Play It Your Way: A new monthly(ish) recital

rsl12 · 2025-05-18T18:03:19+00:00

The idea: 1. In the next few weeks, a group of us pick a jazz/blues tune we all like. 2. For the August recital, we all submit the same song! 3. Profit...

twocats

Sophia Gemini came up with quite a few... too many perhaps 😃

Hahaha! It's a bit overwhelming 😂

rsl12

twocats I like "Play It Your Way" quite a lot 🙂

I like it too! And (following WieWaldi's idea) we could insert the name of the piece into the title: Play "Twinkle Twinkle" Your Way. That would work if we only do one piece at a time.

twocats What if it's a monthly thing except for months that have a normal recital?

That's not a bad idea... I worry it might be a lot of work for someone, but if, unlike Reddit's Piano Jam, we only do a single piece per month and rotate genres, it could be okay.

Sophia I took inspiration from you and did the same with Gemini.

I'm very impressed with Gemini's creativity!

Based on our discussion, I'm revising my original idea into this:

At the beginning of a non-PT-recital month, a piece is announced, along with links to lead sheets and/or sheet music. The genre/difficulty of the piece will vary each month.
A "recital/challenge/event" thread is created (maybe in the "Member Recordings" forum?) where people can submit their recordings. If Navi allows it, we can publish it the same way as the recitals: keep everything hidden until the end of the month. Unlike the recital, we allow late submissions.

How to choose a piece? Since interest seems to be high, informal consensus by discussion seems like it will be cumbersome going forward. At reddit we did it like this: everyone can submit suggestions at any time into an online form. Those suggestions are kept in a little database, and each month, the person in charge chooses a few pieces from that database. I don't mind being that person, but we could also rotate the responsibility.

twocats

rsl12 along with links to lead sheets and/or sheet music

Nice!! Yes please 🙂

rsl12 A "recital/challenge/event" thread is created (maybe in the "Member Recordings" forum?) where people can submit their recordings.

I don't know how @navindra would feel about including this in the Recitals forum? IMO it's a specialized recital and I feel like it makes sense to be there.

rsl12 How to choose a piece? Since interest seems to be high, informal consensus by discussion seems like it will be cumbersome going forward. At reddit we did it like this: everyone can submit suggestions at any time into an online form. Those suggestions are kept in a little database, and each month, the person in charge chooses a few pieces from that database. I don't mind being that person, but we could also rotate the responsibility.

I'm just along for the ride and am happy to try out whatever pieces people choose. The normal recitals always feels stressful to me (I feel like for my own sake I should make the effort to make a good recording with high quality audio, which takes too much time and effort) but for this I'll just use my iPad and it's a fun casual thing I can join! 🙂

Thanks for all the effort in making this happen!

Sophia

rsl12 I like it too! And (following WieWaldi's idea) we could insert the name of the piece into the title: Play "Twinkle Twinkle" Your Way. That would work if we only do one piece at a time.

One more vote for that! I like it too, awesome combined idea WieWie and TooKittyKats 👍️

WieWaldi

rsl12 At the beginning of a non-PT-recital month, a piece is announced, along with links to lead sheets and/or sheet music. The genre/difficulty of the piece will vary each month.

Good idea. But I want to have the permission to find my own sheet music if it is too hard for me. I might be a slow learner but a truffle pig when it comes to finding something in the net.

What about pieces that are not public domain and sheet music isn't free? In case someone posts a copy of sheet music here in the forum, we are in a legal gray area (dark gray, if not black). If every participant must find his own copy in the internet or within a book, nobody can check for each participant, whether it was a legal purchase or not, so it would be a very light-gray area.
Or does it make sense to exclude pieces, that aren't public domain?

WieWaldi

twocats I don't know how @navindra would feel about including this in the Recitals forum? IMO it's a specialized recital and I feel like it makes sense to be there.

Same view here. 👍 It was the place for the holiday recital, too. I think, Retical Hall is made for it.

The question Member Recordings vs Rectial Hall has been discussed several times here and now we have both. I think the best criteria to separate them is:

Member Recordings = one member hosts one piece whenever needed
Recital Hall = a group of members hosts pieces when it is organized by mods/admin

A bit offtopic: Over in PW, there is the themed recital forum, and it is quite easy to go back and search for a specific recital. But the recitals that are hosted in the regular ABF are always a nightmare to find if they are a few months old and un-sticked. Same would happen if we host it in the Member Recordings.

navindra

twocats I don't know how @navindra would feel about including this in the Recitals forum? IMO it's a specialized recital and I feel like it makes sense to be there.

I'm not caught up, but I'm happy to support whatever folks think is the best place. I think the holiday recital worked out well and so happy to give support and visibility to similar events!

twocats

Sophia by the way, my username is way out of date but I didn't feel like changing it to "threecats" 😹😹😹

Sophia

Haha I always thought it was a play on "toccata" - so it's a fitting name either way 😃
Signed: fellow-owned-by-three-cats

twocats

Sophia no, nothing so clever! 😹

Simonb

Hi,

I haven't read the (whole) thread, but love the basic idea. Whether I get round to doing something is another matter. Today is the first time I've logged on for weeks. But I will look out for whatever it is, when it happens.

I'm away for a 10 day holiday now, but will try and keep track of what's going on.

Cheers

TC3

FYI, I'm travelling for parts of June, so if it were that soon I probably wouldn't participate. I'd also probably not participate in anything monthly. None of that should prevent the rest of y'all doing as you see fit, though!

rsl12

TC3 I'm travelling for parts of June, so if it were that soon I probably wouldn't participate. I'd also probably not participate in anything monthly.

Sorry to hear it 🙁 If you mean you couldn't participate every month, I wouldn't expect anyone to do that! You can pick and choose which month/pieces you want to play.

Sophia

Agreed, I think monthly is a little too much... I'm already juggling my regular "lessons" with the blues course. If I had to learn a monthly "mandatory" piece as well would take away some of my joy for sure 🙂 I would prefer September as well, but if June is better for others, I'd be happy to participate anyway. Just, you know, not every month after that...

twocats

Sophia Agreed, I think monthly is a little too much... I'm already juggling my regular "lessons" with the blues course. If I had to learn a monthly "mandatory" piece as well would take away some of my joy for sure 🙂

I was thinking more like, monthly would give people lots of options, and no one is expected to participate every month!

That said, I'm not the one doing all the work so I will not take a vote on this 😉

TC3

rsl12 Apologies for the ambiguity. Right: I wouldn't be able to participate every month, but definitely here and there.

rsl12

If people think 1 month is too short a time frame, should we do every 3 months, with the due date being the month after each recital? That would mean only 4 pieces per year, and if we rotate genres, it means each genre only happens about once a year.

Also: Whatever time frame we decide, I don't think the "deadline" needs to be strict. At r/piano, we allowed submissions up to 3 months late. So if we make this first event's deadline the end of June, submissions are accepted until the end of September (and maybe beyond that, because who's really going to keep track).

rsl12

Possibilities for first song:

C-Jam Blues is a popular tune. It's simple (maybe the simplest!) blues, but you can make it complex if you want, and there are loads of arrangements.
Lead sheet: https://musescore.com/samayaprice/c-jam-blues-duke-ellington
Simple arrangement: https://musescore.com/user/2087716/scores/5378465
More advanced arrangement: https://blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=nanopure28&logNo=51971247

(You Ain't Nothin' But A) Hound Dog by Elvis. Everyone (of a certain age) knows this one I think.
Lead sheet: https://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0130574
Arrangement: https://musescore.com/official_scores/scores/6937448

Simonb

Hi rsl12

I agree C Jam Blues would be a fun place to start. The melody is 2 notes (G & C) in the key of C, for those that don't know it. It's a staple of any jam session, but as you say it can made hugely complicated if you have the talent.

Cheers

WieWaldi

rsl12 If it's in musescore, it is double fun. 👍👍
This means one can copy different parts and lines together, and directly edit everything in musescore (the software). Or exchange one bass line with another. Making an own arrangement. The possibilities are endless.

rsl12

WieWaldi Good idea. But I want to have the permission to find my own sheet music if it is too hard for me. I might be a slow learner but a truffle pig when it comes to finding something in the net.

What about pieces that are not public domain and sheet music isn't free? In case someone posts a copy of sheet music here in the forum, we are in a legal gray area (dark gray, if not black). If every participant must find his own copy in the internet or within a book, nobody can check for each participant, whether it was a legal purchase or not, so it would be a very light-gray area.
Or does it make sense to exclude pieces, that aren't public domain?

Yes, a grey area for sure! It's easy with classical pieces that are all public domain, but with more modern arrangements, it becomes hard. I find that musescore is an OK compromise--you can link to scores, and if people want they can purchase their own copies. And of course you're welcome to use whatever arrangement you can find/create.

Simonb

This may be the greatest C-Jam blues ever caught on film:

Good luck 😂

WieWaldi

Simonb Good luck 😂

I can do the clapping part in the beginning 👏👏👏

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