Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner So, what IS our expectation on posted recordings?

But certainly not important enough to merit creation of yet another thread !!! Or is it.....?

I don't expect perfect recordings but my expectation is a good, honest recording that demonstrates that time and hard work went into learning the piece. As internet forums cannot replace that of a teacher, I think the Member Recording Section is a good place to get tips on finessing a piece or fine tuning details or for extra opinions on an interpretation or for gaining encouragement or showcasing a performance etc...

This thread and the one which spawned it force me to speak up for the elephant sitting in the room over yonder and ask the obvious question: How do you folks ever find time to play the piano?

With a nod to "the Music Man", in which Robert Preston told the band of kids "to play the Minuet in G, one must THINK the Minuet in G", I say...

everyone is THINKING about playing piano!

Mark, I understand you are trying to be truthful and helpful, and I appreciate that especially after the original thread, and I mean that sincerely. Perhaps I made a mistake in how approaching this, perhaps I shouldn't of spoken my mind about any comparisons with anything out there, perhaps any mention of my piano skills was wrong to mention, but what's done is done, and it is possible I don't have your skills and insight dealing with this matter, maybe it is a bit sad that I'm not in full sync with what you're saying, I tried, and maybe failed in your eyes. Nothing personal. I think I've learned a few things here, especially when presenting this to classical pianists, got to know some people better, friendlier, and I will change my approach from now on, at least for classical pianists, and i don't know what more to say about this. Vienna Imperial Updated, was a step up from the previous version, and you could be sure the next version will again be a step up, the software will keep improving and getting closer and closer to the real deal, perhaps it will never come as close as a real piano, and that's fine. I have done my best, made some mistakes, and what I don't understand (or maybe seem I don't understand), I don't understand. Voilà!

I check the forums during breakfast (right now). Next, my day consists of:

A voice lesson, a voice rehearsal, and rehearsals for three different recitals I'm accompanying - Feb. 4, 8, and 13. Then, I teach tonight from 4:30 to 7:30. This comes after yesterday, which included 4 hours of teaching, 2 hours of practicing, and 2 hours of rehearsal. Last weekend, I played recitals at the University of Minnesota and University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. (That's why it took me a couple of days to read and lock that other thread.)

Thanks! And if anybody has suggestions on what to say, be my guest. Just don't get too philosophical about it. Be direct and I'll be happy.

ok i liked that Guy.. i asked early on, but you never answered.

Answered to what?

Kreisler and John Grant offered great responses since I last visited this thread. In particular John mentioned the concept of art as a product. Recordings are certainly nice and midi recordings can now be made which sound very realistic. I've been spending the last few years writing less and learning my pieces more in hopes of posting some videos of me actually playing them. I'm getting close to being able to do that, but it's a lot of work. Actually playing a piece with no errors or at least none detectable is very hard, at least for me which is why I'm a composer. So I understand the objections of those who see midi performances as cheating.

These days with the ubiquity of Youtube I don't see mere recordings as being nearly as relevant as in the past. It seems these days if it's not a video of a live performance of some type then it's not going to get as much attention. There are those who objected to Lola Vavavaroom (actually Astanova) because her appeal was more physical than artistic, but at least she could play a piece from beginning to end wthout any obvious mistakes. That may not qualify her as a concert pianist, but she's way beyond my capabilities.

So what's a composer to do? Midi performances do garner some attention and it seems one person has requested a score for one of my pieces as a result of this discussion. The music has to speak for itself and different people find different pieces appealing. Learning my own pieces has been quite helpful in improving my piano playing in general and that will inform my compositional efforts going forward, but there are only 24 hours in a day. Then again, I could spend less time here.

Cliff's Notes version: You can take care of everything I said by just saying upfront what the recordings are -- which you've already decided to do anyway, I think -- and if people mention aspects that aren't like the best actual piano playing, don't try to counter it; either acknowledge it, or let it go.

Oh! So were talking about in the course of any discussion. Ok. Yeah, you didn't have to mention this, I already knew that.

Yes -- I said that in the first place but somehow you missed it. Anyway, we did good, considering.

Guy, I don't understand the connection between the "Vienna" system software and the mock ups created with a DAW.

In what sense? So I don't go off in a different direction.

So I will post it again, in the "digital pianos section" and these last threads never took place. Delete---Trash---Empty trash.

How can someone who has posted more on just the two threads under discussion than some posters at PW have posted in all their posts at PW put together advise anyone about "just letting go"? You've said the same thing over and over and over....

You must admit, that's true.

The thing was, not to wrongly try to counter stuff.
I don't do that.

But that's OK -- I know that you don't particularly go for context. You like to just pick out stuff and trash-talk it for the heck of it.

It's not because of Mark I changed the presentation, but half the members who weren't happy about the way it was presented may want my head for a long time, one guy registered as the name of my friend, synergy543 on the UK piano forum and posted some serious attacks on me. How do you think synergy543 feels about getting his identity stolen? And then I feel responsible, and guess what? That's what the moron wants?

As for the new thread, I hope it will not get drowned with echos of the previous threads. I already see the first reply is echoing... Is this really necessary? Time will tell if this made things better or not.