Music Status?
#1977
Version 7.0
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: SoCal
Posts: 13,132
Bikes: Too Many
Mentioned: 297 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1343 Post(s)
Liked 2,484 Times
in
1,459 Posts
Today's piano lesson...improvisation. I do not play anything but classical music on the piano. No Christmas carols. Today, the professor says, I will sing a Christmas song and you must play it on the piano in C major based on what I sing. Jingle Bells. First, play the melody. Then add tonic, dominant and sub dominant chords in the left hand. Then play it as Mozart, Bach (in Canon) and Lizst (octaves, crazy jumps glissandos and scales) would have done it. Fun stuff.
Likes For Hermes:
#1978
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: In the foothills of Los Angeles County
Posts: 25,333
Mentioned: 8 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 8309 Post(s)
Liked 9,103 Times
in
4,499 Posts
I used to listen to George Winston in the truck while driving to and from the desert with my dirt bike friend.
Likes For big john:
#1979
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: In the foothills of Los Angeles County
Posts: 25,333
Mentioned: 8 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 8309 Post(s)
Liked 9,103 Times
in
4,499 Posts
Likes For big john:
#1980
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: In the foothills of Los Angeles County
Posts: 25,333
Mentioned: 8 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 8309 Post(s)
Liked 9,103 Times
in
4,499 Posts
#1981
Not actually Tmonk
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 14,172
Bikes: road, track, mtb
Mentioned: 142 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2670 Post(s)
Liked 3,185 Times
in
1,676 Posts
Had this melody (and version) stuck in my had the last day or so... Phillips' solo singing and the imminent harmonization at the onset are exquisite:
__________________
"Your beauty is an aeroplane;
so high, my heart cannot bear the strain." -A.C. Jobim, Triste
"Your beauty is an aeroplane;
so high, my heart cannot bear the strain." -A.C. Jobim, Triste
#1982
Version 7.0
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: SoCal
Posts: 13,132
Bikes: Too Many
Mentioned: 297 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1343 Post(s)
Liked 2,484 Times
in
1,459 Posts
Mamas and the Papas - Dedicated to the One I love was in 1967 when I graduated from HS.
From my other training front - piano, my teacher says, I need more volume in hands. And she has a rule of thumb that one has to be able to play a piece each hand separately at twice the speed that you want to play with the hands together. I am grinding out Bach Inventions separate hands against a metronome.
More volume in my hands, metronomes with speed targets for separate hands, it seems like structured track training to me. I started taking lessons with the goal of playing Liszt's Liebestraum and I knew that I needed professional help with that piece. Now it seems like I am preparing for a Bach competition.
The truth is that I am several levels above from where I started just a few months ago or better yet from where I was when I stopped playing 3 decades ago. I could easily insist on Liebestraum but for now, I am staying with her program. You can take the head of the music department out of the university but you cannot take out the head of the department out of the person. She wants what she wants and knows what works.
From my other training front - piano, my teacher says, I need more volume in hands. And she has a rule of thumb that one has to be able to play a piece each hand separately at twice the speed that you want to play with the hands together. I am grinding out Bach Inventions separate hands against a metronome.
More volume in my hands, metronomes with speed targets for separate hands, it seems like structured track training to me. I started taking lessons with the goal of playing Liszt's Liebestraum and I knew that I needed professional help with that piece. Now it seems like I am preparing for a Bach competition.
The truth is that I am several levels above from where I started just a few months ago or better yet from where I was when I stopped playing 3 decades ago. I could easily insist on Liebestraum but for now, I am staying with her program. You can take the head of the music department out of the university but you cannot take out the head of the department out of the person. She wants what she wants and knows what works.
#1983
Not actually Tmonk
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 14,172
Bikes: road, track, mtb
Mentioned: 142 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2670 Post(s)
Liked 3,185 Times
in
1,676 Posts
For Christmas I bought my mother two copies of Schubert's Rondo in A major - a duet for four hands. She's familiar and has performed it before. I (a jazz player) am probably in way over my head... She said I could simplify it a bit if I needed to at parts. I haven't started practicing it yet, but would like to soon. Once I get into it I want to set myself a weekly progress goal and be able to play it with her by the next holiday season:
__________________
"Your beauty is an aeroplane;
so high, my heart cannot bear the strain." -A.C. Jobim, Triste
"Your beauty is an aeroplane;
so high, my heart cannot bear the strain." -A.C. Jobim, Triste
Likes For TMonk:
#1984
Version 7.0
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: SoCal
Posts: 13,132
Bikes: Too Many
Mentioned: 297 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1343 Post(s)
Liked 2,484 Times
in
1,459 Posts
TMonk Which part are you going to play?
#1985
Not actually Tmonk
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 14,172
Bikes: road, track, mtb
Mentioned: 142 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2670 Post(s)
Liked 3,185 Times
in
1,676 Posts
Primo, per my mother's choice.
__________________
"Your beauty is an aeroplane;
so high, my heart cannot bear the strain." -A.C. Jobim, Triste
"Your beauty is an aeroplane;
so high, my heart cannot bear the strain." -A.C. Jobim, Triste
Likes For TMonk:
#1986
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 2,910
Mentioned: 2 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 140 Post(s)
Liked 327 Times
in
161 Posts
For Christmas I bought my mother two copies of Schubert's Rondo in A major - a duet for four hands. She's familiar and has performed it before. I (a jazz player) am probably in way over my head... She said I could simplify it a bit if I needed to at parts. I haven't started practicing it yet, but would like to soon. Once I get into it I want to set myself a weekly progress goal and be able to play it with her by the next holiday season:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfMU1jORNyA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfMU1jORNyA
#1987
Not actually Tmonk
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 14,172
Bikes: road, track, mtb
Mentioned: 142 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2670 Post(s)
Liked 3,185 Times
in
1,676 Posts
I think so. We (my fiancee and I) are only ~30 minutes away from them so we're fairly close. She's a member of the Fallbrook Chamber Orchestra, and if all goes well, we may perform it late in the year.
__________________
"Your beauty is an aeroplane;
so high, my heart cannot bear the strain." -A.C. Jobim, Triste
"Your beauty is an aeroplane;
so high, my heart cannot bear the strain." -A.C. Jobim, Triste
Likes For TMonk:
#1988
Version 7.0
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: SoCal
Posts: 13,132
Bikes: Too Many
Mentioned: 297 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1343 Post(s)
Liked 2,484 Times
in
1,459 Posts
Here the the two Czerny Etudes I have been working on. The first one is finished and working on speed. The second one is 25% complete. I put up the little girl to make us practice a little harder.
Likes For Hermes:
#1989
Version 7.0
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: SoCal
Posts: 13,132
Bikes: Too Many
Mentioned: 297 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1343 Post(s)
Liked 2,484 Times
in
1,459 Posts
I got two new assignments yesterday. Carl Czerny Book 740 Etude #8. This is predominantly about left hand work but there are sections of the right hand that are near impossible for me at the moment. She wants some of the chord progressions in the right hand to sustain without the pedal. And of course, she can do it. That means holding notes with two fingers while changing the hand to a new chord position and then release the held fingers while placing the new ones. My hand just seizes up. This technique is required in Bach Fugues where one has to play two voices with each hand. You do not see this technique much, if at all, in Liszt, Chopin or Debussy.
Here is a kid performing the Etude. I can sight read the piece at very slow tempo right now if I do not sustain the right hand.
The other assignment is to play the alternate version of Bach's Two Part Invention #1. The alternate is the same voices / notes but Bach adds triplets to play against even notes and the Baroque embellishments. It adds distinction between the two voices in counterpoint and sounds very cool. And of course, I cannot do that either.
And I am to bring my Three Part Bach Invention book next week to start on adding a 3rd voice in counterpoint.
When I was in engineering school, I had professors that assigned homework and when I showed up in class, they were always pushing the envelope. One does the homework but the questions were all new and maybe one could be responsive if one did the assignment and really understood the material so that a different spin did not throw one off.
I worked on an Etude with a special dotted rhythm with my right hand. I get to my lesson and she wants me to play a different etude in the dotted rhythm with both hands. Did that no problem. Then I have to play the Bach Invention from memory without music. It is a good thing, I had it memorized anyway since she had not assigned it.
I think this is all great stuff. Anticipate what is to come and the harder the better.
Here is a kid performing the Etude. I can sight read the piece at very slow tempo right now if I do not sustain the right hand.
The other assignment is to play the alternate version of Bach's Two Part Invention #1. The alternate is the same voices / notes but Bach adds triplets to play against even notes and the Baroque embellishments. It adds distinction between the two voices in counterpoint and sounds very cool. And of course, I cannot do that either.
And I am to bring my Three Part Bach Invention book next week to start on adding a 3rd voice in counterpoint.
When I was in engineering school, I had professors that assigned homework and when I showed up in class, they were always pushing the envelope. One does the homework but the questions were all new and maybe one could be responsive if one did the assignment and really understood the material so that a different spin did not throw one off.
I worked on an Etude with a special dotted rhythm with my right hand. I get to my lesson and she wants me to play a different etude in the dotted rhythm with both hands. Did that no problem. Then I have to play the Bach Invention from memory without music. It is a good thing, I had it memorized anyway since she had not assigned it.
I think this is all great stuff. Anticipate what is to come and the harder the better.
Last edited by Hermes; 01-21-20 at 11:38 AM.
Likes For Hermes:
Likes For cmh:
#1991
Version 7.0
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: SoCal
Posts: 13,132
Bikes: Too Many
Mentioned: 297 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1343 Post(s)
Liked 2,484 Times
in
1,459 Posts
For those that may have an interest in counterpoint music (contrapuntal) here is a duet by John Legend and Kelly Clarkson. Baby It’s Cold Outside. Two independent voices / melodies coming together in harmony.
#1992
Version 7.0
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: SoCal
Posts: 13,132
Bikes: Too Many
Mentioned: 297 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1343 Post(s)
Liked 2,484 Times
in
1,459 Posts
@tmonk. Do you think Chopin was inspired / used Czerny 740 #8 in composing the Revolutionary Etude? It sounds very similar to the 740 #8 although Chopin is much harder to play. According to my teacher all the composers after Czerny copied / used his ideas and harmonies in composition.
#1993
Not actually Tmonk
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 14,172
Bikes: road, track, mtb
Mentioned: 142 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2670 Post(s)
Liked 3,185 Times
in
1,676 Posts
Cool peace @Hermes, thanks for sharing. As you might imagine, I was quite familiar with the famous Chopin Etude, the Czerny not as much. I instantly recognized the Chopin after listening to the Czerny a couple times, and some of the immediate similarities. I think the melody itself is unique, but the style, structure and composition is quite similar and I'm sure inspired at the very least. The wild arpeggios in the left hand and chord melody in the right hand are two similarities that I noticed immediately.
__________________
"Your beauty is an aeroplane;
so high, my heart cannot bear the strain." -A.C. Jobim, Triste
"Your beauty is an aeroplane;
so high, my heart cannot bear the strain." -A.C. Jobim, Triste
Likes For TMonk:
#1994
Version 7.0
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: SoCal
Posts: 13,132
Bikes: Too Many
Mentioned: 297 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1343 Post(s)
Liked 2,484 Times
in
1,459 Posts
Cool peace @Hermes, thanks for sharing. As you might imagine, I was quite familiar with the famous Chopin Etude, the Czerny not as much. I instantly recognized the Chopin after listening to the Czerny a couple times, and some of the immediate similarities. I think the melody itself is unique, but the style, structure and composition is quite similar and I'm sure inspired at the very least. The wild arpeggios in the left hand and chord melody in the right hand are two similarities that I noticed immediately.
#1995
Version 7.0
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: SoCal
Posts: 13,132
Bikes: Too Many
Mentioned: 297 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1343 Post(s)
Liked 2,484 Times
in
1,459 Posts
TMonk We need a status report on the Schubert piece.
#1996
Not actually Tmonk
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 14,172
Bikes: road, track, mtb
Mentioned: 142 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2670 Post(s)
Liked 3,185 Times
in
1,676 Posts
ehhh pretty dismal. I'm hoping to start gaining some steam soon but it's been hard with all of the wedding planning going on. I'm hoping to gain some momentum soon as I drop volume for intensity on the bike and we get closer to the wedding (May). We've delegated a bunch of work to the wedding party and siblings recently so that should help.
I'll post back here when I have a meaningful update
I'll post back here when I have a meaningful update
__________________
"Your beauty is an aeroplane;
so high, my heart cannot bear the strain." -A.C. Jobim, Triste
"Your beauty is an aeroplane;
so high, my heart cannot bear the strain." -A.C. Jobim, Triste
Likes For TMonk:
#1997
Version 7.0
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: SoCal
Posts: 13,132
Bikes: Too Many
Mentioned: 297 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1343 Post(s)
Liked 2,484 Times
in
1,459 Posts
Each year, we purchase a poinsettia plant from Costco for the holidays. The plant generally lasts through the end of December with some degradation with leaves falling, losing color and etc. This year, I purchased the plant two weeks before Thanksgiving. It still looks great with all its leaves and only lost a little bit of its red color and does not shed anything. Difference?
It is in the same room as my piano and gets a steady bathing of classical acoustic piano music every day - mostly Bach. Immortal notes.
https://www.greenmylife.in/the-effec...sic-on-plants/
It is in the same room as my piano and gets a steady bathing of classical acoustic piano music every day - mostly Bach. Immortal notes.
https://www.greenmylife.in/the-effec...sic-on-plants/
Likes For cmh:
#1999
Version 7.0
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: SoCal
Posts: 13,132
Bikes: Too Many
Mentioned: 297 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1343 Post(s)
Liked 2,484 Times
in
1,459 Posts
#2000
Version 7.0
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: SoCal
Posts: 13,132
Bikes: Too Many
Mentioned: 297 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1343 Post(s)
Liked 2,484 Times
in
1,459 Posts
I am starting Bach's the Art of the Fugue #1. This should be fun. Here is Glenn Gould playing it.
TMonk Here is my new favorite version of Chopin's Heroic Polonaise played by Valentina Lisitsa. It is hard to top Horowitz and Rubenstein but she is flawless on this piece and the speed she takes the fast octave section is nuts.
TMonk Here is my new favorite version of Chopin's Heroic Polonaise played by Valentina Lisitsa. It is hard to top Horowitz and Rubenstein but she is flawless on this piece and the speed she takes the fast octave section is nuts.
Likes For Hermes: