An invitation for the pianists of WTF
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It's been a fortnight and I've had a week away, just wondered who's practicing this?
I've run through it a dozen, maybe 15 times now, so it's coming along nicely.
First two pages learned, third page I'm still making mistakes.
That last chord involves shifting the torso left.@AndyD I'm glad to hear yours is coming along!
I have been half-heartedly playing the easier version, I plan to record it by the Piano Tell deadline (July 15 I think) and since that's a ways out yet, I've been focusing on other goals.
I don't know if anyone else here is playing it, but several people are working on it at Piano Tell.
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I’ve played that first version before, a long time ago. I haven’t really played the piano in a decade, maybe?
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Got a copy of Chopin's Wiosna. Started it, only to learn that I am worse than ever. Have not played in too many years and not getting any younger, but I am enjoying it. Bob isn't.
I don't like it very much. Will see. -
I've taken a quick look at this piece. To me, the big challenge is it's repetitiveness, but the deeper one digs, the more one finds. Isn't that always the case?
Chopin ends a number of his minor pieces with a major chord. In the case of Wiosna, it can be understood by reading the lyrics of the song (if you can find a decent translation!).
The lyrics from LeiderNet (translated far better than my browser's translate function which made a mish-mash of it):
Droplets of dew sparkle,
A spring whispers in the open field;
Hidden in heather,
Somewhere a heifer's bell rings.Pretty gentle open field
Picture views form happily,
All around, flowers release fragrance,
And bushes bloom.Graze and wander, my little herd,
I sit by a rock,
A sweet song that I like
I'll sing for myself.A pleasant quiet abandonded place!
Yet some regrets wander in my mind,
my heart mourns,
and a tear forms in my eye.The tear escapes my eye,
Within me sings a stream,
To me from above,
A skylark responds.His wings he spreads,
Barely visible to the eye,
Higher, higer...
Lost already among the clouds.Above prairies and fields he flies,
Still singing his song;
And the song from the ground
He takes up into the sky! -
Do people usually play it straight?
Hough effectively ignores 'a tempo', sings out a nice counter in bars 15 to 32.
And then his final 8 bars, love his interpretation...
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@ShiroKuro Yes, I still have my Weinbach grand at home, and still love it. I use it for choir practice, finding my notes. And occasionally try to play it. It also makes a perfect black/white balanced background for photographing yarn. Ha!
I sold my digital piano several years ago. Roland FP something or other. I like the way sound runs through me from my acoustic piano way better.
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@ShiroKuro Yes, I still have my Weinbach grand at home, and still love it. I use it for choir practice, finding my notes. And occasionally try to play it. It also makes a perfect black/white balanced background for photographing yarn. Ha!
I sold my digital piano several years ago. Roland FP something or other. I like the way sound runs through me from my acoustic piano way better.
@AdagioM said:
I sold my digital piano several years ago. Roland FP something or other. I like the way sound runs through me from my acoustic piano way better.Same!
When we moved from Japan back to the U.S., for a long time (7 years?) a digital was all I had (apartment life). After I finished grad school, I kept the digital even though I had two different uprights (not at the same time), both were kind of crummy, but I always played the acoustic pianos, even though they were not the greatest instruments.
But when I bought my grand, I finally sold the digital. I knew I would never play it.
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I passed Grade 6 with a distinction in spring of 1978 so would have just turned 16 years old. I recall it would take a year to learn four pieces plus the new scales & arpeggios.
I miss my old piano teacher, Miss Armstrong.I've kept a 'five-bar-gate' count of my practice over this last month since printing the music. I'm off to our London flat again, so no piano for a week
; decided to record my efforts so far.This is the 79th time I've played it through. I still need the music for some bars so it doesn't flow, and there are three mistakes. I'd like to think Miss Armstrong would say "it's coming along nicely"
Link to videoVentosa viri restabit
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I passed Grade 6 with a distinction in spring of 1978 so would have just turned 16 years old. I recall it would take a year to learn four pieces plus the new scales & arpeggios.
I miss my old piano teacher, Miss Armstrong.I've kept a 'five-bar-gate' count of my practice over this last month since printing the music. I'm off to our London flat again, so no piano for a week
; decided to record my efforts so far.This is the 79th time I've played it through. I still need the music for some bars so it doesn't flow, and there are three mistakes. I'd like to think Miss Armstrong would say "it's coming along nicely"
Link to video -
Thanks. It's been interesting.
Without a teacher who would have stressed the fingering needed in the first lesson (e.g. to get legato on the octaves) it took me probably 40 attempts before I adopted most of the suggested notation.
I can play it faster & slower but not without a fumble or two because I need the dots. Another 20 times for memory?Five-bar-gate counting:
Ventosa viri restabit
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Without a teacher who would have stressed the fingering needed in the first lesson (e.g. to get legato on the octaves)
Fingering is so important. I once thought I would get to the point where I didn’t write in fingering anymore. But now I think that’s never going to happen. At least not with any pieces that are at or above my playing level. Deciding fingering is sometimes a very slow process, but I’ve found that taking the time early in the process to not just decide fingering but also write it in makes the overall process faster in the long run.
Five-bar-gate counting
I had no idea that was that was called! In fact, I don’t think I would have had a name for that, I googled and it said hash marks or tally marks, a name I recognize but wouldn’t have used without prompting.
LSNED
BTW in Japan (and probably in China) this kanji is used for counting. 正 It has five strokes, and you always write the strokes in the same order, so you can just keep writing it over and over, and if there’s a half finished character, you can tell what the number is by the shape and the number of strokes.
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Thanks. It's been interesting.
Without a teacher who would have stressed the fingering needed in the first lesson (e.g. to get legato on the octaves) it took me probably 40 attempts before I adopted most of the suggested notation.
I can play it faster & slower but not without a fumble or two because I need the dots. Another 20 times for memory?Five-bar-gate counting:
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First time ever I've counted as I was curious...
It's years since I've sat to properly learn a classical piece that ought to be within my capabilities and wondered how long it would take to learn & memorise at my age. So extrapolating, if I sat for an hour or so daily and played it through 15 times, I could in theory learn it in a week.Love the kanji, very neat. What order are the five lines written?
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