Bringing Beethoven Back.

Woo! I just came off the piano - 40 mins on the Beethoven piece (which isn't that hard to do considering it's so big) - and I'm all pumped up :D

I'd forgotten how exhilarating Beethoven is! Although, that piece should come with a warning, I totally crumpled my left ring finger - OUCH! Heheheh that never would've happened once upon a time, a good reminder not to get too far ahead of myself just yet.

So I've a feeling the clip of the Beethoven piece (when I eventually get around to it) will be pretty full of trip ups and slips, especially as it's so long - more chance for errors. But that's ok, and I think with Beethoven you can get away with it a bit better cos its all crashing and thumping and whatnot (well the way I play it it is -hahahahahah maybe I should take note!!)

Debussy - La fille aux cheveux de lin

Another Debussy piece, and the first one I ever learnt. It also has some great examples of the Debussy parallel chords - particularly at 1.20.

(Also, apologies for the cameo of my pet dog)

Debussy Trivia

Ok, so its pretty obvious that you can enjoy music spontaneously, without any background information. However I think if you can find out a bit about the story behind a piece of music or a composer it can change the perspective entirely. This is even more so for the musician, a greater understanding of the composer can shed new light on how a piece should be interpreted and performed.

With this in mind I'll be doing the odd brain spew to provide some information or trivia about the composers and pieces which I post on here.

So first up, Debussy.
Let's see, a French composer, born 1862 and died 1918, which puts him mostly in the Romantic Period of European music, although he begrudgingly was considered one of the most prominent composers of Impressionistic music. To put it briefly, this mainly means that his music was less regimented and theory-defined then his predecessors', and instead was about atmosphere and tended to be more fluid and melodic. Apparently Debussy himself said that he was trying to do something different, and there is still a distinct difference in his compositions to those from earlier decades.

True to this, the suite of pieces that Clair de lune is from (Suite bergamasque) was started in 1890, but Debussy did not finish the composition until 1905 when it is said that he made significant revisions, claiming that he detested his earlier style.

Another notable distinction of Debussy's work is his use of parallel chord progressions, which you can see at around 1.10 in the clip.

Finally, I'll leave with you some gossip about his personal life. Wikipedia describes it as "turbulent" and I remember being told when I was younger that Debussy was somewhat of a womaniser, conducting affair after affair, with little regard for his or his partner's marriage statuses. He once dumped his live-in girlfriend because, to put it shortly, she was dumb, and he later dated a student's mother (a wife of a Parisian banker) who shot herself in the chest when he tried to end the affair, surviving but living the rest of her life with the bullet lodged in her vertebrae. The two ended up eloping and she gave birth to his only child.

So next time you lend your ear to a bit of Debussy magic, perhaps keep some of the above in mind, it might change the experience for you.

Debussy - Clair de lune

So, here is my first video post.
Firstly I'd like to apologise for the quality of the video, the connection was terrible overnight, so I had to compress it a fair bit to get it on here. I might ammend this at a later stage.

Secondly, I look so funny when I play! Bobble head, double chin, flapping elbows! Very amusing. Brings back memories of my old teacher reprimanding me before a performance.

Nonetheless, I finally have something up, errors and all! More to follow soon, promise.

Practice Makes.....

Just finally got around to looking at some practice recordings that I made on the weekend (ie I play and record, and then look back over and critique......so it's like teaching myself...-it's a bit hard to pick up on certain things while you're playing ) and I think they're much more impressive with the sound off.

Promising.

Razzle Dazzle

Right, so there are no clips up yet, and that's mostly because I had underestimated (or forgotten) how picky I am when it comes to performance. (Which is also probably why I'm so rubbish at public speaking/end up crying afterwards).

And I guess the thing that has me being really pedantic is that when you record something any errors are there FOREVER. But with an unrecorded performance like a recital, people might just go "oh did she stuff that bit up? I think so, but I can't tell now because I'm distracted by the rest of the beautiful music so I will never know because I am so dazzled...".

Yeah?

I guess that's what performance is all about.

Strip Piano

It's easy to tell that I'm playing so much again as the floor around the piano is littered with various items of clothing.

I tend to rip stuff off as I play - it's not until you have your hands on the keys that you realise what you're wearing is really uncomfortable to practice in!

So now I have to remember when I'm getting dressed in the morning that my cardigan/shoes/shirt/scarf/bra are on the floor by the piano..

Why I Need An iPad

Awkward! I'm trying to play piano with my laptop on my lap........ (I'm playing off of some pdf sheet music)


.....I think I should give in and print, but the printer's so far away......