Sophia You're welcome. I think artists, musicians, creative people in general should share ideas, or what works for them, or even some things that didn't.
Here's an historical reference of my "blues cred", circa 1987:
Link
Not piano, but 16 bar form, three chords.

    That's you? Wow, Marty McFly - move over, lol!

    Agree, sharing is a huge part of music. You know how in small bands they always acknowledge each other, nod, smile, play a bit, and nod at each other again. Even the Muppets communicate through music!

    Of course, sometimes they need the process explained a little first 😆

      Sophia Yes, that's me. Sometimes, hard for me to believe where my musical focus was back then. But I was still young at heart. There are more "historical" recordings on my YT channel.
      I've had a few good bands, with good players and good vibe. And I've played in bands where the members were only there for the money, didn't really like each other. One of the reasons I like the piano is that you don't need a band.
      I like the Muppets. Jim Henson and Frank Oz are/were geniuses.

        WieWaldi Hi WW, I think you posted this in the wrong place - maybe you could copy and post it to the recitals thread? Anyway, it's not surprising that it happened - as you practically live in this Blues section! 🙂

        "Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)

          Sophia You can get an Audio to USB-C adapter that would allow you to record from the Clavinova's headphone out into your phone. I used an audio to plain old USB adapter to digitize my vinyl record collection. I think it was ten dollars.

            Oh nice! I must look into that, thank you PianoMonk! It would sure prevent a lot of bad language when a kitten shoves yet another heavy item onto the floor while I'm playing 😃

            WieWaldi I have mentioned this in another thread Wie, with examples to highlight the differency between this push and pull as apposed to rubato. Isaying 🙂

              I love love love lesson 14! Of course I remember every note because of WW's recital in the spring, with all the interesting information blurbs. I wanted to learn boogie and I think it was rsl who advised I'd look into that course too.

              I was so impressed and also a little worried, I thought I could never become as good as that... that's way too complicated. And here we are six months on, and I'm going to learn it 😄

              This course is just so much fun!

              Ah yes, if we're going into memory lane...

              I remember thinking "'we BEGINNERS'? 'weaker playing'? He must be joking... that is not a beginner's piece! He sounds so advanced!" Of course now I realize it is just beyond bloody beginner into lovely beginner territory 😃

                Sophia Nononono... Back then I was a bloody beginner. I graduated to a total beginner with begin of the "Easy Blues Piano course", remember?

                Speaking about graduating, I approach steady (but slowly) to the next one:

                I am not really happy with this recording, cause today I simply don't feel in good shape. But still want to move on. Did screw up the pedal here and there, held a few notes not long enough. But the biggest gripe is the speed. I wanted to play without metronome and then I got too fast. With metronome, the duration would be 3min and a few seconds.

                  WOW! I know you said you are not completely happy with your playing today (I know that feeling, some days are fantastic and you can't do wrong, other days are horrible and you can't play anything right), but a third party (me) cannot hear any of those imperfections!

                  That is GREAT progress WieWaldi! Just yesterday I listened to your version of St Louis Blues again because I'm lazy enough that if I can learn by listening, not reading notes I will take that ^_^ So the contrast between six months ago and now is striking!!! Especially now that you use the pedal, it's a whole world of difference. And very intricate harmonies, independent hands, lots of variations, steady left hand, right hand all over the place... I'm so proud of you!

                  I agree, I think you are ready to move on now. We just submit our lessons here, not create near-perfect recital performances 😊

                    Sophia Just yesterday I listened to your version of St Louis Blues again because I'm lazy enough that if I can learn by listening, not reading notes I will take that ^_^

                    I think the best for us beginners is to look back 6 months, or even longer, and we can see the progress we are making. This should be the big motivator to continue.

                    Haha, the silent movie captions - making buzz for Christians channel. Well - at least one followed💖

                      Wow, that was nicely played WieWie! 😃 If that's how you play when you're not "in good shape" it would be interesting to hear how you play the piece on a good day!
                      I did notice the slightly faster tempo at one point, but overall it was a very relaxed and evenly paced performance.

                      "Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)

                        Nightowl Thank you, you are very kind.
                        I lost the notes for the pedal, pedaled too early, sometimes too late, and rushed through the difficult passages. Guess I should join this thread: On tempo and rushing .
                        Btw, I listened to your very 1st recital with "Edelweiss" on your Casio keyboard. You improved a lot since last 6 months. Especially the "Schwarzwald Polka" you posted a few days ago was exceptional well played. IMO this would have been the better recital piece, primary because you played with a lot of confidence. In the recital piece, you hesitated some notes, and I can only guess why. It sounded like you wanted to play some parts in piano and very nice and add soft dynamics and make it very smooth, but this was too much thinking while playing. And too many things to focus at the same time. So the result ended in a mistake free performance, but with too many hesitations. To play soft and with pp dynamics is very difficult, IMO. I tried this as well, a few years ago, and I hated to listen to my own playing, because some notes were too silent, others too harsh, and while trying to press the keys softly, I couldn't control the exact moment when to press my keys. I suggest to you, stick to pieces, similar the Schwarzwald Polka, and don't try to play some passages very soft. At least not yet in the next months. Play more pieces same fluid, as you did with Schwarzwald Polka. And if there is a piece that could be played with soft dynamics, learn it fluidily and confident first, then spend some more time to add pp-dynamics.

                            WieWaldi Thanks WieWie, you're right, it was "too much thinking while playing". The Polka piece was going to be my recital piece but I just couldn't seem to get a decent recording in time. Instead, I submitted another piece then began playing the Polka most days for a warm up exercise, which seemed to help muscle memory and fluidity.

                            "Don't let's ask for the moon, we have the stars." (Final line from Now,Voyager, 1942)

                              I remember this! Sophie, for someone who claims not to be good at planning, you seem to be good at sticking to the blues lesson plan!

                                Heh true! But in my defense I had no idea how much fun it would turn out to be. I hardly even need PACT now to keep me going 😆 Just kidding, PACT is here to stay too 😄

                                Sophia ... I flew through the first Alfred book in about six weeks, just catching up with what I had already picked up in the past.

                                Also, I'm starting to think that I probably picked up more from my parents (both professional musicians) than I realized.


                                You see, I was totally right about our brains... Mine is more like a 🥔 and your's like 🍔 (fast food).
                                WieWaldi 👈see here

                                Btw, what did your parent do as professional musicians?

                                    Hahaha nooooooooooo! My brain is more like this: (thank you for the tip on resizing images!)

                                    My dad studied clarinet and played in the national operetta company, until the traveling became too much and he became a fulltime clarinet/sax/harmonica teacher. My mother studied violin and piano and played violin in an (amateur) orchestra at first, and later almost exclusively piano, part-time accompanying soloists, choirs etc. So I was basically spoon-fed on music...

                                    Nah just kidding, I never expressed a real interest in learning to play an instrument so all I ever did was use them as toys, including our piano. But as I said, I am slowly starting to realize that some of it probably rubbed off a little more than I thought... because I'm definitely a 🦥 in many other areas 😆