• Sophia

  • Post #89
  • Edited

Listened to a few more:

Peyton — A Dream of Far Away (part two)
What an interesting piece, as you said very oriental sounding. The instruments, harmonies and percussion work very well together with your actual playing. But around the 2:00 mark I wasn't sure if I had a few snortsies too many... the room positively started swaying. Then I realized it wasn't me, it was you. Just teasing!!!

keff — Summertime
A very pretty arrangement of Summertime! I always loved the piece and you did it justice. It's the type of music I hope to be able to play someday... it's like sweetly reminiscing about better times. Thank you!

Rob — Pembrokeshire Promise
Such a beautiful, pensive tune. Loved everything about it - including the picture of the castle. Agree, Wales is lovely... "Sut dach chi" (that's the only phrase I know, learned it from a Welsh friend).

Gooseberry — Nights in White Satin
I always loved the original by The Moody Blues - and you did it absolute justice. Perfectly played, I enjoyed it so much! That is definitely a piece I'd love to learn someday, so thank you for the inspiration 🙂

            rogerch — Flutter

            Great improv, with a lot of variation in the melody.

            Nightowl — Frankie and Johnnie

            Great job keeping a steady pattern in the bass! The transitions sounded a bit choppy, I would work on those more.

            Peyton — A Dream of Far Away (part two)

            This was a joy to listen to. The accompaniment really added a lot to the sections with repeated notes, but I thought the violin was turned up way too high in the mix and drowned out much of the piano.

            iternabe — Malagueña

            You nailed this one, especially the changing dynamics and keeping the chords even.

                      iternabe Malagueña < - Fabulously done! The lessons are paying off big time.

                      Sophia Sophia + Special Guest Star < - The piano performance is exceptional on its own, adding in the rest makes it one of the better submissions I've seen so far.

                      rach3master rach3master < - Smoothly performed. I'm usually not a fan of anime soundtracks. They don't seem to be much more than noise sometimes, as the very disruptive sounding section starting around 3:45 bears witness, but this arrangement on the whole was better than most. Better still, the performance was very smooth. Things like the change of the melody from hand to hand were nearly imperceptible. I actually listened to this one twice and, as I said, I'm not really a fan of anime soundtracks. It really is that good.

                      plop_symphony Arnold Lau < - Short and sweet but it shows off your skills.

                      Player1 Player1 < - Sigh This guy...

                      MarieJ MarieJ < - Beautiful. The montage was humbling through the illustration of how much you really wanted to learn how to play but couldn't seem to get past the "traditional" methods (and extremely terrible) music foisted off on students. Finding a genre which appealed to you enough that you could push through the "perpetual beginner" phase was the key.

                      Well, I'm done for today. So far this recital is a huge change from past ones here and on that other website in the quality of the submissions. There are a few of the pieces I've listened to so far that I'd be overjoyed to be able to play to the same standard some day, they are that good. Everyone has done a superb job! I will listen and comment as time and my body permits on the rest.

                                  Pathbreaker Op. 116 No. 6, Intermezzo in E major - Brahms

                                  The romantic era at its best. Very delightfully played, Mr. Brahms. Thank you for sharing.

                                    Sgisela oh my goodness!! That was wonderful!! I’m not familiar with this composer or this piece, but the music and your playing captured my heart!!!

                                      Gooseberry that was lovely! And the sentimentality came through in your playing in the best possible way!!

                                          Calavera Antipyretic by Hitoshi Sakimoto

                                          Your anime film music is always a pleasure to listen to. In both forums. This one is no exception, lots of dynamic changes building up drama to an apex, softening down again, creating this cinematic mood. Still, I am not into anime my entire life, I appreciate it when I get to see a movie but usually the a****n-prime algorithm offers me other stuff to see. Well, this does not matter, when I am done with learning the basics, I definitely want to try out some pieces of your preferred genre. And if the time is ready I know whom to ask for a recommendation for a entry level beginner piece 😉. Thank you for sharing this wonderful tune!

                                            plop_symphony Thanks for sharing this. Such a fun little piece and well played! It also looks fun to play with hand overs. But I am sure it is harder than it looks. So probably out of reach to me (for years) but I am bookmarking the score for future. Thanks again.

                                            Player1 great to see your entry here. I hope you will get back your usual practice routine back. I've enjoyed listening this piece. Reminds me some eastern melodies. This piece actually sounds really nice. I am not sure if I want to follow Faber 3B after finishing AIO2. But I think I should get it just to pick and choose pieces like this one.

                                            MarieJ I enjoy listening Einaudi and this one was no exception. It is more than six minutes long! I am always impressed when people play so smoothly for such a long time. Well played. Thanks for sharing.

                                            Pathbreaker that is so impressive. That score has so much ink 🙂 And it sounds as impressive as it looks. Thanks for sharing.

                                            Calavera I agree that is a great title. I spent good chunk of my life with games but never involved with Final Fantasy somehow. But it keeps popping up everywhere. Anyhow, you have played this wonderfully. From what hear, I guess it is quite advanced. And this is one of your shorter gems? It is three and a half minute! Well done.

                                            WieWaldi See you are doing it again. You are making it look easy peasy. I've started to appreciate the difficulty only after attempting to follow very basic blues lessons. It is difficult in a completely different way! Christian says "We are just playing simple chords with blues scale". Yea.. right. It just has this horrible syncopation, triplets, big chord jumps, funny slides etc. OK. I will stop ranting. Well done on this piece. And thanks for your blues support in PT.

                                                          Sophia Thank you.

                                                            Sam Schumann op 15-6 - "An Important Event" from the Scenes from Childhood

                                                            I played your version in 1.25x speed and of course at normal speed, too. In my humble opinion the normal speed sounded way better, nothing wrong with that. If you hadn't written it is under tempo, I would have never realized by my own. Your playing is very expressive and I can only
                                                            say the piece is very good performed as it is.
                                                            Sad to read about your friends situation. This will happen to all of us and it is good to have a friend like you, helping out in her distress. If she is still able to play her piano, you could do a duet with her, or maybe someone else? How often do you have the possibility to play 2 grand pianos in one music room?

                                                            • Sam replied to this.

                                                                bSharp that’s was wonderful!!! Very nice arrangement and very, very nicely played!! And it was the perfect combination of the original (which I can sing along with 100%, takes me back to junior high!!!) and also the pianistic qualities we want in a solo piece. Lovely!!

                                                                I need to get a collection of Dan Coats arrangements, all the ones I’ve heard have been really nice.

                                                                Listening to this recital is gonna cost me a lotta money… 😅

                                                                  SalmonJack Just Mist by SalmonJack

                                                                  Very lovely and musically. I think your playing is quite well and I really enjoyed to listen to it. So nice your music is, the thing that baffled me more, is how you managed to create the video with the spray bottle following the notes. Well, it is not about the spray bottle itself; it is how you did the perfect synchronization with the music. Is there a tool, or a software addon or did you just put a lot of manual effort into your video editing? If I think about my editing software, I have no clue how to realize that. Maybe one way could work, but that is a lot of hard work and very error prone, too.
                                                                  I find it also interesting, you wrote:

                                                                  SalmonJack The more I played, the worse I played.

                                                                  This happens to me all the time, especially when the camera is watching me. Either one of the 1st takes is good or it gets worse all the time. I usually start very musical, play freely but make some random mistakes. And then do a retake and pay attention to make the same mistake not again. But then another one happens. And the more I repeat, the more robotic my performance sounds until I have one recording without a major mistake. I am not sure if it wouldn't be better to use a musical and enjoyable recording with a few mistakes over a unmusical, but error free one.

                                                                      navindra that was great!! Fantastic playing and a very nice arrangement. And your piano sounds great!

                                                                      The perfect way to close out the recital!!
                                                                      ❤️🎶❤️🎶❤️

                                                                          Rob 'Pembrokeshire Promise.' by Rob

                                                                          Oh my god, this one is so thoughtful and lovely at the same time. I am currently in a depressive mood as well and this one hit me into my heart. I catches my feelings and also gives me hope. You did a wonderful composition, you performed it with so much expression, and I have to say thank you for this wonderful piece of music.

                                                                            rach3master — Call of Silence: Attack on Titan OST
                                                                            Wow, I never watched anime (I don't even know exactly what it is, I always thought cartoons for adults). So when I started to listen, it was with the idea of listening to "Tom chases Jerry" type of soundtrack... and I was very pleasantly surprised to realize how pensive and (your words) emotional it sounded! Thank you for opening my eyes/ears!

                                                                            MarieJ — I Giorni
                                                                            I can't even imagine recording a six minute piece... very nicely played! What caught me too was your search for the music you want to play... I can absolutely relate to that. I'm still in the process of finding out exactly what I'd like to play someday... so right now I still try "a little bit of everything" (though I'm also finding more pieces I'm very happy to skip in my method book, so it's a process that's already happening). But you found your "musical calling" and the passion/love shows in your performance! Well done!

                                                                            Sgisela — Danza de los ñáñigos
                                                                            A very interesting piece! It always fascinates me how tastes can vary from person to person - yet it's all excellent music and can be enjoyed by many. I loved how flawlessly you performed it! When the passion shows this much, it becomes a delight to listen and teaches me to widen my horizon at times. Thank you!

                                                                            Greta99 — Berceuse, Op. 23 No. 1
                                                                            What a sweet piece, well played! It's nice to see something from a female composer - not unusual now, but definitely back then. Sweet how she dedicated it to her daughter - very fitting for such a delicate piece.

                                                                            ShiroKuro — Wind
                                                                            This is the type of music that often used played in hotel lobbies if they had a live performer and rightfully so - it flows pleasantly and puts people in a good mood. I also much prefer the camera angle you use now - before all we saw was this big piano... it was nice to see your hands dance deftly over the keys.

                                                                                        Sophia I always thought cartoons for adults

                                                                                        I would say that's not an inaccurate description, just add that anime is from Japan, and you've covered the most important details. An interesting thing about anime is that the quality of music used in anime, as well as music used in Japanese games (e.g., Final Fantasy) is often quite high. By which I mean, very good music composed by classically trained composers, unlike a lot of animated movies made in the US, which often have pop songs as the driving music, and then more generic movie music in the back.... Hmm, maybe this isn't super accurate, take it with a grain of salt! 😃

                                                                                        Sophia I also much prefer the camera angle you use now - before all we saw was this big piano...

                                                                                        😆 I know, like that one video I shared where you could kind of see the top of my poofy hair 😆
                                                                                        I still hope to some day make cool videos like @iternabe where the keyboard is horizontal, or @Pathbreaker where you can add the score to the video.... Maybe some day!

                                                                                        it was nice to see your hands dance deftly over the keys.

                                                                                        Thank you! And thank you for your other kind words about my playing!!

                                                                                            iternabe I think this is excellent both technically and musically. And by technically I don't just mean you're playing the correct notes and the correct rhythms. I mean the movements of your fingers, wrists, and arms look very good. Both teacher and student should be commended here.

                                                                                              Rob I really like this. it's mellow with a tinge of sadness. Just a beautiful piece.

                                                                                              BicBic Great playing! I share your love of the mazurkas. You really caught the feel of this one.

                                                                                              Sgisela Nicely played! Those right hand chords look pretty tough.

                                                                                              Gooseberry Boy does that bring back some memories. You really caught the feel of it. (I keep waiting for the synth and flute to come in 🙂 )