Piano recording: jury prep
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@shirokuro What an interesting dream! It kind of reminded me of a Dali painting but a film version. Surreal and whimsical!
I went through years (this was a long time ago now) when I had nightmares and night terrors (that's when you wake up in the middle of a nightmare and you're still having it until you're fully awake and realize what happened.
Then they stopped. It was if someone flipped a switch. That was great.
Looking forward to more of your posts...
'But as they said in one of the later Rocky movies, "Time...it's undefeated.".-- Mik
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@shirokuro What an interesting dream! It kind of reminded me of a Dali painting but a film version. Surreal and whimsical!
I went through years (this was a long time ago now) when I had nightmares and night terrors (that's when you wake up in the middle of a nightmare and you're still having it until you're fully awake and realize what happened.
Then they stopped. It was if someone flipped a switch. That was great.
Looking forward to more of your posts...
@Daniel said:
Then they stopped. It was if someone flipped a switch. That was great.I’m glad to hear that! My dream was more funny than scary, but unpleasant (or worse) dreams are truly awful.
@bernard I survived!! I still need to listen to the recording again, but I think it went ok. I was able to maintain my focus pretty well and the flubs I made were not disastrous.
I was definitely nervous and my hands shook a bit, but I think I did a good job of keeping it together.
And I am sooo glad I did it!! The whole experience has been great and I learned so much just prepping for this performance.
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@Daniel said:
Then they stopped. It was if someone flipped a switch. That was great.I’m glad to hear that! My dream was more funny than scary, but unpleasant (or worse) dreams are truly awful.
@bernard I survived!! I still need to listen to the recording again, but I think it went ok. I was able to maintain my focus pretty well and the flubs I made were not disastrous.
I was definitely nervous and my hands shook a bit, but I think I did a good job of keeping it together.
And I am sooo glad I did it!! The whole experience has been great and I learned so much just prepping for this performance.
@ShiroKuro I'm glad for you that it went well.
I was able to maintain my focus pretty well and the flubs I made were not disastrous.
Kudos to you for maintaining focus.
Class this spring has been challenging. I'm slowly working through why. Part of it is because there's only one other student in class. That's both a pro and a con. The pro being that we each get half an hour of class time. The con being lack of varied input.
I'm also noticing, since I don't memorize, that reading through one of the pieces I'm working on is pretty much doable, but as soon as I start to incorporate some suggestions from the class, it gets harder. Sometimes, much harder. My focus moves from reading to the suggestions so I start missing notes, etc. It's kind of frustrating. But that's the process. Once it all gets incorporated, things smooth out a bit. Just something of a bumpy ride, I guess.
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@ShiroKuro I'm glad for you that it went well.
I was able to maintain my focus pretty well and the flubs I made were not disastrous.
Kudos to you for maintaining focus.
Class this spring has been challenging. I'm slowly working through why. Part of it is because there's only one other student in class. That's both a pro and a con. The pro being that we each get half an hour of class time. The con being lack of varied input.
I'm also noticing, since I don't memorize, that reading through one of the pieces I'm working on is pretty much doable, but as soon as I start to incorporate some suggestions from the class, it gets harder. Sometimes, much harder. My focus moves from reading to the suggestions so I start missing notes, etc. It's kind of frustrating. But that's the process. Once it all gets incorporated, things smooth out a bit. Just something of a bumpy ride, I guess.
@Bernard is this the Chopin? I am sure thst is much more complex to read than the pieces I read.
I don’t memorize either, for a bunch of reasons, but I do see how that sometimes creates its own challenges. Following the score, knowing where I am not only in the music, but also on the page…
I think of these things as cognitive burdens. For example, I play from my iPad and so I use my left foot to operate a Bluetooth pedal to turn pages. I’ve been using my left foot for page turns for forever…. Like years.
But I still notice that often I have trouble spots at the page turns. And I think it’s just an extra cognitive burden, to have to think about the score, the music, the musicality, and on top of all that, moving my foot just so, all together… and so those become spots where I am a little weaker, a little shakier.
How many pages is the piece you’re working on?
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@Bernard is this the Chopin? I am sure thst is much more complex to read than the pieces I read.
I don’t memorize either, for a bunch of reasons, but I do see how that sometimes creates its own challenges. Following the score, knowing where I am not only in the music, but also on the page…
I think of these things as cognitive burdens. For example, I play from my iPad and so I use my left foot to operate a Bluetooth pedal to turn pages. I’ve been using my left foot for page turns for forever…. Like years.
But I still notice that often I have trouble spots at the page turns. And I think it’s just an extra cognitive burden, to have to think about the score, the music, the musicality, and on top of all that, moving my foot just so, all together… and so those become spots where I am a little weaker, a little shakier.
How many pages is the piece you’re working on?
@ShiroKuro Yes, it's the last (in my book, not chronologically) Nocturne op. posthumous. No. 21 in C Minor, KK IVb/8.
An issue with reading vs memorizing is the need to spot large jumps, especially in my left hand. So my eyes come off the page and need to return in a split second to where they left off. I'm working on some blues music in hopes that it helps me improve my left hand 'marksmanship' without looking as much. Another issue is the brain power needed to read... but on the other hand, if I memorized there would be the brain power needed to recall. So I guess that balances out.
This week I'm working on setting up 'clues' so I don't need to have my brain racing so much while reading. (For example, noticing that every other 8th note in the first half of the first page is almost always a G, and it doesn't stray far from there throughout). I had actually taken note of this at first readings, but fell out of consciousness at some point.
Re: page turning. It's only two pages long, but last week I played from photo copies so I could avoid the page turn. Made a huge difference. Will be doing this from now on.
Link to videoThe industrial revolution cheapened everything.
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@Daniel said:
Then they stopped. It was if someone flipped a switch. That was great.I’m glad to hear that! My dream was more funny than scary, but unpleasant (or worse) dreams are truly awful.
@bernard I survived!! I still need to listen to the recording again, but I think it went ok. I was able to maintain my focus pretty well and the flubs I made were not disastrous.
I was definitely nervous and my hands shook a bit, but I think I did a good job of keeping it together.
And I am sooo glad I did it!! The whole experience has been great and I learned so much just prepping for this performance.
@ShiroKuro Congratulations!!! Glad you did well.
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@ShiroKuro Yes, it's the last (in my book, not chronologically) Nocturne op. posthumous. No. 21 in C Minor, KK IVb/8.
An issue with reading vs memorizing is the need to spot large jumps, especially in my left hand. So my eyes come off the page and need to return in a split second to where they left off. I'm working on some blues music in hopes that it helps me improve my left hand 'marksmanship' without looking as much. Another issue is the brain power needed to read... but on the other hand, if I memorized there would be the brain power needed to recall. So I guess that balances out.
This week I'm working on setting up 'clues' so I don't need to have my brain racing so much while reading. (For example, noticing that every other 8th note in the first half of the first page is almost always a G, and it doesn't stray far from there throughout). I had actually taken note of this at first readings, but fell out of consciousness at some point.
Re: page turning. It's only two pages long, but last week I played from photo copies so I could avoid the page turn. Made a huge difference. Will be doing this from now on.
Link to videoSo my eyes come off the page and need to return in a split second to where they left off.
This can be learned! I've gotten pretty good at looking down and back up again.
I'm working on some blues music in hopes that it helps me improve my left hand 'marksmanship' without looking as much.
I love calling it marksmanship!
My teacher will sometimes have me play things (jumps) without looking down, and it is generally the case that I have better marksmanship than I believe or than I realize. I bet you do too!
This week I'm working on setting up 'clues' so I don't need to have my brain racing so much while reading. (For example, noticing that every other 8th note in the first half of the first page is almost always a G, and it doesn't stray far from there throughout). I had actually taken note of this at first readings, but fell out of consciousness at some point.
Yep, this is hugely important! Finding those repeating patterns has really helped me, esp when a piece has lots of subtle turns.
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I got my grade. I got an A+ on both the jury performance and for the final grade in the class.
I might be a grown woman, but getting an A+ made me very happy!
I have already signed up for the next semester, but that doesn’t start until mid-August. Now I have to (get to) figure out what piano activities I want to do in the summer
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I got my grade. I got an A+ on both the jury performance and for the final grade in the class.
I might be a grown woman, but getting an A+ made me very happy!
I have already signed up for the next semester, but that doesn’t start until mid-August. Now I have to (get to) figure out what piano activities I want to do in the summer
@ShiroKuro Well done!
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Congratulations, @shirokuro You rock! or Rach?
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I have a piano jury coming up in about two weeks. This will be the “final exam” for my piano class this semester. Since my biggest challenge now is perfomance anxiety, I’ve been trying to record myself as a way to add some pressure to my practice.
So here’s my recording from yesterday. I kind of fell apart at the end, but it’s otherwise not too bad.
Miracles, by Alexis Ffrench
Link to videoThat’s so pretty! Well done!
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