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Does anyone have any tips for loosening up? My entire loving back and arms are so tense all the time and I'm playing these pieces and obviously I can't go that fast in the prelude if my hands aren't loose. My professor is getting really frustrated at me because of this.
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Mar 5, 2013 21:52
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 23:25 |
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Thanks for the advice, it's helped me quite a bit! Here's a piece I made back in January for composition class. I like the idea of it but it needs a lot of revisions. Finale doesn't play it very well but you should be able to get the gist of it. around 1:00 - the bass is supposed to be pianissimo 1:23 - supposed to be a rolled chord across 2 beats but Finale doesn't recognize the way I wrote it throughout - bad pedal changes, computer is not smart  Thought I might post since it seems new piano music is relatively rare nowadays and I thought you guys might maybe like it perhaps?
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Mar 29, 2013 07:20
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Just dropping in to say I've been playing Beethoven's Tempest sonata this semester and it's a lot of fun. Definitely recommend it, especially the third movement. Also working on Debussy's Des pas sur la neige, it's a lot harder than it looks and a great exercise in dynamic control, which I still have to work on somewhat.
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Mar 14, 2014 07:06
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What kind of sheet music are you looking for? Pop songs, art songs, classical pieces? A lot of modern composers have their own websites where you can download their music for a price too.
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Mar 15, 2014 06:00
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Do your hands ever hurt after you practice for an hour or even less? Your wrists are much too low which is flattening your fingers out, especially 5 (your pinkies). This builds up tension and doesn't let you play as musically as you could be. If it's really uncomfortable for you to raise your wrists, try scooting back and sitting just a little higher, they should raise automatically at that point. Once you fix that and get nicely curved hands and fingers (it'll probably take a while, don't worry), you should try letting gravity do most of the work in bringing your fingers to the bottom of the keys, especially in a softer piece like this. Right now it looks like you're pushing hard with your fingers which is very very bad. Fixing that will also help reduce tension in your fingers. Honestly with an electric piano and poo poo mic setup it's really hard to give you good tips on your sound. Overall I'd say to work on your dynamic control as it could be much more expressive than it is. I really like how you brought out the melody notes, but the repeating accompaniment could be brought down a full dynamic or more. This will allow you to have much more dynamic expressiveness in the melody. You should also do a rallentando (slow down progressively) at the end in the last couple bars or maybe more, it'll make the piece sound better. A lot of pieces, especially Baroque and many Neo-Classical, have this implied even if it's not specifically stated. Man there's so much more to talk about, honestly I'd much rather teach you in person than do this internet poo poo. You said you're recording it for your piano tutor? Do you not meet in person? Internet lessons are complete poo poo in near everyone's opinion, you should find a good classical teacher irl who can show you good technique and give instantaneous feedback. On another note I just saw Sean Chen (the crystal award winner in the Van Cliburn competition last year) perform. He's really young and crazy good, with a lot of power and huge technical knowhow. He played his own super flashy arrangement of Ravel's La Valse which you can download here, it was pretty insane. Both inspiring and depressing to see someone that good, imo. Gonna see Stephen Hough in two weeks, that should be great as well.
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Mar 21, 2014 07:11
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I dunno what your fingering is but here's what I have used in the past: 2 on the c 1 and 4 on the tritone 1 and 5 on the a-flat and f 2 and 4 on the e and g (or 3 and 5 if you have small hands maybe) 3 and 5 on the f and a-flat 1 and 5 on the d and c 2 and 5 on the e-flat and c 1 and 5 on the e natural and c second part of the phrase repeats the same except the last chord is 1235, pretty simple Stephen Hough was pretty crazy, he played three encore pieces (all short but still he just kept coming out and doing them) and he didn't seem fatigued at all after he played all Four Ballades. He played them really fast too, very impressive technique. Definitely the best pianist I've ever seen live.
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Apr 4, 2014 07:13
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Got my pieces for next semester: English Suite in G Minor - Bach 1. Prelude "Tempest" Piano Sonata - Beethoven 3. Allegretto Intermezzo Op. 118 no. 2 in A Major - Brahms Passacaglia - Copland Should be a good small concert for my junior standing I think, will probably end up learning more of the Suite and the 2nd Tempest movement if I have time.
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Jul 17, 2014 10:21
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Blog Free or Die posted:Nice selection! Probably my favorite Brahms piano piece, and the G minor English Suite is one of my old standbys. The English Suite Preludes are pretty awesome; it's weird to find such long and complex pieces inside a keyboard suite. The D minor one in particular is ridiculously long; the Preludes are structured almost like mini-concerti. Haha, only doing the Passacaglia cus his Piano Variations are too hard for me right now. I love his early stuff, hell early 20th century stuff in general especially Bartok. Love love love Gershwin's piano music, even Rhapsody in Blue though it's overplayed. It always sounds way easier to play than it actually is which is in complete contrast to most piano pieces. I've been wanting to learn Rialto Ripples for a bit, it's a fun little ragtime piece that's not Joplin so most people haven't heard it.
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Jul 19, 2014 07:33
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I'd look at poetic music too if I were you, like Chopin's ballades. There's a lot more of them and some are just set like a specific style of poem while others are based on actual poems.
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Jul 31, 2014 01:06
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this semester im playing le cyclope by Jean-Philippe Rameau 1st mvt. of les adieux op 81a by Beethoven 1st mvt. of piano sonata 2 by Chopin either basso ostinato by Shchedrin or the copland passacaglia again if i dont have time, that chopin is a beast prob gonna go to a competition too, we'll see David Pratt posted:Does anyone have experience with taking piano lessons online over a webcam? can you physically not leave your house cus if thats the case you can hire someone to come to your place and give you lessons. if not stop being a lazy and go outside piano teachers are plentiful, even lovely tiny towns have a church with a pianist/organist most of whom would welcome the extra cash
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Jan 12, 2015 00:12
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true, so the best thing would be to find someone who specializes in adult lessons or failing that most teachers should have openings at the start and end of the school year. as always be prepared to sign a contract and probably pay in advance since adults flake out more than kids either way never get online lessons ever
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Jan 12, 2015 04:12
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take lessons if you want to be good pls make this the new title Ricky Bad Posts posted:Ok so I've been trying to decide what kind of tutor to go for, I suppose really any tutor at all is gonna be what I want, but is it worth even mentioning to them that what I want to shoot for eventually is a more the jazzy style? I mean I know that requires good technique so I imagine id be starting out with classical so I could always change teachers.. jazz teachers teach chord progressions and improv that classical teachers dont so try to find one asap
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Jan 15, 2015 03:21
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btw this series is very very good, it's real unarranged pieces sorted by difficulty and era. I'd highly recommend it if you're a beginner and sick of playing fake fur elise or ode to joy or other poo poo.
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Jan 16, 2015 01:36
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listen to the real one instead https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3217H8JppI
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Jan 16, 2015 02:25
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Sub Par posted:As a beginner adult student I also recommend that Alfred book that was linked earlier. It's the one I'm using and I feel like I"m making good progress and enjoying the process. this series is quite good, there's a selection of pieces from each era. what makes it cool is they're not arranged by the publisher, they're just written for beginning players. sounds like they're probably a little ways off but it shouldn't be too much longer before you could start on it
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Jun 3, 2015 20:07
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my teacher has been pushing me to do scales in 3rds, 6ths, and 10ths this summer. it's fun, you should give it a try if you know all your scales and haven't been doing this already. also in octaves
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Jun 23, 2015 01:19
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 23:25 |
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hey aspiring pianists, don't pay attention to the Alkan dick-sucking in the op. he's got a couple good pieces but most of his music is quite generic and not great, just hard. not memorable at all. Liszt is much better for Romantic virtuoso stuff as he actually does things melodically and motivically. he's got some virtuosic duds too but many more good pieces than Alkan. Also if you really are serious about piano, and I mean in a "I want to perform Beethoven in front of people" way not a "I want to learn a pop song to get laid" way, either buy a real piano or have some place where you can practice on one. When learning it is much easier to go from a real piano to a keyboard than vice-versa. might sound like a snob but every weighted keys electric I've ever tried has felt terrible and is not comparable to a real piano. that said there are 'silent acoustics' and hybrids out there that use real full actions, haven't tried one but those would most likely be fine. expensive though, looks like yamaha's start at 14k or so. oh and if anyone's looking at getting an affordable-ish grand, I'd probably recommend a 6' or so k. kawai. i wasn't impressed with them in the past but i've recently played on a couple that have been fixed up and revoiced and they were great, light touch and nice sound. definitely talk to a pro about how much that stuff would cost though, you're most likely looking at 4 digits.
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Dec 29, 2015 08:59
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