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I'm already up to seventh line of HW (there are 11 in total) and very close to getting all of my ADAD stuff spot on. And the Boars Head, practising the transition from the 'fe' to the 'ro'. It's not a difficult carol at all.

Keep going, you're doing really well...have you played to the keep fit lot?

Yes I have, it's carols at the moment from the EFP books. In the New Year it'll be back to my CTM stuff and maybe some EFP hymns.

We did put our tree up after all, the musical decorations look really nice.

Can you post a pic of it?

Fanny Fosdyke gets a mention on the church newsletter: '....for Fanny our organist....and the choir...as they prepare for the Nine Lessons and Carols service'.

That's the first time she's been mentioned since the spring. Will she get her comeuppance in 2015??

Blimey, fancy getting a mention for just doing your job!

She's oft mentioned in the prayers section, 'for our organist Fanny, giving thanks for her musical ability'...

She does have musical ability, I'll give you that, and in abundance. But she also has arrogance, rudeness and insolence.

Perhaps they should be praying to sort that out...

Gill the Piano wrote:Perhaps they should be praying to sort that out...

If only they knew, if only......

Mabel gave me a tune to learn, a sort of 'finale' if you like, called Puppet's Complaint from Book 3. She said to me try and imagine yourself to be a Mister Punch with a grievance! It's a two pager, and I'm on the 4th phrase/3rd line already. The fact I won't have anyone to play it to hasn't dampened my enthusiasm, likewise for my continuation of A Dozen a Day. The next time I would have seen Mabel would be on the 6th, so I'm just play to my wife instead (if I can prise her away from that bloody television set).

Daughter is 21 tomorrow - jewellery has been purchased, bespoke cake is to be collected tomorrow, lifts arranged for those guests (two of) who do not drive, living room tidied up, party food purchased, presents wrapped and cards written - have I forgotten anything? Ah, well, if I don't have it now, I don't need it

Have a happy birthday, Caroline.

So glad it was this carol that won the carol competition on the Third. Especially as I voted for it!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latest ... ion-winner

Relax, Feg. If you haven't thought of it by now, it wasn't important.
Happy birthday baby Feg!

This afternoon's Crib service looked good, a picture was posted on the church Twitter feed within the past hour. Fanny was at the piano, the webmaster had blurred hers and a few others' faces but there could be no denying it was her, the jet black hair was a dead giveaway. I guess she'll be accompanying the alcoholics' carol service right now down the local satanic den for which hopefully there'll be another picture of on Twitter.

I've seen reports on Facebook by her partner of her drunken antics, and how she is so partial to juggling a spot of poison with playing the organ on a Sunday and insulting and knocking the confidence out of her paying pupils. All just makes me want to explore Islam and Communism further.

Some good news, I'm coming along really well with my Puppets Complaint. I hope to be finished it by January 6th, the day I should be seeing Mabel again, if Black Thursday hadn't happened.

Gertie O'Reilly was playing at Midnight Mass, this time you could plainly see her at the organ on the Twatter picture. But my favourite vicar conducted it. The paradox.....

Watching a DVD recorded off air of Prince William and Princess Catherine (as she should be known as) getting married, and so far there have been 2 Welsh hymns, Cwm Rhondda and Blaenwern - and an anthem by a composer with a Welsh surname. I'm expecting Sospan in lieu of the Wedding March.

I now see why that metronome I picked up was as cheap as it was. It ticks irregularly. I have been using it on slow speeds in order to learn to do even semiquavers (something that Mabel picked me up on last time) but I've found I can't do them even at 58 cbpm or dcbpm. Yet as soon as I deployed the inbuilt device on my digital, I could miraculously play them at that speed.

I've only used it at speeds well in excess of 60 before.

Try tipping the metronome slightly - placing a beermat under a leg at a time. Often works.

The thing is far too nice to give to the charity shop but I think I'll stick to the inbuilt one. I always get my SQs more even!! Lot to do in that department.

It appears that the first posting on the UK Piano Page in 2015 belongs to me, happy new year!!

Not that many fireworks last night round here to see it in. We have an increasing number of 'chavs' moving into this area and of course, they would be unaware that you're supposed to actually detonate them on the stroke of midnight to see the NY in. I heard the odd ones going off at 2100 and 2200.

It's also quite common in the average chav not to have a sense of time and space. For example, listening to the bongs of Big Ben at midnight (on ITV of course) and serenely keeping quiet because you think it's the two minutes silence for Remembrance.

It appears that the first posting on the UK Piano Page in 2015 belongs to me, happy new year!!

Not that many fireworks last night round here to see it in. We have an increasing number of 'chavs' moving into this area and of course, they would be unaware that you're supposed to actually detonate them on the stroke of midnight to see the NY in. I heard the odd ones going off at 2100 and 2200.

It's also quite common in the average chav not to have a sense of time and space. For example, listening to the bongs of Big Ben at midnight (on ITV of course) and serenely keeping quiet because you think it's the two minutes silence for Remembrance.

I had t get up and sit with the poor cat because of said halfwits; fireworks began at 9pm and reached a crescendo at midnight but didn't stop till 12:30am. Result: frazzled cat, knackered me. I loathe new year but it'll have to go some to be worse than last year. Happy Thursday, everyone...bah humbug!

That mean's it's Friday tomorrow and I'm at the shop all day, aaargh!!

The holiday silliness goes on though, wife working more odd hours and off on Saturday and I've been watching the Archbishop's New Year message and Confessions of a Window Cleaner. Polar opposites.

Another Winterval, another transmission of Mary Poppins. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. The word you say when you do not know what to say. How times change - nowadays that word is Farage.

Hello and a good new year to UK Piano.
Now that the family festivities are over I am enjoying the tranquility of getting back to normality. The weather is mild, the birds are singing, it will soon be spring. I noticed the crows are pairing up, I think they are the first to build their nests,(March time ) I'm not sure. I have made a new year resolution to work harder at my piano practice with no interruptions!

The daffodils in my front garden were sprouting before Christmas. The extremely mild spell did it...and the grass was growing too! It needs to be at least 10 degrees for the grass to grow. And next week the mornings begin to get lighter, between the Solstice and then only the evenings lengthen by around a minute a day.

If there are any ways in which we can help you out with your piano learning, Nicolini, then either Gill Feg or I will be happy to offer assistance. I even had the pleasure of meeting Gill for the first time in 2014. Organs were involved.

How are you progressing??

Thank you Dave, that's very kind.
I don't like to say I'm retired exactly, but I am a senior student of the piano.
At present I am working towards grade 1 exam pieces. The one thing I do worry about is remembering the scales if I were asked to do a particular scale at random , I really need to remember if there are flats and sharps. I'll have to knuckle down more and memorize them.

Do you attend Birmingham Oratory Dave?
We have been there several times.

I can tell you the only way to remember where the flats and sharps are is to do it all the time over a period of time. I'm 45 but I have been on meds for years and that has affected my concentration span bot once it is committed to long term memory (which is how you can remember things from years ago, or how to make a cup of tea/home address etc) then you'll soon remember the scale of G goes G A B C D E F# G. Like in C there is a semitone between white keys B and C musical laws dictate there has to be a semitone between the 7th and 8th notes of the major scale, or nowt would make sense!

Also think of it like pieces in a jigsaw. Eventually you'll have enough pieces on the table and they'll all come together.

I know of the Oratory on the Hagley Road, Benedict visited it in 2010. He also did a Mass in Cofton Park, less than a mile from us. I've never actually been to the place though.

I did visit the RC Cathedral in the city centre last autumn, but wish you didn't have to walk through dingy subways and cross eight lanes of traffic to get to it though. Are you in the Midlands, Nicolini??

Oh yes, St. Chad's. Nice Cathedral and shop, but It is awkward to get to and dangerous roads to cross.

Sorry it's taken so long to get back to you Nicolini. I work in a charity bookshop every Friday (I do all the classical stuff and the sheet music. I've done a big display of instrumental teaching books with the theme 'make 2015 the year YOU started to learn a musical instrument')

We often go to Warwick and Leamington, there's a lovely little music store called Presto Music in Leamington that's very good for easy piano stuff. I suppose you also know Musicroom in Stratford. As you're not far, we could meet up sometime in a cafe and incessantly natter on about learning the piano if you like (or even here: http://www.nicolinis.co.uk/ ), I might have some musical bits and bobs upstairs that could help you!

I'm doing 19 scales at the mo but what I do is write them on pieces of paper and put them into a container (like a tombola) and draw 2 scales out per day.

G major is always a good one to nail after C, THEN D, using the F# but adding another one to it. The fingering for all the scales of g1 is all the same except for F major.

...

They sell classical CDs in Presto too of course. I collect classical CDs on labels of note (Naxos, DG, Decca, EMI, Hyperion etc) but as a rule I always buy from charity shops. Though last summer I got a Gorecki CD on Naxos from the specialist classical store in Nottingham.

I've never been in Nicolini's. I've only ever seen the place whilst walking around but I hope the business carries on. Italian restaurant chains are so regimentive and false and genuine ones (and even ice cream parlours) set up by immigrants are quite rare these days in the UK. Having said that, last time we went to Leamington we had lunch in a chain restaurant, Bills.

I'm curious....are you male or female??

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I've been in Fat Bird, there's a piano in there. There's a cafe not far from here in King's Heath called the Kitchen Garden Cafe (it's attached to a small garden centre) their cakes are all homemade and really stodgy (like they're home made) and there's a piano in there. I've played it! We've also been in the Patisserie Valerie also...and that chip ship right at the top of the Parade on the left that serves their food in closeable cardboard trays.

Marks is good too for a cup of tea when money's tight. Are you 'My Waitrose' members, Nicolini?? If you go in you get a free cup of tea or coffee per day at any Waitrose in the UK (your nearest is in Stratford plus there'll be a big one going up in Solihull soon) and you don't have to spend anything in there. If you do spend over £5 on Monday-Friday you'll get a free copy of the Guardian/Telegraph/similar 'proper' newspaper.

That's the sales pitch over, back to pianos. I think it would be a lovely idea to meet up soon - provided I can bring my wife as she'll want to come too!

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No farcebook here I'm afraid. Tried it and didn't like it. And no Twitter either. The birds are so much better at tweeting than a mere human such as I

We went sales shopping in Bristol today, it was really heaving with people. I used to live there between 1997 and 1999 so I know my way around the north of the city, however it was there where I got my first diagnosis of depression (not saying Bristol is a depressing place, it's rather quite bohemian, such as myself! There are loads of music shops there!!)

I'll send you a PM if that's okay, Nicolini. My wife's days off are Wednesday and Saturday so if we meet up it would have to be on those days....we know of places to park at Leamington and Stratford for free. Plus at Stratford Waitrose which has a cafe (Kenilworth hasn't according to this: http://www.waitrose.com/content/waitros ... f/460.html ) Alternatively at this 'end' in Solihull leisure centre off Blossomfield Road there's 3 hours free parking there and it's 5 mins walk from the shops. I could tell you also where to park in King's Heath for the Kitchen Garden Cafe though KH High Street itself can only be described as hell on earth in terms of traffic, pedestrians and impatient motorists pushing in!!

Longbridge however is much easier to park in the new town centre and it just so happens to be ten minutes walk from a .....

I've played a couple of the pianos in Presto though now my confidence at the instrument seems to be improving last time I was a little bit nervous and made one or two mistakes..... Playing the church organ last year was a defining moment for me, ask Gill the Piano about that.

Our Feg is Scottish, from Edinburgh. I've never been further north than Whitby in my life!!!

Where has Gill gawn??

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I've emailed you, Nicolini. Thanks for the PM.

I've put on a hell of a lot of weight over Christmas thanks to the good folk at the bookshop where I work. At the beginning of December I had a nasty shock and it caused my weight to plummet to 103.5kg. This morning I weighed in at 106. At the beginning of last year I was 105.

I must crusade to get into double digits before Easter and a 3 mile walk tomorrow plus back to Keep Fit on Tuesday will all help the stomach (whilst the piano at the church hall where we do KF will help to keep the fingers fit!)

Well do some for me then. Mind you I must've sweated off a few pounds today when I thought I'd be late for a gig - thick fog, icy roads...and an overturned van with the wheel torn off had been T-boned by a 4WD (no doubt a weekending Londoner). Neither had their lights on. So I had to do an eight mile detour...just made it.

Glad you got home safely, Gill.

That organ at Fingest makes more noise than a rich Londoner's 4x4. And Paxo's bark!!!

Medmenham's louder. And Turville to at full whack, I think...
Ta, Nicolini! It was getting to the church on time that was worrying me...by the time the service finished the accident had been cleared up, fortunately.

Where's my comment about the job interview gone? I didn't realise I'd broken a rule!!

After the interview, we went for a burger and chips at a place known as the Ridge of the Cotter, in which a cactus planted in a gazunder was perched on a windowsill

I am still awaiting an email from Mabel regarding when I'll see her next.

Back to keep fit today. Don't suppose I'll be doing a great deal as three weeks without is a very long time and I feel like a pregnant whale. And rain is forecast so that means quadruple wrapping my sheet music.....

I didn't see a comment about the interview - how was it?

It went very well, the interviewer seemed very fascinated with my number one hobby and how I relate it to setting targets! Will know next week, it's only 8 hours and there's been loads of applications.

Just been looking through the Teachers database on this website and I was quite shocked to find that Fanny Fosdyke is on there advertising her services. She should put 'nice middle class kids with pushy parents only, awkward adults or difficult children will be humiliated'. If I get a pop up in the bottom right hand corner offering her services, I shall scweeeeeem

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