Your One Chance - Post Your First-Shot Recording

BartK · 2026-04-10T15:52:29+00:00

This idea comes from @ShiroKuro in this thread. I hope you're not mad at me for jumping so quickly on your idea but I really love it. 🙂 The idea is to share...

Nightowl

BartK That was lovely! I kept thinking of the old phrase "tinkling the ivories" as I listened to some of those lovely delicate arpeggios. If that's how you play without warming up first, that's impressive.

For me there's nothing better than Chopin's music for the piano. I understand that he barely wrote anything for other instruments, he was the master of piano so didn't waste his time on lesser pursuits.

Sophia

BartK You should play it as cold as possible.

Ah now I see, you’re just a cool guy 😆 Ok I’ll abide by the rules, but it’s probably not going to be today just yet then 👍😊

Sophia

What the heck. I did it anyway. It's so bad that even Simba left in disgust. But... I didn't cheat. That was my first moment at the piano this morning. Obviously I need to practice that piece quite a bit more. And I never did a glissando before - still trying to figure out the best way to do it without leaving a trail of blood on the keys 😃 The sound is rough, because I didn't even record it to piano and mix the sound in later. It's as cold as it gets (but not in the "cool as Bart" sense) 🤣

pianoloverus

Sophia And I never did a glissando before - still trying to figure out the best way to do it without leaving a trail of blood on the keys

I think there are probably a lot of Youtube videos that would explain glissando technique better than I can, but basically I think you should use the side of your thumb near the fingernail more. Another way of saying that might be try to rotate your hand counterclockwise more than you are presently doing.

Nightowl

Sophia What the heck. I did it anyway. It's so bad that even Simba left in disgust... And I never did a glissando before - still trying to figure out the best way to do it without leaving a trail of blood on the keys 😃

You can't blame him - he's a cat with a very discerning taste. 🙃 It's a fun piece and I love the way you're happy to share your learning curve with us... even risking blood soaked keys! 😂 As always, you're going to nail this piece quite soon, but this early progress vid made me smile very much - thanks for posting!

ShiroKuro

twocats my competition repertoire

Very nice! Remind me which competition you are entering? Is it the one that's two years out from now? (I'm sorry, I have the worst memory and I think I'm mixing things up with one of the things you decided not to attend).

Sophia Great work! I love the "whew" at the end! I feel like that a lot!!

rogerch

Sophia AWESOME! I have messed around with chopsticks from time to time since I was a kid but I don't think I ever saw sheet music for it before today. Now I know this was composed by Euphemia Allen! This is really fun and I think you're making great progress!

Sophia

Haha yes it was quite the challenge to sit at the piano and start the piece cold turkey. It was sooo tempting to try again, but then would I be kidding, right? At least it was a good way to provide a healthy balance to all the smooth and polished recordings before me 😃 (don't think I'm not green with envy!)

pianoloverus Another way of saying that might be try to rotate your hand counterclockwise more than you are presently doing.

Thank you! I did watch a few videos and there are many opinions for sure. Many seem to recommend using the middle finger and I tried that too, but I guess you could see I immediately gave up on that after the first rooootsch - at least I managed not to yelp 😃 So from then on I used the thumb. If that is an acceptable way of doing a glissando I might stick to that, and try it the way you described.

twocats

ShiroKuro Remind me which competition you are entering?

Boston in 6 weeks! It's coming up soon!!

ShiroKuro

twocats Boston in 6 weeks!

Yikes! That is soon! I don't know why I was thinking something that was two year out! 😅

twocats

ShiroKuro Yikes! That is soon! I don't know why I was thinking something that was two year out! 😅

The Cliburn Amateur (the big competition!) was supposed to be 2 years out but that's been cancelled 😭

rogerch Really great playing twocats ! That's five pieces, was the Bach the first one you played? Did you feel like you were warming up as you worked through all of these pieces?

Thanks, Roger! I posted them in the order that I played them (so Bach first). None of the pieces have any technically strenuous passages that would have benefitted much more from warming up in advance, so I'm not sure if I was warming up as I went along but I think next time I'll sit for several seconds and think about how I want to start and "warm up my brain" first, so to speak. I'm not happy with the way the Bach and the Beethoven started and felt that they got better as I went along. Hopefully that's a learning!

Jane

OK, I'll play.

First take on two pieces today. Although in fairness, I did spend 10 minutes playing some scales in the morning but did not practice or play any pieces.
Then did yoga, ate breakfast, and drove over to @danno858 's house.

He played a couple of things he's working on, then I tried a few things.
So these were played cold. And my first time touching an acoustic piano since last November.

He has a "smart" gyroscopic tripod thingy for the phone/camera... and it was smart enough not to like me.

But then, the AI is coming for us all.
Be afraid.
Be very afraid....

rogerch

Jane Very nice playing! The camera took me on a wild ride.

Also, I wanna drive over to @danno858 's house and play that amazing piano!!!! I think it would be a really long drive for me though!

danno858

Jane At least the recording came out nice! I think the cat knocked the tripod and we didn’t notice and then it stayed off balance. Such beautiful playing!

KevinM

Jane those were played beautifully Jane.

ShiroKuro

Jane both of those were just beautiful! And Danno’s piano sounds divine!

Also, @Sophia 🤣🤣🤣

Sophia

Hahahaha thank you for the laugh, Jane. That was priceless!! I’ll never tease Shiro again about her camera angle

Jane

rogerch
I’ve wondered whether the CH in your screen name might be for Confoederatio Helvetica… in which case, yes, that would be quite a drive.

rogerch

I'm in! These are the first notes I played today.

When it's time to record for recitals, I turn on the video and the recorder and play a bunch of improvisations. Sometimes multiple sessions over a few days. Then I pick the ones that sound the best. I'm not sure this would have made the cut for a recital but it's representative of how I play when I'm just entertaining myself 😀

danno858

rogerch that’s beautiful!

KevinM

rogerch so good Roger.

ShiroKuro

rogerch beautiful! I rally enjoyed that!

rogerch

BartK That was lovely. I really like the passion here, what a great interpretation!

rogerch

Really great playing twocats ! That's five pieces, was the Bach the first one you played? Did you feel like you were warming up as you worked through all of these pieces?

rogerch

Jane I’ve wondered whether the CH in your screen name might be for Confoederatio Helvetica… in which case, yes, that would be quite a drive

No, I’m not Swiss. I live in the Sacramento area. Much closer but still much too far to just drive over. 😀

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