Instrument Players - Come and chat (Part II)

[CoteDAzur]

Previous thread is here.

We filled one thread, so here’s another

Loose DS is a music obsessive. We're on holiday and he brought his ukulele which he is using to play flamenco inspired riffs and practise polyrhythms. Takes all sorts ...

I enjoy playing but I don't enjoy practising as much as DS does.

Could someone just confirm that the poco rit and a tempo in this photo refer to bars 13 and 14 - its just occurred to me it might be bars 9 and 10...

Fluke - I read them for bars 13 & 14, too.

Thanks Cote

It's not terribly clear where it repeats either...

Can I see bar 13-15?

Left hand has just two notes per bar. It's clear to me that's not where the rhythm changes are happening

Never

I guess what threw me was where the phrase finished/started. For the 13-14 I would have written the a tempo a little bit to the right so you slow down to the high B and then a tempo at the low B. Or something. I've never played Gershwin ...

Dammit. I was going to sound a lot more confident.

I attended a work thing recently and was astounded at the confidence of some people making pronouncements on things we can't possibly know anything about and I thought I'd try it myself. Obviously it will take a bit more practice.

Ha ha, Never say something with confidence and people will believe you 😉 I'm not much good at that myself!

How is everyone doing? I'm still playing my Haydn sonata and really enjoying it. Who would have thought!

I'm restarting lessons this week after my hols.

I have a Scarlatti sonata to finish, and I think I am going to learn a Chopin nocturne. I like op 9 no 1 but it looks quite hard. Anyone want to recommend one?

Misti I like that nocturne very much. It doesn't look much harder than his usual stuff... But if I was to learn that I'd probably practice the outer parts and never the middle part.

I also like this one a lot: Nocturne No.21 in C-Minor Op.Posth (I play it a bit faster which I think is the thing to do, but with a lot more mistakes, which is not the thing to do...)

How about an Etude? Some pleasingly loud and discordant bits.

How about a waltz? Op.69 No.2

Never I'm supposedly to do an étude this year but that will definitely be chosen with my teacher, because I'm not a masochist.

I think I'll go with no 1... DD plays no 19, DS no 20 and no 21 looks a bit (dare I say it) on the easy side. I'll probably be regretting my decision in 3,2,1 ....

Mainly doing a nocturne because we have the book already!

I'm on a month long holiday with no piano or harpsichord. There's just an electronic keyboard with weighted keys that spring back and it's horrible Still, I'm doing about an hour on it every day just so I don't lose my repertoire.

Cote my electric piano is pretty rubbish too. I'm so tempted to buy a real piano. I just need to work out how to install one without my neighbours complaining...(terraced house and I can hear their TV).
I'm doing loads of practice today because a) it's raining, b) we're away next week and c) so far this summer I've been rubbish at it. I'm just focusing on Waltz in A by Weber today. Tomorrow is Chopin day. I'm trying to narrow down the mistakes and really work on fixing them. So far the first section of Weber is good, second and third sections are ok as long as it's slow! But I think that's better than where I was at last week!

Electric piano is nothing like a real piano, I'm afraid. Can you put one in the room farthest away from your neighbors, then agree with them on a hour in the day when you will practice?

Hmm.. I need to think about moving some furniture around...

If you can afford it, I strongly recommend one of the silent piano systems. Normal pianos with gubbins installed so you can push a button and play in silence with a real keyboard. I have a Yamaha Silent Piano, but most manufacturers offer them now. Kawai have their own system but Yamaha licence their technology out to lots of other manufacturers, such as Schimmel. I do most of my scales practice first thing in the morning - can do ten minutes silently at 6:30 and no one is bothered.

Does anyone feel a bit crap after lessons sometimes? Mine are ultimately very rewarding and useful (and I am much better for them) but when you practice and think you’re doing okay and then spend about 20 minutes in a lesson completely deconstructing two bars I usually come away feeling a bit crap....Not explaining myself very well, I guess it’s just a realisation of how much I have to learn! I don’t do exams but I can see why people like the objective declaration that “you are this good”.

I have a silent piano. :) They are good. But you do pay more for them for the quality of the piano. The man at the Yamaha shop in Soho told me that you pay about 2k extra. But I love my Kemble silent piano.

Jaffa I know what you mean about lessons. It took about 3 years before I heard something like "you've done this in a half-decent way".

I'll definitely look into the silent piano - we have a piano shop round the corner so I could have a look. Or go to the Yamaha shop.
I could justify it because DS2 also plays and really will need a decent piano after he takes G5 next term. But mainly I'd justify it by practising more!
I have often come out of a lesson feeling a bit deflated having picked over two bars for ages!

(I’m idly eyeing up the back garden for soundproof garden rooms as I write this....)

If you have space, how about a normal acoustic and something like a Clavinova? That way you would get more choice of acoustic instrument, and better value for money. Think we should find a name for deflated pianists after lessons!

Still on my mad Schubert binge.

I have a shed but it's not soundproofed - there's an electric drum kit in there! It's more of an office though.
It's possible the neighbours wouldn't be too bothered by an acoustic piano. Lots to think about...