I'm able to play page 1 (of 3) of Legend of Madrid without mistakes.
Now it's on to page 2.
You did it! Tell us.
Hi
I played at my Teachers Christmas Piano recital yesterday. Only a very small affair, but I was still nervous. I did a medley of 2 Xmas tunes: A Nikki Illes arrangement of Silent Night (a homage to Thad Jones) then my own version of Santa Claus is coming to Town. I was the last pupil to play.
After me, my Teacher's son (17 or 18 yrs old) played Bach's Partita no. 1 on a wonderful Harpsichord, which I helped move to their house last week. Then he played another piece of Bach on Piano. He obtained a diploma at least 2 years ago and is now studying at the Royal Academy of Music. Needless to say he's very very good (much better than his Mum in fact). I'm glad he went last!
Cheers
Simon
Simon
All round average Jazz, Blues & Rock player.
Currently working towards ABRSM grade 8.
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Nightowl I listened to that piece recently - I like it!
The next recital opens in about 6 weeks - do you plan to submit this piece?
It's very Spanish Guitar in feel which makes it exotic sounding. The cadenzas on page 2 are actually fun though they look daunting. I was surprised at how easy they were to learn. In an hour yesterday I'd gone from turning to page 2, to playing all of page 2 and half of page 3. It's terrible, because first attempt, but I was doing it.
Maybe I'll submit it. There's a lot more coming my way after the new year so I could end up submitting something else. But, it's also nice knowing that I have something already in the bag (so to speak) and that takes pressure off.
We shall have to see where life takes us.
Animisha It is the sequence within the last phrase that got me confused.
This is what I'm talking about. There's something different in the phrases. Look for that difference, not the entire phrase, and that will key which of the 2 passages you play. It speeds up your eyes since you look at a specific place on the sheet for that key to the phrase. Finding it means you don't have to spend time looking at each note, measure or phrase while playing. That frees up your eyes to look for the next phrase key.
Reading: Some people are fast readers. They don't read letters, or even words. They don't even read in sequence. Instead they read sentence fragments and connect it all together inside their minds.
Piano playing: I don't read notes except when I'm first learning a piece. My goal is to connect the individual notes into an entire measure (a "word") and then connect those into a sentence (a "phrase"). When that's done I don't read the entire phrase. Instead, I read the parts of it which are only necessary to know which phrase it is. I then translate that into playing. To make that easier, I look for something in the phrase which sets it apart from other almost identical phrases.
In your case that difference is an alternate sequence. All you have to do is look for that sequence on the page and you'll automatically know which phrase to play. Because, of course, you learned the sequence and can put your fingers on autopilot while you search for the key to the next phrase to play.
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Player1 Yes, the piece does have guitar characteristics - do you know if it was originally written for guitar? It seems like page 3 might be mostly a repeat of page 1, so from what you say you're almost there.
Your advice to @Animisha was very sound. I followed exactly the same method with a couple of pieces recently, where some repeats had very slight differences I highlighted the different notes and wrote a couple of reminders in the margin nearby. I find that just the act of doing that somehow seems to reinforce the information in my memory and then a glimpse of those coloured marks is all it takes to focus my brain as I approach those measures.
Simonb Well done! I've never played for anyone except my husband, it's a hurdle I'm not sure I could ever jump.
"Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)
Player1 I don't get your method. The final phrase is not a repeat with some differences, it starts with a truly new structure, and yes, is then followed by motifs that have been played before, but with a different left hand, and then the motif is followed by another motif that has been played before, but these two motifs were not played after each other earlier in the piece. So I needed to remember, this new structure, then this motif, than that motif, then this motif again but a variation of it and then only new material, jump here, jump there, move there, finished.
However, my method worked fine in finally learning the sequence. Ah! Maybe my mistake was to use the word sequence. I mean the order of the motifs.
*
... feeling like the pianist on the Titanic ...
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Nightowl Yes, the piece does have guitar characteristics - do you know if it was originally written for guitar? It seems like page 3 might be mostly a repeat of page 1, so from what you say you're almost there.
It was written by Nancy Faber herself so I would assume it was originally written for piano but influenced by the Spanish guitar.
The form is A,B,A,Coda so the bottom half of page 2 to the middle of page 3 is a repeat of A, with a small variation at the very end before the Coda.
Animisha I needed to remember, this new structure, then this motif, than that motif, then this motif again but a variation of it and then only new material, jump here, jump there, move there, finished.
If this is what works for you, then it's what works for you. I'm happy that you're happy that you managed to play the piece. Because in the end, that's all that matters.