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What are you working on right now.

180K views 1K replies 270 participants last post by  Rasa 
#1 ·
Just curious which pieces everyone's learning.

For me it is:

Brahms, 2nd Rhapsody
Chopin, étude op. 25n2
Bach, WTC1 P&F 23 in G sharp minor
Bartok, Allegro Barbaro


The Allegro Barbaro is pretty epic win. It's easier then it sounds/looks, until you get to the good tempi. then its a fun game to practice the displacements.
 
#280 ·
Sofronitsky, have you settled on rep yet? You should do the Copland Passacaglia! Because 1. passacaglias are awesome and 2. that passacaglia is particularly awesome and 3. people need to perform more of Copland's non-nationalist stuff so the world doesn't forget he wrote other music too.

I am in a piano drought right now, because I've gone from having very easy access to pianos at school and at home to this situation here in Philly where I have to walk two miles to get to a piano I'm allowed to play and I can rarely get there before they close since I'm working. I was complaining about this to my cousins last night and my cousin's husband offered to let me borrow his keyboard. So now there is a keyboard in my room. It is not a weighted keyboard and does not feel like a piano, which will take some getting used to, but at least it has a sustain pedal. You take what you can get. I'm working on the second movement of Beethoven's Op. 2 No. 3 sonata and the G major fugue from volume 2 of the WTC - my first fugue! And I am working on learning guitar and progressing quickly. I have my clarinet here as well, but don't play it often. It is my ensemble instrument, and I seldom feel like practicing it when I'm not going to be playing with other people.
 
#282 ·
I'm not quite sure by how much, but I would say they are. Liszt is probably the most pianistic composer ever - he simply knew how to write for the instrument. Now there are some sections that are immensely difficult - like those leaps in the right hand near the end of the first waltz - but Liszt, while very difficult, is often a fair bit easier to play than he sounds/looks.
 
#284 ·
My advice to you would be to keep at it, and sight read constantly. Go to your local music store and (if you have some money for music)find a compilation of easy classical or other type of piano music. Alfred has some good ones. I did that when I was developing my reading. It worked very well for me, and I was studying that same piece around that time!

Cheers and happy practicing :)
 
#295 ·
Bach's two part invention 2 and 6, in C minor and E major, two études from a XIXth century guy named Köhler or something like that but at a quite slow tempo (working on articulating, anticipating), Ravel's Prélude (1913, the two pages one :D) and I've begun a long-term work on an Haydn sonata (Hob XVI:50 in C major). I'm an happy guy. The bare fact that as a beginner, I work on three absolutely major composers, already makes it an amazing instrument.
 
#300 ·
Bach's two part invention 2 and 6, in C minor and E major, two études from a XIXth century guy named Köhler or something like that but at a quite slow tempo (working on articulating, anticipating), Ravel's Prélude (1913, the two pages one :D) and I've begun a long-term work on an Haydn sonata (Hob XVI:50 in C major). I'm an happy guy. The bare fact that as a beginner, I work on three absolutely major composers, already makes it an amazing instrument.
two pages of Ravel are two pages of gold!, that's a beautiful piece, and sounds great on the guitar (you are a guitar player, I remember):



Enjoy playing that gem!. Regards.
 
#296 ·
I'm working on pieces for my piano exam:

Bach - Prelude and Fugue As dur I book
Chopin - Etude op.10 no.8
Chopin - Nocturne op.32 no.2
Mozart - Piano Sonata K311 D dur
Debussy - Passepied from Suite Bergamasque

And now I'm learning Schumann's masterpiece Carnaval op.9 ... A wonderful, magical music! I am pretty in love with this piece. When I first listened it, I was like in trance. And the feeling when I play this piece is more than amazing. Yeah, it's really difficult for performing, but it's worth!
 
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#297 ·
Just got the complete Schubert sonatas in the mail today :D going to start D. 960.

Also got the first volume of Couperin's pieces de clavecin, trying to decide which ordre to play. I'm leaning towards ordre VI, since it has the mysterious barricades...
 
#298 ·
Chopin's B Minor Waltz. My first Chopin piece that i think i am capable of not ruining! Such fun to play, and so much room for expression.

As soon as i figured out the fingering to the melody is much easier when using the third and fourth fingers to hit the F#/G instead of scrambling about madly with a three fingered claw, it started to take off.
 
#309 · (Edited)
Another year gone by, played recital, got Bachelors.

Next year: Shostakovich's 2nd concerto, Listz's Gnomenreigen, Bach's 2nd French suite, Scriabin's étude op.8 no. 11, Chopin's 2nd Scherzo and Mozart's sonata in b flat major k. 720, all this to be spread over two recitals in the next year.

Here's a recording of a Chopin Prélude I made for Reddit's piano jam:
 
#312 · (Edited)
Here's my recording of Scriabin - Prelude Op. 11 No. 24.
It took me a while, one of the most difficult pieces I've played so far... What I like about short pieces is that you can easily record it 10 times in a row and pick out the best one. :D https://www.box.com/s/44831b92f10fda4c4499

Sadly, I have a digital piano only (Roland HP-201)...

Here's Op 11 No. 10
https://www.box.com/s/cpfpda8fr34gengtq8gg

and Op. 11 No. 1
https://www.box.com/s/bbc05b19773efc80cb06

3 minutes of music and that was basicly all I did on the piano in the last 2 years
 
#314 · (Edited)
It's been almost 4 years now since I've started to play the piano, and I am both happy and unsatisfied with the progress I have made so far, if that makes sense. I am beginning to sight read much much more efficiently, and I can read most Mozart slow movements and pieces of that difficulty at a fair tempo. It's really exciting how fast I can learn new things and keep on learning them, and I'm really hoping that this continues.

I am currently working on a program of old and new pieces to compete in competitions this year:

Bach: Prelude and Fugue in G Major, Book 1
Schubert: Sonata in A minor, op. 42 (1st movement only for now, but I am in love with the entire sonata! I hope I am not jumping the gun taking this as my first Schubert sonata)
Liszt: Valse Oubliee No. 1
Rachmaninoff: Prelude in B-minor Op. 32 no. 10 (Might cut this one for time)
Rachmaninoff: Etude-Tableaux op. 39 no. 3 in F-sharp minor
Copland: Passacaglia

It seems like an attractive program to me, and I will hopefully have it all memorized by the start of October. If anyone has any suggestions for different pieces I might be better suited to compete with, or tips for learning the pieces themselves I would really appreciate it!
 
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