It isn't bad at all to start two or more pieces simulraneously ... motivation is great and should be seconded ... enjoy!

Thank you. I aim to make a little bit of progress (at least) on each one every day and Yes, I enjoy them all enormously.

Finally got my G2 result (violin) after leaving bully of a teacher and have decided to spend the Summer speeding up my fingering by playing jigs and reels!!!

'Im indoors is a piper and has found 'The Judges Lament' and 'PM Donald MacLeod' for me to wrestle with. I am also playing through some wee Shetland folk tunes - is this blasphemy????

I find that learning two pieces at once is actually a good idea. It keeps you less focused on one piece. And where that could be seen as a bad thing, it gives you the option to switch to the other one, if you've had enough of the first.

Alternatively, if you've got one piece that you find quite difficult and very demanding, you can learn that one slowly and have a few other easier pieces lined up at the same time. That way you don't feel so bummed out about the other one being so much of a challenge, as you're still learning new pieces at the same time.

Ha, yes, and it is very exciting learning new pieces. I love the way it suddenly switches from "struggle struggle struggle" to "aha that's how it goes". I wish I could bottle that moment and keep it.

Still working on P&F I and II from Book 1 of WTC. Still sounding... blah. I think I may have to leave off them for a bit, I'm getting stuck ina rut.

On the other hand, Debussy Toccata - made it through all the way the first time. At half speed. Hey, gotta start somewhere..

I was made to sight-read page 3 of the D959 Andantino... It was slow and painful, but I did it under pressure. Maybe it's not impossible after all (merely very difficult indeed)!

Bach's Prelude & Fugue in B major, No.23 (Bk2):

The Prelude is fine and apart from smoothing out the section that gets interrupted when I turn the page, I have it entirely in hand.

The Fugue is still taking time. There is so much sharing between hands that the main problem has been pre-empting which hand is in charge of which note. However, I have now managed to familiarize myself with pretty much the first two pages - just one to go.

As my progress with the Fugue develops (note- and fingering-wise), so now I am managing to look at varying the dynamics to bring out the appropriate voices.

To add variety, I have played it using various combinations of sounds on my Clavinova - in turn, electric piano, vibes, harpsichord and celeste!


The Chopin Etude in E is developing in its own sweet way, with the obvious passages still needing work, although gradual familiarity is again helping me to feel that the piece is achievable.

Chopin Etude (Op 10 no 12) now coming along nicely - many thanks to Tom Piano for sound advice in getting started on this. Still have to drop the tempo significantly for the series of modulations starting bar 29, but it's getting there.

Next up, I have just started on Samuel Barber Excursions (No. 1). Slightly out of my comfort zone of European baroque, classical and romantic music, but great fun to explore the bluesy harmonies!

Jon

I have a recording of Barber's piano works, performed by Leon McCawley. Excursions and Souvenirs are both interesting sets of pieces and well worth investigating.

I got back to the fugue this morning - one hour on about half of the second page. It's still infuriating that even after slow practice I still forget little things here and there - fingering, tied notes, notes to be held on etc.

With so much to think about, although hands separately is fine, when the two come together I feel as though I have regressed several grades, stumbling slowly forward like a hesitant sightreader!

I'm trying to just work on loads of sight reading to try and improve.
I have grade 8 pieces picked out but I kind of want to just work on the thing I have an issue with which is sightreading just now.
I don't know which B piece to pick out the 2010 grade 8 piece, it's either the Bach in F or the Beethoven Finale. My hands are quite small so looking for a piece to compensate this, although the other pieces have been choosen for the exact same reason.
Hows everyone else getting on?
PSL

Winnie Atwel did a great arrangement of this (almost unchanged) over a very fast boogie bass, called Humble Boogie

I'm working on Allegretto from Benjamin Goddard's Suite de Trois Morceaux for flute and piano.

Also Moonlight Sonata (of course)

I have Khachaturian's Sabre Dance dealt with in the same way.

(Also Boogie Woogie Llanoogie by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins!)

two part inventions for me this time round and some scarlatti

http://www.mediafire.com/?p8f53s4fbsbxn43

Work harder

Yippee! I have just managed to play through the whole fugue, all fingering correct, so far as I can tell.

I must now consolidate this last page, in the same way that I have the first two, so that when I marry the two sections together, it runs smoothly with no loss of pace or confidence.

Then, it will be a matter of dynamics, bringing out the fugue subjects - there are a couple of entries which are really tricky when the piece is performed on the piano. On harpsichord there is much less that you can do about it.

Still, notes pretty much in hand. So far, so good. Phew!

Still having fun with Op49 No.2... Not as easy as it sounds/looks

Phew!

What I thought was a stumbling-block in Liszt's Au lac de Wallenstadt really wasn't one! There will be a couple of things that need a little co-ordination practice, but other than that, it should need surprisingly little work - what a nice surprise!

(My teacher may well express a different opinion! )

Brahms' Romance unsurprisngly needed more judicious fingering than I would have used were I sightreading the piece, but like the Liszt, it shouldn't need too much work - certainly nothing like as much as I would have feared suspected. It will be interesting to see how his Intermezzo in A, Op.118 will go, when I resurrect it - I last tackled it two years ago, just before taking up the challenge of Grade 8.

There's some ambiguity regarding fingering and which hand plays what, towards the end of the Bach Fugue in B major but that problem ought to be resolved swiftly in Wednesday's lesson. At least I can now play through the whole thing!

Looks like I may have to postpone the Beethoven Sonata in G, Op.31/1 though, in order to concentrate on honing these other pieces. I have the Chopin Etude in E, Op.10/3 with which to get to grips and that will need attention, in the obvious sections!


Now, do I go in to school tomorrow for an extended, several hours' piano practice on the grand or do I attend Ashley Grote's Organ Recital at 11.00am in Gloucester Cathedral (Three Choirs Festival)?

Just started on Chopin Nocturne in F Op.15 No.1 during the weekend. The LH part is like a finger independence exercise and that middle section is evil... (and I thought No.2 from the same opus which I just learned was already tricky)

Also, started learning Mendelssohn Song without Words Op.19 No.2, having now "mastered" No.1

And also resurrecting Brahms Intermezzi in A minor and E major Op.116 so I can play them at Chets

What a no-brainer of a decision to have to make

Why? Are you not a fan of organ music MT?

Or, since you live in a country with some very fine instruments, are you in fact oft found in an organ loft?

I like my fix of Mendelsohhn, Reubke, Widor or Messiaen as much as the next man, but given a choice of a few hours on a nice grand piano instead ...

Still learning the same stuff, but it's not "going"

Just too tired to do any serious study. Work, moving house, etc, all a bit full-on at the moment.

No matter... I am sure this will change at some point.

Do you have your sights set on the whole of Pour le piano, ultimately?

I imagine that few folk who learn the Poulenc Toccata, go on the learn the preceding two movements.

I'm learning Winter by Tori Amos-it's absolutely gorgeous and it's very much always been one of my "play before I die" pieces-although definitely not as tricky as some I hope to learn someday!

Well, I did go for that practice.

Unfortunately, there was a lot going on around, regarding electricians, painters and builders, so the odd bang, drill and general toing-and-froing just outside the hall. Furthermore, that vestibule is also a dropping-off point for deliveries, so there was a good deal of activity during my 'stay'.

I closed all doors, drew the large curtain across the main entrance to the hall and did two hours' practice nevertheless. I made it count. I had arrived wondering whether the hall might not be free, due to workmen or cleaners, so signed in at 8.30am knowing that had a practice not been possible, I would still have had the rest of the day for alternative fruitful activities.

Now, leaving the piano 'in its corner' rather than pushing it out away from the wall, I hadn't thought about taking the trouble to sort out my seating, to any great degree. So, when I got up, after two hours sitting in a similar position, I realised that I'd been sitting slightly awkwardly. When I began to walk home, the muscles at the back of my legs felt as though I had been walking up a steep hill!

Anyway, it was worth the visit, bridging the gap between practising on a Clavinova and adapting to my teacher's Yamaha Grand in Wednesday's lesson.

I've finally got to the end of Debussy's Arabesque 1. Now it's time to practise it till it sounds decent. No idea how long that's going to take though.

Now the big question of what to try next. I've got an itch to try out the Maple Leaf Rag as I could do with an up tempo and bouncy tune. But I could be in waaay over my head with that, but then I was in a similar position with the Debussy.

Any recommendations?

P.S I would love to have the opportunity to play at a Grand, not actually having touched a real piano in years, so I am glad you made that choice

I love the Arabesque No.1-it's still way beyond me though! Have fun with it

This is what I thought too, until I gave in to temptation and tried to learn it It was a lot of hard work at the start, but it was worth the effort. What's wonderful about the piece is that most of it sits very nicely beneath your fingers, in the sense that it isn't tricky to play - you're hands aren't going all over the place. The only thing you have really have to get sorted is the 8 on 12 timing, but you shouldn't worry too much about that - the timing really starts to sort itself out once you can play both of the hands together comfortably. It's also advantageous to have a good mental picture about how the starting of the piece, lets say the first page, should sound as this can really help you get the timing sorted too.

But if you have any intention of learning this piece I do suggest you just try it out, even if it's just the first 5 bars

I have tried it out-I found it remarkably easy (at least to what I thought it was going to be like!!)....until I hit the semiquavers vs. triplets, and then it all went to pot!! I'm a bit rhythmically challenged at the best of times, so lots more work is definitely needed!

Not really... I just got obsessed with the Toccata and took it from there. It is possible that I might get obsessed with the Prelude and the Sarabande still, sometimes it takes a few years.

Oddly enough this has been a major factor in my musical improvement, getting obsessed with pieces - my entire effort playing French horn was to learn to play the Gliere concerto. I swear for those five years, it was never far from my mind - everything I practiced was with that ultimate aim in mind.

Come to think of it, obsession with stuff has been a major factor in my life. I've worked my way through concert band, art, chemistry, French horn, computer programming and now it's piano. When I'm in a "phase", I can't stop thinking about it and it intrudes into my consciousness at random times.

You would think that the amount of obsessed I am with this piece, I'd be playing it a lot better by now. Maybe it's that if I wasn't obsessed with it I would be able to play any of it at all.

Still got plenty of years and obsessions left.. wonder what's next.



I can recommend being way over your head! If you really really really like the piece, you'll keep pushing through (obligatory disclaimer: so long as you practice constructively and don't wreck your technique) and this can open the door to great improvement. I have always found that my greatest musical progress has been when I'm trying something way over my head. It's because I like the piece so much that I'm willing to take the huge amount of time needed to learn it.

Erm, see my last post about being obsessed with pieces..........

This is exactly it, I was at pre grade two standard 9 weeks ago and not having seriously played for 14 years. Then due to my determination to learn that piece I managed to work through it and my playing and my sight reading has sky rocketed as a result. The most impressive thing, at least for myself is how much easier I am finding sight reading now. Back when I was 10/11 I was utterly terrible at it, although my teacher didn't work in a way that would be constructive for me.

I suppose I didn't have any technique to wreak in the first place so the only thing it could do was improve



This somehow managed to lost in some weird edit >.<

Try skipping that part. And I am serious when I say this - at least skip making it sound good - you still need to practise it so that you can commit the fingering into muscle/reflex memory. The first bit when you hit the awkward timing is one of the hardest bits in the entire piece to play. Not only do you have to play the awkward timing but the passage itself, timing ignored, is hard.

I've been learning this piece for about 6-7 weeks and only a couple of days ago did the first part really *click* where I can play it fluidly. Yes I knew how it was supposed to go, timing wise, but I couldn't play it properly. So maybe don't get too hung up about that part.

I could be jumping to conclusions and you might have tried other parts of the piece, but if I'd given up at the first part where 12 meets 8, well I'd not be able to play it biggrin.gif

I can completely identify with that! I stopped for a similar length of time but I've been re-learning for about 18 months now. My experience with sight reading is also as you describe. I think sight reading is just like any other reading and even though I may not have played the piano for a while, I have listened to a lot of music and that's got to have some effect.

I've mainly been working on the Adagio of Beethoven's Pathetique (A LOT harder than it looks), aswell as Chopin's Etude in C# minor Op.25 No.7 (Coming along nicely, except for those nasty LH scales on the 2nd page). And of course, even after 4 months, the Trio of Joplin's Maple Leaf is still a little rusty.

1st page of Chopin Op.72 no.1 is actually starting to sound something like it should now! I'm not allowed to go any further for the moment, though... Lesson on Monday!

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.

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!

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.

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

I just had a look at the music and I see what you mean, the left hand certainly does stretch all over the place.

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.

>.< 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.

No worries 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

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

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.



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.

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.

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

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

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

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.