Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Achievement of the week - what got you excited?

Tangleweeds - What a nice breakthrough. Smokefree and can hear written music. Your synapses have come out of the fog!

Cheryl - Yes you did. You posted a nice recording in the recital. Congrats.

aw, Thanks Jim!
I've truly been greatly cheered by the kind support and encouragement I've had in the feedback on my piece.

Ok....lol I have composed my first piano piece!

It is about 50 bars long and I'm vastly amused with myself, my husband is quite entertained as well.

It is, of course still a first draft,and I'll review it with my teacher tomorrow - I've written a few things that sound great but are really hard for me to play - how funny is that!?

I did some tinkling at the piano, and used MuseScore to write it up. MuseScore also has a playback feature so you can hear what you've done. (Hence the writing of parts I can't play all that well)....

Once I have it refined and playable, I will share the "first final version" I expect a few modifications as I get better at this.
(How cheeky am I? I just ASSUME you want to hear it )

What an accomplishment! Of course we want to hear it! (How could you think otherwise?)

lol.. well, that's the cheeky part - I didn't

Kidding aside, I look at this thread group with particular fondness and can't wait to have something presentable to post and share with you all!

What got me excited this week? I learnt how to solo....OK, not fully, but for Watermelon Man, which is the piece I have been working with. My tutor showed me a few bits and pieces playing with the blues scale on that song and cut me off at the knees and call me shorty, I got it to work! Sure, it doesn't sound like what he can do (I am in awe when I here him play), but its a start and made me happy!

The other thing I have noticed of late as well, is I am hearing better when it comes to other music. I have been downloading a lot of different jazz/blues/soul music and I have noticed that I am really starting to hear the piano a lot stronger then I used to.

Cheers

Hoffy, do you mean improvising? Creating the rest of the piece on your own? That's really cool!

I too have noticed my hearing improving in terms of picking out left and right hand, and isolating instruments, mostly piano, but also others.
Exciting, isn't it?

Cheryl,

I hope you haven't made it too hard, because then I can make it one of my weekly "throw-aways". I will present you to my teacher as a well-known contemporary Italian composer. (well-known to those on PW's AOTW thread)

Too funny! No it isn't too hard - heck *I* can play it
It isn't terribly sophisticated but ....sure I'll share it- including the whole story behind and what the piece illustrates!

I will of course also have to "perform" it for you all
I had my lesson today and we tweaked it - and after the lesson I tweaked it again - to make it a bit easier for me to play and also to bring a bit more drama to it.

Edited to add....
Hey, I just realized you want to make my first orginal piano composition a THROW AWAY PIECE??? I think I should be offended! (.....nah....Not really I'm rofl, and flattered you would even consider it, sight unheard so to speak!)

I made it through the first 5 measures with no mistakes!

Baby steps I keep telling myself!

Last lesson, I was amazed that I forgot a very basic premise...fingering and hand position. I was moving my hands all over the place...my "coach" (I like that term better than teacher) showed me that I could play four measures straight without moving her hands around if I were to keep my right hand in middle C position! One of those smack the forehead moments where I said "DOH! I knew that!"

Cheryl, I cannot wait to see it too. I also appreciated you mentioned MuseScore. I did not know such service existed. I wind up not being able to see many parts of my composition due to heavy pencil marks.

As far as my AOTW is concerned, not so much. I already practiced today. Got the notes down for my recital piece - 1st movement of Beethoven's Pathetique. Now it's the hard part. The speed is not there. There are many fast runs. I think I have to completely memorize it. It will be fun (?) to memorize this. I was listening to the recording of famous and not-so-famous pianists. One person (not-so-famous one) mistakenly went back to a wrong page at repeat. Oh, they are human too:) Anyway, it was lots of fun to listen to different interpretation, quality of sounds and simply different way of playing. I will go back there and play something different now.

My AOTW was the amount of time I got on my upright since the family was away for a couple of days. (wahoo! )

I managed to record 4 of the pieces I've been working on with one great, two okay, and one real clunker, but that's recording. The other 3 pieces eluded successful recording, but oh well. *sigh*

I also got some serious practice time on a couple of Grieg pieces (waltz and ballade) which there is a thread here about recently. (I'm lovin' Grieg's lyrical pieces!)

And finally, I was reminded that the action on my Kawai upright is a little heavier than my Roland digital. I really should try to get more practice time on my upright when I get the chance.

A great week! (or, um, I mean a great couple of days )

Not quite, I am not sure whether what I have been taught is 100% right, but I have either been using the notes from the blues scale or the notes from the appropriate cord/scale, playing them in a rhythmic fashion and seeing what happens.

Cheryl,

re: Cheryl's Snoring Sonata (it was something like that, wasn't it?)



True enough, it does sound like I'd be putting you out with the trash. But think of the company you'd be keeping! Recent throwaways have been names like Diabelli, Gurlitt, and Bartok.

This popped up just as I was about to head off to get supper started - you made me laugh!

It is called "In dormiveglia "russo" " which is a joke/play on words.
I thought it as I was awaking up - hence "dormiveglia" which can be when you are falling asleep or waking up (half and half state of conciousness)... Then I added "russo" because it sounded Russian.
Russo also means "snore" and my teacher added the "in" So, Poetrically we could call it Russian Slumber, or .... less so... "Half awake, I snore"
We were killing ourselves laughing.

Indeed I would be in good company - I shall cease complaining Jim

I'm still on a high from yesterday's lesson. Last week I was assigned nr 6 from First Lessons in Bach, and it kind of fell under my fingers. I knew I would surprise my teacher with the progress I had made, but apparently I did better than we both expected. It's off the assignment list, and is replaced with CPE Bach's Solfeggietto.

Funny thing is: usually I have a lot more trouble learning pieces, to the extent that I play them from memory by the time I have another lesson (due to lots and lots of repetitions). The last few pieces from First Lessons in Bach are different. I can't play them without the sheet music. My reading is definitely improving (and yes, I know that I'm not really reading when I've played a piece tens of times, but I'm still happy with this progress).

I love that Monty Python Skit! But you can't refer to it without posting a youtube clip! It's just not good form!

Silly Walks

hee hee good one Cobra.

So, my achievement is a bit of a passive one ...I went to the dr yesterday.
I was a bit disconcerted to see how young she was, but once I got over that, I thought she was just great. Of course it was all in Italian and there were some technical terms... fortunately I had done some homework and knew some of the terms in Enlgish and she was very careful to give examples and explainations to be sure I was following her. It worked just fine.

It is tendonitis (specifically trigger finger or "ditto a scatto", and we shall see if it can be treated with therapies.
She said that if this kind of problem goes too far without attention, it can become irreversible so I'm hoping that with this therapy it will be ok.
If not...well, we'll cross that bridge later, but I was pleased with the way she interacted with me.

I don't have to stop playing, but I will maintain my reduced playing levels for a while longer and avoid playing certain pieces that stress the pinky more than others.
She suggested stretching both before and after playing and also soaking my hands in warm water (alla Glen Gould ) .... interestingly - acute tendonitis likes cold, my kind, which unfortunately is called "chronic" - likes heat.

I have a little splint, or brace, to wear at night to keep the last 3 fingers of my right hand extended. (To help them relax)
I have to also put a "patch" with an anti-inflammatory med on overnight.
I have to do some massages with an arnica cream
I have to do a lot of gentle stretching exercises and some massage to the forearm.
I will also be doing some parafin treatment ( the same sort of thing you have if you get a treatment at the esthetician).

I have to report back in 3 weeks.

So... so far so good.
Let's see how it rolls.

Bummer to hear that, Cas. It's nice to hear that you're getting treatment for it.

And, by the way, "ditto a scatto" sound like it could be a title for an Einaudi piece!

Maybe Cheryl will write a new piece called "ditto a scatto" while waiting for her hands to recover.

Glad your visit went well and that there is some way that you can intervene.