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 😆

                        Spoon fed?
                        No no - your parents injected the talent:

                        And no matted how hard you run away...

                        Now there's a mental image I won't ever be able to get rid of... 😂

                        Well, I have now learned the first two variations of the St Louis Blues and started the last one. Of course I am cheating a little... I love Christian's teaching but his speed is sometimes fast, sometimes slow, some of it he repeats several times and other passages he just explains once, quickly, and expect you to understand. But for this particular lesson I have found another teacher: WieBluesy 😇

                        I'm just now starting to realize how well you master your lessons, WW... your timing is bang on. You are very lucky... almost everything in music can be taught, except good timing. Either you have it or you don't... and very obviously you do. So much so that I can use your recital piece to teach me, because I'm basically a lazy learner, always finding shortcuts. It's nice when someone did the heavy lifting already! 🏋🏻

                        It'll probably be another week or so until I'm ready to start recording... and it will be on the Clavinova because the keyboard isn't big enough for this lesson 🤨

                        Edit: ooooh!!! I THOUGHT something sounded horrible (not you! when I played from sheet music). He made a mistake in his ending. He put Eb-A-C and it sounded dreadful even for modern music. Of course when I checked his lesson, he played Db-G-Bb. You avoiced that altogether in your recital piece WW ^_^

                          Thanks for your kind words.
                          Yes - the ending was weird. He teached two of them, one for the repeat and a final one. Possible, I cheated a little bit and made my life easy. But hey, if you didn't do this lesson now, nobody would have noticed. ^^

                          Haha true! But then I also noticed how much your version matches the actual lesson. Because in blues, we can easily cheat and make up our own rhythm or notes. No one would notice normally - only those people who do the same course 😁
                          I sent Christian a message about the mistake, it's obvious what happened (he just placed every note one location too high).

                            Hmmm - slowly, but steadily I get this feeling again

                            Sophia almost everything in music can be taught, except good timing. Either you have it or you don't...

                            Hey @Sophia, I disagree! Just like other aspects of playing I think we have varying degrees of talent for timing, and if our natural sense of timing isn't solid we can learn to do better. I speak from experience including lots of metronome time! Also, I would never claim that any aspect of music or anything else can't be taught. I have managed to at least somewhat overcome my lack of innate talent with hard work and discipline and for me it's all the more rewarding because I had to work so hard to get where I am! 🙂