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Liszt Waltz--try number..oh..maybe...200 (as such a simple piece this is, I think I dug myself into a rut I cannot get out of. note to self: do not play simple pieces)

Tchaikovsky's The Sick doll redo number "i lost count"

Beethoven Ecossaise in Eb Major WoO86 (sorry it is a little quiet than the rest of them)


Thank you and let's hope that this is the last of that darn Waltz

-JG

Simply beautiful.

PF

Well played, all three pieces. The Sick doll and the Liszt Waltz sound dynamic wise good to me. On the waltz you play well balanced soft and loud parts - maybe you could check to get the melody bows inside the parts better, regardless whether the overall passage is loud or soft.

On the Beethoven you could do more dynamic/melody wise, try to find the beauty in this piece and present it. It is not easy to make an "easy" piece sounding interesting, but it is possible and worth the effort! Keep on with your playing, you are on a very good way!

One question: Did you really bought an Edirol, in order to put it in front of the digital keyboard loudspeakers to get mp3 files? Would not give a 5 Dollar cable, connected from keyboard line out straight into the PC soundcard, even better results soundwise, and much cheaper? Just curious...

MindenBlues wrote:

On the Beethoven you could do more dynamic/melody wise, try to find the beauty in this piece and present it. It is not easy to make an "easy" piece sounding interesting, but it is possible and worth the effort! Keep on with your playing, you are on a very good way!

One question: Did you really bought an Edirol, in order to put it in front of the digital keyboard loudspeakers to get mp3 files? Would not give a 5 Dollar cable, connected from keyboard line out straight into the PC soundcard, even better results soundwise, and much cheaper? Just curious...

Beethoven: Wasn't he the type of composer who would put all the pedal markings, fingering guides, and dynamic markings all over the work on how it MUST be played? Didn't he leave no room for intrepretation? Unlike some other composers of his time. Wasn't beethoven strict and dilibrate on how the piece should be played is as how he heard it in his head?

With that said. The sheet music is simple enough that there are a few markings of "sF" and a couple of staccato markings for the last two eigth notes in the set of four. It is difficult to (assuming that my above statement is true about Beethoven) to play it within the accepitble limits of what he wrote down. Regardless of "pp" or "ff" there is no room for the pianist, only the composer's brilliance.

Edirol: When you think "keyboard" you probably think of something nice and pretty like Yahama's Klaviboard (i believe that is the name) with all the neat features of input jacks and advanced computer technology. Well sorry to burst your bubble, but my keyboard is a basic one. There are no MIDI outputs or any jacks in the back for cables to connect to the computer. I also purchased the Edirol because I also play on real pianos every 6 weeks for a Adult Piano Group. So I would like to take the ability to record to the host's house and record from his or her piano. I also play in one or two recitals a year on a nice Steinway, so I'd like to have the ability to capture the couple of minutes of me playing on a piano that costs more than our two family cars. Lastly, I also (as soon as I save up for a 2GB SD-Card) will record my class lectures...just because I dont feel like taking notes in class. I can just play it when I get home and then learn from that, instead of trying to decipher my skribbling.

Regards,
-JG

Aaahhhhh... The Juuf Rides Again ! Mothers lock up your daughters !
Er, sorry about that. Idiot mode off now.

The Beethoven is pretty good, except for some wimpy RH playing near the end. But it sounds as if you are tense, perhaps anxious to make no mistakes. Seems to be no need for that. Now that you have all the notes down pat, you should start relaxing and enjoying yourself !

Same for the Liszt really. I am not sure if this one's better than the previous, it probably is. Good dynamics and well paced, but could do with a bit more freedon and fun.

This sick doll is very good, can't see anything to improve. This poor creature needs no fun, and I think you have done what you can for her. I say move on !

All said, very well done, you should be proud of this. I'll add them to the site if you let me.

Please add everything but the Beethoven piece. I feel that being a strict (as written) player is not generally welcomed here regarding simple-short pieces.

Oh, sorry to say but I WAS having fun with the Liszt waltz Maybe I am not looney enough?

I am not use to having the freedom to "voice" myself. I am a literal-as-is person. Honestly, I cannot pick out inuendos or puns or anyother type of lunacy. When I do try to get my feet wet (say by telling a joke) I usually mess it up or it simply is shot down like a Kamakazi in WWII.


I think that it would help my playing if I were to grow out a wild hair-do and not shave for a couple of years. And do as Brahms was notorious for; wearing ties for belts. And then say to a host of people as he did: "If I did not insult anyone here, I humbly beg your pardon" (or something on that line)....maybe THEN I will be "fun".





-JG

Beethoven scores have normally much less dynamic expression markings, explicit melody bows and so on compared to the composers of the romantique area. Look at Chopin scores, how dense and exact pedal markings and expression details are.



Every composition lets room for interpretation. Even Chopin with the tons of expression markings said to a student, he don't need to have played it in the musical language of Maestro Chopin, it can well be the own language. It shall however not sound like a foreign language, that is the only thing what people don't welcome so much! And it does not care whether it are simple or short pieces.

What I will say, of course one should check whether the dynamic markings work or not for the own interpretation. What is much more important to present the piece in a convincing manner. If you find nothing to improve on your Beethoven take, that's fine for you. If you have the possibility that a more advanced pianist plays that Beethoven piece for you, perhaps you find something then in order to let it sound better. The best thing would be if you would take a teacher, just my opinion, you will progress much faster.

Do you feel that the critique on your Beethoven take is unjustified? Your statements sounds so to me. Well, it is only a personal opinion and it is up to you how to handle this.

Hey, Juuf! I thought you might get a kick out of knowing that my four year old niece has taken a recent liking to piano playing. Was she inspired by me? No. She interrupted (fingers in ears, with a look of chagrin) the Chopin Rondo I'm working on to tell me, "Play the 'Wiszt' Waltz on the computer". She listened (with the most poised look on her face, as though she were having tea with the Queen) to your recording several dozen times, insisting that I dance with her. An hour, I danced!

What a compliment for Juufs Waltz! Hopefully, you don't take it too much to heart that your niece don't like your Chopin Rondo. I also don't know what to think since often if I start piano practising, all living creatures what have legs, including my dog, leave the room!



So your keyboard has really neither line-out nor ear phone connector? There are keyboards without ear phone connector? Really? Instead earphone you could take the mentioned 5 dollar cable to connect to the PC. Even the cheapest soundcard would give better results as putting your Edirol in front of the keyboard loudspeakers this way.

That is probably so, but I think the sound quality is surprisingly decent for such a crummy setup. Yeah it sounds a bit digital, but it would do that anyway.

I agree, surprisingly decent. It is only ... if a 5 dollar solution would eliminate all problems regarding surrounding noise like key pressing noise and so on, I cannot understand the crazy setup. Well, if there is even no earphone connector, there seems to be indeed no other possibility. Seems to be more the engineer inside me who gets stomache ache through such a recording setup, but not the musician...

I have a solution to this madness: Someone donate a nice piano to me. Here is my address......


Until that happens. I ask you guys to bear with the lacking-piano quality. It sounds much different in person than from a recording.

Oh well. Not everyone can get what they want. -JG

I have put up the Liszt and Tchaikovsky. Roll on the next ones - no stopping you now, right ?

I will be rolling like Napoleon! No stopping me...well until I meet ol'man winter in Russia