the Dennis Alexander Romantic Style - I'm having a lovely time with La Serenata.

The closing "/quote" (in brackets) should be located after the phrase "I'll bet it was fun".

Well, I'm just back to chat about the fact that I'm feeling much more light hearted about my piano playing than I have in what seems like ages.

I am even enjoying my scales! I can feel that my arms are SO much more relaxed than ever before, this is huge progress for me.

I had not realized how "intense" and serious I was feeling about my Beethoven. I think I was looking at it as a rite of passage, (which of course it is, in a way), - but at some point over the past little while it started to become something to conquer rather than something to play. Skewed perspective methinks.

I didn't realize that until these past few days when I feel positively joyful sitting down at the keys with radically different material.

So, of course I'm not giving up on Beethoven, but I think I just have to find better balance and make sure I mix in more "throw aways" as JimF calls them, and more playfulness.

I have 2 more new books arriving soon.....hee hee, I can hardly wait!

On Saturday, I was stumbling about with this new piece, a simple Scarlatti sonata, and I just couldn't get the right hand triplets for the first half of the piece without mistakes. I was despairing of being to have anything in playable condition by next Saturday. Today, Tuesday, the RH is note perfect.

I know what you mean, cas. It hit me one day when I was practicing and I realized I felt like I was "fighting" my piano. I had to stop and turn my attitude to think of it as "cooperating" with the piano and the music, or even *gasp* playing with it! It does make a difference!

That's worth a celebration! Well done!

And I know what you mean about getting wound up in our pieces. I catch myself every week building in self-imposed pressure or (worse) negative thoughts about how well or not well something is going. You are right, it just leads to self-destructive tension.

I don't know why I want to make these late elementary/early intermediate pieces perfect anyway. Certainly my teacher doesn't demand or want that at all - she is always saying let's move on when I think another week would make it "better".
Its not like five years from now I hope to have a repertoire that includes playing these current pieces - no way, I definitely hope to be playing more advanced pieces by then.

There was another thread on ABF recently where it was pointed out (wisely, I think) by a number of our more experienced members that you just can't rush this piano learning thing - nor can you predict how long it should take to get to level "x". I'm going to try and keep that in mind the next time my self-imposed tension triggers creep in.

My AOTW is getting another "lets move on" on the Bach 846 Prelude. The Tchaikovsky is coming along and I find it very interesting - mainly because of the challenge presented by needing to keep my hands completely relaxed in order to accomplish the required legato chord progressions. Lots of attention to using hand and arm weight, which is something I've never focused in on before. New assignment is Franck's Doll's Lament (or Complaint, depending on what score you use). On first glance it looks like a puff-ball she tossed me as a confidence builder. We shall see if that thought comes back to haunt me. Also,having fun with the Bewitched, Bothered arrangement out of the Coates book.

I put aside my method book temporarily to work on "Minuet in G" and to learn "Carol of the Bells" by Christmas. Both are coming along better than I would have expected.

I've just picked up on that since the first of the year. It makes a huge difference in my musicality. congratulations!

mom3gram - sounds like you've made some progress there, and you're still having fun

Cathy

I know what you mean - I find myself continually surprised what a difference a day can make... Sometimes something just "clicks" overnight... isn't it a great feeling? Congrats!