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

Great, Progman, keep it up! It’s a great tool to have, the ability to play for others. Proud of you!

This is great, Progman! Congrats! I also have a successful recital to report. I've played since childhood (off and on) but hadn't performed for people for a long time until I started lessons with my current teacher over 3 years ago. She encouraged me to participate in her studio recitals (often as the only adult), which had been a mixed experience. But this last recital was the first time when I wasn't nervous while playing (even though I was still quite nervous while waiting for my turn). Moreover, at some point I realized I was pretty relaxed and actually enjoyed sharing the music instead of worrying about mistakes and just making it through the piece. I played Argentinian dances 1 and 2 by Ginastera and a duet with my daughter. I made a couple of minor mistakes in the first dance but nobody noticed I think. I'm particularly happy with the 2nd dance, which is so beautiful and lyrical, and I was able to focus on expression. So, I guess it does get better with time/experience. Thanks again, Ralphiano, for your support earlier in this thread, it helped! In general, this is a very supportive community, thank you all.

Memorized the first page of Mussorgsky's Promenade. I am less intimidated by chord heavy pieces, now.

Progman, what a great Christmas gift to yourself and your neighbors!

Dumka, it's very encouraging to hear that the fear factor of playing at a recital can drop down to manageable levels. Congrats!

Thanks Noblehouse, cmb13, dumka1 and Stubbie!

And congratulations to you dumka1, when I get to real recital's I will keep what you said in mind. I especially like what you said that sharing the music is the real point...

Happy Holidays and best wishes for the upcoming New Year to all my friends at PW and the AOTW thread.

I'm excited to be working on a new piece, Chopin's C# Minor Nocturne. Already delighted by making small bits of it come alive at the bench.... looking forward to making it my own.

Cheers to all of you!

Jim

Great, Jim! Hope you check in on the thread on this piece. Lots of wisdom from some folks in there. My understanding is the pieces in your bio are tougher, so this should't be too bad for you. Enjoy!!

We went to a neighbor's apartment for Christmas Eve, and two of the guests (one of them me) stumbled through, from memory, some severely reduced arrangements of Christmas Carols. Guess what - everyone was happy, including both performers and the hostess.

Not gonna lie, may have had something to do with the number of glasses of wine imbibed by both audience and performers. But none the less a pleasant surprise.

So then I came home and found my "ur text" (The Fireside Book of Folk Songs), and went after the arrangements that have always seemed too hard. I think I did learn something this year - how to go slowly, "tell" a specific finger to move left or right, and then have that become a natural movement at higher speed.

Happy holidays to all, and Best wishes for the New Year.

Great to hear Medved1! I notice that in social gatherings, the atmosphere itself makes the music a lot more enjoyable .

Osho

+1

The important thing was that all of you enjoyed yourselves.

Happy New Year to all of us!
I hope we're off to a good start.
My New Year is a bit sluggish -I came down with a cold on Christmas Eve and it is still lingering - I've really not felt like playing at all -so my AOTW is that I stuck to it and finished up my MOYD, and signed up again for this year.

I'm still working on the Chopin Nocturne and frankly, I'm starting to get sick of it. It's beautiful music but I don't seem to get past "almost there". I'm working on two other pieces as well, but neither of them hold a lot of interest for me at this moment. I need to find something new that really grabs me, ---and I need more energy!

So... not much of an ATOW overall, but significant in the face of not feeling great and not feeling motivated.

Here's to recharging batteries and getting into the swing of things!

That's an excellent AOTW - especially considering 9 years in row!! Well Done!!

You are way more experienced than me, but maybe drop the Nocturne for a couple weeks then come back to it?? Good Luck!

Hi Everyone and Happy New year!

Here's a reply to Cas but a note to share with you all....



Cas - Sorry to hear you caught a cold over the Holidays. It is both a eustressful and plain old stressful time of year!
Well done on making the MOYD 2018. I’m already seeing quite a lot of travel gaps in the year so wont sign up but will have that mantra of - ‘play at least 5 mins whenever I can’ - in my head. It really helped me get back to piano those years I did manage to keep it up. Now strangely I find breaks to be beneficial and I don’t fear slipping back as much as I used to, but with longer absences my soul starts to hurt, never mind my fingers!
Perhaps a more diligent effort at AOTW might be a better discipline for me this year. I admit to merely browsing most of the time in 2018.

As for your troubles with Chopin, I can really relate to that! There is a particular mind set needed to be able to give yourself over to many of his compositions. In particular both your nocturne, the posthumous Cmin, and mine, op 27 no2, need a certain quietude to really come to grips with the playing. Learning the technical aspects is just that - technical - and if I do not ‘feel’ like playing a Nocturne then I just go through and ‘work’ my weak spots. Otherwise I will just get frustrated with myself. And if that gets too much then I just walk away and get a cup of coffee and pull out something else to work on.

I think it’s important to have a few things going that are of different ‘moods’ so you can put your energy of the day to its best use. I am intrigued with Schumann’s various series of short tone poems at the moment for some lighter relief. I like that they are shorter and each has its own challenge.
My teacher seems to think I should finish off the Brahms Rhapsody 79 #2 for something ‘rousing’ and to try the challenge of getting on with Ravel’s Jeux D’eau, both a little daunting right now - and then there’s always the laundry to do!

I am half afraid to do it but since I need goals to aspire to, I am thinking of submitting to the quarterly recitals, then at least I’ll have to get something up to recording standard. Just one piece at a time, even if it is something elementary compared to what I’m working on. There is something different that happens when you work intensely on something, even the simple ones. I try to think of how the beauty of the music can only be shared if I play it with that intent no matter what mistakes I unfortunately might make.
I’m going to be away from the keys for a good bit of January so wonder if I will pass on the Feb recital and start off with the next…..already finding excuses!

So here’s to looking forward and letting go of the frustrations. 2019 is full of promises that maybe we’ll be able to keep!

Thanks Progman and Palmpirate.

I mentioned to my teacher at my lesson before Christmas that I thought I'd put the Chopin away for a bit as I didn't feel I could take it any further. He didn't seem enthusiastic about that, but at this point I'm so uninterested in it it doesn't really matter too much what he thinks (with all due respect, and I really do respect him greatly).
I'm in piano for the fun of it, I have no time limits or constraints to respect. I was participating in the quarterly recitals, but I've skipped a few now and don't feel any push to participate again -so what I do and when I do it is very low key.

I guess what I feel is a slump of sorts.
On the other hand I do know that I've made all kinds of progress in a global sense. Last night I pulled out my Dan Coates "Top 50 Jazz Standards" and I could see how much easier it was to just pick a piece and play through - reading is faster and my hands just know where to go so much faster and more accurately (keeping in mind that all things are relative).

I think I'm mostly just worn out from being sick and feeling too focused on one single piece. This will pass.

Thanks for the suggestions and encouragement.

Palmpirate: the quarterly recitals are truly great for working on putting yourself out there and meeting short term goals (or even long term - you can plan out what you'll play over the year!). I thoroughly enjoyed participating in them before and may come back at some point. I just don't have the right energy for them at this time.

Coincidentally, I had a short conversation/chat of self-discovery on Reddit yesterday with an advanced pianist who had been playing 3-5 hours a day until about a week ago and felt themselves to be in a slump, having lost interest in playing altogether. Take a look and see if their final assessment of their situation resonates for you - what they termed a "mid-life piano crisis" and the need to change their repertoire focus from Chopin and Rachmaninoff.

OK. Can already mark one goal as reached. Well, actually one and a half.

Played few short beginner pieces for friends last evening. Recital at my home happened, but I definitely underestimated stage-fright. After every mistake (and I only managed to play pieces 2 out of 8 without mistakes) there was that sudden spike of nerves taking over and trying to continue without further mistakes felt very awkward.

Luckily I had those 2 rock solid pieces: one very easy and simple (it still makes a great listen) and the other one I play all the time (even with my eyes closed). I placed those between other pieces, so they gave me some boost of confidence for. That and the wonderful listeners I played for. Though they were not into classical normally, they liked my playing and already asked for next recital. I think I'll do more than one this year...

But before that - next stop: ABF Recital

My AOTW--my hand feels better. Not 100%, but better. I think I hurt it shoveling snow. Heavy, wet snow. I have been very mindful of not exacerbating it while practicing and it is slowly mending.

Another AOTW: I finished Book 4 of Mikrokosmos. I didn't get the pieces anywhere near performance level, but have been using them more as one to two week pieces for reading practice and various techniques (often stated in the title). Mr. Stubbie does not enjoy hearing me practice them, but I have to say some of them have grown on me as I got better at playing them, and I do enjoy his other compositions.

I hate shoveling snow! Glad you are mending. It's great you have finished Book 4 of Mikrokosmos.

Let's hope there is no more snow! Great job finishing Book 4!!