PIYW #7: "Play 'Over the Rainbow' Your Way" Is Now Live!

rsl12

PIYW #7: Play "Over the Rainbow" Your Way (April 2026)

Performers:

Play It Your Way is a quasi-monthly event for beginners, professionals, classical, jazz, or pop pianists and everyone in between! Since February 16, participants have been working on Over the Rainbow by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg. Enjoy their performances below. More information about Play It Your Way and about how participants prepared this piece can be found in the Meta Feedback discussion. The June PIYW, "How Long Blues", has just been announced! Also, be sure to participate in the May Quarterly Recital , which will go live on May 15.

ALL comments must be polite and supportive, even when the performer has stated that any comments are allowed. "How to Give Criticism in a Nice Way: A Comprehensive Guide". Thanks for helping us to keep things friendly!

Suggest pieces for future "Play It Your Way" events by using the suggestion box. We need suggestions for all genres of music, but particularly for the Classical PIYW which will be announced on May 16. (Ideally, the Play It Your Way piece will be playable by many different skill levels, but it doesn't necessarily have to be.)

If you are still working on Over the Rainbow, you can submit your recording here at any time.

This is an archive of the recital announcement.

PIYW #7: Play "Over the Rainbow" Your Way (April 2026)

Use this thread to submit your performance for PIYW #7 (details here). No one will be able to see your performance until the recital is published on April 15. Note that there is no deadline for this event! You are welcome to submit your performance any time, including before and after that date.

Submission Template

**Performer:** Name or Alias + Location + Experience
**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 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.

Sophia

Performer: Sophia
Comment Policy: Anything at all

Source of music: Alfred Adult All-in-One Course Level 1
Instrument: Yamaha Clavinova
Recording method: iPhone
Additional info: I learned this piece a little over two years ago when I worked my way through the Alfred books (this piece is towards the end of the first book). It was fun to revive it, and of course to try and improve on the original.
Granted, it's smoother and more polished now, but I was slightly surprised to find it's not the difference between night and day that I anticipated 🙂

Nightowl

Sophia I dabbled with this arrangement and I know that it's not as easy as it first appears, but you played it well and the rolled chords were very nicely done. I think I noticed the shadow of Simba's tail - was he perched on your shoulder while you played this? If so it's even more impressive. 🙂

navindra I had seen this vid before, but I took another look as it was interesting to directly compare your rendition of this arrangement to Sophia's. There wasn't much to choose between them as both of you played the piece well, but I think your grand piano has a richer sound than Sophia's Clavinova, which is what you'd expect when comparing a GP to a DP.

WieWaldi

Sophia I just looked up the history: On Feb, 16th rsl anounced OTR to be the winner. Feb, 25, you submitted your recording, this is only 9 days later. Considering the rest of the bunch didn't submit two days before opening the thread because of learning issues and the like, you do the best to stengthen your position as rocket fast learner. Sorry - this attribute sticks to you and you can't get rid of it.^^
You played it very well, it was very easy to count along with yours. Your inner rhythm and timing is spot on. Seems almost as if you had a metronome sitting on your shoulder - a musical metronome that knows when to rubato. The dynamics was good, but there is still some room for improvement. Especially with a sentimental piece like this one.

Funny thing you and Navindra played the exact same arrangement, this makes a comparison with his version unavoidable:
Navindra played it 2 seconds faster => Winner!
The category I will definitely give the cup to you is for doing a better job in keeping the rhythm, or call it couting and play the notes exactly right on time.

navindra you did an amazing job of bringing out the melody with all its nuances and dynamics. The tempo changes were even more lively and suited OTR very well. Listening to yours, it is hard to believe this is from Alfred 1. If there is anything to criticize, sometimes you played two notes an eighth too early. It is always the same repeated phrase you did this, the first time at around 0:10. I think both notes should be played at 3 and 4, but you rushed it at 2½ and 3½. But the following bar is quite in time again. I don't know if you did this on purpose or not, but from a listeners standpoint it sounds like a minor glitch.
Needless to say, your grand sounds just wonderful and you did an amazing job micing it up.

Sorry for doing a direct comparison between you both and using it to pointing out some criticism. On the other hand you both are sitting in a very nice spot to have someone else played the exact arrangement. You both can learn something from each other to improve you playing. Thank you both for sharing this wonderful Alfred 1 version.
I still can't believe to find this arragement in the first book. It sounds too good for I expect in a beginner's book.

KevinM

Sophia I really enjoyed this. You make your aging Clavinova musical.

rsl12

Sophia Instead of comparing you to Navi, I'll compare you to yourself. I hear a pretty big improvement! You are now "shaping" the line, giving peaks and valleys through crescendo and decrescendo. That's a big milestone! Keep at it!

rsl12

Performer: rsl12. First 40% of my piano life was classical, next 50% was jazz, but now I'm working on anything interesting (plus singing)
Feedback Type Desired: Anything goes!

Source of music: I'd say half improvised, half my own arrangement
Recording method: phone. Sorry, I didn't have time to flip the recording! (Youtube used to let me do it 😦 )
Additional info: I meant to study a Johnny Costa recording, but I didn't get far in my study. I ended up playing with a bunch of ideas and then throwing them together. The stew needs more simmering, but it's dinner time!

PS. At about 2:45, I meant to do a glissando, but I knocked the stand holding my phone/camera! It would have been great, but oh well!!

Sophia

rsl12 <deep sigh, do NOT comment on camera angle... do... not... must.. resist...> 😃
Beautiful! It would be gorgeous as an arrangement, but improvised it is even more impressive! Even your embellishments have their own frillies. I loved your non-glissando, which is even funnier because I have been working on it these past few days and I actually had a chuckle when I saw what you did there 😃 Lovely ending! I enjoyed that very much indeed, even the ca... oh wait. Yeah, no, I am not commenting on the camera angle 😋

KevinM

rsl12 I enjoyed your recovery from the glissando mare. Well done, that is an excellent interpretation that I could imagine listening to in a hotel bar.

WieWaldi

rsl12 If there is a trophy for playing it YOUR way, it would be certainly yours. Even if there are some hesitant spots (you said it, the stew and the simmering), yours is so very personal and already uncooked a pleasure to listen to. I can not tell where the sheet music ends and the improvisation starts. It fits very well together.
How do you do it? Do you learn the basic melody by sheet music and then modify it to your personal taste or an adaption of another players style? Or do you only listen and then play by ear? In both cases, I am deeply impressed of what you created.

Nightowl

rsl12 Jazz is not my thing but I liked the parts where you played the piece closer to the usual arrangement. I think you could play anything you set your mind to, in any style you choose - it must be great having such skill at your fingertips. 🙂

twocats

Performer: twocats from Portland, Oregon (30+ years playing classical piano)
Feedback Type Desired: All comments; anything goes!

Source of music: Musescore
Instrument: Bösendorfer 225
Recording method: Zoom Q8 audio with phone video
Additional info: I did a bunch of takes and I think this one was emotionally my favorite one. It was also one of the few that did not have a bonus cat background singer 😹

Sophia

twocats That was gorgeous! So delicately played 🙂 I am more used to you "beating the piano in submission", but of course you are such an allrounder than you handle sweet melodies like this with equal ease. Beautiful arrangement, I can't believe you learned that in just a few days!

BTW... what is wrong with having a cat background singer? 🤪 I had a cat conductor on my shoulder, you can just see the shadow of his tail wave around 😆

Edit: oops, crossposted with @Nightowl - yup, that was Simba!

KevinM

twocats This feels like the most quintessential version. Like how I remembered it from watching the movie in the 70s. A lovely mellow sound you give.

rsl12

twocats The lack of cats in the recording is a detriment. I'm sure everyone here agrees. Find out what Sophia is doing to encourage them to the piano.

I like that this arrangement has nice tenor/alto lines going through it, and I like that you brought them out!

Nightowl

twocats Nicely played! It must be lovely to be able to play such a nice arrangement well, virtually at first sight, without needing weeks of practice (just 30 years of experience, which shows). 🙂

WieWaldi

Performer: WieWaldi from Bavaria (near Germany), 4 years of self learning
Feedback Type Desired: All comments; anything goes!

Source of music: YouTube Tutorial
Instrument: Kawai CN-29 (SK-EX Mellow)
Recording method: Headphone jack → PC
Additional info: I trusted the tutorial before picking the arrangement, because it said: "very well playable", "not much technique asked", "only thing, you gotta manage is E♭". Big mistake! This arrangement was clearly above my abilities. I would rate it somewhere in the lower intermediate level range. Too much for an absolute beginner to deal with. I struggled through it and finally got a useable recording in the last minute; which made me quite happy.

Nightowl

WieWaldi That was lovely WieWie! Having listened to CF's tutorial of this arrangement I honestly think yours sounds far better - it's more cohesive, less stilted. (Also, you have nicer hands than him.)

I also love the special rainbow font used for the title graphics, plus the blue wrist bands which add a nice accent of colour.

Sophia

WieWaldi That was LOVELY!!! When I read your description, I expected a half finished, badly played, uneven struggle. Instead, we were treated to a delicate, balanced and sensitive performance. Everything about it is just perfect WieWie, obviously you hold yourself to very high standards, but I feel you are being overly harsh on yourself.

This is not an easy piece, obviously. I could listen to this over and over again, and never get bored with the subtle nuances. This arrangement was clearly within your abilities - it just took you a little longer to get there. Congrats on this huge leap forward in your musicality!

KevinM

WieWaldi A beautiful and very sensitive interpretation. I really enjoyed this. Choosing the mellow piano was the right choice.

navindra

WieWaldi Very tender rendition, and super lovely arrangement to boot. Great chords. You sound very much at ease playing this. Dare I say, but you have left the "absolute beginner" designation behind with aplomb. Now you carry all the responsibilities and duties associated with being an intermediate player. Very nice indeed! 👍

navindra

Performer: Navindra Umanee in the USA. On and off piano lessons since September 2019.
Feedback Type Desired: Critical Comments: Anything goes! Strong honest feedback helps me.

Source of music: Alfred's Basic Adult All-in-One Course, Book 1
Instrument: Estonia Model L168
Recording method: The piano was tuned using the amazing Grand CyberHammer with the equally mind-blowing pianoscope app. Unfortunately, Seattle hit a cold spell, which impacted the humidity and my tuning a little. I used close miking with the Audix SCX25APS system mounted on the Mirizio Microphone Mount, feeding into a TASCAM Portacapture X8 portable recorder. iZotope RX 10 Standard was used to attenuate the sustain pedal thumps via De-plosive, the tracks were mixed with Audacity, and a touch of reverb was added with Logic Pro using Space Designer’s Piano Warmth preset. The video was created with various generations of Sony Alpha mirrorless cameras and Final Cut Pro.
Additional info: Apologies if you've heard this one before. I realize the performance could have been better, but a reshoot wasn't in the cards for me. The triplet was on purpose, even if I may have marred an otherwise decent arrangement by Alfred's with a wobble! 🎶

Sophia

navindra Of course I just had to listen to yours first.... because not only did we play the same tune, but even the same arrangement. How thrilling 🙂

So, listening to yours, the first thing that pops into my mind is how very musical you manage to sound. Compared to you, mine sounds like a marching band! And of course your piano, sound, camera setup etc are so good. You're just a pro at heart 😃

A few tiny "nitpicks": you might want to make some passages breathe even more. You do tend to rush some of the longer notes (more than likely to do with nerves, a desire to get it over with), and I think it would sound infinitely nicer still if you wait just a hair longer. Notable places: 0:10, 0:33, 1:12 and 1:32.

What happened at 1:20? Overall, it sounds lovely. I absolutely adore the rubato at the end 🙂

Thanks for posting this again so I could get reacquainted with it!

KevinM

navindra I love your sensitivity of touch, just the right dynamics to give this piece life, and you are really taking advantage of the excellent sound of your Estonia. A beautiful sounding piano.

Emery

Performer: Emery Wang, Portland, Oregon, been struggling for quite a few years at this
Feedback Type Desired: ...The good, the bad, and the ugly

Source of music: ...Musicnotes.com
Instrument: ...Shigeru Kawai EX via Pianoteq by way of a Yamaha N1
Recording method: ...Pianoteq internal recorder
Additional info: ...This is a piece I always blank out on when trying to play it in public. Not sure why.

Sophia

Emery Welcome to this forum Emery! I was listening to your rendition, and suddenly my eyes popped out of my head. Wow, that was an unexpected turn.... I loved the transition to Jazz-Boogie-Swing and then seamlessly switching between those styles, ending with the melody once more. You mentioned Musicnotes as the source, but surely a lot of what you did was improvised, right? I'm insanely jealous of your abilities, naturally 🙂

And lastly, lovely photo display on the wall. Now I need to know who the youngsters are 😃

KevinM

Emery Such an interesting mix for your interpretation. You kept it lively and playful. I could imagine it is fun to play that interpretation as long as your skills are up to it of course.

navindra

Emery OMG. Such massive chords. Such a grandiose sound. Such expressiveness. Such fun rhythms. I enjoyed everything about this. Somehow you made this appear absolutely effortless. Totally enjoyed this, what a crowd pleaser too. Beautiful. Bravo! 👏👏👏

Nightowl

Emery You're clearly a man who knows his way around a piano! I'm not a fan of jazz but I envy the skill you display when playing this arrangement.

rsl12

Feel free to add comments and late submissions below. Enjoy!

For meta feedback on the recitals, please use this thread instead.

twocats

Sophia That was gorgeous! So delicately played 🙂 I am more used to you "beating the piano in submission", but of course you are such an allrounder than you handle sweet melodies like this with equal ease. Beautiful arrangement, I can't believe you learned that in just a few days!

Thank you! Not to brag, but it's actually a slow enough arrangement that I sightread it. I ran through it a couple of times (highlighting the places to pay attention to wrong notes) before I did a bunch of takes and picked the best one to share 🙂 I don't think I would participate in PIYW if it took a lot of time, I have so much other stuff to work on!

If I were to do it again I'd practice getting the rolled chords smoother! Also I feel like I'm not playing the first note of the melody prominently enough when I have the rolled chord under it.

Sophia BTW... what is wrong with having a cat background singer? 🤪 I had a cat conductor on my shoulder, you can just see the shadow of his tail wave around 😆

If only she'd stay in tune!! She does make an appearance in at least one other PIYW video though 😻

twocats

Yay, it looks like we got a bunch of last-minute submissions!!

I will listen later but @Emery I didn't make the connection about who you were!! Yay, welcome to PT! BTW if you want to know about various casual playing opportunities in Portland, I now know several of them (of which I'm now co-running one)-- send me a message 🙂

Emery

twocats I've been to the Portland Piano Players meetup group, plus one called Pianisti and Courageous Piano Players which are both hosted by the same folks. I haven't attended much lately as my playing usually sucks live so it's not that fun, but it's something I do need to do more of. Let me know how to find out about your group. Thanks!

diretonic

Sorry not to have uploaded this time, I did do a fair bit of prep intending to record this week but conditions weren’t right…never mind, looking forward to listening to everyone’s recording!

twocats

diretonic Sorry not to have uploaded this time, I did do a fair bit of prep intending to record this week but conditions weren’t right…never mind, looking forward to listening to everyone’s recording!

You're allowed to submit after the deadline, and I really hope you do!

WieWaldi

Thank you for your nice words Nightowl, but I don't think mine sounds better than CFs. I just played it faster and more straight forward (metronome practicing), while CF took himself more freedom to play with the timing. It's a matter of taste what one prefers. Just don't get fooled by my hands, it is all about the Bavarian-blue wristband.

Thanks Sophia, but to get there I put a lot of work in it. Too much work, actually. This is why I told it is beyond my abilities. It is one of those stretch pieces that make me feel like a one-trick pony; like a trained monkey.

Thanks KevinM, appreciate your compliment.

Thank you, navindra, but I'll stick to various beginner levels for some more time. Just remember this thread what separates intermediate from beginner pianists. According to this video, I am far away from intermediate. His check-list for being intermediate leaves so many boxes unchecked. Just the keys chapter: I am not playing all 12 majors keys and all 12 minor keys. I play about 3 or 4 major keys. And the talk about an intermediate should feel the keys are different. I don't get it. For me another key is just a different set of black keys to press, the melody transposed. Period. But feel? What the heck he is talking about?

Emery

Sophia Thank you for the kind words Sophia. This is all straight from the sheet music, although it may be a transcription of an improvisation. If you look up "over the rainbow Jonny May" on YouTube, you can see his original performance. I really like his arrangements and am working on a few. I wish I had the ability to improvise something like that! (or anything at all :-(

Photos are of my wife and kids, though that was when they were much younger!