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...

rogerch

I work on improvising and sight reading every day.

In addition, I'm working on the Allegro molto e vivace movement of Beethoven's Sonata 13. This is a piece I've been working on sporadically for a few years, and I intended to play it for the July ABF Fast Pieces Recital. I realized it wasn't going to be ready in time so I submitted Heartsounds instead.

I made a lot of progress though, and I'm now targeting the November recital. Here's a recording I made right before the Fast Pieces deadline:

Some of the things I'm working on:

It needs to be faster. I can play most of it faster than this recording, but the left hand octaves near the end were a limiting factor
Very light pedaling to connect notes across jumps
Better staccato, especially in the parts with staccato in left hand and legato in right hand
Cleaner playing

I'm continuing to make progress so maybe I will have a good recording by November!

I question how much effort I'm willing to put in for a piece that's a little over two minutes long, but I think it's good to push myself outside of my comfort zone so I'm persisting for now... 🙂

Rubens

rogerch

Good job, very well memorized! Keep up the good work.

Josephine

Pallas

I'm so sorry for your loss Pallas. I'm glad the music is helping you to get through this.

iternabe

I am working through Faber Classics Book 1. This piece "Prince Denmark's March" has a trill that I've never encountered in the method book. After lots and lots of practice, I finally get something that is maybe passable? It still does not sound quite right to me, but I am having a hard time telling what it is.

SouthPark

iternabe I am working through Faber Classics Book 1. This piece "Prince Denmark's March"

That music sounds excellent. That is a very nice tune indeed. Thanks for playing that for us to listen to. I like that one.

That is exactly what it is about. The more you play that tune ... the more your mind/brain/body gels with it ... and the more you will explore ... to play it in your way. And the way you're playing it now sounds good to me. Great start.

SouthPark

Iternabe - your playing and music before inspired me to play a short portion of the tune - but using the sort of standard issue patterns (like arpegg etc) - to try to generate some nice sound from the piano over here. I was thinking about what to play - and then got a bit stuck - but then ended off with a basic trill or short ornament. I generally don't use trills in my music - but trills certainly can sound nice when used sparingly. And I do like the sound of trills. This really short bit is really inspired by your vid. My playing here is simple notes - but fortunately the piano sounds nice to compensate a bit hehe.

LINK1 PDM - WAV

LINK2 PDM - FLAC

(flac file is three times smaller - both audio above have the same content).

It's only an example of what I mean about exploring etc. I didn't think too much about it -- but what happens is - with more thinking, it's possible to build and refine or evolve it in some direction - where the essence is still in there. Best regards.

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.

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