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Thanks Evamar... you could come and be my neighbour

My digital doesn't actually have a demo...it is just ....digital. No options except reverb and volume adjustment and 2 jacks for output.

Today at my lesson my teacher specifically asked me to play my scales with the acoustic to improve my technique and really hear what I'm doing (we all know that as good as a digital is, it isn't the same sound, nor the same touch as a pure acoustic).....mamma mia....I wonder how well this is going to go over!?

I will be starting on movements 2 and 3 of Gurlitt's Little Suite (the first was not very useful for training purposes) Next week I'll pick another piece and then we'll also pick another sonatina so I'll have 3-4 pieces on the go again. I'm pleased with that plan!

Cas, I'll send my sister-in-law over. She told me once that she wanted to come over and listen to me practice. I'm sure she had no idea what practicing really sounds like!

we should have a thread "Non Achievement of the Week". After six weeks away from lessons for our summer break I returned yesterday to the same old problem. As soon as I sit at my teachers acoustic piano I fall apart and can hardly play a thing. Since I just had a great six weeks practicing and advancing on my own this was a real downer.

I totally get the difference between the digital and acoustic! At least you have the availability should you have the urge to play randomly. But, I do agree, I'd pick the acoustic 9 times out of 10. Keep your head up and don't let the neighbors get to you!

hum... obviously, a sizeable chunk of the playing that can be heard by the neighbours should NOT be practising scales and constant repetitions... a little concert of pieces the player already knows well would help them to swallow the actual practice, and please keep it varied...

But really up to 2 hours a day on agreed times and with breaks I think most people can manage. My problem comes with professional musicians or people with nothing else to do who think they can make noise whenever they want for long hours and still live in flats. Oh, and they even expect their neighbours to be "happy and thankful" to hear "music".

I would love to eventually have a grand... but in Spain I will live in a flat. I think that IF by then I have a lot of free time to play for many hours and have gotten so good at piano that I could justify the expense of having a good grand PLUS proper noise insulation, rather than buying one I would simply rent a soundproofed practice space to play one there and have a good digital or silent at my flat.

Anyway... MY achievement of the week.. so far, I can now play "almost" half of the piece I'll be sending for the ABF recital with two hands... still working on tempo and expressions. Hard, because being an easy arrangement I cannot really hear somewhere else how it sounds to compare. But getting there!

casinitaly - so sorry to hear of your neighbour problems. I'm sure this is quite a source of stress for you.

My achievement of the week is that I have identified exactly what cable I need to connect my DP to my computer for the purposes of recording, AND I have bought one.
I haven't actually used it yet - you can expect this theme to be milked for a few different AOTW updates :-)

Also, really big improvement on Moonlight Sonata fluidity, musicality, not to mention managing to play (almost) error free.

Exactly. She's been unreasonably controlling you for a very long time (IMHO), and now she feels perfectly entitled to do so completely.

Skip talking to her. It's pointless.

Play as much as you want. As her behavior ramps up (or down, depending on one's perspective), call the authorities. Continue to play until they arrive.

No smiley face on this one... I'm being completely serious.

That's my $.02 worth.

Cas--if you practice on a regualar schedule, you could write it down and give it to her. Maybe knowing the schedule would help her realize that it isn't randomly designed to torture her.

Very tiny ones for sure. I bought a new 6G card for the Zoom but will not install it until I record for the ABF (or not). The card that came with it will only hold about 8 videos so my practice comes to a halt about 25 minute in. I sure wish I had installed the new card last month. Too techy what with formatting it, downloading the software and setting it up to record. I'm so inept at that sort of stuff I'd never get it done in time and have it work right.

I've worked also on other things (dynamics, expression, rubato, tempo) to keep them correct in this work.I have made good progress with my piece but have mostly concentrated on the last 4 measures of it in practice. I am now able to play them (in fact all of it) with eyes on the music but still stumble on the 8va 2 octave arpeggio in the last measure. It has a count of 2 half notes and I just can't seem to get my hands in position soon enough and still play it smoothly. <sigh> I will continue to work on this measure this week and still hope for the best. Then must face the red dot horror. And it will be a horror experience because I am able to play this correctly and consistently in practice so must keep my frustration beaten down trying to record.

MaryBee, that's an amusing idea

Earlofmar - don't be discouraged!!!! I had a very similar lesson after our summer break too. It is lowering, but you can't let it get to you!!!! Onward and upward.

Half-step, thanks for the encouragement.

evamar - congrats on our progress for your recital piece - I'm looking forward to hearing it! And yes, I have (til this week) practiced my scales with the digital. At my lesson this week my teacher specifically asked me to do them in acoustic mode. I'm only doing them once a day, playing each one twice though....more than that I just can't inflict on anyone. I've started keeping a log of when I play the acoustic and what I play. I do try to be "entertaining" but hey... I'm still learning. I don't have that big a repertoire!

Barbaram - excellent progress on the Moonlight! - and what fun to be sorted out for recording!

TallGuy, what you've suggested is a bit over the top for me...but I'm working hard at finding my balance!

Malkin - we DO have a schedule!!!!! The only day that is random is Saturday (the day she banged on the wall)- and even then I stick to the "not before 10am, not between 2pm and 4pm and not after 7.30pm guidelines). I don't even play in all the times I set as being available for me to do so during the week.

Ragdoll - good luck with the recording - I suggest you get it all set up and tell yourself: I'll do a few practice runs - not for publication , just for me. Chances are if you can convince yourself of that , you'll get a good recording that you'll want to share!

AOTW: played piano yesterday afternoon after I returned from a short holiday Felt very good!!

Cas, I'm sorry to hear about your neighbor. Stories like that always makes me thankful to be able to rent a house. You should probably call the landlord/management office and make it clear to them that you are doing your best to work with the neighbor but she is now escalating the situation. They need to have your complaint(s) on file in case she (or you) end up calling the authorities. Chances are quite good that noise ordinances allow for normal activities, including piano playing, during daytime hours and on weekends.

Earlofmar, try not to feel too discouraged. It's often hard to make that instant transition to playing on the teacher's piano. The action, feel, even the width of the keys can be different. Maybe you could explain your concern to your teacher and tell her that you need a couple of minutes at the start of the lesson to warm up and get the feel of her instrument again. Have an exercise or scales or something that you can play every single lesson; you may want to use the same thing every time you practice. Creating a warm-up ritual habit should help put you into a more relaxed and confident state at the start of each lesson, which can't hurt.

Do I do this? Oh, heck, no ... I just thought of it! But I'm going to try it myself, since I have a similar problem going from my piano to my teacher's piano, even though both instruments are acoustic.

To everyone working on something for the upcoming recital, I look forward to hearing you all play!

My AOTW isn't all that exciting but it's a nice advance for me. Scales are starting to make sense and I'm not struggling as much to remember the accidentals and the fingering. Am working around the circle of fifths, and have gotten up to playing C through B major scales, HT, during practice. Today, I was spending some extra time working HS on E, and when I switched from my left hand to my right, I accidentally started on B instead of E -- and only realized my mistake because of the "extra" sharp. I'd played the B major scale without even realizing it! The sound of the initial note, or my hand position on the keys... whatever it was triggered the correct response, even if it wasn't the scale I meant to play. So, lol, that was a bit of an error (kind of a dopey one) but it highlighted how far I've come in just a few weeks of really focusing on scales for a few minutes a day.

Week 100: The century mark. For the Berklee College Coursera on songwriting, I choose to write a song about pancakes. My critical mind tells me that it is too small a theme, too mundane an idea. My logical mind tells me that it can be a good and interesting song with emotional impact. That doing it can teach me a lot about the craft of songwriting. After turning in my assignment (not a full song, just a skeleton), I also do the peer review. Grading other people's assignments builds insight. I probably have written many more songs than 90% of those that are taking the songwriting course, so hopefully my comments are intelligent and helpful. The other side of that I have never taken a class on songwriting, or music theory before these two Courseras, so who knows how far off the mark I might be with myself as teacher and student?

In the Mozart Coursera, I continue with the lectures, skipping the assignments. I don't like the sound of the Neopolitan chords.

Jumping back to the Bill Hilton video that ATallGuyNH linked last week, I spend some time doing simple improvisations on I VI II V (1625 is the way I remember) in C and then in D. It sure doesn't sound like Mr. Hilton on Youtube, but it almost sounds like music. This is where that perspective of 20 hours for something new helps me. Some might try something new, and find it frustrating, so they give up after 15 minutes. If I keep trying the new thing for 20 hours, it is almost certain to make some sense. (Examples from that article include learning how to shoot a video, intro to yoga, playing the board game Go). If absolutely nothing clicks at a beginner level after 20 hours, then it probably isn't for me.

I upload Tracks in the Snow for the recital and to my piano blog (signature link). I can sort of play verse and chorus on the cover of Colder Weather, but even that much has been a long struggle. I find it embarrassing to be so slow on learning simple pieces (four weeks now?). It is a good thing that before piano I ended up developing some modest aptitude for writing and improvising otherwise I would have virtually nothing to play.

Have a good week everyone. Cheers.

my ATOW is... my wife is super excited to begin her violin lessons, she doesn't know yet but for V-day she's receiving a quite nice violin in case of her favorite color and a good bow. She thinks we will go for violin shopping after she takes her PMP exam in 3 weeks.
It will take a huge encouragement from my side to keep her going in the first few months of "abusing kittens sound" :-\

Sand Tiger, I love pancakes!!

I have listened to all the WLM videos. Phew!.
I have set up my first lesson of the year next Monday - tomorrow - better get some more practice in!
Glad I don't have to worry about neighbours, just the ' other half' who keeps wandering in. He has no idea of the level of concentration it takes.......

What a wonderful husband you are. No doubt she will be delighted when she sees the violin. I've making crazy cat sound myself. I started violin to keep my husband company when he started viola. I sometimes have to accompany him so that he can get the rhythm. Do you accompany her too?

casinitaly, I've been thinking some more about your situation. It makes me feel sad that your joy in playing the piano is being undermined by your neighbour, when it sounds as though you are being very accommodating. It might be a good idea to document your interactions - agreements, complaints, etc - and maybe even keep a log of the time you spend playing your acoustic. It would be a great protection in the event of any escalation.

On to cheerier things!
SandTiger, I think pancakes are an excellent subject for a song. You're not writing operatic arias, are you? I have a tougher time imagining a successful aria about pancakes, but I suppose you could just write the lyrics in Italian and I'd be none the wiser:-)

It's a little too soon for me to be back with another AOTW but I am pleased with my success and want to brag. I've successfully hooked up my DP to my computer and made a recording. Nothing I'm willing to upload yet, that will be my next challenge.

Yes, I will accompany her. I hope she will keep up with a little bit of piano... but I know at the beginning she would be super excited for that thing with 4 strings.
Now I "only" need to find a way to make her eat the pill of music theory and a little of solfeggi just to improve her internal rhythm

My AOTW is getting a recording submitted to the ABF recital....I promised myself no more than six takes and just picked the best. It is a piece from Edward MacDowell's Forgotten Fairytales suite that I worked on last Summer. Although not terribly happy with parts of it, at least I didn't waste too much time obsessing over the red dot.

Then came my frustration of the week. I wanted to take out the dead time at the beginning when I have to walk from the Zoom H-1 on the sofa over to the piano and get started. So I downloaded Audacity, spent quite a while figuring out how to make a simple edit/cut, then find out audacity has converted it to something other than MP3....find the additional software needed, download that.....and it won't work! arrrrghhhhhhhh!!!!!!! Finally said the heck with it after screwing with it unsuccessfully all afternoon.