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...

pseudonym58

@TheBoringPianist
The Messiaen Prélude - that's the fanfare-like short piece? I remember being surprised at how succinct its form is, certainly compared to the sprawling, to me disorienting nature of so many of his later works.

TheBoringPianist

pseudonym58 The Messiaen Prélude - that's the fanfare-like short piece? I remember being surprised at how succinct its form is, certainly compared to the sprawling, to me disorienting nature of so many of his later works.

yup! I have a really hard time learning this kind of music, but I figured I should challenge myself, and it's a fun sounding piece!

lilypad

TheBoringPianist I'm not sure if I've heard of Lili Boulanger before now. I just added D'un jardin clair to my way in the future section of my bucket list. Luckily I have lots of nice sounding grade 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7 pieces to enjoy on the way there.

BartK

lilypad I'm not sure if I've heard of Lili Boulanger before now.

She was a true genius. Unfortunately, she died at only 24 but had already achieved a lot by then. Had she not died so young I'm sure she could have been one of the most influential composers of the 20th century.

ranjit

BartK Agreed, she could have definitely been mentioned along with Stravinsky or Poulenc had she lived longer. I don't like her piano pieces but her orchestral writing is exceptional.

lilypad

BartK Just from the two pieces I listened to, she reminds me of the impressionist composers.

Pallas

Today, I decided to scan through my remaining Alfred books to extract all the pieces that I find interesting and keep those on hand for when I want to do blues or ragtime or whatever - but mostly focus on the Introduction to Classics to Moderns. My lessons have been fun as I study the little baroque pieces. My teacher and I just agreed to expand my lesson to 45 minutes, not to go over more pieces, but to go a little more deeply into the things I'm learning. I'm excited about that.

My current workload:

Scales and chord inversions, C, G, F, and D major, A harmonic minor. I have E and D minor harmonic on deck, but they have slightly different fingerings so we're doing the scales in groups.
Two small pieces: Roundelay by von der Hofe and Echo Dance by Hainhofer. I'm going to play these pieces in my first little recital in a week.
Two longer pieces: Allemande by Praetorius and Gavotte by Handel. When I record the two little pieces above, I'll add two more longer ones.

After I finish Intro to Classics to Moderns, I might ask if we can do Volume 1 of the Alfred Keyboard Essentials or Classics to Moderns 17 and 27. I'm super excited that soon I'll have the skills to start learning from the "pieces for children" I've been collecting. Those 18th-19th century children were much smarter than I am. 🤣

thepianoplayer416

Recently an early Mozart piece came up duing my piano lesson.

The last piece recorded was a version of "Happy Birthday" in F for somebody's special day in October. We all sing the song a dozen times a year. When playing it on piano, every rendition of the song is supposed to be different & original... even if you're following the sheet music you'd add in embellishments the last minute to sound improvised.

lilypad

thepianoplayer416 The last piece recorded was a version of "Happy Birthday" in F for somebody's special day in October. We all sing the song a dozen times a year. When playing it on piano, every rendition of the song is supposed to be different & original... even if you're following the sheet music you'd add in embellishments the last minute to sound improvised.

I recently watched a YouTube video listing "Happy Birthday" as the 6th piece in "6 Famous & Essential Pieces Every Pianist Should Learn".

lilypad

My latest batch -

New pieces:
Quick study - Jeremiah Clarke "King William's March" - I thought I'd knock this one out in 2 days max, but it's been giving me fits.
Piano Adventures lesson piece - Clementi Sonatina, Op. 36, No. 1, 3rd movement.
Heller - Study in E minor, Op. 47 No. 5

Relearning:
Vince Guaraldi's "Great Pumpkin Waltz"

Still working on:
Michael Giacchino's "Married Life"
Arthur Herzog Jr. & Billie Holliday "God Bless the Child" (relearning)

Pallas

Today is my first recital, where I'll be retiring five pieces, two from Alfred, and 3 from Intro to Classics to Moderns.

I'm going to buy Jennifer Ecklund's "Easy Spooktacular Solos" and see if I can work at least one up for Halloween, but I think I should have started in August. Oh well.

Works in progress: C, G, F, and D in chord inversions and scales, and their relative harmonic minors. I'm shooting for 3 octaves, triplets.

I'm going to relearn Scarborough Fair from Alfred and maybe make a before / after video.
A new easy gavotte by Handel. I'm going to ask if we can start nibbling at the easiest pieces in the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach next.
I get to study the first piece in Schumann's Album for the Young - Melody. This will be my first bucket list item, and I'm thrilled.

This batch of assignments looked too hard for me ar first, but my teacher thinks I can do it: some technique, one baroque/classical, one romantic, and one traditional or ragtime piece. She says it's for well-roundedness, and I'm INTO IT!

lilypad

Pallas I get to study the first piece in Schumann's Album for the Young - Melody. This will be my first bucket list item, and I'm thrilled.

I think it's really great to have bucket list pieces at all levels. Mine used to be all grade 8's and it was very discouraging, like I'd never get there. Now I have probably a dozen for each grade. I'm trying to go through a grade a year with a variety of pieces similar to yours.

BartK

Pallas
That's a great achievement! The first "real" pieces are always a big milestone.

Schumann is a very good choice for pedagogical purposes. He is a romantic composer and uses the musical language of that era but his writing often has multiple layers and interconnected themes. It's great for developing both musicality and technical skills. Besides, these are pieces you can always go back to and discover new things or new ways to look at the music as you improve.

Satie isn't really that hard. I wondered myself why those pieces are so high in the syllabus and I think it might be because of the large chords that might be too challenging for small children in the lower grades. For an adult they are technically easy and musically also not too challenging. I played Gnossienne 1 in my first year and Gymnopedie 1 in my second year.

Pallas

lilypad Yes! Before I started piano, I had zero understanding of grades. As soon as I learned about Piano Syllabus, I learned that most of my dream pieces were incredibly difficult, and I was shocked! I mean, some things were obviously virtuoso works, but, e.g. I was surprised at what grade Satie's Gymnopedies and Gnossiennes are.

So it's been a real learning process to dig into solo piano repertoire and build myself a ladder, where almost every piece is just wonderful. They aren't all wonderful, because my teacher is a little chaotic about new pieces, so sometimes I just go with whatever in the rush of ending a lesson, but I'm getting organized to be more active in picking pieces going forward.

Pallas

Just got another piece assigned.

I'm still working on scales and chord inversions, C, G, F, D and their relative harmonic minors. I'm finding it tough to get the scales solid, especially the harmonic minor ones that have very different fingering. I have two weeks 'til my next lesson because my teacher's out of town, so I have a lot of time for 3xdaily repetitions of 3x3x3 (9 clean repetitions with rests in between).

Each lesson, I'm trying to bring back one old Alfred piece that I enjoy playing. This weeks it was Scarborough Fair. Maybe in two weeks I'll bring back Greensleeves.

I'm working on three classical pieces: an easy gavotte by Handel, Melody by Schumann from his Album for the Young, and the 1st Petzold Minuet in G from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach including the trills and mordents. These last two are almost two hard, but it's been fun breaking them apart to figure out their challenges.

iternabe

Working on the last piece in Faber Classics Book 1. This beautiful aria by Giacomo Puccini 💘

Player1

I surprised myself yesterday by playing all but the last measure of the 1st phrase in Always on My Mind. I had to pick my way through the last measure, and I wasn't even close to tempo anywhere in my performance, but I'm slowly getting it learned.

Turning the page in the method book today and hoping for something playable.

thepianoplayer416

There is an upcoming peace concert in 2 weeks as a fundraising event for a humanitarian organization. A chance for amateur pianists (piano students) to play 1 or more pieces. If I do attend I'd probably include a piece like "What a Wonderful World" that I worked on last year. Haven't decided yet.

iternabe

Picked one piece I really want to play from Faber Popular Book 1. Still working on dynamics and tempo, but at least I've got one recording that's passable.

iternabe

iternabe Picked one piece I really want to play from Faber Popular Book 1. Still working on dynamics and tempo, but at least I've got one recording that's passable.

Finally at tempo now. Having a hard time keeping left hand quieter. And getting that arpeggiated chord at the end come out even is still hit or miss.

lilypad

Faber did a great job on that arrangement. I sounds very authentic. Your recording does it justice even at the slower tempo.

I tend to get too obsessed with tempo at the cost of a piece not sounding as good as it should.

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