Instrument Players - Come and chat (Part II)

[CoteDAzur]

Previous thread is here.

We filled one thread, so here’s another

Hands up who knew that Handel's house in London is now a museum? It's in Mayfair. His harpsichords are there, apparently. Do you think I will be arrested if I try to play them?

AND Jimi Hendrix lived there, too

I think I know that but I haven't been. Perhaps we'll go at Easter.

I'll report back in a few days

Would love to hear about it Cote - have seen it on TV and now feel ashamed I've never been!

Oh Handel's house sounds amazing.
Cote did you do it and get arrested? Hope you're not in the cells

I went, I saw, and avoided arrest I did strike up a conversation with the nice gentleman there & showed him videos of myself playing the harpsichord but he still couldn't let me play that one harpsichord from the 18th Century. I need to contact them through the website & submit credentials before visiting next time.

There wasn't much left from Handel's time so it was disappointing in that respect but I'm still happy to have seen it. I bought a couple of postcards & Handel pencils which I will give my teacher

Has anyone else got exams coming up? I've got my grade 3 exam this week.

Sounds good Cote, glad you avoided arrest

Fluke yes me, grade 5 piano and 6 clarinet in just over 2 weeks.

Hope your exams go well Broken. Mine was awful, I was ridiculously nervous and couldn't stop shaking. I'll be lucky to pass.

Fluke I'm sure it went better than you think! I get terribly nervous in exams - last time I was so rattled I nearly forgot how to switch off my phone - when I finally did it, I burst out laughing, which actually did the trick for most of the exam!
The administrator told me a businessman had even tried to flee the scene rather than take his exam! They calmed him down a bit so he played his pieces but he refused to do the rest of it.

Thanks Fluke, I also suspect it went better than you think.

Ed Balls said his piano exams were more intimidating than speaking to the house of commons

Thanks for your kind words re my exam. I'm very doubtful about passing, it really was awful but time will tell. I'm loving starting to look at the grade 4 pieces - great to be playing something new instead of the same the exam pieces I've been practising for the last couple of months.

I think I'm going to tackle the G5 exam in the Autumn term. I don't think I can cope with DS1's GCSEs and my own piano exam in the Summer!
Once that's out the way, I'm thinking I may take up flute. I had lessons as a child and we have DS1's abandoned but rather nice flute. Is this madness? I know it's going to be painful at first!

Go you Loose, both the piano exam and the flute. Taking up the flute again isn't madness taking an exam in it in the same session as a piano exam however is What grade did you get to as a child? I found the clarinet really came back, definitely more quickly than piano. Do it

Go for it Loose. I played the flute at school, got grade 8. I found it much easier than piano, although I love the piano much more! Mine is in desperate need of an overhaul - its unplayable at the moment, some of the pads are leaky. I really must get that done. I'm taking my mum to an organ concert today as a Mother's Day gift - should be good.

I got to around grade 4 then got fed up with my last teacher after having had a great one! I did play for fun in sixth form but only for myself. I got a good sound out of a rubbish flute but was terrible at keeping the rhythm - I'm much better now!
Anyway, I'm hoping it will come back!
I reckon if I do a very small amount every day it won't hurt and I can build up the amount I can play.

Loose Let me know how it goes with the flute! I rather fancy taking up the violin. I did it up to nearly grade 3, I think, when I was in secondary school.

As for keeping up the beat I find that almost impossible. I think perhaps playing in ensembles would be good practice. Provided you don't get kicked out for messing up everyone else's timing ...

I tended to do better in ensembles - probably the fear of being singled out for blame!

I have played a couple of ensembles as a pianist and am embarrassed to say that I'm usually the one to blame ...

Well I managed 2 pages of Abracadbra book 1 before my mouth hurt too much but the sound was fine. I reckon I can do 2 more tomorrow before I go to work! I may have worked up to a scale by the end of the week...

Have you had your exams now Broken ? How did they go? I got my results today, and to my utter astonishment I passed with distinction! I genuinely can't figure out quite how that happened when I thought my playing was appallingly bad. I'm rather pleased though! Really enjoying learning the grade 4 pieces. There's a piece by JSB I love - the closing bars are lovely. Can't beat a good bit of Bach 😊

Fluke that's brilliant! Well done! Just shows the nerves gave you completely the wrong idea!

Congratulations SkyeRunner! Well done!

Well done Fluke!

Which JS Bach piece? I love Bach.

Thank you 🙂 It's the prelude on 'Jesus, my joy', J L Krebs, Cote so not entirely JSB. But I rather like it, all the same.