PianoTell Recital #4 is Now Live!

plop_symphony

Javier This is such a timeless melody. I played a greatly simplifed version of this a while back, and I saw Trifonov perform the Hess arrangement of this in concert. You brought out the different voices very well.

Javier

plop_symphony Thank you, Baroque music has a special place in my heart and this Cantata is by far, one of my favorites. A "timeless melody" for sure.

twocats

Sam I really loved the pipe organ and harpsichord renditions! You really captured the style well. And then all together was quite something!!

Player1

rsl12 I'm glad you found a way to participate! My daughter is about to start Faber level 1. Are you enjoying it? I hope you're able to get back to the piano properly very soon.

The regular Faber series will teach you how to play. The Faber Adult series will do that too but it skips a lot of basic stuff since adults tend to not want to get bogged down in that kind of thing. Unfortunately, that hurts progress through the higher levels because you lose out on a lot of theory stuff. Or as least that's what I found happened to me.

So, I recommend that you begin with the regular Faber books, even if your daughter is older, because they will teach the things she'll need at the higher levels. I'd also say to pay attention to the theory and do quizzes on it to ensure that it's learned and ingrained into long term memory.

Sight Reading Factory helped my reading skills tremendously in only a few weeks. I highly recommend adding a sight reading supplement to the Faber program. It will make playing much easier and learning faster.

What strikes me the most is that in 2 1/2 years I went from knowing nothing about playing a piano to being able to play. I'm only a lower intermediate level player at this point but that's still surprising for only 2 1/2 years. Or it is to me.

ShiroKuro

Player1 Sight Reading Factory

Is that the app (?) which offers something like random/auto-generated scores (as opposed to scores that a human wrote) and it constantly pushes new material, and you set difficulty levels? Or am I remembering wrong? If I am remembering right (well and even if I'm wrong about the details), how do you like it?
/threaddrift

rsl12

Player1 So, I recommend that you begin with the regular Faber books, even if your daughter is older, because they will teach the things she'll need at the higher levels. I'd also say to pay attention to the theory and do quizzes on it to ensure that it's learned and ingrained into long term memory.

That's what I ordered! They are coming in next week. I ordered all 4 books for Level 1. It seems like overkill, but I want to see for myself what they contain. The small kid Faber series (First Adventures) was split into a playing book and a writing book, and I thought the organization was nice, so I'm giving Faber the benefit of the doubt.

Player1

ShiroKuro

I use my PC on their website but yes, that's the one.

I like it. It really did speed up my reading ability. I don't bother with the option of having it playing the generated score. Instead I just try to push as fast as I can through each one then go on to the next one. I was doing a dozen per day for a couple of months and by the end I was zipping through them and needed to go to a higher level.

You don't have to play the scores on your piano to get a benefit. Which means it works anywhere.

I haven't used it for several weeks now.

ShiroKuro

hebele thank you for listening and for the kind comments!

ShiroKuro

@Player1 thanks! I think I might have tried that a long time ago, I’m sure someone mentioned it at PW. But I had forgotten about it. I should look at it again.

Player1 You don't have to play the scores on your piano to get a benefit.

What do you play them on?

Sophia

ShiroKuro Lovely Shiro! I always loved Packerbel and yours did the piece all the justice it deserves. In one of the Alfred books there is a simplified version, but it doesn't hold a candle to what it is supposed to sound like and I didn't even bother to learn it. The missing violin isn't noticeable unless you mention it 🙂 It stands very well on its own!

ShiroKuro

Sophia thank you for listening! And for the kind words, that’s very motivating!

Player1

ShiroKuro

I just read them and speak the notes as fast as I can. Basically I'm training my eye/brain to see and recognize the notes at a very fast pace.

twocats

rach3master wow, what a tremendous piece and performance! I felt around the 3 minute mark that it should be more delicate, especially for contrast when the rest of the piece is so big. But your playing is wonderful. Bravo!!

twocats

navindra nicely played, especially the ornaments! I love the return of the hat 🙂

Since you're asking for strong honest feedback, I couldn't tell if it was deliberate that your left hand and right hand didn't land at the same time, and sometimes the left hand also doesn't have a clean landing on chords. If it wasn't deliberate it's definitely something I would work on for the future! Also not sure if you're ready for this, but the left hand feels very metronomic and you could shape it more by emphasizing the lower notes a little more and a little less at the top. I think that would make the piece so much more musical. Send me a private message if you need more clarity on any of this or need a demo.

I'm so sorry for the loss of your uncle. I'm sure he would be so happy to see you carrying on his legacy of music ❤️

navindra

Thanks everyone! I've been reading as many comments as I can and I've appreciated every single one of them!

I might be jumping all over the place as and when I get a chance to respond but I wanted to jump in the middle a bit and say thank you to @twocats for this on-point feedback!

twocats Since you're asking for strong honest feedback, I couldn't tell if it was deliberate that your left hand and right hand didn't land at the same time, and sometimes the left hand also doesn't have a clean landing on chords. If it wasn't deliberate it's definitely something I would work on for the future! Also not sure if you're ready for this, but the left hand feels very metronomic and you could shape it more by emphasizing the lower notes a little more and a little less at the top. I think that would make the piece so much more musical. Send me a private message if you need more clarity on any of this or need a demo.

I think my desire is to play with a fluid rhythm and this is showing in my right hand in the melody but my left hand is staying metronomic. And this manifests as a lack of coordination. I was given this feedback on a different piece previously and I don't think I put two and two together until now. Realizing that it makes my hands sound uncoordinated, I'll have to figure out how to repair this.

The lack of a clean landing on the chords is definitely not intentional though and something I'll work on.

I've been aware of my left hand being too loud for a while now, but it really helped me when you pointed out that it shouldn't just be softer, but my bass note can also stand out a little. I love how you call it "shaping" and I'm so ready to work that! I've been working on it now and this has helped me a lot! It's an eye opener!

I've gotten past feedback about being too metronomic and I just didn't know what to do about that until now. I gave up on using an actual metronome a long time ago exactly because of this feedback, but that obviously hasn't helped. 😃

I'm going to be working on shaping the chords in the left hand now and I'm so looking forward to it.

Thank you so much for the help and pointing me in these directions! I think you could be a really great teacher!

Peyton

navindra Nicely done. I love that piano too! 🙂

navindra

Peyton Thanks a lot Peyton!

ShiroKuro Thanks so much!

Sophia It also seems you accomplished your mission: finish the Alfred book. I believe this is one of the last pieces, so congrats on your progress!

Thank you! Maybe we have different Alfred book series? I still have too many pages left in mine and I'm unfortunately still stuck in the past so I haven't made much progress forward.

I bought the second book already though.

rogerch Thanks, Roger!

WieWaldi Thank you, I appreciate that!

Nightowl Thank you!

plop_symphony

lilypad Ripples are uneven in real life! I thought this sounded great.

TLH21

keff As Time Goes By by Herman Hupfield

Thanks for submitting your recording of that lovely piece - it brings back happy memories.

Schubertian2 Sonata Opus 109 by Beethoven

You have a beautiful piano there. Nicely presented/played and thanks for adding the thoughtful additional info that made for very interesting reading.

Sam Les Niais de Sologne by Jean-Philippe Rameau

What a lovely performance, or was it performances (very nicely edited too). Good for you taking on a harpsichord - I was at a renaissance music recital a few months ago that involved a harpsichord and during which the performer had to keep tweaking the tuning.

Javier

Nightowl Hello, listening to your recording I couldn't help myself but to sing along. Well Done!

Nightowl

Javier Thanks, in a way that's the best kind of compliment. 🙂

@TLH21 @hebele @rogerch @AlbertAndreu Thanks for your kind words.

@rsl12 Thanks very much for the nice comments. There is an instruction in the arrangement to play the piece "Moderately, with expression", but I also had the advantage that this song was played on the radio a lot when I was a child, so it's indelibly printed on my memory.

rsl12

ShiroKuro I thought this was a fun piece and I agree, it's an excellent choice as the antidote to stormy! (and btw no one would know you are recovering from fingernail trauma!)

My wife was MUCH happier with this piece.
The video resolution really helps hide any sign of a mangled finger!

WieWaldi Glad to see you focusing on piano playing, purely.

I'm worried that I'll lose all improvement I made on singing, but my piano skills are in need of exercise!

WieWaldi This piece seems way way way more challenging than I expected from you.

That many "way"s?? It was definitely the hardest "Sonatina" that I've ever played. York Bowen composed some beautiful sonatas too. They sound even more challenging! (But I think he called this one a "Sonatina" because of how light it should be, rather than how easy.)

Sophia Such elegant hands and the charismatic smile when you turned the page... and then played a piece that contained more notes than all my books combined

Ah, the video resolution must have been just right. Enough to see that my hands are elegant but too blurry to see my minger (mangled finger). (it's not that mangled. It's healing nicely.)

Funny you say I'm smiling... For future reference, that's my "the music is falling off the stand, oh poop" look!

Sophia

rsl12 For future reference, that's my "the music is falling off the stand, oh poop" look!

Noted! "even rsl12 'oh poop' look is charming" 😉

TLH21

WieWaldi Boogie Blues by Christian Fuchs

Nicely done. You seem to be getting a lot of enjoyment out of the course you are taking. Skills are building nicely too.

Peyton Love No More by Peyton

Very nice song, and that is a wonderful instrument.

hebele Old French Song by Tchaikovsky

Well done with this piece, I enjoyed listening to it. Not a simple piece to play with just a year or so under your belt.

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