Calling All Musicians - what is your dream piece?

[NeleusTheStatue]

Do you (or your DCs as in my case) have any dream piece dying to play/learn? It can be your next piece or a piece you are planning to learn in near future, or something big so more of a life time dream.

Having a rather dull day at a dull place (in rain) so just to cheer myself up... It's been very quiet since the breach issue so I may not get any response, but here you go!

If I played the viola I would do Brandenburg 6. I think that's the ultimate in precision engineering.

GinUnicorn, I really hope you get a piano in the not so distant future. You sound a fine pianist. It' like a painter without a brush. Could you consider digital piano with weighted keys if space/noise is an issue? Our old great composers would appreciate your love of music.

Partridgeamongtthepigeons, they are great selections. The list of DS's dream pieces have got longer again as I showed him them. But really, who wouldn't dream of playing the Tchaikovsky concerto if you are a violinist?!

NeverEver, I got you perfectly. As I said, it's reasonably simple in terms of the skills required yet impressive enough for many people as it sounds harder than it is. So yeah, you can say it's 'easy', though it depends where you stand. It's a no-chance piece' for me anyway!

I do feel Moonlight 3rd is a bit like some of student concertos like Vivaldi's and Accolay's as very often people play them before all the necessary techniques are sorted as they are not highly complicated then end up sounding pretty awful. The 1st is a bit like some of Mozart though it's probably a bit of a push to say that. It can be played, say, by grade 5 or 6 standard pianists note-wise, yet can sound very boring and soulless without appropriate musical maturity. In my opinion, at least.

I must check the viola piece as I don't think I know it!

Oooh actually I like Brandenburg 3 first movement and want to play that...but I like best the Hubert Laws version with flutes, guitar and drums.

On the topic of 'easiness', it's rather dispiriting to open an 'easy' music book to find it really quite difficult. I guess Yuja Wang would find the Chopin Ballade no big deal. So it just depends where you are. But I imagine Yuja Wang also wants to improve - I don't think that feeling ever ends!

Mozart wasn't a good example actually. But hope I manage to explain my view.

Speaking of Mozart, I'd also like to play the Sonata in A minor K310.

Listening to someone playing Mozart always reminds me Arthur Schnabel's quote.

I'm dying to check Brandenburg pieces NeverEver and Tintini named but haven't got a chance to access to YouTube yet!

Until someone asked me MY dream piece earlier on this thread, I had forgotten how I was dreaming of playing Chopin's Nocturne in E Flat Major as a child.

Now I've started practising (very little but almost everyday so far...), I was wondering if it would be possible one day and how long it would take at the pace of my (very little) commitment. It sounded very hard for tiny me but after being exposed to lots of music for a good few years due to having a musical son, it doesn't sound as hard. How good you have to be to be able to tackle the piece with ease?

I know this question would be very subjective but I would say I would like to be able to learn the piece without much difficulty as I am very much aware of my weak willpower so trying something a way out of my reach would discourage me hugely.

I don't think the Nocturne is impossible, though I remember I couldn't play the ending well.

I don't think I play any piece perfectly...

To be honest I don't need to be able to play a piece perfectly but good enough for myself would be good enough! After all it's purely for fun. I would expect better quality from DS with appropriate techniques though as he does music a lot more seriously.

As soon as the holiday finished renovation work at my home started so my newly established practice routine had been hugely distracted. However, I reminded myself to go back to the 'little and often' strategy today and just managed to learn a simplified version of Sleeping Beauty Waltz (in dust and noise)!

It's laughably simple but its famous and attractive tune gave me a great satisfaction. Today I have to stay at home as the builders need my instruction through a day. I'll probably be playing this waltz a lot at every opportunity as I feel like I am playing a proper piece (it's not!) which makes me feel sooo good.

I am one step closer to my dream piece!

I'm not sure I understand the difference between a piece that is proper and one that is not proper. Do you mean in terms of difficulty?

I think you might be being a bit hard on yourself - simple music is still music...I think it's 'proper'! For me, certain simple traditional melodies are the most moving of all.

I adore the beauty of simply music like you say. So my choice of word wasn't good to describe what I learnt. I said it's not 'proper', because... I hate to say this, but..... I am using music my DS was using when he was 6 or so. You know, those simplified pieces made for littlies. I have a self-teach music book for grown-up which came with something I bought in the past. But I found it's more fun to use DS's old books. I sat in his lessons when he was little so I kind of remember the instructions and advice from the teacher for each piece. Maybe that's part of why. And it's easy enough for me (so far). I am finishing the book today though. So moving to the next book. Exciting!

simply = simple....

If you have your DS's books already then it sounds like a good plan to use those - why buy different ones? There's no need to be embarrassed! Everyone has to start somewhere. What's important is that it works for you and you're enjoying it.

I've been playing flute for years and years and got lots of grades but I'm trying to now learn to play by ear. I'm almost like a beginner in this particular skill so to work on it I have literally gone back to playing children's nursery tunes like 'row row your boat' and 'twinkle twinkle'. At first it felt a bit silly but I am really noticing progress now.

Thank you Tintini. I must say I feel silly so my practice happens only when no family member is around! But after two more books, it'll be a book contained more 'proper' arrangements. So..., I'll keep going!

DS's aural teacher said perfect pitch could be learnt. I assume he meant incredibly excellent relative pitch that's as good as perfect pitch rather than literally that. But yes I do believe ear can be trained. DS doesn't have perfect pitch but people often think he has.

Yes I think perfect pitch may be able to be learnt (with a lot of effort!) but good relative pitch is both more useful and easier to develop, so it's advisable to put the effort into improving that first!

I'm not sure it quite makes sense to say you could have relative pitch that is 'as good as' perfect pitch because I think they are just different things. I guess maybe in terms of how it contributes to skill as a musician? In that case, yes, I think you could have relative pitch that is functionally 'good enough' to do anything musically that someone with perfect pitch can do. (Apart from give the exact name for a note or sing a specific named note - but those are party tricks really.)

And equally there will be people with perfect pitch who aren't good musicians (or even musicians at all) because there are loads of other skills to be learnt!

Sometimes people with perfect pitch don't realise what they've got, especially if they have little exposure to music. They can recognize a pitch but they don't necessarily know what they are hearing (the name of the note etc). So even those who have got it need some sort of training to make it useful. Interesting, isn't it?

I think the teacher meant you can train your ear to be pitch sensitive like those who have perfect pitch. It's like training muscles.

You have to be pitch sensitive to play in tune. I've heard people argue that even "perfect" pitch is just good learned absolute pitch. Mine isn't perfect but can recognise notes in my playing or singing range pretty reliably. So not just relative pitch. Or if it's relative, it still works relative to the A I tuned to yesterday. I suppose it's just a question of how far out you can extrapolate and how long you can hold the pitch. Even with perfect pitch you have to be remembering relative to pitches you've heard at some point in the past, there's nothing magical about A=440.

How would you tell in someone who hadn't learned music? I suppose you might notice they always sing pop songs in the same key as the recording.

Sorry I just couldn't resist posting this video...

Anyway, perfect pitch isn't an indication of musical giftedness. There is no connection between the two.

Brunch concerto for clarinet and viola or Telemann viola concerto.

Sorry it should be Bruch. I hate predictive text.☹️

Thanks for sharing, ElizabethBennetismybestfriend. I checked both and liked both, but oh my, I love the sound this amazing solist produced.

Very nice ElizabethBennett!