Good luck with booking today Sol : with Belsize, my recommendation is to just go for whatever gap they have in their schedule, if they indeed have a gap (even if that means maybe a lunchtime playday rather than an afternoon one).

Are there any spaces left? Not sure if I can make the 5th, but 12th would be OK.

Mole

I suspect it's 'wait and see what Sol manages to book'. Certainly if it's the big room at Belsize, there'll be bags of room

And even if it's somewhere smaller, I'm sure we'll have ways of fitting Moles in

Can I recommend that if Moley goes to this, he is persuaded to play his own compositions... one of my friends who heard him at Dyrham Park didn't realise it was his own composition and asked who'd composed it because she wanted to buy the CD

Sure!

Hi all.

I have provisionally booked the 1901 arts club with use of a Steinway C grand for 3 hours.

5th December 12 midday onwards

This obviously means that we can accomodate quite a lot of people so if we wanted to, we could open it up to players of other instruments who could find an accompanist in the attending players

http://www.1901artsclub.com/about-us-01.html

Very central and easy to get to, plus we have the Salon

The chap on the other end of the phone was most helpful and they seem very happy to accomodate us!

Fantastic Sol!!!! Well done!!! Looking forward to it!!!!

Does anyone else have any comments on my idea of getting a teacher in to give us a talk on the grand piano, it's workings etc, or would someone here feel qualified to do so?

Glad we will have a lot of space... we can MAKE SOME NOISE!

Excellent, glad I can make it and definitely going to the Tate Modern before hand, was meant to fit that in last time! :-)

I'll get back to you as to whether other half is coming.

Mini_mo

P.s. Does anyone know of a contemporary hotel to stay in nearby? Might make a weekend out of it.

He did say he'd have to learn another tune!

Also, I'd like to limit this to an absolute maximum of 14 players so that everyone gets at least 10 minutes on the piano (some may not want that long, though!).

Good all round, that. 12-3 in the venue, plus with it being Waterloo, I can still stay for a couple of hours to socialise afterwards!



Well done Sol!

Great... I think we could do with a few players between grades 5-8 to fill it out now to be honest. Any volunteers?

Also, tea/coffee/biscuits etc is ?2.50 a person if we want it. Should I arrange this too or are we happy to wait until afterwards?

Excellent work Sol. Thanks for organizing it again.

Cheers,

Jo.

It'll be great if the last one was anything to go by! I'd better get practicing

So had I - I remember my promise (piano solo )...

I know the area well, so I'll be able to source a nice watering hole for afterwards...

Yeah me too, I think I'd better pick a piece or ttwo and aim to have them presentable by then. Maybe something not so technically challenging but longer.

Should we have a first-dibs thread on hackneyed pieces that a few people might be thinking of playing? Or does it not really matter if two people play the same thing?

Doesn't matter to me if I hear one or seven renditions of 'Top Cat'!

I'm aiming to play Moonlight Sonata 1st mvt this time. I need to iron out some bad memorisation though and go over some bits with my teacher Don't expect a Horowitz performance...

I think someone else can play Top Cat as I'll have gone mad playing it for the exam by then!

Cool!

I'll probably bring 4 or 5 things, and choose on the day...

I don't think it matters if more than one person plays the same thing. I haven't any idea what I may play yet, maybe I will pick something out of my easy piano classic book and take the strain off myself lol. I hadn't played from it for a long time and brought it out last night and just went through it sight reading. Some of the pieces are nice and easy but some are still a little bit difficult just to sight read for the first time.

Maybe Daisy Chain would like to do the duet I was telling her about last time? As long as she doesn't mind following me lol

( I think that the main thing is that this stays as fun and doesn't become too serious where you start to feel the pressure?_

ET

It will be exactly the same as last time, ET

I think it's fine for some people to set some goals for themselves - nothing like having to actually play for other people (exam or otherwise) to motivate you to learn something! There is always the option to get up and walk away if it goes horribly wrong, though!

Yes that did cross my mind eldatom, would be great to meet you !

It'll be good to catch up with you again pp!



Hope you can make the 5th, Moley. Hopefully it's not impossimole

Yes, it clashes with a do which we normally go to on the Isle of Widget, but its looking doubtful that we'll be going to that this year, which would leave me free on the 5th...

Hurrah Look forward to meeting you (and hearing you play) if you make it!

From the venue...

"I don't know if you found it on the website but we have a "delegate rate" for refreshments of ?2.50/person + vat. That offers bottomless cups of tea/coffee/bottled water and biscuits for each 3 hour session. We are also a licensed venue so can offer you alcoholic refreshments too if that takes your fancy. As you say, we can confirm later when numbers are clearer."

If people wanted the tea and coffee etc, then it looks like the event will be in the region of 10 GBP per person.

Alcohol might turn the event into a Les Dawson tribute!

£10 is very reasonable, especially considering the venue you've got.

I shall pass on the alcohol 'til afterwards

Endless cups of coffee and bottled water and biscuits sounds a good idea to me.

ET

I agree, £10 sounds very resonable but I'll go with what everybody wants.
I'll also pass on the alcohol though as I've never once tried to play after a drink and even though my playing might sound better to me I'm not sure it would be

There could be quite a queue for the toilets after!

I think keep the alcohol until after we play. Whilst at Procorda I had a glass of wine and then champagne and then wondered why I couldn't keep it together at the piano! lol

Luckily I don't think anyone really noticed as most of them by then had endless glasses of champagne, I just don't know how they manage to play!

lol

£10 is fine with me as well

£10 + VAT sounds OK to me. I'll be there.

Anne

Some friends of mine stayed at the Premier Inn at County Hall recently and said it's ok, or if your budget stretches further, the Marriott (also at County Hall) is nice. Holiday Inn Express in Southwark is very very basic but nice location. Or for non-chain, the Mad Hatter is fine.

Great, this has filled up nicely. I think at a stretch we could take 1 or 2 more, but bear in mind that as it stands, everyone gets 15 mins on the piano assuming we take no breaks... there will be a bit of chit-chat so I think in reality, it'll end up more like 13 mins each!

I'm not sure how everyone feels about filling up 15 minutes with whatever they want to play, but last time, we weren't too strict on it, it was more a case of people playing when they felt like it in something vaguely resembling taking turns.

I thought it worked out well the way we did it last time, sort of turns, much better than sitting at the piano 15 minutes in one go!

They must have been luckier than we've been then.
When Eurostar used to go from Waterloo we used to use the Premier Inn at County Hall.
Rarely got a night's sleep. The fire alrm almost always went off in the night.
As it's part of a big complex if they burn the toast at the Marriot the fire alarm goes off for the whole lot.
Waiting outside for London's finest at 3am when you have an 8.30 Eurostar to catch is NOT fun.
Somehow never got round to asking for refund for not having a good night's sleep.

Premier Inn are offering rooms for £29 per night at the moment if booked for 2 nights or more, and booked online 28 days in advance, if that's of help to anybody.

There's a Travelodge in High Holborn (Holborn station end, near Drury Lane), which is 5 minutes by bus from the venue, and is one of the better Travelodges in London, certainly, the reports I've had from people staying there have been positive.

Re Hotels; Thanks everyone. I'll look into it.

I have a couple of pubs in mind for afterwards. Both are near the station, and both sell lots of nice drink

Sounds good! What's the veggie meals like?

ET

I will check for sure, but both certainly had veggie choices

[quote name='eldatom' date='Oct 29 2009, 01:13 PM' post='889447']
[[/quote]


Maybe Daisy Chain would like to do the duet I was telling her about last time? As long as she doesn't mind following me lol

( I think that the main thing is that this stays as fun and doesn't become too serious where you start to feel the pressure?_

ET
[/quote]
Who'll be doing the counting? It just isn't a proper duet unless you count very loudly Are you thinking of doing the Trout or something else?

Chris x

Think I've found a good after event gathering place : I will in due course send out menus and suchlike

Great, thanks!

Hum, I'm trying to get some new stuff learned to try out on the piano but as I have exams this month I might not have time to get anything too polished! Not that it matters that much, of course!

Hopefully I should have some of Einaudi's new stuff learned by then, or at least "Indaco", which I really like (otherwise I'll just play from sheet, to everyone's amusement! )!

[quote name='Chris H' date='Nov 1 2009, 11:10 PM' post='890761']
[quote name='eldatom' date='Oct 29 2009, 01:13 PM' post='889447']
[[/quote]


Maybe Daisy Chain would like to do the duet I was telling her about last time? As long as she doesn't mind following me lol

( I think that the main thing is that this stays as fun and doesn't become too serious where you start to feel the pressure?_

ET
[/quote]
Who'll be doing the counting? It just isn't a proper duet unless you count very loudly Are you thinking of doing the Trout or something else?

Chris x
[/quote]

Well Daisy Chain would have to do the counting wont she lol, I was thinking of doing the trout, that is if I can find it. DC did say that she would like to do it when I explained that you and I never got the chance to perform it.



You did fine last time Sol, I think that you are the least one that needs to worry. Good luck with the exams, so is it next week theory?

ET

Theory next Wed (11th). I went through a past paper in my lesson last night with my teacher and got 94 so unless I have some sort of mental breakdown, I think I'll be ok on that!

Practical is on the 24th, so I'm booking the week off before to knuckle down and practice... hopefully I won't get dragged off into dealing with other family affairs instead.

No more exams for a while after this - I just want to play different stuff and sort out my backlog!

You will be fine on both Sol, if you play like you did that Saturday the examiner will not be able to fault you. You are a natural. I am sure that you will do fine on the theory too. I used to buy the past exam papers myself and near the exam I would do one or 2 a day myself, but then I found them very addictive, I just loved doing them.

Good luck, don't worry, you will be fine. and it will all be over by the time we have our next playday, with that added freedom you will be playing even better!

ET