Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Recital #29 -- General Discussion Room

45. Copper - Greensleeves Very nicely done rendition, Copper. It's a beautiful melody.

46. Kenjazz - My Romance I always enjoy Rodgers and Hart melodies. You play wonderfully with the virtual combo, Ken. Very confident playing. I always enjoy your interpretations and this is no exception.

47. PianoStudent88 - No Walk Today This is my first exposure to Khachaturian with these e-citals. You handle the voices quite nicely. You play with very relaxed hands and it shows in your music. Great work!

48. carlos88 - Sarabande (from Pour le Piano) I'd not heard this piece until today. Quite a fine bit of playing, Carlos! Fantastic left hand! I really like this piece. Bravo!!

49. GrouchoMarx - Prelude Op. 32 No. 12 Fabulous in every way! Rachmaninov would be quite pleased, especially considering the fact you've been playing for three years!! Such good work.

50. BillM - Georgia On My Mind I like how you decided to not makes this sound as much bluesy and played it pretty straight up. Your voice and delivery fits the piece wonderfully. No shortage of fine renditions coming from your living room. This is another really fine piece, Bill.

51. Pavel.K - Nocturne 21 in C minor posth. Simply amazing you've been playing a bit longer than a year with no lessons and can bring out such beauty in this Nocturne. Very impressive. Look forward to hearing more from you for sure.

52. Allard - To Zanarkand Incredible you are playing like this after a little longer than a year! I am sure the folks at the piano dealer enjoyed the live performance. Look forward to more of your music.

53. MileHi Steve - Stagg Brew Fabulous, Steve! I like the voice you chose on your electric to play your fine arrangement of the harp music. It gives a really nice feel to it. You've got some fine skills, indeed.

54. aTallGuyNH - Just The Way You Are Fabulous arrangement of one of Billy Joel's most popular songs. I like the idea you put together several arrangements and made one of your own. I am amazed you've been playing less than year to play this with such confidence and enthusiasm. My only suggestion would be to play more deeply into the keys and be patient with your own playing. It'll be great to hear more of your playing in future e-citals!

55. Aimee O - Sonatina in G You play Beethoven with such a good sense of tempo and minimal pedal to bring out his best. You go from one movement to the next with such ease. This is Beethoven presented in fine style.

I am overwhelmed by the response to the Grieg Notturno and am reminded of the Mole in the Wind in the Willows:



I am grateful and indebted to all who bestowed such largesse on my submission.

I realise that I'm running very late with my responses. Hope that I'll be able to comment on the rest of you by the end of the week.


11. Andy Platt - Invention No 4 in D Minor This is by no means an easy piece to play. I enjoyed your performance, and I’m not sure if I would play it much faster than you do.

12. Amaruk - The Christmas song from 'An Elf's Story: The Elf on the Shelf' A lovely song, very appealing and well played.

13. Peyton - After All I appreciate the clarity of your performance. Composing a piece like this requires considerable creativity.

14. joangolfing - Grieg Waltz Op.12 I particularly noticed the good phrasing of the melody. This is essential in all Grieg’s music.

15. Greener / Jeff Green - Moments Musicaux - A flat major; Opus 94 No. 6 This is a fine piece with beautiful harmonies. You play in a very expressive way, and make out many fine details.

16. Riddler (Ed) - Reflections in D I have several times already said that I’m not a Jazz player myself, but admire people who can perform that kind of music. I particularly enjoyed your performance, and if I had time I would seriously consider learning the piece myself.

17. Monica K. - Just Because I Love You You bring out the melody very well and play the piece cleanly. I enjoyed your performance.

18. ladypayne - Improv in G minor Real improvisation? I’m impressed.

19. Jake S - Fur Elise Well done! You have been very focused during your one year learning period.

20. Serge88 - Fly Me To The Moon It was very nice for me to hear again this melody from good old days. Good rhythm and well played.

21. Teodor - Donnie Darko - The Artifact and the Living This was a piece with character and very nice to listen to.

22. (Was)TrueBeginner - Us Listening to your piece I understand that you are not a true beginner any more. Well done!

A big "thank you" to aTallGuyNH, Saranoya, SwissMS, BillM, casinitaly, Peyton, Allard, zrtf90, Riddler, Sam S, peterws, Mr Super-Hunky, Greener, Monica K., jazzwee, Andy Platt, CarlosCC, AimeeO, BenPiano, TX-Dennis, Pavel.K, and Inlanding for listening and giving your kind comments. I'm so glad you enjoyed listening to my Chopin waltz.

I think it could be much sooner than that. I was about at your current level when I started lessons four years ago. Things move so much more quickly when you have a teacher to guide you, don't they?

Didn't quite mean to make it that exciting! Thank you for your careful listening and thoughtful feedback. I tend to think it's the pedaling more than anything, as both you and jazzwee pointed out. (That's definitely one of my problem areas.)

If you end up recording it, I would love to hear it.

Yes, that's about right, but about half of them are repeats, so it's not quite as daunting as it seems at first glance.

45 Copper Greensleeves
Fine job with this Copper. Thanks for sharing this very clean short and sweet interpretation. I look forward to hearing more from you.

46 Kenjazz My Romance
This reminds me of my Dad's trio days which I miss immensely. A really fine sound here and some great playing, Ken. Sorry to inform you here though, that I sold the Vibes. I started to work out a chorus for “Days of Wine and Roses” but, I never finished or got it recorded. Now the Vibes are gone. I got a good buck for them and a replacement piano with the proceeds (it is a better use.) Sounds like you are doing just fine without me. Some really great material you always seem to be working on and is very inspiring.

47 PianoStudent88 No Walk Today
Good work PS88. I'm not (or wasn't rather) familiar with this work. Your efforts towards varying dynamics and your own interpretation is working very nicely. Some fine playing and enjoyable listening. Thanks for everything you contribute on the teaching side of the threads as well, PS88. I've certainly continue to learn a lot from you.

48 carlos88 Sarabande (from Pour le Piano)
A very sophisticated work and very accomplished playing of it. Fine playing, Carlos and nicely done.

49 GrouchoMarx Prelude Op. 32 No. 12
3 years, really? Not sure I would be taking on a work like this after 40. Very encouraging for me to get busy. Really great stuff, GrouchoMarx.

50 BillM Georgia On My Mind
Fabulous rendition of this classic, Bill. You've motivated me to brush up on this one myself now. Perhaps will post in the Bar some time. The singing though is beyond me. A really fabulous job you've done with this one, Bill.

51 Pavel.K Nocturne 21 in C minor posth
Very pretty piece and nice choice Pavel. You are doing extremely well. Very well presented and some fine playing here. Good for you.

52 Allard To Zanarkand
You guys are amazing me with the quality of playing for the amount of time you've been at it. This is very well done, Allard. A very enjoyable listen.

53 MileHi Steve Stagg Brew
A fine medley composition you've put together here Steve. It is a very full and rich sound and very pleasant listening. Nice work.

54 aTallGuyNH
A very easily recognizable classic. This will be hit for you for sure. Really some fine playing and nice changes. Really well done, TG.

55 Aimee O Sonatina in G
A lovely piece to wrap up the recital with Aimee. Sounds like some very tricky elements with this and you've got it well in control. Really good work and fine playing Aimee.

Thank you to everyone for providing such fine performances. I've thoroughly enjoyed listening to each and every one. And Thank you also for the kind and generous comments directed my way on the Schubert entry and putting up with the annoying squeaky pedal. No more of this will be forthcoming as the new (used) piano arrives tomorrow .

Nice idea but no, it will not be in the themed recital. I asked Wayne and Rostosky. Here's Wayne's response:

op.53/3 and 62/2?

Wouter, this was a response given by wayne in a private message, and as such it should NOT have been posted up here in an open thread for the world to view without asking wayne first. It is not only a privacy issue but a courtesy one.
Not cricket old chap, not cricket.

Rostosky,

I don't really understand why you are pointing out that Wayne might have an issue with my post. I'm sure Wayne can discuss this himself with me if he has any problems with my posting of his reply. Also I don't see anything wrong with either my post or with Wayne's message.

Also this seems not be the right place to discuss that.

>Not cricket old chap, not cricket.

Sorry but I have no idea what you're trying to say here.

It's a British expression meaning, "it's not right."

Checking whether or not, I minded would have been courteous

I want to thank again everyone who listened to my piece, and everyone who commented. I am basking in the glow of compliments, and noting the comments for ways to improve for practice in my next pieces. Thank you all.


I'm glad you liked it. I'm sorry to have subjected you to an out of tune piano. There will be more Khachaturian to come in future recitals. I'm really quite fond of his music.


"Mysterious and serious" -- that's a good way of describing several of the Khachaturian pieces in this selection. He also has some pieces that are mysterious and humourous.


Glad to hear it! It's interesting, the harmonies in Khachaturian are often non-traditional, but he puts them together to very interesting effect.


"Nailed it"! That's very nice to hear. I really like Khachaturian and think he's well worth exploring.


Thanks you for your detailed comments. They are always helpful to me. I still have this problem with an unperceived-by-me speedup which you have commented on in a few of my submissions. Grrrrrrr! Your comment on the over-loudness of the staccato run also picks out a common weakness of mine: playing f passages at fff. In my recent practicing I've taken this comment to heart and trying to interpret forte as "play somewhat louder" and not "whale on the piano for all you're worth"!

The pedal markings are actually very sparse in this piece, so most of the pedaling is my own creation.


I'm glad you could hear the dynamics. I was recently reading about some recorders which equalize the dynamics away, and suddenly I was worried about my recordings. Sounds like, by luck, I have got a non-auto-equalizing recorder.


"No fear of [my] technique falling apart while ... between teachers" -- hooray! Thank you so much, this is very reassuring to hear. Thanks for the comment on pedal -- from your comment, I have started to pay attention to the depth of pedaling. So far I can't yet control it to the point of half-pedaling, but I can now avoid mashing it to the bottom of its range of motion.


I'm not sure about "Pedestrian", but I'll take "nicely done" . Thank you.


I'm glad you liked the dynamic changes and heard the phrasing. It's nice to hear I am improving, although it's somewhat nerve-wracking. Every piece I submit I think I'm playing really well, and then I submit it and listen to the recording several times more and start to hear all sorts of flaws. I suppose I might ameliorate this by recording and listening to myself more often. Maybe that would even help me improve faster. Hmmmmmm. (Other people hate practicing scales and technique drills; I hate taking the time to record and listen to myself....)


Hmmm, I don't know about the streaming player, not having listened to it. I'll take a listen on the next recital and see what I think.


I'm glad you liked it. In the area of interpretation, I'm working on several pieces right now and it seems easier on some of them to become interpretive "beyond the score". It's interesting to learn for each piece what it wants that's not written in the score, or maybe what it wants in terms of everything you need already being in the score, or in the standard performance practice for that era. Maybe becoming wildly interpretive might be an avenue into me learning a bit of a feel of improvisation: taking notes that I have learned very well, and starting to really bend and shape and modify them. (Much as I hate memorization, I have to say that this is an approach that I can feel myself trying for memorized music rather than when I'm playing from the score.)


I'm glad you enjoyed it. Finger legato, hmmmm. I'll experiment with this in future pieces.


It's interesting, different reactions to the tempo adjustments. I'm glad you found the piece to work very well overall, and this gives me a reminder to continue working on shaping phrases. ("shape some of the phrases carefully" -- eek, what about the other phrases ?) Really, I appreciate your comments. It's interesting what you say about retaining warmth. This isn't something I'm particularly aware of or sure that I can hear, but it's good that whatever I'm doing produces warmth. I did spend time practicing the choreography and flow of my hand/wrist/arm movements on this; maybe that's what produces the warmth.


You know, I know very little about Khachaturian's life. The harmonies in this collection are indeed all wierd and mysterious. The next piece is definitely a slow sad piece; the piece after that is an allegro birthday song, but even that has mysterious harmonies: it's definitely not a simple major key birthday song.


I'm glad you liked it. Making converts to the music of Khachaturian, one ABF Recital at a time, that's me .


Thanks for the compliment! It's interesting learning to be musical in ways that go beyond the bare information contained in the score. I think this is one of the things I have to work extra hard on, as I don't have an experienced music teacher (i.e. I don't have a teacher at all) to hear me and provide ideas from his/her greater experience of and sensitivity to music.


I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thank you.


Aha, glad my dynamics came through.


Very creative commments, and now I'm hungry !


"Relaxed hands" -- this is very reassuring to hear, thank you. It's one of the things I learned from my 15 months with my teacher, so despite some of the ways in which I was frustrated with her teaching, this was one of several valuable things I learned that made the lessons worth it and for which I am grateful to her.


I'm glad my interpretation comes through. You're welcome for the teaching side; I love being able to share what little I have learned about music and it is always enjoyable talking with you about music.

Hello,
I am new here and i am learning Piano playing. This forum is so good.

It sure is kingston20.

I just finished listening to the entire recital. All the works were really good, truly. Thanks to all who commented on my prelude. Some good points were made and they will help.

Durn it... there's just not enough jazz in XXXI, so I had to go back to KenJazz's performance in XXIX in order to get my fix!

OK, I'm feeling better... back to XXXI now.