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

so it looks like it will be 4 pianists and a violinist. The pianists besides me have been playing for ages. Oh well, the worst that happens is I completely blow it, but they're nice people so I think they'll be understanding and supportive. This is happening a week from Sunday. I'll let you know how it goes.

ZRTF90 - Thank you for the compliment on my Mozart K545 andante performance. It was error free, which is a first for me for something this long.

I will try to answer your question "Would you mind explaining to me what you mean by a 'small' hand position?"

The best place to learn it is with scales. The hand stays rather compact in width as it moves up and down the keyboard instead of stretching across the palm. The arm does the moving instead of reaching with the fingers. On an Alberti base that covers an octave, the arm moves a little and wrist rotates a little instead of widening the hand. On Alberti in the five position, the fingers barely move. A slight rotation of the wrist does it all. The key is to keep the fingers very close to the keys. The arm movement for larger movements originates at the shoulder, and it takes very little. I hope this makes sense! It is hard to verbalize.

Yes, that makes sense to me now, contracted hand position, playing with wrist rotation instead fingers. Thank you.

MaryAnn it sounds like you're going to have a great music party!

Teodor - you're working so hard -and seeing such good results. I hope we get to hear the 4 hands by the Bulgarian composer! In boca al lupo for your exams! (That's Italian for "break a leg" !)

I had a nice lesson today -and started working on Gymnopedie 1. What weird hand movements! But such a delicious sound. When I showed it to my teacher she said "Oh, you've picked something easy for a change?" with a twinkle in her eye.
We also reviewed a rough spot in the Chopin, which I have not abbandonded. She told me again that she never imagined I'd be able to get so far on it so quickly. I felt very pleased.

That's a tough piece CAS ... but very satisfying. Phrasing the melody but keeping it p is tough - as is making the left hand chords quiet enough that the melody can float over. I haven't got it to where I will record it for posterity yet.

Go for it!!!

Well my teacher seems very happy with the Blow. As a 'beginning'.

He's suggested I shorten the trills to 6 rather than 8 notes. And relaxing. And, as I already know, my LH trill is so much better. But then I'm a leftie. I need to even them up.

My trills are terrible. I'm gonna put a lot of work into them when I get back to my grand piano. It's hard to improve much on them when you practice on a DP

I took the ABRSM Grade 7 exam in early May--and discovered I am terrible at (1) clapping back rhythms; and (2) playing scales/arpeggios with hands separately.
I don't have the marks back yet, so perhaps it's premature for me to begin practicing for Grade 8 ...
But since the pieces appeal to me, I have started:
Bach: Prelude & Fugue in B Flat Major from WTC 1
Mozart: Sonata in D, K. 284 (1st movement)
I'm not sure whether to play Debussy's "Valse Romantique" or Chopin's "Nocturne in B, Op. 32, No. 1". (The big leaps in the Debussy concern me--I'm trying to improve my overall accuracy), but on the other hand, I'm not sure I will remember all the fine details of the Chopin ...
Anyway, there's a section in the Mozart with a lot of hand crossings. My achievement of the week is to play it at tempo with no errors. Mozart is so hard! There can't be any errors at all!
I'm hoping that, when the new exam syllabus comes out in July, I don't get tempted to change pieces. I memorize very quickly since I use Braille music and have to have both hands free in order to play anything. But learning what it feels like to play the piece properly--especially if it contains lots of big leaps or crossing hands--takes a lot longer. The number of correct repetitions required to make the movements automatic is pretty high.

DottedNotes, congratulations on your success with the Mozart! I bet it sounds wonderful.

I've been practicing for clapbacks on the US equivalent to ABRSM, and if yours are anything like ours, (and if ours are like the practice materials), then they're supremely HORRID! All you get is a vague meandering monotone melody that makes no harmonic sense, no rhythmic sense, and has no accents to help you find the beat. And you only hear it twice. I can't imagine when any musician would need to do something like that, unless perhaps they suddenly landed on Mars and their life depended on clapping back some wierd bit of Martian music that they had heard briefly, that was used as a secret password to escape from imminent execution.

But then, perhaps they are just trying to make sure that all those astronaut musicians are well-prepared.

Hi friends, i had the end of the year recital at my teachers studio. I played Rach 23-5. I thought I did horrible. The only thing I can be proud of is that I somehow played it through. I had a couple of memory losses in the middle of the piece. I did not stop this time. When i had the first memory lapse I sort of filled in g minor arpeggios (since this is a g minor piece) and navigated couple of measures where I can restart. Second time I had it, I filled in with g minor code like a coda and went back to the beginning of the C section this time playing it a bit louder like a crescendo. My teacher must have been rolling her eyes. The funny thing was that no one else knew what a horrible thing I did (I trashed Rachmaninoff's work) except my teacher. A couple of high school and college kids came to me and said that it was great and they immediately recognized what piece that was... (LOL).

Anyway, I felt good that it was over, feeling like a kid who just had a final exam. I went shopping immediately after that and bought tons of clothing. Picked up some sushi and wine on the way back. My husband and I finished 2 whole bottles. He told me he was really glad I went shopping before I had wine. God knows how much more I would have spent! My teacher and I decided to polish up this piece a bit more (no wonder why), so I will keep my word and record this soon. Happy playing:)

FarmGirl - Congratulations!

I know you folks who play classical music like to be pretty much on target, but for me life is all about moving targets, and to able to play/improvise when the floor is falling out from under you (to mix my analogies) like you did, and to do it so expertly! - is the name of the game. What a great thing to be able to do! I think that is true talent, hard work, and being right in the moment. Very, very, cool. And you kept your cool, too. Perfect. Just perfect.

Will - hm, the names - Emily and ? - play in the next recital?

Cathy

Farmgirl:
In a way, I think it's much more impressive to play through a memory lapse in such a way that most of the audience doesn't notice than to play through a piece perfectly. In the former case (which you did), you are creating something on the spot and under extreme duress, while in the latter case you are just going through a set of motions rehearsed beforehand.

Because I don't know the piece, I bet I'd have been one of the audience members who remained unaware that a mistake had even been made. Major kudos to you!

Way to think on your feet FarmGirl! I think pulling yourself out of imminent disaster is quite an accomplishment. To keep your wits and improvise on the spot is the sign of a true musician. I bet instead of rolling her eyes, your teacher was proud of you! Since you received compliments from the "big" kids, it sounds like your performance was great. Congratulations!

Welcome Brucepiano --- yes, isn't it funny how something seems so "obvious" once we finally twig to what has to be done!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY EGLANTINE
Hope you had a super day!
(I tried posting yesterday but there were some problems with the site!!)

I'm a leftie too - so far I haven't noticed any significant difficulties because of this. Mind you....my pieces don't compare to what you're working on!!

Thanks for the encouragement Andy - I am working on the first 20 bars or so..... It is so very nifty to feel this music coming to life under my fingertips. I think working on the Chopin really set me up well for moving to this piece, as I've really got to use the pedal and make some pretty big "leaps".

Same Rose, I'm sure it won't take you long to improve your trills once you start really working on them. Given what you've been able to achieve so far in such a short time, I'm sure you'll be trilling circles around us in no time.

Welcome Dotted Notes. I find big leaps challenging too - and I can see what I'm doing. I did a google search for braille music to see what it looked like. I saw a simple example of half notes and quarter notes, with one sharp and could not help but wonder how complicated some of the pieces you are playing must look.
I suppose, like anything, you learn it gradually - but still - nothing like having an extra dimension to cope with when learning! Congrats on your exam and good luck for the next one. Both the Debussy and the Chopin are beautiful pieces - radically different, but beautiful. It will be interesting to see which one you choose.

FarmGirl - As the others have said - way to go with a recovery on your memory lapse.!! I would love to be able to be that flexible at the keyboard to just "fill in" until I remembered. I bet your teacher was not rolling her eyes at all, but impressed that you kept going!

SwissMS - 6 weeks without lessons - :(((((( I'm going to have something similar this summer and I am NOT looking forward to it. Nice to be back into your routine, isn't it?

I managed to play the first part of my Chopin at a really nice tempo this morning - of course as soon as I hit the first repeat I couldn't keep up the pace, but this is significant progress and I'm very pleased.
I just realized in the Gymnopedie 1 there is a 4 note chord near the end - I can stretch the octave to get the 2 d notes, but I can't play 2 notes inbetween I'm going to have to give up one of them I think.....:(

Thanks Casinitaly. It was a lovely day, still in recovery...

Farmgirl, I look forward to the day when I have the skill and presence of mind to be able to pull that off. Well done.

Sam, good luck with those trills. My teacher suggested trilling the 8-note trills with either 4 notes or 6 notes to start, depending on note value and/or place in the piece. That may help me even up the right-hand and left-hand trill too.

Way to get through it FarmGirl.

For my week #10, I had what might be considered my public debut at Songmakers, a Southern California music group. Songmakers is a fantastic peer-to-peer music group to look up for those in the area. I'll write about my preparation and performance, in a separate post later. The short report is I stumbled through two pieces, had a self-described "train wreck" on a third, played two others with only minor errors. Overall, a success.

I am overwhelmed by the talent and time put into the ABF virtual recital. I thank the many members that are taking the considerable time and patience to listen and comment on every piece, many performed by beginner beginners like me. Congrats to all those participating on the virtual recitals and on this thread. Again, what seems like a small bit of progress may be a big step for someone else.

For my next project, I am working on Asohokan Farewell (made popular by the PBS TV Series on the Civil War). Progress feels slow and frustrating. The four finger chords (A7 Bm7 Em7 D7) sometimes bring me to a halt while I have to look and reposition. With the pain in the hands from two weeks ago, I am often practicing with gloves on and trying to limit actual practice time to 30 minutes to an hour. It takes what seems like forever to do one play through at 1/4 or 1/8 speed.

Thanks again, and again kudos for continuing to progress and reporting that progress. I believe that hearing from others encourages all of us.

Cathy, Sam R, Cheryl, Eglantine and Sand Tiger, thank you for your kind words and happy birthday to you Eglantine. Now I can indulge in non-classic too:) I played pieces from King's speech. It seems like my struggle with the Rach piece had some positive effect on playing. It became significantly easier to add dynamics. I could be just dreaming too.

I still have to polish the Rach piece while resuming the 3rd movement from Sonata Pathetique. It's a long time before i can work on my new pieces. Sam I know you are already enjoying the Ballade #1. That's one of my new pieces along with Bach English Suite. I think it's a stretch for me to play the Ballade but my teacher is firm on this... I have to add Chopin to my long list of composers that I did not do justice to... Hope they all forgive me.

I can't wait to hear how you play Ballade no 1! I especially want to hear how you play the soft delicate sections, because you have such a nice touch. The fast sections take SO much practice to get right, it's almost unbelievable. The presto section is just now, after MONTHS of playing it (I'm talking like FIVE months!), starting to really fall under my fingers easily. I'm at the point where I can play at a very fast tempo while playing every note very softly if I want to. Of course, much of it needs to be very loud, but having the control to play it softly is how I know that I really have it, and I can let the phrases take shape as I play. I'm really looking forward to finishing the piece and recording it for an upcoming recital (either August or the following one).

Keep up the hard work FarmGirl!!

If it's where I think it is, the answer is to redistribute the notes between the two hands, so LH and RH each take some notes. If you let me know which measure/chord it is, I can tell you how I divided it.