Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Recital #59 - Call for Submissions

Recital #59 is now open for submissions!

Ready to submit? Go here: recitals.pianoworld.com

Deadline: 6:00 am US EASTERN TIME on August 15th, 2020.

New to the recitals? Read on:
The recital will be posted sometime on the 15th of August, which means that submissions must be in by 6:00 am US Eastern Time, August 15th. Please note this deadline is very firm; I cannot start working on the recital until it is closed, and once it is closed, no new entries can be added.

While any and all styles of music are welcome, we do ask that it be piano related. Only one recording may be submitted per forum member (although that recording may consist of a medley of two or more very short related pieces).

Editing or digital alteration of your performance (other than minor edits such as trimming long silences at the end or beginning of the piece) is counter to the 'live recital' spirit of the AB Forum Recital and is thus strongly discouraged. In any event, any editing should be disclosed in the "additional information" section of the recital submission template.

If you are fairly new to the piano, please do not be intimidated by some of the talent here in the ABF. We all consider ourselves to be beginners even though we may have been playing for some time. And, we LOVE to hear recordings from folks new to the keyboard. So even if you're on your first Alfred's method book, we would *really* enjoy hearing from you.

Recital submissions must be in MP3 format. The maximum size of the file is 20 MB.

If you are new to recording your music, there are several threads in the forum archives that address the ways and means. Audacity is an excellent free recording application that can be used.

Submitting Your Recording:

You will upload your mp3 file to the recital server as part of the recital submission process.

When you have your mp3 file ready, go to:

recitals.pianoworld.com

and follow the instructions there. Please note that the software does not cope well with international characters, so please convert any such characters to standard American characters. Once you have uploaded your info to the automated recital software, you will receive a confirmation e-mail. You will have the opportunity to revise your submission any time up until the deadline. If you have any problems at all using the website, or if you do not receive a confirmation e-mail within a few hours, just PM me (Sam S). If you have not participated in past recitals using this software, I strongly encourage you to submit your recital piece at least a day in advance in case you run into any problems with it.

The recital website uses the following submission template to be filled out along with your attached music file. You may want to have your responses to these fields prepared in advance so all you have to do is cut and paste:

Performer's Name: {forum ID and real name if you'd like}
Where you are located: {optional}
Avatar image link: {optional}
Experience: {Yrs/Mos of piano playing experience}
Link to YouTube or other video: {optional}
Home page link: {optional}
Title of piece/composer:
Source of music: {sheet music, improvised score, play-by-ear, etc}
Instrument used: {Piano make, keyboard model, etc.}
Recording method: {audacity, Zoom, digital to PC, etc.}
Constructive technical feedback wanted: {Yes/No}
Additional Info: {Your thoughts on the piece, what you had for lunch, etc.}

The due date for all submissions is 6:00 am US EASTERN TIME on May 15th, 2020.

By submitting a piece to the recital, you are certifying that it is a recording of your own performance.

Again, the recital will be presented in the order the pieces were received, so the sooner you send in your piece, the higher you will be on the list! You can revise your entries on the template (e.g., thoughts about your piece, adding YouTube links, and the like) any time and not lose your place in the recital queue, but if you resubmit your recording at any time, for any reason, you will be bumped to the end of the list.

Should you have any questions at all on what to do or how to do it, do not hesitate to ask. Remember, there are NO stupid questions, as we have a steady flow of new members in AB Forum for whom this is their first recital, so your questions will probably help to eliminate other member's problems.

Looking forward to hearing the recital!

Sam

Wow, two hours later and already 13 submissions.

Jeez, 19 submissions and its only noon? Dang guys, bunch of eager beavers..

guilty as charged.

Well I certainly had every intention of submitting my entry early but was a bit surprised to see my name at the top of the list! The last time I was '#1' at anything piano-related was when I was awarded 'best duet' at my teacher's recital back in 1979 and won a 50p WH Smith book voucher

Some nice choices so far. I'm not familiar with all of them but am looking forward to listening to every single one, especially entries from complete beginners. Think that would be lovely to hear.

Worked late and woke up early at 4 and then went back to bed. At the time of the submission, there were already 18 people ahead. Guess there were a lot of early risers.

I'm on at 24 or 25 . . . .

The reciital submissions have gotten off to a roaring start this time! Good to see... I will be bringing up the rear, as usual, so if you are not ready, don't feel bad - you still have 2 weeks to get your piece recorded.

Sam

About a week left to get your performance recorded and submitted! We are currently at 31 submissions in a wide range of pieces and abilities.

You can see what has been submitted already, and submit your own performance, by visiting:

recitals.pianoworld.com

Don't miss out!

Sam

I missed the last one but this time I have a lot of Brahms to choose from. No excuses!

*bump* Don't forget the recital!

Sam

I just finished recording.... Nothing particularly worth sharing though.

If I don't have time to do another round of recording, maybe I'll share one of these clips anyway.

I wish I could get cleaner audio, whether it's with Zoom or my iPhone there's a bit of noise or crackling, I don't know what to do to make it better.

Ok, wait, after putting it into a video editor to cut the ends off and then exporting it, sounds a bit better (i.e. less crackly)...
ETA: any idea what the video editing software does? Is it compressing it a bit? (I'm using Camtasia just because I use that for work all the time and it's easy)

Ok, now I just have to figure out how to play better.

I made a bunch of recordings today but, when I listened to them and compared them to the one I already submitted a week ago, they were just as flawed, only in different parts of the piece. I made peace with the fact there will not be a perfect recording.

Got my video up a week ago with a mediocre DP piano sound. I had access to a grand piano at the local conservatory in December and would make a nice recording in the studio space. Now that everybody is locked up at home, all the recordings would be made at home even if the sound is not the most ideal.

I got 1 version up online. At the meantime if I do a better recording, the new version would be up. Otherwise the original version stays.

I hope I have something in time! I'm working on it a LOT.

I always strive to be error free, but I don't think it has ever happened. I made a recording over the weekend with my usual share of finger slips. I used to try take after take, trying to eliminate all errors, but usually it just made things worse. Now I just do 2 or 3 takes and live with the results. Sometimes only one take and done...

Sam

About 2 days from the time of this post, the recital will close for submissions and go "live". Don't miss out!

Sam

Oh! That’s Saturday morning, not Friday morning. For some reason I had it in my head as Friday morning. (I think I thought Friday was the 15th...)

In that case, maybe I’ll try one more recording attempt rather than uploading the one I have now...

Thanks for the reminder, Sam!

Just remember Sam does this about 6am his time, that works out about 11am UK time. If I was in the US I would get my recording in on the Friday evening.