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Re: Week 2: First Steps
@Mark Cooper He is one talented musician. To be able to play classical pieces and to be able to improvise in front of large audiences is nothing short of amazing.
- Ken_Radford
- 5 mths ago
- The "Unfinished Business" Challenge
- Reported - view
Re: Week 2: First Steps
@Mark Cooper Thanks for sharing Mark. I have marvelled over Keith’s playing for the last 4 decades, and without his inspirational playing I may have given up my quest for piano competency.…
- Ken_Radford
- 5 mths ago
- The "Unfinished Business" Challenge
- Reported - view
Re: Week 2: First Steps
@Mark Cooper Well done Mark. You make it look easy (and I know it is not).
- Ken_Radford
- 5 mths ago
- The "Unfinished Business" Challenge
- Reported - view
Re: Week 2: First Steps
@Dustin Anderson Awesome playing Dustin!
- Ken_Radford
- 5 mths ago
- 2
- The "Unfinished Business" Challenge
- Reported - view
Re: Week 2: First Steps
Eight of the happiest seconds of my life… Only two more stretch LH chords to hit.
- Ken_Radford
- 5 mths ago
- 8
- The "Unfinished Business" Challenge
- Reported - view
Re: Week 2: First Steps
@Dustin Anderson For some notes to be considered musically significant would imply that other notes are not significant, and if these can be identified maybe I can just not play them :)
- Ken_Radford
- 5 mths ago
- The "Unfinished Business" Challenge
- Reported - view
Re: Week 2: First Steps
I am intrigued with the concept of ‘musical significance”. Every time my piano coaxes tones from me, are they or are they not musically significant? I may have missed the point...
- Ken_Radford
- 6 mths ago
- The "Unfinished Business" Challenge
- Reported - view
Re: Week 2: First Steps
Here are the next few bars of Keith Jarrett’s Heartland.
- Ken_Radford
- 6 mths ago
- 6
- The "Unfinished Business" Challenge
- Reported - view
Re: Week 2: First Steps
@Sindre Skarelven Thanks for your kind words Sindre. I will be recording the next few tens of bars today.
- Ken_Radford
- 6 mths ago
- 1
- The "Unfinished Business" Challenge
- Reported - view
Re: Week 2: First Steps
@Dustin Anderson Thanks for your encouraging words Dustin, they are much appreciated.
- Ken_Radford
- 6 mths ago
- 2
- The "Unfinished Business" Challenge
- Reported - view
Re: Week 2: First Steps
I spent week one on the difficult LH stretches in bar 95 of Heartland. This week I thought I’d give my hand a rest and play from the beginning of the piece. Here are bars 1 - 33 (of a total of 140).
- Ken_Radford
- 6 mths ago
- 10
- The "Unfinished Business" Challenge
- Reported - view
Re: Week 1: A New Hope
@Astrida Thanks for your comments Astrida. I agree that rushing can be counterproductive and that warm-ups are essential. Onwards and upwards...
- Ken_Radford
- 6 mths ago
- 1
- The "Unfinished Business" Challenge
- Reported - view
Re: Week 1: A New Hope
@Dustin Anderson Hi Dustin. Thanks for your comments. I have downgraded from “painful” to “aching”, and this goes away when I stop stretching so I feel that I am not in danger of longer term issues.…
- Ken_Radford
- 6 mths ago
- 1
- The "Unfinished Business" Challenge
- Reported - view
Re: Week 1: A New Hope
@cdales Hi and thanks for your wise words. I should have used the term “ache” rather than “painful”. After practicing the passage and associated stretching exercises my hand aches,…
- Ken_Radford
- 6 mths ago
- The "Unfinished Business" Challenge
- Reported - view
Re: Anyone like to improvise?
@Peter Golemme Hi Peter. Thanks for your questions. My go-to VI in a II-V-I-VI sequence is the augmented 7th. I feel that the notes of the JMM scale give it a little lift - more so than the notes…
- Ken_Radford
- 6 mths ago
- Discussion of the Week
- Reported - view
Re: Anyone like to improvise?
@Peter Golemme Hi Peter. A thought occurred to me after listening to your three great performances. As you have said, what you do (and you do it very well IMHO) is take existing pieces and improvise…
- Ken_Radford
- 6 mths ago
- Discussion of the Week
- Reported - view
Re: Anyone like to improvise?
@Peter Golemme Thanks Peter. I will try out some enclosures at my next session.
- Ken_Radford
- 6 mths ago
- Discussion of the Week
- Reported - view
Re: Anyone like to improvise?
Hello fellow improvisers. I thought I would share part of my journey from “I wish I could just sit at the piano and play” to “I used to wish I could just sit at the piano and play” by showing one of…
- Ken_Radford
- 6 mths ago
- Discussion of the Week
- Reported - view
Re: Week 1: A New Hope
@Dustin Anderson Hi Dustin. I have not had good results with option 3 so I have modified my stretching exercise to include root-octave-11th and this is helping (albeit a bit painful).
- Ken_Radford
- 6 mths ago
- The "Unfinished Business" Challenge
- Reported - view
Re: Anyone like to improvise?
@Mark Cooper Nice work Mark. Your left and right hands work very well together, which is what I am aiming for.
- Ken_Radford
- 6 mths ago
- 1
- Discussion of the Week
- Reported - view
Re: Anyone like to improvise?
@Linda Gould I will check out Jeremy’s videos. Thanks for mentioning them.
- Ken_Radford
- 6 mths ago
- 1
- Discussion of the Week
- Reported - view
Re: Anyone like to improvise?
Great to hear that I am not alone in my journey to learn how to improvise well. My teacher tells me to “play fewer notes, leave space, do not have a fixed left-hand rhythm - rather have the left hand…
- Ken_Radford
- 6 mths ago
- 1
- Discussion of the Week
- Reported - view
Anyone like to improvise?

Hi. I have always had a desire to be able to sit at the piano and just play - without knowing what I will play. It seems to be a daunting task, but since I found a great teacher who was classically…
- Ken_Radford
- 6 mths ago
- 151replies
- 1290
- 1
- Discussion of the Week
Re: Week 1: A New Hope
@Dustin Anderson Thank you for your thoughts Dustin. I have tried options 1 and 2, but not yet option 3. I will give it a go tomorrow and let you know how I get on.…
- Ken_Radford
- 6 mths ago
- The "Unfinished Business" Challenge
- Reported - view
Re: Week 1: A New Hope
Hi, I mentioned in today’s livestream that there are three left-hand root-7-3s (see attachment) in the Keith Jarrett piece Heartland (in F Major) that I have been struggling with for aeons.…
- Ken_Radford
- 6 mths ago
- 1
- The "Unfinished Business" Challenge
- Reported - view

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