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Hi AndresVal, thanks for listening. In listening to these myself again I think I might have to re-record the 2nd and 3rd piece. I don't think the articulations are coming through as well as I thought they were. I had felt that I had played with good articulation but maybe something to learn from the recordings that perhaps I wasn't. To me this is what makes these pieces so interesting only a couple of lines but so much going in in each piece. I really wanted to convey that in my playing but don't believe that I did.

No you won't spoil anything for me so no worries there. I've already jumped all around in the book and listened to many recordings from the link Greta had sent awhile ago. I always play a new piece first and then seek out recordings if I'm not sure of something. Plus my memory can't possibly hold onto all this wonderful new music I listen to on this thread for too long.

I am back with a couple of trifles. I also decided to go ahead and link a video I made of my Mozart Sonata a few weeks ago—I am on to working on the second movement and I don’t know when I’ll find myself recording the first one again (I love the idea of recording all three movements in one take but I don’t know if I’m up to the task!) It has a number of mistakes but so it goes. I am starting to feel a little more comfortable recording but I still get nervous!

1. Chopin, Prelude Op. 28 No. 20
2. Scarlatti, Sonata in F minor K.466
3. Bach, Prelude in C minor BWV 847
4. Bach, Fugue in C minor BWV 847
5. Mozart, Sonata K570, first movement
6. Grieg, Op. 12 No.1 Arietta
7. Scriabin, Prelude Op. 16 No. 4

Monviso, we picked the same piece! I'd love to hear a recording of yours, if you have one.


Thanks Greta...I guess I am my own worst critic. I started the Scarlatti in December; I was playing it after my daughter's bedtime as a way to wind down for the day. I played it very casually then and decided to have another go at it this year. There is a lot of nuance to it, which is why I wasn't satisfied with my recordings. I will probably return to it to try to polish it more at some point. The Bach Fugue took me about two months and the Prelude one (but I had played it back in high school, before my 23 year break from piano).


Hi Zoe, I have been trying the same thing. The only problem is then I have to watch 18 minutes of video to hunt down the 90 seconds of my best take of Scriabin! Somehow I got the Grieg piece in two takes though.

Hi, I continue to play through the Faber Piano Literature Book 1 and added 3 more pieces to my list. Hope you enjoy.

1. Greensleeves (Faber Adult All In One, Book 2)
2. Finale (Faber Adult All In One, Book 2)
3. Canario - Joachim Von der Hofe (Faber Literature Book 1 )
4. Procession in G - Michael Praetorius (Faber Literature Book 1)
5. The Highlander (La Montagnarde) Jean-Joseph Mouret (Faber Literature Book 1)
6. Sonatina In C (First Movement) - Cornelius Gurlitt (Faber Sonatinas Book 1)
7. Sonatina In C - William Duncombe (Faber Sonatinas Book 1)
8. Tantalizing Tango - Catherine Rollin (Dancing on the Keys 1)
9. Hava Nagila - Faber Adult All In One, Book 2)
10. Broken-Chord Etude (Faber Adult All In One, Book 2)
11. 7th St. Blues (Faber Adult All In One, Book 2)
12. Land of the Silver Birch (Faber Adult All In One, Book 2)
13. C Major Etude - Jelena Gnessina (Russian School of Music - Bk1, #70)
14. French Song (Russian School of Music - Bk1, #75)
15. Childrens Songs - Peter Tschaikowsky (Russian School of Music - Bk1, #79)
16. Little Dance - Daniel Gottlob Turk (Faber Literature Book 1)
17. Morning - Anton Diabelli (Faber Literature Book 1)
18. Quadrille - Franz Joseph Haydn (Faber Literature Book 1)

I think this is the beauty of recording our own playing. We learn and notice things that we otherwise would no know about. I have also been amazed many times by how much music is written in only a few bars on some of those pieces. So many things one could play with/should pay attention to. I am glad you are enjoying the book.
Good job also on your most recent entries! I found lovely those three classical pieces.

Saan, very nice contrasting pieces. I think you did a good job with the sonata. I loved the prelude, Scriabin is one my absolute favorite composers :)) I love your piece selection so far and look forward to your next entries.
It is also great that you are feeling more confident while recording. I encourage you to attempt the sonata in one go once you have all mvmts under your belt it sounds like a really cool challenge.

I am just adding one piece this time, it is an excerpt on a baroque piece. I need to catch up on my practice this week.

1. Jewgeni Tetzel - Prelude
2. Balys Dvarionas - Prelude
3. Alexander Goedicke - Tanz
4. Jean-Baptiste Duvernoy - Etude in C major, Op. 176, No. 24
5. Alexander Gretschaninow - Kinderalbum, Op. 98, No. 1 - Kleines Maerchen
6. Dmitri Kabalewski - 24 leichte Stuecke, Op. 39, No. 10 - Marsch
7. Johann Krieger - Minuet in A minor
8. Ludwig Schytte - 25 easy Etudes, Op. 160, No. 18 in F major
9. J.S. Bach - Two-Part Inventions, No. 4 in D minor (BWV 775)
10. Isaak Berkowitsch - 50 little Etudes, No. 26 in D minor
11. Alexander Purimow - Der Ball
12. Samuil Maykapar - Spielereien, Op. 28, No. 10 - Kleines Maerchen
13. Alexander Gretschaninow - Kinderalbum, Op. 98, No. 13 - Mazurka (Erinnerung)
14. Carl Czerny - Etude in C major
15. Henry Purcell - Air in D minor, ZT 676
16. Johann Christoph Graupner - Bourrée in E minor, GWV 827
17. Elena Gnesina - Etude in D major
18. Jean-Baptiste Weckerlin - Chansons et rondes enfantines, No. 22 - Autrefois le rat de ville
19. Georg Philipp Telemann - Fantasie für Cembalo TWV 33:14 in C major - Gavotte

Lovely Telemann AndresVel and enjoyed the Quadrille ZoeCalgary
I will admit I was briefly very confused though - after listening to Andres' piece, I clicked on yours, and as I listened I to the music I was thinking to myself "This piece is *nothing* like what I expected from a Haydn Quadrille". Then I realised that yours hadn't autostarted, and meanwhile the YouTube tab had gone on to play some Chopin

So many great recordings! Congratulations, everyone.

I've been a little lazy lately, so only one new piece for me.

1) Wynn-Anne Rossi, Pasos locos (Música Latina, Bk 2)(Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
2) Cécile Chaminade, Idylle, Op. 126 No. 1 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
3) Amy Beach, Pierrot and Pierrette, Op. 25 No. 4 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
4) Louise Farrenc, Étude in A Minor, Op. 50 No. 2 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
5) Barbara Arens, Moonbeams (From "Rendezvous with Midnight") (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
6) C. Gurlitt, Little Flowers, Op. 205 No. 3 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
7) Barbara Arens, Looking back (From "Rendezvous with Midnight") (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
8) Barbara Arens, Summer Moonlight (From "Rendezvous with Midnight")(Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
9) C. Gurlitt, Little Flowers, Op. 205 No. 4 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
10) Agathe Backer Grøndahl, Sommervise, Op 45 No 3 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
11) C. Gurlitt, Little Flowers, Op. 205 No. 5 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
12) C. Gurlitt, Little Flowers, Op. 205 No. 6 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
13) Mel Bonis, Impromptu "Gai Printemps", Op. 11 No. 1 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
14) M. Clementi, Op. 36 no. 4 m. 1 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
15) C. Gurlitt, Little Flowers, Op. 205 No. 7 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
16) C. Gurlitt, Little Flowers, Op. 205 No. 8 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
17) M. Clementi, Op. 36 no. 4 m. 2 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)

this thread was almost at the end of page 2!
This was lovely played Greta. What a beautiful movement. I liked a lot how you accentuated the chords towards the end. Beautiful use of dynamics.

Thank you barbaram and Greta for your comments on my last submissions. Here I am adding two new pieces

1. Jewgeni Tetzel - Prelude
2. Balys Dvarionas - Prelude
3. Alexander Goedicke - Tanz
4. Jean-Baptiste Duvernoy - Etude in C major, Op. 176, No. 24
5. Alexander Gretschaninow - Kinderalbum, Op. 98, No. 1 - Kleines Maerchen
6. Dmitri Kabalewski - 24 leichte Stuecke, Op. 39, No. 10 - Marsch
7. Johann Krieger - Minuet in A minor
8. Ludwig Schytte - 25 easy Etudes, Op. 160, No. 18 in F major
9. J.S. Bach - Two-Part Inventions, No. 4 in D minor (BWV 775)
10. Isaak Berkowitsch - 50 little Etudes, No. 26 in D minor
11. Alexander Purimow - Der Ball
12. Samuil Maykapar - Spielereien, Op. 28, No. 10 - Kleines Maerchen
13. Alexander Gretschaninow - Kinderalbum, Op. 98, No. 13 - Mazurka (Erinnerung)
14. Carl Czerny - Etude in C major
15. Henry Purcell - Air in D minor, ZT 676
16. Johann Christoph Graupner - Bourrée in E minor, GWV 827
17. Elena Gnesina - Etude in D major
18. Jean-Baptiste Weckerlin - Chansons et rondes enfantines, No. 22 - Autrefois le rat de ville
19. Georg Philipp Telemann - Fantasie für Cembalo TWV 33:14 in C major - Gavotte
20. Aram Khachaturian - Klänge der Kindheit für Klavier, No. 1 - Seilspringen
21. Carl Czerny - Erster Lehrmeister, Op. 599, No. 19 in C major

Andres and Greta, you guys are doing great.
I am getting so far behind in this challenge, and am working on too many pieces. I need to focus on just one or two.

Do not put extra pressure on yourself because of the challenge trooplewis Just keep the hard work and you will see yourself making progress. If you feel overwhelmed by the number of pieces you are working on at the moment, it is always a good thing to reduce them even if for one or two weeks to advance on some of them. I tend to feel like that when all the pieces I work at a particular moment are in a very early stage. I need to have some of them more on the polishing/speeding up stage to not feel stuck.

I'm a bit the same Trooplewis, but I am trying to be philosophical about it

For me there are 2 different things happening - some of the pieces I took on as quick studies I really like and want to bring to a good level. They are sufficiently "done" to count for this challenge, but I don't want to add them to the list yet because I am still working on them.

"Done" for me, for this challenge, means I can record the piece and it's of sufficient standard that I am willing to share it with this group but it doesn't have to be polished - it's fine to have a slow tempo, errors, hesitations, be a bit clunky, etc.

On the other hand, I have progressed some pieces to a stage where I can't yet get a recording I'm willing to share, but I'm not feeling motivated to work on them further right now.
Towards the end of the year I will probably relax my idea of "done" and add a bunch of these somewhat learned but not yet recordable pieces to my list.

Oh dear, I have stopped posting as I felt guilty that I didn’t have the time to listen to everybody’s recordings. And as a result, I also feel that the drive to finish pieces start to wane. So forgive me if I just post an update with last month's pieces without contributing to the thread.

The Chopin Nocturne was a long term piece that I started at the beginning of the year. It’s now at the stage when I can genuinely “play” it, hence including it on the list, but I expect (hope!) it to evolve further when it becomes more deeply embedded. Breakthrough was about 6 weeks ago when I finally felt comfortable enough to truly relax as I played; it was exhilarating.

Massenet’s Méditation is another piece which is here to stay: my family love it. It took a bit longer to learn that I first expected as the arpeggios don’t follow a fixed pattern, but it was really worth persevering, and hopefully I have learned something from it.

1. Schumann - Mai Lieber Mai - op 68 no 13
2. Grieg - Watchman's Song - op 12 no 3
3. Schumann - Wilder Reiter / The Wild Horseman - op 68 no 8
4. Schumann - Fröhlicher Landmann / The Happy Farmer - op 68 no 10
5. David Arnold - Good Omens (soundtrack arranged by "Becky_ on musecore)
6. Offenbach - Barcarolle
7. JS Bach - Invention no 7
8. Rameau - Gigue en Rondeau no 1
9. Cirri (Don Ignazio) - Sonata no 3
10. Grieg - Arietta - op 12 no.1
11. Massenet -Méditation
12. Chopin - Nocturne op 72 no1 in E minor

Greta99, ZoeCalgary, AndresVel, Saan - and all the others who have thought as much! I hear your request for recordings.

At the moment I have a solid excuse: neither piano has been tuned in ages (years…). I did try recording once - there were some really good points made a few posts up describing how useful it can be. All I could hear is the out-of-tuneness that I generally manage to tune out (groan) live.

But to be totally honest, I have to admit that I’m also being held back partly because of laziness to work out how to do it, and mainly because the pieces are never good enough, and the idea of anybody hearing me is terrifying.
I have however resolved to make an effort and go back to the pieces and record them: I reckon it could be a useful form of revision, of my favourites at least. I rather doubt that the Bach will be making the list!
So I do aim to post some recordings eventually...

I find it difficult to call something as "done". One of the things I like about this thread is that it forces me to make that call, even if I know that I shall continue to work on a piece and hopefully improve. For these, "done" is really just the start.

On the other hand, my definition of "done" when it came to that Bach Invention was spectacularly loose. Most definitely not recordable. But I ruled that I deserved credit for pushing myself through my nemesis. In that case, "done" was really "enough".

I hear you ! I've been trying to get back to some the pieces I worked on earlier this year to record them and it's never good enough...

Thank you for that. I've been ripping my hair out with so many takes of my pieces... There's ALWAYS something wrong in the recording, and not necessarily in the same spots. Your comment has given me the energy to finally post some of them and call it quits.

While I'm at it, I always have the looming sense of "THE RECORDING" (*thunder noises*) in the back of my mind while recording... Though I manage to forget about it and focus on the music, it always catches up to me at some point in the piece and inevitably leads to an error. It's particularly frustrating when that happens in an "easy" section because this is a concentration issue and not a technical one that can be fixed by a focused practice section.

I'm hoping this will get better as I record more often, but do you have tips on the matter ?

Incoming recordings in my next post.

Here we are, the first few pieces :

-- new --
1. J.S. Bach - WTC Book I, Prélude II in Cm (BWV 847)
2. J.S. Bach - WTC Book I, Fugue II in Cm (BWV 847)
3. W.A. Mozart, Sonata K545 Mvt. I
4. W.A. Mozart, Sonata K545 Mvt. II
5. C. Saint-Saëns, Le Cygne (Arr. piano by E. Hoskier)

As mentioned above, these recordings aren't perfect since they never are. Maybe I'll update the Bach Cm prelude in the future if I manage to get a better recording.
After I'm done with my current WIP pieces, I'll be choosing some shorter ones in the future to catch up a bit. I'm eyeing some of Czerny's "Hundred progressive etudes" that look fun

Hi Meap6. congratulations for your first submissions!
After listening to all of them and after reading your previous posts, I think you are being too hard on yourself! I truly enjoyed your recordings. It is clear you have put plenty of effort on these pieces and you should be proud of the results and of your progress :))) we are our worst critics (which I do not think it is that bad at all, as it helps us to stay away from mediocrity), but we need to look at the bigger picture and not focus on every single detail of a recording.
Of course there are always things to improve. It is frustrating (at least that is my case) when sometimes I do not manage to make a recording that reflects all the thinking and work I have put on a piece. But I have learnt to recognize that recording is a learning process itself. I took on this challenge to improve on that after last year it happened some times that I spent hours and hours trying to get a recording that I liked for a couple of pieces . I was constantly messing up, getting nervous, getting shaky hands towards the end of a piece when I knew I had not made a mistake yet etc. I can only say now, that recording myself a lot more often has helped me enormously. I feel a lot more confident now when recording a piece and I learn a lot about my playing from listening back the recordings. I am not always 100 % satisfied with them but slowly you will se the improvement.
I am looking forward to your next submissions. I loved your Mozart btw

Andres, thank you for you comment on my Clementi. I agree, it is a beautiful piece. I enjoyed your recent additions, it was really great playing.

Meap6, I listened to your recordings and I loved them, especially Mozart and Saint-Saëns.

I'm adding one of the pieces I recorded for the Piano Transcriptions Recital.

1) Wynn-Anne Rossi, Pasos locos (Música Latina, Bk 2)(Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
2) Cécile Chaminade, Idylle, Op. 126 No. 1 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
3) Amy Beach, Pierrot and Pierrette, Op. 25 No. 4 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
4) Louise Farrenc, Étude in A Minor, Op. 50 No. 2 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
5) Barbara Arens, Moonbeams (From "Rendezvous with Midnight") (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
6) C. Gurlitt, Little Flowers, Op. 205 No. 3 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
7) Barbara Arens, Looking back (From "Rendezvous with Midnight") (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
8) Barbara Arens, Summer Moonlight (From "Rendezvous with Midnight")(Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
9) C. Gurlitt, Little Flowers, Op. 205 No. 4 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
10) Agathe Backer Grøndahl, Sommervise, Op 45 No 3 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
11) C. Gurlitt, Little Flowers, Op. 205 No. 5 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
12) C. Gurlitt, Little Flowers, Op. 205 No. 6 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
13) Mel Bonis, Impromptu "Gai Printemps", Op. 11 No. 1 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
14) M. Clementi, Op. 36 no. 4 m. 1 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
15) C. Gurlitt, Little Flowers, Op. 205 No. 7 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
16) C. Gurlitt, Little Flowers, Op. 205 No. 8 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
17) M. Clementi, Op. 36 no. 4 m. 2 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)
18) A. Ilyinsky, Berceuse, Op.13 No.7 (Soundcloud, hearthis.at)

i polished up Secrets and recorded it again. I also added a simple jazz standard to the list

1. Minuet in C K6, Mozart

2. A Neat Beat, Martha Mier

3. Arabesque, Burgmüller (this one still needs a lot of work but I think it's a good milestone lol)

4. Eccossaise in G, Beethoven

5. Sneaky Business, Martha Mier

6. Minuet in G major, BWV Anh. 114

7. Picnic Hop, Christopher Norton

8. Op.25 No.5 Secrets, Amy Beach- TAKE 2

9. Op.45 No.2 Avalanche, Stephen Heller[/b] (This one is still a work in progress)

10. Stormy Weather