Week 3: Progress Check!
WELCOME TO THE LATEST COMMUNITY CHALLENGE!
For this challenge "A Fresh Start" the goal is to pick a BRAND-NEW piece to work on this month.
This is the time to finally open that score that you have been thinking about and get to work!
WHAT ARE WE DOING IN WEEK 3?
1. Let's share how our practice is going by posting a video, or writing some comments about our past week!
2. Practice your piece!
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This is where I am at the moment. I feel a bit stuck with this piece. It never seems to come out exactly how I want it to. I'm not quite sure how to achieve the moods and contrasts I want to express, but we'll see.
Hopefully I'll be able to play and record on a real instrument next week. I only have a digital piano at home and it's just not quite the same.
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maijahildur Great work!
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Goal for this week was to learn and memorize the last third of the ballad. So in this video I try to play threw it. Its really messy, but at least I have it somewhat memorized.
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Sindre Skarelven Bravo Sindre! This section seems especially layered and complex! I really like your tempo- makes it seem relaxed despite everything going on.
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Sindre Skarelven Wow you got so much done in just a few weeks! Looking forward to your complete run through soon!
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Vidhya Bashyam Thanks, Vidhya! Yes, definitely the most intricate part of the ballad!
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Priya Viseskul Thanks, Priya! Aiming for the complete run through video next week-end!
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Sindre Skarelven I can't get over how quickly you learn AND memorize! This is my favorite part of this piece. You add mystery to the cool chromatic themes and drive it forward beautifully.
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Sindre Skarelven You amaze me, Sindre! Wonderful work on memorizing and learning the notes. I'm in awe of your ability to do this type of work so quickly. And I love to watch your hands as you play. It all looks so effortless, when I know that it isn't!
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Sindre Skarelven This section is super complex, and I echo everyone's awe at how well and quickly you learned it! You're really tempting me to revisit this one and actually do it justice this time... Looking forward to your full run-thru and future recital performance!
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Sindre Skarelven This is really a difficult section. Great Work!
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Sindre Skarelven Keep up the awesome work!
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No matter how much I practice this Gershwin Prelude, I still struggle to get it right, especially when I hit the Record button. The LH sprawly chords are going to have to stay shrunken. It is less Gershwiny, but there is no way I can play them clear of the notes in between, i.e. the pinky always hits the next keys too. Rolling is terribly awkward. My new jazz prof thinks it sounds okay shrunken (vs rolled or sprawled). What I thought were diminished 7ths are actually 13ths (which I have yet to learn), so I have been assigned to complete a full analysis of the chords ... after only 3 lessons...
Anyways, it's getting up to speed a bit ...
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Grace Well done, Grace! It flows better and better.
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Grace Great job! You have certainly captured the spirit of these piece! I agree with you on the difficulties of recording!
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Grace You ARE getting the hang of it! Sometimes when I'm learning something so complex, it actually helps to take a break from practicing it for a few days. My hands sometimes need to catch up with my brain. Or maybe it's my brain that needs to digest the piece? One other suggestion (which may be very silly) that I have just started to try: I pull up the piece on YouTube by whatever pianist I like, and I try to "pretend" to play along on my desk, just to get a feel for how the professional is doing it. Or, at least, try to breathe along with their phrasing.
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Grace I think you're getting the hang of it. There are moments where it starts to flow freely - and those moments will start to expand until they encomapass the entire piece! Keep up the good work!
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Grace I think you're sounding great! A couple of my classmates played this and it just takes time to get it in your fingers. Harmonic analysis on this piece sounds like a good challenge!
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Grace It sounds nice so far, well done.
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Grace That's much better - clear up the pauses and it will sound good.
I like your Take 9 joke. My final videos are around there too. Thank goodness no one hears my early takes!
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Hello Tonebase Friends! Here is a little more progress for week 3. I am only playing the next page that I worked through this week as I had very little time to practice so I felt that the first parts from weeks 1&2 really sounded about the same. This next week though I intend to work really hard on memorization and dynamics/expression. I’m still quite uncomfortable with some passages still so hopefully the memorization will help work a lot of the kinks out
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Andrea LeVan This is my favorite part in this piece! Nice job working through it! Happy practicing- I need to do some memorization work too!
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Andrea LeVan Excellent slow, careful practice!
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Andrea LeVan Fantastic practice. Your careful practice will reap big dividends soon, I'm sure!
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Andrea LeVan This is also my favorite part of this piece
It's quite tricky and you're doing a great job! I love memorizing because you can take the piece with you forever, and that's what this gem deserves. -
Andrea LeVan The 3-voice part is the most difficult of the piece, in my opinion. I like your approach of practicing.
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