WTF-Beta

@jon-nyc @kluurs thank you guys!!

@kluurs I'll DM you now, thank you so much!!!!

ShiroKuro said:

the degree of difficulty I feel from CdL is inversely proportional to how tired I am.

Or just proportional, depending on how you read that…

The less tired I am, the easier it feels. The more tired I am, the harder it feels.

Whatever. That’s why I only do qualitative research.

@wtg that’s great!!

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Ugh. Yesterday’s practice didn’t go so well. I’m back to wondering if this is just too hard.

OTOH, it seems clear that the degree of difficulty I feel from CdL is inversely proportional to how tired I am. I need to stick it out until my lesson (Monday) and see if my new teacher can get over a few specific challenges — currently the section starting in measure 27 and the one starting in m37…

I too thought this would be about digestive health!

We probably need a new router…

Thanks for sharing the photos! Sounds like a great trip so far! Do keep us updated

This is Jon Batiste’s lovely tribute to Dolly Parton:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1807922880366556

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I was reading about him and I didn’t realize that the RHPS was his debut movie. Wow!

Meal

@AndyD I worked on those bits a little bit yesterday, and my fingering is the same as yours. Of course I’m only just getting into this part, so it might change, or maybe my teacher will suggest a change. But this fingering is also in line with how the score is written, and I’d prefer to play it that way.

In his video, Hugh Sung says he tries to make fingering choices that avoid over-stretching the hand. This is a good idea as a general rule, and I usually do the same. But those LH notes are not held notes and you don’t need to keep your pinkie on that Db (for example) so I don’t think playing those first four notes with the LH will necessarily cause an over-stretch.

Actually, maybe it’s just as important to work on bringing the LH over (to the right) as you play those notes… I’m trying to remember which video it was, but I was watching someone play CdL with a nice overhead video shot and really noticing the horizontal movement of their hands.

Anyway, I’m not saying I’m in a position to question an accomplished pianist like Hugh Sung, but for now, I’m going with the standard fingering.

Also, as an aside, I seem to keep wanting to type this name as Huge Sung…. And the famous actor as Huge Grant…

(Sometimes you can’t blame it on autocorrect…)

@DougG certainly not me, I don’t have a word for that…

@Bernard oh good! I plan to watch it tomorrow morning

I haven't watched this one yet, but I'll post it here so it's easy to find.

Piano Lesson with French pianist, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet on How to Play 'Clair de lune'

oops, here's the video, measure 27 part 1

Holy cow, it looks like there's one video for each measure?? Wow.

Also, watching him work in whatever program he's using is kind of nostalgic (I wonder if this is the precursor to Newzik, the app that he promotes)

Anyway, @andyd Andy, his approach to the LH part for measure 27 is interesting, instead of only taking the top two notes with the RH, he takes the top 3 with RH, which means the LH only plays octaves. Interesting... Probably not what I'll do though...

Here's the second video:

The video is something of a trip back in time. There are at least three in this series, maybe more?

I wonder if these videos were made back when there were more time limits on what you could upload to YT...

@CHAS Oh nice, thanks for the link! I've seen other Huge Sung videos, he's quite at explaining things!

@bernard I think he is or was a partner or employee with Cunningham? Maybe someone else here remembers...

Ok, I was mostly right, I checked Wiki, it says:

Sung became the Director of Institutional Solutions at Cunningham Piano Company in 2016, and then became its Vice President in 2018.

y'all

@Bernard I hope everything works out!

Private (one-on-one) lessons can be quite expensive, so I can get why you might prefer the group lessons. Also, the group lessons sound like they have an interesting and compelling dynamic, I would be interested in that if we had something like that here.

At the uni music program, the only group lessons they offer for non-majors are for very beginning level pianists. I think there's something called a studio class which is a group class and students play for each other (and the teacher of course). It kind of sounds like a semester-long masterclass. But you have to be a music major (or music grad student) to enroll.