WEEK 1: Discovering Schubert Month
Dear Pianists,
Welcome welcome! It's always a highlight for me to hear your playing and get to celebrate in your achievements with you. This is the thread where we'll all be posting our biweekly updates.
Make sure you've read the rules before replying!
Twice a week between February 1st and February 22nd, I hope to be reading your daily updates in this very thread right here!
Please use the following format when commenting (feel free to copy & paste!):
- Piece you are working on:
- One passage you are satisfied with:
- One passage you are not yet satisfied with:
- (Optional): a video of you performing any or all of the piece you've been practicing!
Feel free to make these updates as short or long as you wish!
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Just learnt this piece not long ago. I hope that the approach is correct. Feel free to listen.
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Charlie Gesualdo Thanks for listening and the feedback.
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Vidhya Bashyam That's great to know. For sure I am eagerly to hear it. As I have very limited opportunity to learn of his piano pieces, and not to mentioned also on listening. Perhaps, I wasn't paying much attention on his works. But one thing for sure (from my point of view), his writing somehow "drag" too long. (no offend).
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D664, 1st movement 2nd part:
2nd part has some technically difficult passages for me, like the few bars in the beginning, it took me some time just to get the notes right. But I feel I am much better at octaves than I used to be.
The difficult part for me is 1. the phrasing of the passage before the recap. 2. tempo not steady sometimes, the dotted rhythm needs to be more clear. 3. pedal. 4. the ending.
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Qingzhi Sounding great!
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Op.90No.3 Development Read-through:
Here I do a rather slow read-through of measures 22-62, in one take, warts and all, trying to pay attention to a number of trouble spots I identified. The development of this piece, is about twice as difficult as the exposition, IMO. There are some technical obstacles that need to be solved before I can indulge in interpretation (
), and I will try to do good, honest work. Each of those orange stickers have little instructions to myself written in them: I will play through these three pages slowly and attentively for a few sessions, and hope to report back with some improvement after 4-5 days. -
Charlie Gesualdo Sounds very good- youâre bringing out the beautiful melody really well. Great idea with the stickers marking the trouble spots.
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Charlie Gesualdo you are doing very well with it! I like your tone, the melody, and also very nice âgrowlâ effect with the LH trill. One thing though I notice your left wrist sometimes drops quite low - maybe something to watch?
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Vidhya Bashyam thanks, I'm working hard on it now. I've put my other stuff aside till the end of Feb. Hope it pays off.
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Ching Lee Goh thanks for pointing that out... it's a nasty little habit of mine. This is what happens when you don't have a teacher. I just watched your Gretchen am Spinnrade. Your touch is very even and you hold your hands very nicely. And it sounds good and flows nicely too... I will use you as my teacher for now, if I may...
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Charlie Gesualdo Some tricky bits had to he âglossedâ over in order to keep the momentum :(
Iâve ubmitted it for a masterclass - and am looking forward to tips from Dominic. Iâm honoured if my videos can impart something to you. By all means!
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Ching Lee Goh My sloppy work habits are coming back to haunt me. Recording and sharing shines a harsh light on all the sloppy passages that I filtered out of my mind. Now I'm basically re-learning Op.90No.3 from scratch. There's an important lesson here...
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Charlie Gesualdo Lovely piece and lovely playing.
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- Piece you are working on:
- I work on Valses Sentimentales #5 - 13 - 18- 19 -20
- One passage you are satisfied with:
- Easy to learn, sweet and short, what I like for the challenge because of the time we have to learn...I am so slow, lol!
- One passage you are not yet satisfied with:
- The problem for me it is to play the pieces at a right speed! And play the good notes when I tape my performance.
- (Optional): a video of you performing any or all of the piece you've been practicing!
- I tryed to tape my performance yesterday and I had to retape it and retape it...I am so nervous when it's the time to play for others without making mistakes...So hard for me...So I did make a video but the sound was so hard to hear. I could not beleive that I play so madly! Thinking that if I am a good piano player...I was feeling so depress after that. Lol! When I listen other piano player's , they play so lightly...why I play so heavily, like if I play piano just since a month or so...lol! And I don't really like my piano to be honest...I don't have a acoustic one...it's so different for me, for the fingers, for the sound...Ok, I'm the only one who has this feeling ? Is it because I don't have a piano teacher ? I will like to have one but I don't know where to find one who will help me with all of this...I am in Montréal and I can't stand to have a mask in my face anywhere I go...lol! Sorry for my long message...but it's the way i feel...lol! Desperate piano player sometime...
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Aline Valade Just keep trying. I am sure it will be great! I am playing some of the these valses sentimentales too. Trying to expand my knowledge of Schubertâs vast repertoire, get better at sight reading and just enjoy the beautiful music. Looking forward to hearing your recordings soon.
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Aline Valade yes, I also find it difficult to make recordings. It seems like a great way to build endurance in concentration though. I think it gets a little easier the more you do it.
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Vidhya Bashyam Thank You Vidhya for those gentle words. I love those valses sentimentales. I still practicing them every day. I heard your videos, nice playing. Everything will be find for me, Lol!
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Susan Rogers Hi Susan, thank you for your gentle words. I will continue to tape my performances, and hope that I will be find, lol! I have to learn to be patient with me and the music sometime. Lol!
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Valses Sentimentales No.21. Learning process a little faster than the prior one. Very addictive little pieces. Satisfied with: starting to understand/feel the mood, style of these waltzes. Not satisfied with: need more practice to play lighter and securely.
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Vidhya Bashyam nice! Keep sharing.
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Vidhya Bashyam This is one of my pieces too. I can't play the leaps up to speed now so another waltz for revision!
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Ah Schubert! Op. 90, No. 1. It feels like a lot of water has gone under the bridge since I started learning this - and then stopped - shortly before the pandemic began. Itâs so nice to get back to it. I worked on the first two pages mostly.
what Iâm not happy with: I meant to hold the first chord longer. I meant to be quieter at measure 40, 41.what I am happy with: so happy to be back to this piece. Thatâs what comes to mind.
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Susan Hi... I just listened. You sound better than you give yourself credit for... Please keep working on it and sharing your progress.
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You were warming up nicely there and then the video came to an end....
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Charlie Gesualdo Thank you for the kind words of encouragement!
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Richard George Littlewood Thanks Richard. It was 9:30 p.m. when I sat down determined to get something for my for week 1 post. I was so tired from a hectic last few days but told myself âjust get two pagesâ
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