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Hi Swaying Tree! Man, I wish MY pieces sounded so good on their second day as yours did. I don't know if it's on my end or yours, but I kept getting buffering lags while watching your video. So it was hard to get a solid impression, but one thing I found very impressive is that you played at a very steady tempo throughout, which I know is what one is supposed to do but that I rarely achieve.

Okay, here's my contribution to the Einaudi archives. I finally got a recording of "Ancora" that I was okay with. It's such a long piece (18 pages of sheet music!) that I had no hopes of recording an error-free version, but this one lacks any major goofs. However, because it was so long, I couldn't memorize it, so I also edited out the page swaps. I made a little movie of it by setting it to the pictures from our vacation out West this summer, but YouTube wouldn't take it because it was more than ten minutes long. I uploaded it to my blog though, so if you are dying to see visuals, click on my blog and look up the Aug. 27th entry.

"Ancora" is in my top 5 favorite Einaudi pieces, and in light of that and the fact that it is such a long piece, learning it represented a personal milestone.

My version of "Ancora"

Here's the day 3 entry of "Learning Le onde." What's funny is that I actually made more mistakes during this recording than on my last practice run about 15 minutes earlier.

If you think the red dot is bad when you know a song, you should try recording yourself trying to learn something new!

Day 3 (7.5 min): http://swayingtree.sytes.net/Learning_Le_onde_Day3.htm

Monica, it's possible that the U-Verse upstream isn't behaving well today, but I don't usually have problems hosting these videos...though I might have been overly aggressive with the bitrate.

In any case, if you pause it, you'll see the buffer extend slowly to the right. Once there's a little space to the right of the cursor dot you can hopefully hear what's actually going on.

(I'm going to take a listen to your "Ancora" now. I don't know the song since I'm such a rank amateur at Einaudi.)

On my work computer (just done remotely) I had to wait about 3-5 minutes for enough of the video to buffer so that it could play through smoothly and finish before catching up to the buffer. I'll make future ones a little lower quality since wading through my struggles, especially day 1, is probably painful enough without an extra wait.

Wow, that was really well done, Monica. I don't think I'll be tackling that (beautiful) beast anytime soon. Watching your video brought back some memories, as I've been to many of those same places on family vacations long ago, including Mesa Verde twice. Good times.

I intended to stay in Colorado last summer when I rented a house for a get together with my brother and father, whom I don't see often enough. But dad's cardiologist wouldn't let him go to altitude so we settled on Taos, New Mexico, which I can highly recommend as another scenic, serene blend of history and natural beauty. We were about 20 minutes NW of town on a hill with no visible neighbors, and had absolutely spectacular views from the deck and living room with a wall of glass. I might go back to the same place. I could use a vacation...

Well here's my video for "Learning Le onde - Day 4." As I noted on the web page, I didn't have a lot of time today what with preparing to leave town, but I still think there's some improvement over Day 3, one horrifying bobble notwithstanding.

I don't know if anybody has even watched Day 3 yet. I tried to cut the video size down a bit, and even re-encoded the previous days to reduce file size. I'm sure it'll still take a minute or two to build a decent buffer, but they should stream more smoothly.

I did make a stupid error on Day 1 and had a timeshift on...and of course overwrote the original without testing. I've got it re-aligned but the last six seconds has no audio...just the last few notes go missing.

Day 4 (7 min): http://swayingtree.sytes.net/learning_le_onde_day4.htm

I'll be away from a computer until the evenings due to all day training, but appreciate any comments, especially as I'm now almost wanting to approach the song musically now that the notes are 65-75% in the muscle memory bank.

Still making amazing progress, SwayingTree. My main advice at this point would be to start working more on stressing/accenting the melody notes and de-emphasizing the alternating notes in the right hand. When you listen to Einaudi, those alternating notes are barely perceptible. Trying to mimic what he does proved to be my Waterloo on this piece.

Here we are on day 5.5 (see my comments on the web page) after a five day break for a business trip. Although this recording doesn't quite do justice to what I'm capable now at my best, it does show that somehow my brain continued to put the notes into memory while I was nowhere near a piano. When I got home and sat down I actually played it smoother than the day I left. Go figure. Still a LOT of work to do, but I can at least tell what song I'm trying to play now:

Day 5 (5:18): http://swayingtree.sytes.net/Learning_Le_onde_day5.htm

By the way, Monica, thanks for the nice comments and tips. I'm trying, but it's going to take some time (but you already know that, eh?).

There will be no recording tonight. (a) I'll only get to play through it 2-3 times, and (b) we're having major thunderstorms, so not a good time to hook up computers and video equipment, not to mention the noise.

If I don't get a recording tomorrow it will be several days, because the annual motorcycle rally called "Bikes, Blues and BBQ" starts Wed and the sound of revving engines will fill the air through the weekend. Also not good for recording quality.

I'm about done showing the learning progression anyhow. From here it's polishing and the day-to-day changes will be subtle and slow.

Here is the recording for what I'll call Day 7 since I skipped recording yesterday. I only played it five times since the last recording for "Day 5."

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I apologize for the constant refocusing. The camera has done minor versions of this on previous days, but is far, far worse tonight. I need a new one. If it makes you need an eye doctor just close your eyes and decide how I sound, since that's more important.
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This will be the last recording of this series due to the Motorcycle festival starting here tomorrow and the fact that I'm almost done with the initial learning.

Don't get me wrong; I have a long way to go before I think I'm playing it well, as the bobbles in this video attest (like forgetting to strike the D again in measure 148). I just don't think anybody wants to watch endless videos that are almost the same as I crawl towards making good music.

Day 7 (5:51): http://swayingtree.sytes.net/Learning_Le_Onde_Day7.htm

The bobbles are few and far between, Swaying Tree! Your Le Onde at 7 days already sounds better than my Le Onde did at, oh, 1 year.

My main suggestion at this point would be to work on dynamics, making the pp's ppier and the ff's ffier. (Of course, it's highly possible that the compression of the video recording doesn't reflect how it sounds live. Such are the limitations of internet videos.)

Also, are you using the Una Corda pedal where indicated? Again, it could just be the recording, but I didn't hear a change in the tonal quality in the sections you're supposed to use the Una Corda pedal.

One last thing, and it's a question of burning importance to me: Just how did you manage to get SIX sheets of paper spread out across your music desk?! I can only get 5, which hampers me greatly on the 6-page pieces.

I'll give swayingtree the benefit of the doubt and maybe the purpose of all those 1.C.'s and 3.C.'s wasn't exactly obvious. I know it took me a while to figure out the 1C was for Una Corda and the 3C for Tre Corde.

I'll have to give the latest video a listen. I did watch the first few but failed to comment on those. But it's almost 1am and I really should just get off to bed.

Yeah... that 1C notation isn't exactly obvious. I couldn't figure it out myself and had to ask here what it meant.

Thanks, Monica and Anthony for taking the time to listen and comment. Before I forget, Monica, I scanned the pages from the book so they'd be easier to work with. When I printed I just downsized to 77% since that's what allowed six pages to fit on my music desk. I scanned through Photoshop, saved as PDFs and printed from inside PS. And then of course cut the pages on my paper trimmer.

I'd like to try and limit my normal mini-novel of a response but it will take a bit of space to try and address the issues you raised and have any chance of it making sense and not seeming defensive, which I'm not. I know I have a LOT of room for improvement in my playing, both generally and on "Le onde." And as I've said before, you've pointed things out that I've missed, so I appreciate any pointers, even if occasionally I might still choose to go a different direction. We all have our own musical interpretations after all.

Thanks for the benefit, Anthony, but I saw the 1C markings, know what they mean and as yet have ignored them. I just read the thread on playing with feeling and on a song new to me I'm a bit like Mr. S-H described himself; while devoting near 100% of my efforts to learning/hitting the right notes, I don't yet tackle the subtleties of true music. That's what's just coming now. I already think I sound better than my Day 7 recording (will post a final one on YouTube later and link it here). Everything I'm about to say doesn't mean that I'm not going to be trying to improve dynamics and make the ff more fortissimo and the pp more pianissimo...at least somewhat.

That general comment out of the way, two--no, three--other factors made me ignore the una corda here, though an experiment this morning might change it for this song.

1) When I listen to Einaudi's recording of "Le onde" he does not, to me, appear to follow the dynamics marked on the page. Sometimes he does, but in other places, for a measure or two, he seems to do almost the opposite. I'll hear him doing a bit of a crescendo when the music says to dim. towards p, for example. So I'm attacking this song like I have his others. I read the music. I listen to him. Perhaps I have a rendition from a few others to consider their interpretation. I learn the notes and then see how my brain chooses to "feel" the song. Over time an interpretation will reveal itself, and this process is still ongoing for "Le onde." This interpretation will likely draw upon Einaudi's version quite deeply but I allow myself to deviate from both him and the music if I want to (oh, God...I sound like gyro). On "Stella del mattino," for example, the music shows waxing and waning as you work up and down the middle notes of the arpeggios. For me, though, that song feels right when played more mellowly and evenly, with less volume variation. So that's how I do it. I'm evolving towards a mellower "Giorni dispari" because the music sounds too harsh to me if I really forte the parts where the right hand is working away fast. I'm liking that song a little slower and with less variation in loudness. Which leads to...

2) On some of his other songs, such as "Limbo" or "I due fiumi" I have also ignored the 1C markings because to me, on my piano (see #3) it just doesn't sound right. I tried it both ways and decided to just play as softly as I can 3C. Partly this is because the shift of the keyboard and the foot action tend, due to my skill limitations, to make the overall blending and smoothness of the song suffer. I think I get a better effect overall in the flow of the song 3C. I could easily be wrong.

3) I've had my technician look into things and he swears everything is in working order, but I'm not happy with either my una corda pedal or the sustain. I've had this piano since 1986 and swear that things used to work better. The sustain is just way louder in its function than I recall and I get more pedal noise than I want (from both the mechanism and the dampers raising and lowering), but I of course have to use it (except on Clementi). It seems to start out really bad and 'warm up' into a semblance of acceptability after 20-30 minutes of playing. The una corda pedal is, I know, supposed to somewhat change the tone of the piano, but it sounds to me (now) like it cheapens and weakens the voice of my instrument. I experiment with it on every song where it's called for and usually discard using it, except in rare circumstances where the particular notes being played don't seem to suffer for the tonal change.

All that said, this morning I tried playing the 1C sections of "Le onde" with the una corda pedal, and I think it works on this song, especially for the closing measures and the two transitional passages (e.g., 64-73). I'm not sure about 78-81 and 86-99 because those are some of the passages where it doesn't sound to me like Einaudi quite follows the "pp" and "sottovoce" directives. But I'll listen and practice some more, consider different options, and my interpretion will emerge. Hopefully it'll be pleasing even if a little different from your choices.

Again, I really appreciate your time and thoughts, especially if you (anybody!) made it through reading this whole post.

Aha!! I was reducing the size to 93%, because that's the only way to get it to fit on 8.5" x 11" paper, but I had not managed to think outside the box sufficiently to hit upon CUTTING the paper size down further! Thanks for the tip...

As for the musical interpretation, I think it's clear from his concerts and the La Scala CD that Einaudi himself changes how he plays pieces according to the setting or his whimsy. So I would certainly encourage you to do go with what feels right. There are times I deviate from the sheet music, too; e.g., the sheet music might indicate that some passages should be played legato, whereas I think it sounds better to keep the notes relatively more distinct.

Tracks from Nightbook are slowly making their way onto YouTube, which is helping me stave off my impatience over the much-delayed U.S. release of Einaudi's latest album. So far the pieces are quite different in style than Divenire, but no less pleasing.

I really like this one, called "Indaco":

My copy of "Nightbook" arrived in the mail today. Wasn't the cheapest CD I've ever purchased but I got it for far less than the current Amazon.com price of just under $38. (Mine was under $24 with shipping.)

The copy is clearly an import version as it had a sticker on the outside wrapper detailing some of the Nightbook Tour dates in LUX, NL and BE. Sadly, I won't be going to any of those.

[Monica gnashes teeth because she spent $38 on the amazon version that's not even due to arrive until November.]

I know the price wasn't always as high as the near $38 mark. Did you place the order before that price hike? (But supposedly if it comes back down you could get the lower price.)