PianoTell Recital #6 — Meta Feedback

navindra

Update 3: 15 November 2025

PianoTell Recital #6 is now live!

Please comment on the performances directly on the recital thread.

Meta feedback on the recitals can be shared here if desired. 🙂

Update 2: 31 October 2025

The recital is now open for submissions!

Who's ready to submit? 🙂

Simply go to the above link to submit, the discussion here is for any other questions or comments or updates.

The recital goes live on 15 November 2025.

Update 1: 15 October 2025

Why participate in regular recitals? This is an opportunity to share your music if you are a seasoned player, showcase your progress milestone by milestone if you're an active learner, stay motivated and on track, or simply contribute to the community fun! This is what it's all about.

For inspiration and a general idea of the recital format, just take a look at past recitals:

Everyone is welcome and what you submit is up to you.

We will open for submissions on 31 October 2025 (ish) and the recital will go live on 15 November 2025.

The recital format will be the similar to last time. See below for details!

Submission

Template

**Performer:** Name or Alias + Location + Experience
**Piece:** Title + Composer
**Comment Policy:** Feedback type desired (see below)

Put the link to your performance here (see below for details).

**Source of music:** ...
**Instrument:** ...
**Recording method:** ...
**Additional info:** Tell your story or share any interesting details related to your performance!

You may use the following template to specify the Comment Policy:

No Comments Please!
Positive comments only (no criticism or suggestions for improvement please).
Positive comments and suggestions for improvement (no direct criticism please).
All comments; anything goes!

Link To Your Performance:

If you have a video, that's great! Otherwise, audio-only is fine.
Upload your performance to YouTube, Vimeo, Rumble, SoundCloud, or Google Drive.
- Your media may be public or unlisted but private will not work.
- The direct link needs to be posted so that the performance is embedded on PT.
Dropbox option: If hosting your performance using YouTube or other service is not possible, then we will provide an upload option.

Submitters are requested to keep their performances up for at least a period of 30 days and as long as possible after that.

Do you want to host your performance elsewhere? Please let me know so that it can be tested.

Example

I hope Dynasty Battles doesn't mind that I used his video purely for illustrative purposes with some fictional details.

**Performer:** Dynasty Battles from Philadelphia, USA. I've been playing since 2004.
**Piece:** Prelude No. 15 in G Major, BWV 860, from The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1, by Johann Sebastian Bach.
**Comment Policy:** Critical Comments: Anything goes!

https://youtu.be/QU2lCZFB02Y

**Source of music:** IMSLP.
**Instrument:** Bösendorfer 280VC.
**Recording method:** iPhone X with large condenser microphones.
**Additional info:** My piano at home was out of tune, so I popped by my friend’s piano shop to record this piece just in the nick of time for the recital!

Performer: Dynasty Battles from Philadelphia, USA. I've been playing since 2004.
Piece: Prelude No. 15 in G Major, BWV 860, from The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1, by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Comment Policy: Critical Comments: Anything goes!

Source of music: IMSLP.
Instrument: Bösendorfer 280VC.
Recording method: iPhone X with large condenser microphones.
Additional info: My piano at home was out of tune, so I popped by my friend’s piano shop to record this piece just in the nick of time for the PianoTell recital!

What's Next?

Are you participating?

Feel free to pledge to perform a piece in the comments below.

Then — practice, practice, practice!

This is an archive of the recital announcement.

This is an opportunity to share your music if you are a seasoned player, showcase your progress milestone by milestone if you're an active learner, stay motivated and on track, or simply contribute to the community fun! One might even argue that performing is truly what it's all about.

For inspiration and a general idea of the recital format, just take a look at past recitals:

Everyone is welcome and what you submit is up to you.

For questions or comments or updates on the recital, please go here instead.

Submit your performance now!

To submit your performance, simply reply to this post, copy/paste the following template, update your details, and post the reply here.

If you don't yet have an account on PianoTell, the sign up process is very easy and completely free. Just look for "Sign Up" at the top of the site.

Your submission will only be visible to yourself and the recital coordinator until the recital goes live on 15 November 2025.

You can look at PianoTell Recital #5 to get an idea of what the recital will look like when it goes live.

Template

**Performer:** Name or Alias + Location + Experience
**Piece:** Title + Composer
**Comment Policy:** Feedback type desired (see below)

Put the link to your performance here (see below for details).

**Source of music:** ...
**Instrument:** ...
**Recording method:** ...
**Additional info:** Tell your story or share any interesting details related to your performance!

You may use the following template to specify the Comment Policy:

No Comments Please!
Positive comments only (no criticism or suggestions for improvement please).
Positive comments and suggestions for improvement (no direct criticism please).
All comments; anything goes!

Link To Your Performance:

If you have a video, that's great! Otherwise, audio-only is fine.
Upload your performance to YouTube, Vimeo, Rumble, SoundCloud, or Google Drive.
- Your media may be public or unlisted but private will not work.
- The direct link needs to be posted so that the performance is embedded on PT.
Ask for help!
Dropbox option: If hosting your performance using YouTube or other service is not possible, then you may submit your audio (e.g. MP3) or video file (e.g. MP4) here instead. In your recital submission, you can just say you uploaded your performance to Dropbox.

Submitters are requested to keep their performances up for at least a period of 30 days and as long as possible after that.

Do you want to host your performance elsewhere? Please let me know so that it can be tested.

Example

I hope Dynasty Battles doesn't mind that I used his video purely for illustrative purposes with some fictional details.

**Performer:** Dynasty Battles from Philadelphia, USA. I've been playing since 2004.
**Piece:** Prelude No. 15 in G Major, BWV 860, from The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1, by Johann Sebastian Bach.
**Comment Policy:** Critical Comments: Anything goes!

https://youtu.be/QU2lCZFB02Y

**Source of music:** IMSLP.
**Instrument:** Bösendorfer 280VC.
**Recording method:** iPhone X with large condenser microphones.
**Additional info:** My piano at home was out of tune, so I popped by my friend’s piano shop to record this piece just in the nick of time for the recital!

Have fun!

rsl12

I'm tempted to try Autumn Leaves again in a month, as I'm not fully happy with my PIYW recording, and I think the extra practice would be good for my walking bass. But I've got another knife to sharpen: CC Rider, which I'm hoping to use as a left hand stretching etude. My performance in a month may not be the best, but hopefully I can at least chart some progress with my handspan!

navindra

rsl12 I'm also considering a re-recording as a possible option since I'm unhappy with the previous recording in hindsight. Otherwise, I could do another Alfred piece.

On the other hand, I might ditch Alfred altogether for this recital.

The real piece I want to record is a bit of wildcard for me. I'm a bit at an impasse on how to get it to where I want it to be, musically speaking, although the piece by itself isn't all that complicated.

ShiroKuro

rsl12 PIYW recording

Speaking of... I've yet to record my PIYW Canon... 🙁 I have so many pieces in the pipeline, but none at the ready. Can I use Canon for both the recital and PIYW??

I'm also in the middle of preparing two jury pieces. My jury isn't until ealy Dec though, so those pieces won't be ready in time for the PT recital....

rsl12

navindra The real piece I want to record is a bit of wildcard for me. I'm a bit at an impasse on how to get it to where I want it to be, musically speaking, although the piece by itself isn't all that complicated.

What's the piece? I think you should go for it! Practice the thing that will make you a better musician! The practice is more important than the performance.

rsl12

ShiroKuro I'm also in the middle of preparing two jury pieces. My jury isn't until ealy Dec though, so those pieces won't be ready in time for the PT recital....

Maybe you could just record a snippet? That's probably what I'm going to do as well.

Nightowl

I am currently working on a possible recital piece, but it requires use of the pedal - time for me to finally get to grips with it! I already received good advice from @rsl12 , @WieWaldi and @Sophia about pedalling so I really have no excuse not to overcome this obstacle that I've been avoiding for so long. 🙂

rsl12

Nightowl if pedal is really giving you that much anxiety, may I suggest working up the Chopin piece you learned earlier? That way you can focus on the pedal, without worrying so much about the notes.

navindra

Time flies! Only a handful of days left before the recital opens for submissions!

rsl12 I'm keeping that card close to me! I thought I'd be more confident by now about what I was going to submit, but I'm realizing that I underestimated the work I needed here, so that plan isn't panning out. Sadly, I may have to consider a backup plan.

Hopefully others are having better luck!

ShiroKuro

rsl12 Maybe you could just record a snippet?

Maybe! I need to figure out something, or else I'll miss this recital... I am swamped with work stuff, and my schedule is so tight that I can either record, or practice, but not both. -_-

Nightowl

I have begun to overcome some of my pedal anxiety by working on simple pieces from A's book 1. But anyway it turns out that my current piece only requires minimal pedalling as there are some weird harmonies that sound overdone with the pedal. I might rework that Chopin piece at some point, but I also have another piece on my wish list that I'd like to tackle soon, one which would defo benefit from some pedal and might be quite forgiving if I over pedal slightly. Still pondering, no rush, nearly 3 weeks till the deadline.

Nightowl

ShiroKuro Actually, doing both at once is quite a good idea - just get into the habit of recording your practice sessions then if you manage to play the piece nicely press the stop button, then edit the recording to remove the unwanted front section. Job done! This works for me sometimes. 🙂

ShiroKuro

Nightowl Maybe, but my focus is quite different when I'm practicing. For one thing, I rarely play all the way through, and I'm focusing on learning and improving. Whereas, when recording, I do play all the through, and I'm focused on communicating something in the music. And I make a commitment to play the piece some set number of times and just focus on doing that, recording those performances.

So for me, what I do while practicing and what I do while playing are different enough that it doesn't make sense to set up a recorder and record the whole session.

BTW what recording device do you use?

Nightowl

ShiroKuro I use an Acer Chomebook, piled on top of a few books on a stool to get a reasonable camera angle. No other accessories and I have no editing software, I just upload to YT then chop the front section off - that's the limit that a tech dino like me can manage.

I understand what you're saying about the difference between practice and recording sessions, however maybe there's a compromise possible so you merge the two procedures a bit - nothing to lose really but a few minutes where you play the whole piece through a couple times after each practice.

ShiroKuro

@Nightowl oops, I think I missed this response, my apologies!

Nightowl I just upload to YT then chop the front section off

You mean, you do that editing after uploading? I didn’t know that was an option! I hate how clunky it is to trim the beginning and end using my iPhone, maybe I’ll try YouTube.

I still haven’t started recording but I sort of had a “breakthrough.” I have been really struggling with tempo, first in terms of deciding the tempo I want and then second in terms of doing a reasonably good job of maintaining the tempo throughout (it’s a long piece and I tended to speed up). But I think I’ve finally found the tempo I want, and since it’s a tempo I actually like, it’s easier to play it at that tempo throughout (surprise!)

So I’m going to try to start recording this week and aim to have it ready by the recital! 🤞

TomDensley

I'm looking forward to this I just got a new microphone and it sounds killer

navindra

TomDensley Nice! I better get on it then.

What microphone did you get?

navindra

The recital is now open for submissions!

Who's ready to submit? 🙂

Simply go to the above link to submit, the discussion here is for any other questions or comments or updates.

The recital goes live on 15 November 2025.