Practice question

Below the title is the credit: 'Revised and fingered, with exact pedal signs, and arranged for LEFT HAND SOLO ad libit. by A.R. PARSONS.

A footnote states:

'When the Solfeggietto is played with the left hand alone, the player's seat should be precisely in front of the twice-marked c''' [printed as three lines above 'c'] of the pianoforte clavier (so-called 'keyboard,' viz: [treble clef with a quarter note on the c above middle-c ].'

The staff markings are 'Left Hand Solo' for the one hand version, and 'Original' for the grand staff 2 hand version.

Copyright is by G. Schirmer, 1885. - - /****************************************************** **************** * Gary M. Letchinger * San Diego, California * Reply to the newsgroup only ******************************************************* ***************/

Me too... I do most of my practicing on the Alesis with headphones, and then when I'm somewhat confident, then I'll go to the acoustic and let 'er rip.

Sounds great! I have a couple of terrific blues riffs that I can play at blinding speed or really really slow.... When I was learning them, I played them one note at a time. Probably slower than 60 beats/minute, but after long hours, I finally got them down.

Jazz, blues, gospel, ragtime, some stride... Lately, waltzes are my big thing. I would LOVE to be able to play Danse Macabre! Right now, I'm actually working on two pieces. I work on one until I'm sick of it, and then switch over to the other, but I'm working on 'Juliet's Waltz,' (can't remember the composer), and Strauss Jr.'s, 'Flederhaus Waltz.' (Only the first 20 measures, for now, though) I've also played with 'Saving All My Love For You,' which has a very elegant, loose, jazzy feel to it. (although Whitney did her best to butcher it... <G> The arrangement is by Dan Coates. I think Michael Masser composed it originally... It's the 'Easy Piano Arrangement.' I picked it up from sheetmusicplus.com. It's pretty easy, and later, when I'm better at playing, it has lots of room for added improvisation.

Cheers, and thanks for the advice,

Knute, Frank, when I was in college studying piano and harpsichord, you can't believe how tired my roomates became of 3 part Invention #1. Not that again!!!!

I can tell you from my vantage point, that all that practicing pays off if you do it. I can pick up any piece of music and read it now. I guess I come from the 'reader' school of keyboard players, not the 'memorizers'. Sight reading comes in very handy. The only caveat at a party: make sure you don't have too many cocktails first.

Frank, as a new student of the piano, you should learn this: practice time is separate from playing time. If you practice steadily, next year at this time you will be playing Debussy, Joplin and Bach. I pray you don't catch the Scarlatti bug like I did.

Thanks, Gary.

Actually I sit in front of 'middle F'. I'll try sitting a little bit to the right of it.

Best,

<G> And that's why I try to work on a few different pieces at a time, or else play with the synthesizer and headphones. Your roomates sound like they were very tolerant though.

Thanks, Mark. I first learned to read music when I was nine or ten years old, taking trumpet in school. Because we marched and it's often difficult to read a piece of music that's dancing around on the end of your trumpet, and because Mother Nature has a perverse sense of humor and likes to blow music pages all over the place, I learned to also memorize the music. When working through a particularly complex part, having the music memorized is a BIG help, and having it memorized also makes it portable; Being able to sit down at a piano anywhere, and begin playing. There's a lot of value to both reading the dots and memorizing. I played trumpet until I graduated high school. I've tried to read music when I have been less than 100% sober, and phew... it gave me one hell of a headache!

Cheers,

<G> Thanks, Mark. You're right: I do need to separate the two. I find that given the choice between scales and finger exercises and music that I *want* to play, I tend to go for the latter every time. I probably should be more disciplined, but I'm afraid I don't see much value in finger exercises. I'm practicing for three and four hours everyday, and more on weekends, so I doubt that I'll have problems with finger strength and mobility. When I practice the stuff that I want to play, I'm still very disciplined about the fingerings, my posture, hand position, etc. I'm trying to blend all of it together. Then again, maybe that's a mistake... I don't know.

I don't know about Scarlatti, but Satie, Joplin, 'Jelly-Roll' Morton, all kinds of jazz, smokin' blues, and boogie woogie: Now THAT'S the stuff that really lights me up!

Cheers,

...<snip>...

I've found that Bach wears exceptionally well - never end up despising a Bach piece because of a lot of practice. I've also learnt that due to this reason it is good to learn a piece I am not familiar with, or better still - a piece I've never heard before. These invariably wear better! Not to mention making it impossible to cheat and 'play by ear' a little.

Regards,

Thanks, Deepak. I've found that if I keep two or three different pieces going at the same time, that I can take a break for a few moments, and then it doesn't get nearly so monotonous. I've been too intimidated by any of the classical composers to really give them a shot, but maybe I'll start looking at them more carefully. Thanks!

-Frank

P.S. Best wishes with your Beethoven sonata. Your enthusiasm practically leaps off of the page!