My teacher has decided she wants to hear the whole of the Schumann Arabeske op.18 on Monday.
Trying to get all the bits together.

I'm learning 3 new pieces from the grade 3 syllabus book, just in case I need to re-take the exam.

After trying to get out of playing the Bach partita and having my laziness denied by my teacher twice, I have decided it is time to conquer The notes to the Sinfonia, Allemande, and Capriccio are there now, and the music is on its way... hoping to pick up the Rondeau over the next week so I will be almost 90% done with the partita (at least by the edition I am using ). I've had the notes to the Chopin Barcarolle down since last week, so for now that will take a back seat, but I am working a bit on the Valse op. 42 because I want to expand my Chopin repertoire and it's not at all similar to the Barcarolle, though as delightful in its own way



Sorry to hear that, jod... but hopefully you'll have better luck next time around Before your retake, have you considered performing/playing for other musicians in order to get some advice? I don't know if you have already done this, but since you haven't mentioned it I thought I would bring it up. It might be easier to make improvements with the help of objective and educated listener(s), and could also serve as performance experience if you aren't used to performing as a pianist. It would also be useful to try practicing/performing on as many different pianos as you can access so that the quality of the instrument doesn't throw you off so much.




Ooh, that's an interesting polonaise... very different from and unfortunately overshadowed by op. 40 no. 1. And op. 90 is one of Beethoven's stranger sonatas... it's beautiful, but I don't really know how to make sense of it. My teacher and I decided it wasn't worth learning because I have smallish hands and it would take forever to get the obnoxiously wide alberti bass in place ;P But Barenboim is quite illuminating... he might not be the world's best pianist, but he is quite the musician!

Thank you for your kind reply. That is exactly what I need to do! Preferably ones that are sensitive to know how long-time dibilitating comments such as "you'll never be any good as a pianist" (said when I was 16) actually are. I have played many different pianos in my time... to the extent I have certain qualities I like and others I really can't stand. The piano did represent everything I couldn't stand about Japanese Pianos. ( I have a strong preference for German built Instruments or nice examples of Pianos by Challen, Chappell and Broadwood). Any forumites who can help in this respect will be welcomed with open arms. Just remember I'm the sort of girl who cries!

I will go and youtube the Baremboim masterclasses. He may be less virtuosic than other pianists, but I often enjoy his performances more due to his musicality. I particularly enjoy his interpretation of Beethoven.

Ahh the joys of being able to reach a 10th . The two alberti bass sections just fall nicely under my fingers!

It's such a shame that that particular polonaise is overlooked. Unbelievably beautiful and expressive but so difficult to keep musical with those chunky r.h. chords.

Barenboim would not be top of my list of favourite pianists either (behind Gulda, Gliels, Pletnev etc.) but he speaks sooo much sense and his thought processes behind his performances are second to none

This is one of the pieces I'm working through at the moment myself. Reasonably happy with it though there are a two places which I really have to nail down - the last two bars of the en animant section and the 3rd and 4th bars of the following calmato. I really just need a couple of solid hours over 2/3 days and I'm pretty sure I'll have it but finding the time with two young children and wife is not always possible!

Also getting through Lanning's Pachelbel in D transcription and the Loveridge transcription of the 18th variation of Rach's Paganini Variations (Wife chirps up first time I work through this that she didn't know I could play one of the few classical pieces she likes to which I replied, "You won't love this by the time I've finished learning it" as she hates hearing me play the same thing over and over again! She doesn't really like the concept that you have to learn to play something but prefers me to just play!)

On the back burner at the moment - Liszt's Liebestraume No 3 and Chopin's Nocturne in F Sharp Major Op 15 No 2 which along with the Opus 27 no 2 are my two favorite nocturnes.

Time scale for learning these? Who knows! I just love having a piano to play again after 23 years without one in my home!

Even if you do Stetenorve, is it the end of the world? I can say this as I did fail. Still onwards and upwards.

I hope this doesn't happen, but if it does, it does.

I agree entirely, I have not failed a music exam but failed plenty of other ones. In the long run, it all came out in the wash. Of course, that may not have been how I felt at the time it's a disappointment undeniably.

I failed my grade 6 first time, but hey - I'm still a genius

You say the nicest things. I failed that one too. I was about that time I was told I'd never be any good at playing the piano. I spent the first term shaking on the piano stool at Huddersfield and apologising for every wrong note I played. Thought I'd got over that... really did, then played like the late Les Dawson... you know really knows the piece but that isn't how it comes out.

Still there is a next time and hey, I'm a genius too at heart.

I also failed grade 6 first time round . I think the marking becomes much tougher after Grade 5, and it takes a couple of attempts to adjust to the higher standard that is expected.


I am not . I just work hard !

What am I learning? Something much more important than more facility at the piano ...

How to be grown up, adult, strong, reserved, scrupulously honest ... a real man .

Love it Tom... I work hard too, and was just being sarcastic before to try to cheer myself up. Thank you the two of you! (Tom and Carol)

All the best people do...

Being grown up is so overrated

It is more a case of what have I learnt this week...and it is that when my teacher says to me she is in charge of the pedals for a duet, she means it!
I forgot first time around and so she reminded me that for our second attempt SHE would be in charge.
Unfortunely, even though I did not press the pedals I still had my left foot underneath the sustain pedal....ouch...well as she said I'll never forget now who is charge of these pedals and I'll remember to move my feet so she can use them!

I am a veritable expert in the field of failure - I have failed a music exam (rather sad as I have only sat 3 music exams ), a couple of academic exams (not failure literally, but abysmally low scores compared to my abilities), and a driving exam... the only one for which haven't I returned with a success the next time around is the driving exam, because I hate driving and haven't been forced into retaking yet So yes, I can say with authority that life goes on

I'm learning the following:

Beethoven - Fur Elise (more revisiting than learning)
Bach - WTC Book 1 no. 2. Prelude
Bach - WTC Book 2 no. 12 Prelude

Not really sure what sort of standard the Bach is... but I'm doing well with it learning systematically - four bars at a time and can play first 8 bars of both hands together up to tempo. It's sounding good.

I really love piano when I bother to learn pieces properly it's a lovely instrument

Grade 6 was my best mark for piano exams.

My gd1s, 6's and gd8s were my best marks..I wonder if that's why they are my favourite grades to teach..?

Never really had the brains for Bach... Have you tried the G minor prelude from the first WTC book?

To play Bach well requires musicality and understanding. If you've got it, you've got it, no matter what level you're playing at

I'd got it... just was having a 'car crash moment!'

Started playing and the spirit of Les Dawson was present in the room and making hisself heard, through my playing. The more I played, the worse it got.

I knew the structure and had great musical intentions over how it should sound... it just didn't

It started with the Bach, and continued in the Debussy and the Beethoven.

feeling in a strange mood tonight and playing (rather badly) something that is a sarcastic mockery of baroque music. It even has a raspberry in it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7yCvCWmcfU

I really don't believe it's possible not to have the "brains" to play Bach! All you need to play Bach is a) to love Bach and b) patience... lots of it. When I started playing the piano after more than a year's break a few years ago, one of the pieces I began work on right away was the prelude from the 2nd English Suite. It's actually quite a difficult piece, but since I hadn't been playing for a while I didn't expect it to happen fast, so I just broke it down and learned it slowly and methodically. It took time, but eventually I was able to play it well... In fact, I find learning Bach more frustrating now, despite the fact that I am a much better pianist than I was then, because now I expect to be able to learn things more quickly, and Bach just takes longer than most things to "settle" with me.

It's not rocket science, it's music!
Yes it does take patience at first and it does help if you like it to begin with. But you'll end up liking it more as you play, and understanding it more as you grow to love it.

*makes exceptions for sbhoa and miffy*
My second grade 6 was a distinction. I think grade 8 was my best - can't remember now.

Right so 2nd time I've got to stop being a medium for Les Dawson and repeat what you did with your Grade 6... nice thing to aim for. Well I know my target.

Better practise...

I can now play through Chopin Ballade op 23 reasonably successfully in the comfort of my own home, but the slightest bit of pressure, (even just playing to my teacher), and

a. it becomes insecure in places
b. it becomes rather metronomic.

I really must learn to relax

Jon

You're very brave even for working on the piece! It's a scary piece, not only because it's so musically and technically demanding, but because so many people play it - I swear that on any given day if one walks into the basement of the music center at my university where the practice rooms are, at least one pianist is practicing this piece, and often two or more

Mis-read this for 'Cant remember *how*'

It would be a pretty bad show if I couldn't remember "how" - seeing as people pay me to play the piano!

The mind starts boggling again (though I'm lousy at word games) I've got these visions of a younger Carol taking her grade 8 piano in some hypnotic trance and getting some superb mark

It was probably the examiner in a hypnotic trance - I was pretty damn cute at that age...

You wearing pretty well Carol (apart from the matter you Pmed me about and your secret is safe with me ) Carol_Piano international lady of mystery ....

Clearly my memory is failing - no idea what I PMed you about and no, don't tell me!

Good our cover is not about to be blown!... you were cheesed off at the time as I was having a moanfest!

Yes, it does seem rather over-exposed . I was playing a range of rather more obscure pieces to some friends a while back, and one of them rather pointedly asked if I could play anything which any of them had actually heard before, so I thought it about time to learn a "crowd-pleaser" piece.

So I've be plugging away at it, in parallel with that forum favourite the Bach C minor Partita (which has been far more fun!) and Schoenberg six little pieces (which have been rather less fun). But you're right, familiarity leads to heightened expectations on the part of both performer and audience.

Jon

The first movement of Beethoven's Pathetique sonata
Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue
Chopin's 2nd scherzo
Schumann's piano concerto
Czerny/Hanon/Brahms piano exercises

and then there's the jazz, a lot of Jamie Cullum's music, because he's actually SO good.

Been playing Beethoven and Bach again - they are getting better - woooo

... was playing for 21/2 hours this evening though ....

I am now waiting for my grade 4 result. No news from teacher in my last lesson.

We have moved onto Debussy's girl with the flaxen hair and some of the alternative grade 5 pieces. This reminds me, must buy new scale book.

I appear to be at the 'get one bit right and the rest falls apart' stage with this...... ok, with everything I'm working on at the moment......
Will treat Monday as a 'let's get from start to finish whatever happens' exercise.

Denmark77 has inspired me to re-visit Ludus Tonalis

Scales, scales and more scales. To a metronome. Good for the soul; also good for late evening practice when brain otherwise on strike.

Zilinskis "Elegy in Autumn" from Gr 5 list B. Realised I have been playing it way too slowly [note to self: next time, read performance directions, which actually state "Not too slow" ]. Took a bit of getting used to at the "proper" speed, but it's helped with some of the problem areas.

Gershwin "It Ain't Necessarily So" from Gr 5 list C. Coming along OK, if you ignore the section in the middle where (as my teacher says) it all goes a bit 'Tom and Jerry'-style. (Still not sure if he was referring to my playing or the piece itself .)

Kabalevsky "Sonatina in C". Finally decided to do what I should have done right at the beginning: slo-o-o-o-w practice with the metronome. It's one of those pieces which looks deceptively simple on the page, and I have eventually realised I was completely taken in by this, notwithstanding the fact that my teacher has said (repeatedly) that it's a challenging piece.

I have posted some recordings on my 'blog

http://worldofpiano.wordpress.com

And select the PERFORMANCES tab

Very nice, Mad Tom! I particularly enjoyed the Gibbons and the Brahms. The Gibbons had everything I like in a performance of baroque-era music - true to the spirit of the music and stylistically informed, but not dry or metronomic and making good use of the possibilities of the piano. And it's very clear from your playing that you care deeply about the Brahms piece. One of my less competent teachers gave me that piece when I was 12 years old. I completely didn't understand and refused to practice it because it seemed so slow and boring... now it's hard to believe I ever thought that way. The sound quality of the recordings is also quite good - what equipment did you use?

Thanks for the compliments

Equipment:

Sony PCM-D50 linear PCM recorder

Uploaded to an iMac and converted to mp3 with iTunes, then volume adjusted (about +5% gain) and excess lead-in and trailer trimmed off in MP3Trimmer.

Bach toccata in Em. absolutely love it! Its challenging no doubt, but as one teacher once said to me when I said something was difficult "All music is difficult"!
Albeniz Evocacion - fabulous spanishy debussyesque stuff!
Faure nocturne no6 (still) this is sounding more like a piece now instead of 5 separate mini-pieces!
Ravel sonatine - favourite ever pices - always something new to find in the music each time you visit it

long live the piano!

Thanks for sharing these. They are lovely!

I just had to resurrect this thread because I am incredibly frustrated at the moment. I am really, really tired of practicing the Bach C minor partita... I swear every time I practice it gets worse! I think I'm slowly but surely losing the ability to play Bach... I've learned four Bach pieces since I started taking lessons again three years ago: the first one went very well (the prelude from the second English Suite), the second one (a prelude and fugue for grade 8) was okay, the third one (a prelude and fugue for my failed DipABRSM) was not good, and this partita is just not happening. At the time I chose it, I thought it would be more successful than the prelude and fugues I had played because it's far more musically interesting to me, but apparently not... it does feel like "quitting", but I really feel that if I bash at this piece for much longer, I'm going to end up hating it and Bach, and I think that would be unfortunate. I don't think my teacher sees it that way though...

Why not take a break from it? I've been in that situation with pieces before. The break *always* helps. It doesn't mean you have to stop practising at all, just stop practising those pieces for a few days.

It's a strange thing. Not practising and it gets better. I hated the Bach, but after many weeks, I started to enjoy playing it. If you're down, just play the parts you know very well and musically.

Currently learning Liszt Consolation No.3.

Lilly, yes take a break form Bach, but try something else Baroque for a bit such as movements formHandel Keyboard Suites or a few Scarlatti Sonatas. This will kep you in a Baroque frame of mind.

I have also tried to master Partitia 2. The Capriccio I find really difficult for a Grade 8 piece, and I cant get the hang of it at all. It shoudn't be beyond my capabilities. Angela Hewitt plays it splendidly.

I am still ploughing through several Trygve Madsen Preludes and Fugues, but need a change now.