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New video!

Alexis Ffrench - Story of You

Thanks for posting that! Now I want to go look at the score and see how hard it is!

He does a lot of videos with lighting that makes me think of an art installation in a museum, I wonder who designs his sets...

It also makes me think of the artist Yayoi Kusama, I would love to see a collaboration between him and her, or a piano video where he played “in” her installation!

I have just received today Alexis Ffrench: The Sheet Music Collection book and it is included (BTW, 17€ shipped, is a bargain IMHO)

It is clearly over my level, but you can have dreams, don't you?

This is one of my favorite pieces of his. I only wish he would re do a video of a solo performance of "Radiate". And, publish the transcription.

Just for fun, here are two Kusama light installations:





Maybe the bottom one is a little too "busy" for Mr. Ffrench's compositions....

Well I submitted my recording of Alexis Ffrench’s September Song to the ABF Recital. Whew. This piece is not in his sheet music collection, so the score was a transcription and I think that made the learning process harder than it needed to be.

More to the point, this piece is much harder than Bluebird or Moments (IMO at least), and I think it was really just beyond my level. Nevertheless, I recorded it at the place I have it right now. Maybe I can record it again in the future when I’ve ironed out some of the rough spots.

All that said, please give a listen when the recital goes live!

The one which I commented is included is Story of You... You mean Radiate, right?

BTW I have just started with Bluebird and I am pretty happy and surprised it begins to sound fine and I am able to play first page at slower speed in just an hour... So I think I will be able to play it in some weeks. Probably for most of you this is pretty simple playing but I am delighted and almost crying out of emotion

Apologies, but whose post is this in response to? If you were directing it at me, I wasn’t responding to a specific piece, I was just thinking that Ffrench’s videos fit aesthetically with Kusama’s way of using lights...

I learned about Alexis Ffrench through a lady called Amy in the Digital Piano forum. IIRC she recorded Bluebird.

I have listened to several video of his on Youtube. Some tunes sound somewhat similar but still, I liked most of what I heard. And I bought the book too.

From those I listened to, I liked Rapture the most. Dreamland comes second. Bluebird is nice.

Rapture is above my current skill level. I found Dreamland more within reach but also very challenging. So I decided to start with Bluebird, which I think is within reach, even if still challenging (TBH I underestimated it ). But not trying a song I laked better was bothering me so I tried Dreamland again. It took me a few hours to internalize the first four measures - I could not make them sound OK inside my head even when playing the right notes - at a lower beat, of course - but now I have grabbed it (I hope all this makes sense).

Now the challenge to me is playing measures 13 to 16 (hands compete for the same keyboard space - it seems to be common in his pieces. ).

EDIT: FWIW, I transcribed Dreamland on Musescore from Alexis' tutorial video while I waited for the book to arive (it took more than one month - and I was not even sure Amazon was really going to honor my order as they charged my CC only right before the book arrived home). Quite an exercise by itself.

I thought you did well with Moments, which is harder than Bluebird, I'm looking forward to the listen.

Ops, sorry, I misread your message, my error!. Forget about it

Bravo! Your rendering is truly wonderful. I love how deeply resonant your piano is and you did a wonderful job capturing that on the recording.

I didn't know this piece previously, but you made it immediately familiar and relatable. Your playing is fluid and very lyrical... you made it sound like a song with words, even though there were no words.

I think someone should pen lyrics for it, as I think it could really work as a song!

👏

Thank you Kevin! I would say Sept. Song is **much** hard than Moments... I would love to see what the score would look like if Mr. Ffrench prepared it himself!

navindra, are you talking about Sept. Song? I didn't think the recital pieces could be accessed early? Or Moments? Or you're not talking to me? A little confused here...

Yes, bravo to you!

The performances are apparently all indexed and available early, though the publishing process is not properly complete till Monday. I listened to your YouTube link rather than guessing the MP3 upload location.

In that case:


Thank you so, so, so much for these comments!!! I love this piece and feel quite keenly how much of it I am not capturing. But I absolutely love playing in, so thank you thank you thank you for saying this!!!!

I have a very basic question... On which pianist level would you classify Bluebird?. Thanks!

Good question! I haven't played it myself, but just from looking at the score and listening to it, I would put it intermediate level, not upper intermediate I don't think.

One thing that makes is easier is that the LH is a very consistent pattern (similar to the LH in Moments) and you can kind of put it on autopilot. Then for the RH there are some sections with thirds, but often the melody line is just one note, again, that should make it a little easier.

Maybe other people here can add to this?

Thanks!. I am just ending my third year of playing and find it challenging in some parts. First two pages are almost done, but at an slower tempo... So my playing level is still beginner, as I suspected

ShiroKuro your September Song recital is lovely!

I've been super quiet on here - currently training to be a school music teacher.
I have been learning Story of You - it's very simple, but it's important to put feeling into that piece to bring it to life.

Glad some new people have discovered Alexis Ffrench!!! :-)