Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Recital #26 --- Call For Submissions

As usual, it looks like I'm going to be in the last tier, although, I promise, Monica, this time I'll get it in at least a day early so its certain to be uploaded properly.

I'm actually further along with my arrangement and piano performance than usual and I've got all my Mother's Day decorations set up on the piano ready to film, but I need the extra time to work on the vocal, since this time I've arranged it so I absolutely cannot chicken out on singing at the last minute--I've only done accompaniment and there is no piano solo in the middle for me to fall back on. It's either sing or don't play!

I have decided that my Chopin Walts A-min (same as Raptor's) is not presentable. (Well, to be honest, I'm not surprised). I've been polishing up a piece I studied a while back but never recorded... I hope to get it sounding pretty enough to submit in the next few days.

Have an appointment for a tuning on the 11th, so I think I'll wait until then to record. Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to submit and get it up to snuff!

Wow, only 2 days in, and we've got 21 submissions already. Imagine if it keeps going at this rate... !

That would be important for you to do, because I never did figure out why your piece wouldn't upload from your end last time. For this recital, I have a dinner commitment the night of the 14th, so I won't have time to troubleshoot individual entries at the last minute the way I am sometimes able to do.

So, fair warning to everybody: If you've ever had trouble uploading, or if you're new to the recital, tell yourself that the deadline is the 13th, and get your recording done so that any necessary trouble-shooting can be done in time.

Oh no, just found out i'm flying off to a wedding for 3 days on the weekend before the 14th. Ahh!

Well, I hope if I practice all weekend long, i may be able to somehow make it in time to submit it on Wed, which is my last free day before I leave.

Would anyone mind a submission of an unpolished piece but still a decent attempt given timeframe?

Currently I've almost memorised the whole piece but can only play just over half of it hands together.

Monica,
Thanks for the warning--very "fair" indeed.



I certainly wouldn't since that's what I did at the last recital and if anyone minded, they didn't show it.

Why not play half from memory and read the rest? Just keep the sheets of the unmemorized part on the piano and make sure you memorize the last transition into the section you will start reading, if there is one. I do this in reverse with intros from sheet music transitioning into my own arrangements which I've memorized, but I also generally find it easier to start reading from a new section than half way through one I've only partly memorized.

Oooh, how exciting. I'll be happy to take up the rear end of the list with a stunning rendition of some beginner's tune, with only a few blatant errors.

Up to 7 minutes?? Maybe I'll play a dozen repeats on my longest piece....

I love your sense of humor, LizAnne! That and your name alone would make you a welcome addition to recital list for me--it's not that I'm sexist, it's just that women and girls are usually so much in the minority on these lists.

Have you listened to my last entries?

Submit what you have and we can commiserate in the aftermath!

You and I are fighting for that spot!

You know, I can understand your hesitation as an adult beginner on the piano to participate in these "Adult Beginner" recitals. There is some seriously good talent among members here.

But these recitals are in no way a competition for best performance.

It would be hard to do that since ABF members are very diverse. There are some long time "Adult Beginners" (they're not beginners anymore ), some ABF members that used to be awesome when they were in High School but stopped playing for a few years until just recently (and are still awesome), some Adult Beginners that manage somehow to squeeze in hours of practice time per day, members that played other instruments, etc...

These ABF recitals are really a place for ABF members, regardless of their piano progression, to display what they've been working on to those that might listen - because, frankly, a lot of us practice and play piano in an environment (at home, usually) that is not willing to listen, or is not conducive to positive reinforcement or encouragement.

I've been around here for a couple of years, and I can understand one's hesitation to participate in these recitals.

But I can tell you as a listening participant, there is no greater joy than hearing a true beginner's recital submission. And honestly, it's even more incredible to hear a recital participant's progression over time through these quarterly recitals.


So, this is the place to track your progress as you get more fluent on the piano. Every 3 months take one of the pieces you are working on and play it as best you can.

You'll be amazed at the results and the encouragement you find here at the ABF

The question is, "Why shouldn't you participate?"

Not unless you both get in before me

+1

Cathy

You guys are too funny

Cathy

How can you tell which are the women here? For example, I notice that often people here assume I'm male. (I'm not.)

Hey, dude what do you mean you're a gal?!

Yeah, you can't always tell and to be honest I have never noticed any specific balance one way or the other.

Thanks for pointing that out, and you're right, I did assume you were male and have had people assume the same of me (you were one of them, come to think of it:). But a lot of people do videos for the recitals where it's obvious and they sometimes refer to their wives or girlfriends in posts (I know they could be gay, but percentage wise the chances are they are not), and I've seen/participated in enough of these recitals and ABF threads to see a lot of videos and read a lot of posts. Also I don't think its an unfair assumption to make that if a person chooses to use two traditionally female names as their handle, they are either anatomically feminine or stressing an identification with the gender that represents it.

A recital question: I'm still a very beginner but would maybe submit a piece to hear your comments about it, but I still have big problems with consistency during the pieces: Although the pieces are very short, I often make one mistake and therefore ruin the whole piece, especially when recording...
Is it ok if a submitted piece is recorded in 2 parts and then "glued" together in audio software or should the piece be played like in a "live" situation from start to beginning in one part?

ClavBoy, relax, this is not a contest.
The idea is to perform a "live" recital, where mistakes are usual (more even in begginer world). That way, we (and you) can analize your progress along the time.
But as far as I know you can do as you want.

Like BenPiano said :