Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Recital 34 --- Call For Submissions

I'm in after a real battle with the hesitation and stutter thing. It's just not going away, enough is enough.

I'm happy. This is a happy place.

The PWABF, what a great place!

You can submit a recording and it makes you feel good. And it's free!

You know I always like your work, Copper. So I'm glad you're in. You haven't missed any, have you?

Cathy

No, I haven't missed any. All 34 recitals starting with February 15, 2006.

In retrospect the consistency is surprising. 8+ years ago a self-taught beginner and today still a beginner and still no lessons.

I rarely get more than 5-10 minutes at the keyboard per day and I also rarely miss a day. So progress is slow, very slow. And I just barely keep getting something recorded every 3 months.

I'm certain that if I hadn't happened to find the recital back then I would have made even less progress. It supplies some motivation.

Another odd fact, I've never played on a real piano. After 60 years and 34 recitals you would think I'd have bumped into one somewhere.

Someday I'll have a little time and a little money and I'll get some lessons and a piano and be shocked at what a hacker I was.

I'm glad your still around Copper. You are one of the originals from years ago along with Monica who haven't missed a single recital since its inception. The fact that you haven't played on a 'real' piano in all this time is even more amazing.

But then again, people who fly helicopters ARE amazing people who are capable of all kinds of surprises.

You're one of the good guys Cu!

Well, if you ever make it to NM, or even AZ and S-H's way, you can play on my real piano or his mighty M & H. Although WiseBuff and I did laugh a little at how funny one of the C's on mine sounds, because it no longer holds a tune and it's kind of startling when it gets played.

I'm looking forward to your playing.

Cathy

I made a post, that stated edits should've been defined at the call of submission without ambiguity which would've avoided the snafu'ed debate and comments that came afterward.
Along with the hidden accusations of ....

Someone made a comment that I considered personal, targeted and guilt invoking.
Really , if people can't voice opinion without a a personal attack or innuendo, perhaps I'm not or maybe with the one with a problem and in the wrong place. Really .

That's remarkable, Copper.
And I identify myself with your path: "self-taught beginner and today still a beginner and still no lessons". I know what you mean with a "slow progress".

I read through the whole thread finally including the "controversy". Shiro Kiro, I don't think that a single edit of a pause in the middle of a piece will phase anyone much. It's a massive electronic reworking like S-H described that would definitely be a problem. That said, close to "warts 'n all" is probably the best way to go in this forum. What that means is up to every individual.

I've been thinking about this. I too have seen it as a record of each person's journey as they develop in piano. It's not the same as the Pianist forum where they show off their work and "perform". By definition, we are people who are learning to play piano, so we are developing (rather than developed). These recitals help us get used to "playing in public". Feedback from our peers help with that growth: actual suggestions (to be taken with a grain of salt) as well as how we might affect our listener. Again it's not like in the Pianist forum, where they expect a certain kind of "perfection" because the person is supposed to already have the abilities.

That's for individuals. How about as a group? Well, we're not competing with each other and not judging each other. Still, you can't help being aware of how everyone else is playing. This is a place for learners, which means we still have weak areas and imperfections. I think that for someone who is nearer to the beginning, it is comforting to see that more advanced players still have hiccups to overcome. If I do hear something that is rather well done, I also want to learn from it. How did this person manage to do that particular thing? If it turns out to be an electronic tweak, there is nothing to learn from it. That is disappointing. By the same token, if I watch a person progress over time, this may also give me hope about my eventual progress. So looking at it this way, within the group, there is a lot that seems to speak for natural imperfection.

In the same vein, if a relative beginner finds his performance wedged between some super duper professional sounding performances, and doesn't know that they were done by an experienced pianist who also did extensive tweaking electronically, then he may feel small and inadequate. In fact, we've got the scenario of listening to commercial performances all over again (or worse, the "super kids"). That's discouraging, and the ABF is about ENcouraging. But I don't think we're talking about a single deleted long pause.

In regards to commercial performances that have been tweaked: well they are commercial performances. They are meant to sell, and everyone who is involved in the commercial aspect has their grubby hands on it. Sometimes the older recordings are more human and alive, including their "imperfections". But in any case, that's not our purpose in this forum.

Hi all,

I'm pretty new to the forums (lurked for a long while) and it's only the 2nd time I've posted to a recital. This should perhaps be a new thread. With your advice, I'll repost after I get home from work today.

Right now the focus of my practice is to play my pieces without hesitations, stutters, pauses. So I'm playing easier music and making myself perform for family, etc. My teacher even wants me to play sometimes with recorded music to learn to play through errors. It's difficult and against all the habits of my earlier practice ("in my youth").

I have to confess, before I owned a digital piano, I never heard myself play. I never realized how often I hesitated, stuttered, and paused. With difficult passages the intensity of thinking (terror) prevented listening to what I was playing. I never realized how the musicality was affected by all those hesitations. The recordings from my digital were/are ear-opening.

So, how do you deal with this? I'm assuming "my problem" with hesitations, stutters, pauses is a common problem.

Extremely common. I've been dealing with it for 6 or 7 years now. If you find an answer let me know!

Sam

Actually I'm a fixed-wing guy. If my wings start spinning around I'm in trouble.

Now that you mention it I started flying about the same time these recitals started. I had instructors and now I'm an instructor. With the piano I've had no instructors and I'm still a beginner. I guess that's a good lesson about the importance of instructors.

.... still trying to get my entry to a decent level! I forgot everything after going on a holiday!!!

gingko - I think the hesitations, stutters, and pauses range from "extremely common" as Sam says, to universal You'll find threads and posts on it and ways people are dealing with it and trying to make them less common popping up a lot here in the ABF. I had hesitationitis in my recital piece this time, and a couple of times in the past. It seems that since I've decided to focus on performance skills and distractions and how to deal with them, and my audiences want to sing more and I try to accommodate them, it's gotten worse.

I *think*, over time it will actually get better again from being brought in to awareness and addressed. At least I'm hoping. One thing I'm doing right now, which may not be applicable to you, is reducing the sing-along ones to melody only in the right hand (rather than melody with a harmony note) when I can remember to do that in the heat of the moment. Simplification. I can play many melodies by ear, so that seems to give me less distraction. Although as a practice technique that might be an approach that would be helpful. I dunno. I'm still working on it.

But I will have to say that I admire you for assuming that they're common. Realism FTW! They certainly are. It seems to me even that will help reduce the stress over the long run. At least you have company!

I'm looking forward to your piece. We can go have a beer together afterwards and laugh about it - oh, yeah, I can't drink any more :\ I know - we'll make up stories to tell our grand kids about it Well, I don't have grand kids either, but I've got a lot of stories

See you Thursday!

Cathy

evamar - I've been reading your post in AOTW - I'm sure it will all come back -

Cathy

Hi Sam S,

At least we know it's a problem! I'm using the metronome more and for the final performance listening to the recordings, marking the places I paused, then practicing those transitions a lot. Trying to improve the ear to hear those lapses too. There is a v-e-r-y long rest in my Tchaikovsky submission. ABF is so kind that no one mentionned it!

Cathy,

We can have a virtual beer--less caloric. And stories are always worthwhile (necessary to a good life).

I'm just really happy to have this forum. Preparing for the Tchaikovsky recital and this quarterly have been valuable experiences. I've worked so much harder and more efficiently than I have in years. My goal is to perform musical pieces. This process is great for my practicing and my ear.

Looking forward to hearing the recital and don't mind if others' hear my errors. I want to improve. Thank you! Hope I can offer some constructive comments to others though don't know if I know enough to make worthwhile comments. There's a lot of knowledge here--very impressive.

evamar,

Good luck! Looking forward to your submission.

I like virtual stuff. At work, we create virtual network channels, configure our virtual servers, and discuss in our virtual meetings. At home, I play a virtual piano on occasion, but always with REAL beer.

This and more is why I went to the System I'm on now. I refuse to accept that. Y'all will find out how it works out. So far, so good.

I am on a virtual diet at the moment and actually losing virtual weight...go figure

Ah, maybe if have virtual food I, too, could lose virtual weight! gingko2 - I'll meet you in the lobby

Cathy