What Are You Learning?, ...and how's it going? Options

[Solari]

1st page of Chopin Op.72 no.1 is actually starting to sound something like it should now! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) I'm not allowed to go any further for the moment, though... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Lesson on Monday! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[MadMatt]

1st page of Chopin Op.72 no.1 is actually starting to sound something like it should now! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) I'm not allowed to go any further for the moment, though... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Lesson on Monday! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Now I've found another piece of music I hope to have a bash at some day! It really is quite lovely. I hope this goes well for you. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Solari]

Now I've found another piece of music I hope to have a bash at some day! It really is quite lovely. I hope this goes well for you. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

It's gorgeous, isn't it? I can't explain how ecstatic I am at the fact that I'm finally tackling the 1 piece I really wanted to play since I started learning! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[MadMatt]

It's gorgeous, isn't it? I can't explain how ecstatic I am at the fact that I'm finally tackling the 1 piece I really wanted to play since I started learning! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Gosh really >.< I'd have gone insane. It's a wonder you've had the patience to hold out till now, without trying to give it a go yourself. I guess if you've got the mental discipline for that you should have no trouble in mastering the piece itself. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Solari]

Gosh really >.< I'd have gone insane. It's a wonder you've had the patience to hold out till now, without trying to give it a go yourself. I guess if you've got the mental discipline for that you should have no trouble in mastering the piece itself. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Nah, I knew I wasn't good enough, so I did some prep work trying out some John Field Nocturnes. I highly recommend Field's Nocturne No.5 in Bb as a starter, gets your LH used to some of the motions required in the Chopin (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[MadMatt]

Nah, I knew I wasn't good enough, so I did some prep work trying out some John Field Nocturnes. I highly recommend Field's Nocturne No.5 in Bb as a starter, gets your LH used to some of the motions required in the Chopin (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I just had a look at the music and I see what you mean, the left hand certainly does stretch all over the place. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif)

[Solari]

I just had a look at the music and I see what you mean, the left hand certainly does stretch all over the place. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif)

Seriously, with the Field one, start slowly and it will come. Most of it falls very naturally under the LH. There are some extremely stubborn bars in that piece though, which is why I think Edexcel grade it so highly. I'm taking it to Chet's as I want to fix it once and for all. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[MadMatt]

Seriously, with the Field one, start slowly and it will come. Most of it falls very naturally under the LH. There are some extremely stubborn bars in that piece though, which is why I think Edexcel grade it so highly. I'm taking it to Chet's as I want to fix it once and for all. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

>.< I was referring to the Chopin and not the Field^^ But I guess it doesn't matter as I assume both jump around a lot.

Funny thing, as I sight read and played the first 5 bars or so, slowly, I thought this sounds somewhat familiar and it just twigged a couple of mins ago. I bet I seem like a right teenybopper saying this, but Delta Goodrem's song Predictable from her first album, the starting of that sounds like it could have been influenced by this piece, heck it's even in the same key. I know she was trained as a classical pianist, it wouldn't surprise me at all if she's played or at least been somewhat familiar with the Chopin piece.

[Solari]

>.< I was referring to the Chopin and not the Field^^ But I guess it doesn't matter as I assume both jump around a lot.

No worries (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Yes, they both do.

Popular music seems to borrow lots from classical music, many people are just ignorant to the fact. I cringed when I heard some horrible rap song on the radio over the top of Pachelbel's canon (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

On the flip side, Heavy metal has always been quite open about influence from classical music (IMO especially composers like Beethoven and Wagner).

[MadMatt]

Popular music seems to borrow lots from classical music, many people are just ignorant to the fact. I cringed when I heard some horrible rap song on the radio over the top of Pachelbel's canon (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

When reading comments on youtube I found that Alicia Keys had sampled the start of Debussy's Arabesque so I gave a listen to her song and thought... well you've just butchered the starting and successfully managed to succeed at removing all the beauty that it could have possessed.

On the flip side, Heavy metal has always been quite open about influence from classical music (IMO especially composers like Beethoven and Wagner).

It's funny you should mention this as there was an article in the newspaper recently about classical music and how the youth of today are hearing less and less of it etc. But it also mentioned that most hard core heavy metal listeners were far more open to classical music and especially the more dramatic stuff of Beethoven and someone else was mentioned but I can't remember who that was. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

I think half of the trouble nowadays is that there is such little exposure and on top of that a lot of the really lovely music is kept in a cupboard somewhere, under someone's stairs. I've been brought up listening to classical music and even still I find that there's lot of stuff I haven't even heard of. And it's often the things I've never heard that I like the most.

[Solari]

It's funny you should mention this as there was an article in the newspaper recently about classical music and how the youth of today are hearing less and less of it etc. But it also mentioned that most hard core heavy metal listeners were far more open to classical music and especially the more dramatic stuff of Beethoven and someone else was mentioned but I can't remember who that was. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

That tallies up with my experience. I think that the idea with a lot of metal is that it's played and sung like you mean it, just as Beethoven's music is powerful and emotional because he "means it". So it makes perfect sense. Every metaller I know is well into their classical music (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Mad Tom]

Popular music seems to borrow lots from classical music, many people are just ignorant to the fact. I cringed when I heard some horrible rap song on the radio over the top of Pachelbel's canon (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

There are (literally) hundreds of songs that use the chord sequence from Pachelbel's Canon.

[missypiano]

Popular music seems to borrow lots from classical music, many people are just ignorant to the fact. I cringed when I heard some horrible rap song on the radio over the top of Pachelbel's canon (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

There are (literally) hundreds of songs that use the chord sequence from Pachelbel's Canon.

This reminded me of the clip someone posted a while back http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM

[MadMatt]

This reminded me of the clip someone posted a while back http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM

That was quite funny and highlights Tom's point to a tee.

[jch48]

I heard Nicolai Lugansky play the Chopin Prelude Op45 on R3 yesterday, so have dug it out. As is my wont I have played it to death in the last 15 hours - will I get fed up of it or will I end up having learned it properly?

I have also re-looked at Brahms op 76 this morning - I was mad keen on these as a teenager - and may put in some work on them over the next few weeks.