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I nearly had a heart attack when I took my wife to the store this morning and she said she didn't like either the black or the mahogany and wouldn't have either in the house. Luckily it turns out that it was the polished look she didn't like, she preferred the satin black (cheaper than mahogany too), I got a price on that I liked and I've bought it!!!

She's also very worried about how loud it is ... I think she is rethinking her statement about not allowing me to keep the digital for practicing on ....

Now I have to face that long wait that many of you have had while it's prepped before delivery!!!

And I promise pictures and a recording when it's delivered.

Whoo hoo! How wonderful to be waiting on a new piano - congratulations.

Cathy

hey, thats great news, Andy. congratulations!

How wonderful Andy!!!! CONGRATULATIONS. Doesn't your piano have a "practice pedal?" It shouldn't be too loud.
I can play mine at night once the children are asleep and it doesn't seem to bother them, even when I don't use the practice pedal.
How long must you wait before you get it?

Actually my daughter said, "It's a bit too quiet when you press that".



I think the kids would be fine ... my wife is a different story!


Eternity. Or about a week. I can't remember which.

Congrats, Andy!

Oh my, it must've felt odd when you found that out!

Anyway, it's still quite a nasty scale.

Andy!!!! I'm thrilled for you! Ah the wait is a killer.

I am so curious to hear about how you feel on the transition from dp to acoustic. You will find it SO LOUD! Especially if you've been used to turning down the volume on the dp.... Interestingly enough though, my husband has NEVER complained about the noise- I seem to be the only one intimidated by it. It took me about a month to feel "ok" with the sound level, and another month to feel "ok" with playing a bit of forte. Now I'm really testing the waters, and still no complaints. When you consider we have marble floors and hard plaster walls, (it really is pretty loud ) I think it is incredible that no on is complaining.

Can't wait to see pics of your new Baby!

MaryBee - I'd never heard that song before ...or rather, if I have heard it I don't remember it. I think it would be quite irritating to have it running through your head as you play!

Akira, -good for you! That's a lovely achievement!

Andy, how exciting! You are going to love it!

That was one of the hardest things to get used to when I got my acoustic. In fact, it has taken me about a year-and-a-half to feel comfortable playing ff. But then, I had my digital for over 15 years, so I was very used to it. My teacher has been pushing me for quite a while now to not be so timid with the volume. He told me last week to try to "scare" the people in my house when I play the con forza/con fuoco sections of my piece. I think I did it, because for the first time, my husband mentioned that it might be good if I use the practice pedal when I play that at night.

One achievement leads into another for me. Last week I decided I'd start walking to my lessons since it is only about a mile and a half and takes about 30 minutes to get there. That is great and all but during the lesson I mentioned to my teacher that I had trouble starting on the upbeat i.e. on the "and" instead of the "one" "two" etc. I just didn't have a good feel for it and it was effecting my dotted quarter notes.

For 15 minutes we worked on me marching to the metronome and trying to clap on the upbeat. I couldn't do it each upbeat but since the measure I was working on was a dotted quarter with a eighth note followed by a half note I tried doing just the one measure like so. Feet marching on "one" "two" "hand clap" feet continue to "three" "four" and it was very helpful. On the walk home I did my best impression of a crazy person as I repeated the drill with finger snaps taking place of the clapping (I'm sure clapping while walking down the street would get the white coats after me). I now feel much better about my eighth note timing and I hope to show the teacher tomorrow (and I'll have time to work it out on the way there during my walk).

Congratulations on your new piano Andy! I hope to buy an acoustic next year if all goes well.

Wow, Andy ~ what a week! I think it's so cool that you're going to be having 90 minute lessons! When I was younger, my lessons were 30 minutes (of torture!). My new teacher is giving me one hour lessons, and it's perfect. There's no way 30 minutes would be long enough. I'm totally excited for you.

PLUS getting a new piano! You must be on pins and needles I can't wait to see pictures and hear all about it when you get it into your home. Congratulations!


My achievement is finally perfecting a section of the Mozart Fantasie that had been giving me trouble. It's not a difficult piece, doesn't seem like I should be having trouble with it. But there's one section that I just wasn't quite getting. I would hesitate a couple times, every time I played it. This week I focused on that section, playing slowly, and now I can play it over and over, at tempo, without hesitation. It was a fingering issue. Now I'm so much more relaxed when I play it, because I'm not anticipating a hitch.


D

And now, from the department of silly walks, here's Zinfan!!!

Haha that is great and it didn't help that I was bopping along snapping my fingers in the rain today. Only crazy people walk in the rain right?

My AOTW: got a pass on Heller 47/7 ('The Hunt'), although I think I can do better than what I displayed to my teacher. Also got a pass on Bach BWVa 119, with lots of praise . New assignments for next week: Heller 47/8 and First Lessons in Bach/6. Challenging!!
But the biggest achievement is that I got a bit more comfortable playing my new piano (I'm still not used to the volume, so I tend to play with a bit of reservation).

Congratulations on your new piano, and on acclimatizing to having new levels of power at your fingertips Enjoy!

My AOTW has snuck up on me enough times in the past few days that I think it's real -- I can now hear simple sheet music in my head when I pre-read it prior to sight reading. I keep finding myself realizing in mid preview that a piece whose name rings no bells is actually a tune that I recognize.

Stuff that I've never heard before is harder to summon in my head, but if the tune is simple-minded enough, I now can get a pretty good idea of what it should sound before I even touch the piano.

Since I've only been back to playing piano again for a couple of weeks, I think this development must be a delayed payoff from all the hard work I was doing on sight reading before my quit-smoking piano hiatus.

Tangleweeds,
That is really a wonderful accomplishment. I cannot do that yet, but I am able to imagine the possibility, thus also able to long for the ability.
It will be interesting to hear about how this new ability affects your playing. Please share in the future if you feel like it.

AOTW? Probably finally managing to get the rhythm of bars 3/4 of Pathetique Mvt 3 right. I was thinking about it one night, something seemed to click, so the next morning, the first thing I did was sit down and try it. I could have jumped for joy!
Add that to a really good lesson this week as well

I wish I could have lessons longer than 30 minutes, but I really can't afford it at the minute, so lucky you!

Tangleweeds that actually made me audibly gasp. Adult learning is amazing! How is it that we can make such impossible, intangible skills become reality. I'm not surprised that it should come after a rest.. not sure why but that timing seems right somehow.

da da da DAH diDAH diDAH....... Ooooohhhh that bar Emphursis - well done

I have no achievements to report, but I'm really enjoying reading about everyone's progress. It keeps me optimistic and inspired!

Way to go AOTW Team!!!!!