What music are you working on?

Yay! Finally the forums are up! :-) 
 

I am working on the following:

Beethoven 25 Op. 79 (entire)

Bach Invention #3 and #14

Schubert Valse Sentimentales Op. 50 D779 12 & 13

I am a high school math teacher, but have my bachelors in music from SDSU (nice brain shift). I have a home piano studio where I teach 12 beginners to late intermediate students. I resumed taking lessons with a teacher from long ago with the advent of Zoom lessons, so I can once again have focus and discipline on my goals. My significant other is a professional traditional jazz pianist who has had all gigs cancelled and his days at Disneyland have been nixed for now.  Lots of practicing during the pandemic! :-) 

Happy to have the boards, as I am on campus most days that the livestream events occur. But we watch them - me more than him! Thanks Tonebase!

~Denise

I'd love to hear from more subscribers. Maybe I'll start with some of our regular/recent livestream attendees - Sindre , Santiago , and if you know any tonebase pals, bring them here! The more we know about what YOU'RE playing, the better we can prepare for future workshops and lessons.

As for me, I'm "between programs", as pianists like to say when they're not ready to play anything. But I've been poking at Schumann Waldszenen, Medtner Tales, Op. 26, Shostakovich D Major Prelude and Fugue, and Faure D-flat Nocturne No. 6. Also, figuring out what Bach is next, and generally sight reading whatever I like on a nightly basis.

Hello all! And first, thank you Ben Laude  for tagging us! It's a pleasure for me to share the pieces I'm working on. 

As I said in my introduction, I'm currently re-starting playing piano. After a 10-years break, I need to relearn a lot. But I'm working on my firsts Chopins (Prelude in E Minor op. 28/4 & Waltz in A Minor). I really enjoyed working on the prelude with the videos from Seymour Bernstein and I would love to see a Tonbase video about the waltz. Your material is always helpful and very inspiring! 

I've already studied Bach's Prelude No. 1 in C Major, Burgmüller's Balade op. 100/15 and Händel's Sarabande in E Minor.

I'm also giving a try to contemporary music, after Dominic's showcase. I'm working on some easy pieces by Johannes Brecht and Michael Lazarev, and have some work by Max Richter waiting for me. 

I would appreciate to see some videos about music interpretation and how to find my own way - or rather, is there anything you can teach about that or is that something everyone just needs to find by theirselves? 

I'm very looking forward to being in touch with you all! 

Wish you the best, 

Santiago

I am working on Chopin's 3rd Ballade and Limoges from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. After my last performance of Margaret Bonds' Troubled Water, my grandmother said, yet again, "Why don't you play some Chopin?" So I'm working on Chopin. I just finished recording The Hut on Fowl's Legs and The Great Gate of Kiev for a faculty recital. It did not go as well as I would have liked, but it didn't go horribly either. I want 2021 to be the year I finally get all of Pictures memorized, and I've decided to tackle the nastiest parts first.

And I almost forgot - also working on piano II for the Mozart Sonata for 2 piano and the primo for Schubert's Fantasy. I haven't done collaborative work in ages so it's always on the back burner.

Ben Laude  I played from Medtner Op. 26 for a faculty recital a few years back. Gorgeous pieces. Would love to hear you play them!

I just did my RCM Grade 1 exam two days ago.  I'm quite happy how I performed so I should pass.  After a day off, I started on grade 2 repertoire.  I like the "Menuet en Rondeau" from Rameau so I'm gonna start with that and figure out what else I want to play in the next few days. 

Practiced a bunch yesterday and today. Jason goaded me into memorizing... pushing my brain to oblivion. Granted, very helpful in passages with lots of leaps and such. Tonights practice session went surprisingly well... I still wish I could improve more quickly than I am. I managed to work out a few trouble spots on the first movement of the Beethoven 79. Then I played through Bach's Two Part Invention #3, working on voicing and articulation. Schubert will have to wait til tomorrow. 

Tonight's view: Music soothed the savage.

How was your practice?

Denise said:
How was your practice?

The piano practice is... meh.  I had to put some time on the bass (because I'm in a rock cover band and we're currently refreshing the setlist).  In a few months, I'll be able to balance practice on both instruments. 

Hi - I’m working on ( flipping between ) the Brahms op 10 pieces - recently discovered jewels - and a few later pieces of his including the very last ballade op 119. That’s been a long term project. Loved Dominic’s presentation on the op118!

A bunch of Rachmaninoff pieces including the Elegy, several preludes and a couple of the Etude Tableaux. 

Last night I began the last two movements of Chopin’s 3rd sonata. And returned to the op27 Nocturnes. 

As you can probably guess I’m not a particularly disciplined practiser! I tend to go with the inspiration or where-ever the book falls open :)

Consequently nothing is quite performance ready right now but eventually there’ll be a bunch of things come on track. The advantage of working this way tho is I get to fully immerse myself in a composer’s style rather than restricting myself to just one piece of theirs. It’s very nourishing. 

Für Elise, Beethoven  / Pavane pour une Infante Défunte, Ravel \  Sonatine, Clementi \ and the Beethoven Challenge of the Community, Variations

Moonlight sonata 

Brahms concerto 1

Melodie from Orpheus et Eurydice - Gluck/Sgambati

Standchen - Schubert/Liszt

Liebeslied - Kriesler/Rachmaninoff

Intermezzo in A Major - Brahms

Ballade No 1 in G Minor  - Chopin

Chance Encounter - Kevin Kern

Hopefully there will be tutorials for the 1st 3 pieces I'm working on so I can elevate my playing. 

I’m currently working on Chopin Etude op 25 no 1, Bach partita no 2, Rachmaninoff Elegie op 3 no 1 and Rach prelude in C# minor.  

Hi, I'm practicing mainly:

Bach, Well Tempered Clavier Volume 1, Prelude and Fugue II

Beethoven, Kursfursten Sonata WoO 47, no. 1

Martinu, It isn't bad, is it now, to pick a few flowers

Rachmaninov, Prelude, Op 3, no. 2

Hello everyone,

One of my lifelong projects is to get through the entire Well Tempered Clavier. I have had about 18 under my fingers at one time or another and now I'm systematically plowing through all of them, starting at the beginning of Book I (C major) and the end of Book II (B minor) and working my way forward/backwards from there to eventually meet in the middle with the B minor from Book I and the C major from Book II.  I am up to F# Major in both Books, coincidentally. Rather than waiting until I've got each one 'mastered', what I'm doing instead is working out the fingering, analysis and technical difficulties of each one, globally, and thereafter hope or try to 'perfect' individual ones .  [I feel the need to put 'master' and 'perfect' in quotes, because I can't claim I've ever accomplished that with any of these pieces!]

It's very illuminating and instructive to go through all of them this way.  Dr. Remes' ToneBase courses have been incredibly revealing and helpful and John Mortensen's course on Partimento also.

A separate project has been to get through all the Rachmaninoff Preludes.  I have played all 24 in a series of Adult Ed class recitals over a series of many years.  some rather poorly I must confess, as there are many parts that would exceed the limits of my technique to play up to tempo, but nonetheless gamely made it through them, earning much applause for my struggles from our audiences of family and friends. I have studied ALL of the Preludes minutely for many years, and have taken a break from them for the past year or so before picking them up again now.  What I would like to do next is prepare each one, as best I can, to the point where I could record a passable version on my home piano.  so presently I've got the E Major, Bb minor, F Major and A Major going.  I loved Claire Huangci's discussions of the Bb Major and G# Minor and would be thrilled if she were to do similar discussions of any of the others! I have her CD of these Preludes and it is fantastic, amazing and so beautiful! I recommend to all. Another one of my favorite recordings (and I have many!) of these is the late Constance Keene's recording from the 1970's. I highly recommend that one also.