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I'm looking at the score now, and I'm confused. The only D-D octave I see is the very last chord; if that's the chord you meant, then contrary to what I said, I am taking that entirely with the RH. Did you mean that chord, or some other chord?

Sam I cannot wait to hear your Chopin. You are so talented. 5 months is lightening fast. Mine will take much longer. When I can start, I will ask your advice, kind of like what to watch out for etc.

I appreciate the confidence, but you overestimated me. It took 5 months for me to get just the presto section (the coda) under my fingers. I've been chipping away at this piece since a couple months after I started trying to learn piano in 9/2010. It wasn't hard to learn the notes (and it gets easier as I learn more), but to get it up to speed and musical is just SO SO difficult for a beginner to do, so it took a long time. It's still not 100%. I think having a real grand to practice on (which I'll have when I get home) will accelerate my technical and musical development a huge amount, so I'm looking forward to that a lot. I'm going to have to find a new teacher though

Casinitaly, you can do the four-finger chord, just be very careful. I've had a number of I-just-can't-possibly-ever-no way-never play this chord experiences, and each time I was wrong. Slow and easy was the key for me--only a couple of attempts the first few days, then keep trying it every day until the impossible became the possible. But don't hurt your hand.

My AOTW was getting some (sort of) fast and smooth right hand runs on the measure 21 arpeggio in Waltz in A Minor. I could even do it without looking. I'm finding the left hand E, E-B-D much harder, even though it's a "simple" broken chord.

In reverse order

Stubbie - I do have to be caeful because I have had problems with tendonitis and trigger finger (which was almost cured til I had a big job on the computer recently). As the chord is at the end I can hold off for a bit, experiement and seek my teacher's advice on how best to position my hand. For the moment,...it hurts so I don't do it!

I've got the killer arpeggio in N21 so that I get it right maybe 7 times out of 10. Do you mean you find the E, EBD that you play at the same time as the arpeggio is hard? In and of itself, I don't find it too bad, it is only when I have to do the arpeggio with it ....I want to be looking in both spots!

Sam R - There may be a bit of overestimating of your skills on our part, but there's also a bit of underestimating on yours You've been working on a very complicated piece for a 4 months. I've been working on a relatively simple piece (note, relatively!!!) for 3.5 and I'm still not ready to perform.

Piano Student - ys, I'm taling about the last chord, and also the second last chord which is C-C octave with 2 notes in between. I've also found bars 24, 25 & 26 a bit uncomfortable. I think I'm going to have to wait until this flair up of hand pain has settled down before I work on those parts.
Fortunately I know from experience that the source of the problem is the computer, not the piano, but one suffers from the other.

Farm Girl - what is the music from the King's Speech? I have no doubt that your work on Rach has carried over to have a positive effect on your playing in other areas! Isn't it exciting? I can see that my work on the Chopin piece really opened up a whole new dimension of playing.

Sand Tiger - your music group sounds wonderful! Sharing what we're doing here is fun, and encouraging, but nothing like playing with others in person. I agree with you about how wonderful the virtual recitals are - and what is really super is how much attention and encouragement is offered to really new pianists. I've recently had another listen to my first submitals and think.. wow, I really should thank everyone again for sitting through those pieces!

Yesterday I was just goofing around and trying out Fly Me To the Moon (from the same Dan Coats 50 Jazz favourites JimF has) and I was playing with adding in some extra notes in the left hand. In a way it was quite a mess, but in another way I felt like there was at least a sense of what I was hoping to achieve and it was a tiny baby step that amused me.

I'm sorry to hear about the hand pain. I hope it goes away soon.

Measure 24, 25, and 26 I divide between the hands. The top note of each four note chord in the RH and the bottom three notes in the LH. I do the same thing at mm. 30, 31, and 36. Then similarly in the second half of the piece in mm. 63, 64, 65, 68, 69, 70, 71 and 75.

However, the four note chords in the last two measures of each half (mm. 38, 39, 77, 78) I take fully in the RH.

CAS, absolutely, if it hurts, don't do it!

What I meant about the left hand E, E-B-D is that--for some reason--landing the EBD is not yet smooth for me and I have a noticeable hesitation. I know it's something that will smooth out with practice, but still--irritating.

Today's (tonight's) practice was on the perfunctory side--out all day hiking and saw my first male and female collared lizard. Quite spectacular! The lizards, not my practice.

Don't worry, I went through months of only being able to play a little bit and lots of discomfort - I'm not going there again! Caution is the word!!!

For the e-b-d- I found that once my right hand could go on its own without me looking , if I could focus on the B and land on it, the rest fell into place.
This is one of the situations where I practiced the left hand with my eyes shut, trying to get the spacial distances set in my mind's eye so to speak.

Lizards, good fun! I like lizards. When I had my dp, it was set up near the balcony doors, and one afternoon I had a little lizard on the balcony. I swear he was listening to me. Over the next several afternoons I ended up with 3 lizards, and it seemed they had come over for the "concert" - it was hilarious. It was very clear that they were listening, by the way they were moving their heads. I wish I'd filmed them.

I also had my teacher's annual recital this past Sunday. It was held at a local country club, with maybe one hundred in the audience. There were a couple dozen participants, including five adults. This was my second recital......if you all remember I had a pretty rough crash and burn last year.

I am relieved to say it went a lot better this time around, playing Edward MacDowell's Beauty in the Rosegarden from his Forgotten Fairytales collection. I started out well but almost immediately had a finger slip that landed one-half step off. This was followed (quite smoothly I would say) with a series of about five incorrect notes/chords (all off the same half-step). I knew they were wrong as I played them and was just wracking my brain to recover... whew! Finally got it back on track to finish the first section nicely. The second, hardest section, was actually almost error free, and the third and final section only had a minor slip or slop in one place.

I was disappointed that I'd blown the beginning, the easiest part that I'd had no trouble with at all, because otherwise it might have been a very good performance. I sat next to a friend of my teacher who also teaches piano and she told me she was unfamiliar with the piece and except for my facial expression hadn't know the early part was off. I think she was just being kind, but I got the message. She also reminded me that this is a pretty hard piece (Jane Magrath's book has it at level 7 or 8) for someone who couldn't read a note less than three years ago. And she's right about that, it was a bit of a stretch for me.

The big positive was that I didn't stop, even though it was very painful to play those wrong notes. I was nervous just like last year but it felt like a different kind of nervous....this time I could still think and felt very aware of everything that was happening. The big thing was that I could still hear the music playing in my head. I think that is what got me back on track.

All in all it was a positive experience, and one that I hope I can improve on again next year.

Jim, I would indeed call that a positive experience.

Being able to recover - and keep playing all the while --- that is (as we all told FarmGirl!!!!) really good control of your nerves and concentration. It means you've studied well, and practiced in an efficient manner.

I had not realized you'd never read music before you started playing piano about 3 years ago!
My hat is off to you again!

I'm glad you walked away from the experience feeling that overall it was a success. If you manage to get in more playing in front of folks over this coming year, you'll be even more comfortable at your next recital.

100 people? Yikes. That's quite a lot.

Will we get to hear your pieces? I hope so!

Well done - ...

Wow, go away for a few days and it take two pages of reading to catch up.

FarmGirl - Congrats on the recital. I wish I had the presence of mind to create my own little breathing room like you did. That really shows that you are becoming a musician I think. And I sure know what you mean about being glad it is over....we took off immediately on a two day jaunt to Disney and Universal...nothing like immersing youself in childlike fantasy for a few days to come down off that pre-recital tension.

MaryAnne - Can't wait for the report on your get-together. One benefit I forgot to mention...you get to listen to other people making beautiful sounds come out of your piano. For me that was a totally new experience.

DottedNotes - I don't really understand the exam thing, but those are some beautiful pieces you have to look forward to. I hope we'll hear about your progress along the way.

Eglantine - Happy belated Birthday, sorry I missed it.

SandTiger - Ashokan Farewell is one of my favorites and I too have worked on it from a fakebook from time to time. It is a shame you have to fight through an injury while working on this.... I'm curious why a glove would help things?

Cheryl - Good for you taking on Gymnopedie 1, such a beautiful piece. I know you will work your way in carefully to those 4 note chords until at some point we'll be marveling at how easy and relaxed they seem.

The thing about those arrangements is how often you hit a chord or series of notes that just sounds soooooooo sweet...it almost pulls you up short as you luxuriate in the rich tones. And, yes, you can almost just feel those extra, extemporaneous notes in-between at times. There is another book with nice easier jazz arrangements that PW's Legal Beagle turned me on to. Here's the amazon link Best Jazz Standards Ever - Hal Leonard for Easy Piano (I can only attest that the arrangements are mostly nice in the Easy Piano version...there is a guitar/vocals/piano version that I don't know about.
Compared to the Coates book these are just a hair easier...with the major difference being a little less movement of the left hand.

Thanks for the link Jim - I checked out the book. (Love the "look inside" feature on Amazon!!)

There are a few songs I'd enjoy having but some are repeats I have in other books.... and I already have so.many.books. lol.

On a different note (pun fully intended) I truly wonder if I've hit a "skills level" wall on my Chopin piece.
I feel that I just can't get it any better at this point.
Technicallly - I can play all the notes (most memorized) I can play the mordents and the trills -but somehow putting it all together just doesn't work.
The pedal work sounds ok when I'm in silent (digital) mode but when I move to the full acoustic it sounds muddy to me.
I'm finding it hard to understand if (at this point in time) I really can get it to be any better.
My teacher is already more than pleased with my progress - and in many ways I'm extremely pleased - but I wonder..is this just a temporary plateau or is it as far as I can go right now?

More food for thought, and the first question of the day when I have my lesson this week.

So I noticed the subject had turned to popular music and standards, so I thought I jump and share an experience I had in choosing one for my next recital song, the discovery of which, besides being an achievement in itself lead me to two more technical ones this week.

I had already decided on a song for the recital and was at the library looking through an anthology for a song I could do at the Bar next month, when I notice the title of a song I had all but forgotten but which I vaguely remember being wonderful. I thought about taking the book out but let the impulse pass and left it on a library table. Well, the next day, I turned on the TV to the old movie station and they played the song in the opening credits of the movie that was beginning. I watched a little of the movie but couldn't get the song out of my head, so I turned it off and went on youtube and searched for a piano and vocal cover of the song. I found a few of each, mostly from the seventies and eighties. Well, the next day I returned to the library and the book wasn't on the shelf. My husband, the librarian and I searched for almost an hour trying to find it but finally gave up. When I got home, I looked for a free chord chart online but I could only find one site that had printable sheet music for sale. I was just amazed that such a wonderful song was pretty much forgotten and unsung today.

I didn't want to pay three dollars for sheet music so I took the sample which contained only a small portion of the song on the first page and figured out the rest by ear. I was amazed I coud do this because it contained a ton of slash chords, and in the past when I've tried to do this, I'm usually not successful because the progression isn't as clear as when there are mostly root chords. I was able to sing and play basic accompaniment for the song, including the intro which is my favorite piano part of the song, in a few hours.

I'm thrilled. Not only because it led to my discovering that my ear and accompaniment skills were developing but because it fits the theme I wanted to use for the recital much better than my original song did.

Isn't a temporary plateau just that - as far as you can go right NOW? I think it is. Give it time, and make sure you play it every so often, and it will mature slowly, like a fine wine

I agree with Sam. Surely if you can play the hard bits on their own, you'll get it to all come together in time.

JimF, your recital experience sounds great! Congratulations!

Starr Keys, that is a great achievement. Now you have me curious about which song it is!!!
Are you going to tell?



lol.... of course that IS what a temporary plateau is. I expressed myself poorly.
You and MaryAnn are right of course,...I have to give it time. I've already made more progress than was expected of me by my teacher --- but you know the trouble with being an adult beginner is that we have high expectations for ourselves!
I did think that I'd be able to polish it more if I kept at it, and that just isn't happening. I shouldn't be complaining because I've seen loads of overall progress. I'm just so keen to play this piece well, and I've put so many hours into it, I'm having trouble being patient.

I'll work on it. (hmm, that's ambiguous, isn't it? I guess I'll work on BOTH - my patience and the piece!

Thanks, CasinItaly. I'm afraid if I did it would be too much of a temptation for someone who is a quicker study and has a better voice to do the song before I post it in August and then my performance would just bore everyone. Besides, there was so much serendipity involved in my discovering it. If I hadn't turned the tv on just when I did or looked carefully enough at a table of contents...It seems to have had my name one it:)

Ok, I can understand those feelings You'll just have to tell us when you've posted it! Have fun!

Of course, thanks for your interest. With this kind of luck, maybe it will be the first time I'm closer to #1 than #50

That would be great!

I think I was n.11 once, but that's the lowest. It's a killer when you're near the end and just dying for someone to listen to you, isn't it?

I've got my eye on my August piece now, and even, fingers crossed (--oops, no, that's a very bad idea lol...) my November piece!