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Oh my!!! Wish4_Thing, I thought you said, “Speed wasn’t your friend.” That was so wrong! That was awesome!!! I can’t even imagine doing that! Which book is that in? I’m in awe!!!

Fran...

@Fran, this is in 3A performance book. I personally think songs in performance book sounds more interesting but they are a bit harder for me to play. You have learned some good hand techniques from your teacher, I'm sure you'll progress a whole lot faster than I did!

@Chili Time, looking forward to your recording! your last recording was smooth, clean, even， showing solid foundation you built on piano playing skills.

@dobro, as I mentioned before, I started Faber from Accelerated lesson book Level 2 and now I realize I missed great deal of beautiful songs in Level 2 and AIO Level 1. Let us listen to some of those from your recordings

I do need to record something. I’ve got a bit of red light fear coupled with laziness I guess.

I record every song in the book, just want to listen how it sounds, it helps to adjust my dynamics... after a while, I'm not too nervous about recording any more. but I still can't play in front of people

@Wish4_Thing, that is a smart way of doing it. I used to record guitar practices some but I need to get into a habit like you describe.

This is inspiratioal, keeping up with the metronome at this speed and getting the piece to sound good with the dynamics as well

I have a long way to go before I can get anywhere near. to being able to play as well as this . Your posting gets me excited to know that If I keep at it with the faber books and lots of practice this is what we have to look forward to.

Well done for achiving this level in your playing

Missed this when I first read it, I am just using the first three gestures every morning to create muscle memory, and establish a habit of movement. Very slowly at first, then buildIng up speed. Now trying to incorporate the movement into every song I play. It’s the repetitive motion I’m trying to achieve. A flow of the wrist.

Fran...

@CognitaP Thanks! You and everyone on this thread are my inspiration and motivation too! We all have a long way to go, and I'm glad we are moving forward on this journey together!

I developed bad habit when I was studying Alfred's book with a CD, I paid more attention to keeping up with the CD instead of listening to myself playing and my music sounded mechanical... now I'm trying to change this with Faber books, I rarely use metronome now, but this particular piece is way too fast than my capability, so I had to use metronome to get myself up to speed...

pagirl thanks for the reply . Im might try to practince these slowley to get the technique right it may help with stengthenong my hands. I will keep you posted to how I get on with them .

WIsh4 Thing

I find I use the metronome a lot to ensure that I get the pieces up to tempo and fluent. I agree that the danger is that the pieces become mechanical. This is why I try and alternate playing the pieces sometimes with and sometimes without the metronome so I dont become too relient on it. One of the many things I like about the Faber PA method is that it is encouraging us to develop the artistry in our playing and not just playing pieces mechanically . One of the other things I do is once a piece is learnt, I continue with the piece until solid then leave it for a while and come back back to it, to keep it fresh. I do occasonally record myself and listen back to it but dont do this for every piece. maybe I will start doing this. I think recoding pieces and listening to them does give you a better perspective, as when you are playing you are concentrating on lots of things whereas listening you only have to concentrate on what you hear. As such you can pick up much more clearly what needs to be improved on and what has gone well

Great recordings, pagirl and wish4thing!! Thanks for sharing!!

enw10, thank you! I enjoyed your recording too!


I find it different between how my music sounds and how I want it to sound Recordings help me to close the gap...

I’m enjoying “In My Red Convertible” from book 2, ch7. I’m liking “Theme From Scheherazade” also but I’m not there with getting it to sound good enough yet., those rolled chords are tricky to get consistent.

@dobro, I went on youtube to listen to these 2 songs, like both of them, looking forward to your version!

Thank you enw10! I am excited to get on to my next Unit, the scales and chords! Working toward arpeggios. I have noticed that almost all the music I listen to, and love, has the left hand using soft arpeggios, and I really want to learn how to do that! The consistent soft touch is still a mystery to me, there’s got to be a trick to it! I’m checking out online videos to see if I can pick something up there.

Fran...

Me too. I’ve been thinking that I need to step up in several areas and recording is a must. As you and others have said, it will help to find things that we may not notice while focused on playing.

Please do! This thread got a lot more interesting when people began to post recordings. I enjoy hearing what everyone is working on.

I'll let myself pass Vivace although it's still not perfect... I can tell my left hand is clumsy, the best I can do is to hit the right keys but not as musical as I wanted it to be. Hopefully over the time, I can train my left hand to be more flexible. Right hand is not good enough with legato either.

Have a nice weekend to everyone!

@Wish4_Thing, I enjoyed your “Moon River”

Thank you, dobro! Moon River was from a while back... now I'm listening to it, I think left hand could be softer... With Edelweiss (4 weeks ago), left hand is still not soft enough, but I tried

Wish 4 Thing, you are such an inspiration! Your practice of examining your work through recordings is invaluable! Every time I listen to a recording I’m working on, I hone in on something I want to do better or differently! For me, the hard part is to just choose one thing to work on, but I do think that’s important! Isolate and overcome!!! How do you do that? Do you have a specific list of things in your mind to look for? Your Vivace sounds perfect to me!

Fran...