• Sophia

  • Post #66
  • Edited

BartK I hope I'm not scaring anyone away with my performances.

OMG, I am out of the loop for a few days and you post Scott Joplin! As a QUICK STUDY! I think it's high time that you are going to be the one to be teased about being annoyingly talented 🤪
That was lovely. I always liked that piece!

Animisha the most boring piece that I have ever played

Ok, I was prepared to give you my honest opinion. Like "wow, that was great! I love it! What a gorgeous piece! It's exciting and beautiful!" But... I'd be lying. Yes. you are right, that is one BORING piece. But you played it well and also it counts for the 40 pieces challenge. And you braved yourself in front of a camera, so despite all that, let me say... WELL DONE!

I know posting videos is not required for this challenge, but it sure is nice to see them 🙂

        Sophia OMG, I am out of the loop for a few days and you post Scott Joplin! As a QUICK STUDY! I think it's high time that you are going to be the one to be teased about being annoyingly talented 🤪

        Thanks but I'm not really talented. Just really stubborn and a little OCD. 🤣

          The Gillock piece only took a single session yesterday, compared to the Mozart at 3 days.

          The longest quick studies for me are rock pieces with their tied notes for syncopation. My slight dyslexic tendency confuses them with slurs. I haven't done any rock pieces yet this year, but I remember at least one last year that took me 3 weeks.

          1 Michael Head, The Quiet Wood, The Best of Grade 1 Piano (quick study)
          2 Joanne Bender, Ripple Effect, RCM 3 Piano Etudes (regular piece at my level)
          3 Henry Mancini (arr.), The Pink Panther, Piano Adventures Popular Repertoire - level 3A (quick study)
          4 American folk song, Shenandoah, Piano Adventures Level 5 Lesson book, (regular piece at my level)
          5 Mozart, Allegro in F, K. 1c, The Best of Grade 1 Piano, (quick study)
          6 Gillock, Owl at Midnight, Accent on Solos (early to later elementary), (quick study)

          BartK It's great that people are sharing. Please don't be shy about your performances! We know they are just quick studies and not perfect. I hope I'm not scaring anyone away with my performances.

          I'm glad people are sharing. It's great to hear the variety of pieces, and I'm making note of some of the pieces I'd like to eventually learn myself. I'm still very much a beginner, so I don't expect my pieces to sound great. Other people's recordings aren't stopping me from sharing a recording of my playing. the biggest reason is I'm naturally shy so it's hard to put myself out there. Even so, I did try to get make a video on my phone, but my phone is old and slow and the video looked and sounded blurry. I tried messing around with getting an audio recording, but that's a pain getting it from my piano to my computer. Those are the main reasons. I could probably come up with more excuses reasons. 😅

              Kaydia I'm naturally shy so it's hard to put myself out there

              I think that's how most of us started out, Kaydia. And let's face it, you don't need excuses reasons anyway. If you want to share a video/audio, we're ready to cheer you on. You might even get a few tips of things you might not have been aware of. I remember that sometimes there have been tips about sitting too close to the keys (very easy to do especially since we're all sitting right above our computer keyboard). Or sitting too low, etc. If that's what you want 😋

              But if you don't want to share videos and just want to chat, that's totally fine too 😃

                  Thanks, Sophia. I would love some cheering on and I'm sure I could use some friendly tips or advice. I'm still exploring other recording options. So hopefully will be able to get something recording sooner than later. 🙂

                    BartK Thanks! It took some hard work for me to get them even to that imperfect shape 😅, but yes, quite a bit of fun too.

                      Very nice Gooseberry! I too learned the Musette piece a while ago because I love it so much! And yes, it has many big jumps... plus some tricky passages. Now I want to dust it off and play learn it again, thanks for the reminder.

                      And the Wild Horseman is a very nice, I liked it very much. Very happy and bouncy. I also sense a theme developing... Wild Horses, Wild Horseman, so what's next... Wildfire? Goodbye Horses? One Trick Pony?

                        Sophia 😂Goodbye Horses, rather, I've had enough of galloping for now and look forward to learning something of a nice walking tempo.

                          This latest 40(ish) piece is played entirely on the black keys. It was fun to play, with a lot of 8va repeated sections. Getting the groups of 2+3 black keys to sound as one was the most challenging part for me, especially the further away they were in the 8va sections.

                          1. A Canyon Deep by Edna Mae Burnam (From Pieces to Play with Step by Step Book Two)
                          2. Stained Glass Window In A Church by Edna Mae Burnam (From Pieces to Play with Step by Step Book Two)
                          3. The Shoemaker by Edna Mae Burnam (From Pieces to Play with Step by Step Book Two)
                          4. Love Me Tender by Elvis Presley & Vera Matson, Arr by Christine H. Barden (From Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course Greatest Hits Level 1)
                          5. Ming Ling by Mary Elizabeth Clark (From Favorite Piano Solos Blue Ribbon Encyclopedia Level One)

                          Here are my January pieces. They are all from Alfred's AIO book 2.

                          1. Frankie and Johnny
                          2. Waltz in G Minor
                          3. Theme from 6th Symphony "Pathetique" (Tchaikovsky)
                          4. Fascination (F Marchetti)
                          5. Loch Lomand

                          The book does not include composer names for three of the pieces.

                          Next month I will begin choosing my own pieces, but this month I stuck with the method book as I'd like to finish it soon.

                          "Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)

                          It is all going very well with my 40(ish) pieces. So very nice to work with something else during my evening session!

                          1. J.S. Bach - Arioso from cantata 156 (lesson piece)
                          2. John Thompson - Hide and seek (quick study)
                          3. Erik Satie - Petite prélude à la journée (quick study)
                          4. J.C. Bach - Prelude in A minor (quick study)
                          5. Andrew Lloyd Webber - Memory, from Cats (quick study)
                          6. Sarah Konecsni - Bells in the mist (quick study)
                          7. To be revealed in the next recital (lesson piece)

                          *
                          ... feeling like the pianist on the Titanic ...

                            Your technique is excellent and it's obvious that you've thought with a lot of care about how to play the piece. If you have a teacher I think they are doing an excellent job and if you are self learning it's even more impressive because I think many who learn without a teacher don't play with such good technique.

                              Animisha Very well played. It started very easy on one hand and got more are more advanced. Didn't expect this one to be a 40-ish piece study. If you keep goin like this, you will end up with 84 pieces by the end of the year. Be careful Animisha, you are risking a speeding ticket 🏎️

                                  pianoloverus I'm assuming your comment is for Animisha; if you click "Reply" at the bottom of her post (next to the "Like") it'll tag her when you respond and link your reply to her post 🙂

                                      WieWaldi Didn't expect this one to be a 40-ish piece study.

                                      WieWaldi, you are correct! The thing is, I found the easier first page when I still was a beginner, and I liked it very much, but I could never play it well enough. Now with the short studies idea, I resurrected that piece, and found that there were two more pages. Of course, I could not just play the first page... So it was a bit too much for a short study, but still, very enjoyable to learn.

                                      *
                                      ... feeling like the pianist on the Titanic ...

                                        pianoloverus If you have a teacher I think they are doing an excellent job

                                        Thank you so much Pianoloverus. For years I have been a student at Piano Career Academy and the two teachers there have taught me all I know about how to play the piano.

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                                        ... feeling like the pianist on the Titanic ...

                                          twocats Thank you for clarifying that. I think sometimes I have been hitting the reply that's in the dark blue box to the right of a post. Am I correct in assuming that will not tag the person I am replying to?