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Do you mean this one:



PW makes it really easy to add videos, just copy the URL and then back at PW, go to "use full editor" to post a reply. Then along the top (underneath where it says "post") click on the icon that looks like a movie clapboard, and select YouTube video, then paste in the link.

Re the video with the choir, I haven't listened to the whole thing yet, but I suspect I will prefer the piano solo version...

However, it also points to one of the reasons Ffrench is so talented, because he does not only solo piano music, but also orchestral scores, and evidently, choir music. Very cool!!

My progress with Moments, I switched virtual pianos and I think VSL Vienna Imperial works better. My rhythm here I think has also improved a little. Just an audio recording this time. Video is just that extra step, but I'll probably go for a video recording with this virtual piano at some point because I think it is the right one for the piece.

Moments by Alexis Ffrench on Soundcloud

=The Sheet Music Collection is on sale at Sheet Music Plus for 25% off at the moment.

I should have waiting.... :P

Me too.

Me three! And I'm still going to have to pay to get it spiral bound. Could barely read through it this weekend.

Shipping isn't free though.

Btw, I just downloaded the Kindle sample from Amazon and it is a magnificent render. It might even be PDF-level quality. Can't be printed from Kindle though.

https://www.amazon.com/Alexis-Ffrench-Sheet-Music-Collection-ebook/dp/B08D2Z6RK4/

It's on Apple Books as well but a terrible render... this is what Amazon sheet music typically looks like but Amazon got it right this time.

https://books.apple.com/us/book/alexis-ffrench-the-sheet-music-collection/id1526681036

KevinM asked me about this in a different thread so I thought I'd add it to this thread.

I attended an online "master class" by Alexis Ffrench in July 2020. I started following Ffrench on Facebook and it was announced there that he was going to do a master class to commemorate the release of his new musical score collection (the blue one that's talked about earlier in this thread). Also, he had been doing a lot of online stuff because of the pandemic.

Anyway, it was only about an hour long, and although I was absolutely over the moon at being able to attend, it wasn't super "technical" or pedagogical. He played a little bit and took questions from the participants. (He didn't play any of his pieces in their entirety but it was neat to have him play a little and talk about the music)

The first person who was permitted to turn their audio on and ask a question didn't actually have a question, she just practically screamed like a fangirl (nothing wrong with that) and was yelling "we love you Alexis" (it was kind of cute).

But anyway, when I heard that, I thought, ok, I am going to ask a question then! (I was sort of intimidated at first thinking maybe the other attendees were all a bunch of classically trained advanced students or something).

So, I was actually selected as the next person to ask a question, so I asked about 3/4 time, because I don't usually like 3/4 time but I love Bluebird and Moments. So I asked about the "pulse" of 3/4 because Bluebird sort of has a more traditional waltz pulse, but Moments does not (to my ear anyway). So he talked about both of those pieces, and I got to ask a follow up and it was just really neat to do that!

After that, the questions were about Dreamland and Waterfalls, and he talked a lot about playing expressively, finding the line of the music and so on.

Then there were questions like "how do you get ready for a performance" and questions about his practice routine. It was there that he talked about playing Bach and he said that he always plays Bach, and that he doesn't play his own music before a concert.

I actually took a ton of notes and now I can't find them! If I find them I'll share what I wrote.

I don't know if the whole thing would be available online at all, but it was in July 2020 if that helps?

Thanks Shiro that is useful info, that explains why I heard nothing about it, I don't do facebook.

I like your thoughtful question about 3/4 time in relation to bluebird and moments.

Interesting note about playing Bach as part of his practise routine. I honestly would not have expected that. My teacher wants me to start on the inventions and I'm not a fan, but perhaps it is what I need. I find she makes suggestions and a few months later I start, like I need the time to adjust to the suggestion and find my own way for it to work for me.

I wasn't keen to do any Inventions either, but when I started playing them, I found them really appealing and I think in some ways it changed how I *listen* to music...

It's been years since I've played any Inventions but I always enjoy Bach whenever anything by him pops up in my sightreading practice...

BTW, I am still working on Sept. Song by Ffrench. I did a practice recording yesterday actually and I think I am very close to having something shareable! I hope to contribute this piece to the Feb, ABF recital...

I love his music which was introduced to me by this thread. Thanks!
I hope to play some of it eventually but first need to find a nice book (or digital could do).

This is a very interesting comment. I'm like KevinM when it comes to the Inventions by Bach. There's plenty of Bach that I enjoy listening to but never could sit through the Inventions. But I definitely identify with what you're saying about learning the music and seeing it differently. I will take a look again and see if I can try learning some.

Thanks for your amazing post about the masterclass. I wish I had attended that.

For some of us, I think the Inventions really are an acquired taste. When I first started they did not interest me much...in fact, I would have stated that I was not a fan of baroque music at all. I kept at it though, because my teacher kept telling me how good they are for hand independence. It was at least 6 months before I noticed that I was really enjoying them. Over a period of about 2 years I worked on 7 or 8 I think, then switched to some little preludes for the last few months.

Just this past week I've dusted off my book and played through all of my previous efforts...for fun! Now I'm going to pick one or two to take another run at; I'm still not at a level where I can play any of them "well," but I hope to do better this time around. Bach is kind of addictive for me...I feel like I must work on at least one Bach piece along with everything else I'm doing.

Pathbreaker, glad this thread has made another Ffrench fan! For sheet music, I recommend this:

https://www.amazon.com/Alexis-Ffren...is+ffrench&qid=1609703054&sr=8-2

He has another, earlier book (Secret Piano is the title??) but I haven't seen it.

I can't remember if anyone in this thread had purchased the Kindle version, but if you can wait for the paper version, I would recommend it just because I often read bad reviews about kindle sheet music.

Oh, if you want to just purchase a single piece, there are a few places online that sell his PDFs, including MusicNotes and somewhere else that I'm forgetting.

BTW I buy scores from MusicNotes all the time and usually have no problem with the "look" of the score, so I don't know what the problem with Kindle is...

Re Bach, yeah there's something about Bach that I think we don't "hear" until we've tried to play it! Fascinating!

ShiroKuro, thanks for sharing your experience with his master class!

I'm finally ready to work on an Alexis Ffrench piece -- I got the Blue Book and everything (Kindle version) and it is indeed very lovely. The thing that was blocking me was the need to "finish" the Erik Satie piece (also in Waltz time) I was working on:



I definitely feel nods to Satie in some of Alexis' pieces, so hopefully this investment will help. The Satie piece was much harder for me than I had expected even though it's referred to as an easy beginner piece. It was especially hard for me to record it, which was somewhat demoralizing.

What should I expect for Bluebird in terms of difficulty? What does Alexis mean by "chordal clusters"? What do the short horizontal lines on top of some of the notes mean? How do folks pedal this one? Any other practice advice?

Thanks for any tips!

My only advise relates to the short runs in thirds for the right hand that happen on the third page. Start practising them hard from the very start. I find them incredibly tough and they are by far the most fragile part for me when playing the piece.

I don't really know what he means by chordal clusters.

I have the Secret Piano book and I keep poking at it in the hope I'll discover a way in, but so far all of it appears to be above my level. To get help from my teacher I'd have to take screen shots of every page so she could check it all out, so that hasn't happened yet.

Like Shiro I have been buying individual sheet music from music notes. I haven't purchased the blue book, but I've purchased Bluebird, Moments, and Flow and Begin Again though the last is like Secret Piano and above my level.

Thanks ShiroKuro, I will probably go for that collection since I like so much of it. Looks like it's $14.99 at sheetmusicplus at the moment.

navindra, great recording!!

I haven't played Bluebird yet, but during his master class, I was surprised that he said Moments is harder than Bluebird. That doesn't really answer your question though...

Also, I can't find my notes (IKR?!) but IIRC chordal clusters could be sections where there's actual a chord spread out (maybe like the LH pattern in Moments?) and also like what happens in September Song, where there are chords spread across both hands and there are inner voices... That's (IMO) what that piece is sooo hard!!!

I think the idea is to be able to recognize them, so that you're not playing a bunch of notes, but you see the relationship between the notes....

I think that's what he was saying anyway.