Now learning Northern Lights by Karen Tanaka

Great strides made with Liszt's Au lac de Wallenstadt. Not quite ready yet though, but certainly within shouting distance and will definitely be ready for playing at the School's Prize Giving in October.

This will give me more time to get acquainted with the Chopin Study that I'm hoping to have ready for the same event.

I have just learned Traumerei by Schumann, Sonatina in C by Handel, Fantasia in C by Handel, Clare de Lune by Debussy, and am attempting (well starting with the easy bit) Liszt Bb Sonata, and maybe not in this lifetime - the mighty Brahms 2nd Piano concerto.

I am as mad a snake, because I have not been practicing properly, I am supposed to be doing 2 to 3 hours a day, and am lucky to be managing 15 minutes here and there......where o where is my will power? It is at the mercy of my two kids....my part-time mushroom coloured pedigree cat, and my 15 pupils.

Anyone want to buy a couple of kids? Joking of course!

Of course! It's the passo e mezzo, the very earliest development of tonality beyond modes, most famous chord sequence in history

I've been doing a LOT more practise than usual and it's paying off =D

I changed the Beethoven Sonata to op.26 since whenever I last posted. I have this 80% memorised, trying a new strategy of learning in which I memorise before actually working on the piece. I hate having a score in front of me; you don't see actors reading from scripts.

The Chopin Ballade 4 is coming on amazingly well which is really surprising because I've always loved yet slightly feared this piece because of the amount of people I've heard going on about its difficulty. Saying that, I haven't reached the coda yet >.< But I've gotten the first half memorised and technically controlled.

Ligeti is turning really nasty. I've gotten 90% of the first part in my fingers though pretty slow. I've also gotten the first bit of the second part in my fingers. The bars bridging the first and second parts, however, are absolute nightmares! There are two main voices plus accompaniment in a 5:3:6 cross rhythm, moving to 5:3:7 then 5:3:8 then 5:3:9 then 5:3:11. It's amazingly awkward to practise!

So that's my update for a while...

In the wake of Invidia's programme, the few bars at which I am working in the Chopin E major Etude fade into insignificance! Nevertheless, the two relatively tricky sections are getting slightly more manageable. However, in view of the RSI-type symptom I encountered when practising a similar section of my Liszt last March, I am wary of practising these two sections for too long at one sitting, especially the sixths.

The Bach B major fugue is coming along, the notes familiar now, the fingerings becoming ever more so. There are two particularly tricky sections where the fugue subject moves between the hands, with much else going on in both hands at the same time - nothing to be done about it on harpsichord, but on piano!

Liszt's Au lac de Wallenstadt is also coming along nicely. Again, I am now familiar with all the notes, just battling to maintain an even LH - imperative in this piece - with unobtrusive pedalling and use of portimento.

Although I have played Manuel Ponce's Gavota for some time now, this time I'm observing correct fingering and improved articulation (the result of my newfound attention to detail), so although I'm not exactly learning it, I am now refining my performance - it certainly doesn't require the fastidious practice demanded by Bach, Chopin and Liszt!

Well, concerted practice with the sixths seems to be paying off. Instead of starting at the beginning of that section and getting quickly dispirited, I concentrated on the last section first, then worked backwards in sections, towards the start. That way, any frustration is countered by knowing that when I overcome the problem, I can already play what follows.

It has worked within my extended practice-time; the proof of the pudding will be if it's as successful when I tackle it next time!



What was useful, was playing it on different sounds on my Clavinova. My instrument only has about seven different sounds, but with a couple of those (one of the 'electric' pianos and the Celeste) held notes really do come through loud and clear; more to the point, when not held on as they ought to be, there is a marked absence of sound!



Becoming more secure every time I play it - not 'there' yet, but getting ever closer.


*With my sights set firmly on late October, I mustn't forget to practise accompaniments for Cardiff!

Started on one of bachs little preludes in c for my grading. Going.......not great lol, but getting there!

Many years ago, I heard these performed on a clavichord - very effective - a delicate sound, with strings resonating, much like a guitar.

Chopin Op.9 No.2
Bach Fugue in C minor (book 1)

Various Christmas (!) choir accompaniments for when I start work.

Chopin Nocturne in C# Minor posthumous.

I've just started looking at the Chopin Waltz in C#Minor it's lovely, but I reckon it's still waaay too difficult for me-particularly the middle section!!

Well after Chet's..

1) John Field Nocturne in Bb is now miles more fluent, I'm going to polish this for the next playday.
2) Schubert Adagio D178 is getting there, a few bars on pages 1 and 2 need practice, and the last 2 pages just need polishing.
3) Page 1 of Chopin Op72 No.1 is getting there and I've started work on page 2 in anger
4) I can get all the way through the Schubert D959 ii now (pg 3 not all at speed!), need to do some research and also work at it in the hope of being able to play it at a forum event - the notes are nearly there now but I flounder under pressure.
5) I started learning a lovely Beethoven 4 hands piece with Pianissimole, so that needs to be worked on for November It's not trivial at all and will be my first really challenging duet.
6) Chopin "raindrop" sounds much better now that I've been shown how to create a nicer tone!

Going to be extremely busy for the forseeable future!

All my pieces have been taken apart at Chets and I'm now trying to pick up the pieces (excuse the pun ). I'm a bit depressed at the prospect of hard work (and all the hours I don't have!) I'd need to put in, but I know the pieces would end up superb if I do manage... For the moment, priority is on Chopin Nocturnes in F and F# Op. 15 No. 1 and 2 -- both of which with scary middle sections (and on which I have pages and pages of notes from Chets) -- so I can put them on the shelves for a bit before polishing them up again in time for the November playday.

As well as the Mozart which I'm still working on (long term project) I've been given a new piece today.
Something completely different - Grieg Nocturne Op.54 No. 4.
Also had my first experience of being in a 'quick study' situation as my teacher gave me 5 minutes to look at the first 8 bars. Apparently this will become a regular event.
Also asked that we spend some time on analysis as it's something I'm only ok with on a foarily basic level and would like to be more proficient.

Looking through some easier Liszt, to see what I might reasonably be able to manage, from his Annees de Pelerinage: Premiere annee: Pastorale and Eglogue (I'm already playing Au lac de Wallenstadt).

Au bord d'une source looks inviting but also very tricky - I'll ask about that in my lesson tomorrow. Then from Deuxieme annee: Canzonetta del Salvator Rosa which, incidentally, is used as the theme tune to programme The Reunion, on Radio 4.

Then, separate from the Anness, there are the Consolations.

With Liszt it's very much a case of mind over matter, at least to start with. Apart from Au lac .... being on the new Grade 8 syllabus, the ABRSM have found a couple of pieces to put on lower grades too.

Without my teacher encouraging me though, I doubt I would ever have summoned up the courage to approach any of Liszt's works.

Surely that's an oxymoron?

Well, it's all relative. Ridiculously difficult is easier than next-to-impossible

The Consolations (well, 5 of them) have none of the technical difficulties and exuberancies that we normally associate with Liszt They are just beautiful music, and quite playable by the non-virtuoso.

At Chetham's I fell so in love with (amongst other things) Brahms's famous Intermezzo (Op 118 No 2) that I am dropping everything else - even the much improved Chopin Ballade No. 1 - to learn it properly. It is indescribably beautiful and powerfully moving.

I will probably play it in my DipABRSM exam instead of Schumman/Rachmaninov/Debussy/Poulenc/Liszt/... (all learned or mostly learned - then rejected) even though it does have something of the same feel, and comes frm more or less the same era as my Scriabin Prelude Op 11 No 11 (and was frowned on by Rubber Duck for that reason - he thinks I should play a Grounde by Gibbons from the early 1600's as an own choice piece).

I have carefully avoided playing any Brahms since i was made to learn the G minor Rhapsody at the age of 16 and absolutely hated it. My teacher is going to be really happy. She is a Brahms nut!

Surprised to hear that it's not already in your repertoire MT!

It was amongst the first set of pieces that I began learning with my teacher, when I started having lessons again, just before setting out to prepare for Grade 8.

I'm playing it in my programme for my school's Prize Giving in October, together with Op.118 No.5, Romance.

If you're looking at the Annees you should try Sposalizio (sp?) in Year 2; it's beautiful and not too difficult as long as your octaves are up to scratch!

I'm being really indecisive with my Beethoven. I dropped op 57 for op 53, then dropped op 53 for op 26 and now am tempted to go back to op. 57 just because it's the one I play best out of the three. My only worry is that both that and the Ballade 4 are in F minor so it might make a pretty bland final recital. Although I asked someone about it earlier who said I could play both as long as I stuck the Ligeti in the middle for contrast. Though the Ligeti would make a better finale. Saying that so would Ballade 4.

What are people's thoughts?

Thanks invidia, I have a copy of Sposalizio, I'll take a look at it.

The Ligeti ends with a crescendo to fff then stops abruptly. Is your audience expected to applaud after each piece? I only ask, because there would otherwise be created a delightful caesura between the end of the Ligeti and the calm opening of the Ballade. Also, the four-chord cadence at the end of the Ballade is surely a fitting end to any recital.

My thoughts are that Sposalizio only looks "not too difficult" from the vantage point of someone that can take on Beethoven Op 57, Op53, Op 26, Chopin's 4th Ballade (the big one) and Ligeti's etudes.

I forgot to ask about Sposalizio in my lesson today, but did ask what else in the Liszt volume I might realistically have a channce of playing. from the Peters Liszt Piano Works Volume VI this turned out to be:

Liebestraume I & !!
Petrarch Sonnets 47 & 104
Harmonies poetiques et religieuses: VII Funerailles and "as a long term project", III Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude.

This latter piece I was subsequently launched into sightreading there and then, the first couple of pages anyway. My teacher rues the fact that his hands were just a little too small to make this a comfortable piece to play, but that in that department at least, I would have a better chance.

I would love to learn the Benediction at some point, it's a beautiful piece but pretty difficult. The thing is, I find giant pieces like this would be amazing to be able to play but not really worth it. The work that it would take to learn a piece of that scale could be spent on shorter, easier to fit into a program time wise, works. Just looking at Liszt, in the time it would take you to learn Benediction you could properly learn a couple of the Transcendentals, even Mazeppa/Feux Follets. Yes they're difficult but easier to tackle than Benediction due to their relative shortness.

Also, if I was going to learn something of Liszt's on that kind of scale, it would have to be the Sonata or Apres une lecture du Dante. I've tried both; in the Sonata I barely left a scratch and in Dante although I could get to the end of it at one time it always felt like reading the Inferno in Italian; I read the words and finished the book but didn't understand it. Maybe I will try again someday...

Anyhow...

Funerailles is a good one; I assume you were made to sight read that rather than Benediction. Like what I was saying with Spozalizio, as long as you have good octaves it's not too evil to learn.

Also, 2/3 weeks ago I discovered Szymanowski and his Metopes have been growing on me and I'm desperately wanting to get hold of the score and learn one of them. But my main problem is that I don't have much focus in my learning, I change pieces too much, so I'm determined to stick to the recital program for next year I've chosen and been studying over the summer and can play.

No, it was in fact Benediction that I launched into with both hands, although admittedly the LH isn't taxing in the first page and a half through which I trawled!



That's a problem I have too - my sheet music library ought to be housed a couple of miles away, rather than within arms-length! It's all too tempting to stop practising the present piece and reach for something else!

I'll add my name, behind Clavicembalo and Invidia, to the list of indecisive, flighty types, that flit too much from piece to piece (though I must say that some of the pieces Invidia mentions so casually are still terrifying to me).

However, since Chethams, I have decided it is time to stop playing at it and get down to some serious, intensely focussed WORK!

Quite.... I'm focusing on

1) Schubert D959 ii
2) Schubert D178
3) John Field Nocturne Bb
4) Chopin Op.72 No.1
5) Beethoven Op.49 No.2

And absolutely nothing else apart from stuff for sight reading from now until November playday! 3 just needs a few more weeks of polishing now. 2 and 4 need about a month or 2 more to get them fluent.

Learning that....in order to improve I NEED TO learn my scales and do some technical exercises. Chet's has been a great eye opener and I've now got all the right books! Just need to make sure I work on them everyday from now on!

Chet's has shown me what focused practice can achieve, so I'm keen to do more of it now

Yes. It's high time you stopped mucking about and took your practising seriously.

* hides*

I'm currently learning pieces by Chopin, Barber and Debussy (first prelude). Also some accompaniments for a local choir. I am, however, getting Bach withdrawal symptoms, and my teacher has suggested one of the Partitas for a change. No.2 in C minor looks nice and dramatic, so I might give that a try..

Jon

Couldn't agree more!!!

You're all sounding so wonderfully motivated since Chets, I'm feeling very jealous Got any spare motivation you can throw my way? Since the exam last month I don't feel like I've got anywhere and I want that determination back

Well you have all the natural ability and musicianship you need, and you obviously love the piano repertoire. To have become such a good a pianist as you are in such a short time is a fantastic achievement. I reckon that, like solari, you are on course to become an outstanding pianist.

Thank you! Really looking forward to putting everything I learned into practice and start sounding more musical!

Well we were a pretty highly motivated bunch before we went. If we weren't we'd never have spent the money and made the effort.

If it were possible I'd spirit some to you in a flash.

Why not just listen to something really simple and beautiful, like Beethoven's late Bagatelles or maybe something a bit more subtle like a Chopin Nocturne. That should inspire you.

Thank you, off to do that now

For what it's worth, I've always thought that you've sounded very musical at the playdays

Thanks for the compliment, btw Tom - but I have so far to go!

Thanks Sol! *hmmm...maybe I can get away with not learning my scales??!! no, no, bad thinking....let's learn them and start practising them once and for all!! *

Me too. I'm working on

Hanon and
Forlane from Le Tombeau de Couperin
Also the Beethoven Rondo duet ("Largississimo", thank you, Panthera! )!

Oh yes, I'm working on that too! Had a few goes last night on the tricky parts!

Ditto. I've got the new section up to crotchet=3 now!

I'll get it photoscored and send over to you by the way, combined and just the RH.

Don't do it at moderato !

Try about c=60, 65 or 70!

Pavane pour une enfant defunte ('scuse French if it's wrong).

Struggling to make it flow with all the spread chords. Actually sat down and re wrote the mid section to redistribute the parts. Far be it from me to tell Ravel he did it as awkwardly as he possibly could but he did!

That last entry is particularly challenging and I will have to drag it, as it were, like a teddy by it's leg, and dump it on my teacher's lap next week.

Do you have Sibelius? If so, which version? Might be better to send you a digital score so you can export at whatever speed you like

I don't have Sibelius

Its on my Xmas list, though

When I was a student in Swansea, we went for a midnight walk along the Gower. The idea was to arrive at, I think it was Caswell Bay, just as the sun was coming up; we all had visions of a mesmerizing sunrise display. Of course, what actually happened was that the sky just gradually got lighter, that's all. I'm not sure that the sun actually made an appearance per se.

The reason I mention this is because, in almost pitch black, at one stage we scrambled down a steep incline with the sea crashing below us, but it was dark so we were none the wiser. A few weeks later, in bright sunshine we happened to do the same walk but in the opposite direction and when I saw where we must have descended, I felt decidedly sick!

Well, I took Benediction to the piano today and I don't know what fortune was smiling on me when I was 'sightreading' the other day, but now, in the light of day, it does look rather a monster! It's probably a little like trying to maintain the musical arch of one of Schubert's late Sonatas - in the hands of someone less than competent, for all their hard work it could easily appear rather disjoint and directionless.

However, I bought myself a CD of the piece performed by Stephen Hough, so I think we're on safe ground there!

I was getting pretty disheartened with everything I've been looking at lately, so I learnt Chopin's Op.28 No.7-I spent about an hour on it, and although it's nowhere near "performable", it cheered me up considerably that I CAN play some gorgeous pieces, and stopped me feeling quite so useless