No story this month. Sorry. To make up for it, I'll give you two in February.
Instead, you get to hear what I'm currently working on in piano. (If anyone dare suggests boring, be warned that I'm an expert throttler. Piano isn't even compatible with the word boring. And you try teaching yourself Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Chopin, and hymn improv without a teacher.)
For hymn improv I'm currently working on: There Is A Fountain, At Calvary, Sweet Hour of Prayer, and O Come, O Come Emmanuel. At Calvary is the most fun at this point, since I'm doing a boogie bass. (Ahem. No, I'll probably never play it that way in church, but it's still fun.) And I like playing Sweet Hour of Prayer in a minor key, for the record.
Classical has me working on three pieces specfically: Consolationby Liszt (though I'm beginning to wonder why even the most simple pieces, such as this one, feel complicated;... guess it's just Liszt, huh?); Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring by J.S. Bach (lovely, simple... and I get to perform it at a wedding this summer...); and Prelude in B Minor by Chopin (also simple... but I missed out on a lot of Chopin, so I'm making up for it now.) Technically, I'm also 'touching up' the Prelude in C Sharp Minor by Rachmaninoff, which is about as awesome as a piece can get.
And randomly, I'm learning this and this
for myself. (Yes, I'm going to force you to click the links to find out.)
And a random question for those who play the piano: what finger do you use for a glissando? I've always been taught to use my thumb nail, but recently I've been noticing people who use their index or middle finger, or a combination of the two. What is the correct way?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Love all those pieces :) I have been taught to use my thumbnail (I HEART glissandos), and that is the classical way, but my teacher occasionally did use her middle finger. And I couldn't hear a difference, *g*
Haha, "expert throttler."
Yes, I know how you feel about piano..
I love it. I don't spend enough time with it as I'd like, but I guess that's what I get for having such a busy schedule. D:
I admit I do not know what a "glissando" is, though...
Which is sad because I've been playing for nearly eight years. D:
A pretty song that I think is worth listening (and playing!) is La Valse d'Amelie by Yann Tiersen.
Beautiful piece.
I've got it memorized, nearly. :D
Yay for fun hymn-playing! When I was learning Come Thou Fount, I played it fast, just because it was fun that way.
Yay- Chopin! He's one of my favorite composers. Do you know the Raindrop prelude, out of curiosity? I started teaching myself that one, but didn't get far. All the pieces are beautiful! I could listen to piano music all day.
For glissandos, I've used the side of my thumb. Or there's the Chico Marx style*, which looks like sometimes index finger, sometimes, thumb, sometimes whatever finger happens to be handy. :P
*Link here, because apparently I can't figure out the right code to put a text link in a comment. And because asterisks are cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khJaHNocYK0
OHmyword. Lenya. In all my years of watching the Marx Brothers, somehow I've never seen this. :D Which movie is it from?
I think it's from "Go West". I haven't seen that one, either. That was just the best vid of Chico playing that I could find :P
As far as glissandos go:
When I use my right hand going down the scale or my left hand going up I use my thumbnail.
When I use my right hand going up the scale or my left hand going down I use mainly my middle and fourth finger nails. =)
PS: I'm miffed that I'm not on your list of favorite people... ahhh! But how could I hope to be up there with Ted Dekker?!! *Shakes finger at self*
Post a Comment