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I posted below in MOYD thread by mistake (thanks CAS)

My AotW is that I practiced a lot this week since I am at home. I am also indulging in the PW just because I can. Next week I am in Connecticut and the week after I am in Salt Lake City. So, I suppose I do the best I can when and where I can.

I hope I can survive the winter. On top of 12 hours a day I work, I am participating a piano ensemble next year since they don't have enough people, working on another duet piece (Morzart D major for 4 hands), my pieces: the 2nd movement of Pathetique and Rach 23-5 and started to sight read my next piece: Chopin Ballard #1 with healthy dose of technique (Hanon #49, scales and arps). Oh, I forgot the Christmas music. My teacher is sort of nuts about Christmas songs... She hand pick the right piece for each one of us and don't let us quit playing it until we bring it to performance level - I was playing the christmas music until February last year (sigh). Fortunately, this year she picked Ave Maria arranged by Dan Coates. It is beautiful and the BEST PART is it's only 4 pages!!!!! I was determined to say "No I won't play a christmas music this year" but could not do that. How can you do that. She already downloaded the piece, put my name on the folder and told me that it took me a lot to find the version she wanted for me.

Marybee, how's your Pathetique movement #2 is going? It's so beautiful, isn't it? I'm trying my best to keep the inner voices under control so that I won't destroy the calm, peacefulness and grace included in the piece. My teacher and I had a good laugh today. I put the four pages on the piano since I totally rely on it. Somehow page 3 and 4 was swapped and I started playing page 4 right after page 2. She also exaggerated the way I played the inner voices Hahaha. It's a good piece for me since I tend to get heavy handed. My husband is delighted with the piece since it's less intruding to his TV viewing compared with the first movement.

Recaredo, good luck with those two bars! If you could play them, you could play the whole piece. I did that piece a year ago, so I can exactly feel with your process. It didn't turn out that well for me though. I learned to play the notes, but it wasn't very musical. What was I thinking then with one year playing piano, lol. So I dropped it. Maybe in the future.

It's a very beautiful piece. A fine dark piece for your repertoire. Bite into those 2 measures like a pitbull. You CAN!

Eh, Farmgirl? Playing a christmas song from september to february? Well, good that's Ave Maria then, a piece you really like!

Optimistic, chopin op 10 no 12 is my most favorite piece! It's really a master piece!! But very difficult. I think I know why you choose that nick.

Carlos, I just listened to Monday. Very beautiful. I put it on my want-to-do-list. But it's a very long list.

Chris

FarmGirl, it sounds like you have a lot on your plate! That's a lot of work (both work-work and piano-work), but you are enthusiastic about it, so I'm sure you'll do great.

Pathetique is coming along. As I mentioned before, I'm doing something different with this piece, in that I'm trying to memorize it as I learn it. My learning is about a page ahead of my memorizing, but I've got the exposition almost memorized. At my lesson yesterday, my teacher noticed that I had started writing in chords in the development section (to help myself understand what was going on), so he started walking me through a harmonic analysis (some of which was beyond me). Now my assignment for next week is to finish analyzing the rest of the development as best I can. Whew! But I'm getting comfortable with the notes, and next week we're going to start concentrating more on the "musicality".

I had earlier decided that I was only going to learn the 2nd movement, but now that I've read/played through the entire movement, when I get to the end, I almost feel compelled to go on to the 3rd movement.

Recaredo - congrats on getting through those couple of bars! I've only looked at that piece a little, and that's definitely the toughest spot. It's the emotional climax of the piece too, which makes it even harder to sound right. Good luck!

Thanks everybody for your kind words and advices! They are very much appreciated.

Cheers.

Be thankful we have not switched to the decimal system - a 1/16 note seems a lot easier to play than a .0625 note.

Wow, I like your approach. I know it's ideal to memorize but at this point, I would rather like to go to the 3rd movement and finish the entire sonata. I have worked on the 1st movement for a long time and honestly, I am now getting how to call it, sort of "Pathetique fatigue". I would like to complete the entire sonata to the best of my current ability and move on to a different piece. I still love this piece but I would like to see something entirely different (My gosh, I sound like a promiscuous man!). I have no doubt that this is going to be one of the pieces I would revisit and brush it up again, perhaps when I have more understanding in theory.

My AOTW was my lesson yesterday. My teacher learned me to make first a mental musical image of the measure I want to learn. Then make a mental muscle image in my head. Listen to my musical image and then perform the muscle image. And then later string a few measures to a bigger musical image.

That clicked! Before I was too worry playing what note each time, consuming too much time in play. Now I start movements earlier, play more beautiful.

She said also to relax more after playing a note. I should feel a wooosj of relaxement. That wooosj did the trick. The mental image of wooosj is very easy.

So playing with musical and muscle image and the wooosj thingy, did me enjoy so much more. I feel it while playing. Me so happy.

Chris

That sounds like a neat idea to try. Congrats on feeling more relaxed

Had my lesson last night and it went well. I'm almost finished Fur Elise. I can play the whole thing, but the fast part still isn't up to speed. I'll be happy to put it behind me in a few weeks.

She helped me work out a better ending to the Christmas piece I'm doing. I like it.

Then she helped me get the fingering worked out for the beginning of Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. Couldn't figure out how to work my hand up. Got it now. Hope this one goes quickly. I like it, but I don't love it.

Love seeing progress!

Have also started doing some sight reading every day. Hope to see some benefit of that in the coming months.

AOTW: ...well. Odd to call it an achievement, but it's probably more noteworthy. For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to play the piano but for one reason or another, never have. Yesterday I took one of the two most important steps: I met up for the first time with my piano instructor. We had a pretty lengthy conversation (more of introductions/foundation/goal setting meet and not a lesson) and I left feeling quite excited and inspired. I have some really good vibes rolling about our future relationship and experiences/lessons to come.

That's on my list to try one day. Is it the Hess arrangement? I love that!

Hi gang - finally caught up on my reading of this thread and thought I'd check back in after an extended absence - my wife & I spent a week touring the beautiful Mountains & Lakes region of southwestern Maine, and some additional time making some improvements to our cabin in the Endless Mountains of north central PA ("God's Country" as the locals have dubbed it) - also I've been playing a LOT of golf, and so my practice time has suffered somewhat with the expected negative results...

I finally did manage to complete my study of Cole Porter's wonderful love song "So in Love" from his hit musical "Kiss Me, Kate" after 2 1/2 months of on again/off again work on it - and got a couple of decent recordings, which may show up somewhere here in the ABF later.

Have now started work on the Great American Standard "As Time Goes By" from the classic movie "Casablanca" (actually written 10 or 11 years earlier for a little known Broadway musical).

Trap

Ah, TJ, your musical tastes in this case so overlap mine. Looking forward to hearing them.

Cathy

Welcome and congrats with your new hobby. Just sit back, relax, pay your lessons and do your homework: one day you'll be a fine pianist. It's just as easy as that. Don't forget to enjoy every step.

Chris

Hi again

This week I discovered again that teaching is so inspiring and during the lessons I sometimes feel like I am the student who learns additionally to the real student.

In Chopin study nr 2 op 10 the two parts of the right hand (melody and chords) get more and more independent and vital.

GL

Jaak

I grew up in the UK too and my music education turned me off reading music (for ever I think). Talking in time measures just makes more sense.

BTW no AOTW for me lately. Just steady progress.

My (first ever) AOTW is that I'm finally able to play through a "real" song, ie not one of the "written for beginners learning piano" songs in an instruction book. It's a Clementi Sonatina (Op 36, #1, 3rd movement)... I can play the notes, but still have far to go to get it up to speed, make it musical... but I know it'll get there!

My teacher gave it to me 2 weeks ago - the first few days it was "whoa", but it has been very fun... and it's opening a whole new window for me. Love it!