Larry King Style

Back in the 1990's, I used to listen to a short annoying* fellow on the radio. Jim Rome was (and, I believe still is) the guy's name, and frankly, I couldn't get enough of him. I listened to him as much as my day job would allow. He had an interesting tonal delivery, something of a blend of Snoop Dog and Jeff Spiccoli. I was teaching at a large Houston-area high school at the time, and even found, completely unintentionally, that I began to adopt certain aspects of Jim Rome's manner in my communications with my students. They were not impressed.



* I mean "annoying" in the most endearing sense. He'd privately embrace the label, I'm certain.

One of the things about Jim Rome that remains with me to this day was his complete and utter disgust with Larry King. King's USA Today columns, for example, evoked powerful derision. Those columns were a stream of unrelated thoughts. The only way to know you had gone from one to another was by reaching an ellipsis... So his columns from the mid-90's read something like this:

I like puppies. In fact, I would be suspicious of anybody who doesn't...
Alan Greenspan was on my show last night. I've said it before, and I will say it again: he's a sharp fellow... I should floss more... This Internet thing may really turn into the Real Deal some day. You'd be surprised what all is out there...

In hindsight, Rome's scorn was completely unfair, as King's writing style was well ahead of it's time. Many early bloggers, and modern-day Tweets and Facebook posts all resemble the kind of material Larry King offered in USA Today 15 years ago. Larry King, Ladies and Gentlemen, the world's first Web 2.0 content provider!




With the notion that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, I will now compose the remainder of this post in mid-90's Larry King style.

Packing up the family tomorrow morning for another round of road-trippin'. This time, we are meeting Gramma MA in Gatlinburg. Hello, Alpine Slides...

Piano is hard. Have spent most of the summer on a Kuhlau Sonatina. Might have it presentable for the August ABF Recital, who knows...

Jillian is working on The Entertainer in Alfred's Book One. She seems to like that version better than the one in her book. She's really coming along...

Einaudi is coming to Milwaukee October 16. Tickets are still available, although I don't have mine yet. Wonder if there will be some sort of Pianoworld meetup...

Speaking of Einaudi, how did that Anthony B. get so good, so fast...

Sue and I have been doing triathlon training this summer. Hoping to complete a race in September. I hate running. Running is hard. The swimming and biking, not so bad...

Thinking about moving to the Nashville area some day. Nice town...

After one year in my Honda Insight, I've driven about 15k miles, and averaged 48.6 mpg. Not bad. I'm wondering what that new Hyundai Sonata Hybrid will be like...

Jim Rome tried to establish a market in Chicago. Didn't take here. Wonder why...

We've had 9 inches of rain at my house this month. That's a lot...

Elroy Jetson... can you imagine raising that kid...

I still haven't watched my recital performance. I will some day...

- Aw2pp, who promises never to do this again.

Le Onde - Behind the Tapestry (way too long)

The old adage holds in many ways. Focus on the finished product, because you may be better off not knowing about the bits and pieces and effort that went into it. "Don't see how sausage is made" says Life's Little Instruction Book. By the same token, stay out of the kitchen of your favorite restaurant. Don't turn the tapestry over and look at the chaos on the backside. The work that goes into publishing a book, creating commercial software, a dance recital, building a house... all very messy, and all very tedious. And, when done well, all completely transparent, hidden by the excellence of the finished product.

Those of you who think my Le Onde recording is wonderful and seamless (hi family!) should probably skip the rest of this post. Fact is, I spent a cool 5 months working on this piece. Hard work. Even now, when I play it, my mind is completely atwitter with specific thoughts relevant to where I'm at. The rest of this post will attempt to capture most of those.

First, a comment on the specific recital recording itself. In the end, I had the choice of two imperfect recordings. Recording A was recorded a week or so ago, at a time I wasn't even really intending to make a recording. And it had some awful, obvious errors on both the front and back halves. I kept it, though, because when I listened to it afterward, I was very impressed with how well the subtle things were done. More on those shortly. For now, consider recording A to be the figure skater who fell on her triple axle, and two-footed a landing late in her performance, but scored well on what those judges call "artistic impression".

Recording B was flawed in less obvious, less subtle ways. There was a pause here and a flub there, but it was overall cleaner than Recording B. And it was recorded later, just after a lesson. In listening to it, it was less polished, but had nothing major going against it... nothing that I couldn't live without. This is the figure skater who landed all her jumps, but scored lower for reasons known only to the Illuminati who judge the sport.

Of course you know I went with Recording B, even if I have a slight preference for the more imperfect, but subtly superior version. Both of them are good, though, and represent quality takes of which I'm proud.

Here is what goes through my head when I play this. I hope, by capturing this stuff here and sharing it with foisting it upon y'all, it might begin to clear my mind of all this clutter, so I can just play music come Live! In Person! recital time. Let me know if this sort of thing happens to you. That might help.

• First 12 seconds - Keep the tempo even here. Build from soft to medium loud with each measure. (This "build" command repeats itself through the music for every LH pass. It's my attempt to create the wavelike feel.)
• "We're not at the beach yet, but we can hear it off in the distance."
• Measure 5, Starting at 12 seconds - RH melody kicks in. It must overcome the LH, and yet, decay, medium to soft, with every measure. In addition, the melody (the higher notes) must be accented over the secondary notes. This is crucial. Finally, the last dotted half of the passage (the first of which occurs at the 18 second mark) needs to be lightly accented, and MUST occur exactly the moment the corresponding LH note hits. (This is what makes the note sing, as Denis was asking.)
• Measure 15 (30 seconds) - Start building volume. The increase from piano to mezzoforte in 4 measures is more sudden than you think. Don't be afraid to be too loud there, you'll quiet down quickly thereafter.
• Measure 20 (38 seconds) - And the reverse is true here. I had more trouble with the gradual diminuendo than the gradual crescendo, for some reason.
• "We're at the beach, and the tide is coming in, albeit very gradually."
  
• Measure 25 (45 seconds) - Starting a new theme here. Still piano. Resist the powerful temptation to rush this section.
• Measure 28 (51 seconds) - Crescendo, but then immediately dip back to piano. I never quite pull this off.
• Measure 31 (55 seconds) - Since you were back to piano, crescendo again. The music calls for a slight allargando (something of a reduction in tempo), but Einaudi himself doesn't seem to do this here in any of the recordings I have. Either way, I usually forget this, because, as you see, there is a bunch of other stuff going on in my head by this point.
• Measure 33 (59 seconds) - Repeating the second theme. Supposedly, we're beginning mezzopiano this time (as opposed to piano the first time around), but that didn't leave me enough room to crescendo in the upcoming measures. So in practice, I typically begin this second theme softly, and build. Speaking of which...
• Measure 35 (1:03) - Start building the volume, so that you're blasting away by the time you get to measure 39.
• "The waves are building. The tide is reaching its peak."
  
• Measure 39 (1:09) - Loud here. Accent that first note, and the first one in measure 40, then quickly soften to piano, to increase the contrast with the next section. Big slowdown, too, for exactly the same reason.
• Measure 41 (1:12) - Play this relaxed, but as loud as you can without making errors. Save the ferocity for later. Don't rush.
• Measure 44 (1:18) - That LH D needs to be crushed to get the proper accent. The RH D needs to be subtle, because it's contrast with everything else that is going on is enough to bring proper attention to it.
  
• Measure 47 (1:22) - Quick reduction in volume and tempo, followed by an equally quick rebuild.
• Measure 55 (1:35) - Start quieting down. In a few measures, you'll have a quick build, then back to almost nothing.
• "The tide, having reached its max, begins to recede here."
• Measure 59 (1:41) - It's ok to be very quiet here. We need the contrast with what's coming up. Don't crescendo, stay quiet. (Note, I usually always crescendo here anyway.)
• Measure 63 (1:45) - Loud. Accent the LH firmly at the beginning of each measure here. The RH is a tie; as much as you want to hit that D again, DON'T!
• "The tide has gone out. The beach is very quiet."
• Measure 64 (1:49) - Key measure. Einaudi calls for una corda, but wait until you hit that first note, then push the pedal. Regain the tempo and don't let it drag. Be smooth. Though we're supposed to be piano here, the LH tends to drown out the RH if you let it. Don't.
  
• Measure 73 (2:05) - Slow down, then pause. Create the impression that the piece might end here. That would be confusing, because we've not resolved anything.
• Measure 74 (2:08) - Hanging just briefly on the pause, start anew. There should be a sense of relief here.

Ok, we're halfway through. And let me answer your question: "Yes, absolutely, every single one of these thoughts, and likely more, pour through my head every time I play this." It's a mess, and I'm thisclose to thinking something is wrong with me. But hey, maybe everybody goes through this? Or maybe the secret to playing this well is emptying your mind of these distractions? How do you get to that place?

At any rate, the second half of Le Onde is very similar to the first, and as such, most of the same thoughts run through my head. I'll be briefer now, detailing only the changes for the second half. There aren't many, but they are important.

• Measure 90 (2:36) - Constantly coming back to B on the LH creates significant tension here. Don't let that affect you. The tension is for those who are hearing the music, not you.
• "The tide is coming back in. But it's different this time. Are those storm clouds?"
• Measure 101 (2:54) - Finally, the LH moves off that B onto a D, releasing the tension. Everything feels familiar now, with the exception of those disconcerting pauses (measure 108, 117).
• "Yes, it is a storm."
• Measure 126 (3:36) - Blast away. When you went through this section the first time, you were loud, but relaxed. No need for that now. The music calls for ferocity here, even if my recording doesn't sufficiently convey that. So be it. Einaudi's recordings don't, either.
• Measures 147 - 149 (4:08) - The entire piece builds to these measures. Hammer the accents. This time, that RH is NOT a tie, so hit that D again in 148 with everything you've got. As before, hit the first note in 149 before deploying the una corda.
• Measures 153 to the end - I had quite a bit of trouble with this page. My saving grace is that Einaudi plays these measures slowly and carefully, so I did, too.
  
• "The storm is passed, the tide is going out, the beach is quiet again."
  

Anyway, thanks for reading this far. Live recital is in three weeks.

- Aw2pp, who feels like going out and running a 5k about now, even though he hates running.

Le Onde - Final Take

(Two posts in one day? Blogger overload. I may have to take a day off tomorrow.)

As I said earlier, today is / was piano lesson day. I stumbled my way through Night Song in Alfred's... that is MUCH harder than I thought it would be, and it will need another week before we move on to Hava Nagila. Then I launched into Le Onde. It was pretty good... not perfect, but good. I told her I was trying to put together a good recording for the ABF Recital (a concept that still mystifies her, by the way... online recitals?) And that it would be nice if I could put together perfect recording, but also that I'd come around to the idea that "good" is good enough.

She said something she'd said before: "It's good enough. Don't try to improve it. You may improve it, but not by trying. Strive for excellence, which is much more attainable and worthwhile than perfection."

I got home, pushed the record button, and five minutes later, ended up with this. Hope you like it. It's good enough. Imperfect, yes, but good enough. More thoughts on it later this week (as you've come to expect from me).

Box.net link to a recording of Le Onde I'll be submitting as my recital piece

- Aw2pp, goat rodeo clown.

Le Rough Drafte

Here is a rough draft of where I am on Le Onde. It has about a half-dozen fatal errors, each of which would be egregious enough for me to toss the recording away if I were submitting this for an ABF recital (two weeks to go!). Fortunately, I am not.

Box.net link of a rough recording of Le Onde

First of, Denis, I am no help to you. Your question about making the dotted half notes sing... I am not sure that I do this, nor am I certain how I would go about doing it. I try to make a soft accent... something akin to the horizontal lines you see over notes in pieces like I Due Fiumi (see the very first note, for example). That subtle accent, combined with a very dull attack on the left hand, gets me closest to what I think you are describing. In this recording, the best example of this is about 36 seconds into the piece (measure 18).

There is an important caveat here: this sounds very different on PT's piano (a 4'6" Emerson grand, for those of you just joining us*). My hunch is that the singing quality you are looking to derive on those notes would be achieved differently on different pianos. I'll take your thoughts on that.

* - Where have you been, anyway?

Other observations.

Tempo - I am delighted that this checked in around 5 minutes in length. My template for this piece is Ludovico's studio recording on the Le Onde CD. It turns out that recording is just a few seconds shorter than mine, so, for the first time in my piano-playing life, I seem to be playing something at tempo. That despite a somewhat plodding and hesitant first page or so (not sure what is up with that, but it can be fixed).

Dynamics - They're getting there. A lot of work to go there, but it's an improvement over what I was doing just a week or two ago.

Errors - Obviously, these need to be ironed out. Some are more irksome than others. For instance, I have decided the climax of the piece begins in measure 147, and ends on the first note of measure 149. It's inexcusable not to have that part (and it's cousin in the first half) down pat.

The Wave - I am trying to invoke the wavelike sensation by building on LH arpeggios, getting softer on the RH arpeggios. Need lots of improvement here.

But mostly, I grabbed the recording to listen to the flow, and follow the music as I listen so that I know where I am missing dynamic and tempo markings. With two weeks left before ABF recital, and 6 weeks before we go Live! In Person!, I am pleased with where I am.

- Aw2pp, who always wanted to play Le Onde.

Le Update, Part Deux

Pardon my French, of course.

If it were a normal recital, I'd be going for recordings now. And failing, mostly, because that is what I do with recital recordings. I record and record and record, right up to the deadline, throwing away 99% of my takes because they have Fatal Errors. Eventually, I come across one that has errors, but non-lethal ones, save that recording off the Ap-200, and courageously try to improve on that recording. But I don't, and near the deadline, I upload that recording to the ABF Recital Server.

That's usually how it goes. But this time is different. ABF Recital time is a month away still. And though I have yet to play Le Onde error free, I am playing it to my usual recital standards, such as they are. In theory*, this gives me three weeks to improve on my usual standards, and yet another month to clean it up before playing live before a studio audience.

* - Of course, as Homer Simpson once said, in theory, communism** works. In theory.

** - Did you know that the term "Communist Government" is an oxymoron? No, I am not making a joke here. I recently read that Communism is really a final stage in a process, by which the people own and manage everything the State previously ran, only, there is no State, no Government. Only "The People". An evolutionary step in the process is Socialism, where there actually is a government in charge of heading in this direction. In practice, it turns out even Comrades like power, so they tend not to give it up. Ever. So they remain in a Socialist (and usually totalitarian) condition. Which means there has never been, nor will there ever be, a Communist nation, at least insofar as Marx defined it. See what you get from coming here? I should post more often.

Headed down to Indianapolis to visit two prospective customers this week. I checked... the Fairfield Inn does not have a piano, so progress will have to hold a few days.

One other observation, totally unrelated to the price of tea in Liverpool or anything else... I recently discovered, much to my astonishment, that I am unable to play our piano unless the desk lamp is on. Even though all I have been playing for a couple weeks now is Le Onde, which, by now, I've memorized. But even in broad daylight, I absolutely cannot play unless the desk lamp is on.

- Aw2pp, who wonders if, after 15 years sitting in front of computers, it is finally time to visit the eye doctor.

Le Update

Just got back from this week's lesson. Focused entirely on Le Onde, and learned some new vocabulary in the process.

Me: What does this allarg. mean? I see that it is always followed by an a tempo, and recordings of the music sound like they slow down... is it just another way to write ritardando?
PT: No, it's more than that. Think broad and majestic as you slow down.
Me: Um, ok, what does that mean?
PT: Think of the glamorous stars walking down the red carpet on Oscar night. Play like they walk.

* - My wife, when she gets around to reading this, will be laughing at this point... she knows I consider The Oscars to be one of the most annoying things to watch on TV. That and Kendra.

Me: What about this poco tratt.?
PT: I have no idea.

We looked it up... it means to hold back, and is more common with string music. Whoddathunkit?

Where I am with Le Onde... I have the first half down and memorized. Once in awhile, I play it so well, I am pleased with it. And it is LOTS of fun, I almost don't want to play anything else these days. The problem is, I am so locked in on the pattern of the first half, the latter half is coming much more slowly, as the changes are subtle. But crucial. So I have some memorization to do on the back half.

Brilliant Reader Denis asks:

How did you solve the issue with 'singing' the main half notes on the right hand in bars 5,6,7 and in the rest of the song?

Great question. Measures 5 and 6 work like this for me: 524131
Measure 7 like this: 514131(2, the F# in the next measure)

It works well, but I bet you question is more of an artistic one than a technical one. That is, how do I play it "sweet and songlike, marking the melody*" (one presumes that would be the high notes). Still having trouble with this. What works for me is to accent the first note in the measure, then get progressively softer as I move down the scale. The first section, it's not coming out like I had hoped. The second section, however, beginning in measure 25, it comes out quite clearly, and I'm almost happy with it. Don't know what makes this section easier, but it is.

* - Pardon my Italian, but that is my guess on what the music is instructing. "Dolce e cantabile, marcando la melodia."

As to the third, beginning measure 41, I am just blasting away. He has some dynamic markings in 47 and 48 that temper things a bit, but, for now, I am playing this as loudly as my technique (such as it is) will allow. When I am ready for a recording, I will give a listen to what I am doing with this part, and probably make some changes.

I'm 2 months out at this point, but 5 weeks away from ABF Recital 18. I'm happy with where I am, enjoying the journey, and will hope to maintain progress for another month. My goal will be to have this down so completely that, come first Friday in June, all I have to worry about is getting a good haircut beforehand. We'll see.

- Aw2pp, inveterate tinkerer

"Getting Started" with Le Onde

June 4, 2010. Mark your calendars. You'll feel a Disturbance in The Force that day, as Jillian and I attempt our second live recitals. This is no trick for Jillian, who seems to have been born without the gene that induces stage fright. Her mother and I are both carriers, though, so Lord only knows how Jillian escaped. Jillian began work on her recital piece back in November, and has asked that I not share with you kind folks what she is working on. So I shan't.

Me? Longtime friends may recall that I had an eye last year towards performing Le Onde. And after about 6 weeks, I had reached the point to where I could play (most of) the notes, but it simply didn't sound musical. (Professor K. has described Le Onde as her "Waterloo" because of similar difficulties.) One lesson, I brought the iPod in to let PT compare and contrast what I was doing with the recordings from Einaudi himself. The La Scala version is particularly expressive, and it was while listening to it that PT had an "ah-ha" moment.

"Listen carefully to what he is doing... he is creating a wavelike sensation by implementing crescendos on every upward arpeggio (like those in the first four messages) and decrescendos on every downward arpeggio." I listened. She was right. That's why she makes Big Piano Teacher Bucks.

So I went back home and tried to do this. It was much harder than it sounds. In fact, I spent a week on this concept, during which time my ability to play this piece simply fell apart like the deck of cards that it was. By this point, recital time was 8 weeks away, and I was basically on page 1. I told PT that we were going with I Due Fiumi instead, and she expressed some relief at my decision. (Good thing, too, because first recitals have plenty of anxieties of their own. No sense adding to them with questions about your ability to actually play the music.)

Now where are we? 8 months later, I have about another 150 hours of bench time behind me. I'm better. I'm actually working on the key of D-major* in Alfred's, so it seemed like a good time to dust off Le Onde and see where we're at. After two weeks, I can say with supreme confidence that... I am right where I was when I gave up on it last Spring.

* - Heck no, I didn't know that off the top of my head, but thanks for asking. I had to look it up. My theory needs work.

My plan is to focus the next month on the first three pages. I'm in the "Acquiring the Notes at about 1/2 tempo" phase of things, paying very little attention to the aforementioned unwritten crescendos and decrescendos, or even the written ones. I hope, by the end of January, that the pattern will be fairly automatic for me, and the musicality will come by focusing on the details. When I make some progress there, I will turn to page 4, and start work on the halftime interlude, which, from what I recall, is not too difficult from a technical perspective. And so on.

What's more, as with many of Einaudi's pieces, there is quite a bit of repetition. I'd guestimate 90% of the first three pages is repeated in the second half. This should leave quite a bit of time to work on pushing and pulling the tempo and dynamics, to create that wave sensation that those who play it well can simulate.

Like Pianoworld's Kawaigirl for instance: Box.net link - Le Onde by Kawaigirl1

Look for my Le Onde in ABF Recital 18, which should be in May some time. In the meantime, updates as necessary.

- Aw2pp, new to the ways of The Force.

Revisiting I Giorni

LizziePug wrote in the comments to an earlier post that she had some trouble accessing my recordings of I Giorni. Here is the Box.net link:

http://www.box.net/shared/kaz69g4ulk

Let me know if you have any trouble accessing it.

That said, I have lately been listening to the recording, and have concluded that it would be best to listen to other interpretations of the piece. Mine is... unpolished. The Maestro himself, for example, has two recordings that I know of, one from his I Giorni release (natch) and another from the La Scala double CD concert.

In addition, periodic Aw2pp visitor and Pianoworld ABF Recital Maven Professor K has graciously allowed me to post a link to her recording of I Giorni.

www.uky.edu/~harris/giorni3.mp3

There are a couple reasons why her recording is preferable. First, obviously, she is a much better piano player than I am. Secondly, her piano is a wonderful Mason & Hamlin, and sounds fantastic. Most importantly, (and Monica, correct me if I am wrong here) this is her favorite piece from her favorite composer. Her heart is really in it. For me, it was a real strain to get this recording completed before the recital deadline, and I think it shows. Fact is, the piece was really beyond me at that time, and though I might could* improve on it now, I'm probably still a year away from doing it any real justice.

* - "Might could" is a down-south verb tense suggesting extreme conditionality. Y'all come back now, ya hear?

I have started work on Le Onde, which I intend to play in June at my piano teacher's annual recital. Afterwards, I may take a second look at I Giorni and see. Having recently revisted I Due Fiumi, I can confidently say I now see value in dusting off old pieces. IDF sounds much better today than it did last summer.

So take a gander at these, and let me know if they help. For a real treat, I will see if I can find a version from Kawaigirl. The only problem with her versions are that she makes them sound so easy, you end up asking yourself, "Now, why can't I play that?"

- Aw2pp, three two stomach flus away from his target weight.

I Giorni - My Recital #15 Entry

Last Friday, with about 7 hours to spare, I submitted this file to the Pianoworld Adult Beginner's Forum Online Recital server. The recording is 6 minutes, 50 seconds long, so go ahead and grab it now, if you are curious, then read on.

Box.net link

I Giorni - Always Wanted to Play Piano

I have a lot of thoughts on this, and they are all over the place. So rather than try to build them together in a coherent narrative, I have instead decided to interview myself. Which is a sloppy way of connecting disconnected thoughts, but hey, maybe it will work out. We'll see.

Q: Hi, Aw2pp, thanks for taking time out with us today. So, to get started, why I Giorni?
A: Glad to be here. After playing I Due Fiumi for the June recital, I took some time with my Alfred's pieces, trying to make up some lost ground there. And for about 6 weeks, I did make progress, completing about one piece per week. But before long, the idea of having to put together an acceptable recital piece began to loom large, and none of the Alfred's pieces seemed suitable. So I started looking around, and I Giorni seemed like the most logical next step in the Einaudi catalog.

Q: So it's only Einaudi pieces for you, in terms of recital entries?
A: Not at all. I envy folks who submit Bach minuets and inventions, ragtime pieces, Chopin preludes, and obscure jazz selections. I just can't play any of that. Until then, these Einaudi pieces represent, to me, the best mix of interesting / approachable music out there. Some day soon, I will submit something else, but this wasn't the time.

Q: I see that yours is the longest entry in this quarter's recital. How does that make you feel?
A: It's not supposed to be that long. It's more a matter of me not being able to play it quite up to the correct tempo. So if anything, I guess I am a little embarrassed.

Q: How was it learning I Giorni?
A: Not bad. It didn't take more than a week or so to get it recognizable, then another week to be able to play it the whole week through. There were a couple of sections I had to play over and over, and never quite got there... and I'm short a few BPM on the tempo. But this is my first experience with extended runs of simultaneous 8th notes on both hands, my first 16th notes, and first time playing 8th notes with two fingers on the same hand at the same time. If that makes any sense.

Q: Not really, but we'll move on. Anything you wish you had done differently?
A: Well, sure. I think this particular recording has a very weak finish, with a number of hesitations and missed notes in the last 90 seconds or so. I'd like to have those back, but since the first 5 minutes are fairly clean, I'm good with the result, all things considered.

Q: What's next?
A: Well, back to Alfred's for awhile. I know that, at this point, there is no way I can finish Alfred's Book 2 this year. But if I make some good progress this Fall, I might be done with it some time in the Spring. And of course, the next ABF Recital is right before Thanksgiving, so I will have to have something polished by then. Maybe Nefeli, maybe a Bach piece, I don't know. But whatever I decide on, I will use it as a carrot for making progress in Alfred's.

Q: Huh?
A: That is, I am going to try to keep focus on making technical progress, doing my lessons, and improving my skills. If I get through, say, 5 or 6 Alfred's pieces, maybe I'll start picking through the stack of fun things then. I figure as I progress technically, I should be able to pick up new fun pieces more quickly, and perhaps broaden the range of things I am able to play. Nothing against Einaudi, but there is a world of music out there, and most of it is beyond my ability at this point.

Q: Ok, then. Don't you have a real job or something? You should probably get back to that.
A: You're right. Later.


- Aw2pp, native Hawaiian.

One week to go for a recital entry...

... and I vacillate (SAT word) between two extremes on my progress on I Giorni.

One moment, I am thinking, "Wow, I should have recorded that. No worries, if I can play it that well, I can play it even better with the Red Dot* blinking at me."

Next moment, I am thinking, "Oh mercy, I am never going to have this section at an acceptable level of polish."


* - The Red Dot, for those of you outside the know, is that little light that shines (or in the case of my Ap200, blinks) when recording. It has a powerful, sometimes paralyzing effect on the performer. I like to think of the Red Dot as a heckler, who turns up the volume and intensity of his attacks as the performance (recording) proceeds towards success. Near the end, I sometimes imagine it saying, "Ha, this is going pretty well, isn't it?" At which point, I usually relax, let my concentration lapse, and make an error in a section I know really well. Totally annoying.


MJ clearly had no troubles with the Red Dot. Then again, he never played I Giorni. Insofar as I know.

What is holding me back at the moment is the final section, which is supposed to be played at the same tempo as the rest of the piece. Which is, to my ear, just shy of 120 beats per minute. I can play most of I Giorni just fine at about 108, which will just have to do. But at the end, I slow down to, oh, I dunno, 90 or so. At this point, I may just keep it as is, and attribute the diminuendo to artistic license. "Yes, I meant to do that. Sure I did. Stop snickering."

One week to go. You'll hear a recording before then, I promise.

- Aw2pp, who wants you to know that no trees were killed in the composition and posting of this message. However, a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.

A rookie's lessons learned - I Due Fiumi

A day or two after I posted my recital clip on Youtube, I received an email asking me for tips on playing it. A week later, I got another email asking about a particular section. Last week, I received a third request for tips on I Due Fiumi (henceforth, IDF). It's quite likely that the only three people in the entire Interwebs who are interested on my take on IDF have now expressed their interest to me. But hey, if there are three of you, maybe there are more (perhaps 5 even?), so I figure it's a good post topic.

From general to specific, here are my thoughts on IDF. I would appreciate it if Anthony B, Monica K, and any other frequent / regular / sporadic visitor to these parts could chime in with their observations. My perspective is relatively unique, in that I am a new piano player, with a fool for a teacher* (most of the time). More advanced / technically accomplished pianists probably would have a different point of view.

* - "He who teaches himself has a fool for a teacher." - German Proverb. All sorts of bloggy goodness here, no?

- IDF, it turns out, is much easier than it sounds. In fact, of Einaudi's pieces that I have learned so far (IDF, Limbo, Ombre, and at the moment, I Giorni), it is by far the easiest. There are some passages that took me some time to play (and significantly more time to play well), but hold that thought. I would, as Monica K. has, recommend IDF as a first Einaudi piece for anybody who is relatively new to piano. mom3gram, I know you tend to downplay yourself, but I am completely certain that you could have this piece up and running in time for next month's ABF Recital.

- I always (AlWAYS, I say) played the main body section better the second time around. I have no explanation for this.

- In the recordings, Einaudi himself starts at about 108 beats per minute, then at measure 17, speeds it to about 120 (or thereabouts). Then returns the slower tempo at the coda. When I listen to my recording, I wish I had done this, because my own recordings sound slow and tentative in comparison to the real thing. Also, Einaudi pushes and pulls on the tempo quite a bit, and pauses at the end of almost every phrase. If the sheet music reflected his performance, there would be fermatas every four measures or so. Adhering (somewhat) to those imaginary markings made my performance sound more like his.

- A slight majority of the piece is played with the Una Corda (soft) pedal. In practice, this meant that my recital recording was too quiet. Folks with better control of the pianissimo side of the dynamic spectrum could do better than I, but I found I had to move everything up a little towards the forte side of things. You'll notice nothing in the sheet music calls for more than mezzoforte... I didn't adhere to that, but would have if I had better control of quiet notes.

- For the sake of simplicity, I played the left hand arpeggios mostly 531313, 531313, etc. I wasn't able to keep this up for the pattern in measure 6, which I played 541414 everywhere it appeared. My teacher did not like this, but it was too ingrained in me to change by the time I played it for her. Other important exceptions were measures 12 and 80. I simply could not play the following measure smoothly until I changed the pattern to 543434 (then then 321212 in the following measure). That helped A LOT! And there was one more exception to this, which deserves its own bullet.

- On the LH, there is a pattern that comes up a lot at the end of almost every phrase. The first instance of it starts in measure 7. Two observations here... first, Einaudi seems to slow down near the end of the second measure when he plays this, so I did too. Second, I played the LH 5312135, then started the next measure with the fourth (ring) finger. My teacher hated this, and my wife thought it looked very unnatural. But it worked for me.

- I neglected the coda section in my early practice, and should not have. Later, trying to get a good recording was frustrating. In about a half dozen takes, I played the whole thing well, only to make a fatal error on the coda. I believe Anthony B experienced something similar.

- To me, the piece revolves around the part where the RH moves up the register... starting in measure 33. Meanwhile, the LH is doing a countermelody that actually requires it to move around a little. This was my first exposure to this LH pattern, which, it turns out is a common one in Einaudi's music. I had to play these measures a lot, slowly, repetitively, over and over and over again, to acquire the pattern. For folks like me, without much piano experience, this is the painful, dues-paying portion of learning a piece like this. It was annoying and tedious, and (Ral is not going to like hearing this) I did not like it. After about maybe 10 hours of going through it in this manner, I slowly began to build up speed, and then one day it all came together magically. (Gremlins, again.) To this day, it remains my favorite passage of music to play on the piano (measures 33 through 52).

- One of my teacher's tips that simplified it for me was to start the RH (on measure 34) with my ring finger (would that be 4?). It's not natural for me, because that High C gets a lot of play in this part, and I'm using the weakest finger to play them. But it makes everything else much simpler.

- And once I had the RH down, I found I could, as Anthony B suggested, let my RH go on autopilot while I made sure the LH hit its assignments correctly. You'll know you are getting close when you can do this. (Of course, folks like Euan and Kawaigirl probably sight-read the music with that mindset.)

- There is an octave-plus chromatic scale part starting in measures 45 and 49. At first, I tried to do this with only a two crossovers (5154321543212), but that was, as we used to say in Texas, ignant. Impossible for me to do smoothly. After awhile, I sort of lost count of how many crossovers it took me, but it was at least three. What I probably do now is 5154321432132, but I'm no longer tied to a particular pattern on those anymore. I think that is because once in awhile, I would miss on the way down, and adjust on the fly, and play it successfully.

- Last thing, and it's subtle. Einaudi pauses briefly on the first 8th note in measures 60 and 64 (another imaginary fermata). When I got it in my mind that this represented the end of one phrase, and the second 8th note the beginning of the next, this made the passage much smoother for me.

Whew. All I got. As I said earlier, I would be happy if anybody had their own tips and pointers to throw in. One last comment: many of the things I learned and described here have made I Giorni easier to learn. I hope I continue to see these kinds of progressions as I move to more complicated pieces. After all, I have less than 11 months to learn Le Onde for the next recital.

- Aw2pp, who goes on and on like Internet words are free or something. Sheesh.

My recital piece

Ok, I am all uploaded. (And just like that, I have a spam commenter who suggests I could be a "Youtube star". Heavens, I never aspired to such lofty goals before...)

A couple of comments and observations:

- I edited out the introductory comments, as you couldn't really hear what I was saying anyway.

- Speaking of which, the sound quality isn't the best. AnthonyB has mentioned before how Youtube strips the sound of high-quality recordings. In this case, it isn't Youtube's fault. It's partially my fault, for not getting proper sound out of the piano, and it's partially an equipment thing, as our camera isn't the best for this purpose. So put the headphones on. And if* we do this next year, we'll try to fire up an external mic or something.

* - "If?" Who am I kidding, we're doing this next year.

- As to the performance: the first half was, now that I listen to it, much rougher than I remembered. Boy, did I get off to a shaky start. Other way around on the second half, which was a vast improvement, and sounds much more confident than I remembered.



- Aw2pp, who, for the 18th consecutive year, has declared himself eligible for the upcoming NBA draft

And another volleyball season is in the books

This is my 20th year of playing volleyball competitively. Last weekend, I played in my (counting, hold please...) 12th US Open. Or, as I like to call it, the Annual Memorial Day Convention of Unusually Tall People.

The first time I played this tournament was in Memphis, 1993. (It moves from city to city each year, you see.) At the time, former USA National Team middle blocker Craig Buck was regarded, at 6'8", as some sort of freakishly tall curiosity. Near the tournament desk, the USVBA Tournament Directors placed a lifesize, cardboard cutout of Craig, standing with one hand at his side, and another stretched toward the ceiling. I watched many people walk up to Cardboard Craig, compare their meager paws and reach to his, and walk away shaking their that such a creature could exist, especially one with the agility and quickness needed to play world-class volleyball.

Fast forward now to this past weekend. I must have seen, oh, 75 people (including at least one woman) taller than Cardboard Craig. Volleyball players are getting younger and taller. Craig would blend right in these days; nobody would blink at him. One of my friends had a 7'3" blocking specialist on his team. (That guy turned some heads, but he was not a very good volleyball player.)

So yes, you may have been walking around your block, or mall, or town square, or wherever one walks, wondering to yourself, "Gosh, where are all the 6'3" women, and 6'9" men I am used to seeing?" I can tell you. They were in Minneapolis playing volleyball. As a reasonably (but by no means shockingly) tall person, I am accustomed to being the tallest individual in sight. But this tournament (and, to a lesser extent, the smaller events held during the course of the regular season) are simultaneously thrilling and yet intimidating for me. On the one hand, it is a thrill to feel part of some sort of special (yet totally meaningless) coterie. But it is also highly intimidating to realize that there are hundreds, even thousands of folks that are highly skilled, athletically gifted, and yes, tall. It's a reminder to stay off the High Horse.

The tournament is called the US Open and Club Volleyball Championships. It isn't so much a single tournament as it is multiple concurrent national championship tournaments, in dozens of divisions defined by gender, age, and skills. My team, Chicago Coast North, technically doesn't play in the US Open. That level of play is reserved for folks who are (or recently were, or soon will be) National-caliber players. Among the Open women's teams, for example, were Team Canada, UCLA, and their PAC-10 rivals (and recent NCAA Champion) Washington Huskies. Canada also sent their men's National team, where they finished mid-pack among an 8 team field in Men's Open. My division, Men's A, is slotted a level (ok, fine, two levels) below Open. We were seeded 8th in our 52 team field, and at first, I regarded that as a gross exaggeration of our skills. Turned out, I underestimated us. We had a phenomenal tournament, winning 8 of our 11 matches, losing only to the eventual 2nd and 3rd place finishers. We finished 5th, the best finish I have been part of since my Texas team placed 3rd in 1998. Good time was had by all, but don't ask me to move any furniture today. "Sore" doesn't begin to describe the feeling of 27 volleyball games, played over the course of 3 days, on courts that are merely a rubberized surface atop a concrete convention center floor. Photos will come later. Thousands were taken, and I'm bound to have been in one or two of them.

During a lunchtime conversation, Kevin (another middle blocker) was complaining about TV. As the father of 4 youngins (three under 4), he and his wife have the same constraints Sue and I have about TV. Time restrictions and content (especially commercials) make family TV watching problematic. So he turns to me: "You don't watch much TV, do you guys?"

"Well, seems like Ro watches a lot, but for the most part, no, it never seems like there is time. Always moving to the next activity or stage in the day." And I launched into how I have had friends in the past who took pride in how little TV they watched, as if it were a sign of their cultural or intellectual refinement. Me, I take no pride in how little TV we watch. I would watch more if I could, and look forward to some day getting into shows like House, or 24, or Lost, or whatever will be on TV when Joey goes to college*. But since I don't watch those regularly now, there is no point in getting into them at all.

* - Joey is the soon-to-be 10 month old. Yeah, it will be a few years.

"So, aside from cleaning up after dinner, doing bedtime stuff, and all that, what do you do with your time? Like, for fun?"

"Well, talk is fun. Hanging out. And I play piano. That's part of how I got into piano in the first place, come to think of it."

"Oh yeah, how is that going?" (When Kevin and his family came to see us a few months back, I was goaded into playing Limbo for them. He warned me at the time, "I don't play an instrument, but I know enough music to be able to tell if you are faking your way through it, so you better play it right. No pressure.")

"Good. I have a recital coming up, where I am going to play something else by that same guy."

Brad, sitting two seats over, then piped in. He is an Outside Hitter we imported from Los Angeles. Good guy, really laid back in his Southern Californian way. I had no idea he was paying attention to the conversation, until he asked, "What guy? What are you playing?"

I assume, as a general principle, that the music I am playing (which, as you all know, is Einaudi's I Due Fiumi) is completely obscure. I further assume (which I shouldn't... Sue is telling me all the time I assume too much and too frequently) that nobody cares, or has ever heard of the music I am playing. I therefore assume (and I have no idea why I assume this) that these conversations would be much easier if I were playing something people can relate to, like Fur Elise, Hey Jude, or Hit Me Baby One More Time. But food had just arrived, I was more interested in eating my burger than continuing this conversation, so I said, as matter-of-factly as I could, "I Due Fiumi by Ludovico Einaudi." I thought that would sort of end the conversation. I was wrong.

"Oh, I love that guy. He's awesome. I saw him in concert a few months ago. What did you say you were playing again?"

I would have been less stunned had he told me about his plans to go to market with a cold-fusion powered Big Wheel. After a moment of recovery, I repeated "I Due Fiumi. It means 'The Two Rivers'."

"Never heard of it." He then pulled out his iPhone (every SoCal I have ever met has an iPhone) and showed me his Einaudi collection, including Una Mattina and Divenire. He wrote down I Giorni, the CD on which I Due Fiumi was released, and casually got to work on a cobb salad. In between bites, he talked about how he played piano a long time ago, doesn't anymore, a friend got him into Einaudi, landed concert tickets, they flew to San Francisco for the day, etc. As I mentioned earlier, I was stunned at this conversation... he seemed to regard it as quite unremarkable.

Next day, I handed him my Blackberry, and asked him to give IDF a listen. "Oh, I already have it. I downloaded it off iTunes last night. Good stuff. Anything else you want to recommend of his?" Well then.

On the way out after the tournament ended Tuesday, he wished me luck on the recital, and asked if I were going to record it. "Post it to Youtube." Right now, my Youtube channel consists of only a single recording (I think, it's been awhile) of me attempting Limbo last summer. Might be time to add some content.

- Aw2pp, who is all about the Requirements Author's Workbench

Another recording - my ABF Recital Submission

Thanks for the warm welcome back. I owe you some thoughts on the job search, and the position I ended up with. Maybe later this week. But one of my to-do's prior to getting on the plane tomorrow was to record and submit my Quarterly Recital Piece (my second!). And here it is.

I Due Fiumi - Aw2pp

Box.net link

Things I like:
- No major errors. Unlike Ombre, my first recital piece, there were no obvious hesitations or missed notes on this recording. Which is good for me. It's not perfect (hold that thought), but if I played it this well for my actual recital in June, I would be happy with this.
- The music. After playing it probably hundreds of times, this piece is still new and fresh to me. My attention span isn't so good... music tends to bore me quickly, so that is really saying something.

Things I don't like:
- I may have mentioned before that my Pianissimo virtual piano, which came with a Christmas present, was only a trial version. This MP3 was made with a free soundfount, the Maestro Grand Piano. It's a very large file, but still, I think the recording sounds artificial. It's obviously a digital piano. Wish it sounded more lifelike, but then again, I am not willing to pay for something that does.
- No major mistakes, but a couple of minor ones. A couple of pedaling errors that Monica K and Anthony B might notice, because they know the piece so well. And I wish I had come in stronger with the RH at about the 3:04 mark.

But all in all, this isn't bad for me, and I am reasonably happy with it.

Mom3gram... bananas? I hereby make a promise to you that I will eat a banana on the way to the church (where our recital will be). I found, during the 10 or 15 takes it took to record this version, that a good deep breath (combined with a bottle of Zinfandel... not White Zinfandel, mind you, but the real stuff) is a very helpful relaxer prior to the first measure. I'm all for trying other proven methods as well, because I bet I will be a bundle of nerves on recital day.

- Aw2pp, who hopes the Hilton in Toronto has a piano somewhere.

Stop me if you've heard this one before

I had three (3!) interviews yesterday. (Yes, I slept well last night, thanks for asking.) All went great. Two of them were for consulting services sales positions (don't laugh), and one was for a Director of Pre-Sales position at a small Supply Chain Management vendor. I just got off the phone with Bob, the recruiter who had been lining up interviews with these IT Consultancies. Poor guy. He has been working his tail off for me. It's not easy. These IT Consulting Services sales positions are highly lucrative, and the hiring managers expect that you have a significant track record, 5, 10 years long, of success in the role. Me? I have none. I sold software, and sometimes services came with the deal. So the interviews have been uphill struggles, and I've had to work very hard to demonstrate I have what they're looking for, despite my utter lack of experience. Bob has been very helpful in this regard; so I could hear the pain in his voice.

"Aw2pp, they like you a lot. You've convinced them that you are what they are looking for, and that you fit the profile of successful people in their company. In fact..."

(Get ready, here it comes)

"... a month ago, they'd be working on putting together your offer at this point. And maybe a month from now, they'll be working on your offer. But they just promoted their Sales Manager to Branch Manager. And right now, without a sales manager in place, they don't think they can give you the support, the resources you need to be successful."

Thoughtful pause on my end. Then, "So, Bob, how you doing working on getting them a Sales Manager? Anything I can do to help?"

I have mixed feelings on this. I would like to make the kind of money these positions supposedly command, and of course would highly prefer an offer over any other outcome. But I never sufficiently overcame my own doubts about whether I could make this kind of transition. Clearly I did a fair job of stifling those doubts, since I got (yet another) almost-but-not-quite offer. So although I would rather be evaluating an offer at this point, there is a small sense of satisfaction at having overcome their initial, highly significant doubts about me. Either way, poor Bob is working the phones with the next IT Consultancy on his list, with whom we'll restart the whole exercise possibly as soon as tomorrow.

The good news here is that the third position I interviewed for yesterday, the Pre-Sales Director position is a much closer fit to my profile. The company is comfortable with my sales and technology background, but (here it comes) has some reservations about how little SCM work I have done. So, for now, they are going to continue their conversations with two other candidates. Nevertheless, the inside scoop suggests I might be a better fit than those guys. We'll see. This should conclude quickly, possibly as soon as this week.

With all this going on, I've not had any time to sit at the piano. I made very little progress either on Le Onde as my recital piece, or assignments in Alfred's. And based on this, I admitted to the piano teacher that I didn't think I was going to have Le Onde ready in six weeks. I might be able to struggle through it by that point, if I did nothing else in the meantime. But I think it would be highly unlikely, in that case, that I would be far enough along with it to perform in front of, you know, actual people. For this reason, I Due Fiumi is now my recital piece. Expect a Youtube clip sometime after the June recital.

If I can get Le Onde presentable, I'll let you hear it. Sometime before Labor Day, perhaps. Thanksgiving maybe. Almost certainly in time for recital day, June, 2010.

- Aw2pp, whose cold calling skills are getting a real workout in this jobless period.

Quick hitter - Melodia Africana II...

... is coming along nicely. Having some troubles on the third page, but the pattern is slowly coming to me. Just finished tinkering with it, in fact, and now that I am about to go to bed, maybe the little piano Gremlins will work in my dormant brain overnight to solidify it. (I know you know what I'm talking about...) I've probably put 4 hours into it this week, which is a lot for me. If progress keeps up at this rate, it'll be my recital piece. If not, I'll submit I Due Fiumi (albeit an improved version over what you heard the other day).

As I work on MA2, it occurs to me that these pieces do not seem to be coming together any more quickly than earlier pieces did. It took me about 2 weeks to make it the whole way through Limbo, then another month or so to feel ok about it. That's kinda been the time frame for everything else I've tried. A couple weeks to be able to play the notes, another few weeks to get up to tempo, and another few weeks to make sure I am obeying dynamic and phrasing markings. I thought, naively, and incorrectly, that things would speed up the more I went along. Part of the problem is that the pieces are getting incrementally tougher. There are just so many entry-level pieces in my Best of Einaudi book. But the larger problem is, honestly, my lack of skill / technique / experience. Even when I get a piece as good as I can get it (remember Ombre?), I'm still not entirely happy with it. This is a powerful indicator that I need to improve my fundamentals, and probably return to Alfred's for awhile. At least through Book 2, and probably more.

Dinner conversation from last night... we were talking about Jillian's piano lessons.

Jillian: Daddy, do you think I'll be as good as you after piano lessons?

Me: Better. Really, Jillian, I feel like I'm not even taking baby steps yet. And you are going to me much better than me, probably sooner than you think.

Jason: If you aren't taking baby steps, does that mean you are crawling?

Me: If that. I guess it depends on where you want to go. If my goal is to run a marathon, yeah, what I am doing right now is no more than crawling around my Pack N Play in comparison to that.

Jillian: So you mean, I'm maybe sitting up, not crawling yet?

Me: Sure, that's one way to think about it. Compared with where you'll be some day.

Jason: What about me? Have I rolled over yet?

Jillian: Jason, you haven't even lifted your head up.

- Aw2pp. who knows his developmental milestones

Questions and answers for 2ndSoprano

Recent comment from 2ndSoprano:

I like your evaluation index- it's an interesting concept.

As for your next piece to learn, is "polishing for the next recital" (which you mentioned several times) a strong criterion? If so, then I would think you want something you think you can get to speed. And are you limiting to Einaudi only? If so, I can't help you out there. Not really a fan, but that's just me, apparently. lol

And, as always, this is all IMO, mainly because:

1) I've decided I don't want to play really difficult pieces. I'm working on expanding my collection of Easy Piano books.

and

2) I've given up on the recitals.

How's Jason doing?

I'd answer there, but it's a little buried, and probably is best addressed in its own post.

First, Jason. Great. Wonderful. He's himself, albeit a little easier to talk to than before, since his hearing and pronunciation are improved overnight. He didn't really have a bad day at all last week. Even the very first day, you'd have think he merely had a tooth pulled or something*. We spent all of last week trying to reign him in, mostly unsuccessfully.


* - In fact, he did have a tooth pulled as part of the procedure. He had an upper front tooth that was very loose, and they went ahead and yoinked it. Apparently, there is a slight danger that the tooth could come out, and lodge itself in the windpipe or even lungs. We haven't seen the bill, so we're looking forward to finding out whether this impromptu feat of dentistry comes free of charge.

Recital pieces... yes, I am always keeping an eye towards possible submissions on the recitals. I regard the work it takes to polish a piece as necessary and useful in my progression. What caused you to decide not to participate in these?

As to playing difficult pieces... it's not necessarily that I aspire to play things that are hard because they are hard. (Well, maybe there is a little of that in me, now that I think about it.) But it's more a matter of enjoying that also happens to be difficult to play. I like Liszt; I like Chopin; I want to play, for example, "Linus and Lucy"; these are hard. I'm not going to be content playing things out of Alfred's the rest of my life. So I want to improve, and increase the breadth of what I can approach.

The flipside is that, to get there, I have some unpleasant work to do, like Alfred's, scales, arpeggios, Hanons, and things like that.And in the meantime, I also want to play some music.

Which brings me to focusing on Einaudi... it's not so much I am a huge, longtime fan. 6 months ago, I'd never heard of him. It's really more a matter of my lack of awareness of other composers and repertoires* that are simultaneously musically interesting, and yet approachable for me as a noob piano player. I'd play classical if I could, but for the most part, that stuff is beyond me. I'd play jazz or ragtime, but again, the music is either trivially uninteresting, difficult but interesting, or difficult and uninteresting. I'll take any recommendations you have for me. I know some of the Bach Two Part Inventions have been submitted by novices before, but I don't know which ones.

* - I like the word repertoire; all the letters are in the top row of the alphabet portion of the keyboard. It's the little things, what can I say?


- Aw2pp, who does not have a Facebook status.

Next?

As I posted on the Pianoworld Einaudi thread, I have reached about the same level of polish on I Due Fiumi (IDF) as you heard on Ombre, my recital piece. Which is to say, good, for me, with plenty of room for improvement. To a lesser extent, I can make it through Stella Del Mattino just fine, although I do have trouble with one particular transition.

Next up in Alfred’s Book Two is the first truly challenging piece in the book... at the moment, I forget what it's called (and I am on the train, so there is no chance for me to find out until later... at which point, I'll probably forget. I'm like that sometimes.) Since it's hard, and since it rates low on the Easy to Sounds Good Ratio (hold that thought), I am totally procrastinating on that one.

So I am at a crossroads. On the one hand, I could record IDF as my next recital entry, but in all honesty, I probably won’t. Part of the reason for this is that IDF is a pretty common recital piece, given that it has a nice Easy to Sounds Cool Ratio*. It’s approachable for noobs like myself, but is nice music to listen to, even when not played perfectly.

* - This is a concept I am still trying to work out. And I don't have it fully baked yet, but I'll tell you where I am with it now. It's sort of like a Quality to Price Ratio (QPR) you might use to evaluate a couple bottles of wine. Sure, Ridge Montebello tastes better than Borja Borsao, but it also costs 20 times as much. Is it 20 times better? For the same price, give me 20 bottles of the cheap (but still very enjoyable) Spanish wine. **

The Easy to Sounds Cool Ratio is similar. The Rachmaninoff Prelude in C sounds great, but it is HARD. For the work it takes to be able to play it, it better be rewarding. Hot Cross Buns? Not so hard. And after awhile, annoying.

To me, the most appealing piano pieces, right now, score high on the reward scale, but aren’t as hard to play as they sound. Until I can actually play things that really are difficult, I'll happily settle for things that only sound difficult. And I'll take your recommendations, while I am at it.

** - YMMV, of course.

So I am evaluating which Einaudi piece to tackle next. For recital purposes, one of the lessons I learned with Ombre is that shorter is better. I can't play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star for five minutes without making an error, why should I think I can play real music for that long, error-free? So one option is to try to pick up something short and sweet, like Melodia Africana I or II, and try to get it nicely polished in the next month or so. (A month is about how long it has taken me to reach an acceptable level of polish on Limbo, Stella, Ombre, and IDF.) The only problem with these and other short pieces is that they are less interesting to me than some other longer but still semi-approachable possibilities, like I Giorni* or (thought Monica might disagree with me here) Le Onde. A compromise piece night be Samba, which plays shorter than it seems, because it has a lot of repetition… but I don’t find it as musically interesting.

* - I Giorni, according to several sources, was based on a 12th century folk song from the African Country of Mali. It was an homage to a hippopotamus that was much beloved by the residents of a village, but was killed by a hunter.** I mean, really, what's not to like here?

** - No, I did make that up. Seriously.

Long story short: I ran off copies of all these, and will be tinkering with them over the next week or two. One of them will stand out. I’ll be sure to let you know.

- Aw2pp, who, to this day, prefers the sound of Racer X's car to the Mach V

Working on I Due Fiumi

Lot of snow the last few days. It's like Winter knew. "Hey, it's December, let's let them have it!" Dad was here from Alabama for Thanksgiving, and got outta Dodge exactly 24 hours before the first flakes fell.

I am pleasantly surprised at how quickly this is coming together. The whole piece revolves around measures 44 through 52. I'm doing the Chuan Chang thing on these during the day, a few minutes here and a few minutes there as I get the opportunity. By that, I mean that I am playing these measures over and over, in high repetition, trying to do so correctly at whatever tempo I can manage. Right now, not so fast. But getting faster. At this rate, I may have an initial recording for you in a week or so.

I want to keep this guy on my good side

From this Pianoworld topic, I quote Monica K, a periodic visitor here.

So I landed safe and sound in SF, on my way to the Einaudi concert. As the plane taxied to the gate, I turned my cell phone on, and it rang a couple of minutes later. It was AnthonyB, who asked if I had arrived, and we chatted a minute or two about the free concert in a music store that Einaudi was giving tonight, which Anthony was able to attend but I was not (I didn't find out about it until AFTER I had booked my flight).

So then Anthony said something like "somebody wants to talk to you" and then another voice came on the phone, saying "Monica?" I thought it was some other PW member that Anthony had hooked up with, so I said "Yeah? Who is this?" And then the person said "This is Ludovico."

At which point I said something brilliant like "You're kidding!" and then started babbling and telling him how much I was looking forward to the concert tomorrow. [heart] He said "I will see you tomorrow" and then handed the phone back to Anthony.

Wow. Just wow.

The people around me on the plane thought I was pretty weird, though.

Mind you, Monica, from what I understand, is a professor at the University of Kentucky. English, I think? Point being, as much as she sounds like a stammering, giddy teenager who has just met The Osmonds Wham! the Hanson Brothers Justin Timberlake (insert whoever is today's teen idol, I am clearly not with-it-and-hip) for the first time, this is an otherwise reasonable and articulate person. She was rendered speechless by a impromptu greeting from Ludovico Einaudi.

This Anthony person... we know him as Sawtooth. He blindsided poor Monica. Shameful. Who knew he was capable of such trickery, such surreptitious deception? This is a person I want to keep on my good side. Sawtooth, can I get you a glass of water or something? A pillow? Newspaper? Everything good there?

Monica, Anthony, and a handful of others are in San Francisco for an Einaudi concert. Looks like it's the only North American event on the docket. If he makes it to Chicago, we're there. I think he'd make a great Ravinia guest, but what do I know?