Does anyone fancy a piano chat thread?

[LemonViolet]

I’m awaiting delivery of a new piano, squeee!!! I haven’t played regularly for 20 years. I got to grade 6 as a teen, failed grade 7, carried on tinkering for a bit but have not really lived anywhere with a piano since age 18 so am well out of practice.

Whilst I hope/plan to put a baby grand in our front room, once it is done up - which may be some time - at the weekend I just realised, what am I waiting for, I want a digital anyways for playing at less sociable hours, so went ahead and ordered myself a nice Kawai digital and it arrives on Friday!!!

There’s a music chat thread on the extracurricular board but that’s more parents discussing their offsprings’ exploits, I have seen on the music board it’s quite pianissimo but there clearly are other grown up women around here playing/learning/relearning piano for our own pleasure, entertainment, therapy etc! So thought I’d post to see if anyone else is interested in hanging out on a piano thread to chat about our piano journeys, successes and failures, pieces we like, what we’re practicing etc?

It could be called the piano bar or the pianist beaker, seeing as this is MN

If there is one I’ve just failed to find, please point me in that direction.

I also think it must be nice for the examiners to have a change from the options printed in the book 😂

Exam is in person. I live in a big city so we have a venue close by.

That Gliere is lovely, might have to print that up and add it to the ever increasing folder.
Did anyone have the Narnia stories narrated by Sir Micheal Hordern with harp by Marisa Robles ? I had (well still have) them on tape, lovely series. This piece reminds me very much of her harp music

The Gliere is beautiful isn't it? I really like the nocturne too though. All the lists are difficult to decide on. I just wish they were all in one book, rather than having to source them individually!

Tell me about it 😂. I'd pay £25 for a complete version

Just listened to the Gliere it’s lovely, I’m going to get that

@DaphneDeloresMoorhead good retirement plan! I’ve joined a WI and have volunteered to do singalongaknittingnanny carols at the December meeting!
Mr knittingnanny recognised a Beethoven sonata on classic fm at the weekend tat he’d heard me playing so that’s good news,must mean I’m making progress
I want to tackle Brahms intermezzo in a major which I heard on classic fm but it’s beyond grade 8 and on the diploma list, but as I’ve no plans like that I could “ play it my way”

Decided to work on Beethoven rondo op 51 no 1 instead as it’s a little bit easier
Have come to the conclusion that I’m destined to be a grade 7 pianist and never attain the dizzy heights of grade 8. I could ku k myself though at the years I’ve “wasted” on “ cauliflowers fluffy” instead of practising for my own development!
I had another memory yesterday at the piano and burst into song from my infant career, at this time of the year I’d be teaching them ....
“ new leaves are growing because it is Speing
New buds are showing because it is Spring
New grass needs mowing because it is Spring
Oh why does it happen each year?”
Then we would be off outside looking for signs of Spring and sketching what we saw
Sad to think that this was only ten years ago and my supply teacher friends say this doesn’t happen now in infants, it’s all about the phonemes!
I think I used to teach every subject through a song!

"Decided to work on Beethoven rondo op 51 no 1 instead as it’s a little bit easier"

Is that the c major one?

Yes

Hello everyone. I'm flagging somewhat. Can't seem to concentrate or finish any pieces. Inspire me, please!

Hi everyone hope you are all still enjoying playing
I’m trying to “play” more rather than just practise if you see what I mean! Still having about an hour a day and have improved so much since the piano arrived last year, my husband recognises quite a lot on classic fm now.
Still can’t do the double octaves in rondo alla turca though.....

I can't do the octaves properly in Rondo Alla Turca either, @Knittingnanny2. Do you have particularly small hands? Mine are quite small - I can only just reach an octave at the best of times - but I'm not sure that's enough of an excuse to not be able to crack those octaves without my hands slipping/ missing notes etc.

I think so, although I usually by large size in gloves! But I’ve decided that as it’s playing for my own pleasure without anyone else listening, that my version of rondo is fine! It was my target after returning to proper piano playing after years of “ cauliflowers fluffy” etc.
Off to the library today and going to get the Einaldi book out again.
Still working on the Beethoven rondo and Tchaikovsky April.
Exhausted the Hanon book now and have put it to the bottom of the pile!
Heard a track from the Bridge over troubled water album ( LP as it was called when I had it in the 70’s!) yesterday on the radio and it reminded me that I had the piano music version for a present one Christmas, now long gone. I’m going to buy myself a copy from eBay and be nostalgic.

Buy not by, I really was a teacher back in the day…..

Rondo alla turca on classic fm top 300! It’s number 210

My next lesson is this coming Friday after a three week gap. Teacher was taking a holiday so I did too but need to get some practise in. I've been doing a simplified version of Music Box Dancer by Frank Mills. Next up is Gymnopedies 1 and 2 by Erik Satie. Rondo alla Turk is a tad beyond me just now!

Are you listening to the classic fm top 300? We forgot to vote this year so have written our own top 10
I’m winning so far but Mrknittingnanny has decided he’s not playing anymore as 2 of his choices came in the 200’s! I’ve told him it’s not a competition
But it is really and I’m winning so far!

It hadn’t better be that flipping Lark at no 1 again

Gymnopedies 1 is proving enigmatic. The melody is simple enough but the chords in the middle section are an absolute b***d! I've spent an hour this afternoon trying to read them from a somewhat undersized manuscript. Made my brain ache. Playing the notes now I've deciphered them could well be more challenging.

How's that Gymnopedie coming along, @WildRosie ?

It isn't. The tune is easy enough - I can play that without the music - but the bass notes are a bugger. I'm sure my teacher thinks I'm overstretching myself with the piece but, so far, she hasn't said as much.

How is everyone getting on? I’ve had a few weeks off travelling to see two overseas children but getting back into my swing again now.
I bought Debussy petite suite for piano solo in a charity shop and am learning En Bateau. Mr knittingnanny recognised “ that song from classic fm”

I have silly little child size hands and ridiculously short and low set pinkies. The only way I can play octaves is by just clipping the edge of the keyboard and treating the legato pedal like I’m riding the clutch.

This issue caused me many tears of frustration, missed notes and sometimes pain in my playing days (exams to grade 5, various classical pieces at roughly grade 7 standard, though I never play them well; have hacked my way in bits through the Hummel Rondo till I’m sure I shall be arrested for the brutal and bloody murder of that piece and sentenced to life listening to an eternal duet of Les Dawson and Margarita Pracatan).

It seems entire composers are off limits to me. I can forget the Schubert Moments Musicaux and an awful lot of Beethoven, can’t do Scott Joplin at all, but I’d love recommendations for pieces that aren’t aimed at children but can still be accessed by small hands. I’ve played plenty of Mozart and Chopin in my time.

@ThomasinaGallico id recommend anything in the Baroque oeuvre as the harpsichord limited the range of notes and there aren't the huge jumps and chords you find in, for example, Romantic music.
Clementi and CPE Bach are particular favourites for me although obvs dear Clementi not in baroque era