What Piece(s) Are You Working on Right Now?

Pallas · 2024-05-31T12:42:16+00:00

I've been posting my progress inside an Alfred thread for some time now, but I'm interested to know what other people are working on, not just us method book...

iternabe

I am working on "Caro Nome" in Faber Classics Book 1. It's a nice tune, but all those staccatos in piano are so tricky to control. After getting it roughly in shape, I wondered how the aria should really sound, so I looked it up in YouTube. What a delightful surprise - it's so beautiful!

thepianoplayer416

Just submitted a "short" piece for the Online Recital.

Player1

Still not playing, just pecking at the keyboard every few days. Once I get back in the saddle I'll move on but for right now, just keeping Wolf under my fingers. Not trying to polish it, just keeping it semi-fresh.

Simonb

Mostly working on my grade 8 pieces. A Scarlatti Sonata in D, an Impromptu in b minor by Coleridge=Taylor being the main focus at present. Also as a long term piece I've also started working on Chopin's Grande Valse Brillante Op. 18, over the last week.

Cheers

lilypad

I just finished working on a Mike Springer arrangement of "Misty", so now I'm starting on an easy piano arrangement of Benny Goodman's "Stompin' at the Savoy".

iternabe

Just recorded "Variations on a Theme by Haydn" - the simplified version by Faber.

Then I was delighted to find the real deal on YouTube by Argerich and Freire!

Player1

Opened my Faber again. Oh joy! it's more of the same old, same old. 🤮

Short term project is Angeline Bell's Balestrand. 2 pages and I can finger my way through the first page (terribly) already. I need to back up and break up what I'm playing until I can play the segments properly. Maybe by the next PT recital it'll be ready. I said maybe so don't go getting your hopes up.

Also started on Willie Nelson's version of Always On My Mind. I can almost play the RH for the first line. I emphasize almost because the melody is kicking my butt. It'll sound better after I learn the LH and put it together, but for right now it's just not working well because it's still too early in the learning process. This piece is a long term project of at least 6 months or so.

plop_symphony

Player1 Angeline Bell is a treasure and also a machine, writing so much new material in such a short amount of time. Did you see that she's just gotten yet another sheet music book out and has two more in the pipeline?

Player1

plop_symphony

Interesting news, I hadn't heard.

I know that she takes inspiration from other music when writing her own pieces, which I'd consider normal. Maybe that's what drives her muse.

Andrea Dow is just as prolific in her composing. They aren't the same and each has its own feel and technical/proficiency requirements to play their works well. I have books from both composers.

lilypad

I generally have 5 pieces in the works - a sight reading quick study, a Piano Adventures lesson piece, a classical piece, a non-classical piece and relearning an old non-classical repertoire piece that's been forgotten.

My current batch of 5:

Piano Man - Piano Adventures Adult Popular 2 book (4 page not-so-quick study piece for sight reading practice).
Jazz Reflection - first piece in Piano Adventures level 5 book.
Khachaturian's "A Little Song" (aka "Ivan Sings" or Andantino) from his Pictures of Childhood Book.
Zigzag by Lee Evans.
God Bless the Child (repertoire piece that I relearning).

iternabe

You all are juggling so many things, I am envious. So far, besides scales and arpeggios, my practice has always been limited to two pieces. Right now, they are:

Variations on a Theme by Haydn - polishing the pedaling and dynamics
Aria (Theme from La Traviata) - learning

Once I can get a good enough recording of the second piece, I will start the next new one.

Player1

iternabe

Those of us on the lower levels also have lesson pieces to contend with. These weekly or bi-weekly pieces, plus a short term piece, and a longer term piece, usually makes 3 things going on at once. Which for most people is manageable without burning out.

thepianoplayer416

A Bach Chorale from BWV244.

iternabe

Player1 I only started in January 2024. I am on the lower level! I will have lesson piece again when I start Faber AIO book 2. No long term piece yet, and I am fine with that.

lilypad

Player1 Those of us on the lower levels also have lesson pieces to contend with. These weekly or bi-weekly pieces, plus a short term piece, and a longer term piece, usually makes 3 things going on at once. Which for most people is manageable without burning out.

3 pieces would be my ideal instead of the 5 I've been doing lately.

I hope to finish the last of the Piano Adventures method book pieces next year. If the Dr. Molly Gebrian method works well for maintaining my mostly jazz standard repertoire, once I've relearned them, I'll only need to play through them and address any issues 3 days in a row every 2 weeks. That would leave just 3 pieces at a time; a sight reading quick study piece (some of them can be knocked out in a single session), a classical piece and a non-classical piece.

TheBoringPianist

TheBoringPianist with competitions over for the year, finally getting around to some of the pieces in my backlog. I guess I'll usually have a larger piece that will take on the order of a month or longer to learn — in this case, the Scriabin Fantaisie in B minor, Op. 28. I'm still trying to even finish reading through this to be honest lol. I've got the exposition mostly figured out and can read slowly through most of the rest, but the recapitulation B theme and coda A theme are giving me fits and I just end up skipping them every time in favor of the "easier" (read: less insane) parts. I'll probably need to dedicate significant time to each one separately.

Meanwhile, have been working through some smaller pieces as well over the last couple weeks:

Blumenfeld - Etude for the Left Hand Alone, Op. 36
Medtner - Fairy Tale in G# minor, Op. 31 No. 3
Scarlatti - Sonata in G Major, K. 14

TheBoringPianist

TheBoringPianist The Scriabin Fantaisie is finally starting to come together 😔 still not up to speed and very prone to stops and starts but I feel like the technical challenges no longer seem insurmountable.

In the meantime, am working through some other small pieces:

Lili Boulanger - D'un vieux jardin
Lili Boulanger - D'un jardin clair
Messiaen - Prélude pour piano (1964)
Takashi Yoshimatsu - Piano Folio...to a Disappeared Pleiad (heard Tomoharu Ushida play it at the Leeds)

kanadajin

In keeping with the upcoming change in season, I am working on my best imitation of Sangah Noona playing Autumn Leaves. (South Korean jazz pianist).

lilypad

kanadajin In keeping with the upcoming change in season, I am working on my best imitation of Sangah Noona playing Autumn Leaves. (South Korean jazz pianist).

Yes! Next month, I plan to relearn Vince Guaraldi's "The Great Pumpkin Waltz" for a piano club meeting. I hope the section with all the octaves is more comfortable this time around.

Player1

Pallas

I wish my Faber stuff was only 2 lines. Or less.

ilovepianocanada

I am working on Romance in G Major from the (translated) 6 Very Easy Pieces Op 52 by Johann Nepomuk Hummel. Very easy pieces my foot! Maybe for some, but definitely not for me. I thought a piece with many broken chords would be simple. Again, not for me!

Also working on River Flows in You by Yurima. I specifically asked for this piece and it is kicking my butt almost right away. I love the piece, so hopefully I will eventually get it.

Sometimes I wish for the days when I was doing the Faber Piano Adventures for the Older Beginner. Then at least I felt I was making progress.

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