Random thoughts or comments...

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 27 Jan 2012, 18:52

No, they just think their opinion is better than yours...

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 28 Jan 2012, 19:29

Mark's probably turned into a nocturnal creature attuned only to the cry of a wet/crappy/crabby/bored infant. He'll be the one with a full set of matching luggage under his eyes, and smelling faintly of sprog wee...

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 29 Jan 2012, 17:32

I've got no idea why my pic thingy has vanished. I changed to Google Chrome (and wish I hadn't) and lots of things seem to have vanished off my pooter now...

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 30 Jan 2012, 18:10

dave brum wrote:How about for an avatar your jewellery infested hands on your piano. Or a picture of a school ruler with the words 'For Naughty pupils' on same piano???

Because I don't teach!

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 31 Jan 2012, 18:40

Nope. No patience, don't like kids. Not a good combination for a teacher - although it appals me how many people possess those exact same qualities and teach anyway! But if you want to be shouted at and have your knuckles rapped, then I spose I could make an exception... best left to trained professionals though, really!

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 01 Feb 2012, 17:56

Nah, they'd all be bleating about Yuman Rites if I did. If they lived.

him again · Post by **him again** » 14 Feb 2012, 21:28

...seems dave brum loves chavs just as much as I do. Did you hear the one about the open-minded Sun reader???

Though torture for me would be in a place of work with the radio constantly playing Crapital FM. Now I WOULD feel my human rights (and my intelligence) was being breached.

markymark · Post by **markymark** » 15 Feb 2012, 20:08

him again wrote:...seems dave brum loves chavs just as much as I do...

...and talked just as much! There is, at least, a suspicion that you and dave brum are the same person....

him again · Post by **him again** » 15 Feb 2012, 20:19

markymark wrote:
him again wrote:...seems dave brum loves chavs just as much as I do...
...and talked just as much! There is, at least, a suspicion that you and dave brum are the same person....

What!!! I don't think so....I can't speak a word of Welsh!!!!

him again · Post by **him again** » 16 Feb 2012, 09:57

plus, what on EARTH is this? Some sort of subversive code???

http://www.piano-tuners.org/piano-forum ... =27&t=9701

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 16 Feb 2012, 18:32

You need to listen to 'I'm Sorry I haven't a Clue' on Radio 4 to appreciate it.

him again · Post by **him again** » 16 Feb 2012, 20:18

oh I see! I'm a radio 1 and 6 music person. See Markymark, I cannot possibly be Dave Brum (and I don't winge on and on about not being able to play the piano like he does. I just get on with it and trust my

teacher!

markymark · Post by **markymark** » 27 Feb 2012, 20:47

Wow... you seem to have Dave pretty well sussed - maybe you're a fan then? Or a groupie even?

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 15 Mar 2012, 18:47

As long as you put the right foot in at the right time...

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 16 Mar 2012, 19:26

Shut up with all this negativity, or I'll come round and smack your legs. You are doing WELL. Nobody's good at everything, and sigh treading (as I always called it) is just a little bit of the exam. Do extra well in the rest and you're laughing!!

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 17 Mar 2012, 15:44

WELL IT DOESN'T SEEM THAT WELL LAID OUT AND IS A BIT CHORDY. Sorry, not shouting, I left caplock on. I play it on some Sundays but not as complex chordally. I'll see if I can find the one I play.

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 17 Mar 2012, 20:48

Ancient & Modern Revised. If I can find it, I'll post you a copy.

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 18 Mar 2012, 17:35

Yeah but no but it's in the trendy hymn section at the back, not the book proper...

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 19 Mar 2012, 18:52

Hooray!!!!

And re 'modern' as a term for hymns; with me, it applies to any hymn whose composer hasn't been dead for 150 years...

Post by **Feg** » 19 Mar 2012, 21:29

Wine is good

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 20 Mar 2012, 18:21

I reckon. You can always find easy play versions of it anyway - the Lilac Series has popular classics made a bit easier.

Post by **Feg** » 20 Mar 2012, 20:46

Dave

Try this website for loads of easy arrangements of popular piano pieces.http://www.8notes.com/piano_sheet_music.asp.

I'm pretty sure that most of the ones marked 'Easy' and 'Mid' you will manage to SR quite easily.

Fiona

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 21 Mar 2012, 18:49

You are blowing SR out of proportion and if you aren't careful, you'll get a real 'thing' about it!

It is a tiny part of your overall exam and your playing is easily good enough to afford dropping a point or so on SR. Gerron with it, do a couple of exercises a day then leave it, physically and mentally, and do something you enjoy - a carrot, if you will!

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 21 Mar 2012, 18:57

Keep calm and carry on. Do a couple of exercises a day then LEAVE IT ALONE. Also, haunt charity shops and snap up kids' music books - useful for SR.

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 21 Mar 2012, 20:02

dave brum wrote:. But my heart even sinks when I know I have to do even as few as two because I know they're too difficult for me

Put the kettle on and roll your trouser legs up because I'm coming up to slap you...

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 22 Mar 2012, 18:43

Yes I do, you pillock, you put your address on the back of the CD envelope!

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 22 Mar 2012, 22:16

Well, I haven't had my injections yet. So you're safe. For the moment...

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 23 Mar 2012, 18:45

YOU!
I'm playing Easter Sunday too. Which means I have to get up early on my birthday, which is a bummer. Still, I like Easter Sunday - jolly hymns, flowers back in the church...lovely after the austerity of Lent.

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 24 Mar 2012, 19:33

Fifty ONE this year. I might have to start acting grown up one of these days.
But not yet...

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 25 Mar 2012, 17:31

I was so paranoid about oversleeping that I woke up about 4am. I hate it when the clocks go forward. They steAL an hour off me and it means the onset of hot sweaty summer.

So more like scared music than sacred. And when i got to my second gig at Fawley, the radiator was on by the organ and I was nodding...

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 26 Mar 2012, 16:58

Don't waste your money on me - get yourself a Joan Last Book!

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 27 Mar 2012, 17:30

About 30 miles, I think. But I ain't going up a 1:1 staircase.
No idea re roses - I have chickens & rabbits which rather precludes plants...
Could you find a visiting teacher so you'd be on your own instrument? As long as the exam didn't freak you out by being on a different piano. But to be honest, EVERYBODY feels nervous playing for a teacher - I'm the same with my guitar lesson. He told me to shut up and gerron wiv it. So I did!

Post by **Feg** » 27 Mar 2012, 20:36

dave brum wrote:She'll only say I'm c**p anyway, she's the most unsupportive person any piano learner can have for a wife...however I'd rather make up my own mind as to whether I am or whether I am not c**p (but just so it happens she's right anyway).

I'd be changing 'the wife' rather than the piano teacher

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 29 Mar 2012, 19:53

Gill's f........abulous computer was on strike. So I left the box thing turned off for a while and it got better.

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 30 Mar 2012, 18:49

Nope, new one on me. Where in Bucks., d'you know? I listen to 3 counties a lot; but I miss Ronnie Barbour dreadfully - I thought he was wonderful...

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 01 Apr 2012, 17:51

I didn't know there WAS one in Cardiff!

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 04 Apr 2012, 17:46

Don't waste your ill-gottens on me, bach/Bach - get a sr book!

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 05 Apr 2012, 18:02

No. Shut up, keep calm, carry on!

We all get bad days. One day I trust I'll get a good day at the guitar!

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 06 Apr 2012, 20:03

Sometimes, it's like this for everybody. Pull yourself together, grit your teeth and say 'this will NOT beat me.'

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 06 Apr 2012, 20:10

Me too, kid. But I WANT to learn the guitar. And Welsh!

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 06 Apr 2012, 20:18

Of course they will. And there's nothing like playing an organ to show you whether you're on the right track with the early/baroque stuff; brilliant!

Blodwen · Post by **Blodwen** » 06 Apr 2012, 23:27

Well Siwmai!
Its been a long time since I last came on here! Hows it going! Any news?

Sorry Ive neglected all this for so long, Ive had the best and worst and busiest year of my life! My grandpa died last Summer, I got engaged shortly after, been planning the wedding, got married 3 weeks ago and just returned from honeymoon!

So whats been going on? Hows the piano playing going? xxx

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 07 Apr 2012, 18:08

One organ gig (Fingest, 9am. ) then a singing one (Stole Row chapel, 10.30). Then lunch with friends with a lot of the old electric soup...

Blodwen · Post by **Blodwen** » 08 Apr 2012, 17:07

Still stressing over the darned sight reading then I see Brummers!! I don't know why your letting it get to you so much! I'm hopeless at it, so I think b**ger it!

I sat my grade 4 exam a week before the wedding and my teacher text me on my honeymoon to say I had a distinction! A total shock that was, as I completely bummed up my minor scales, although I played my pieces fine! The results came through really quick this time!

With sight reading I try not to give it too much thought, my piano teacher told me not to worry about it so I don't. I do give it a practice, Ill pick up an old hymn book or any random piece of music and try and play the first line once, then I put the book down and practice something else. My piano teacher said it wasn't until grade 8 that he was a proficient sight reader, and my dad said he was about grade 7. So I figure that as I'm older learning, I'm probably never going to be amazing at it so I don't worry about it.

One thing I've found about exams is that the sight reading pieces they give you are easier than the ones in the practice books! Just something to bear in mind

I think you should put sight reading to the back of your mind for now and concentrate on your grade 3 pieces and scales and get those perfect. Go for the exam and dont worry about the sight reading, just take the whole minute to look at it, play a few of the notes then when the examiner says go, just go for it, dont worry about playing a few bum notes, I certainly played a few bum ones, but I just carried on as if it hadnt happened, I think I may have even forgotten to observe the rests in the first 2 bars lol! But I still somehow got a distinction! I havent had my full report back yet as I only got home from honeymoon last Thursday and teacher is on easter hols!

Blodwen · Post by **Blodwen** » 08 Apr 2012, 20:14

aww poor brummers!!

Im not sure what my mark was in each area, he hasnt told me, he is away at the moment so I should know this week and Ill let you know!

I think you just need to say b**ger it and concentrate on your strong points! So get going with grade 3 Mr! You got a distinction in grade 2 despite being crap at sight reading and Im sure you can do the same with grade 3! You should do it or you may regret it!

On a brighter note, Ive just booked a nice weekend away in June, lovely! lol! Hope everyone is enjoying the bank holiday weekend!

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 10 Apr 2012, 16:29

Yep - twice! And Thine Be The Glory twice. And another one (which escapes me owing to a serious alcohol intake afterwards. Or during, if you count the communion wine) twice.

Blodwen · Post by **Blodwen** » 10 Apr 2012, 22:17

Off to Cornwall in June Brummers, going for a nice long weekend and popping to visit some friends while we are there! Hope you have a lovely time yn y gogledd, need to go and have a long weekend up that way sometime myself!

Had my G4 certificate and report of my teacher this evening, really pleased with the comments! Had 133/150 overall!

So everyone had a good day? I had my first day back after 4 weeks off today, pants! Suppose the honeymoon period had to end sooner or later!

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 14 Apr 2012, 17:06

I thought you'd gorn orf Oop North...don't worry, we'll keep your place for you...

gizzy · Post by **gizzy** » 15 Apr 2012, 21:29

noswaith dda ar ran dave brum. He's asked me to drop in and say he's fine. Now he's feeling more positive he's being long-distance bullied (by me) as I am his surrogate mummy from hell (aka Cambridge) and will be arriving in person on the same day as his www gets reinstated, to stand over him with arms akimbo and a stern frown while he knuckles down to the g3 he has now promised (on pain of being disowned) will happen this summer after all.

Fy Cymraeg yn dwyll ac yn dod o Google cyfieithu!

He sends you all his love; so if you want to reply (or reject it of course), I'll be around during the next few days and will pass it on to him in case he gets barred from the cyber cafe for getting over-excited

(In reply he's working on my paltry cymraeg to try to stop me spelling things like yacky dah)

from Gizzy in Cambridge

Post by **Gill the Piano** » 16 Apr 2012, 18:28

Excellent, Gizzy - I've been trying to bully him on line but it's not the same as the swish of ruler over knuckles in person, is it? Keep his nose to that grindstone whilst simultaneously lifting his chin up. You might need to dislocate him....tell 'im we're all rooting for him! Hywl!