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

PaperClip -that's super! Sounds like a wonderful setting in which to work!!

SwissMS...ah, sorry I was mistaken. It would have been fun to share Sicilian experiences!

I was practicing op 27-2 Chopin nocturn. I divided the piece into 9 sections and tackling with the piece section by section. I am at the section #2 thinking "I'm getting the hang of this. Then.. my work cell phone rang. It was about 9:30 PM and from my direct report. I screamed on mute "Oh shoot (actually I said much worse). I did it again!". Yes I missed my call with my business partners in India. I felt horrible. Everyone thought i went to bed and forgot about it. So embarrassing.

Piano is so addictive. I tend to forget about everything once start playing. This not AoTW but I wonder if anyone has similar experience.

My AoTW is that my teacher and play my duet piece - the Mozart Sonata for two pianos in D together first time on last Saturday. I told her that I just read through the notes and not ready but she just started. I said I will do it at 76 per eighth notes but then she said "let's try at 120". I said "no i haven't done that yet". She hears nothing of it and said "yes you can". So we tried at 120. There were a few spots that need some work but I was able to pull it through for the most part. This really surprised me. We will eventually get up to 180.

YES!!! It's the only thing I have found that literally takes me away. I sit down at the piano and the next thing I know it's 2, sometimes 3, hours later and I've forgotten everything except the music. It has taught me how to enjoy the journey

I'm working on a trio of pieces by Melody Bober (1st with her) as a little break from classical pieces. The set is called Postcards from Iowa and I'm really enjoying the last piece titled "River Rhapsody". The tempo is named as 144. Hahahahahahha. My Achievement is playing it at 72 with the 7/8 time and the triplets. It is so cool. Maybe by piano recital time in May it'll rhapsody even faster. There's a great video of a professor from Iowa (I think) playing it at speed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBbEliA_9oQ

The pianist is PW's own Kreisler He and another pianist have a project of recording a ton of piano pedagogy pieces so students can hear what they sound like.

I think you're 72 is amazing. But when you get it to 144 you'll be the star of the piano party! Just the fact that you've been assigned it is cool - congratulations!

Cathy

I love that whole UI Piano Pedagogy project!

I'm back from my Easter holidays with family; nothing exotic, only in the countryside where my mother-in-law lives. Bad weather (except on Sunday), so a lot of time to play on the really basic DP there is there.

I read the last few days in the thread, and I'be been touched by Saranoya's piece about her recital and her health issues.
As others have already said, I think you are really an inspiration to many of us; and I think also that you have good reasons to feel the way you do now. I got into pieces a couple of time in my life, without having any apparently good reason. Tiredness and end-of-winter fatigue can contribute, I hope you can start to feel better soon.

Back to my AOTW: only having practiced more than usual, and my Schumann piece is improving again, it started sounding in the right way (even if much under tempo).

Malkin, I didn't realize there's a whole project. My teacher did get carried away buying all sorts of these music sets. We're each playing one for our next piano recital. What is the goal of the project? Is it connnected with any of the exam systems? Just curious. I'd better go to the piano or my AOTW may be getting up for a cup of coffee.

I finally got my midterm grade. An A- is way better then I thought I was going to get.:)

Didn't know Kreisler was part of that, Jotur. Will have to thank him, as I am always using the Iowa University videos for reference. Thanks for the heads up!

That's a brilliant grade Augustina- congrats! What level of piano are you?

I'm keeping on with the Bach minuet. Got bar one quite nicely done and working on bar two. A guy I know showed me that I actually have a recording programme on my netbook to make an mp3 file of myself playing my piano. I'd seen sound recorder on there but didn't know what it was for LOL!

Now I'll be able to hear back how pants I am ha ha.

This may seem trivial but a song my brother used to play years ago just popped into my head while practicing earlier. The song is Put You Together Again by Hot Chocolate. It makes for a great piano practice piece. I have no sheet for it si just played it from memory and came up with a left hand accompaniment for it.

Congrats on the excellent midterm grade Augustina. That must feel great.

LarryS, you've tapped into the music reservoir in your memory. How cool to invent an accompaniment for it.

My scales and my broken chords are steadily improving and just may be ready for the exam on June 1. Hope hope.

I don't know that song (or don't remember) but now I have "I believe in Miracles" stuck in my head - thanks!

P.S. Hope I don't accidentally sing "you sexy thing" to anyone today ...

Same for performing an accidental striptease while waiting in line somewhere...

Lol sorry about that

This is what I'm practicing.Now that part at the end of each verse is a struggle! Must practice that.

FarmGirl - missing a work call because of piano...Now that's focus!! (probably not the kind your boss likes though!) Are you having fun with the duet you're playing with your teacher?

Wisebuff - I watched the video - I found that site a while ago and I like to use it for listening to pieces I'm studying. There is another fellow who plays alot of my pieces, and I think he plays everthing WAY faster than it needs to be played! I noticed Kriesler appearing in the videos a little while back. This piece "River Rhapsody" is really full of great stuff--- and WOW... I think it will be hard to play up to tempo!!! But fun!

Torquenale - We had crummy weather most of the weekend too - Sunday was nice, but the rest wasn't. Hang in there with the Schumann - the music will be worth all your hard work!

Augustina - Congratulations on your A- !!! That's wonderful!

EdwardianPiano - Now that you know how to record you can join in the recitals!

Larry Shone - playing from what you remember of the tune, left hand included -Bravo.

Andy....you sexy thing, you.


My ATOW was to make my recording of Schumann's Melody and submit it to the Piano Bar. I'm really pleased that I had two pieces ready to go so close together. This certainly tells me that I'm making progress with the learning curve!!

Cheryl, I'm having lots of fun with the duet piece. I wish I had done the 1st movement though. It's not really bad in terms of playing. I thought the 1st movement was way too difficult. Ok next time. This particular sonata is played very frequently in Japan due to the famous piano cartoon / cartoon turned into TV and movie "Nodame Cantabile". So if I learns it I can walk into their monthly piano club and find several willing partners. I love Mozart. It's like a steady diet. I hear no troubled soul or intense passion or modern struggle / isolation / annihilation / else.. You name it. Since I live in this age, of course, I relate to deep and intense pathos, but you need to have somewhere simply beautiful to go back to.

Btw I'm liking the Chopin piece a lot. No wonder people play his pieces a lot. I've been trying not to pick his piece for a long time because it's played by lots of people. I hate to be compared.

Augustina - congrats! A is an A. That's great.