Instrument Players - Come and chat (Part II)

[CoteDAzur]

Previous thread is here.

We filled one thread, so here’s another

Hello everyone.
I've officially finished all my pre Christmas performances ! Although I have agreed to play in a charity concert on the 30th but that can be anything i would like. I have got 2 orchestra scores to complete by the beginning of Jan but at least I've got some time to do the details on them now.

Bad news is my teacher is just going to enter me for my exam next term to make me knuckle down and do the work for it. Cant blame him I've been pandering around it for too long now

Well done colley

Do you stress about performing? Any tips or remedies to help manage performance anxiety?

Oh Lordy I get so nervous! More so if there's any doubt I'm slightly underprepared. I'm fine in small groups but solos I find much more difficult and especially if it's infront of other musicians .

I try not to make too much eye contact until afterwards as it makes it much worse and never start with a slow piece as my bow arm tends to shake too much. Sometimes I use a little Velcro weight to start with and then take it off.

I guess the more you perform helps - I've done some indoor busking type event s recently and was fine but if the expcectaion level is high I find it much harder.

Well done Cote and colley

I'm very impressed - I occasionally play in student concerts but get very nervous and sometimes my hands shake a lot!

Hell all, and well done to those performing. I’ve only been playing with mates but that’s bad enough. Took DD to see Alexandra Dariescu’s The Nutcracker and I and we were both utterly spellbound. It’s probably the only time she’ll be quiet all Christmas....

YY to whoever said that Bach is best in minor keys; I’m working on the D minor prelude from the Well Tempered Clavier. Can’t see me being able to knock it out in 1 minute 12 seconds à la Glenn Gould though.... Still got first and second movements of a Mozart piano sonata on the go, and dusted off Les Patineurs and some Nutcracker pieces for festivities.

Hell? What did we do?!

Any percussionists here?

I was a marching snare drummer in my youth, but in my 40s now playing drum kit. Will be sitting Trinity grade 3 in the new year.

DS1 is in a marching band but plays bass drum. He enjoys snare drum, though!

Posted too soon - Unfortunately I just don't have the same sense of rhythm so can't manage drum kit! I'm full of envy of those who can!

Ahhha I think my tutor would say the same about me!
I played tenor drum then onto snare (I loved it). The drum kit is my mid-life crisis lol

Sorry! Can you tell Christmas has started here....?

MrsMadcatlady it must be very satisfying to play drumkit! Do you have an electric kit or the full acoustic?

MrsMad - Your neighbours must love you even more than mine love me

I do try not to bang on the piano before 9 AM & after 9PM, though. I try. Sometimes I put the silencer on after 9 PM.

Merry Christmas, fellow amateur musicians

I got a beautiful mahagony metronome for Xmas and have been tinkering on the piano with it since this morning. DH looks like he wishes he got me some chocolate instead

Merry Christmas all!
Cote that's amazing
I have a lovely watch and the most snuggly slippers ever but they can't compete with your present!
Also plotting some piano practice later - I can't play my Chopin piece unless I play it every day as my fingers aren't doing what I want automatically!

I've found my people! I play flute (badly but with great enthusiasm!) and have a French horn coming to me in the new year. I always wanted to learn it, gazing wistfully from behind my cornet! I am very excited!

Welcome Gemma

Merry Christmas!

I got A Player's Guide to Chamber Music.

Ooh looks like a great book!

I am happy to look up difficulty level of chamber music works for people.

Hello, could I join please? I’m another piano-returner (I think I did G6 or 7) when I was younger. I sat G4 earlier this year and have been persuaded to start working towards G5 by my teacher. I can see his logic, and I trust his advice very much. I just hate all the pieces. I started one with him 4 weeks ago and haven’t touched it since. I have a lesson tonight and have run out of excuses for having avoided it.

This is a bit rambly, but that is kind of how I feel - love playing the piano but feel I have no focus, am not improving and woe is me!

Hello Port!

I did G8 a million years ago. These days I pick what I like and play them till I'm sick of them and then start a new one. My teacher seems happy to go along with that plan.

Port if you hate the pieces then don't play them. Are there no alternatives that you might enjoy? Usually there are pieces outside the grade booklet that you can buy individually.

I'm probably in a similar place to you except not doing exams. Grade 6/7 as a teenager, took up piano again this summer aged 52. No plans to do exams but my very good teacher gives me a mixture of stuff to do so as to give structure to practice and lessons. Finger exercises to improve hand strength and finger independence. Scales, which I actually quite enjoy (they seem easy to learn compared to pieces) - we do a new major and a new minor scale over four octaves at each lesson. And at any one time I will have one piece I am finishing, one I am working on getting right and one I am just starting.

We choose pieces together but often with an eye on stuff that needs improving. So for eg I just started another Scarlatti sonatina (F major, K82) chosen because there are a lot of octaves and I need to work on those.

Hello Port I would sod the exam if I didn’t like the pieces - that’s the joy of being a grown up. Will your teacher consider other boards? The new LCM syllabus looks great (I like the way they offer an etude instead of scales if you fancy). If I do more exams I would prefer to do the Recital ones.

Back at work today and kids messing us about a bit this evening so too crunchy for proper pratice. The Bach prelude is going better than I thought, and can probably put the Mozart sonata K283 in the “done” pile. I listened to Prokofiev’s Musique pour les Enfants for the first time today; it’s fab and relatively straightforward. Lessons start again next week.

Surprise hit this Christmas was my 3 year old’s ukelele. He asked Santa for a blue guitar (no idea where he got that from) but both kids are obsessed by it. And it’s harder than it looks!