Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Recital #23 --- Call For Submissions

Recital 23 is now open for submissions!

Believe it or not, our 23rd quarterly Piano World Adult Beginners Forum recital approaches! The recital will be posted some time on the 15th of August, which means that the submissions must be in by 9:00 pm Eastern time, August 14. Please note this deadline is very firm; I cannot start working on the recital until it is closed, and once it is closed, no new entries can be added.

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

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

Recital submissions must be in MP3 format. The maximum size of the file is 20 MB. We recommend encoding the recording at 192 kbs with a constant bitrate, as that works best with the online streaming player. At that bitrate, a 20 MB file works out to be about 7 minutes in length. Your recording will be normalized when placed in the consolidated zip files, but your original link will still be available for those who want it.

If you are new to recording your music, there are several threads in the forum archives that address the ways and means. See the "Important Topics in the AB Forum" thread stickied at the top of the AB forum page. Audacity is an excellent "free" recording application that can be used.

Submitting Your Recording:

We will be using again the absolutely marvelous automatic web-based recital program that mahlzeit wrote for us. And thanks to LaValse's extremely generous offer to host the recital program and zip files on his server, it is no longer necessary to upload your mp3 files to box.net or some other file hosting server prior to submitting it to the recital. You will upload your mp3 file to the recital server as part of the recital submission process.

When you have your mp3 file ready, go to:

http://abf.make247.co.uk/

and follow the instructions there. Once you have uploaded your info to the automated recital website, you will receive a confirmation e-mail. You will have the opportunity to revise your submission any time up until the deadline. If you have any problems at all using the new website, or if you do not receive a confirmation e-mail within a few hours, just PM me. If you have not participated in past recitals using this software, you may want to submit your recital piece at least a day in advance in case you run into any problems with it. (Though there should be no problems. Mahlzeit is a genius. )

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

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


The due date for all submissions is 9:00 pm US EASTERN DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME on August 14, 2011.

Did I mention that the 9:00 pm deadline was firm?

Think "consistency of concrete."

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

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

Should anyone have any questions at all on what to do or how to do it, this is the place to ask. Remember, there are NO stupid questions, as we have a steady flow of new members in AB forum for whom this is their first recital, so your questions will probably help to eliminate other members’ problems. Please ask away!

Let's all go out and brave that Red Dot and share a lot of beautiful music!

#1

Of course, it helps submitting the recording I made in June at my teacher's recital

Mamma mia, I'm in!

I wanted to do my Scarlatti piece but the red dot was killing me - so ....you'll see, or rather hear, what I have done as an alternative.

OOOOps! Entry malfunction.... Monica!

I'm on it... are all three identical? Or is there one in particular I should be saving?

Thanks, they are all the same.

All taken care of.

I'm going to be out of the office the rest of the day... daughter is having her wisdom teeth removed, and I suspect I'll be doing a lot of hand-holding and mothering. But I will take care of any other problems that might arise for people sometime this evening.

ouch - best wishes to your daughter - having wisdom teeth out is no fun at all!

Hope she heals quickly!

Thanks!

I remember going through that with my son. I did the fatherly thing and told him to suck it up... just kidding.
As I remember, he spent the rest of the day in bed and I- preparing boiled tea bags as a compress? It was a long time ago.

Speedy recovery to your daughter.

Mines in. I was number 3 but realized I submitted the wrong take so I *updated* my submission minutes later around 11 p:m Sunday night only to find out it bumped me down to number 8! Obviously, lots-O-people staying up late to submit their piece.

Strings & Wood I am especially looking forward to hearing your performance. I was going to say looking forward to hearing your "version" but I'm sure you will perform it correctly to begin with. Not everyone is a hack!

I'm in early this time! Number 18.

Looks like I'm gonna be at the very end this time, lol, I did my first recording today, missed a note, and knocked a wrong key, ooooops! (I felt kinda nervous before I even started, so should'a been expected). I can only try one recording per day, otherwise the neighbours might report me for anti-social behaviour (again!)

"I was number 3 but realized I submitted the wrong take so I *updated* my submission minutes later around 11 p:m Sunday night only to find out it bumped me down to number 8!"

LOL yes I noticed and thought what is Mr.S doing??

Mine is not at all without flaws. But it's the full version this time! I considered overall energy, pace, rythm, dynamics etc to be of more importance than striving for perfect notes. Maybe I can get a perfect take when I play it just a bit slower but I thought the faster one sounds better. I have been working on this for many months and I'm glad I'm done with it for now

I submitted the wrong take for the recital this time last year. The problem was I didn't realize it until well after the recital was over. I was wondering why a few people were criticizing it, but now I understand. It was not a good take!(Solfegietto by CPE Bach)

I have a flaw in my system. After I download the Zoom recordings into my documents, I usually have several "takes" of a piece that I will later chosse from. Problem is, if you don't delete everything but your keeper, chances are you may get them confused. I did this.

No more. The keeper stays, everything else gets tossed right away.

It cost me 5 slots down this time and you know that's gotta be killing me!

Yeah... one of my (few) complaints about the zoom is that it isn't easy to do the file deletions on the H4, so I tend to store them up until I get to the computer, at which point I promptly forget which file had the good take and which of the (many) others have the bad takes. To make matters worse, I usually have lots of false starts and run-throughs within a single zoom file (because I am lazy and don't like to set the recording levels over and over again).

The end result is that I have a note pad full of cryptic notes like "zoom004 2nd full take" and it's a nightmare trying to figure out what I meant.

Monica, is it possible to add something (my youtube link) to my submission without re-submittting?

Geezzzz. I may need the whole time to get a tolerable recording. Working hard...