there's 6 pieces in each list d'oh!

Sorry to drag this topic back again, but it seemed pointless starting a new thread.

I have decided now to play C6 Lavender Field by Karen Tanaka instead of the Feelin' Good. (I have multiple chord issues)

Is anyone else playing this, and if so how is it going and what do you think of it?

Thanks

QUOTE (uberzoldat @ Mar 11 2005, 05:52 PM)

Sorry to drag this topic back again, but it seemed pointless starting a new thread. I have decided now to play C6 Lavender Field by Karen Tanaka instead of the Feelin' Good. (I have multiple chord issues) Is anyone else playing this, and if so how is it going and what do you think of it? Thanks

Eh? thats random. whats c6.. I'm so confused...

In the Associated Board exam books, you get three pieces for each section in the book. In the front of the book, there is also a list of three alternative pieces for each section. (They don't print a book with all 6 pieces for each section in.)

If you want to play the alternative pieces, you have to buy the book that they are taken from.

Does that help?

That is so much clearer. I understnad now DoH i must of sound so stuppid.

lol never mind. Are you still doing C1?
How are you finding it?

yes, Its going very well actually.. ok maybe not.. but i enjoy it and it is so funny but i'm in a hating pharse at it now so i play it very rarely and play corant!!

I do like the way it is written, and would like to be able to play it, but I'm just in a rut with it and cant seem to jump the first hurdle. I felt a kind of relief when I decided to myself to do a different piece.

Been away for a week and started looking at Prayer of the Matador a bit since I came back. All I can say is ... it gets better the more you play it!!

I really like the section at the bottom of the first page with chords in the RH (bar 19 onwards), it comes in again at the end an octave lower. It just creates an image of a matador struggling to contain his fear at the thought of entering the ring and facing the bull. Fantastic - not that I approve of bullfighting!

I'm really hooked - I think it's one of these pieces that sometimes appear in exams that are easy for the grade but need a lot of expression to get right. Gymnopodie no 1 is another one that fall's into this category - been discussed on adult board recently.

uberzoldat- ive got the Lavender field piece, its really nice!

I take it you've played it? I have the cd and have listened to it a couple of times. BTW, my piano teacher marked my theory and I made a couple of silly mistakes, but overall she says is very good, (I even got some silver stars )

Shes got an exam paper for me to sit and do at her house, so hopefully onto Grade2 this week yay.

How are you getting on with your A3 piece?

yes ive played it!! why not any gold stars!?

A3- ive taken the exam now so not played it in a week!

oh yeah stupid me, sorry.

when you get 5 silver stars, you get a gold star, and then when you get 5 gold stars you get a present.

i really like conrant.*random*

I'm doing A3, B3 & have learnt Feelin' Good but now want to change to Lavender's Kind of Blue from the alternative list as I find it a much nicer piece & am not getting very far with Feelin' Good. I can play it but I can't seem to get it up to speed (even though I think they play it too fast on the CD) & I find the stretches on page 2 extremely annoying I have found Vals Poetico fairly easy for a grade 6 piece & have really enjoyed learning it. A3 on the other hand is a nightmare!!! The bits I find tricky are the bottom of page 1 & the beginning of page 3 mainly because of the speed. I was going to change to Lavender Field for my C piece but as soon as I heard Lavender's Kind of Blue I knew I had to learn it. Is anyone else doing this one and is it difficult? I wish they would just print all 6 songs from each list in the same book as sometimes you can't really tell how hard a piece will be until you actually play it no matter what the recording sounds like.

By the way, how is everyone finding the scales/arpeggios?

Lisa xxx

"Lavender's Kind of Blue" is a piece of light music that is well worth learning.

The initial thing to watch is clear articulation of much bass melody. Also the pedalling can be impressionist in approach, making this a way of using techniques relevant to Debussy later on.

The CD recording by Joanna MacGregor is beautiful. She makes wonderful use of Rubato, something that Norton himself does not do on the CD that comes with the piano album.

I wonder if this is the ideal piece to take into an exam room. Examiners may well prefer to hear more serious music such as "8 Maids a Milking" (Richard Rodney Bennett piece).

The "Prelude" of Chopin is another piece with bass melody - all but a few bars of the piece are that way. The performance on the ABRSM CD by Noriko Ogawa seems a bit flat to me. I've changed my mind on the piece. I think you can do more with it than this performance would suggest.

I got the book on Thursday, and still can't decide what to learn.

The Corant seems pretty simple, especially compared to the Allegro, but I think I'd still rather choose the Allegro and put the effort into learning it. Haven't really looked at the Andante though.

I thought that the Impromptu was going to be pretty boring when I first looked at it, bt the more I play it the more it grows on me. The Waltz is nice and hopefully wouldn't take too much practice once the jumps are sorted. I especially like the 'B' part; it sounds strangely familiar but I don't know why! I forgot what the other one is in that list though :|

List C, Feelin' Good is nice, but it seems ridiculous the suggested metronome mark and seems to lose something when it's played that fast. Prayer of the Matador is too slow for my liking! Quite like the bit with chords in the right hand though. The Bagatelle has some pretty cool chromatic phrases and simple rhythms, so that's a maybe, but that jump in bar 5 is ****in hard!

*returns to piano*

im doing in the a list andante by Arne as its more of a challenge and i expect everyone else will play A:1 ###### i personally thinnk it is extremly easy(i sight-read it practically perfectly with the trills!)

im doin Vals poetico No.5 by Granados as it is quite short and not that hard plus it is completely different from the other pieces.

and from the c list i am doing Feelin' good as it is the best one and i love jazz music, also its not that hard.......i was reading somewhere in the other comments that they noticed some stretchy parts just add in the extra note and play them seperatly!

Stace - I think it is great that you are playing the Arne. It is all class. And as I've said before, candidates in England especially should be be looking at this one for historical/cultural reasons as well. I have learned this one personally.

The other classy A list entry from my persepective is the Telemann fugue. It IS a fugue but it is played like a 2-part invention - how crafty is that? Also it can be downloaded from the Internet for $6 NZ - maybe 2 pounds UK.

The other two choices you have made are very common, so you might look to perform something different for one of them. If you see the quality in the Arne, then do look at the Stephen Heller for a B piece won't you! I think the 3 best B's in my short list would be the three alternative pieces. You will see that the Chopin is very short indeed and full of arpeggio passages in LH, chords in RH. The main challenge is to pull of a convincing performance.

If you like jazzy piano as you do, then Feelin' Good may be the only option for #3.
The Norton is jazzy to some extent, but really more in the realm of light music/mall music/elevator music. Again a good alternative if you want to get off the well beaten track.