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

Because i dont have many achievments, I have never posted here before, I am an achievement virgin.

However, this week, I did do an amazing achievement for an ABF'er:

I got the very last word in on Pianist corner on the David Helfgott Thread, before it was closed.

Without getting told off or put on time out.

I believe for an ABF'er to do this is a unique achievemnet. (Bow)

It's not the treble choir I'm worried about (I know most of them pretty well and my son sings in that choir) ... it's the congregation: They aren't such a great age

Maybe they're a different kind of great age?



At any rate, I bet it will be fun.

Cathy

Casinitaly,
Haha,I really want to shout at that moment.
Opps, not sure why the link does not go directly, but I also watched the piece played by Kissin, that's awesome. I have few more pages to learn and hope I can record a nice video in future.

Chopin Waltz in A minor - I learnt this piece before, it is full of romance Hope to watch your video soon.

I don't know. I think in general I like music that is a little more lyrical.

I hadn't heard this piece before, so I listened to it. Yikes! That looks like a tough one, especially at that fast tempo.

Oh, FarmGirl, I'm sorry that work got in the way of getting a recording done for the ABF recital. Let us know when you post to the piano bar, and I'll listen to it there.

Cas, I just saw that you've posted to the piano bar too. I think I'm going to have to find some time to start following that thread.

Lately I've been struggling with left hand trills in a Mozart piece. At my last lesson, I mentioned the frustration of knowing what I want my fingers to do, but having them refuse to cooperate with my brain. My teacher said I just need to work on them the same way I did with right hand trills. But I didn't have this kind of trouble with the right hand, I told him. "Oh yes, you did," he replied. "When you started, your right hand trills were much worse than your left hand ones are now." (I think that was meant to be encouraging. ) But I am continually reminded that you cannot have an ego in this business. And I guess that qualifies as an achievement: my right hand trills are not terrible anymore!

Andy - that sounds like fun. Perhaps the congregation really is a great age---- as in great-grandparents or just GREAT! grandparents, and they'll be so focused on little Johnny and Susie that they won't even pay attention to you Don't let it get to you, you're more than able to handle this, and help the kids do a great job!

Rossy... well, that's not the typical achievement here, but hey, whatever turns your crank

Yuki - I will be thrilled to hear you play!

MaryBee, yes, I did submit to the Piano Bar. One of my goals for this year was to do that 5 times. I lucked out in February because I had the Romanza ready for the recital (submitted actually) then I got my blues piece organized well enough to present and I re-submitted, so Romanza went for a walk over to the PB. I have found that recording really helps me focus on the weak areas and have a MUCH clearer picture of where I am in terms of overall smoothness and speed. I tend to think I'm doing much better than I really am, so it is a powerful reality check - and not at all discouraging, because each recording tends to show an improvement in some area.
It was fun to go to the PW, the only "problem" there is that it is hard to keep up with - there are so many submissions and feedback posts -but it is great fun and you hear a lot of original work too.

VERY interesting comments from your teacher about your trills and your difficulties. One thing that I did a lot for the first 18 months of playing was to make notes each week about what was difficult/getting easier - When I look back and read what I wrote I can see concrete evidence of what is no longer a challenge, and what I just couldn't do. In many ways this thread serves the same purpose - we can go back and see what we talked about and mark our progress. And yes, I agree that your right hand trills are not terrible - they are quite lovely!!!

Wishing everyone a good week!

I should have checked in long before, but here it goes. I've been working on the first dance of 3 by Jurriaan Andriessen (3 dansen voor piano/ 3 dances for piano, short pieces, but very fun to play, try it!). For me, it has quite a few challenges:
1. A right hand trill, the first time for me.
2. Pedaling (getting it coordinated while playing at tempo)
3. Tempo (my hands aren't fast enough yet to make the little jumps at tempo, G-D or G-Eb to Bb and back).

The last 2 weeks I've been focusing on my first trill and the pedaling. I'm at a point where I can actually produce a decent trill (decent to me anyway) most of the times, but getting out of it and controlling the volume is still way beyond me.

Somehow I had a lot of trouble with the pedal when I started this piece, but suddenly it clicked, and it makes the piece sound so much better.

Another step was that I'm not afraid to disturb the neighbours Right after the trill there is a section that really begs to be played fff, and it feels so great to play it, giving it all, and the best part is that my neighbours haven't complained yet. I guess that means I must be doing something right

The piece I'm refering to (not me playing, 1st dance 0-1:00, 3rd dance starts at 3:12)
[video:youtube]Q8cd4wABAl4[/video]

Progress is slow (sometimes it feels very very slow, if I can notice it at all), but at least there is progress . casinitaly: I really like your idea of making notes, I should have done so too, maybe I'll start now. Gives a bit of perspective.

I haven't visited this thread in ages, because I haven't achieved anything in ages...LOL. Anyway, February has been a great month. I "came back" to piano after a 2 month hiatus. I didn't really quit, but really didn't spend much time either - and almost NO TIME on anything new. Anyway, I've gotten over the hump on my Bach Invention 1...I'm through the difficult measures now, and can play it at tempo. It's such a lovely piece of music and I'm happy to hear myself being able to play it. It's also my first "non-ragtime" piece (in a long time) that I'm actually going to finish, and my first stab at Bach as a grown up. I played a couple of pieces from Anna Magendela (sp) notebook as a kid...anyway.. NOW...all I have to do is get my phrasing and refine my trills a little. I never realized how much I sucked at trills until I started learning this piece...LOL.

Anyway, I really need to stop quitting piano and then re-starting. I spent about a week just trying to shake the rust off! I wrote it here, so maybe I'll commit to this statement this time!

Welcome back, Cebukid!

My AOTW is not really piano playing related. I am learning to tune my piano. I enrolled with a correspondence course last December, but I was so overwhelmed by it that after studying a few chapters, I put it aside. Yesterday, I took the plunge and started pulling on those strings! I have to put in 15 hours of practice and am just doing 30 min a day. It's really interesting. I can imagine after a few years of tuning the piano, I can listen for pitch better.

I really enjoy reading everyone's AOTW's. keep sharing!

WannabePT - That's neat, that you're doing your own tuning... it *seems* like it ought to be an easy business with one of those electronic things, but I imagine there's more to it than that...

On the Pianobar, which it sounds like more of you are posting to... I wish I could listen to that more. I'm often surfing this site at times when I can't blare the music, so end up never going there... sounds like it's worth trying to find the time.

My AOTW is that my sonatina is really getting there, only a few rough spots that I can't play through at speed yet. My teacher has me doing those spots in "groups and rhythms", ie pausing on different beats of each measure as I play, as a way to really get it in hand. It's also great counting practice.

And my piano-related fun of the week is that today we went to a piano dealer and looked at nice pianos. Yamaha's, Knabe's, and Bosendorfers, mostly. Tried out the AvantGrand's as well as the real grands... it was an educational mission, to get a feeling for a variety of sounds and actions. Some of those pianos were *really* nice, gorgeous to play and hear, and we are now really in "want". Very fun...

I have been so busy lately that I haven't been able to post much. It sounds like everyone is making good progress!

Bessel, I love piano shopping! It is such fun testing out the different feel and sounds of a variety of pianos in one place. When I first bought my M&H BB in the states, there were three of them side by side. They all sounded and felt slightly different. When I found the one for me, it was love at first touch. Here I have an AvantGrand because I live in an apartment, but it was the same feeling when I found it. Buying a piano is wonderful fun.

My AOTW is a realization that I am not making nearly as many errors as I used to. A few months ago I could not play through anything without half a dozen or more major bloopers. Now, I am making few errors, and I can play through them. Progress!

My second achievement is I have 2 1/2 major pieces committed to memory out of my goal of 10: Clementi Sonatina 36.1 and Chopin Waltz in B minor as well as the 2nd movement of Mozart's Sonata in C Major. Yeah!

And then there is Bach. My goal this week is to slowly, smoothly play through the whole thing without falling apart. I am getting there. Chopin's Nocturne in Eb Major is so much more fun....

No particular achievement, but the Chopin Ballade is inching towards completion. Because my reading is soooo much better now, I don't have to struggle to figure out what the notes are. The struggle is memorizing the music and getting my hands to learn the movements so they can go fast enough (and of course voicing and bringing out the melody and all that good stuff).

I am missing only about 12 measures in the right hand and just a bit more in the left, and then I will have the entire piece down. I can't wait!!

I'd love to have it ready for next recital, but I'm not sure whether I'll have a piano to record it on at that time, in which case I will save it for the recital after that, since I plan to purchase (hopefully) something in the Yamaha C7 range when I move back to Los Angeles after this year (and a pair of really good microphones that can do this piece justice).

Busy busy time!

Oudeis - trills, pedal and jumping about the keyboard - I watched the video and that piece looks very challenging indeed! - It has a very Spanish sound to it, but the composer's name doesn't look Spanish..... do let us hear it when you have it prepared to your satisfaction!

Cebukid - welcome back! I can't imagine not playing for 2 months then starting up again! ack.
Wannabe PT - you are tuning your own piano. That's one of my goals too. Unfortunately there aren't any courses here,and so that means practicing on my own....which is ok, except that of course I can only do that just before the tuner comes in case (or rather because I will) mess it up!

Bessel - It sounds like your teacher has really got a good approach for systematically going through your pieces with you- and you are piano shopping. That is so exciting. Do keep us posted on your search for YOUR piano!

SwissMs - you have a lovely set of pieces in your repertoire! Congrats on realizing how much progress you're making - that is inspiring, isn't it?

Sam Rose - Great that you are making progress on reading music - that will open up so many doors...(pages!) of music for you!


I've started making some headway on my Chopin Waltz in A minor, and a new blues piece

It is such good fun to switch from one to the other.

I'm making recordings so that I can benchmark my progress - I want to see how long it takes me to get them up to "presentation" level - and I also want to listen to hear where the rough spots are. I find that when I'm playing I don't always catch the errors or realize how big the hesitations are. I have also found that regular recording is taking the edge off of my "red dot jitters".

All in all, it is a good thing to do!

Cas, I just started on a Chopin waltz too -- C# minor. This is a piece that I have wanted to play for years, and now I'm going to learn it! I abandoned Mussorgsky's The Old Castle after my lesson this week. After working on it for a few weeks, it was sounding plodding and clunky, and I wasn't thrilled by it. My teacher said I shouldn't feel bad about not completing a piece. His view is that for every piece you learn, you should either love it or learn something from it. And I didn't need the Castle for that. So now I'm going to work on something that I love!

Congratulations, Sam Rose. Reading is such a useful to skill to have. Congratulations on the big improvement.

I love that waltz - I played it this morning (hmm, read through it this morning - playing not so much). I can't wait to hear it in a recital or two?

There is a good chance of that! - or if not a recital, at least in the piano bar

I'm still stumbling through the first 16 bars or so....but even making a hash of it is still rewarding - and hey...it can only improve!

What a beautiful piece!!
I can't wait to hear you playing it.

Something I'm finding very very interesting is that having listened to several Chopin Waltzes this past week, I'm noticing "themes" of tones and style that weren't apparent to me before. I just love when I gain a new level of understanding and appreciation of a set of works.

MaryBee I also agree with your teacher -love it or learn from it - (ideally both!). When I deviate from the assigned pieces I tend to rationalize my diversion by explaining to my teacher exactly what I think the new piece will teach me. She can't help but laugh.

It seems we're on a real Chopin wave here in AOTW-world. I think that is just a blast!!!

That is an absolutely beautiful waltz, Cas, it would make a wonderful recital piece. Go for it!!!

Okay, I've got to ask for my own benefit... what do you think is the easiest piece by Chopin?