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Nice to have so many choices! Try them all, and see which you like best.
Ha ha! That's how I got started with my lessons. I was learning so much sitting in on my daughter's lessons, I felt compelled to finally get some lesson time for myself.

Your traveling must have really taken it out of you. Nice that you're able to concentrate again. That makes a big difference. I recently listened to a Glenn Gould recording of a Mozart sonata that I'm working on, and I hated it! The tempo was extremely slow, the articulation did not follow the score at all, and his humming along with the music was distracting. I haven't listened to enough of his other recordings to make a judgement, but that one did not please me.

That's quite a skill -- to be able to make your own arrangement of a piece, and especially nice to be able to suit yourself. I hope we can hear it in a future recital.

Getting ready for Christmas already? It looks like a couple people on the forum are starting to work on their carols. Both of these are pretty and should be fun to work on. And really, you can almost play Silent Night as slowly as you'd like, and it still will sound good.

Oh, because for most of my life I would dread change and try to avoid any situation that was different from what I was used to. I think I'm finally started to grow up and am able to actually enjoy those things now.

The lessons will be after January, so I'll let you guys know how they go. I'm wondering how much you can learn in three 45-minute lessons. Enough to make any kind of difference? I'm thinking that even just getting an awareness of what singing is supposed to involve would be worthwhile.

Bessel. No I don't have a new piano. I was referring to someone else's new piano ( sorry I cannot look it up since I would lose what I typed so far - on an iPhone now).

AtallGuyNH and MaryBee, I think I need to buy a CD for Brahms's recorfing. It's hard to find recording in my iPhone. I don't have my personal laptop any more . Santa told me that I can get an iPad for Christmas. I am trying to articulate with my left hand more. I would like to play the repeat differently with my left hand projected more. I would like to hear how others might have done it. Also after the repeat, there is an interesting section. It almost looks like Brahms inserted a chorus. So far I'm amazed how differently each person is playing the piece. TallGuy, I'm intending to play this in the Piano party iny house next January along with Bach P&F f minor from Book II. Not sure if we record the whole thing at the party. I will see what I can do between now and then.

MaryBee, good luck with your voice lessons. I took a voice lesson once but did not last more than that. I realized I also have to do scales and other technical exercises every day. I guess I developed phobia for scales and exercises.

AotW: Submitting to the ecital!

This week coming up ... my first taste of jury duty. Unfortunately it's at our local county courthouse, not a top class piano festival jury. Sigh, next time ...

FarmGirl, when I got to the point where I wanted to listen to a lot of different performances of a piece, I ended up going to Spotify. It's sometimes difficult to find good quality YouTube versions, and I couldn't afford to buy as many CDs as I would need to in order to sample all the different versions of a piece. If you wanted to use it on your iPhone, I think you couldn't use the free version, unfortunately. But I ended up going with the paid subscription anyway, because I didn't like the ads, and I wanted to be able to download the music to my iPod and take it with me.

Andy, have fun with jury duty. I did my first jury duty a few years ago, and it was a real learning experience for me.

I just nailed Good king w (alfred's one) at 112 bpm! YAHOOO!!!!

I'm starting to love my metronome.

Nice, BeccaBb

Singing that in my head that sounded like rocket speed; then I realized I was counting it in cut time and your sheet music is probably in 4/4!

MaryBee
I just signed up for it. This program is fantastic. Its amazing that I never heard of it. I so far likes Murray Prahia (spelling?). Thank u

MaryBee - very cool you are going to have some voice lessons. I bet you can get something worthwhile even from just a few lessons! Do let us know how they go!

TallGuy, I'm going to have to sit and listen to the piece several times to refresh my memory! I'm sitting here trying to remember how it starts! ack!

Bessel! You'd best make up your mind and start recording my dear!
(I find for the first time ever, I'm tempted to re-record and re-submit! I've had a lesson since I recorded and something just "clicked"... but I don't know if I have the time and energy to make a new version! Nonetheless, it is interesting that I'm even considering it!)

I looked up Spotify but it isn't available to folks here in Italy! grr.

Andy --- I've never done jury duty --- I hope it isn't too deadly boring for you!
Congrats on getting the recording submitted (I'm right behind you in the lineup!)

BeccaBb --- good for you!!!

I spent this evening going through my Christmas book and having a blast. My husband has been humming Christmas tunes since I stopped! Too funny!

I finally have an accomplishment to share here!

I got a keyboard to use at work (the parent organization bought it for me!) and I've been singing a little bit with the kids at school. (I am the speech-language pathologist at a school for kids with autism).

Song for November:
Gray squirrel, Gray squirrel, swish your bushy tail!
Gray squirrel, Gray squirrel, swish your bushy tail!
Wrinkle up your little nose/Pick a nut up with your toes!
Gray squirrel, Gray squirrel, swish your bushy tail.

Today, one kid who normally doesn't even talk sang along with me!

Full disclosure: I only play C major chord as the accompaniment, so there is room for improvement.

Well, so you can hear on your iPhone, links to my favorite versions:
#4 Kissin (jump to 2:01): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y3MypevjcA
#3 Cory Hall: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=985bRbxl1SM
#2 Guevara: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQPwiR4PKfs
#1 kamibambiraptor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L7PHV8MdUQ

Part of the appeal of the last one is definitely the tonal intimacy of the recording and the piano itself. It feels and sounds like I'm sitting right next to him in a wicker chair in a small and somewhat rumpled living room, so unlike a concert performance in a grand hall. It suits the piece so nicely.

It's a shame he only has 700+ views on this, but he has over 6 million views overall for his work, which is incredibly impressive.

aTallGuyNH,
Thank you for all the link above. I listened to them after I listened to professional recording for Murray Prahia et al via Spotify. Although I love Murray's best I appreciated different interpretation and sounds. For example I agree with overall shaping in Kissin. I wish i could hear it in a better recording I still like Gould's sparkling sounds but I did not like his interpretation of rhythm. But I liked his very clean execution of 32nd notes followed by a dotted 16th which are sprinkled throughout the piece. Many emphasized left hand part second time in the famous repeat to a different degree. It was also very good to hear that the part comes before the repeat, where the melody line comes on my 4th and 5th fingers in my left hand, many connected it to the recurring theme very well. It made sense to me. I grinned thinking about my own poor playing there. I really did not understand why i had to emphasize those notes there. Murray did it incredibly well and moved me. His playing so sensitive, clean and yet emotional. Even the top note of the chord ABF#B in the last page was effective.

IMHO I did not think so much of the last recording. Maybe because the recording equipment, the recording did not sound clear. I also don't think this take is his final one. If I may dare say (ignoring how bad I am), I'm afraid if some of the chords might not have been played together, timining could have been a bit off and he seems to hit a couple of wrong notes. However, having said that, he definitely plays much better than me. In fact everyone on Yutube does. So it doesn't really matter what I say:). I appreciate you getting the video. It was very educational.

Aww that's cute re the child malkin- well done! I like grey squirrels as well- they are funny. I used to have one I called Nutkin climb up to my window in a place I used to live and I would give him peanuts. I'll always miss him.

AOTD... played reeeeeaaaaally slowly, to the point where my daughter started doing super slow motion ballet moves to go along with Clair de Lune (which for the record I have absolutely no business playing, but I love it, so I'm trying). She was being silly and I think making fun of me a bit too. She was very cute though and I was glad that my practice really was as dramatically slower as I thought it was!

Hi,

My AOTW is being able to play very slow and musical. Not yet good, but there's a start. It's so difficult. I hear my teacher doing it, so I know it's possible.

My teacher lets me play pieces that are too difficult, because I like it. She did the same when she was a kid. She says I will learn from it anyways.

To learn such a piece needs a different approach. And my teacher guides me. Not to stress when something is impossible to do it right. Playing the piece very slow and musical, because there is no way I will play it faster. Being happy with the result, although it doesn't sound as it should. It's so much fun to do.

I play Chopin op 10 no 12 half way and just starting with Bach's BWV 847 wtc 1, prelude 2. Those pieces will last forever, so I can go back anytime in the future and practise again. My confidence is bigger now to tackle any piece with the right attitude. Next will be Chopin balade no 1.

As if my Christmas wishlist comes true.

Great Chris! Chopin ballade next-

I had my piano lesson and my teacher said my sight reading has really improved and my timing- said whatever I have been doing is working and to keep at it! Part of it is down to his teaching methods and part of it the help I have got on this brilliant forum.

Week 36: I performed at my local Songmakers hoot. I did two tunes, Shimmer, which I did for the recital, and December Rain. Both are on my blog:
http://sandtigerpiano.blogspot.com/
(same as the piano_uploads signature link).

December Rain is under Five Easy Pieces and one of my early compositions. I received several compliments, especially for Shimmer, which to me feels like my best compositional work to date.

I kept a decent practice schedule of about 20 minutes a day. I made some progress on God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman and Silent Night. I can play them slow, like 1/3 regular tempo.

The big news on ABF is the release of the recital. I again remind folks that the recital participants are a self-selective group. Perhaps only 1% of those that regularly read the forum uploaded a contribution. On most Internet forums there are ten readers for every person that posts, and of those that post, not everyone uploaded. So if a person is comparing, they are likely comparing to the above average group. Those less sure of themselves tend not to share their music.

Thanks for all the reports. Keep at it. Small progress is progress. Rarely are there huge leaps for any of us.

My teacher insisted that I take a sticker for "Jelly Bean Rag!"