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

Congratulations on your first video.

If not learning pieces to completion bothers you, I'd recommend identifying shorter pieces that you enjoy hearing, and learn to play them. Like you, I have been playing just under two years, and I am continually amazed at how much nice music has been composed for us beginners.

Good luck with your progress!

this could also come under the heading of "not so great practice habits figures something out". I have, among other bad habits, the bad habit of letting my hand do alot of excess movement toward and away from the fallboard. I know I do it, I know it gets in the way of accuracy and solid learning of passage work, I think I'm controlling it, and then I look down and it turns out I am not coming close.

I am learning some stretch pieces right now - the 3rd movement of Mozart K282 and the first movement of Beethoven Op 10 #1, and I don't want to give either of them up - really a thrill every time something comes together (but darn, so many more notes!). But unlearning this bad habit and stretch pieces don't really go together.

So I went out on Saturday and bought a book of easy classics "Purcell to Mozart" and a book of Hungarian Dances from Galanta - both of them almost sight-readable, but presenting enough challenge to be interesting....and I can feel my hand staying in the right place. Not 100%, but I can actually feel what it's doing, and control the horizontal line on the keyboard.

The Hungarian Dances from Galanta is a facimile of an 1803 piano transcription of Gypsy dances from the Esterhazy orchestra. The forward says they were part of the inspiration for Brahms and Kodaly after him. And I can play them! maybe not up to tempo, but definitely with some bounce. Look for them on my "40 pieces a year challenge" list!

My Achievement of the week is to move on to the next piece.
A piece I have no idea what it is about yet. And it's one that first looks impossible to make sense of in the beginning, as usual.
I've played through the "A" section a bit, and I'm starting to form an impression though.

This week I've been really aware of when my hand position is ok for the notes I am playing but is not correctly anticipating where it will need to go after that.
I don't mean fingering (though that too), but things like the angle of my hand, position of my wrist, forearm etc. I would notice that it wasn't going to let me get where I needed to go and stop before making the error.

This seems blindingly obvious, but I don't recall noticing it when at this sort of stage with previous pieces. (This sort of stage being that I know the notes, more or less, and am working on things flowing more smoothly, joining up sections, etc).

I am getting lots of time playing in front of others this week. I have the digital set up in the salon and I am getting in my three hours of practice in front of all of the workers completing our home. The window installers are in the kitchen, the finish carpenters are putting in closets and doors, and the architect pops in once in a while. I just play on, practicing my exam pieces, my technical work, and a bit of Granada, a bit of Bach. I haven't sung my aural yet, but I haven't been nervous playing in front of everyone. So my accomplishment of the week is not being intimidated by all the activity and being able to concentrate on my playing!

After dropping Chopin nocturne 9.2 to focus on Debussy arabesques 1 and jesu . Joy of mans desiring...made great progress in Debussy. Finally feeling comfortable with playing this through at steady rhythm to page 3 of 5. Achieved more than what was required for homework. Maybe I will get this to decent technical state by end of June, and not Christmas as I originally thought. Not sure I will get it to performance level, as this remains such a technical learning piece for me. The triplets had got me in for a loop, and I thought I wouldn't conquer them, but I did. So much slow practice and patience. It does pay off.

Lots of good things going on this week! Three cheers for us!
I especially enjoy hearing about what folks suddenly realize and start to correct.

My teacher drew my attention to my "wandering thumbs" a few weeks ago. I had somehow developed a tendency to hold my hand so that my thumbs weren't actually over the keyboard. This was tripping me up on several points. I haven't corrected it comppletely, but I am doing much better.

This made a particular difference in Traumerei. I now have the piece at a steady performance level and the pedalling is just about right. I hope to perform it in the May recital.

My new Diabelli sonatina (Op 168 N.1 in F) - I am now working on all three movements. In the first I have a few bars which are still giving me grief. I have focus sessions on them every day. The second I have sorted out for fingering and study tempo, it's coming along - its a slow movement and the most charming of the three (which are all delighful, so that's saying a lot). The third movement is a rondo, and there are some very cute right-hand-over parts which promise to be tricky.

My overall achievement recently is simply that I finally feel that every time I sit down I am truly "playing the piano" -even when studying there is more musicality and fluidity. I have a small repertoire I am maintaining and my time at the piano is consistently satisfying. (Long may it last! )

Stubbie, Ralphiano and nancyde, Thank you for your kind messages. 6 weeks into recovery and all's well. I am very fortunate to have the benefit of modern medical advances, and to have such unexpected and far-reaching expressions of support!
I've hopefuly signed back onto MYOD and will start back at lessons Thursday this week. I am excited to 'show off' progress after this break to my teacher and to start on some new challenges. I really am suprized at how much better I am at old pieces! And to have learned just what slow practice is! I really do mean s.l.o.w. I could not lift my right arm for several weeks and had to go left hand only for short spells. It really made me listen to the left hand. It's too easy to add a bit of right here and there over the 'easy' bits which stopped me from hearing the complete flow of the left.... Bach, Beethoven and Brahms really have benefited!
Having been brought up short by this past experience I really am determined to record something even if its only for the grandkids, and maybe I'll feel good enough to post up here. You all do so well, it's always uplifting to hear your stories and achievements.
Thanks again and again.

Good to read this update Palmpirate - hope recovery continues well

Wonderful to hear that things are going well! I look forward to that recording.

Achievements this week:
1. Registered and made my first post on Piano World!
2. Learned an easy version of "The Entertainer" and played it for my family - They loved it!
3. Learning to play the theme song from MASH and it sounds OK!

CenterMast, welcome to PW! As for your tag line, well, welcome to the club!

Getting "Little Star" (Czerny version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) under my fingers. Now to work on polishing it up.

I'm in the same boat, Zilthy. I usually don't consider getting a piece to the point of being able to play it through without stopping an achievement, but, I've been in such an output funk lately, that I'm celebrating getting my coming recital piece playable from start to finish.

Before my accident in November, I had really sharpened my practice and learning habits, and, was completing a lot of music that I liked. But, since returning to the piano around the end of January, I've just been unable to show any progress. And, the few pieces I finished were not of a quality that I liked.

I think the recent threads on this forum about practicing might have helped sharpen my approach, as, I made a lot of the progress on my recital piece in just the last few days. And, much of it came from a return to effective and targeted practice as elaborated in those threads.

So, I now have my recital piece playable. My habit has been to attend to the nuances of the music (voicing, dynamics, phrasing, etc.) after getting it playable, so, I have 4 weeks to get it sounding very nice. I'm optimistic!

This is a great forum!

That was very nice for 18 months of piano. I'm also at 18 months and have not played anything even close to that.

Hi- I'd like to join in.

I started back with piano at Christmas. I had taken lessons over 50 years ago for almost 2 years, but never finished the second book. I really didn't remember much, except how to read the notes. I have been working on Pathways to Artistry Masterpieces Book 1, and my goal is to finish the book by the end of this next week.
My achievement for this past week was keeping all the previous pieces playable so that I can record them, hopefully soon. And also, starting to work on the last few in the book.

Marleigh, welcome! Fifty years--half a century--pffft! All that counts is that you're back at the piano.


My AOTW falls in the passive category. I attended a concert given by a small ensemble that plays tango music. It was fantastic! Every time I go to a concert and watch and hear real, live music being performed, I am bowled over by how enjoyable it is.

Glad you're on the road to recovery, Palmpirate. It's nice when a change, even injury induced, results in new understanding of the ways we play and practice.

Congrats to you all for recent achievements.

Jim

I'll be taking classes in a Music School. The teachers are all very good pianists, and multi-skilled! I can see they like improvising, which I admire very much, though they've been first trained traditionally in classical.

I've told my young teacher that I think it will be difficult to help me, but he is up for the challenge!

Congratulations! That sounds like a great move. I take private lessons at the local college with two teachers. Being able to hang out, socialize and bounce ideas off the other students and teachers is invaluable - it's exciting, frightening and inspiring all at the same time.