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My teacher decided I'm the next of her adult student's she's going to "torture" (her word) by having me do a duet with her at the next recital. We've chosen (well, she gave me two choices) a duet by Schumann - Geburtstagmarche - Opus 85, No. 1.

I've started learning my half - it's one of those Schumann pieces that looks simple on paper but is really tricky to get under your fingers. It's going to be a fun piece though! You can find it here if you are interested. Should I be embarassed that (if I am translating it correctly) it says it's for "little and big kids"? Ah, I guess I'm a big kid!

Love these posts, they leave me feeling so inspired!

Mwrenchd, what fun to be making such interesting progress after being away for so long!
krienhard, that's great fun - I don't have the Saints in a music book, but one of my AOTW (new acronym for this thread lol) was to play it by ear, with chords, it was hilarious good fun.

Andy - I had a look at your link - the file is 47 pages, I'm guessing your duet is just the first couple ? or else that really is torture!!! lol... What fun. (ps. my German isn't stellar, but yup, for little and big kids)

My AOTW was that I finally managed to play a piece I've been working on that had "leaps" of the left hand. For the moment I'm only playing 2 of the 3 notes I should be including in leap destination chord, but I know this is an interim measure.....We'll see what my teacher says on Monday!

Yeah, that would be a bit too much ... especially as it's taking me forever to get the first two lines of music. The pdf is of the entire Opus 85 and we're just doing number 1 (in the version I got from my teacher both parts are on just two pages).

My accomplishment of the week is probably my accomplishment for the year...I played out with my band for the first time. Halftime college basketball, but over break so probably only about 250-300...still a lot more than my previous record of my 3 family members. As an adult beginner, this is the biggest thrill I've had in many years!

(PS: Discovered too in a video my wife took to not to worry as much next time...mistakes that were glaringly obvious to me while playing first aren't as major as they seem in the moment, second get buried in the mix and in the reverb of the hall, and last aren't noticed by non-musicians anyway.)

Eight hours later and still feeling the rush!

My AOTW (last week) was finally finding a teacher, after searching for months. Actually, it's not definite yet. It's pretty sure, but I'll know by the end of this week if it's absolutely sure. Just in case, she told me to start working on Hanon and some scales. I'll be working on the last piece I learned, to have something to play for her, so she'll know where to put me as far as music to work on.

I've had about 3 years of lessons at various times in my life, a few months here and there. Previously I've had to quit due to the death of a teacher, a teacher moving, me moving. I have no plans to move any time soon, and my (hopefully) new teacher is my age (55), so she should be around for a while. The last time I took lessons was about 15 years ago. I recently bought a new-to-me piano, having sold my old one after my oldest child stopped taking lessons/playing many years ago. It's small and simple, but I love it. So tomorrow I'll pull out the music to the Mozart piece I last worked on, decide on a few scales to work on, and start hammering out some Hanon. I can't wait to hear from my prospective teacher (Judy), and hopefully get a schedule. She's starting lessons back up next week (been on winter break).

If it turns out she doesn't have room for me (has to schedule all of her piano major students first, then see if she has room for one more student), I'll be SO disappointed, and I guess I won't have an AOTW after all! But I'm thinking positive, and plan on practicing 2 hours a day this week. Hopefully by this time next week I'll have a lesson scheduled and be on my way!

Andy - thanks for clarifying!

Jim, that sounds like so much fun! And good to know about how mistakes that seemed obvious to you were basically not noticable!

DLR, good luck with the teacher! Fingers crossed.

Well, I don't know if I really have a significant AOTW, but as this is my 1000th post, I figure I'd to my best to make it a positive one.

So.............. I have made a very very tiny bit of progress on getting those leaps down - the bulk of the progress is in my head (which isn't as odd as it sounds). I think they significant factor is that I really do know exactly what I have to do in terms of timing and positioning ....which is good!!! I just can't quite actually do it yet, but I'm getting there.

Baby steps, it's the journey not the destination.

Something silly but my teacher accepter "Fur Elise" as my next piece. So my achivement is that I am working on the piece I wanted to work! That is a good motivation!

finally played the moonlight sonata 3rd movement from memory

Well, after my whining last week, I played Gypsy Legend for my teacher this morning and she was full of compliments for me! She said I'd done a super job and she was very impressed with the feeling I put into the piece. Needless to say, I was pleased as punch.

Now she wants me to work on putting more weight into the right hand and generally to stop being afraid of letting my piano sing.

What a great way to start my week!


Thanks everyone for the encouragment !

Nice Achievment Cheryl, that is such a beautiful piece, I am sure it sounds awesome.

okay, this achievement might be a little on the lame side, but here goes:

My new teacher regularly comments on my unconventional fingering of pieces (especially when I first met her, she changed dramatically all of the pieces I was playing in terms of fingering). Part of the problem is that many of the pieces I play are from books where no fingerings are given, and also my previous teacher was a bit on the lax side with respect to this issue.

Well, Friday afternoon, I went through the piece Arabesque by Burgmuller (from a book where no fingerings are given) and wrote in all of the finger numbers. It took more than an hour of trial and error, but I made every effort to apply all of the rules she taught me. My finished product looked pretty good to my eye, my fingers were always where they needed to be etc.). I started playing the piece and found that I only needed to look at the piano ONCE to find my spot. The rest of the time, I could keep my eyes glued on the music I think she will be impressed.

I also learned two really tricky measures of Ivan Sings. This piece is a lot trickier than it looks, but I cannot wait to play it at my lesson. I find it really beautiful.

Glasslove, I don't think that is lame at all - my teacher has been insisting on fingering for a couple of months now, and I find it has made a big difference - but usually I don't have to figure it out on my own. Taking her rules and applying them was a big job - but what great satisfaction in seeing the difference it made to your playing!

Three cheers for you!
Now, I have to check out "Ivan Sings" I have no idea what that sounds like!

Applause, casinitaly!

Well, and applause GustavoF, and Glasslove, and keyboardplaying1, too. Wow, Beethoven from memory - that's unreal! Way to go.

Cathy

GlassLove,

I did Ivan Sings a couple months back and loved it. Has that dark tragic sound and yet a beautiful melody. B-section rhythm is a bit of a challenge, especially when it reverses hands at the end (if memory serves). Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Jim

Way to go Cheryl. I knew that whine was just a setup for your next AOTW.

My first lesson (as a returning adult) was last Friday. It was too awesome for words! That's my AOTW, along with the every day achievements I've had as a result of practicing as she instructed. It blows my mind that I see such a difference after my first lesson ~ and I get to do it again every Friday!

While not learning any new songs or anything inparticular useful I finally started youtubing. Starting from pretty much the oldest songs I've learned and up to the newest ones.

So far I've managed to put up 2 songs and working on putting up at least another 10 I already know / or almost know. Feels good to finally have a camera to both record audio and the video as well.

Also pretty close to finish up 2 songs both which pretty much only have one line to learn.

After being away from the piano for 15+ years, I decided to return to playing the piano. We went out and bought a piano and I'm so excited!!!! I wanted to share that with others. I can't wait to start playing again. So, that is my achievement this week

Things went better this week. It really helped to focus my practice on smaller segments and not worry about when I would be "done." The result - we polished off the Clementi and the Bach pieces (and last week's "throw-away piece). And we settled on a piece for recital. I can't wait to get to work on it. Oh, and I drove two hours on Sunday to visit a piano store that had just beautiful instruments. Spent most of the afternoon playing some of the finest pianos made by top European manufacturers. What a fun way to spend an afternoon.

Jim

My piano lessons are based on the classical genre, but I love to noodle around with my electric guitar. Learning to read music fluently is one of my goals. I recently acquired a "Ventures" songbook (one of my favorite groups from the early 60's). Although guitar notation is somewhat different, I was able to bang out some of the melodies on my piano right away and think Oh yeah, I remember that one. I've never done this before, so yeah, I'm excited!