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...

Stub

lilypad "Married Life" from the movie "Up".

"Up" is one of my favorite movies and the "Married Life" theme is a favorite as well. I bought the Hal Leonard (publisher) book several years ago.

lilypad

Stub "Up" is one of my favorite movies and the "Married Life" theme is a favorite as well. I bought the Hal Leonard (publisher) book several years ago.

I was afraid to see that movie at first, even though I loved the theme music. My spouse and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary while she was in the hospital from a heart attack (she survived!). My sisters reassured me that the movie was upbeat, so I went ahead and watched it and loved it.

iternabe

Just to further illustrate what I am finding difficult with swing.

This example I can do quite well:

This example I find quite tricky to land back on the beat on the last note of every bar. If I play the "swing" version without the ties, I have no problem. But the ties really make it hard.

Sophia

Sorry I hope we're not taking this too much off topic. But when in doubt, I usually refer to the masters. They know how to do it 🙂 For example in this version (the one I'm most familiar with), the singer repeats that particular passage a few times. If yours sounds like that, then obviously you're doing it right 😃

iternabe

Took me another 3 days - I think I got the swing now?

Sophia

Excellent @iternabe! Funny enough I was going to refer to this video as the perfect example how to play this super tricky rhythm and then I saw your comment. I couldn't agree more! 😃 Now I want to learn this piece too.... I love it!

iternabe

Sophia I was going to refer to this video as the perfect example how to play this super tricky rhythm

Yes, I found that video, too. That guy really did it to perfection.

pseudonym58

I'm also trying something foreign to my experience: My brother-in-law plays the saxophone, and when he comes over with his fake books I could never do anything except try to play along with old fashioned sheet music arrangements. So I'm studying some very simple voicings so I can hopefully read the shorthand chords well enough to keep a steady, appropriate sounding rhythm.
So far I'm playing the root and the seventh of a chord in the left hand (most of the chords are not simply triadic), and the third of the chord plus the melody in the right hand.
If the voice leading sounds too awkward I can shift in between the voicing above with the root and third in the left hand, and the 7th in the right.

I hope I can figure out a couple dozen tunes so that the next time I'm called upon to play the stuff it will be a reasonable facsimile!

Player1

Flipped the page from Legend of Madrid to Phantom of the Keys today.

Comparatively, Phantom is easier than Legend was. Or seems to be. Within 15 minutes I could play the first page in entirety. Page 2 might have a surprise or 2 I haven't noticed yet but it doesn't look like it.

Still working on getting a good recording of Legend. I have 2 but I'm not really happy with either of them.

lautreamont

I'm working on:
Bach: Sinfonia 1 (memorized, just working on details and tempo)
and
Scriabin: Op 11 nos 22 (memorized, working out dynamics and pedaling), 5 (working out con anima section), and 17 (getting up to tempo and working out tempo fluctuations

I've pretty much learned all of them but they're not yet totally performance ready. If everything goes smoothly and I have energy left, I work on Bach's 3rd Sinfonia a little and Scriabin Op. 11 no 10

iternabe

This "Westminster Chimes" is part of 1st inversion study in my Faber book. I am trying to let go of the fear and just throw the hands to each new chord. This throwing motion, initiated from the finger, seems to be the trick to keep the wrist relaxed.

lilypad

iternabe I vaguely remember working on that piece a couple of years or so ago. I definitely remember that it didn't sound as good as you just played it.

thepianoplayer416

"House of the Rising Sun" arranged for piano. Has some interesting bass arpeggios.

The other is a Bach "Bourree" from Lute Suite #1 in Em found in "First Lessons in Bach". The melody is an octave lower than what you expect (in the alto singing range than soprano). The keyboard score has a lot of melody notes down in the bass. Guess this is why Bach called it Lute suite which is a keyboard piece that is intended to sound like a lute. Today there are arrangements of the piece played on a guitar.

trecorda

I am "revisiting" (or relearning) Fantasy Impromptu (Chopin) which I used to play years ago. Also the Nocturne in D flat, Schubert Sonata in A and the 3rd movement from Beethoven Sonata in D OP 10. Then there are all my other pieces to keep up to date. It's a lot to do in only an hours practice every day. (every day? no, not every day. 🧐)

rsl12

trecorda Of course you are welcome! How is the Beethoven going? I bet the trio section is fun to play! But the trill sections seem like they might be tricky.

trecorda

I am so disoriented in this forum I somehow landed in this thread where posters are discussing what pieces they are learning. I now see it's the.learners forum, well I am still.a learner. (I hope I am not intruding?)

Sophia

trecorda I am still.a learner.

That was the whole idea behind the name, tre 😊 Everyone is welcome, because we're all learning.

On topic: I'm (re)learning Fur Elise and enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would... like meeting an old friend again and realizing what pleasant company they actually were 😁

trecorda

Are you talking about the Sonata OP 10 in D major? I learnt the first movement years ago but got involved in a different piece so never finished the sonata.The slow movement does not have a trio, but it the 3rd movement 'Minuetto" that has the trio. The second movement is the "Largo e mesto" (very beautiful) The trio does not look too difficult we will see. I see the trill in the Minuetto. In Bars 28 and 29 is the trill. It may be better to learn it by working backwards from ( measure) bar 29, then go back and learn measure 28 then all two bars. The difficulty I think is playing smoothly and precisely the A to A sharp, with turn so one ends up on the B.(in time exactly) I do not know, but working backwards and breaking sections up can be a great help in practice and learning.

trecorda

Sophia
I am glad you are relearning Fur Elise Sophia, you are correct, it is like meeting an old friend. I am still working on Fantasy Impromptu, this actually happened after listening to an inspiring YouTube performance of it. What happened was really odd!! I went to the piano after listening and found I could still play at least a few pages of the very fast first section. The last time I played It must have been in my 20's!!? I am talking of playing it almost up to speed? At that point I still knew the notes then my fingering went haywire so I stopped. It must have been my aural memory that actually helped in this. So now I break it into small sections and relearn the fingering carefully. (strangely enough I play wrong notes if I practice it too slow, so small sections at a moderate speed.) I also still listen to that recording just to be safe. ..☺️ I definitely am still a learner, so lots of struggles. On a bad sometimes I just play pieces I know well and are not that difficult. Enjoy your playing Sophia! 🦜

Sophia

Haha I am with you all the way! I too listened to Fur Elise to see if I get the dynamics etc right. Then I found that some world famous pianist plays it differently.... he played a D which sounded odd to me.

It was only then that I saw the small print ^_^ I think I'll stick to E, that's how I remember learning it (too many) decades ago....

Ok sorry, that was a little off topic haha!

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