Musical Mixer: What's going on between you and your piano, today?

Anthony Miyake Awesome!! I'm looking forward to the piano you choose!

Brother Will Green , yes, I'm getting the U1.  Can't believe how well it all worked out.  The seller bought a baby grand so listed it just 2 days before I searched for pianos for sale in the area.  I'm having it moved this coming Monday.

Hilda Huang , Hi Hilda, thanks but my tuner recommended 3 movers to me and I was able to contact the first on the list.  They only move pianos and came highly recommended, so I think I'm set.  They are moving the piano this coming Monday so I'm excited.

Here's an update for March 14, 2022:

The movers brought over the piano this morning and all went well, although the movers suggested that any larger piano would have a hard time getting up the stairs which means if I upgrade again, the piano will likely need to be moved to a room on the first floor.

I've noticed that especially the notes in the lower register are quite a bit louder and more resonant.  I love it, but it will take some getting used to.

I hope to upload some practice videos on my new piano soon.

Brother Will Green , thanks for the call-out, although it gave me a chuckle that i actually wrote that.   Maybe another way to think of it is that our pianos have a "living" spirit (despite being inanimate objects).  I think this is a rather Japanese way of thinking.  If you've seen the anime movie, "Spirited Away", it depicts all sorts of "living" spirits of rivers, radishes, and even things like ash soot.  So I think in a similar way that our pianos have a "living" spirit.

Brother Will Green Hey Brother Will, can't wait to hear some samples from your concert prep. i've greatly admired your playing as demonstrated in prior posts.  Are you thinking of including any Rachmaninoff Preludes in this round of pieces?  I've studied them all very closely for many years (which is not to say I've been able to play them competently) and would be happy to compare thoughts & notes on any particular ones.  good luck with your prep & I can't wait to hear your Bach

Peter Golemme Hi Peter! I would love to talk with you about the Rachmaninoff Preludes :) 

This concert in the spring will not have the Preludes. I am opening with the Etude Tableaux op. 33 no. 7 and closing with a transcription for solo piano of the Piano Concerto no. 3. Would love to hear your thoughts on those pieces as well! Thanks for your kind words. I hope you are well. xx

Harriet Kaplan , I wish I could play the cello.  The Brahms Cello-Sonatas are some of my favorite pieces of the classical music repertoire.  I used to also play another instrument, the French Horn, which I played in junior high and in high school.  And in high school, I learned to play the mellophone for marching band as we didn't march with French Horns.  Not sure why, but likely as it would be too difficult to empty the spit from the instrument while marching. .  Anyway, when I watched Claire Huangci's livestream about playing transcriptions on the piano, I could relate to her description of the way certain instruments sound because of the breathing involved.  Since you also play a string instrument in addition to the piano, I think that would give you an advantage in terns of phrasing of some of the voicings in piano pieces.

Harriet Kaplan  
In my extremely limited experiences I found that in a set of repertoire performed, memory issues almost always happened in sections I don't feel difficulties when practicing. On the contrary, technically demanding or musically complicated sections rarely involve with memory issues. Also, I found that's probably a universal issue in all stages of life, as I read that quite a lot of professional musicians also suffered. 
Lately I watched one of the videos dealing with memorization here in tonebase, and those tips are helpful for me. 
I definitely will encounter new memorization problems as I try learning bigger pieces (for me, maybe a complete sonata or a whole opus). In a recently learned sonata, I found it's quite confusing when there are similar paragraphs in a movement. However that wasn't a problem in the moment of practicing, problem rose when the piece finally can be run through or performed as a whole. I expect I would try to isolate them from the whole movement and practice them in a comparative manner, or maybe try to differentiate them with relating different emotions or anticipating subtle nuances. For me those means a lot work and inner clarity since I was neither a structural person nor a trained student.

Imagining I was the piece itself, I might feel happy when the performer discover new corners.
When I heard about cellists or sopranos whose graduation repertoire was Rachmaninoff 2nd concerto or 48 Bach preludes and fugues, and some pianists can transpose any WTK piece into any keys. I feel that's beyond my imagination or frustration.

Qingzhi , thanks, Qingzhi.  I'm very much looking forward to Monday when the new piano arrives.  But I do think of my piano quite differently.  I distinctly remember my parents taking me to the Yamaha store and picking out my current piano.  Think I was 10 years old at the time.  I'm the youngest of 6, but was the only one in the family who had any interest in the piano, or in playing any sort of musical instrument (other than as a passing hobby).  My father was an engineer by profession, but painted as his creative outlet and two of my older sisters married men who also paint as side hobbies.  But I have zero artistic abilities, so am sort of the odd-ball in the family.  So my current piano has more sentimental value as I sometimes think about my parents when I play.