Noah Adams,

Congratulations, Jim. That's terrific!

After I finish this one, maybe I'll look for that book as well. Thanks for the recommendation.

That's okay: Being a piano dunce, I don't get any respect anyway.

Cheers,

I had not heard Traumerei (Reverie) when I first read the book 2 years ago. After about 8 months of lessons, my teacher showed me Traumerei and I recognized it from the book. It took me a while to learn it but after I did I re-read the Adams book to get the full experience.

Although I have moved on to new challenges, I still enjoy Traumerei. My teacher has me play it as my finale for my section of the school recitals and it is always a crowd pleaser (if you'll excuse me for saying so). - - /****************************************************** **************** * Gary M. Letchinger * San Diego, California * Reply to the newsgroup only ******************************************************* ***************/

P.S. The good side of things is that I'm learning more all the time, so when I *do* go to buy a piano, I'll know what the salesmen are REALLY saying. Besides that, I'll have my handy dandy piano tuner/tech with me (a purchasable friend?) to help me navigate the waters.

Didn't I recommend this book a few months ago? It tells a nice story. I read it in a day. At the end of the book I felt that it was about a weenie writing about being a weenie. Can you imagine taking an entire year just learn one piece? Frank, get yourself a copy of the complete Kinderszenen. There are several pieces that are easier than Traumerei. I like the one called 'Boogeyman' the best.

I don't remember if you recommended the book, Mark. I heard about it somewhere, and chanced are, it was from your recommendation. I've only been through the first few chapters so far, but if he spent a whole year learning just ONE piece of music... Jeez... What a waste of time! I'm working on an excerpt from Danse Macabre (Saint-Saens version), Fledermaus Waltz (Strauss), and Juliet's Waltz (Gonoud), and making satisfying progress with all three. (In addition to toying around with a jazzy version of 'Georgia On My Mind,' and looking for new ways to improvise more while playing, 'Sleepwalk.' I've just started my third month of lessons. If I had to spend a whole year with just one piece of music, I would die of the sheer monotony of it.

Any almost-oldtimers here that remember when Sudnow used to periodically advertise his method in this newsgroup (and, or course, be flamed for it), long before Noah wrote his book?

Yeah, that's how I felt about the book when I finished it.

Frank, if you like waltzes, you'll love Scott Joplin piano rags. Get the New York Public Library complete collection. There are plenty of rags that aren't wildly difficult. Remember that ragtime music was seminal to jazz.

Yuck. Counting is (imho) one of the most essential, basic building blocks to making any kind of music with any kind of instrument, unless you are one of those people who is just born and blessed with naturally perfect rhythm the way that some people are born (or develop) perfect pitch. If a piece of music loses its rhythm, then it ceases to be music. (imho) If he spent a whole year working on that one piece and still butchered it that badly, I think I just feel sorry for the guy. :-/ I'm definitely no virtuoso, but after a year of working on one piece of music and still botching it, (unless it was a Rach concerto) I would come to the conclusion that maybe I would be better off sticking with trumpet or guitar. <G>

Cheers,

I *love* ragtime. In fact, if I could find a ragtime piece that was slow enough to keep me from breaking my fingers and tearing my hair out, that would be great. From what I've read, ragtime was meant to be played slow. How true that is, I don't know... The 'Perfesser' Bill Edwards site is fantastic as a ragtime resource: (For anyone else who might be interested) http://www.perfessorbill.com/midi/index.shtml

Cheers,

Joplin put notes on the top of the page admonishing players not to play his rags fast.