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...

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)

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.

TheBoringPianist

TheBoringPianist
hm since my last post half a year ago, I shelved the Messiaen but got through the Scriabin Fantasie (currently letting it marinate before revisiting because I feel like my vision for it is missing something) and learned a bunch of other random stuff:

Lyadov - Prelude in B minor, Op. 11, No. 1
Vine - 5 Bagatelles: iii and v
Chopin - Etude in A minor, Op. 10, No. 2 (I still can't get through this at speed without my fingers starting to lock up due to fatigue)
Paderewski - Nocturne in B-flat Major, Op. 16, No. 4
Lyatoshynsky - Prelude, Op. 44, No. 4 Andante sostenuto
J.S. Bach - Prelude and Fugue No. 3 in C-sharp major (WTC Book I), BWV 848

More recently, I recently learned Dutilleux's Choral et variations and am currently cleaning/speeding it up along with attempting to learn/memorize/polish Debussy's Clair de lune in the next 9 days to perform for a half recital (along with the Franck, Boulanger, and Dutilleux). What's that? You can't believe I've never learned Clair de lune before? Neither could my teacher 😅

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!

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.

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)

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.

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.

TC3

Let's see here ...

I'm working on some tunes for my little garageband in which I sometimes play bass and other times keys.

learned but still very much practicing an arrangement of "Baby Please Don't Go" loosely based on the Them version, me on "organ" (Roland VR-730)
polishing my arranged / semi-improvised version of "How Long Blues" by Leroy Carr, me on piano (Roland RD-2000)
just starting to learn "Karma Police" by Radiohead so that a friend can guest-sing with us, me on piano again

For my own stuff, I'm working on playing and singing a semi-arranged, semi-improvised version of "Worried Life Blues" by Big Maceo Merriweather. Like "How Long Blues" above, it's something I can do on my own or with the group as the spirit moves us. My feeble singing is really sticking out as the weak point right now ...

TC3

Pallas Would love to! It may be a while yet. The "band" is me (bass / keys), the missuz (drums), and our pal Steve who just started playing guitar this year. As such, he's still learning a lot of new chords and it can take a while for us to get up to speed on things -- which is just fine since this is all in fun. I'll be sure to share when it's ready, thanks for asking!

thepianoplayer416

2 weeks ago played 2 pieces at a piano meetup across town including a Bach chorale and "Sarabande" from French Suite 3.

There is an upcoming piano meetup on the weekend with the theme "peace". I'm working on an arrangement of "When You Wish Upon a Star" for the event in additon to the 2 pieces I'm already playing. Probably a simplified version of Bob Dylan "Blowin' in the Wind" which is a song written for the anti-war movement during the Vietnam war.

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