Whats everyone playing piano wise at the moment?

I've just started playing again after a long gap, at my peak I got up to about Grade 5 standard and am currently playing -

Clementi Sonatina No. 1
Mozart Sonata K545
Bach Four Pieces from the Little Notebook
Bach Prelude No. 1, Book 1 Well Tempered Clavier

Can't wait to start progessing a little more

I'm like a negative, I'm trying out K545 Specifically the 2nd mvt, but also toying with the 1st, but I am technically nowhere near accomplished enough to do it properly.

Should edit that lol it's 545 I'm playing get numbers mixed up so easily...

Only play the 1st mvt at this moment in time, what is that 2nd like??

The 2nd is far easier... probably the easiest in Mozart's catalogue in this category I'd think. Playing it *properly* is a different issue but for someone who is trying to push himself (ie: me) it's good

Too much!

On the piano:

Bach - Prelude & fugue in F sharp minor, no.14 from book 1 of TWTC
Liszt - Petrarch sonnet 123
Szymanowski - Etude in Bb minor, Op 4, no. 3
Chopin - Polonaise in C sharp minor, Op 26 no. 1
Haydn - Sonata in D, Hb XVI:33 (complete)

Also working on Czerny - School of Velocity nos 31 & 39

(Also playing the flute and working on Debussy's Syrinx and Poulenc's Sonata, learning the technique of double tongueing and learning the orchestral parts for Smetana's Vlatava, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, The Schumman piano concerto and Britten's Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra for flute 1, flute 2, flute 3 and piccolo)

Like I said: Far too much. After Chet's next week I won't play the first three on the list again for 6 months and the Chopin and the Haydn will probably go as well. I might get away with practicing less than 4 hours a day for a while!!

I'm learning the Raindrop prelude (Chopin) and I should probably try to relearn the end of the Maple Leaf Rag which I never got right the first time I learned the piece.

I'm also just starting to learn to accompany. The London College board do exams in accompanying, and I'm planning to do the advanced one and accompanying my piano teacher while he plays grade 5 horn pieces. (he plays horn too!)

Bach Minuet in G and some czech folk songs by petr eben.

I've tried to find the bach on youtube but can only find one minuet in G, of which there are loads of renditions. The one I am learning is from a book called (from memory) Young Person's Piano Repertoire.

I know the feeling Robodoc. Lots of music i start i don't quite finish, before beginning something else that takes my fancy. You end up with so much to do. It certainly keeps you busy though. Well, recently i've been concentrating mainly on the shorter pieces of Brahms Op76, Op116, 0p 118 etc. The Debussy Ballade, Danse Boheme and the seldom heard Nocturne. Griegs 'Hommage a Chopin' Study and the two pieces from Norwegian Improvisata. The three Libestraume and six Consolations of Liszt. Faures third Nocturne, 1st Barcarolle, 2nd Impromptu and some of his shorter pieces from Pieces Breve and Romance sans Parole. Well the list goes on, but i wish i could say most of them were ''ready''. You know what they say, Bit by bit.

I have learnt Minuet In G and yes there are so many different versions of the score plus different versions on You tube. I can direct you to the score I used, plus the correct version on You tube if you wish?

Also learning:
Fur Elise (short version)
Kummer from Grade 1 pieces
Minuet in G minor

Playing for enjoyment and from memory (so I don't forget them)
Minuet In G major
Early One morning - Grade 1 syllabus
Gavotte - Grade 1 syllabus
African Dance - Grade 1 syllabus
Dragonflies - Grade 1 syllabus
Sailors Hornpipe - I like this as its very jolly :-)

Could anyone recommend some slightly more trickier pieces for me to move onto when these are finished?

Off the top of my head... stuff I am working on, just starting, and almost finished in no particular order

1) Moonlight Sonata 1st Mvt
2) Pathetique Adagio Cantabile
3) Zbigniew Preisner - Winter Light
4) Michael Nyman - The Heart Asks Pleasure First (my left arm hurts now from playing up to speed)
5) Michael Nyman - Big My Secret
6) Mozart Fantasia in D Minor
7) Mozart K454 (Andante)
8) Grade 3 exam pieces (Menuet in G, Study in F, Top Cat!)
9) Dolly's Dreaming (can't remember who by)
10) Petit Berger from the Grade 3 book
11) Bach Prelude in C
12) JF Burgmuller - Arabesque

and various Einaudi pieces

I've been playing some other stuff for fun like Beethoven's Ecossaise and Haydn's little serenade - it takes the edge off playing the more difficult pieces and makes me feel less useless

I have started more pieces than I can count that I've got about halfway through and stopped playing....

Hi mini mo

Yes - what score did you use?

Good to see someone else is learning kummer - I think this is an excellent piece. Also surprised that it's rated the same as say song of erin. Kummer has taken me a while to get, whereas erin seemed much easier.

P.s. interesting photo; have you seen a doc about that skin condition?

Yes I was feeling a little green that day! Actually it made it even more authentic as my front tooth (bridge) had fallen out and I had to wait a week for the replacement so had to face the world with one tooth missing. How embarrassing!

As for Minuet in G, I have 2 versions very similar to each other. One can be downloaded at www.makingmusicfun.net and the other I tried to go to the web site but can no longer access it, however as it was free I can't see why I cannot send it to you if you wish. It is essentially the same as the one on www.making musicfun.net but has the phrasing for it too.

The video I like to listen to is this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT5I62XUHYw

The lad plays 3 pieces, minuet in G being the first. It may not be helpful for fingering if that's what you want it for but at least you can hear the correct version that matches the score and then have another search on You tube.

There are other videos of this version, you just have to have a good rummage.

I had a quick go at Song for Erin, yes I agree its so much easier than some of the other pieces. Kummer is very sad (clearly as its titled Grief!). It s a good piece to play with feeling/emotion.

Enjoy playing...

the minuet I am learning kicks off with three D's on the right hand; I couldn't see it on the website. I'll have a look at youtube later (I can't access it at work). Maybe, I'll just have to learn the other, more popular, minuet in G.

Interesting you also think erin is easier than most of the other G1 pieces. My choice for the exam is either erin or kummer. If erin is an 'easier' piece then you would presumably have to play it extremely well to get a good mark. However, I wonder if you were to ask an examiner (off the record of course), whether he/she considered certain pieces easier than others? If so, then presumably the answer is not to try and think about it too much, just play the easiest piece (which, other things being equal) should be the one you're best at it.

I've started thinking that slower, less busy pieces can actually be harder to play well. I also seem to find simple, sparse pieces difficult to focus on when sight-reading.

At least that's the way my strangely-wired brain seems to work.

Oh dear, everyone else is learning much more serious stuff than me, like Mozart etc

I'm playing around with 2 other grade 2 pieces I didn't do for my exam. My teacher told me to learn the rest in the book, to try and keep me occupied. I'm just sort of seeing how fast I can play them though- I hate graded pieces

Then I'm doing Glasgow Love Theme (from Love Actually), A couple of Einaudis aand Le Valse d'amelie (which I can't quite get the hang of, but am determinedly pushing through )

Hopefully the graded pieces will keep my teacher happy that I did do some work over summer...

I agree, it can be difficult to get the tone and fingering right on those rests.

LOL!

I am at the moment playing Bach little prelude from Classics to moderns 3 and Schumann's Wild Horseman from Best of grade 3. I have just started with a new teacher and am just finding my feet again. Give me a few weeks and I'll be telling him the millions of other pieces I want to learn

I'm not, I havent got a clue about a lot of these pieces being mentioned, clearly far too complicated for me as yet.

I do love Einaudis and Le Valse d'amelie, they are in my wish list of pieces to play... eventually.

That depends what you mean by "finish". There is a sense in which no music is ever finished.

However, from the pieces I mentioned I can already play the Liszt and the Szymanowski from memory, at the required tempii and with dynamics, articulation, pedalling and rubato more or less as I want it to be and in front of an audience - it really is just fine tuning and trying to get them even more secure.

The Bach prelude I can play from memory (even with my eyes closed) and I am currently making sure that my articulation of the quavers in particular is accurate: The fugue is well on the way to being memorised and I am working on making sure I can bring out any of the four voices at will and that the chords aren't arpeggios(!). By the time I get back to lessons in September I have no doubt that the fugue will have been memorised and both prelude and fugue should be reasonably secure. From that point of view these pieces may be regarded as finished in that it will be more profitable to move on to something else rather than carry on with them.

The Chopin I can play through at speed but the accuracy is still wanting, the voicing of some sections is poor, some jumps are insecure, the variations in rubato are inartistic, the pedaling is heavy handed etc. and I have not accurately committed the whole to memory: Again, by September I probably will have dealt with these things, although my teacher may want me to spend a week or two polishing some bits that she wants me to change. On the whole I expect she will want me to move on - again, not finished (never finished) but enough done to move on.

The Haydn 1st movement is finished in the same sense as the Chopin, and the 2nd and 3rd movements really contain little challenging except the chore of memorisation: Given that I will get little real advantage out of staying with it I expect she will want me to move on here too: Not finished, but finished enough.

I very rarely start out a piece and then move on without "finishing" it: At the very least "finished" means I can play it reasonably accurately, at a reasonable tempo and with required phrasing etc. My teacher doesn't give me stuff to learn unless it is a challenge, so once the challenge is met we move on.

I think you'll find plenty of challenge in that Haydn 3rd movement if you play it, as marked, Presto. And I would try using my feet for the pedals - hands are better employed on the keyboard

But seriously I am impressed (for other forum members - I have heard some of it, and it is very good).


After forty-odd years of playing, I still can't play ANYTHING properly. Out of the many hours worth of memorized piano stuff in my brain I think there is maybe a Bach prelude that I can play pretty near perfectly - at least as well as any of the famous people I've heard play it. Then again ... maybe not.

Also, since I got really serious about piano the rate at which I learn pieces has slowed to a snail's pace. I can (with work) play pretty much anything I put my mind to, and at some time in the past I have sight read through most of the standard repertoire, and analyzed a few to death to see how the composers work their magic ... so the only point in studying any piece now is to be able to perform it.

There is no point in performing something unless you can make it in some way a significant experience for your listeners. To do that demands a deep understanding of the piece, and a very secure performance. When you really study any worthwhile composition it turns out that there is an awful lot in it. It can easily take months to properly understand a Bach Fugue or a Beethoven sonata movement. On top of that it takes twenty times more (a considered estimate) work to memorize something well enough to stand up to performing in front of a paying audience, than it takes to memorize it well enough to play it for your teacher, spouse, parents, or friends. The work that goes into two 45 minute sessions for a full recital is mind-boggling for ordinary mortals - at least if you do it properly. Oh to be a Rubinstein, Hoffman, or Gieseking

Rosalyn Tureck once told an interviewer that when she was a conservatoire student she was working at the (astonishing) rate of memorizing three Bach Preludes and Fugues a week, alongside other repertoire. Then something happened to her, and she had deep insights into the nature of the music. After that the most she could manage was four lines of a fugue ina week - but the level at which she played it was now light years beyond what she had been satisfied with before ...

Anyway ...

What I really wanted was an excuse to say is ... if anyone found any of my old postings useful, like, for example pedalling techniques, memorisation, or how to (use/not use) Hanon, overcoming performance nerves, etc. .... then please take copies of them in the next couple of weeks, because as soon as I have finished trawling through them and have copied everything of value back to my Mac I shall be deleting the original posts from the forum, prior to de-registering.

What I'm playing:

Greig: Wedding Day at Troldhaugen. I've only just done my first ever run through at tempo without a technical mistake, but still some way to go on the dynamics.

Joplin: Solace. I love the piece to bits, but it's harder than it looks, to play well (I'm embarrassed to think I recommended it to someone asking for grade 4 suggestions a few months ago )

Joplin: Gladiolus Rag. Just about there. I think I'm playing too fast and its difficult to slow it down - keeps running away with me!

Moonlight Sonata: 3rd Movement. Although I've been at it for about 6 months I haven't gone beyond the exposition section yet: I don't want to move on until that's a lot more even. Several odd bits are still quite unruly and keep 'unlearning' themselves.

Pathetique Sonata: 1st Movement. Making better progress than the Moonlight. Nearly up to speed throughout but a very long way to go on the dynamics.

Chopin: Waltz in Db Op 70 No 8. Nearly there.

Plus a few odd bits from various Savoy Operas, mainly Mikado, Iolanthe and Ruddigore

Oh yes...And I'm trying to get my Fur Elise sound like this:
Valentina Lisitsa plays Fur Elise - rather well!

I will never concider myself a true pianist until i can play that song.


My latest song is finale. Here's a video of someone playing it.

Loads of Debussy - La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin, The Little Shepherd, Arabesque no.1 - but (it's hard!), and...

erm...

Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum - I'm supposed to be learning it over the summer but unfortunately my fingers are unable to process notes as fast as I can read them. Also Clair de Lune (I can play the first bit but when it gets into the arpeggiated semiquavers I have the same problem!

Was playing Debussy's Ballade which is lovely!

Lots of my students' repertoire - but for me, mainly Schubert G flat Impromptu.

Not me Over the summer I've just been concentrating on two pieces from Just Blues - Bluesette, which is a jazz waltz, and Blues in the Night. I love them and I'm sure I'll go back to something more serious after the holidays but these suit me fine just now. It's also very good for me to concentrate on only two pieces and practise only them, because otherwise I'm a flitter, going from piece to piece without ever really playing anything anywhere near properly. Whatever you're playing, enjoy it

The Les Dawson thread has made me determined to learn some much more fun stuff now I'll clear my backlog then find some old sing-song books or something! A few pubs I go in have pianos and it could be quite a good laugh to bash out a few oldies!

Learn some Tom Lehrer accompaniments to sing along to.

I have the sheets for "Smut", "I hold your hand in mine" and a few others somewhere, my cousin gave them to me I won't be the one singing, I sound like a wailing cat with a strangulated hernia.

Hrm... must...resist...starting...now!

It's one of my favourites. Thibaudets recording of it is wonderful...not an easy piece though.

I'm really very pleased as I was never confident on Piano at all but I've been working through pieces and have discovered I CAN play Piano, have bought the Gd. 5 book for 09-10 and hope to work through and take the exam sometime soon

So now cut back to -

Gd. 5 Pieces
Clementi Sonatina No. 1

So happy with my Piano playing has actually helped my Clarinet too as I've gone "back to basics" in practising for new pieces!

I'm playing Chopin's C# minor waltz as well as my exam pieces, and I'm also learning a Mazurka, Op.56 No.2 by Dvorjak.

They're great pieces and I love the C# waltz.

I'm working on the Schumann Symphonic Studies, Bach C minor Partita and Schubert A major sonata op 120. And my rest-of-my-lifetime project is the Well Tempered Clavier.

And I'm going through a Joplin phase at the moment

Enjoy your playing, everyone!

I'm not doing much at the minute, although i'm sure I'll have a tonne of work once I have my first piano lesson of the term in the next week!

At the minute, I'm concentrating on:

Liszt Petrarch sonnet 123 (same as Robodoc)
Bach Partitia no.2
Chopin "revolountionary" prelude

The stuff i've got planned for soonish are some of the Dvorak slavonic dances and Brahms hungarian dances. I also plan to look at Scaramouche properly, as well as a concerto, but i'm still at loss as to which to chose! Preferably one of the easier concertos (If there is such a thing!?!?!?) !

Mazurka Op 24, No 4 and the Db Nocturne by.....you'll never guess who

mainly working on DipABRSM repertoire:
Bach- P&F 16 from WTK1
Haydn- Sonata in Ab
Chopin- Nouvelles Etudes (all 3 but need to drop 1 and cant decide which)
Sculthorpe- Night Pieces
Debussy- Ce qu'a vu le vent d'Ouest

then on the side im doing:
Chopin- Ballade nr 4 in F minor
Debussy- Estampes

All lovely stuff Invidia. Good luck!

I know everyone moans about it being overplayed but Valentina plays it absolutely beautifully. I cannot stop listening to it.

I

It's becoming one of my favourites too - and I also have Thibaudet's recording of it! Great minds think alike!


Thank you!

Beethoven's Ecossaise in G
Just started so still doing hands separately
I've never heard it before so I'm expecting it to blow my mind when I play hands together

Ooops, meant the Revoloutionary ETUDE! Sorry!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-VjFKLCKwM...feature=related
There's a youtube recording of it!

Scarlatti Sonata in A Kp 209
Mozart Sonata in Bb K570 third movement
Cimarosa Sonata in D Minor


I don't have lessons any more and it's ages since I've worked on something new. Really enjoying it!

My niece has hassled me into learning this:

http://solari.adsl24.co.uk/cc.jpg

It's a nice bit of light relief actually compared to the horrors I've faced lately.

I already know almost all the pieces that I will be playing in public and in exams for the foreseeable future, so I have embarked on a "technical improvement" spree. For the next six to twelve months most of my daily fare will be:

- Scales and arpeggios in all conceivable forms

and new selections from:

1. Bach. Book 1 of the 48
2. Czerny. Art of Finger Dexterity, Op 740
3. Moszkowski. Virtuosic Etudes, Op 72
4. Chopin. Etudes, Op 10

Probably more useful than any of these will be non-musical exercises to develop calm and confidence and so reduce the damaging effects (memory lapses, flubs, harsh tone, hurried tempo etc.) of performance nerves

What's a "flub"?

My kids call each other flubberjubbers, perhaps its one of those, what ever a flubberjubber is!

I am currently trying to play Musette by Bach - coming on ok apart from odd pauses when I have to make big jumps with my hands.

And also walking tall from Piano time 3 - set for me by my teacher. I find the rhythm SO hard (which is why she probably gave it to me). Getting there s-l-o-w-l-y.

What it sounds like

Dear MadTom,
Could you please elaborate on those non-musical exercises? Thanks

woah... i tried doing a "technical exercise" spree like you, mad tom, but i gave up after a month! too dry for me.

anyway, i'm playing:
1) Beethoven - Appassionata 3rd movt (Valentina Lisitsa's recording has inspired me)
2) Mozart - piano sonata in Bb K333
3) Cecil Chaminade - Automne op.35 no.2
4) Brahms - Rhapsody in G minor op.79 no.2
5) Schubert - Piano sonata in A minor D.845 1st movt