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Ankee
Check the score in op 599 12. I believe you are misreading the notes; it is in c major , both hands but the left hand is also the treble clef, with the first notes c e g

Oh my, you're completely right! I was a third below what I should be playing. Think I assumed that's where the chord should go and built around it, then never doublechecked it. Thank you! That's still in time for me to fix before the lesson, ugh!

Day 66
Streak: 66

Managed to fix the study before the lesson, thank you dogperson! On the other hand, I was using a different version than my teacher's, so she made me do the quarter notes staccato, my poor brain! Think it went well all in all though

Had a look over Scarborough Fair, turns out I was misunderstanding the decrescendo, I was going from ff to mf, instead of ff to pp to mf. Guess I have that to fix now!

I now have Czerny 13, Raisins and Almonds, and a version of Silent Night I picked. Teacher says I *can* do it, but it'll definitely be tough, so we agreed I could try it for a couple of days and then assess whether I feel like it's doable in a decent timeframe or not, and I'll do an easier version of it proves to be too hard.

Really excited to learn Silent Night, think the version I picked sound Great, and it's a big motivator to tackle something outside of my comfort zone.

Day 67
Streak 67

Good session overall, actually managed to get Raisins and Almonds to a very decent place, that was pleasantly surprising! The notes just made a lot of sense so it wasn't very hard to quickly put it together.

Raisins and Almonds -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBbuFxqgZMY

Okay, so that version of Silent Night was WAY outside of my current reach. It wouldn't make much sense to try and learn it, it'd take way too long and overall just make me progress slower I feel.

I have an easy and an intermediate version of it to play. Got started on the easy one, and oh wow that is humbling. It's very simple for the most part in terms of number of notes, but it does jump a bit all over the place, and because of the spaces between the notes, it feels very hard to read it as intervals, I feel like I'm sightreading it every time. It feels way harder than it has any right to be, but it'll definitely improve my sightreading so let's get to it!

Have a good day everyone!

Hello Ankee.
Your music is improving, well done. If I can add something, I have noticed a problem which was part of my baggage of mistakes, especially on my left hand: look at your wrists and forearms while you play. You see how often you flex them up and down? And then many times that makes you end up playing with your wrists at a lower level than the keyboard. You should use only your fingers to play. The weight of arms and hands will be handy in the future, but again flexion is not good. It seems in a way that you use it to mark the rhythm. Your teacher should be able to spot and correct it. I hope it makes sense.

The flexible wrists are not a bad thing in itself, the statement that you have to use only your fingers to play is actually incorrect. The problem I see is still a sitting position - it's too low. Sitting lower than keyboard will not allow to use arm weight and flexing wrist effectively and can lead to tension and bad habits. Also computer chair is creating artificial limitation for elbow movement. I would strongly recommend discussing your sitting position with your teacher. A get a bench or higher chair without armrests.

Fun to see your progress, Ankee!

Hi. You said it much better than me. I just meant that it's not good at this stage for the reasons you just described. Thanks for pointing it out in a more articulated way.

Yeah, I think you'll find that when you venture outside of Alfred land even seemingly simple things are a challenge. The left hand is no longer simply the three root chords (or broken versions) and that takes a fair bit of getting used to recognizing new chords in my opinion.

A trick for sight reading and simplifying pieces you can use if you like is the following: For the left hand, if a chord is listed (e.g. C, Am7, D) just play that note an octave lower than the melody. Then for the right hand, if there is more than one note at a time, just play the top ones! Not sure how easy the version you're working off is, but this might help to get something "immediate" at least, which is for me at least a large part of playing things like Christmas music.

Great progress!

Day 68
Streak: 68

Hey everyone!

Regarding the chair situation: I didn't even notice I was too low now! Problem with it is if I put it higher, it'll go lower at some point because the valve is malfunctioning. I'll try to be more attentive to it, thank you for pointing it out

A piano bench is definitely on my Christmas list, any particular recommendations?

In the meantime, put some more time into Almonds and Raisins, which I think I'll keep in the rotation for now, it's both sad and happy at times, I quite like it!

Silent Night is getting to a decent place, it's very intimidating to be playing things outside of Alfred and realizing it feels VERY different! The harder version seems like a very very far away thing, but I haven't put enough time to tell, I'll give it a couple of days at least.

Silent Night (easy version) -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8AGiVjDQJ4



Thank you! That's a really good tip, I hadn't noticed it worked that way, it did puzzle me a little bit to see the chord names above, but didn't make the connection haha! Perhaps things will feel a bit easier now

Any bench would do - it's your preference - but you will feel the difference I'm sure, it wouldn't move around itself, it wouldn't let you snuggle into it, but instead allow you to sit straight and proud. Here are videos on proper posture / sitting position for playing piano:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe57D8HxuvU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_70ezPjaUw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmTcXlfT1OE

I'm sorry for going on about it. It makes a difference in the long run and I'm trying to be helpful.

Day 69
Streak: 69



Hey initK!

Absolutely no need to apologize, I'm thankful for everyone coming in and trying to help I'll have a good look at the videos, will keep an eye on benches and probably get one within the year.

Currently learning Minuet in A Minor by Johan Kriger from the RCM Celebration series Grade 1. Absolutely loving how it sounds, even if progress is much slower than with Alfred pieces. I'm beginning to expect that, it's not a seamless transition to "regular" pieces but it's not too bad either.

Exam time will soon ensue, so practice time will inevitably take a hit, dreading it already

One thing you should notice in this transition from Alfred's is moving from chord piano where the melody is mostly (or all) on the RH and vice versa for harmony (chords), to pieces where both hands get to share in the melody and the harmony/chords.

Awesome! I really enjoyed this piece, it's a nice warm-up for some of the easier Bach minuets. Look forward to hearing your recording of this one!

Day 70
Streak: 70



Yep! I thought it'd be a smaller difference, but once I'm over that hump I'll be a lot more capable of picking up songs from any given source, can't wait!




Hehe yep! It sounds sooo good, even in this simple arrangement. With exams coming up it might be a little bit before I'm actually able to play it It's going okay up to the first repeat, haven't seen past that just yet. There's usually a very easy to follow logic to Alfred songs, this is way harder for my brain to process, and my sightreading is nowhere near at the point of being able to continue without understanding the logic.Very excited to be facing this new challenge!

Hey @Ankee, just reading thru and wanted to say hi. Keep on keeping on, you are doing good.

Day 71
Streak: 71



Hey Dobro! Thank you, it's really great to hear from you I wish you all the best too!

Another very small session, progress on the Minuet is going slow as expected, and that's okay Exams have to take precedence here!

Day 72
Streak: 72

Looking up some quick practices to not lose progress, really won't have that much daily time til mid January.

Did some scale work and reviewed the bit I learned of the minuet, but no significant progress. Hope everyone is doing well!

Day 73
Streak: 73

Made some progress on the bit before the first repeat, it's actually getting clean now! Woohoo for progress! Second part looks much scarier though, so I'll brace myself for it

Day 74
Streak: 74

Actually got the song together, somehow! It was definitely unexpected that it would come together this fast after struggling so much with it.

Still need to work on it, but happy enough to get it on video at least

Minuet in A Minor by Johann Krieger -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe5_gANlOj8

Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed playing it!

Ahhh it feels good to get a new video out, it feels like forever! Hope everyone's doing well in their own journeys

Day 75
Streak: 75

Been perfecting Minuet in A Minor as well as redoing some of my favourites from Alfred.

Just got the great news I'll be able to play on a grand piano on the 24th, the hotel we'll be staying at has one in the diner area. Soooo excited!! Can't wait to feel how it is to play on a grand. On the other hand, I'll admit I'm a bit panicked at the idea of playing with others around... but I'll definitely not miss out on getting that experience Time to get that practice in and not screw it up

Think I'll aim to have Raisins and Almonds, Scarborough Fair and the Minuet up to scratch, aiming for more than 3 songs is probably pushing it and I'd rather just have those three go really well