Instrument Players - Come and chat (Part II)

[CoteDAzur]

Previous thread is here.

We filled one thread, so here’s another

Those of you interested in Turkish March please look up Yuha Wang's interpretation of it

Yuja Wang

That is a very long dress. < completely missing point >

I mean in this vid:

Lots of listening to catch up with on this thread!
I am really struggling with practise at the moment due to long commute and work but I'm determined to get back to it. One of the problem is competition for the piano - DS1 doesn't play piano but has decided to learn a piece he likes so he's got DS2 (who basically sight read it first go) to teach him! The next thing I knew all my piano stuff had been shoved aside!

Never just the ones available free on Fb, Gumtree etc ...neighbourly relations are strained - another thread except far too boring - and I already subjected them to clarinet high notes...Hi fellow clarinettist ClosestThingToCrazy.
Ah, Yuja Wang's dresses. I watch her videos to marvel at them. I would quite like to give a recital just to get glammed up, have so little excuse to wear an evening dress.

Among all other instruments I play the guitar. It was an old dream for me and I finally I could start with practicing it several years ago, and I continue with it, it's one of my main hobbies now I can't say that I've already become very good with this instrument but I can play now some songs really well and that makes me so happy!
Anyway the hardest things for me in case playing the guitar are barre chords. I still need much practice for them, also power chords were a problem for me. And yeah, in the very beggining physical pain was a big problem for me. I've never imagined that guitar will cause so much pain for my fingers and that they will be so stubborn sometimes in case of specific muscle memory.
I practice now with playing various instrumental music pieces and fragments from popular songs note-store.com/ , my favourite ones are popular songs from my favourite movies and some cartoons. I hope also that later I'll be able to play a good full guitar solo from one of my fav bands songs.

Hi Neon! I can't play guitar at all but I think it's a wonderful instrument. To me there's something particularly satisfying about instruments that you can create harmonies on all by yourself - that's what makes the guitar and piano special to me. I guess there must be several others that can do that too - any other keyboard instrument, harp...errr? What else? Other strings a bit? (Please help me musicians!)

Also guitar and piano are important across so many genres - love them! Glad you're enjoying it so much!

I had a go on a harp once - a small one, not the one with the pedals. It's fun - I tried to play that easy Mozart sonata (no 16, in C, I think). But it's a bit too tinkly for me. I am one of those people who like the modern piano with the volume and colour.

And I would love to get my hands on an accordion.

Ooooh yeah - accordion of course! I have a friend with a few...and I'm going to visit her tomorrow actually...

Harmonica anyone??

A bunch of us used to play the harmonica in school.

Please update on the accordions!

OK, I should be working but I'm now completely distracted by trying to play a scale on a harmonica that I've found lying around... (I work from home, I hasten to add.)

I don't really understand how harmonicas work! Mine just has numbers on it? There's a letter C on it so I guess it's in C?

Anyway the hardest things for me in case playing the guitar are barre chords. I still need much practice for them, also power chords were a problem for me. And yeah, in the very beggining physical pain was a big problem for me. I've never imagined that guitar will cause so much pain for my fingers and that they will be so stubborn sometimes in case of specific muscle memory.

I'm also a (not very good) guitarist and parent of two good guitarists.

If barre chords are this difficult it's probably not you but the guitar! It's possible the action is too high (the distance between the strings and the fretboard is too great). What sort of guitar do you have?

I've been messing around trying to sightread Mozart piano sonatas as I am determined to tackle one before my teacher leaves in January. They are not difficult to sightread even if they are hard to play well. Probably going to start with either K279 in C major or K333 in Bb major.

I played the K333 a long time ago. I really like it. But my favourite, which I can't play properly, is the A minor KV 310.

I used to pretend to play the guitar when I was young too. But the only things I really want to play are Albeniz's Asturias, and Tarrega's Recuerdos de la Alhambra. Haha. Guess how that went. I did eventually play the original Asturias on the piano, which surprisingly wasn't that hard.

The A minor is too hard for a quick win.

It's funny coming back to Mozart because the notes look so easy, but obviously it's not all about just hitting the right keys.

Tintini - re "instruments that you can create harmonies on all by yourself"

Would you explain what you mean by "creating harmonies"? (I never studied music theory in English) I think I saw this mentioned on your other thread where you were talking about your musical epiphany. There, someone was talking about "singing harmony", I think.

I just mean in a basic way really - that you can only play one note at a time on something like a flute...but on guitar and piano you can play chords. So alone, those instruments seem to create a much more 'complete' sound to me. Plus you can sing and play guitar or piano at the same time, to add an extra layer! Perhaps I just want to be a one-woman band...

I think on the other thread where we were discussing 'singing harmony' it was more about improvising a harmony line when you're singing in a group, and others are singing the main melody - effectively just working out what the chords are by ear and singing a different note in the chord than the melody note. I find that pretty hard, although if I learn a set 'part' (or someone else bellows in my ear!) I can sing it.

"improvising a harmony line when you're singing in a group, and others are singing the main melody - effectively just working out what the chords are by ear and singing a different note in the chord than the melody note."

Do you mean polyphony or even counterpoint, where two hands play different but equally important melodies?

I love playing counterpoint, especially in 3 voices or even 4. It feels like magic to hold 4 parallel melodies in my head and create them with my two hands

@Tintini if you are interested in layering different musical motifs you might consider getting a looper pedal so you can record loops to play over. It can be really effective and you can even do it live. Owen Pallet (one of my favourite modern musicians) does this with the violin on stage and if sounds fantastic.

My son uses a looper pedal a lot (for guitar practise). It's harder than it looks though - requires a rock solid sense of rhythm.

Meanwhile, I finally managed to get through to the end of Bach's Toccata in E minor The second Fugue nearly finished me off. I spent literal hours on it yesterday. It's so brilliant and amazing to play, though. I can hardly believe that Bach was a teenager when he wrote these masterpieces.

Sokolov is playing that bangy Fugue of the Toccata in E Minor here, from 3:13. I play it a bit slower than him

Wow. Impressive performance of an impressive piece of music.

I spent yesterday on the first two pages of my piano sonata (K333). It's not hard but fiddly at speed in places. I downloaded the Barenboim version because it is less ridiculously fast than most.

K333 is one of the last pieces I was learning just before I left home and lost my piano ...