@@ST52655 Chopin wouldn’t have had a sostenuto, it will be clunky to engage and disengage during a performance, especially after the first few bars where the bass does change more often, and… it would be next to impossible to use it and also shade tone with the una corda pedal as well, where una corda might be at a variety of levels throughout a phrase. It’s only possible to use both pedals simultaneously if you depress both fully. The best way to sustain that bass is really with clever finger sustain and damper pedal working together.

Thanks so much! It's kind of an amazing product. Even when I accepted doing the review of this, I didn't expect anything more than just a really nice light. But it is!

It costs less than my other piano lamp 😂😉

Which piece are you asking about??

@ The Elegy you helped me with in LIVE. Noteworthy/Bunny Hollow; one and the same. Sorry was unclear; just so excited to get started.

I'll email it to you. I was HOPING to share my own engraving of the piece with you, but I just have too many more hours of work on it, and it doesn't have finger suggestions yet either. I'll be releasing a performance of the piece and a masterclass course on it later this year!

@@PianistAcademy1 I LOVE THAT! many thanks!

That's good to hear. Last night's chat was 50% throwing shade and being downright rude about people's playing. It was worse than eye rolling... Anyone who can make even the prelims in a large competition like that is extremely talented and has put in so much hard work.

@@PianistAcademy1 Some of the interviews to the participants are interesting too. As for the players, my favourite is Angeline Ma. She seems to have a particular insight and originality in her interpretations.

Taking a quick listen to Timothy and Angeline this morning... it appears Timothy made it through 3 rounds in the last iteration of the competition

Timothy is a very good player, but I can hear why he was eliminated in round 1. Angeline, despite a wreck in her 10/2 Etude, has much more personality, flair, takes more risks, and gives a more captivating performance. I'm glad to see that she made it through despite the fairly large error. Listening to her semifinal round from yesterday now. Ballade is lovely so far, but really looking forward to hearing her Sonata.

@@PianistAcademy1 Yes, I love artists who take risks and are conceptually ambitious. All pianists make mistakes when they play live (Horowitz docet). I don't think it matters much if they create emotion with their perfomance. But I'm not a judge.

One that I'm extremely familiar with is the Aurandt Sonata in b-flat minor, composed in 1970, but very tonal and somewhere between Debussy and Rachmaninoff. It was composed to be the "ultimate" program closer, and was toured by the composer himself until a bad car accident ruined his concertizing career. I've talked about it on the channel before, I first performed it in my final undergrad recital, subsequently competed with it and played it a handful of times in concert, and most recently... recorded the first 4 pages again for a video coming out this Friday!! 😂. If you haven't heard my album recording of the piece, you can find it here: open.spotify.com/album/2TH8oZHM0q58k8eNDOQTE9?si=ONCkb1_RSQOnzwJOXV_vmQ

@@PianistAcademy1 Yes, I'm familiar with your recording sof Aurandt and also saw the videos of your concert perfomance. I really liked the way you play rubato and also the intensity of the chord progressions. It's a very beautiful piece, and I totally agree that it recalls some atmospheres of Rach and Debussy. Hard to believe it's not performed/recorded more often. Then again, it's hard enough to get people to attend concerts, let alone if you strain from the mainstream repertoire. Looking forward to your new interpretation 🙂.

If you want to hear the only other pianist currently performing the piece (and her interpretation is quite different from mine), look my Daria Rabotkina... she played it most recently on KZbin in a livestream from her Texas State International Piano Festival concert.

@@PianistAcademy1 I watched Daria's video last night. Her interpretation seems very... Russian to me. I hope other pianists will follow. I read your answer to Alena Klyavina. Let's hope she posts a video too.

Thanks for checking it out! Hope these tips are helpful in your practice!

Diego, so sorry to hear about this! Have you compared your recordings of the Yeti to mine that I offered as downloads in the description of this video? If it’s highly different than the samples I provided, it could be you got a malfunctioning microphone or that there’s something else impeding the quality of the recording you are making. If it sounds about the same and you don’t like my downloadable recordings nor yours, then you just don’t like the mic and apologies for convincing you to purchase one!

Hey hey, Sonix. Great question! The 3rd bar is deceptively complex, harmonically. The G7 in that bar is called a “secondary dominant” … it’s the dominant chord is another key, not a minor. In this case, G7 is the dominant of C, which we resolve to in the next bar. In Roman Numerals, we’d write this as V7/III … and we’d say “five seven of three”. As a general rule, if you ever see a dominant 7 chord, look for a resolution by 5th “down” … ie G resolves “down by 5th to C”. If both occur, and if it’s not built on the 5th scale degree of the key you’re in, you very likely have a secondary dominant chord.

@@PianistAcademy1 Ok thanks for the reply, understood ! and the A note that plays in the melody? how would you account for this? as G7 is G-B-D-F, I see the B,D,G and F in the melody with the C, I'm guessing, being an unaccented passing note. What about the A note?

@SonixBeats-u8fyou were correct about the A in your first comment. It’s an appoggiatura on a non-chord tone. 👍🏻

@@PianistAcademy1 Alright great, thank you for clearing all of that up !

Thank you!

Haha, thanks!

Thanks for the comment! I’m 100% for meeting students where they are and I never expect more than a “level 2” performance from a “level 2” students… I *do* expect something on the proficient side of level 2, but still… This video is more of a response to an overwhelming sentiment I see online, which is that so many students feel like certain music is “below them” or… somehow they are “better than” needing to revisit anything easier to continue to learn from it. By no means would I expect perfection from a student… even a level 10 student playing a level 2 piece. BUT, when someone presents themselves as a teacher who will be passing on wisdom and education to others… well, they *better* be able to play or demonstrate the repertoire they are teaching perfectly. And for students, I don’t think they are “above” any particular music until… well… they can play it very artistically. Sometimes that means a level 7 student revisiting level 3 or 4 repertoire where they can learn the notes and rhythms extremely quickly and we can really hone in on the rest of what music is, that far too often gets skipped over. Personally, I’ve never understood the mentality of attaining 80% and just being ok with that. I’ve always tried to get as close to “100%” as possible, knowing that the bar of exactly what 100% is continues to rise with each week and each year of practice and study. So yes, an attempt at whatever “perfect” might be at Grade 2 is significantly different than “perfect” playing of the same piece at Grade 5, 8, 10, Diploma, Professional. But why stop/settle for 80% when just a few more weeks of attention could yield, probably, more learning about the true nature of music than was achieved during the learning of the first 80%? As far as all of the “stuff” I mention in the video… well that’s what makes music. Most of my private students (including the beginner students I have) also have the most fun in lessons when we actually get to that point where we can work on phrase, dynamic, articulation etc.

Thanks so much!

Thanks for watching, Warren!

Hey Quentin! Thanks for the feedback! I hadn't gone back to listen to anything because, live, everyone said it was great! BUT. I do hear everything you said after just a quick listen. I didn't change any of my audio settings, but I changed my delivery method to the KZbin server. The previous method (a direct ethernet to my modem and straight to YT) I've been having all sorts of problems with... stream rate not keeping up, lag, drop offs in the video etc. I tried it out again the day before this stream and it was still a huge issue. So I used the "webcam" method. And... no drops, no delay, no lag, EVEN THOUGH I was streaming on wifi and not ethernet... Hence, I thought it was fixed! But alas. fixing those issues made the piano sound really horrible. Thanks for bringing it to my attention! I'll have to get back on it and see what I can get done!

Thanks, and thanks for watching!

Yes! 100% agree

Which waltzes did you work on?

@ Godowsky Waltz no 4, and t think (?) no 1

@ Lovely! You were in a great place to already have technique to attain some of Godowsky’s writing!

Great to hear from you! I think you present two sides of an argument, and I actually agree with both you and J. If someone has truly learned technique, musicality, and artistry to a great degree (ie, capable of giving a professional level performance… not necessarily A-lister or even B-lister, but professional) I don’t think repertoire for one hand *needs* as much focus. Yes, that type of stuff really should be dialed in to a great degree. *However*, repertoire for one-hand still presents similar practice strategies as single-handed practice of 2-handed repertoire. Especially in something like multi-voiced Bach for both hands, practicing one hand, even after learning a selection well, can be very beneficial. Because of that, and exactly how you describe subtleties in voicing, articulation, phrase, etc… I do think rep for one hand can still be wonderful to practice or perform to continue to hone the ears and how the mechanism responds to exactly what we desire to play. That said, the 4 pieces presented here I’m really aiming at students who are definitely pre-Bach Invention level. Although some beyond that might still find this helpful, IF, they stay disciplined in the practice of it. Even myself, I didn’t sight read these with the *perfect* articulation of every marking that I desired, even though they are Grade 1 and 2. It only took me a couple playthroughs to unlock those movements, but I think that speaks volumes about just how much there is embedded in these pieces to work on.

@@PianistAcademy1 Sorry we don't get on here to comment so often now we're back into the 'thick of things', but we do still try to at least make the effort to watch most of your videos even if we can't comment. Having spent a lot of time recently again focussing on the work of Giya Kancheli, I've really come to appreciate the amazing beauty in his album of simple pieces. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't still love the virtuosity of Chopin, or the subtleties of performing Bach without being 'written up' for dispensing with just a little too much of the metronomic, but as I'm well into my sixth decade of playing and performing I find more and more connection to those quiet places. Kancheli's work is often called the music of silences and I've loved this about it - there is deceptive complexity in its simplicity. Focussing on pieces for one hand and really taking the time to make the most of what can be learned from them seems time very well spent to me. I'm all for the sentiment behind writing them for people who otherwise might never learn piano, but I think we can all forget to take time out to really connect to pieces that remind us to focus on skills we sometimes take for granted as we progress. It's encouraging Frederick's compositions are being accepted into teaching repertoire. I hope others do as you suggest though and choose to take the time to explore these lovely works. Perhaps they'll also regain an appreciation for those simple, quiet, beautiful places of musical reflection.

My pleasure!

Frederick, it’s always a pleasure to collaborate! Thanks for your gift of some really wonderful, early study music for one hand. Like I said in the video, I’ve already pitched some of these pieces to my in person students because they are just packed with goodies to learn from, AND they sound great!

Truly.

A smaller laptop would likely fit, yes. If it's about the size of the large iPad Pro, it will fit. In the case of a laptop, I'd probably angle the screen before making much an adjustment to the gooseneck. And yes, the gooseneck can be angled any direction you like and hold very well with a steep downward angle.

@@PianistAcademy1 Thanks!

Thanks so much for watching, Annamaria! I hope you found it helpful!

Thanks for listening, Bethany! There are 3 more pieces coming over the next 24-ish hours! Plus a long video about the entire set of pieces on Saturday!

Happy Christmas! They are the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month, beginning at 10am Mountain Time, USA. The next stream will be January 8th!

Too far is generally a better "problem" than too close! As long as you aren't leaning too far forward (kind of subjective... but we want the core engaged, no hunching, but mostly upright... if you could see yourself from the side, we'd be aiming for no more than 10 or 20 degrees lean forward. If backing up that additional inch is both more comfortable and also keeps you within that healthy range, then it's OK!

Thanks for finding this "buried" video on my channel! Also, best wishes for you and your channel as well!