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Sure I will do. I won't miss the chance to play it for my Thanksgiving guests . Who cares if they got indigestion. Anyway I'm planning to play the Mazurka I'm working on. It will be a good practice for my local piano club performance opportunity on 12/14. I will play some Christmas music and Japanese Country music called Enka since its a gathering of Expats. Like its American counterparts, they are all sad songs describing love lost and men & women at the end of luck. I have my niece from Japan until 12/8. So she has to endure an hour and 15 min each day having to listen to my practice for piano and violin respectively. My violin is quite bad. I saw my friends trying to conceal a laughter!

It's amazing what 1 full week of daily practicing could do!

Lots of progress with my Waltz in A minor this week.I've gotten the fingering down, working on improving the dynamics and adding trills now. So excited to be learning my 2nd Chopin =)

Burgmuller Op 100 No 9 is going quite smoothly. It was easy enough to learn in 5 days time on my own, I presented it to my teacher yesterday and got some good feedback. Minor improvement needed on dynamics but otherwise, I'm glad with what I've been able to accomplish with this piece by myself.

I also started learning Cristofori's dream this week and it's kind of cool how several months ago, I found this piece hard to learn cause I was terrible at reading notes. I decided to try again this time around. Reading notes seem to come a little easier now so it's not as frustrating trying to learn a new piece.

And thanks earlofmar for inspiring me to relearn Clementi's Sonatina in C major Op 36. No 1. I learned the first movement several months ago and totally enjoyed playing it. My goal now is to learn the 2nd and 3rd movements to complete the sonatina.

@wimpiano - Congratulations and welcome to AOTW!

@ElleC - I try to play everyday. Even if it is for 15 minutes only.

I realized that I responded to my own post when wanted to respond to Carlos. I'm not myself this week. Too busy.

What a fun evening! I think it's marvellous that some of us from PW are getting to meet in “real life.”


Its sounds like you have a very musical Thanksgiving planned, indeed, FarmGirl! You could always turn the tables and request that some of your guests play … If they know enough to laugh at your violin playing, perhaps they should be performing themselves.

I’d love to hear some of the Enka music, if you can share a recording.


Oh, Elle, I wish I could say the same! I’ve been very bad about practicing this week. And I have so much to do yet to get that same waltz in hand. *sigh* Well. Enough of that. I will take your comments as inspiration and encouragement to put in the necessary bench time. I should know by now that the rewards are great!

So glad to hear about your progress.

@aTallGuyNH, @JimF and @CarlosCC Thanks!
I'll try to post regularly though I'm a bit busy (My daugther was born yesterday )

That's awesome news, wimpiano! Congrats to you and your (expanding) family! Hope all is well with daughter and mom.

Wow, CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!
I wish all the best for you, and special for your baby

Aww congrats on your new bundle Wimpiano! Exciting times for you and your family indeed.

piano_deb don't get discouraged. It's really hard to put the time in especially with a busy schedule and lord knows we all have "adult" stuff we have to deal with. But what Carlos_CC mentioned before, even 15 minutes can make a big difference. And actually most the times when I practice at night, I usually try to practice only for that long but end up practicing for an hour without even realizing it's already midnight and past my bedtime!

Well here's my achievement:

I went on two trips to the hospital because I knew they had a grand piano in the lobby for anyone to play. The first day I was really nervous about practicing in such a large open space in front of strangers such that I played really softly, almost too timid. But never-the-less a woman stopped and watched me when I was actually playing a piece all the way through. She was smiling and approached me and we talked for a moment and she complimented me.

The next day I did the same thing and a woman pushing her elderly relative in a wheel chair also stopped and told me "Keep Playing" it's kind of hard because I was just practicing and reading new stuff, but I guess I could like, keep some songs on loop and play them over and over until they are more natural. Create better endurance.

wooohooo, congrats to you and your family!!!

My achievement...a few more bars of the so called "Moonlight" Sonata 3rd movement!
Turtle speed but it is just so rewarding and can wait to get to my dream of playing it correctly.

That is a beautiful achievement indeed shaolin! I wish you well with it- far beyond me even at snail's speed though...

Thank you although I wouldnt bet I am that far!

@Jasper82 - That's wonderful. Playing for strangers is a great step in your confidence. You'll see what I mean.

@shaolin95 - LOL, "Turtle speed" is funny; Don't forget that playing slowly is sooooo important... Keep working, and you will see your dream realized.

Congratulations!! All the best to your family!

My AOTW - Today I received a phone call from the TV producer: Next Thursday I'll meet him, the writer and their TV crew, to talk about the episode they want to do with me.
This is the first step of this new adventure. Wish me luck!

I had lesson today. I was complaining because I feel I am sooo slow in learning my pieces (ok, maybe I'm trying to work on too many things at the same time), and my teacher asked why I did not consider how much I'm improving. She made my day!

My achievement of the week....I woke up with new fingers!

Perhaps it's just turning one year on piano I was given a present, or perhaps its a fantastically difficult Tausig exercise I have been learning but they are not the same fingers I had last week that's for sure.

CarlosCC - Good Luck! Do you kow what you want to play on the show?

Torquenale - I feel the same way all the time, and sometimes I whine to my teacher about it too. Then, wham, a few weeks go by and it all seems to fall into place. One of the things she has taught me is that if what you are doing in practice doesn't seem to be working....do something different. Well, duh, you'd think I could have figured that out on my own, but that's what we pay teachers for.

Earlofmar - Wow, new fingers? I could use a few. What was the exercise you worked on?

My AOTW: Had a pretty good lesson today. Played the Puccini aria through twice for her, much better the second time, and got a "that was beautiful and the best I've ever heard you play." Then I played a lead sheet tune with a improvised left hand in a jazz waltz pattern. A few weeks ago getting hold of that pattern was completely eluding me, so quite an improvement. I also played my weekly "throw away," which was an arrangement of Bach out of the Faber Christmastime for All book others have talked about. I surprised her (and myself) by being able to pretty much sight read this at a slow but steady tempo. And I have finally got the G minor section of the Mozart in my fingers and can work on the one final remaining section. It is sounding quite musical, and a big improvement on just a few weeks back, so I'm pleased with the progress. Last, I have a new assignment...Fountain in the Rain by William Gillock, which she assures me looks harder than it is...we shall see about that.