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

I passed my Grade 4 RCM Exam! I got 81% and so earned First Class Honours! I have not yet received my written comments but am very interested in those as well.

Congratulations, Zoe! That sounds great... hopefully the written comments will be useful to you.

My AOTW was to get back in a playing groove and have a lesson after three weeks or so of traveling a lot to deal with a "parental health issue", during which piano time was very limited. I missed it greatly.

I have managed to play enough, though, to be able to muddle through the first half or so of Fur Elise (so I'm looking forward to hearing Andy's recital submission), and I think the last half will come along soon. But today at my lesson instead of working on that my teacher introduced me to a minuet by Purcell, which we started from scratch. I have a make-up lesson scheduled for mid-week, which I'm really looking forward to, since today seemed too short...

Still hoping to record for the ABF recital... may be a bit clunky this time given my time off, but hoping to participate nonetheless.

Zoe, first-class honours, that is fantastic.

Carlos, I am envious of the locale and the experience.

Thank you to all the others for reporting your progress. It is always good to hear, no matter how small it may seem at times. I find it almost always better to focus on the progress, rather than the setbacks and mistakes.

For my week #8, I posted to the Piano Bar thread for the first time. I submitted a piece for the ABF recital (different from the Piano Bar song). I spent some time learning D7, A7 and some other chords. Watched a video about how blues are a pentatonic scale plus one.

I attended a mini-concert by Steven VanHauwaert (Beethoven & Liszt). He gave a short history of pianos. How in Mozart's day they were almost fragile, and a person played politely. Then by Beethoven's day, the pianos were more robust and a musician could play harder. Then 50 years later, by the time Liszt was composing, composite metal was being used and pianists could lean into the music and put their back into it, if they so wished.

I started working on another cover piece. Spent considerable time working with the left hand only to learn the new chords. It doesn't feel any where near close. I remind myself that I have to start where I am.

For those who don't visit the Piano Bar, my contribution is at the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca-HZ9UAvDM

Your place reminds me of mine. Did you use my interior decorator? Something about the bottle of salad dressing in the upper right hand corner of the video.

Congratulations ZoeCalgary. A great score with honors on your first exam is fantastic. Well done!

Congrats Zoe!

Thank you all for the kind words and good wishes. I feel guilty for not being able to comment on all the other AOTW's that you all post here. Since doing my exam life became very stressful as Like Bessel I am in a very stressful parental health situation (with my father). Concentration this last week has been at an all time low. I couldn't bring myself to play. When I saw my teacher on Friday (she also teaches my son) after missing my lesson earlier in the week and putting all my future lessons on hold for now) I felt sad that I couldn't share in her excitement for me when I told her my mark. She is concerned for me that I'm not playing and she urged me to keep playing even if only for a few minutes a day. My husband showed similar concern for me earlier in the week and also urged me to play.

Finally I did play on Friday evening and after awhile I felt mysel relax for a bit. Playing brought me some peace. I realized I missed it so much. My AOTW should have really been that I got my hands on the piano again. And realizing playing is what got me to this point so I could also enjoy sharing my news about my mark.

Thanks everybody for all your support and please keep those stories and successes coming. They are motivating to me and give me great joy to read.

Zoe, let me say congratulation to you too. I'm sorry, however, that you are not able to enjoy your accomplishments because of worries about your father. I hope that playing just a bit, as your teacher and husband have encouraged you to do, will help ease your mind.

Andy and Eglantine, I've been working on ornaments, too. In my case, it's the trills in a Mozart Sonata (C Minor, 1st movement). My teacher was so helpful with simplifying it and breaking it down into the smallest part I could handle, and then adding things back in bit by bit until I could play it in my lesson. But I at home the next day, I was still struggling with it, trying to make it smooth and effortless.

As I started feeling frustrated, suddenly all the pieces I had worked on over the past 3 years came rushing to my mind. Each one had had at least one difficult part -- something that I had to work on for days and sometimes weeks -- parts that made me feel like I would never be able to play them. But with every one, what was so hard at the time, at some point became simple and clear, making me wonder how I could have found it so difficult. So I let the frustration go, trusting that time and effort would lead to the same result this time. And it worked! Within a few days, I had the notes and timing on the trills fixed and could do it without much thought or effort. I need to remember this for next time.

Oh well done, MaryBee. Isn't it funny how *every* piece has some kind of summit that must be climbed? And how even just a few days can shift everything forward a step?

I'd glad you got the ornaments fixed. Did you do the 'add a note/two notes' method (gradually building)? I now have my LH ornaments all working well, so must move forward to day to the RH: more ornaments, more types of ornaments (five!)...

Hi everyone. I am very happy to see everyone is having good progress.

I don't have any AoTW except for trying to memorize my forever lasting Rach 23-5 for my recital coming up may 19. I am not ready. i have been played two weeks - work work work (sigh). I can play through the piece but make at least 5 mistakes at the same spot. I am trying to fix them one by one. i will start recording from tomorrow night. my non achievement is spending the precious time listening to Brahms Op 5 done by my old teacher who was a concert pianist. I wish I could copy her performance and share it with you all.. She is very private and I don't think she appreciate it. I think she played the best of all the Op 5 I heard in my life. I am seriously thinking to work out some distance lesson or joining her master class in San Jose...

Zoe, bravo!

to those with loved ones with health support needs, take care of yourselves! You might find helpful www.sharethecare.org There is also an excellent step by step book for organizing a care committee of family and friends so no one gets overwhelmed..

MaryBee you mirror my week, resolving to play slowly and patiently on first part of Beethoven's Minuet in G, as you can see by my SpeedThread. That's my AOTW

Zoe, I'm sorry that your father's health is such that you're so worried and concerned. It is however, good that you realized the piano can bring you some comfort at this time.
I wish you well.

I don't know if I can count this as an achievement....... I've realized I don't like playing classic period pieces very much.
Last week my teacher assigned me a Mozart and a Diabelli - both of which I thought were charming when she played them to give me an idea of what they were... But when I have (repeatedly) sat myself down to play them, I just find myself getting irritated at the (seemingly) useless changing of fingers and the rigidity of the pieces. I know there is some point to switching fingers when repeating on the same key (but some of it is just aesthetic).... and I know it is good training, but this feeling of irritation is really strong.

I don't know if it is just the wrong moment for these pieces, or what, but I feel too cranky to play them...and I have my lesson tomorrow. sigh.

I think the achievement of the week will happen tomorrow when I discuss this more with my teacher and get some more insight into what is bugging me so much.

Cas, I might have mentioned this here before, but when I started working on a piece and then realized I really didn't like it, I talked about it with my teacher. His thought was that if I am going to spend all that time on a piece of music, I should either love it, or be learning something from it (preferably both!). It's good to realize what we like and don't like, so we can direct our energies better, but maybe give it a week or two before you decide you really don't like it. You may change your mind! (That's happened to me too.)

I had such a fun lesson last night. My teacher and I started playing through a Mozart duet that I had been learning off and on for the past few months. It is so different having another person at the keyboard with you. I kept wanting to tell him to get out of my way. Even though we made lots of mistakes (he had an excuse, since he was sight-reading his part), it sounded so awesome to hear the parts together!

Yesterday I got excited about playing the C and G scale hands together 1 octave fairly well.

I need to work on making the hand position changes totally legato but I was pleasantly surprised at how well I did with only spending a few minutes on it.

How about you listen to some performances of them to remind you how charming they are and what you are working towards?

To a certain extent I like the Czerny studies I do because I know those are focussed on technical elements and that's there point. I want to learn them there and not worry. So for repeated notes I've done a few studies and now know, when I get to them, whether I am better off taking them with one finger or two.

I got a shock the other week when I realized I had (correctly) switched fingers for a repeated note when sight reading!!! I guess I'll throw that out as my AotW

I'm sooo pumped this week.... I started Harmony lessons via Skype.. I'm on cloud 9. I've been feeling like I need to study more harmony and theory to advance past my current level and am excited to see where this takes me!!

My AOTW is not fully my own achievement, but also my teacher's. Just had a great lesson and left thinking, "he's worth every penny I pay him." Excellent.

MaryBee - it is really easy to talk to my teacher about what I like and don't like. I'm sure she'll offer me another piece to reach the same objective. She may ask me to stick with it for a few weeks, but this is not the moment for that. I've got too much stress in other parts of my life to feel pushed to work on a piece that is rubbing me the wrong way just now!

Andy - I actually did look them up and listen again - listening to them is fine, and the pieces are still charming in and of themselves - but I don't want to work at them at this time.

I know the problem is with me, not my pieces, and certainly not my teacher..... I'll talk to her tomorrow to see how we'll deal with this crankiness on my part.

It may well be that I'll come back to them in a few weeks - I've done that before with music I have initially resisted.

I think the key here is to figure out what she's aiming for interms of what I'm meant to be learning. Often I can figure it out and I've substituted pieces in the past, this time I'm not quite sure what the point is unless it is just to practice the techniques I haven't been using much.

One of the first books my teacher gave me was Czerniana - tons of exercises that really reflect "real" pieces. I loved that book. Maybe I should ask for it again - or something similar.....

MaryBee, I know what you mean about playing duets, it is so much fun!
Andy that's pretty neat that you spontaneously used the right fingering!

SAnnM-AB2001 - Learning to manage harmony could take you in so many directions - what a blast!

PianoPraise, good for you! These are the building blocks for setting a good foundation for your piano future! What satisfaction!

This week I discovered a completely new piece by John Blow: Dr Blow's Dirge in Gamutt Flatt. It's loosely based on his Ground in Gamutt Flatt.

You take his Ground in Gamutt Flatt, slow the speed right down to the bottom end of the metronome so that it sounds suitable for a funeral, while trying to figure out which ornament is which in the RH, throw in a few mis-read dotted quaver and semi-quaver timings, and Bob's your uncle.

Right, now I know what just about all the RH ornaments are and how they should be played (colour-coding them all with a highlight pen has helped), I'm going back to LH and getting that off by heart with consistent fingering... (I have learned that the bass is absolutely key in a Ground.) And doing some work on RH trills too, in an attempt to match them up to the - now half-decent - LH trills.

Cheryl - .

I don't know if this would appply to your situation, but I recall the feeling of being annoyed when I've reached places in a piece that make me feel uncomfortable for some reason. Like maybe a chord with an unusual feel or even something like a finger substitution that goes from a strong finger to a weak one (like #4). What has helped get me over these moments is realizing that there will be many such instances as the music gets more advanced and I just needed to deal with each in turn. Mozart didn't know about my idiosyncracies and weaknesses, he just wanted to write beautiful music.

If you can figure out what it is about these finger substitutions that bothers you so much, you may find yourself saying