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Ha ha ha Marky,

I meant in the musical sense! not my spelling problem. Thats why I wouldn't make a good teacher, I was never good at spelling or maths but excelled in art...


Seriously though, what are the bad habits?

Well besides fingering, other key bad habits would be:

> raising wrists too high
> straightening fingers during particular fast sections of music
> over-playing music (playing too loudly)
> slouching at the piano
> believe it or not, playing too fast is also a bad habit unconfident players can get into, particularly during their practice sessions.

These just sprang to mind!

You're right Mark.. playing too fast is one of my bad habits. It means that I don't always get all the expression I should in a piece.
Other bad habits: not working out the fingering before you actually start to play .. trying to learn new pieces before getting perfection on the old ones .. not remembering that the first note in a legato is played a little louder than the rest .. being afraid of hitting a wrong note

I could go on and on!

L

Hi Dave!

It is quiet around here today, isn't it?? I've been reading in a lurker fashion for the past few days, but haven't had a minute to post. I've taken on quite a few new students, including a couple of new adult beginners who are coming every couple of weeks or so. Takes me quite a bit of time to make all the lesson plans too, and look out new pieces! Unfortunately I'm not finding time to practice my Rachmaninov I'm going to take my Grade 2 flute exam this November though, and I am getting a little bit of practice on that!

I tried to take up the flute but couldn't get the mouthpiece right. I reckoned with my level at piano that all I'd need to do is learn the fingering. I could blow into the mouthpiece but when I connected it to the rest of the flute, I got nothing!

Needless to say, it got the heave-ho!

markymark wrote:I tried to take up the flute...

Speaking of other musical instruments my mum bought some bagpipes from a charity shop for 3 quid! a few weeks ago does anyone know how to use them?

I haven't had a go on them yet, soo much blowing so much noise! and my dog goes mad at the sound! and tries to bite them well he is a Border Terrier!

Dave, I'll bring my carols book with me next week - we'll see if the arrangements are very different!!
My sister in law plays the Irish bagpipes.. it's bloody hard work.. lots of puff required (No comment from me!!)

L

dave brum wrote: methinks they would be worth much much more than the three quid your mom paid for them!!!!!

I think they are novelty junior bagpies for children but they do work, well they make a bagpipe style sound! I bet they came from the gift shop in Oben! it was quite a big gift shop and it had all kinds of silly Scotish related gifts in there!

I saw a slily Big Ben shaped tea pot in a gift shop near the Natural History musem in London once!

Congratulations Dave

Looks like ditching Weight Watchers was the right thing!

Hi Dave,

No I can't really say I have sung while playing anything, mostly because I don't have many tunes I can play with words in them. I wouldn't mind giving John Lennon's ' Imagine' a go, do you have that Dave?

To be honest I have never bothered to do any signing not since primary school! I'm sure I have a sence of pitch, but I'm not really bothered about singing; The only instrument I want to make sing, is the piano!

Thanks Dave! got it printed out now, don't know when i'll sit down and play it though; I have others to do first.

I tried out your 'spooky toccata' hanon thing, it sonded a bit spooky I guess... Hey Dave if you switch your Clav on to church organ sound, but have the volume fairly quiet and press the last 3 keys on the keboard in the bass, but don't hold it down to long ( like at the end of the T-rex tune ) it sounds like a lion roaring!

Just had to share that pointless piece of info there!

Yes I can imagine us with our Grade Ones! Have you talked with your teacher about sitting exams yet?

You know something Dave, with that really stunning avatar you have now, it is very easy to see when you are "posting to yourself"

.....it certainly hurts less

xx

tut tut, put your claws away Mark!!

Had a fab lesson today!!! We've put a few of the old pieces to bed, she's pleased with my progress on the others, and i've got 2 pieces from an old Grade 1 exam book to learn for next week!! And she likes the Hanon exercises you sent me, Dave, so they got a big thumbs up! And she even said that we should definitely work towards the exams.. Im really pleased can you tell??

Lx

poor Dave, hope you feel better soon

Glad you're looking on the bright side though!!
I've had a very lazy day - got a good practise in this morning, which always sets me up for the day, and now daughter and I are watching mrs Doubtfire, in front of the fire. Roll on strictly!!

Lx

Hi Dave!

Cool where abouts did you play the acoustic??

Oh, you're not nervous to play with everyone hearing you!? I'm a bit too nervous to do that at the moment in a shop, unless its got head phones!. But I did have a ago on a grand when the men were moving the box for my Clavinova when I went to buy it, I thought they will be too busy moving that too listen!

What did you play?

Cool! next time I'm in a music shop maybe I will try and play something...

I know what you mean about concentrating on nothing, I find that when I don't think about playing the right or the wrong notes and I think of nothing I play really well. Its just you and the moment, and the way you react to the music as you play it...

Ohhh I hope you manage to get your wife into the piano too! She must feel quite chuffed to discover she has a sense of rhythm. Next move on to a simple tune or a scale?? The only down side is you two will be fighting over Fiona!

Did you want Gary Rodes to win? I was a bit sad when they chucked out Richard Snow from Meastro, but he honestly he had no sense of rhythm but lots of enthusiam.

Gary Rhodes HAD to go!
Is it just my imagination, or are the judges generally more constructive?

Careful Dave! There are currently three of us moderators logged on at the moment. Better behave!

No, I think that the rugby player or the doctor from Casualty will get to the finals.

Well not unless I can understand it!

Hello Dave, Hello everyone!

I have a great sense of rhythm, until I'm at the piano when I go into some kind of trance. I'd be hopless in an orchestra as every time I make a mistake, I seem to grind to a stop! I'm yet to master the fine art of listening to my OWN music as I play, especially when I'm learning a new piece. Practice practice, pay attention at the back there!

Now I know why I was always getting shouted at in school for being a daydreamer.

I'm starting to think a nome may be a good thing for me to stop me having several tempos in one tune! Bless my piano teacher, she's still trying hard to get me to count in my head (gave up last week and told me to do it out load and pointed out how I always stopped counting when I went wrong and that the music should have actually carried on )

I wonder if we can come up with grade 0.x somethings? I'd like to feel where I was in relation to grade 1. I'm feeling that I've achieved the dizzy heights of grade 0.3 over the weekend.

BTW Dave, I did one of those online "tests" just for fun that's supposed to see what faith I am, and it seems I'm a Mahayana Buddhist I'm not sure about born again, once was enough!

Jan
xx

Its funny, the teacher I was supposed to have teaching me last week
( but she was away ) has decided to go on a tour in America! So the lady that runs this music studio needs to find me another teacher that doesn't mind teaching me every fortnight for half an hour.

Yeah, I have decided to have lessons every fortnight for half an hour, it will cost me the same amount of money as going every month for an hour. It was the lady's suggestion; shes a piano teacher too and she said it would be more productive if I go every fortnight for half an hour.

She said she would let me know soon, so I'm kind of waiting for a phone call or email from her. If not I will phone her to see. So hopefuly not too long to wait!

^
Wot he said I hope you don't get messed around. Good luck and I hope you get your first lesson soon.

Jan
xx

Cripes, I usually dream about trains for some reason! Mind you, I had a piano type one a couple of days ago, I was in a library and you could hardly walk around it as a load of pianos were stuffed everywhere in the aisles. I was going to show off and play something, when someone else started playing who was sooo much better than me so I decided not to bother..... it must have been the cheese

Jan
xx

dave brum wrote:Anna, I dreamt about you last night! There was this spotty faced rather plain Jane type student (nothing personal Anna..read on!) in jeans and a T shirt who changed before my eyes into a queen with a crown and a very expensive jewellery whenever she went up to a piano and started to play it!

Thanks Dave! Next you will probaly have a dream about you being Markmark and teaching the piano to some of the people from this site and one of your pupils is a boy called Mark Joseph!

I haven't had that many piano related dreams yet. I once had one about me being at school and going into the library, but it looked really posh and there were these kids doing a piano exam or something! I remember the pianos in the dream had very out of proportion keys! and I had to be quiet even though I wanted to play on one of the Clavs in the dream!

dreams are so stupid sometimes!

I read somewhere creative kind of people ( arty ones for example ) have less vivid dreams then people that don't do creative things. I don't often have dreams to be honest.

Oh yeah that program! I didn't watch it but heard the man on the program say ''pianos were old and uncool and the guitar was in'' when I walked past when my mum as watching it. Then she told me they were smashing them up or something!

WHAT A WASTE! I'll have it!!!!!!!! no need to break it up! bleming GITS!

I hope they have a program about the piano or something soon, I watched ' The Harp' that was good... I think there will be a program about virtuosi on BBC 3 quite soon. Its a series thats on and nextweek its about some violinists, so they should hopefull have ones on pianists! in the other weeks to come. I hope!

dave brum wrote:Yeah, BBC4 they have some really good serious music shows on there - Have u seen 'The Piano A Love Affair' Anna? They had some piano related stuff on around the same time - I've got a very young Carole King at the BBC that was shown around the same time!

No, I never knew about that! when was it? was it on in April when 'The Harp' was first shown? Did you ever see on BBC one Image with Alan Yentob ' Music and the Mind' I got it recorded. It was about the affects of music on the mind; a Fascinating program that was!

Yeah I would of loved to fo seen that! awwww! I was too busy with university to watch that, and It was at that time I had forgotten that I wanted to learn the piano.

I know that Alan Yentob guy did the guitar program...But that other program was so intresting. There was this poor lady on it that has a problem she can't enjoy music becasue her brain can't prosess it at all . To her its just an annoying noise, and she finds classical piano music the worst to hear!

Then there was that blind ausistic chap on it, hes basically a human
jukebox! If he hears something for the 1st time he can play it back on the piano, and keep going even if he hasn't heard it all! Hes so cool !

And there was this American guy that at in his 50s was struck by lightning and developed an addiction to the piano ( he was never intrested in it before), and he praticed so much he left his wife for the piano. He even composed his own sonata...

As a teacher, I find idle chit-chat an invaluable way of helping pupils to relax. Probably the parents of children I teach would be horrified by the amount of gossip that goes off in my lessons but, in my view, gossip enhances concentration on the music when eventually we do get round to playing it. It also helps my pupils to view me as a human being and to accept that I might know what I'm talking about as far as music's concerned.

My brother was born with hydrocephalus and spina bifida so was both physically and mentally handicapped. He was able to play anything by ear after hearing it once or twice. Mum was telling me the other day that when he was a toddler she used to sit with him on her knee at the piano and basically he'd just bash away at the keys. It was only when he got his first wheelchair that, out of the blue, he just wheeled himself over to the piano and played 'English Country Garden' perfectly! Oh for that kind of ability!

Also, you know when you strike a crystal glass, you get a note and when the glass is partially filled, the note changes, my brother could identify the note!

Thanks for the welcome Dave.
Oo, I love philosophy. Wittgenstein's my man. Although I've read some Nietsche too

yey Dave!
am really pleased your lesson went well. You should be really chuffed with yourself - a couple of months ago you'd have never imagined you'd be having lessons, and talking about exams, and getting Mrs B to go to a lesson as well!!!

Lx

I didn't think things like that could happen in John Lewis!

I'm glad your lesson went well, it'll be a dream if I even get to grade 1. I've got 3 days off work this week, supposedly digging in the garden, but Rosie is too tempting. Talking of which, Rosie needs tuning again, it's due in March, but I may get it done before that, she's obviously settling in and wasn't used to being played much before!

Did you have to do the big raspberry at the end of the MP theme tune manually? How is that notated? I must go and check my theory book.

Jan
xx

dave brum wrote: You would notate a raspberry by putting a small illustration of any of the following people:

1. Russell Brand
2. Jonathan Ross
3. Gordon Brown
4. David Cameron
5. Alex Ferguson

I would choose Russell Brand from that list. The illustration would be of his head chopped off, I would call it a Semi Brand.

Yes Jeremy Clarkson is a good choice I think, Gordon Ramsey too hes good chef or whatever he just gets on my wick a bit.

Isn't it about 60 or 50 quid for piano tuning? Maybe ask Gill about that! how much does she charge? It is expensive if your on low money like us!

Its one of the reason I got a digital, or I would be stuck with an out of tune piano that as flat as a pancake, as I couldn't afford tuning or lessons at the same time! I would be torn between having lessons or having a piano that sounds normal.

Hello folks, I paid 45 pnds to have Rosie tuned, which I thought was a very good price, especially as the tuner had to come about 40 miles to get to us. It's lucky it was so cheap as it needs doing again now!

Jan
xx

dave brum wrote: But would you have an acoustic when you can't afford the regular tuning fees of sixty quid?

Maybe you could phone up any piano tuners in your area and see how much they charge? I do hope you do get your self a real piano Dave! start saving NOW! will it fit in your house? you said you had a spare room, but Fionas in there wouldn't she get jealous of the upright

dave brum wrote:
I thought I saw your piano in Fairdeal Music in Brum yesterday, Anna! It is a Casio one, isn't it!!!

No my piano isn't a Casio, its a Yamaha Clavinova 370. Its my keyboard that is a Casio.

Nutroast wrote:Hello folks, I paid 45 pnds to have Rosie tuned, which I thought was a very good price, especially as the tuner had to come about 40 miles to get to us. It's lucky it was so cheap as it needs doing again now!

Yeah thats not a bad price at all! Hope the ones on my area are that cheep! How often does your one need doing? since you bought it. I'm intrested to know about keeping up their maintenance.

Can't stay on here too long, gota swot up for my lesson at 3.30. Hope I don't feel as flat as I did...if I do, I think I will change teachers, I never recived that email from the other teacher, I could phone though.

I remember at uni on my first day I didn't like one of my tutors at first, but then grew to think he was nice...so we will see.

Its ok I don't mind I'm not gonna get all uptight and say ' Oh no my piano is not a Casio its a Yamaha, how dare you for mixing them up!' ha ha!

Well I hope your circumstances do change and you can have a real piano soonish! Maybe place a swear - jar on your piano, and being a beginner like most of us on here you will swear many times during your pratice, and will then have lots of money! only put 1 pound coins in the jar!

Thats nice you are meeting up with another piano pall Dave! The only other lady you are having an affair with is Fiona!

Just think next year we will both be peeing our pants over doing our grade 1 s

dave brum wrote: Actually Linzy could be doing her Grade 1 at the same time as us, Anna!

Oh that good! all three of us can pee our pants then!

Yeah, I don't sware quite so much as I did, then again I probably make less mistakes, then when I started no , thats a lie!

What did you play to Linzy and her daughter?

Moonlight wrote: How often does your one need doing? since you bought it. I'm intrested to know about keeping up their maintenance.

Hi Anna, I planned to have mine done every 6 months, but it's needing a tweak after just 3. It's still settling in, so I don't think there's a problem. I'm going to make a "running in" sign and stick it above the piano, this will remind me why it needs tuning and remind everyone else why I have to play so slowly

Jan
xx

I just noticed that our Britannia lady at the top of this web site is sporting a nice witche's hat and a dodgy nose! OK, I'm probably the last one I know!

Jan
xx

Yeah I noticed that last week? But I forgot to mention it, it definitly made me laugh; nice one Barry! I wonder if she wears a Father Christmas hat , and holds a masive candy stick instead of her pole at Christmas?

It would be funny though, if someone did parp while they were playing Kummer! . But it would be more appropriate if they were playing the Monty Python theme tune.

It not that rude, I don't mind a bit of toilet humour!

dave brum wrote:How about if someone were to do a 'silent but deadly' one in the middle of a sonata in the exam room

Ah, you mean 'silent but violent' yes that would be horrible!

I think for grade 8 or 7 you only need to play one movement of a sonata now not the whole thing. So thats a relief! although it would be nice to do a whole one, but that would last for ages!

What about the sonata though?

Brumtuner wrote:What about the sonata though?

Hi Brumtuner,

I just remember reading something in Pianist mag about the new ABRSM exam syllabus and someone in the article said ' When I did my grade 8 we had to do a whole sonata, now it can be a movement' So thats how I found out.

dave brum wrote:I'm going to go in and get 'The Four Seasons' by that Viv bloke who works in Aldi.

*snare drum roll, cymbal crash*

BOOM BOOM!

But Aldi is a German supermarket...but I'm sure there must be some Vivs working in there!

Hi all

Have just caught up with the thread after a couple of really mad weeks! Work has been crazy, and it's been half term etc etc etc.

It was lovely to have Dave and Mrs Brum over for lunch - Dave, you played beautifully! It was so lovely hearing the piano playing in the background while I was cooking How are you getting on with Rondino?? And I did appreciate the non-swearing in front of Eleanor

Am having a bit of a dilemma at the moment - don't know whether to change my piano, or spend a bit of money on this one.. have asked the experts in the other forum for their advice.

Am so glad it's Friday!!! Got Monday and Tuesday off next week, (next lesson on Tuesday) so a lovely long w/e

Lx