Inspired by the "what did you do today?" thread in the piano technicians forum. Maybe we can keep this going for as long as they have!
Me:
Debussy - Tried to improve lightness, speed, and accuracy of 16th note arpeggiated figurations. Also worked on phrasing, pedaling and voicing. Some improvement, maybe?
Mozart sonata - 3rd movement - tried to get the LH accompaniment figurations light, fast and even: some improvement! Worked on the right hand ornaments and various arpeggios that I sometimes miss. Tried to perfect some phrasing.
Mussorgsky - Baba Yaga and Great Gates of Kiev - tried to get the humongous leaps fast and accurate. Failed.

Total time: An hour and a half. Not enough, but I have a midterm coming up so that's all I can spare.

This is a fun idea!

Handel: Mostly worked on the fugue, slowly with a metronome, in an attempt to learn it relatively solidly before I have to play for class in a presentation next week...
Brahms: Worked on refining my pedaling in the theme and first few variations
Chopin: Worked on efficiency of motion in the fast octave passages (making sure that my arms etc. were relaxed and not tense?) and worked on bringing out the inner voices in the lento section (which I am finding strangely difficult).

I only practice for about an hour and half today too.

I spent another hour and half accompanying for a ballet class though! Some good sightreading practice!

Chopin Trio: Still learning the notes. too much play-through and too little actually getting down to the nitty-gritties.

Played for fun a little bit of Mozart's K330.

Total Time: ~1 hour.

Sonata Opus 78 for the December Beethoven E-Cital. Getting the 2nd movement memorized and up to speed in the next 5 weeks is going to be a challenge

Also worked on the Chopin Opus 25 No. 12 "Ocean" Etude - trying to increase speed on this one too without sacrificing accuracy. At least I've memorized it. Also working on No. 1, 2 and 9 from the same Opus.

Only had an hour to practice today.

Not much... took a break today.

But I did read through a few of the Shostakovich op.34 preludes (C, eb min, Db, Eb, c min). Great little gems; gonna learn them some day.

-J

Gosh. This has been the first day in weeks that I haven't had either a concert, or a rehearsal, or too much to prepare in too little time! I actually took the day off and went shopping.

But before I went I did put in about a half-hour on the accompaniment to Be kind and courteous from Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream which I'm performing (amongst other things) with a soprano on Sunday.

Chopin Scherzo no.3

Bach C minor Toccata

all good fun

B

This could be very embarassing...

Or, it could be the start of a new phase of focused practice

I did things today, but not my own practise. Worked on a number of easy/int pieces by tchaikovsky, grieg, bailey, mendelssohn, dello joio to prepare for teaching. So my sight reading continues to improve, well that's one good thing I suppose.

Also, I wrote 2 songs for beginners, very happy with one of them. And I played along with my students. So, at the piano for hours but no new Bach and Beethoven.

They are superb pieces, I was working on the Gb min this morning.

Two Bach:

French Suite No 5: Gigue (G Major), and
Partita 3: Corrente (A Minor)

Also scales of all keys, similar motion, 4 octaves, major, harmonic minor, and melodic minor, and all keys contrary motion, 2 octaves, major and minor. (Doing this is one of my favourite 'warm up' exercises.)

I haven't practiced yet today because it is only 7:30 am. But last time I practiced:

Mendelssohn Rondo Capriccioso: Worked on the two fast pages before the end slowly in sections to make them more clean and also in rhythms to speed them up.

Bach Prelude and Fugue in B flat: More rhythms for the fast parts of the prelude, and also worked on the phrasing of the big chords. Metronome practice with the fugue because it is uneven

Brahms Intermezzo (119)
Sibelius Etude
Liszt HR 10

I do most of my useful practice between midnight and 3 am.Usually about an hour or so.This morning as for most of the last two months I concentrated on the fugue from op 110.I do believe it's actually starting to yield a little, I was beginning to lose hope.I also started working out some of the details from the arioso sections.
For some light relief I did a run through of Chopin op 37 no 2.It's always been beyond me but it didn't sound too bad this morning.I might give it a go.

90 minutes of improvising for a modern dance class
90 minutes of accompanying a ballet class (mostly classical ballet rep, plus some improvising)

45 minutes of practicing the Hindemith horn sonata
30 minute rehearsal on the Hindemith horn sonata

(need to clean up an octave passage in the 3rd movement and work out some voicing stuff in the first, but otherwise it's sounding okay)

Then 3 hours of teaching.

Today will be similar:

3 hours of dance classes
1.5 hours of rehearsing (for our state's MTNA competition - I'm accompanying four of the woodwind entrants)
3 hours of teaching

Hopefully I've have time tomorrow for real practicing!

After trying frantically to practice my Beethoven for my lesson tmr, I spent 3 hours reading/learning opera reductions and swearing every two bars.

Sergei Bortkiewicz's Etude in D flat Op.15 No.8. I just love this great ultra-romantic piece. Such fun to play!

My first piece by a Croatian composer is Dora Pejačević's Red Carnations from Blumenleben Op.19. What a lovely piece. It's impossible to understand why her works are unknown.

Ernesto Drangosch's Concert Etude 'Burlesca' Op.14 No.1.

I sight read through Ignacy Dobrzyński's D flat Nocturne Op.23 No.2. Might be worth working up.


Mel

Gb minor? Do you mean... I don't know which you mean!

-J

Haha I know what you mean! I have to accompany a singer right after my lesson every week, and one of the things she is working on is an Aria from Ariadne auf Naxos. The orchestral reduction is RIDICULOUS!

orchestra reductions ARE ridiculous

one must be a titan to play them.

It's a good day when i practice before 10 AM.

(Scarlatti K141)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m017xsXZTNc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IfYPC4b4Rg

This isn't a classical music forum, is it?

It doesn't have to be classical or advanced music, as long as it's piano. Pianists of all styles and levels can participate.

I probably won't be practising until after my midterm tomorrow.

I practiced Ravel Concerto in G for master class on Sunday and did some work on my pieces for Wednesday: Brahms Ballade 1, Chopin Ballade 2, Ravel Rapsodie Espagnole Feria and Dvorak Slavonic Dance No. 8.

And for fun, I read through the first movement of Alkan's Grand Duo Concertant and played the exposition part of it with one of my violinist friends! She really enjoyed it.

And I also read through some of Brahms Concerto 1 yesterday and today... It's magnificent! I'm thinking about dabbling into Saint-Saens Concerto 4 next; I like it so much more than 2, personally (sorry if I'm stepping on anybody's toes).

I love that opera. I played the Composer's Aria once for a singer- what part of it are you playing? Tell me it's not Es gibt ein Reich, I'll envy you.

I prefer the 4th also- wonderfully athletic!

I couldn't practice yesterday because of work, commuting to and from my piano lesson (with my new teacher). I can't wait to get home today.

I'm going to work on:
Polishing Aufschwung (Schumann opus 12)
Working out the kinks of Brahms #119 #3
Re-learn Mozart Sonata #310 with some of the new ideas I got from my teacher.

Will the workday never end?

Yesterday, practiced the harder parts of the Ginastera First Sonata, Beethoven Op. 101, Bach's 4th French Suite, Chopin Polonaise Op. 44, and read through the Smetana Piano Sonata.

Alkan op.15 1-3 and op.39 8-10
Chopin op.22
Ravel Jeux d'eau
Beethoven op.28

I practiced the fast scales in Chopin's Nocturne op9. no 1, worked on Chopin Etude op 25 no 1, and Improvised classical music for a very long time. Also did some scales and worked on Chopin prelude op 28 no 4

Debussy - Valse Romantique
Beethoven - Pathetique (Mvt.1 for fun, Mvt.3 for lessons)

Probably a hour, hour and a half today (I'm not exactly sure, I haven't got a dedicated practice hour, I just sit down and play/practice whenever I feel like it)

Mainly looked through some of Prokofievs 3rd concerto today as I´m supposed to play it (somehow) next week in concert. There´s this awfully difficult octava passage near the end of the 2nd movement which needs to be worked on, and to maintain the energy throughout the last pages is indeed quite demanding.

Apart from that I worked on my current etudes - chopins op 10:4 and debussys pour les accords, which are perfect etudes in relation to the prokofiev concerto. And...I couldn´t resist sightreading some Medtner fairy-tales today, lovely stuff.Tomorrow - more prokofiev, for sure..

Rachmaninoff's Preludes op23 (nos 4 and 5): Mostly octave, style, and memorization work
Bach: Invention no. 8, Soffeleggio (CPE): just for fun
Chopin: various nocturnes: for fun
Beethoven: appassionata and moonlight: sightreading and fingering
Mozart: sonata for fun
Czerny: various etudes for technique
and some improvisation (but not i'm not very good)

Because of my upcoming technical test, I've been practicing scales, scales, and more scales.

Oh, and I briefly spent about half an hour working on a few bars of Chopin's Revolutionary etude.

Total time: 1 hour 30 mins.

I printed out the score and started on fantaisie impromptu again (to brush up a few things) after a span of about 4 years and I got a phone call from my neighbor as soon as I started playing because his wife is ill today and so he requested me not to play tonight

For a change of pace, today I played through the entire book of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" music. Danny Elfman is my hero for the day. Surprising harmonies, different styles (even a blues piece!), and quotation of the Dies Irae theme. Most impressively, the music matched the lyrics' mood and feelings. Elfman's a genius.

Dohnyani , pichna, czerny and hanon. I did a combo of exerises for octaves, scales, double thirds, arpegios, trills, broken octaves and tremolo.

Schumann Abegg variation. Theme+Var1+Var3+Coda
Chopin etudes Op.10 No.2 and Op.10 No.4. Broke them apart and made small excersises out of them
Frank symphonic variations. Started to learn it.

around 2 hours and 15 mins

Final mvmnt of Chopin's b-flat minor sonata: Trying to decide on fingering and sticking with it dammit!

Bach's sinfonia in E-flat: another vain attempt at allowing the top two voices to co-exist alone together....(or something just as loosely put)........

John Coltrane's moment's notice: just running through the changes kinda slow-like...

Today (strictly speaking after midnight, and it is now just after 3am) I practiced Schubert's The Wanderer...

Today: Ravel Concerto all 3 movements, Beethoven Waldstein all 3 movements, Brahms Ballade 1, Chopin Ballade 2, and to reward myself, Alkan Grand Duo Concertant 1st movement.

EDIT: I'm going to practice even more (in between laundry) and sightread Mozart sonatas! After I go through all these, I'll do Haydn.

Joplin's 'Bethena' Waltz - SO addicted to this piece right now. I think it really proves Joplin as a Classical composer. I can play it all through now, just perfecting dynamics and articulations.

Chopin's Piano Concerto No.2 2nd Mvt - Got half of it down now. Some parts are pretty tricky!

And of course Scales, Arpeggio's and a little bit of good old Hanon.

You're learning the Waldstein!! OMG, it's a fantastic piece!! I finally learned it and performed it several times and took an exam with it last year, after first starting the first movement 5 years ago!! It was a real accomplishment. Are you taking music in university? I'm jealous cause I never have time to practice anymore...

Today I practised for about 2 and a half hours:
Liszt: Sonata in b minor
Chopin: Scherzo 4
Debussy: Jardins sur la pluie

Then I just ran through some old repertoire..trying to keep my technique and repertoire in shape.
Scriabin etude op.42 no.5
Liszt: Transcendental etude no.12
Rachmaninoff: etude op.33 no.4 in d minor
Debussy: Ballade, Pagodes
Chopin: Scherzo no.3, Ballade no.1

Today about 2 hours.
Debussy - lots of little details, especially voicing, correcting random wrong notes and rhythmic inaccuracies
Mozart - 1st movement and 3rd movement
Mussorgsky - Gnomus and Unhatched chicks
+sight read some Bach inventions and Haydn sonatas. My sight reading really sucks, I should work on it more regularly.

Pretty good considering I stayed up cramming for a midterm and only slept 4 hours. Practising is actually very energizing.

Debussy opera, Handel arias and duets (fml), Donizetti arias and duets, Hoffman (? I don't even know what I'm learning), started learning my 20th century piece.... all of this went on and on almost alllll day. So basically, lots of reading today!

Put some touches on the first two movements of Beethoven op.14 #1.

Read through both op.27 Chopin nocturnes, my next project. These are going to be *so* much easier for me than the Beethoven! (Even though I think they're considered more "advanced".)

2h

-Jason

Continued to work on the Beethoven Opus 78 and Opus 7 for the upcoming Beethoven e-cital. Opus 78 is still in the "learning the notes" stage - Opus 7 is in the "trying to get it back in my fingers and up to tempo after 37 years" stage.

Also working on increasing my speed in Chopin's Etude Opus 25 No. 12. Fortunately, its memorized.

the piano

Win.

I practiced some Granados my teacher gave me. Lovely piano transcription of a guitar piece.

Hi, I'm coming back to all this after a long break (years) and judging from the above posts, some of you are way ahead of me, but this is my daily schedule:



The above is one of my target pieces (as below) but I didn't work on it this week, to give my tendinitis a break (was it a good reason to stop for a week?).

But I am doing this passage from the Grieg concerto, the Schubert (but in G for the time being, since it was the key I learnt it in 10 years ago and I'm taking it easy), and the Chopin OP 64 nº 1 waltz, and Grieg's Humoresque Op6 nº1.

As a half-hour prelude to these, for the moment I'm doing progressively slow major and minor scales, over 4 octaves, in parallel motion in octaves, sixths and thirds, some arpeggios, and some Hanon.

I tend do give it about 3 hours, in 3 one-hour sessions..

Oh I haven't played the piano at all today! Was flat out getting our taxes organised until 2.30 this afternoon, then doing the usual Saturday afternoon thing (taking a nap) then had dinner, listening to Schiff as I surf the internet. Think I'm getting a cold - so taking it very easy.

I wasn't only being funny. Practising on the most loved instrument is worth celebrating. The string instrument has had a lot of attention lately...

And now that I've done my small amount of genuine practice that isn't sightreading, I can list it: Bach, Invention 13. That's it. I am returning gently.

I had quite bad tendinitis for about 2 months over the summer so I'm very gradually working back up my practice schedule. Atm I'm on 3 sessions of 20 minutes a day (with warmups and cooldowns either side). As such I don't have much time to work on things but atm I'm mainly working on the 4th movement of beethoven op.10 no.3.

BACH, INVENTION 13TH, SUCH A GREAT PIECE.


M.

In my quest to manage my tendinitis problem, in addition to acupuncture and homoeopathic treatment, I’ve begun a short series of a few exercises kindly posted by a Forum member. But I’m very interested in your “warmups and cooldowns”.

Could you explain more, please?

Many thanks

welcome to the forums oh person with great taste in Inventions
I've had such good value from Inv 8 being in memorised repertoire that I thought I'd add a couple more. There are so many possibilities for use in warming up and looking after technique.
Today I hope to achieve more than warm up and sight reading. Will post efforts later with any luck.

I am going through a Tchaikovsky piano album I bought the other day right now.

i went mad on russian scales. major minor melodic and harmonic 3rd 6th 8th 10th apart, czerny school of virtuosity, chopin etudes, and frank symphony variations. 4 hours practice

which opus's?

It is a selection from Op.10, 37 and 40, as well as the Romance Op.5.

About 2 hours today. Trying to become more focused in isolating the problem areas and perfecting them. Also did some memory work.

Yikes! I hope that you get better and that it's not a recurring thing.

Brahms Intermezzo op 119 #3.
Mozart Sonata K310
Schumann Aufschwung Opus 12

AND - Mussorgksy "The Gnome" (reviving) to play at my students' piano club on Tuesday because it sounds spooky and Halloween is coming up.

Somewhere in between stripping bed,roasting a chicken, and a trip to the gym, I ran through Elgar's "Chanson de Matin" a few times. I plan to ask a flautist (who is also learning English horn) to do this for a wedding we know is coming up.

Thanks to whoever suggested this Elgar - or was that in another group?

Also worked on my accomp for "Amazing Grace"- half the choir doesn't read music, so the rehearsals have been, shall we say, a bit irritating. Basses reverting to melody - that sort of thing.

thx CAddict - I had a listen.

Yesterday was first long and solid practice in ages, yay. Thanks for extra motivation of this thread maybe

Technique: Bach Inv 13 (also learning notes), and easy Clementi sonata - aiming for detail of touch and exact volume and evenness. Enjoyed this warm up.
Beethoven: 14/1 2nd movement, reviving after a year to see if I have improved generally, finding more detail, lightness and rhythmic momentum.

Beethoven op13, mov.3 rondo - working with teacher on this one so about time I got back to learning the notes. I have been really slow in getting to play through stage (no where near yet) but did great work on small fragments and HS over first 3 sections. happy with this.

Armchair memory: did 8 bars yesterday of easy Mozart polonaise (some problems and felt strange). This should improve my sight reading.

I worked on that movement today too. For me, the rhythmic momentum came when I started playing it as a little dance, which I achieved by really hearing beats one and three, like a heartbeat....

-J

Thankfully my college put me in contact with a qualified doctor and I am well on the way to permenant recovery. I am worried about Maharishi's reliance on alternative medicine. These things can easily do permenant damage if not treated properly.

Feel free to send presents my way. I only did about an hour today, mostly brushing up the Debussy and re-memorizing the Mozart.

Last year I played through the Two-part Inventions every day.

I have had two bouts of tendonitis in my (as yet) short life. Once at 24 (R knee + ankle, a hill-walking injury) and once at 48 (R wrist + thumb, a work-related injury). Both were cured by REST. Massage therapy helped with the wrist/thumb, and I have nothing but good to say about alternative medicine when practiced by the right individuals who have excellent insight, knowledge, and intuition. The FDA, and such like, are NOT your friends.

*climbing off soapbox, now*

Beethoven Op. 79 (for E-cital)
Bach, "Aria, 'My Heart Ever Faithful (from the Pentecost Cantata)'" (for a future Haddorff Postcard)
Dixon/Henderson, "Bye Bye Blackbird" (1948 copy) (for my daughter, a budding vocalist)
Chopin, "Trois Etudes, No. 2," (for the Chopin E-cital, late, dammit, so planning to post in Member Recordings)
Davis/Akst, "First, Last and Always (I Love You): Ballad Fox Trot" (for Grandpianoman in his "My Piano In EBVT III" thread, to pass my foxtrot final exam)...
Bach, Two-Part Inventions, nos. 1, 3, 4, 8 (today... really want to get 8 under my hands)
AND
Arlen/Harburg, Keith Jarret interpretation, F. Grossnick transcription, "Over The Rainbow," (for Pianoloverus in the George Shearing thread)

Unfortunately, "qualified doctors" can also do damage and/or misdiagnose. Thinking back, it is astonishing how many times "qualified doctors" have made gross errors when attempting to treat me for various problems, especially in how they managed to misdiagnose relatively common problems, sometimes repeatedly.

On the other hand, my health maintenance organization (i.e., medical insurance network) is involved with supporting members' interest in alternative medical treatments, and offers on-site classes in things like meditation, yoga, tai chi, and qi gong.

Of course medical doctors make mistakes occasionally, they're only human beings. But at least the science behind how they diagnose is sound. There is no medical benefit to homeopathy or acupuncture whatsoever when compared with a similarly administered placebo. Meditation, yoga etc are all well and good but all they're really doing is teaching you to be aware of your posture and any problems you may have. They're useless once you've actually injured your tendons. I'd far rather trust the medical opinion of a qualified doctor (and I rather feel the inverted commas you use is an insult to the years of study that such qualification requires) over the recommendation of a treatment that has never been shown to be effective in a single double blind clinical trial.

Monday: (my Monday night is the US's Monday morning) Bach French Suite No. 5 Gigue. Scales, about an hour of sight reading.

I'd forgotten who started it. For you hehe.
Last practice: Bach fugue, more on Beethoven rondo, some sight reading (including a lovely Brahms sarabande that btb posted I think), memorising exercise away from piano (8 bars).

Enjoying putting more into piano, less for cello. I seem to be all one or the other, and each gives the other a break.

Which Bach fugue? Which Beethoven rondo (Pathetique?)?

In general, on this thread, we should name the pieces in full (not just e.g. "the Mozart").

-Jason

p.s. Canonie, you're actually managed to find another smiley that looks like he's eating flowers. Amazing.

The 32-note(not 32nd note) trill on E flat-F in Aria by Fredrick Gulda.

Busoni transcription of Ich Ruf' zu dir, Herr Jesus Christ

church music

Moonlight sonata (one of my students is learning it)

Prelude in D WTC I.. just for fun

also Mozart K 283.. a very nice piece people are learning for fingering. I've never played it before.

I spent about three solid hours playing through all of the vocal rep I am accompanying for... not even really practicing any of them, just reading through. Then I worked for about an hour on my Ginastera sonata, didn't get much accomplished. Finally, accompanied for ballet class for an hour and a half.

So 5.5 hours at the piano today but none of my rep is much better for it... Just one of those days I guess!

Jason, of course we should! in each post to make it easy for others. The interest is very nice too. Eating flowers!?
Bach Cmin fugue from WTCI 847, My Pathetic Rondo of Beethoven op13.

Today so far: Away from instrument memory exercise: Beethoven Landler in D (16 bars), no finger moving but used a pencil, had to look back to score once for a melodic detail. I improve each time I do this exercise. And it's helping my memory and theory in general.
Also today I've worked on fugue again, ok back to it!

Apple, I am a new fan of that piece, listened to BruceD's recording twice then found a nice organist playing the original on Utube and listened many times. Yes I must leave a post for BruceD.

Chopin Ballade 2
Brahms Ballade 1
Ravel Rapsodie Espagnole Feria (duet)
Dvorak Slavonic Dance 8 (duet)

And to reward myself a little bit:
Alkan Sonate de Concert Finale (duet version)
Alkan Grand Duo Concertant 1st movement

Beethoven op.14/1 first movement: one comment from my teacher this morning ("hear the first three LH chords as an upbeat, leading somewhere") changed my whole feel of the movement. Worked on incorporating her suggestions.

Mozart K.283 first movement: worked on getting it clean at 116. I can play other composers' 16th notes at faster speeds, but, as they say, Mozart really is harder. I feel like such a cliche.

-J

Rachmaninoff - Prelude Opus 23 No 5
Bach - WTC I Fugue C - Minor

I usually keep my practice log in the Piano World Practice Club... I think it is very useful to write down what you practice!

Fiiiiiine...I was gonna make you guys dig through my past posts if you were really curious. Thanks for the flowers, Canonie - even though you ate them before giving them to me!

Today I only did about an hour because I hired a new technician who tunes entirely by ear and his tuning took 2 hours. Also, on his recommendation, I moved my piano from one side of the room to the other. Good thing it's on wheels!

I was working on solidifying the memory and polishing L'isle Joyeuse today. Didn't get to start Mozart 283 like I wanted because of lack of time.

Beethoven Op 26 4th mvt. Learning this more as an exercise in wrist rotation and finger gymnastics. Slow progress but is coming along. Schubert Impromptu in Gflat. *Sigh* the inner notes are still too loud and "notey", not the harmonious burble I want them to be. Still haven't got good fingering reliably worked out here and there. Briefly ran though accompaniemnts to the violin & piano pieces I am learning with Tubbie0075. Lesson tomorrow!

new stuff: Miroirs, not too easy alas, may take some time, have none though, geez

Getting the third movement of Mozart K.283 to MM=80.... Why is this piece feeling like a figure skating program, with easy, "expressive" material connecting the Axel jumps and triple Lutz jumps lurking out there?...

-J

Chopin's 3rd Ballade. Quite a beautiful thing to play. Listening to it is a whole 'nother issue. I like Paderewski's version, and that's on a piano roll!

Jason-

It sounds like you are preparing for a contest. Are you? Or is it just the structure of the movement that makes it seem like a skating program? Just curious...

--Andy

Oh. BTW. "Over The Rainbow," Grossnick transcription of Jarrett improvisation. That's all I had time for... (Still looking for some solutions to parts that rub me the wrong way.)

Andy-

No, I'm not preparing for anything. It's just that I know there are certain notes, and certain leaps, that I get only 50% of the time, and as I'm approaching them... I can imagine how a figure skater feels.

I've read that this feeling of anticipation of an approaching difficult passage is counter-productive to its execution. And so this whole metaphor is actually possibly a hindrance.

-J

Yes! Al-mahed and I talked about that when we referred to a section of Scott Joplin's "Swipesy" as a "tricky part!" We decided to call it something like, "that part that I'm going to play the heck out of in a minute!" But even then, it creates a little tension knot. So, instead,

Play! Be free!!!

Scales, Sight Reading some pieces I am thinking of learning; Bach dmin P&F from WTCI is rather tempting, the melody carried by 3rd note of triplet - very satisfying; also Bartok, Rachmaninoff.

Main practice: Beethoven op13 rondo - I am getting somewhere I suppose. Indulged myself with "chorale" section - delicious writing, as reward for lots of passage work. In 2 weeks perhaps the passages will become comfortable if I work daily on this.
Bach Cmin fugue WTCI.

Bach

Lady Di

Beethoven Op. 26 and Op. 54

This is a little embarassing because I've noticed everyone practicing these intense advanced pieces... but hey everyone has to start somewhere right? Ive been working on 2 pieces from the Final Fantasy X Piano Collections (dont judge until you hear them, being from a video game doesnt stop them from being beautiful), Tidus' Theme and To Zanarkand. In the former it opens with these rapid arpeggios in the right hand that are going to take me a LONG time, but Ill get there eventually. The latter's climactic section has some unimaginably fast arpeggios in the left hand that I can do perfectly fine slowly, but I need to work them up to speed. Those two are my fun pieces, and for my teacher Im working on Prokofieff (is it a v at the end? Ive heard it both ways but my book says it with 2 fs) pieces for children, Opus 65. They dont look challenging but they present their own challenges. And they are all great fun or really beautiful!

Chopin: Op.27 #1 LH, Op.27 #2 RH.

-J

Ravel Concerto 3rd movement
Beethoven Waldstein 3rd movement
Mozart Sonata in D Major K 311 1st movement
Brahms Ballades Op. 10 Nos. 1 and 2

And to reward myself:
Read through Alkan's Nocturne in B Major Op. 22 a few times. It's actually easy sightreading (but of course, like anything, not so easy to polish and play well).

Flight, Movement 1 - One of my compositions

Sonata #7 in F major - Mozart

Sonata in D major - Haydn (not a fan!)

an Allemande by Bach

The Cradle by George Winston (just for funz!)

Memories Mvt. 2 - One of my compositions

"The American Drummer" Rudiments and Etudes for snare drum

Some rock/metal beats and fills on the drum set

...That's about it, I think!

As the OP of this thread - I'm glad you could join us. You're right, everyone does start somewhere and I hope more members will chime in with less advanced pieces. I'm actually more interested in everyone's practise habits than what they're practising.

Today I read through Mozart K. 283 a few times, overcame my laziness and wrote down some reasonable (to me!) fingerings for the second page and shared it on PW. Then, on to some actual work!

Mussorgsky: Did exercise drills on some tricky bars in Promenade and Gnomus. Played through The Old Castle. Played through Tuileries and did some exercise drills on many of the bars. Played through Unhatched Chicks and Polish Oxcart.
Mozart K457: Played through movements 1 and 2. Did exercise drills on various bars in movement 1 and 3. Worked on memorizing movement 2.
Debussy L'isle Joyeuse: Did some exercise drills on the arpeggios section.

Today's session felt like hitting my head against a brick wall repeatedly. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Relative to the last few days, today was a good day.

Did the technical/warm-up stuff. Did the groups of Mozskowski, Moscheles, and Persichetti etudes I am working on, plus the Medtner skazka I am treating as an etude. Worked on Beethoven op. 14., no. 1, movement 3, and the whole of op. 14, no. 2 (since the person who is listed as doing it for the Beethoven fest hasn't been here for a while, I got worried a day or two ago and decided I should maybe try to get the first movement in some sort of shape, just in case; I was playing around with just the last two movements up until now).

Had the time and energy to also read through Alkan op. 39, no. 1, Bach A major and minor preludes and fugues from both books of the WTC, a Prokofiev Vision Fugitive and his op. 59 Paysage, and a Rachmaninoff Etude-Tableaux (the a minor "sea and seagulls" one) and his Polka de WR (I am amazed that the latter is sort of getting under my fingers to the point where I can actually have fun with it musically - it sounds like a trivial little encore piece, but it is ridiculously difficult once you get to know it).

A Jazzy Christmas!

Yesterday I had a particularly well-focused practice session for ~4 hours.

1. Warmed up with 25 min. of sight reading (well, reading for the second time) some Mozart arias for baritone.
2. 1 hr of technical exercises: From Brahms 51, I practiced #1 for a long time (3 against 4 rhythm still giving me problems). I isolated some of the measures or beats by playing the measure/beat and stopping on the 1st note of the next. This is a better way to hear if everything is lining up properly. Brahms #25 - sliding each finger off a black key to the next white key while trying to make them the same volume. Much better than yesterday when I first started this one. 1st two Pischna, with all the preparatory exercises. In all these exercises, I focused on keeping as relaxed as possible, and limiting my finger motion to use only those muscles that were necessary to use.
3. Fantaisie-Impromptu - Chopin (1 hr): this piece has been frustrating me because the opening section I can sometimes play flawlessly, but I often get stuck. I THINK that if I actively hear the notes in my head just before I play them that I get stuck much less often. This way I should play what I want to hear. It seemed to work, but I couldn't always focus, and sometimes found myself doubting that it could work while playing it. Will have to try this more today.
-Also noticed that my arm tenses up on ms. 7-9, which definitely causes me to make more errors.
- practiced isolated spots in ms. 13-24 and also practiced these measures playing only the thumb of the RH with the LH accompaniment so that I could work on phrasing of the melody and be more fluid with repositioning the hand.
4. Danzas Argentinas, Ginastera: my plan was just to refresh what I worked on the previous day, but I got carried away again listening to the music and experimenting with different pedaling/accents/phrasing/voicing. Mostly worked on 1st & 3rd movements on the transitions from one section to the next.

Plan for next session: work on the pieces I skipped today, plus aim to complete Danzas Argentinas so that I can perform it in my studio class on Monday.
Summary: starting with the technical exercises (none of them were fast) and focusing on proper movement made me more aware of the quality of my movements on my repertoire. The bad thing about my practice session is that I didn't get to two of my other pieces, including one I've been avoiding because I'm afraid I can't do it. I love it when something I spent a lot of time on the previous day is much better the next day when I first come back to it.

The trills from Gulda's Aria.

Mainly: Beethoven Op13 rondo; work work working, short segments HS up to and beyond speed to train those fingers into submission. Slow passes through whole reveal the red light areas. Doubt if I'll be ready for E-cital... I've had a lot of work for the string instrument recently - that's my excuse. I'm trying!
Some other pieces including shostakovich clockwork doll for a student - that is a mighty fun piece to play

Today working my way through Chopin's Polonaise in E flat minor (Op. 26 No. 2), as well as one of Bach's Little Preludes (BWV935) and some Czerny technial exercises.

Today I played several waltzes and mazurkas by Chopin to get some more inspiration for the Ballade (no.3) I currently working on.

A very difficult piece for Saxophone and Piano.

Beethoven, sonata in e, op.90/Escher Arcana/ Schmidek op.25/Ravel Alborada..

The Creston sonata by any chance? Wonderful piece.

Sibelius Sonatine no. 3. Trying to figure out the pedalling and phrasing. Love the piece more and more. Really interesting.
Clementi Gradus ad Parnassum etude no 2

en voor morgen: Anathema, Peter Schat, de schat

A Barcarolle by Shaffer, actually. I think I might have played a movement of the Creston sonata a while back though...very difficult it was!

Bach

i am playing thru Scarlatti sonatas.. they are so nice. Also worked on the Adagio from the Pathetique.. (for my student who will learn it next week).

Ah stores, don't keep us in suspense- what Bach were you practicing?

I bet it is some pieces from one of the two nice little books for a well tempered clavier..

A Sibelius Etude
Brahms Intermezzo op119 no3

Mozart Sonata in D Major K. 311 first movement
Beethoven Waldstein
Brahms Ballades Op. 10 Nos. 1 and 2
Ravel Concerto 3rd movement

To reward myself: Beethoven Symphony No. 7 in A Major Op. 92 Second movement (arr. Liszt) Alkan Nocturne, Barcarolle from Op. 65, and Hamelin's Nokia Ringtone Waltz.

My copy of Hamelin's etudes arrived in the post last week. Several listenings and I'm hooked. Great stuff! Will comment when I have had more time to study them, though in one of the etudes I'm hearing Griffes's Barcarolle in the background.

Oh yes, a small package of value will be arriving in your post later this week!

Hey Damon, how is it coming? I think mine is finally beginning to come together. I'm still a bit hackneyed on the 3rd page - trying to work through it with small hands, but page two is finally settling down and I'm finding the overall expression I like. Do you find that last few measures hard? I can't get them down both quickly and accurately yet. The whole piece is not quite up to the tempo I want but it's really sounding better. When I finish #3, I'll have Op 119 # 1, 2 and 3 ready. (I may not tackle the Rhapsody because just reading it hurts my hands.)

Also reworking on Mozart K310 - first 2 movements - also sounding better.

My new teacher is wonderful!

Today I did a lot of focused passage work, especially in accurately landing on huge jumps. I find myself wishing that I had about 5 eyes or at least a field of vision that spans the whole keyboard.

I'm fairly happy with it except for measures 30 through 34, which is the only part I practice anymore. Once I get that the way I like it, I'll just add the rest again. I wish I had the whole opus but I really only log a couple of hours a week for practice so my progress is pretty slow.

The last page is a little tricky because I'm pretty specific about what I want on measure 55 and the last arpeggio before the "finale" and it's hard to accent it that way, but I can play it how most others do. I bungle the second to the last chord a lot, so I'll work on that too.

By the last few, do you mean that ascending phrase with the repeated notes? I'm okay with that one now, but it was one of the first 'problems' I tackled.

I'm glad you like your new teacher. Your old one was making you sound a little depressed.

Yesterday, as I haven't had time yet today, I played this:

1. Ran through some scales and Hanons to warm up.

2. Tried to polish up "Ich ruf zu dir." (Thanks Apple!!)

3. Wanted to play through all of Chopin's Mazurkas, but only got through 16 of them. Hope to finish the rest today. Most of these I am sight-reading.

4. Grieg's Nocturne Op. 54 no. 4. Trying to perfect the polyrhythms.

5. Revisiting Granados's Andaluza (Spanish Dance op.5) Attempting to make it sound more Spanish-y, more like de Larrocha plays it.

6. And, biting off more than I can chew, slowly playing through bits of La Campanella.

7. Also, as a memorizing exercise, finally (successfully!!) memorizing the very short and simple Chopin's Prelude in A major. I was afraid I could no longer memorize a piece, but this has given me a new confidence.

Laura

Schmidek's 3 clockpieces, took me 1 hour, in the pocket, fun!, Ravel Jeux d'eau, Alkan concerto.

Bach. And yes, someone was correct above...WTC... 12 p&fs at a time...break...12 more, etc.

I read through the Ossia cadenza of Rach 3 a few times, and it is so deep and powerful!

I didn't get to practice much else today, but I spent my time working on the third movement of the Waldstein and a little on the first.

If you mean hitting those notes accurately, what I've found is it's very important to deliberately figure out when and where to look. (I may be stating something you've already figured out.) Notice the LH at the end of measure 33 is playing E/A. I can nearly stretch to reach the next LH F in M. 34 so I don't have to look at the LH. Instead I can focus on aiming for the fm chord in the RH. The next place I look is the LH low F. I can find the RH f minor chord easily without looking because the top note of that chord is the same note as the bottom note of the preceding chord (i.e. C). I've also found it helps to do a little rubato as you work your way up from measure 31 - 34. The music swells and the rubato works -and gives me a little more time. [/quote] My teacher suggested I concentrate on mentally connecting the LH beats 2+3, 4+ 5 - without actually playing it that way. It makes the stretches seem easier. It works best when I count the arpeggio as 2 beats per measure but I'm still struggling to get my speed up. Yes, those are a real struggle to hit accurately with the right dynamics. Any suggestions?

Deborah and Damon,

I love this kind of very specific advice and discussion. I wish we would do it more around here (maybe on pieces I'm working on ). Carry on!

-Jason

What I'm really interested in accomplishing there is to truly hold that dotted eighth in the left hand and the only fingering where I can accomplish the sound I want (5-1-2-1-3-4) is tough for me to pull off. And the left hand jump in measure 34 is the biggest problem in the piece IMO. I always miss the low F!

Yes, I think Kreisler suggested that tactic also in a previous discussion. I like playing that measure with a crescendo and a little accelerando and regain the time on the first chord of the next measure.



I'm trying to keep the 2 beat 'feel' through the arpeggio which means accenting the 2nd E going down and the 2nd F coming back up. Most just play it as flourish, which is also fine, just not what I want.


Yes and it's similar to the left hand solution in measure 55. Using 532 on the chord and your thumb on the single notes, play the first chord then move your whole hand in position to play the single note and second chord. (I started doing it as a dotted rhythm) That will get your hand ready for the little jump at the beginning of the next 2 measures. If your comfortable with a 10th, it's not even a jump. Increase your speed with the dotted rhythm until you reach your target speed then ease the rhythm out.

What are you working on?

Mozart K.283 and Beethoven op.14/1 (whole sonatas)
Chopin op.27 #1 and #2

Anyone want to share specific advice, tricky spots, frustrations, tricks, etc.?

-J

I've only read through the Mozart, but I played the Beethoven quite awhile ago. It's very classical, and makes great use of a few short motifs. I remember that the third movement was trickiest, but not much more than that. Will you be sharing your performance with us when you're done? I remember reading that you have a Zoom Q3.

I did post fingering on the first page of K.283 in the fingering thread. The second page is trickier but I haven't 'worked' on it yet.

That's exactly the fingering I'm using and I seem to be pulling it off...lots of wrist motion there; pivot on the dotted 8th and keep your fingers close to the keys. What seems to work is this: take look at the 3rd beat in the RH of M. 34 - the bottom note of that chord is the same as the top note in the next chord. If you use this as your landmark, you should be able to change RH chords without looking. This leaves you free to quickly take a look to place your LH on the low F.

I actually have 3 places marked where I need to look, (I've got them marked with little eyeballs!). I've had to practice exactly when to turn my head to look:

Measure 33 LH low Ab
Measure 34 RH first fm chord
Measure 34 LH 4th beat low f.
The rest I can find by their adjacent chords.

Previously, someone, (Kreisler?) suggested practicing the jumps backwards. Someone else suggested simplifying the jumps by practicing with only two notes such as A to low F. Or move your hand before the beat is done and stop above your target silently, over and over. My new teacher keeps telling me to stay closer to the keys.
I'll give it a try. I'm using that exact fingering but it's a bit of a stretch for me and the chords get sloppy. On a good day I can painfully reach a 9th. I like your dotted rhythm idea. I'll give it a try.

I'm enjoying this. Thanks Damon!

Chopin, C# minor nocturne, op.27 #1, a lot.

I just realized that the pedal indications are Chopin's; that means I'll follow them, which occasionally yields some interesting effects (m.10, m.27-28) that I would have done differently otherwise.

After all the hubbub, I'm leaning towards not including C#1 in the octave (see parallel never-ending thread). I can get my thunder-like effect with a sforzando on the single C#.

I also noticed the sforzando towards the end, m.94. That's sort of a shock there; you can do something interesting with that...

-Jason

But Chopin's piano had much shorter sustain than the modern instrument. It might be more prudent to listen to how it might have sounded to him, then aim for a similar sound.

That's right-- I forgot about that. Good point. Maybe I'll rethink those interesting measures (for which he indicates the pedal depressed the whole time). All fun experimentation...

-J

Bach Inv13 - it flows now, my bizarre fingering is working
Beethoven rondo from op13 lots of dividing and conquering.
Mendelssohn 'venetian boat' SWW, just testing the water.
Grieg - Trolling with the Wedding Day, the hands and fingers have a party, but to listen to ?!
A good practice today.

I am jealous too of the bit by bit fun between gooddog and damon.

Good idea, I'm practicing measure 34 (right hand) until I can play it perfect without looking. I don't seem to have a problem with the Ab in measure 33 but that might just be luck.

Me too! Thanks are right back to you.

Bach.

Are you going to play all 48 from memory?

-J

Brahms Variations... Trying to master a measure full of contrary motion chordal leaps (16th notes, allegro). Accuracy, where are you???

Ligeti, Fanfares
Alkan, Concerto
Fauré, Ballade

Well, I have them all committed, but I'll be keeping a score on the rack.

with a page turner??

Haha...no. Pretty sure I won't need one. =)

Beethoven and Mendelssohn in my first session; the second session will be in a few hours...

Today I made a list of pieces that I'd started working on but for different reasons were never finished. I was surprised there was more than a couple and that most were at the 90% done stage.

So I've made a conscious decision to complete each piece before even playing around with anything else. So today's practice was Joe Hisaishi's Summer (makes me smile) and Ludovico Einaudi's Le Onde (makes me seasick...)

Summer has a nice bouncy left hand that sometimes plays solo and sometimes with right hand accompaniment at a couple of points. I'm surpised to find that I can play the left hand better when accompanied by the right hand rather than on its own. Guess its a coordination thing .

Ravel Concerto 2nd movement (my favorite!)

I came home exhausted and made the pleasant discovery that playing scales is relaxing. I'm not sure I have the energy to practice my pieces but since I'm trying to refine my technique and my brain is fried, I think I'll just hypnotize myself with scales.

So why place the score on the rack?? placebo effect? will you have it open or closed? any orange lobsters* in your pocket?

* whom am I referring to? PLUS cannot participate

it's Saturday... I've done enough cleaning. I've found my Beethoven Sonatas and am working on the Opus 2, no. 3 (the 2nd part is what I am working on today).

It is such a gorgeous sonata..

Fauré ballade
Bach 1 and 48
Alkan nocturne

In an effort to be more efficient with my practise time, I typed up the trickiest passages in all my pieces, cut them up and but them in a box. I worked on about 10 of them in 1 hour. I'd draw one, then say a silent "Noooooooo, not that one!" to myself. My head hurts now. Maybe there's such a thing as being too focused.

Beethoven OP 26/4, made some progress. Bach 2part Invention in F. no progress. Schubert Impromptu in Gflat. no progress. B flat melodic minor scale. No progress. ABout 90 minutes all up. Not a good day. Actually my mind wasnt in the music, having had bad medical news about my son. Better not to have tried to play. Sudokus might have been better. See how we go tomorrow.

Sorry to hear about your son, but I'm wondering what work exactly is Op. 26 no. 4?

Thank you for your thoughts. Guess I was a bit cryptic. It is Beethoven's Sonata #12, Op. 26, 4th movement, Allegro.

I'm working on a piece written by a college acquaintance when he was six. It's actually beautiful, daring, harmonically striking, and totally worth my time. I can't believe it.

Coming off a feeling-alienated-from-piano period that lasted a few days. (I assume other folks have these cycles too.)


-Jason

Schubert Fantasia in F Minor (seconda) - LOVE that piece, especially the ending
Mozart Sonata in D Major K 311 first movement

Well actually this is what I practicede yesterday since I haven't practiced yet today (is it okay to post practice material from yesterday??):

SCALES + CHORDS: 1) c# min. scales 2) c# min. 3-Note Chords 3) c# min. 4-Note Chords

HADYN: 1) Memorized 4 Measures of the Exposition

TECHNIQUE: 1) 5-4-3 Finger Exercise

PIANO + ORGAN DUET: 1) Learned A Sec. A. HS Practice B. HT Practice C. Fingering D. Dynamics

SIGHTREADING: Burgmuller Op. 100 No. 5

oddly, i had the Schubert Fantasy out yesterday. I have a recording that I played along with (to learn it) I played it 5 years ago at a party with another forumite; me the secundo. it is gorgeous.

i played thru Dir Hirten in der Kruppe.. something like that - Lizst's transcription of In Dulce Jubilo.

i practiced the organ yesterday. hymns.. working out the bass line.

that is an interesting idea.. i suppose worth the time it took to copypasta

DO WANT.

Can I hear it?

HR 10 - Liszt
Bagatelle - John Ogden
Chopin 10 -1

I don't know. Someone filmed us playing but I didn't save the video.. (dummyhead).

I do have pic.. and I might be able to ask the filmer. It was a great event.. a huge party and Kathy and I were 'political enemies'. We decided to learn this duet to surprise everyone, all who were a little uneasy about us being at the same party since we had staged a huge, bitter fight to,... to set the stage for the surprise.

We had a great time, practing 800 miles apart with Elena (EHPianist) of Duo Scarbo's recording. She was at the party too. We did pretty good tho I admit Kathy (primo) was by far the better pianist. I bought Elena's CD - that's how I practiced (bass muted). Elena has downloadable hifi clips on her website.

Brahms 119-3, Hungarian Dance 1
Sibelius Etude 76-2

Schubert Fantasie in F Minor
Mozart Sonata K 331, first movement
Brahms D Minor Concerto 1st movement (for some kicks)

Bach transcriptions, Scarlatti and organ music

Granados - Los Requiebros

Bach - WTC II Prelude & Fugue F# minor
I didn't actually practise the Bach. I have this little routine where I play a P&F every day, going through the 48 one at a time. Next day, next P&F. Some I know very well, others I feel I'm more or less sightreading. But I enjoy it.

That's a brilliant idea. I might try that.

currawong, how wonderful that you can play/read through all 48! My dream is to play them all. I'm at 9 and counting.

That's about how many I've learnt properly, I think. But reading the others slowly and steadily is still very rewarding!

It is rewarding indeed. I used to do what you are doing. Then I went through them at the rate of one pair a week, playing through it daily. Now I have switched to doing a "key of the month" thing, and read through the major and minor from both books in that month's key, a little haphazardly but usually at least one of the four pairs each day, for a month. I feel I'm getting a better grasp of them that way, and some are starting to seem internalized a bit.

I also am reading through the fascinating set of 24 P&Fs by Shchedrin at the rate of one major and minor per month, although they are more on the back burner, so some only get read through once during the month, but others that I especially like get played through much more often. But it's a great way to methodically work through big sets that go through the keys, rather than just dipping in randomly.

FI I hope you realise that teachers drool over students with this sort of motivation, creativity and self direction!
HOpe you recovered from sore head.

Polishing Rondo Vivace, all day long!

Cathédrale Engloutie, a sonata in D Flat by Soler, Chopin Op. 64 no. 2 (forgive me...), Brahms Rhapsody in Gm. About twenty minutes each, plus ten minutes whimpering after working the Fortissimo G#m9sus4 from Cathédrale up to speed. Tendonitis, anyone?

Plus twenty minutes finger exercises for each hand. My biggest barrier at the moment is FEEBLE hands, so lots of work in that department.

Aaaaaaaaand attempted to sight-read three or four Bach chorales. One of these days I'll get past glacial tempo and climb to the heady heights of andante... :P

Thanks, Canonie! I'm actually trying to be lazy and time-efficient so that I can improve while not putting in too many hours.

Excellent choice! I would, one day, love to add a few of the Soler sonatas to a programme. I wonder how familiar other members are with these works...Anyone? Bueller?

Down at the bottom of the totem pole...

I'm looking for focus in my learning, and have decided to make a study of minuets. Today I read the BWV Anh 116 minuet. My conclusion is that it's in G Major. I worked on the first 8 measures.

I'm picking these things up a little faster now. The BWV Anh 114 Minuet in G took me 6 months to get to the point where it sounded rough.

The pie-ANN-uh sure is fun.

Rachmaninoff 2nd sonata. After a whole year of playing it, I'm only starting to understand it NOW. sjhtgkshdfgkdhglgj.

My new teacher is guiding me to refine my technique so I'm doing lots of very slow practice of the first 2 pages of Mozart K310 and all of Brahms 119 #3. Scales, arpeggios too. I'm determined to really develop my playing but it's hard work and requires much concentration and patience - which I don't always have!

That's how I was with Chopin's Ballade 2, lol.

Back English Suite #2... listening to Ivo Pogorelich play that first movement really inspires me while also making me want to give up.

Finally got to practise today. Worked through the Liszt Sonata, realizing that the technical aspect is the easiest bit, the rest is the hardest piece I've ever attempted. I'm not going to try and perform this until next year.

Spent some time cleaning up the 4rth scherzo, and Chopin's C minor nocturne. Also running through the 1st Ballade, though I need to spend more time on focused practice, rather than just trying to keep my technique in shape.

Not much. I warmed up the Fantaisie-Impromptu for about 1/2 hour for my lesson today, and then got frustrated because I don't feel like I'm making any progress - I just keep making the same mistakes despite the countless hours I've put in practicing it. And my practicing is usually focused, with running over trouble spots in a variety of methods until I can play them multiple times without errors. My teacher said it sounded good at a slow tempo, which I hate to accept because I want to play it up to tempo. Plus I've only got three weeks until juries.

After the lesson I banged out some accompanying rep I need to play tomorrow and quit in frustration. When is my playing ever going to improve?

Switched gears and started learning the Meatloaf album, "Bat out of heck".

Chopin, op.27 #2.

You know, the fast 48-note run towards the end of the piece isn't really that bad.

The 7 against 6 at the very end is a different story.


-J

Schumann: Papillons op2
Mozart: Piano Concerto 25 (1st movement)
Mozart: Piano Sonata no. 8 in D K311
Chopin: Nocturne no. 20 in C# Minor (for old times sake)

Today's practice for me:

Grieg a minor Concerto - worked on polishing the beginning of the first movement and whittling away at the cadenza, also spending a little time assessing the other two movements for study in the near future.

Schubert G-flat Impromptu and Brahms g minor Rhapsody - both old rep favorites that need to be maintained for a solo recital later.

Rachmaninoff Moment Musicaux No. 4 - practiced very slowly in tiny sections, focusing mainly on the middle part. A brand-new addition to the practice schedule.

Rachmaninoff 10 Preludes, op. 23 - Worked on analyzing away from the piano.

Also practiced scales, sightreading, Czerny, church music, and some concerto/horn accompaniments to round out the day.

Sousa-Horowitz "The Stars and Stripes Forever"

Scales/arpeggios x 10!

Schumann: Papillons op2
Mozart: Piano Concerto no 25
Schumann: Fantasy in C op17

I started the day with Mozart's Piano Sonata No.13, but it is just 9am.

I practiced too much today and finally reached the point of diminishing returns. I really want to play more but my arms are tired and my hands are beginning to make mistakes from fatigue. 4 hours or was it 5?

Brahms 119 #3 coming together, finally.

Mozart K310 - changing my technique

and 2 weeks ago I decided to learn Chopin Nocturne Opus 72 No. as a birthday present for my Mom. It's almost done.

Mozart D Major 310 or 311, I forget which...
Brahms Ballade 1 from Op. 10

Brahms Concerto 1, first movement! I still don't see how it's obscenely hard. (Yes, 3rd movement is harder.)

And of course, Sousa-Horowitz. The first section is coming along quite nicely, actually! And I figure if I can play that, I can play the Brahms...

All Mendelssohn in my first session today...

Mostly sight-reading the last two days.

The Berg sonata and about half of the Goldberg Variations. Both on my "some day" list.

-J

Granados - Los Requiebros

Bach - WTC I Prelude & Fugue C# major

They're on mine too.

I'm happy with this one myself except for that jump down to the low F that we discussed before, but I'm getting closer.

Aside from that I practiced "Bat out of heck" by Meatloaf again. A theatrical pop tune that is only hard because I'm learning it by ear.

Sweating my way thru an Advent Vespers service. I plan tonight to cut and paste the liturgy and music in a moron-proof format. No flipping back and forth for ME, esp. since I am not familiar with the order of the service.
The regular organist can't play, so I'm pressed into service. Then, we have regular choir reh. later but I can play that piano stuff now in my sleep.

My @#$%^&* cushion still hasn't arrived. I am NOT happy.

I also worked part of the day on a simple arrangement of that Polish carol, "Lulajze Jezuniu", which Chopin worked into his Scherzo in B Minor. Never knew that. I want to use it as my prelude, by the hubster says it sounds too much like "Santa Lucia" and might not be well received. Tough - I'm playing it.

Transposed to D?

No?

Yes, I was joking because everything else you were playing was in D major or minor.

It's just a great key!

Draggging out this thread from page 6, 'cause I think it's fun.

Finger infection basically gone; starting to play again.

Today I discovered solo piano transcriptions of *all* of Beethoven's string quartets on imslp. They're pretty playable. Made my way through half of the opening maelstrom of the Grosse Fugue. How great would it be to be able to sit down and play a decent version of that?

-Jason

first serious practice session in a couple of weeks due to a heavy jazz performance schedule......mostly scales and arps.... discovered that I must've been tightening and twisting my left arm a little bit on the bandstand the past couple o'days 'cause it was the first thing I noticed when I sat down to play today.....Chopin opus 10 #1 way under tempo just for the sheer sound of it....Mozart's Smanie implacabili from Cosi...... way under tempo also.....I'll wait a day or two before I make any attempts at a piano or pianissimo.

Last run through before my weekend recitals...WTC...Bk I tomorrow and Bk II on Sunday...postponed from last month due to scheduling conflicts. Wish me luck!

Good luck!!!

Let us know how it goes... I'm sure it'll be great...

That ought to be fun! Good luck and hope it goes well!

Good luck! Wish I could hear it live.

I did not practice. I've been drinking for about 24 hours, since I'm done for this semester. Yay!

Today I practiced my Hanon and Scales Chords Arpeggios. I then spent an hour on a Bach Prelude (B flat Major, well tempered clavier book 1 piece number 21) and another hour on a Mozart Sonata. Following that I spent a couple of hours learning, memorizing and polishing the third Gnossiene(not sure I spelled it right) by Erik Satie. I also played some other pieces for enjoyment.

This was yesterday rather than today, although today I play to do more of the same

Played Hanon up to excersise 10
Worked through several pages of tankard and harrison pianoforte technique
Did some left hand excercises
Had an hour of piano lesson
Started trying to get to grips with chords
Started learning bach prelude 6, WTC II
Started chopin prelude no 20
Played a few bach inventions for fun

Total time: about 6 and a half hours

Scarlatti sonatas.. and working on revisiting those I recorded on disk to put on you tube..also boning up on Chopin Etude no. 9, op. 25 My students put me through the paces with some of their requests.

Shirley K

http://arioso7.wordpress.com

bach f# minor toccata

Hanon exercises
Chopin Nocturne No. 2
Liszt Consolation No. 3

Beethoven Opus 26 2nd mvt - almost got this memorized, and the descending runs are getting better. Teacher was very happy with progress last at last Thursday's lesson.
ALkan - started the Canon in earnest. Getting to grips with the unexpected notes here n there. It sure grows on one!
Bartok - Clanging sounds from Mikrokosmos Bk IV - ugly piece, only learning it so that I can say I know some Bartok.
Beethoven Op 14 No 2 4th mvt, Mozart Viennese sonatina II 1st mvt, Schumann Curiouse Geschicte - exam pieces for next year.
Pathetique second mvt - memorized at last!
Scales for the exam *ugh* what drongo invented melodic minors and caused generations of piano students so much grief?

Did some cut and paste to facilitate some page turning for something I'm playing for Xmas Eve and Day (organ-piano duet).


Yeah, I know - I should just memorize the passage but....I like/need my little crutches.

Jingle Bells(a transcription, not by me, of Dick Wellstood's recording from the 1950's)

I think he's quite sensational:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOZoBJ_RKjY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPs-5ZWCAlY

Bach: Prelude & Fugue in A-flat WTC I
Beethoven: 3rd Movement, "Moonlight" Sonata
Liszt-Paganini Etude #5

For Jury tomorrow at 10:20 AM!!!!!!!

Absolutely nothing

Liszt - Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa
Liszt - HR #10
Brahms - Intermezzo 119-3
MeatLoaf - Bat out of heck
Rocky Horror - Damit Janet

Doesn't it feel great?

(Although I did practice today, on a rare occasion, I will skip practicing for a day or two.)

Besides going over the work for the Ear Training final I had today, I essentially didn't practice either. lol

I'm on winter break and I practiced about 4 hours today. Brahms Op 119 #3 is getting a tiny bit better every day. It's actually beginning to sound like music and I think I may be able to really play it in a few more months! Then the Rhapsody looms.

Mozart 280 - played deliberately slowly for even tone and relaxed hands/arms/shoulders - is beginning to work. My pinkies are flying less. Wrists are down. Fingers closer to the keys. Brain hurts.

Czerny - same as the Mozart.

Reviewed a bunch of things for fun: Chopin 72/1, Schumann Aufschwung, Bach WTC2 G# minor, Rachmaninoff 32/12.

That's perfectly fine. I'm sure you have other things going on in your life from time to time.

The longest I ever went without touching a keyboard was during my first 3 months in the military (basic and advanced training). It wasn't pleasant !!

Hmmm. Not much actually. Yesterday I played the Schubert F minor fantasy with my duet partner, and today I played my daily prelude & fugue (it was C#minor, book II), plus a couple of random Schubert sonatas. Busy doing housey stuff actually, preparing for the ravenous hordes who will descend on us this week.

I love that one. A particularly intricate and twisted prelude, and a particularly robust and exciting fugue.

And if you're doing them in order, tomorrow's fugue is one of my very favorites of all 48....

-Jason

I am.

Hmm. Yesterday I learned the first mvt of Beethoven 7 violin. I LOVE IT!!!!!!! Finally my temper will pay off haha. And I started the second movement..

I'm substituting as organist for our church this coming Sunday - so it looks like I'll be practicing hymns, service music and the prelude and postlude over the next few days. I only play on the manuals - so the trick is to make the organ sound like I'm also using the pedals.

That's great! That's one of my jobs, it's fun and a great sight reading exercise - try reading everything, it's worth it!

Nice job....to play in the church......I played every sunday one or more services from 1967-1988......

Good luck,....enjoy it

Best regards,
Johan B

Last night, Stravinsky Concerto for Piano and Winds. It'll be my premiere in April, incredibly enough, so I'm going through the piece with a fine-toothed comb.

Johan B -

Wow - that is quite an accomplishment !!! I have great respect for church organists - and regret that I never mastered the instrument myself !!

Best -

If the organ has two manuals or more, you play the right hand on one manual using 8' + 4' & higher stops, and play the left hand on another manual using only 16' & 8' stops. This works effectively for hymns chants responses etc.
And there are albums of manual-only Bach works for preludes and postludes: I hope your local music store has some of them.
(I had some organ lessons years ago and played a 4-manual&pedals organ when at university college)

Hope that helps. Let us know how you fared!

if the organ is electric(and many are) find the bass coupler in the upper right. select a 16 and 8 foot pedal stop.. perhaps a diapason or principal. The coupler will add a bass note to your line.

Become familiar with the volume pedals. If you don't have enough ooomph you can press the crescendo pedal until you have enough 'body.

I have always wanted to play an organ with the pedal to manual coupler. I bet you can make some good sounding hymns without doing so much work. :P

Doesn't really work for Bach though.

My first services I played at the age of 14. I left church in general in 1988, now organs have the bad habit to live only in churches.... so by leaving church I left the organ too....
I bet when I still was a regular churchvisitor, I was still organist.

Merry X-mas,
Johan B

Hi there,

Today I was working a 'Piece fugitive' of Clara Schumann.....and I like Clara ('s music)

Johan B

Johan B -

A few organs still can be found in university settings. Perhaps you can gain access to one and start playing again !! After 22 years of sitting on an organ bench you probably have a large repertoire !!

Merry Christmas to you as well !!

Toastburn -

Thanks for the tips !! I took a few organ lessons in college, but never mastered the pedals - and what pedal technique I did have has been lost after 40+ years. I own a few "manual-only" collections, however, and I have great fun with them !! The practicing for Sunday's service has gone well thus far -

Yes - the crescendo pedal is my friend !!!

Let's see today I worked on Barber's Ballade, Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 and The Schubert/Liszt Aufenthalt.

Today i began Prokofiev's 2nd sonata! Let's see how far i get before it gets too difficult.

The development section of the first movement is harder to read through than the rest of that movement (less obviously melodic), but don't give up hope-- it's not really harder.

-Jason

I shall hang on for as long as possible! So far it's going okay but i've only got through the first page as of yet. I lost interest in playing after a while but i'll go back to it tomorrow.

I fared quite well - all things considered. For the prelude I played a traditional setting of "Lo how a Rose ere Blooming" followed immediately by the beautiful Brahms setting of the same tune (Opus 122 No. 8 - "Es ist ein Rose ensprungen"). The postlude consisted of a section of a Bach Partita. The hymns and service music went just fine. Played everything on the manuals only.

Now with the new year I hope to finish up and record (on the piano) the Beethoven Sonata Opus 7, Schumann's first and second Novelletten, three etudes from Chopin's Opus 25, and the Scriabin Etude Opus 8 No. 12. Oughta keep me out of trouble for awhile !!

After all that Beethoven, tonight I got out --- Mozart!!!

Working hard for my recital on wednesday!! Reviving and polishing the Waldstein, and fixing up Chopin's B flat minor nocturne, raindrop prelude, fourth scherzo, as well as the Chopin-Godowsky etude for left hand after op.10 no.6. So far I'm on track...

After that, I'm looking forward to going through La Vega and the Liszt sonata!

Good to hear the service went well... I love the Brahms Op 122, especially also the one you played.

I'm tempted to go back the the organ next year as well as learning more piano....so much music, so little time!

Good luck with your programme of learning for 2011 !

"So much music, so little time." Gee - you got that right !!!

Thanks for the follow-up note !!

It appears you are working on some really wonderful pieces yourself. All fun to learn and play. Good luck !!

Well I have to practice Bach c#- book I, Beethoven op. 90, Rach 39/1, Rach second sonata, Vladiguerov toccata, Beethoven 7 violin sonata.. but all I keep thinking about is Chopin second sonata!!!!!!!! I cannot understand why that piece has been haunting me for 6 months!!!!

Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Valsevalsevalsevalsevalsevalsevalsevalsevalsevalsevalsevalsevalsevalsevalsevalse

EDIT: Pogo, I'm not surprised, because it's my favorite piece by him.

Chopin nocturne op.27/1.

Trying to figure out how much of the piece is going to be una corda. Looks like a good 80% of the A sections....

Yes Chopin's 2nd sonata is wonderful!! One of my all time favourites also. I've started learning it so many times but haven't quite got past the third page.

Hahah!

Went through some of my old books and tried to play every song perfectly... only took three hours.

Practising for my recital tomorrow!!

Beethoven: Sonata no.21
Chopin: nocturne op.9 no.1
prelude op.28 no.15 "raindrop"
Chopin-Godowsky: Etude no.13 after op.10 no.6 for left hand
Chopin: Scherzo no.4

I hope it goes well!! After this, moving on to Ravel's Sonatine, Albeniz's Le Vega, and the Liszt sonata...

Prelude and fugue for today: a minor, book II.
I've also been looking at the Schubert a minor sonata D784.

After 4 days of no playing at all, being in the country seeing family, today's practise was:
warmup of 5-finger exercises, and c# harmonic minor scale in contrary motion *ugh*
Alkan :-) the Canon
Beethoven Op 26 4th mvmt Allegro - memorized at last! still lots of polishing up though required
Beethoven Pathetique 2nd mvt to relax
"" "" 3rd mvt last page, still trying to get the notes right
Bach 2-part Invention in F - half memorised

Not much for a practise after 4 days, but had to do gardening and housework also in between times, plus watch the cricket in the morning (depressing!).

At least the cricket didn't take up much of your time!

More of the same,(Brahms, Mozart) plus scales, Czerny, Bach.

.....slowly bringing Chopin's op 10 #1 back up to speed after laying off of it for a while...looked at # 6 in e-flat minor and wondered why the heck I never spent that much quality time with it before.......still not happy with the Bach sinfonia in E-flat, though there are a couple of nice moments (if I do say so myself).....Schubert Wanderer-Fantasie is being taken out of storage....maybe for a future recital......You don't know what love is in 4 or 5 different keys........

Still polishing the Brahms and Sibelius. Started working on a few Liszt pieces.

Well, today I played through Schubert Impromptu in G flat and Mendelssohn Rondo Capriccioso. Then I practiced Grieg concerto a bit and figured out the fingering for the last movement of Bach French suite #5. Then I sight read a few hymns. Not much practice today because I'm quite sick

Haydn Sonata in C Maj. Hob. XVI: 7 and Chopin Prelude in c minor Op. 28 No. 20. Thinking about a good rendition of "Auld Lang Syne"!

hmm it's now the 5th of January and the previous post was 30th December. so NOBODY has done any practise for 6 days ( including me) ???

Today I had a good session... scales and arpeggios to warm up , then Beethoven OP 14 No 3, Andante, and OP 26 2nd mvt; Bach Prelude in D BWV 925; Schubert Impromptu in Gb; and Brahms Intermezzo in Gm. Sundry little pieces for comic relief. And the Adagio Cantabile of the Pathetique.

I haven't started to play yet today (it is just 5am), but I am going to play Mozart's "Requiem" in a few minutes...

Jarrett:Old Man River
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIUIuCrPGVg

Well I think Christmas is finally over, broke out the Hannon 60 and started tinkering with it. had no problem getting up up to the 108bpm after a rough run through. went through 8 scales and arpeg. real quick just to check that my fingers still know where the keys are. a bit of sight reading, and improvising. every new season the first 2 weeks are always about the same. Nothing really to focus on other than keeping the fingers moving. of course this was all just my morning practice.

Yep, I hit a wall like everyone else and pretty much didn't even think about piano for 3 weeks or so (which is a good thing!). Now I'm back at it, trying to jumpstart my brain--it always takes me a good couple of days to get back into the focused practice mode--and sweating over a new recital program: a bunch of Chopin-Godowsky (nothing like Etude 4, "Ignis Fatuus," to get your mind going!), the 3rd Chopin Sonata, Liszt's Norma, some contemporary pieces...gradually, I am becoming less lazy and entering the panic phase, despite having 5-6 months left!

Funny, today was the only day since the 30th I haven't done any practice at all, which is a fairly rare thing for me.

Yesterday I did my usual Hanon, Dohnanyi, and an exercise on seventh arpeggios I came up with myself (which is mostly about rotating through them using rhythms). Then a bunch of etudes by Moscheles, Michalowski, Moszkowski, Chopin, Dohnanyi, and Persichetti. And ended up with WTC I, C maj and min, Beethoven op. 10, no.1 (I kept thinking about how much easier it would be to play on a fortepiano), and a couple of Chopin nocturnes.

some scales and arpeggios and exercises. Then tackled the Little Prelude in D BWV 925 seriously. Ditched all my previous haphazard fingering, found the pencil and worked out a proper fingering, wrote it in and now practising it s.l.o.w.l.y ! Two hours worth was quite enough. Hopefully the 24-hour retention effect will work overnight and tomorrow some of it will have stuck. Finished up with Brahms Rhapsody in Gm Op 29 #2, paying attention to the dynamics more and the 3-against-2 bits.

Very busy day today, out with friends... friends are good, but my piano is better company.

Came home at 4pm. Practiced (or at least I tried to) the Tchaikovsky I am practicing.... not happy Jan! He wasn't going to let me anywhere near him this afternoon.

Strangely enough, I put it down and picked the Beethoven I'm practicing and had a good hour working on page 2.

Unable to explain this.

Best,

Anthony.

I'm a jazz player and have studied the classics though not as intensely as many here. I'm working on the Chopin Impromptu No. 4 in C Sharp Minor.

Chopin Etude 25/10 and Chopin Etude 25/12.

25/10 is very difficult for me. I thought I was good at octaves, but it's a whole different beast...

I haven't been able to practice for 3 days because my Mom broke her hip and I've been with her in the hospital. I sat down to play for about 5 minutes yesterday and was horrified at how bad I sounded. I find when I'm away from the piano, it opens my ears so I can hear myself better. All I'm hearing is the right notes played terribly unevenly. Aaaaakkkk.

Just got back last night from vacation. Haven't touched the piano since I played my jury on the 21st of December. Never discussed new rep with my teacher before break. Haven't a clue what to practice today other than scales, arpeggios, some Hanon and maybe some Czerny.

Just had my first piano lesson after two or three weeks off for Christmas/New Years break yesterday. Today I worked on Bach Invention No. 4 in d minor.

After getting home from school, carrying the most heavy backpack ever (IB does that to you), I went over to my piano and practiced from about 5 to 8pm.

Technique took over an hour because I've neglected it.. The C# minor formula pattern almost drove me insane!..to the point that whenever I played a wrong note, I'd automatically slap myself in the thigh out of frustration. XD Also working hard to fix wrong fingerings that I've had for years.

Then I took out Bach's 2nd Partita (Sinfonia) and tried my best to work on whatever my teacher had assigned.

Grave section:
- Rhythm (metronome)
- Bringing out inner voices. This is a real pain, but I think I'm getting it
- Using less pedal, mostly just to connect repeated notes and for rolled chords

Andante section:
- Not speeding up on the 32nd notes. I apparently lose control of my fingers whenever I play them, and never noticed.
- Not playing it like a romantic piece (My former teacher suggested I use rubato in the cadenza before the Allegro. I guess that was a mistake, since my teacher was bewildered when I changed tempo. It took me forever to play it precisely as written, and had to refer to a Glenn Gould recording. I still don't know if I have it right...)

Allegro section:
- Same thing with the 32nd notes...
- Bring out the subject (I would do this by making the accompanying hand softer or the subject hand louder, but apparently this is wrong?!)

Czerny, scales. Very hypnotic and relaxing.

G major and minor scales and arpeggios.
Liszt Paganini #1
Brahms 119-3
Sibelius op76 etude

Oh Hills of Anacapri, you are one of the most joyous utterances in music. Especially your ending.

... I hope beet has recovered from his swoon...

Ok... today I am going to recommence practice after about a month's break. I've been playing most days, and performing for family, but not actually working. So today is the start and I'm posting here so that I can come back and report some serious practice later.

I've got the log book out, the pencil ready and am going to start with SCALES! instead of playing through memorised rep in self-indulgent manner, then having a pot of tea and finding something else to do.

Scales, arpeggios, Hanon & Czerny to warm up. Then Chopin "Black Key", Op. 25, No. 12, 2nd Scherzo; Haydn, Sonata in C major Hob.XVI/50 1st movement.

-Chopin Etude Op. 25 No. 12: Tricky and tiring, but I can manage it and am making great progress

-Chopin Etude Op. 25 No. 10: Ridiculously difficult, plan on dropping it, but I will take it to a lesson and hope my teacher can show me something I'm missing...

-Ravel La Valse: Learning faster than I thought, although I haven't taken enough time to MEMORIZE up to where I am so far, so I don't know if I should spend time in depth memorizing or if I should get the piece under my fingers and then focus on memorizing. I will ask my teacher (unless anyone here wants to offer a suggestion)

-Ravel Concero in G: This one's in good shape, so I need to just keep improving the best I can and make arrangements to record it for an upcoming competition

@ OSK: I would say memorize up to where you are. At least for me, I find that memorizing while learning results in a better quality of learning at the end.

Another day, another Bach P&F - today's was G# minor from Book I. A major tomorrow.

Also some Schubert. D784 again - love the 2nd subject of the first movement!

Mozart K330 mvt. 1+2, Bach French Suite #5 in G , Allemande(just starting), Vidal basses, Czerny op299(drudgery) trying to build up to starting Op.10#8, and Mazurka op67#2

I'm working on that too! Except I skipped to the end and started on the Gigue because that's my favorite It's so much fun to play!

All very sloooowly: Czerny, scales, arpeggios, broken chords, Mozart K280, starting Schumann Des Abends. Brahms 119 no 3 is resting this week.

Chopin Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2
Chopin Nocturne in C#m
Chopin Waltz in a
Chopin Mazurka Op. 17 No. 4
Chopin Polonaise in g
Liszt Consolation No. 3
3rd movement octave cadenza from Tchaikovsky's 1st Concerto

warmed up with scales& arpeggios, started reading another Moszkowski Etude (F Major), working on broken chords in the development section of Beethoven 14/1 . . . I'm learning to use my wrist (circular motion) to facilitate playing these. I've never had a teacher help me with this before now. I'm also polishing up the Bach French Suite in b minor but today I focused on the Gigue. And the Debussy doctor gradus ad parnassum) is coming along very well. Love the variety!

I'm curious about this because my teacher is asking for something similar but the circles are less in the wrist than full arm + wrist relaxation. The circles are very small and more of a setting-of-each-finger-in-place-with-weight. He doesn't want me lifting my wrist much at all so the circles are coming more from my entire arm than just the wrist. (That is why I'm practicing so slowly.)

Okay! Maybe I can play part of it for him during one of my lessons.

I also looked at the Alkan Hands Reunited Grande Etude a little bit just for laughs. I think playing it (or even just parts of it) slowly actually makes a VERY good warm-up.

oh yes I have to practice this very slowly too. I was told to "lighten my arm" and to make circular motions with my wrist- my arm is involved too. I will have to return to a lesson to seek further feedback. I really do imagine drawing different circle/ovals- at the level of my wrist- the movements aren't too big, though. I noticed immediate improvement in the right direction. The success of this will also tie in closely to the sound and clarity I hope to produce. More than anything - I want equal weight to each note as this series of broken chords produces a very even drone to the beautiful octaves w/ the right hand.

We all swoon differently, though you're cool with that.

Not the best recording of the Howells. As an enthusiastic Anglican lad (not very trendy and I got punched out a few times), I'll always remember the first time I heard this glorious anthem.

I still get tears.


Oddly enough, the boys and men at St. Paul's and Lincoln Cathedral don't match the Collegiate Singers in this repertoire. But cannot post it here because of copyright issues.

YESSSSSSS!!! I practised with focus and diligence!
Scales, Bach Prelude in Cmin 847, then began my first ever Haydn Sonata where I put in some good work on reading, decisions, exploring ornaments, fingering and just enjoying this piece of music a lot. Has anyone played HobXVI:36 in C# minor? I think I'm going to love it.

Liszt

Morricone:Nocturne with No Moon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I9j_hHpgcc&feature=fvw

I am finally making some headway on this Bach organ fugue. It has a couple pedal sections that are killer... absolutely above my ability, but I have been practicing only the feet since Christmas and suddenly can at least hear the whole piece. .. if at 1/2 tempo. .. so much fun.

Bach at his BEST

such a glorious piece and Tom Koopman is a master on a really neat instrument.

there is a violin/cello transcription of Bach BWV 578 that is fun to play on the piano.. if you double the bass at times, it is particularly satisfying.

the little fugue in g minor ..for violin and cello that can be played on the piano

I work 10-15 mins at a time on the fugue (Bach, BWV 847). I probably did 4-5 such sessions. I'm half way through and its been 2 days since I've started on it. I'm satisfied with the progress. I play whatever I've learned up to speed.

What did I practice today? Reviving: Beethoven Opus 13, and Poulenc Intermezzo in A flat. New material: Kapustin Etude, Opus 40, No. 2, and Franck Sonata for Violin and Piano. Sight reading through Mompou's Cancion y Danzas.

I'd half learnt BWV 847 a few months ago. I've decided to memorise the fugue as a way to get it up to performance. Today I got 12 bars done, but memory is not set or cured yet (like concrete). Feels good to make progress on this again.
Did scales/arps again today as warm up WOOOT (pleased with my dedication here).

Did more of the new Haydn XVI 36 and will continue on to 2nd half after bowl of soup. Development of themes is nearly as delicious as this soup

I practiced pause.

Practiced scales and arpegios. Trying to play Hanon #46 with piano. Then worked on the the hard section from the Christmas overture one last time. I should put six notes for 1 beat at 112 (sextuplets = quarter note = 112) but cannot. I can play comfortably at 96 and can manage at 100 but ahhhhh I cannot do at 112. Decided to put it down for now. Then practiced the 1st Movement of the Pathetique. I worked on mapping the fingers (some say, marking the notes with fingers) for the fast sections to minimizing the jumping from notes to notes. Slowly but surely it's coming. I felt good so I played a new orleans jazz duet piece for fun. Ready to go to bed now.

...awhile back I decided to read through Chopin's Etude in e-flat min op 10 #6 ......way under tempo, but I was charmed......couldn't figure out why I never worked on it in depth before...and weeks later, I now know why....I'm finding it brutal going...though from a strictly technical standpoint the 16th notes are easier to articulate at a faster tempo, the melody notes suffer - balance-wise and color-wise.........

Today I practised patience whilst driving amongst the other idiots (yes I say other because I assume to them I am one also) on the freeway during one mother of a snowstorm.

hardy har har

Fortunately I do not take after my father when it comes to driving and patience!

Today, I practiced:
-Chopin Etudes Op. 25 Nos. 10 and 12
-Ravel Concerto in G, parts of all three movements (I need to crack down on memorizing the second once and for all!)
-Mozart Sonata K 311 (I need to start learning the second movement)
-Brahms Ballade Op. 10 No. 1 - I'm recording it as an audition for Brevard summer music festival!

TOMORROW I will work on Brahms Ballade Op. 10 No. 3, Ravel Concerto 2nd movement, Mozart Sonata 2nd movement, and possibly something else.

I am so exhausted, I'm going to practice looking at the inside of my eyelids.

I practiced A Nothing (Un Rien) #1. Lovely piece!

Beethoven Op.2 No.1...
I love it!

This transcription of Piazzolla's Milonga del Angel I just found today(go to around 3:05):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RLZBgLH7H8&feature=related

Do you like this piece?

Haydn: Trio: Dynamics and RH thirds voicing.
Bach: Learned 8-10 measures. Hands separate and hands together practice to review what I already learned. Practiced each ornament 4 times each going up and down the chromatic scale (this was really helpful)!
Also practiced Ab and Eb Major scales and chords.

Yes. This is my first time hearing it, but it's good. Speaking of Piazzolla, I may play a transcription of his Four Seasons for piano trio with the piano trio I'm now in (if we stay together after the semester, which I hope we do).

Today, I practiced:
-Brahms Ballade Op. 10 No. 2
-Brahms Ballade Op. 10 No. 3
-Beethoven Trio in C Minor Op. 1 No. 3
-Ravel Concerto in G, 2nd movement
-Richard Crosby Sonata for Piano and Viola Op. 10

I guess nobody has practiced in a while!

Fine... I rehearsed the exposition of the first movement of Beethoven's Piano Trio in C Minor Op. 1 No. 3 with the violinist and cellist I am partnered with. That piece is AMAZINGLY AMAZING, needless to say!

I also practiced Ravel La Valse and the second movement of Ravel's Concerto (making lots of progress in memorizing it for good!).

I also practiced singing "Lobet den Hernn" BWV 230. It's very difficult to sing accurately, because Bach seems to write for the voice just like he does for the keyboard... No mercy with arpeggios, for example!

I also conducted a mini-rehearsal on that piece... Needless to say, I really want to investigate choral conducting, especially after the experience of being in such an unbelievable choir here at University of Louisville!

I practiced half the day, which is extraordinarily rare.

Mostly Liszt/Paganini 1, but put a little time in on Brahms 119-3, Sibelius op76 etude, and some assorted pop tunes (Meatloaf and Supertramp)

I've been practising all morning. That's why I haven't posted!
Bach P&F of the day - D minor book II
Granados - Los Requiebros
Schubert - D784

Vocal rehearsal:
Strauss - 4 last songs: September, Beim Schlafengehen
Rodrigo - De donde venis

Excellent rep choice, Soda. The Op. 1 trios are among the chamber works I've known/played the longest.

La Campanella, Chopins thirds etude, Hungarian Rhapsody #6

Shoo whee, that is some very taxing stuff there!

And stores, I feel there is something special with Beethoven and C Minor. I also feel this with the Op. 13 and Op. 111 piano sonatas, along with the C minor Piano Concerto Op. 37 Choral Fantasy Op. 80. (Sorry, not as big a fan of the 5th symphony as I am these other pieces, but that's another great example.)

My work schedule is somewhat irregular. I had a very rare and welcomed 8 hour practice day yesterday, and got some very good work done on these pieces:

Jazz:

(From Hal Leonard "Jazz Favorites"--VERY, VERY EASY ARRANGEMENTS, but extremely well-thought-out by the arranger, bless his heart, whoever he is!)

Alice In Wonderland
April In Paris
How High the Moon
My Favorite Things
The Nearness of You

Ragtime:

"Balance of the Scales" (Pauline Turner, 1975) photocopy of a handwritten score that my Grandma gave me, whose friend (Pauline) wrote the piece. It's got a nice, predictable, singable melody. It deserves to be heard, so I'm a-gonna play it!

Classical:

Bach. WTC1, Prelude 22 (Bb min)
Bach. Partita No.1 (Bb), THE WHOLE THING!!! Yes, after plowing though so many of the Goldberg variations last year and practicing the Beet. Op. 79 with the hand over hand stuff, I discovered yesterday that I could actually play the Giga!!!
Bach. Partita No.4 (D maj), Allemande, Courante, Aria, Sarabande, Menuet.
Kuhlau. Sonatina in C, Op. 20, No. 1
Clementi. Sonatina in D, Op. 36, No.6
Mozart. Sonata in C, No. 3 [k.545]
Mozart. Sonata in A, No. 16 [k. 300], 1st mov., theme and vars. 1-4
Beethoven. Sonatina in F major. A CUTE, CUTE piece that makes me smile and laugh every time I play it. There are many humorous, playful touches to be made in both movements of this little comic gem!

All of these pieces (except the Jazz, Rag, Beethoven, and Mozart k.300) are ones that I've been working on, on and off, for a year or thirteen [edit: or thirty]. They are now starting to gel in a big way, and as the performance of my piano improves, so does my interest in playing and understanding them more deeply!

Today, I will not get to practice as much. But I will get to practice!

--Andy

It made my right arm hurt just reading it.

I'm a young and unexperienced pianist, so I don't know how bad it might be for the arms yet =) Hehe, but I've got alot of strenght from bboying("breakdancing"), so far so well...

Oh there is definitely a connection with Beethoven and cminor. It's certainly a dramatic key and Beethoven knew just how to eke the most out of it. A few additions to check out, if you've not heard them...String Trio No. 5, Op. 9 No. 3, then there's 10/1 which I'm surprised you left out,
String Quartet No. 4, Op. 18, String Quintet, Op. 104 (which is actually an arrangement of 1/3...scored for quartet with and extra viola), Violin Sonata No. 7, Op. 30 No. 2 (one of our illustrious members' faves), , the thirty-two variations on an original theme WoO80. I'm surprised that you're not a fan of the 5th...such a great work, though it is played to death.

pour les degrés chromatiques, pour les agréments, pour les notes répétés, pour les sonorités oppossées, pour les arpèges composés, GPB précédée d'un AS, Kapustin études 1/2

I need to hear the Op. 104 quartet! I need to hear the other chamber pieces as well. The 32 variations are nice of course. The 5th is of course great, but I get kind of worn out by the amount of repetition Beethoven did in many (many, many) parts to prove a point.

I also wonder how good the ending of the 9th symphony would sound if it didn't have those few measures of nothing but repeated I chords at the end...

My favorite C minor work by Beethoven might be the Choral Fantasy Op. 80. It may not be his greatest or most complex work by any means, but it is nice to listen to, always leaves me in a cheery mood, and is uplifting to hear Georg Friedrich Treitschke's (I think he wrote the text? Correct me if I'm wrong) beautiful text about the peace, joy, bliss, art, and God's grace being bestowed on man.

Well, I'm not sure we'll ever know for sure. Czerny claimed that the poet LVB commissioned was Cristoph Kuffner and he's generally acknowledged as such. Treitschke, revised and "finalised" the libretto for "Fidelio", but Gustav Nottebohm (who first pored through and wrote about Beethoven's sketchbooks) thought the Choral text might be his.

Today I practiced Debussy's Anacapri a lot.

It is slowly starting to become luminous, like liquid gold.

What a great simile!

Thanks. I was going for an image of me mercilessly beating on it, like a goldsmith with a crude hammer, until it finally became this crystalline shining object. Debussy himself marks the ending "Lumineux", and the final five notes sound a little like an elven hammer.

-J

apart from the Debussy études had to revisit Hung.Raps.11/13 and Gr.Pol.Br.pré.d'un And.Sp. for upcoming concert.

I practiced Schubert Sonata in A (959) and the Rachmaninoff Prelude in G sharp minor. I'm using an app I made called Compound Time to keep track of what I practice.

http://compoundtime.com

Check it out! I'd love to hear what you think.

Bach fugue 847 this week. Teacher was impressed by improvement since last lesson a week ago. I didn't tell her it was thanks to nudges and hints from PW (thanks liszt85!) - I let her think that it was my talent coming to the fore

Brahms Intermezzo op76/4 in Bb major: played my first Brahms piece for the first time in lesson today. I was not expecting to be able to play Brahms, or to take to it especially, but oh my! I do love learning this intermezzo. I'm still at the hesitant, putting together the notes and fingers stage, but you can hear how it is going to sound (I'm voicing and pedaling and shaping as I learn notes). So it was most pleasing to have my teacher say "Yes, like that, there's nothing you should change". Apparently she thinks I "get" Brahms, whereas generally her students do not get Brahms at first.

Forgive me for describing my small success here, but it really felt like some sort of arrival. The last 3 weeks (where I have had weekly lessons) i feel I've moved up a tiny level. I think I should try to have regular lessons this year as it clearly helps a lot!

ok back to practise!

Today: scales and exercises for warmup *hate melodic minors!*
Bach Little Prelude in D (BWV925). (possible exam piece) Think its up to performance level now :-)
Beethoven Op 46 2nd mvt, polishing up some wobbly bits. Various parts of the 1st & 3rd mvmt of the Pathetique. All of the 2nd mvmt - experimenting with different interpretations of bars 22/23/24..
Piano parts of violin/piano works - Meditation from Thais and Elgar's Salut d'amore, and a Handel sonata (for rehearsal tomorrow).
"Curious Story" from Schumann's Kinderszenen (possible exam piece).
Bits of the Brahm's RHapsody.

Scarlatti sonata 118 (K466 or 644).


I first obtained the music at IMSLP - it seems to have been written by hand, maybe by Domenico himself. It was very difficult to read. I recently found a proper copy at IMSLP. It is very nice with fingering and pedalling instructions/suggestions.

I was looking for a piece for one of my students who does not like classical (altho I make her do plenty of exercises, scales, etc.)

also, the 1st variaion of the Goldbergs. I love going back a relearning a piece occasionally.

Well, congratulations on your success, then! Especially with such a marvelous piece as op 76/4.

Thank you so much Gerard I'm thrilled to find someone here enjoys 76/4 as much as I do. It's been a delightful discovery for me.

Toastburn, keep up the good exam preparation, AMEB grade 5 by any chance? May/June exam period?

No practice yesterday at all for me. I climbed mountains instead. Literal, not metaphorical. Very refreshing!

I PRACTICED SAINT SAENS CONCERTO 4 TODAY. I REALLY LOVE THIS PIECE.

Doppler's Andante and Rondo with two flutes. That was fun!

It is rather fun, isn't it. (Don't you wish you'd get the tune sometimes, though?)

Oh, yes. I was hoping to be a collaborative pianist not an accompanist when I signed up for this two weekend chamber music camp. I was sorely disappointed when I was matched with two flutes. I was hoping for a string ensemble and some real music to play, not oom pah pah. But the music isn't difficult. It's cute and I'm trying to make the best of it. At the very least, it's a good experience and they are nice people.

There are some ensemble issues, and you can make a significant difference there, even though the flute players may not realise it was you who made the difference!
Hopefully there are some other things to play, too. Enjoy.

Not a really satisisfactory practise today, had my mind on other things. Did some scales and arpeggios desultorily. Weather forecast is 39 degrees and already warm in the house, fingers a bit slippery. Worked on Bach BWV 925 - getting it to a very satisfying stage to play now, experimenting with dynamics and adding ornaments, but I find the ornaments aren't really needed or satisfying or are too difficult to put in at speed. Still a couple of awkward fingerings that I can't seem to improve upon.

Spend some time on the Beethoven Op 14 No 2, 2nd mvmt, trying to polish the dynamics and staccatos and be consistent throughout. Found that voicing the pp chords at the end carefully with some emphasis on the highest note really helped for a consistent tone and volume. Still don't understand the ff chord at the end, but, wth, that's what written, that's what I'll play!

Canonie: Yes, contemplating AMEB Gr 5 in April/whenever. Have to discuss it more with my teacher when he calls up soon to restart lessons. Last year he suggested Gr 5 as the technical work for Gr 6 was a quantum jump in difficulty. Who am I to argue? Pieces selected are the Bach BWV 925, Beethoven as mentioned above, Schumann's Curiouse Geschicht from Kinderszenen, and Bartok's "Clanging Sounds" from the Mikrokosmos Bk IV. Extra list is Mozart Viennese Sonatina II, 1st Mvmt, and something else not yet decided. Perhaps the Alkan "Canon"? Doing Gr 5 at my (*ahem* "senior") age seems faintly ridiculous to me but it's something to focus upon. I did Gr 3 in *cough* 1962 and my wise teachers never suggested I take any more grades...

Ran through the accompaniment book for my violinist friend of possible duets, onby a couple will require some serious learning, should be able to get through the rest semi-sight-reading without too much sweat.

pour les degrés chromatiques, hung.rhaps.13, poulenc nocturne 1, alkan op.39/10 coda

Don't worry Senior Toastburn, I think the examiners like examining intelligent and keen adults, makes a change for them. I did Gr 6 last year after a many decade break since Preliminary - so I skipped 5 grades haha. my teacher didn't tell me the tech work for gr6 was a serious prospect, and because I never did exams (after prelim) as a kid I'd never done scales or arps back then. I think this seriously challenged my coordination as an adult, especially the contrary motion.

Anyway it was a great thing to do because it helped me improve such a lot, doesn't matter if you choke on the day, except damage to your pride. I'm doing gr7 in May, am pretty committed to see it through and have just chosen my last extra list piece (no more changes allowed I say sternly to myself). Enjoy your preparation and I'll enjoy following your progress here

Yesterday:
worked on Bach fugue 847 - hey it's all there now, I am over the hump and in the very pleasurable phase of consolidation and enjoying the music HURRAY! Also worked on Haydn sonate first movement hob xvi/36, lots of detail of articulation still messy, no through flow yet but am aiming for good slow rendition for this friday's lesson. Ornaments difficult at speed - need a fortepiano! Bother!

I did not practise today but I have my lesson soon. Teacher is pickier now because I have a performance coming up, so I'm actually a little nervous.

Recently, I've been not as focused during practice as I could be. Time to get the whip cracking! However, I've incorporated some warm-up and technique via a scale in a random key and running through some Bach inventions. I'm doing more sight reading too but I need to be careful to limit myself. I can whittle away hours sight reading before I realize it, and then my time is all gone.

Today I practiced Beethoven sonata Op.10 no.1 and Liszt Transcendental Etude no.10.

I think today I was able to make my first connection with the Beethoven which I don't even have memorized. The Liszt just didn't seem to work. The sound of the piano just seemed to smooth and rich to me. It was like I just couldn't conjure the roughness that I think is required in this piece today.

Brahms Ballade Op. 10 No. 2
Beethoven Trio Op. 1 No. 3, 1st movement
A couple passages from Saint Saens Concerto 4, second movement.

Brahms 119 - 3
Liszt S141 - 1
Sibelius Op 76 Etude

This Bach transcription:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITbcJMKVmts

Beautiful, don't you think?

Brahms 119 # 1,2, 3 and starting 4 (Rhapsody).
Bach F# major prelude WTC book 1
Doppler Andante and Rondo for 2 flutes and piano.

It wasn't a long practice session, but it was satisfying.

Yes, beautiful! Another way to appreciate the cello suites - they always transport me to another world of serenity and beauty. Thanks for posting this.

So far, besides scales, chords, and arpeggios, I played through a few Hanon exercises (these are just great for limbering up my fingers early in the morning) and practiced a Granados waltz that I'm playing in a recital this weekend. I've still got to do some Bach and maybe some Moszkowski, and then I'm off to work on some other non-music related stuff.

One of my students did Gr5 at 70, and did very well. I'm sure, as Canonie said, that the examiner welcomed the change, and also the way he approached the music (judging by the comments on his report). Go for it.

pour les degrés chromatiques,Gr.Pol.Bril.pr.d'un And.Sp., au bord dúne source, Jeux d'eau, les jeux d'eau à la V.d'E.

Nice story Currawong I think my examiner especially enjoyed my general knowledge. I collapsed to silence at least once in every piece (except one) so I couldn't score very high, but he actually apologised "I'm sorry that I can't give you the highest grade..." which was nice of him! I think he could see that there was only the problem of an adult doing their first exam and having finger wobbles and brain jams in between the more interesting playing. He could see that I was in fact very close to a good show, but fell on the side of terrible. And that's the way with exams when you are inexperienced, you are measured on your performance on that day; it doesn't measure what you got out of it or how much you improved.

I'm really not sure that I'll ever be able to pull off a more controlled exam. I'm going to try not too care too much about this next one - well I'll care a lot now but not too much on the day. I'll try to make a smaller deal out of it. we'll see....

Yesterday: did a HUGE practice. Could actually feel that my hands had a pleasantly worked feeling. Great warmup of scales and arps, lots of Bach P and F 847 (I've brought the Prel back into practice), lots of the Haydn, some Invention 13 for cool down at end. Voicing of fugue is in MY control - yay.

In this weather what does one do but shut out the weather and practice?

@ Canonie & Currawong; Thanks for the encouraging comments! (except for the "Senior Toastburn" *little glare* :-) ). You have bolstered my resolve and removed some trepidation. I'll keep polishing the pieces and the technical work and discuss it more when my teacher is able to restart the lessons. Haven't practised yet today, had to mow the lawn before the rain comes later (oh the joys of a garden).

Coming off of a 4-day break, due to an aggravation of my ulnar nerve symptoms (happens once every 2 months).

Started Debussy's Voiles (Sails). It's almost entirely restricted to the whole-tone scale: C-D-E-F#-Ab-Bb. When you play this whole-tone scale over several octaves, your hands rise up vertically (on the black notes) and back down (on the white notes), like waves....

Worked through Mozart's K.283 sonata. Basically "there". Tempi that seemed a break-neck hurtle a few months ago now don't feel fast at all, yay!

-Jason

Well done on the Mozart
I've done some really solid work on Haydn c# minor sonate (XVI/36) today. Previous technical work on this piece is showing benefits - the firey section on p3 (all 16ths in RH) is now not the hardest part at all as my hands seem to have learnt the movements required. The LH ornament of the first bar is what will set the tempo low for now, so I worked on that a lot. The trouble with playing an ornament in unison between the hands is that my RH always wins grrrr.

On the bright side I can tell that my technique is much more capable than when I did my gr6 sonate, I have new hands

Also began Mendelssohn 102/3 Tarantella, not my kind of piece but it will be "Good For Me". I have to think of it as a study. Actually it was more fun than I was expecting.

Lawn... how last century

heh. I sight read through 3 of my concerto scores- Tchaikovsky 1 , Grieg and Chopin in f minor.

My right arm tendon kind of hurts on the inside of my elbow joint. But a huge plus my left isn't hurting after all those octaves!

Tchaik is too long , Grieg is too easy , and Chopin is gorgeous but why would I want to memorize all those notes!?

Funny how this is 13 pages long. Why would anyone want to read about what someone else is practicing?

I do! That's why I started it. It's like voyeurism, except with piano.

It can also function something like a diary, a confessional, in which we convert the day's hours of intense private struggle to a few choice public lines of summary. Therapeutic.

btw... "Grieg is too easy"? That's funny.

btw2... I checked out your website. You didn't ask for any feedback, but in case this kind of thing is important to you, I'm just letting you know that your recording that you label "Bach G flat" is actually in E flat minor (the Eb minor prelude from WTC I).

-J

Yes I found it out yesterday that it was a mistake but the only way to fix it is to go back into my dreamweaver application and tweak a playlist file and then re upload the files so I don't care right now!

The comment about the Grieg was meant as facetious I hope everyone get's - But when you compare concertos , it IS pretty easy. It sits very well in the hands at least for me.

Scales and apeggios. Bach BWV 925, Brahms RHapsody in Gm (YAY finally (after 12 months) getting the 3-against-2 cadences right (I"m a slow learner!)). Schumann, MOzart exam pieces. Beethoven OP 49 Allegro. Bach WTC I the fugues in D and C. THen for fun Elgar's "Nimrod" variation.

This transcription of Milonga del Angel(starts around 3:10):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RLZBgLH7H8&feature=related

Do you like it?

The score is available here:
http://johnmortensen.com/music/milonga.pdf

SCriabin - Prelude Op. 11 No. 1

I did only 30 mins practice today. Partly due to my homework and partly due to tiredness. I only did some recap on 2 pieces I played to my teacher yesterday. Feel really guilty now......

I didn't do any practice today or yesterday since I fell on the ice and twisted my wrist. Thankfully the swelling is going down, though, so hopefully tomorrow I'll be back with a vengeance and focusing on the cadenza of the Grieg concerto and the 3rd prelude of Rach's op. 23.

Ouch! I feel for you. I've sometimes had to stop playing for a few days for various reasons. Very frustrating.

My only advice is not to return "with a vengeance". Return gently and gradually. It's very easy to do damage just when you think it's getting better.

-Jason

Polishing up Poulenc's improvisation #15 (finally fully memorized :p) for studio and memorizing more of Bach's French Suite #2 allemande.

Yes, indeed, it is frustrating. You're right about returning to practice gradually - thanks for the advice. I can be bad about jumping back in with both feet. But I'll be good this time, I promise!

I do.

Brahms Ballade Op. 10 No. 2 and the accompaniment for Elgar's Cello Concerto.

I'm realizing more and more that slow things are harder to play than fast things!

Brahms 119 #1 and 2 and the opening bars of the Rhapsody. E major scales, broken chords and arpeggios.

Today I practiced the middle part of Grieg concerto in a minor, and the beginning part a little. And I worked on Bach's French suite # 5 Gigue, making it sound more country-dance-like and getting the articulation and phrasing right. And I worked on the fingerings of the Allemande. And I sight read some hymns and sang some harmony and practiced playing the notes from c to g (well really b flat to f) on trumpet.

Nothing so far, except for playing my daily Bach P&F (today it was B flat minor, book II). It's just too hot here (well it's only 35C but it feels hotter) and I've run out of puff.

Well, and that's a brutal one. Both the prelude and fugue are long, and the fugue is particularly grinding and hard to read. Reading that pair has done me in before.

-Jason

yesterday I practiced Lizst's transcription of Bach's organ Prelude and Fugue in A minor. I learned this a while ago and it is nice to revisit with 'skills' I've acquired the last 10 years.

very beautiful - I love this particular recording.. very sensitive... not the most perfect, but hay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FboiWpTRTDI

Very hot here too.... With the flute and the guitar it is a real torture, as I have to close the window.
With the piano I can keep the window open, but the lamp on the piano is another source of heat...

The piano transcription of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbdakZjHTys&feature=related

It appears that nobody has practised for a week... or has this thread reached its "use by" date?

Anyway, yesterday I practised scales and arps, Bach BWv 925, Brahms Rhapsody, Schumann, and bits of the Pathetique and Op 49 4th mvmt. Humidity was up in the 80% range so there were frequent stops to wash hands and wipe the keys and for liquid refreshment. TOday will be more of the same after houshold chores and a rehearsal with my violinist duet mate this morning.

What's this "op. 49 4th movement"? It's in your signature too. Are you... thinking of the two op.49 sonatas as a single four-movement sonata? Something like that?

-J

OOps! ShOuld be Op 26, NOT Op 49. THanks for pointing this out.

Still practising over here
At my lesson I played my Bach fugue without the music which was a good milestone to reach - very happy about that. Also very happy that the (tiny) cadenza that I put into the Haydn was accepted by my teacher. Mostly she laughs at the improvements I make to scores, sometimes I get the style right but it's rare.

This week I have to apply the rhythms magic to all the passage work in the prelude. Rhythm work is just that wee bit tedious, but I know it will transform it in a week.

Actually I really shouldn't be practising piano this week, I should be waking up the cello for impending performance <groan>.

Actually, I see it as the sort of thread that sits here and gets added to from time to time when people feel like it.
(I haven't done any practice yet today - it's still early )

Brahms 119 Rhapsody - I can't play it for too long because the stretches start to hurt my small hands. I had the same problem with 119 #2 and #3 but gentle practice eventually stretched my hands so it no longer hurts when I play them. I just have to be careful not to overdo it. Starting Liszt Sonnetto 47 del Petrarca - without asking my teacher. I wonder if he will agree to it?

Polishing Brahms 119 #2.

Schumann Carnaval. Schubert C minor Sonata. LOVE LOVE LOVE them both.

Totally.

I have. Just the same stuff over and over.
Sibelius etude
Brahms Intermezzo
Liszt Canzonetto
Liszt En Reve
Liszt Paginini Etude 1

Love it! I think I'm going to pull this out as I haven't played through it in quite a while.

Prokofiev 4th sonata, second movement
Shostakovich Prelude and Fugue in Eb minor
Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1 1st movement

All upcoming projects.. I wasn't feeling well but still wanted to do something.

Oh yeah, that's a good one. I think the 4th and 5th sonatas are quite underrated!

For me, today I had a full-blown cold, and oddly enough, practicing was one of the only things I could do to not feel achy. Starting to get the upper hand on my four Debussy preludes.

Next week we'll decide on what to play next. It may be time to start my late Beethoven project ....

-Jason

All of them at once?

The goal is to have the last three sonatas simultaneously worked up. Learning them, I'll focus on one at a time.

-J

Very nice! Tis a huge order. Good luck with that.

I think he is pulling your leg..

Huh? Is this directed at me?

Now, stores is often sarcastic, sometimes too much so (which I'm happy to let him know ) . And "good luck with that" is usually meant sarcastically. But I think he was being sincere.

At any rate, as I've mentioned elsewhere, the "huge order" is slightly mitigated by the fact that I've worked up op.110 before, and worked on op.111 (learned all the notes, didn't get it up to speed). Many years ago.

-J

Am I pulling his leg, or vice versa? I wasn't being sarcastic, by the way. When I said good luck with that, I truly meant it as anyone is going to need some luck to pull off the final three at the same time.

No.. t'is your leg undergoing the pulling.. (I hope; otherwise Jason's reality check-o-meter needs recalibrating)

[resurrecting thread...]


Today I sight-read through a lot of Davidsbundlertanze. I'd never heard it before my teacher suggested it yesterday. I absolutely love it!

But how am I going to decide what subset of the pieces to play? I don't think I'm going to work up all 18....


-Jason

Good for you!

I blindly thought that Schumann was being more clever than inspired in composing the Davidsbundlertanze - a conceit that stupidly kept me away from them for about 10 years. Now I'm eating crow.....

(I also originally thought the same years ago about guitarist Al DiMeola and songwriter Elvis Costello. Oh, how I hate maturity. It always proves me wrong...... )

On deck today: Haydn's Sonata in E, Hob, XVI/13, Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy, John Harbison's On an unwritten letter.

Is anyone still practising? I am! Although not with gusto because I'm with a junker of a piano right now. I miss my piano. Still doing the same pieces as before, but I've been sight reading things here and there + reviving old pieces for fun.

I thought I'd move this thread to the first page to get some productive discussion going.

I've been doing a lot of practicing and a lot of performing. Too busy to post !

Don't worry, you haven't been missing anything good. How have your performances been going? I have one coming up that I should be preparing more for, but I'm kind of at that stage where I'm sick of what I'm playing so I'm giving it a rest for a few days.

Chopin Mazurkas: 24/2, 63/1, 63/3
Scriabin Etudes: 8/2, 8/8
Scriabin Prelude: 11/24

Brahms Concerto 1
Brahms Ballade 4
Mozart Sonata K 311 3rd movement
Brahms Concerto 1

first hour:
all major and harmonic minor scales, including a four octave formula pattern (RCM),
all major and minor arpeggios,
Moszkowski Etudes (Opus 72, no 6 and 7)
2nd & 3rd hour:
Debussy Children's Corner Suite: Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum and Jiimbo's Lullaby,
Bach WTC book I: BWV 855 in e min,
Beethoven Sonata in E Major opus 14, no 1

then a beer with hubby!

Chausson poeme, Liszt sonata.

I loooove Chausson but damn, what a bad transcription.. I have to add things or change them because at times it sounds nothing like the orchestral one..

Brahms 119 Rhapsody - trying to get page 2 into my fingers.

Bach P&F F# book 1. The prelude is fun, as usual, and the fugue is tricky, as usual.

P&F for the day - D minor book II
Glazounov saxophone concerto
Rachmaninoff Spring Waters

As I recall, that fugue has a couple spots where you have to trill and play an additional note with the same hand. That's always been tricky for me.

-J

Practice. Excellent idea! Today I'm going to practise my main exam program.

Bach Prel and Fugue Cmin (book 1)
Haydn sonate in C#min XVI 36
Brahms 76 no4
Poulenc Waltz in C

And I'm going to use Mr Metronome

Mainly practiced La fille aux Cheveux de Lin. Sightread some of the Partita no.2. Worked on both Beethovens, and started op. 90. I have played some of op 90 no 3 before, so I started with that.

I have just started studying Chopin's Prelude Op.28 No.24. It really reflects my current terribly gloomy and tempestuous mood... It has always been my favourite prelude.

Thought this tread was dead, but since its back....

Today I played through Chopin's Aeolian, Butterfly and Ocean Etudes (Opus 25 1, 9 and 12) and the Schumann Novelletten No 1 and 2. All but the second Novellette are memorized. Hopefully I'll record these within the next month and then start working on something else.

Liszt- La Campanella (playing it on Saturday... Revive it from two weeks of not practicing since competition)
Hindemith- Trumpet Sonata (EWWWW)
John Williams- Five Sacred Trees Bassoon Concerto
Debussy- Images I: Mouvement
Beethoven- Horn Sonata, 1st movement. GREAT PIECE!

Chopin's op 15 no 3, arguably the easiest Nocturne but I'm having a helluva time getting those climactic chords up to speed at the end of the A section.

Also op 32 no 1, another of the "easy" nocturnes that I still can't get through without mistakes...and it's been 3 weeks now. And then there's the matter of that long run at the bottom of the first page, the one I'm pretty certain Chopin stuck in there just to give novices like me a hard time...

Today after some sight reading I practiced Bach's fourth Invention and re-read through the Grieg Arietta Op. 12 No. 1 (a great piece; I'm re-learning it for a performance coming up soon.) I started on b minor scales, chords, and arpeggios, but that wasn't really working out. Instead of bashing the piano to bits in anger, I decided instead to just call it a day.

Everything but Cho-[censored]-pin.

The Ocean Etude, carey ?!? Are you going to add it to the history in Member Recordings?
Canonie: How's that Haydn going? Are we going to get to hear it?
Op. 28 No. 4, CA? Jeez! Stormy! At least there's hope--and finality! (At least, that's how I hear it! )
JoshP: Let's hear the Op. 109 trill!
Wow, Thaiguy--you got a lot goin' on!
Cardguy: Easy, my eye!
Wise move, survivordan!
Wise move, Damon!

Today, I practiced:

Kuhlau Sonatina in C, Op. 55 No. 1 (The whole thing! From memory!)
Clementi Sonatina in D, Op. 36 No. 6 (The whole thing! From memory!)
Mozart Sonatina in C, No. 1, "Viennese Sonatina"
Mozart Sonata in C, No. 3, [K. 545], "Sonata Facile"
Bach, Partita No. 4, Courante, Aria, Sarabande, Menuet, Gigue
Pauline Turner, "Balance of the Scales," (1976) ( a rag)
"Alice in Wonderland," from Hal Leonard Jazz Favorites
"My Favorite Things," from Hal Leonard Jazz Favorites

--Andy

Actually No.24, not 4.... It is not only the piece itself, it is like something happened once when I was listening to it... But it doesn't matter. It is just a very emotional piece for me.
I played it in the last 30 minutes of my first piano session today, and cannot wait for my second session. I just want to concentrate on that piece now...

Nice variety!

Ah--I meant No. 24, CA! Typo! And my comment stands: hope and finality amidst stormy circumstances!

I agree. It has a message!

Where... and really, I mean where... do you find hope in the D minor prelude? Finality, yes. But certainly no hope in that terrifying apocalyptic ending?

-J

Polishing those trills over and over and over in F# major fugue (WTC book 1). Record. Listen. Fix. Record. Listen. Fix.

Learning/memorizing page 3 of Brahms Op. 119 Rhapsody and trying to play the bottom of page 2 without hesitations. Slowing going. I'm hoping I'll be mostly over the hump once page 3 is down.

Op 119 # 1,2,3 are sleeping.

Bach: Prelude and Fugue for today: B flat minor, Book I

Glazunov: saxophone concerto (getting tired of it...)

Schubert: moment musical C#minor, Klavierstücke D946/1&3

some songs (I really mean songs) by Duparc

Oh yeah, Jason! There's hope in there:

mm. 11-15 major
m. 18, starts minor, ends major mm. 18-19 in RH (genius use of scale!)
mm. 29-33 major

Finality in the ending low, low D, yes. Death comes to all, after all. But there is hope in there...

A somewhat curtailed day today, but it still felt good. Skipped a bit of my usual technical stuff and some my long-running etudes, and went to -

Rachmaninoff - ET op. 33, in Eb min and Eb major; prelude op. 23 in Eb maj.

Moscheles - Gigue, op. 58 (I am thinking this might be a good one for the Unsung Heroes e-cital)

Clementi - Sonata, op. 25, no. 2, in G major (another potential one for the UHE - maybe Clementi is sort of semi-sung rather than unsung, but the sonatas are pretty much off the radar for most pianists, I think)

Liszt - HR no. 11 - yeah, I know, way beyond my reach, but I'm having lots of fun with it anyway.

Chopin - op. 18 Waltz, Eb being my key for this month and since a bunch of recordings turned up in a recent thread; nocturne op. 55, no. 2, which I played so freely tonight that I barely recognized myself as the person playing - that was interesting and it revealed aspects of the music I hadn't heard before.

Beethoven Op 90 1st movement
Bach Prelude and Fugue C minor, Book 1
Debussy Prelude No 2 book 1 - Voiles

But I didn't have much time to spend at the piano today - an emergency at work kept me there til 9pm... so I just had enough time at the piano to relax a little before bed.

Help! I can't stop! I've already put in about 4 hours today. My hands are tired and all I want to do is practice more! I'm addicted. I just love spring break - no students, just me and my piano! Oh darn, I guess I should start dinner. The family needs to eat.

Still working on:
Brahms 119 Rhapsody. The first two pages are beginning to make musical sense and the first half of page 3 is beginning to fall under my fingers.

Bach F# major P&F book 1 - almost done, settling on a tempo. Wow, I only started it 2 months ago.

I'm sitting in the airport waiting to fly on business. No piano for me until Saturday.

[start vent]Banged my way through Beethoven's An die ferne geliebte, listened to the people in the other practice rooms around me playing stuff I could never play in a million years, and then quit in frustration.[end vent]

Arghhh - you live up to your name here! Oh dear

gooddog - well done on a P&F in 2 months, hurray. I must listen to this one some time.

CB - I'm lucky not to have posted a recording of the Haydn - found an unbelievably embarrassing wrong note this morning. A loud, long climactic sort of note, doubled at the 8ve My teacher hasn't ever picked it up either haha I will give her a hard time about that (or maybe I play with enough conviction?!)

currawong - you one-P&F-per-day people never cease to inspire awe.

clementi could be half-sung I think, I reckon it qualifies as something needing more exposure and attention.

Today I am still Ironing out Wrinkles with Metronome, especially in my fugue. after ironing I will work on the my Brahms (swoon).

Canonie, if you make fudge well enough, you won't need the metronome. ...oh... fugue... yes, metronome.

Gooddog, how was the pizza?

darn it, you made me hungry! Yeh I've just been playing it at the legendary slow tempo (1/4 = 40) of concert pianists just before a recital, by memory. And yes, I can remember every note, so not relying on muscle memory. Good.

LimeFriday, open your window and play loudly and I'll be able to hear how you play your Cmin prel and fugue. I wonder if you sometimes play D flats accidentally in bar 22 and 23....? I do.

I bet that most of those people around you would struggle with An die ferne geliebte for expressive - as opposed to 'impressive' - reasons.

It's a wonderful piece with it's own interpretive difficulties. I hope that you're back to work on it by the time you read this........

From what I have heard of you, you are very good too. No need to quit in frustration! Besides, they have probably been studying for a very long time.

I'm actually not embarassed by this one and will post it soon.

Ha!Ha! I actually stopped practicing long enough to cook. Stir fried chicken, tofu, vegies and peanuts with lots of garlic and spicy black bean sauce. The house smells wonderful!

And I had chicken with veggies with *ginger* and spicy black bean sauce! Great minds think, I mean, cook, almost alike! Oops I can imagine BruceD saying TMI about the meal details. Well, back on topic, I practiced... let's just leave it at that. I practiced. This is my first attempt at quoting, so let's see how it goes...

Okay, sorry, now I am going to practice quoting until something works...

I look forward to it
Practising fugue: using metronome constantly - all loud, staccato, rhythms, reverse rythms, other ritms, HS, slow, super-slow, fast segments... Everything but playing it fully. It's all exercises to allow the music to come back better in a few days. I'm trying not to give in to temptation to play through for pleasure. I've noticed that whenever I have a major flub it is where LH is either fast or tricky. So I should work more on getting the LH extra strong in the fugue.

Similar work on Prelude as well. All in preparation for student performance on tues for my teacher.

Now I'd better attend to the Haydn (with Cinnamonbear's useful hints in mind (see Kulau thread )

You're right. It is actually programmed on a recital I am giving on Sunday, so I have to keep practicing it. Today didn't lead to frustration, so that is good.

yesterday, or the day before, I played thru the 1st four preludes and fugues of WTC I. I already know these (I should really be playing fugue #4.. the passion fugue.. that one is pretty hard and today is actually the day for it.. I did make it through it ok. but is sounds like carp. That's what I'll practice if I play anything.

It's extremely fatigueing to play.

Saint-Saens Rhapsodie d'Auvergne/Ravel Une Barque sur l'ocean/Alkan

Fishy interpretation?

Ive just started on a new piece today. Traumerei by Schumann.

I drank too much coffee today, and it kinda feels like I have extreme performance anxiety. Almost like how I performed yesterday...

JS Bach's French Suite No 1 in D minor, Menuet II. I'm working it into a straight-ahead jazz arrangement. Fusion of classical and jazz.

that sounds quite intersting, have fun with it!

Well i finished Albeniz' Cordoba so i'm just polishing that off really.

He's one of my favorite composers! I played some from the Iberia suite several years ago.

I've had my new piano for about a week and have been putting it to use! Today I worked on Mozart Sonata K533 and some Ravel (Menuet from Le tombeau de Couperin).

My recital program for tomorrow. For the first bit I set an alarm every 5 minutes. My aim was to reduce unnecessary tension in my playing, so I used the alarm as a reminder. Everytime it went off I made another check to see if I was holding anything, as well I was determined not to let tension creep back in between the alarms. It really is amazing how much cleaner playing becomes while doing that. After a while I started to lose focus, and I realized that I needed to take a break. i think I'll continue using this practice strategy.

So how was the recital?

I like your alarm idea and will try it.

My first time recital piece for the ABF May recital s Rhapsody, by Margaret Wigham.

I'd be curious to know how the alarm works for you.

The recital was fun, mostly, and for now I'm happy with how it came out (we'll see later if the recording or my professor changes my opinion). Not everything came out the way I wanted it to, but I wasn't very nervous so I could just appreciate being able to play on a very nice piano.

BTW - thanks ChopinAddict for the encouragement above.

I'm so glad it went well!

I haven't had a chance to try to alarm but I think I'll have to set it off every 30 seconds for the first few sessions!

The alarm idea sounds interesting!

Practiced my recital program for this coming saturday! The three pieces in my signature, also worked on the Totentanz a little bit!

Good luck on your recital! Looks like an interesting lineup you have there.

Brahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahms
brahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahms
brahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahms
brahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahms
brahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahms
brahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahmsbrahms

Sorry, I didn't catch that?....;)

Today I practiced my trills, and then worked on both Bach Inventions (No. 4 & 13), the Grieg Nocturne Op. 54, and Haydn Hob. XVI:7. I made a lot of progress on these pieces today!

I also did some Pictures at an Exhibition. It's a masterpiece that has really grown on me.

Tomorrow, I forsee myself practicing the Alkan Barcarolle in G Minor Op. 65 No. 6 and the Nocturne in B Major Op. 22. The Barcarolle is "simple", but it opens up a vast, vast world of music to explore, I feel.

Practiced the same stuff in my sig today, had a lesson. The recital should be fun, I'm a freshman at a university and am splitting a program with an other freshman who's playing Debussy's Image I and Schumann's Piano Sonata in G Minor.

Are you a music major?

I had a performance class at my teacher's studio last night. Went much better than last year's classes. I am still a little in awe of these teenagers who can play so much "hard" stuff, but I didn't let it make my playing apologetic - that's an improvement.

The last few days practice have been in preparation for this class: prepared my Bach P&F and Haydn sonate in particular, and prepared a lot of easier shorter pieces as well - Grieg(2 pieces), Skriabin, Schumann(2), Bach(2).

From today I'll be preparing the rest of my current pieces for next perf class (while trying not to be overwhelmed by working on more pieces than i'm used to).

Hey survivordan I performed 2 from your list last night (Invention 13 and Grieg waltz)

What did your teacher do during the performance class? Was it like a master class with the teacher critiquing?

Not like a detailed masterclass, more just performance practise and a chance to see how much work is needed on one's pieces. Having said that there was some specific feedback and discussion and a few times she got students to repeat a piece. One student has some definite tension issues - I can now see what ppl are talking about when they endlessly worry about tension - it hampered her playing for sure. The upside for me was the realisation that my physical set-up and use is good and relaxed enough (at the moment anyway).

It was quite relaxed by the end, we were laughing at some things and telling performance anecdotes. I threw my arms into the air at the end of my fugue - just to get through was a Major Life Achievement - there were no holes until one right near the end (a few miss-hit notes along the way).

I didn't get much (any?) feedback except sometimes to note which pieces were better since last lesson. We'll save details for lessons no doubt.

Way to go, Canonie! If I had a standing ovation smiley thingy, I'd post it here:

[ ]

Instead,

Hey it wasn't very good!*%$#@#
but an achievement all the same. ONe more step along the way to being able to play.

thank you

Yeah I'm a performance major at University of Massachusetts Amherst