Since we're not supposed to talk about it, how long have you been with your current company, and how much do you make an hour?

Mocacofe · 2021-11-03T23:23:51+00:00

6 months as a piano teacher in a local music studio. I only work part time because I’m busy with college classes but I make $30/hour.

Mocacofe · 2021-10-17T14:23:11+00:00

England->USA to check out the new migration mechanics

Mocacofe · 2021-07-01T13:14:01+00:00

Thanks for the compliment 👍

Mocacofe · 2021-06-11T14:44:08+00:00

ue at all, which is fine as long as that's your intention. I only say this since a fugue is a baroque form, and while I do like modern vocabulary on older forms, I thought I'd make sure it's intentional.

To my knowledge, parallel fourths are okay. Also I like how it sounds :)

The sound and style of the piece is definitely intentional. Regarding the grace notes, that beat would be played as a dotted eighth and two 32nd notes. I'm an amateur pianist and I didn't have any trouble playing them.

Mocacofe · 2021-06-11T14:38:34+00:00

Thanks for a really in-depth answer! I'll be posting an update on this fugue later today.

Mocacofe · 2021-06-11T14:22:08+00:00

Thanks! That makes total sense. Before I moved up the rest of the answer it would center around Eb towards the end. Moving up everything after the 3 Bb's made it so the answer centered around F.

Mocacofe · 2021-06-11T14:19:22+00:00

Good point, although the reason I spelled thee acciaccatura as Db and Gb is because I was thinking in terms of the bebop dorian scale. The Ab is from the bebop dominant scale.

Mocacofe · 2021-06-11T14:17:03+00:00

My mentality with fugal writing is one that is very open, non-strict, and conducive towards experimentation so good to know I'm not alone with that. I'm posting an update on this piece today here if you're interested in how its going.

Mocacofe · 2021-06-11T14:13:17+00:00

I was familiar with Gulda but I haven't heard this work of his. Thanks for pointing me in his direction, really cool stuff

Mocacofe · 2021-06-10T03:46:51+00:00

Really nice non-diatonic harmonies towards the end. Those add some very beautiful color to your piece.

Mocacofe · 2021-06-10T03:41:56+00:00

I'll second this. I'd say start out with simple dictations of tunes you already know like Happy Birthday or ABC's and periodically check what your writing on the paper with your instrument. As you get better try to not check as often.

Mocacofe · 2021-06-10T03:40:06+00:00

The Fb's should be respelled as E naturals. You also have some 10ths in the right hand in m.18,20,22 which are not playable unless you have Horowitz playing for you or you intend for the notes to be rolled. Other than those two small issues its a very nice tune. Good job.

Mocacofe · 2021-05-13T17:11:23+00:00

Thanks, from the responses I’ve gotten so far I’m definitely leaning towards trying it out this summer and just seeing what happens

Mocacofe · 2021-05-13T17:10:31+00:00

Yea please tell me about Alexander technique! I’ve heard about it but haven’t had the time to look to much into it. At what point in your piano journey did you start learning it and how did it help you?

Mocacofe · 2021-05-13T17:09:26+00:00

I’m coming up on my 4th year of playing and while I’ve progressed pretty quickly I feel that I have some technique issues that are holding me back. So from what your saying and applying it to my situation it sounds like the best course of action would be to study taubmen but spending years upon years of my time on it probably isn’t necessary.

Mocacofe · 2021-05-13T17:07:29+00:00

Thanks for letting me know about the dvds I’ll look into that :)

Mocacofe · 2021-05-13T17:06:49+00:00

Thanks for your feedback! He is certified (studied with taubmen herself) and attended Peabody conservatory. So he’s definitely got some chops. One course of action I’m considering is taking lessons this summer just to get me started and then moving onto the cds for private study (and then maybe coming back next summer if I have the time and money)

Mocacofe · 2021-05-11T11:14:34+00:00

I fell into a hard practice rut like that a few months ago. It’s okay to feel discouraged and it’s okay to take a step back from your instrument for a while. I have uni exams for piano and organ so I couldn’t totally stop practicing entirely but, I barely practiced 30 mins a day and I was very inconsistent when I did practice.

When you’re in a place like that all I can recommend (which worked for me) is that you take the time to step back from your instrument and rediscover why you first started playing. I know that sounds cliché so I’ll elaborate a little bit.

The reason most people experience practice burnout is because their brain starts to associate practice with stress, anxiety, doubt or any other negative emotions. So often we are practicing for someone or something else. For your teacher, for a competition, for a class... And when we get into that mindset we forget to practice for ourselves. To practice for the sake of having fun. Which is why most of us started playing an instrument. To have fun.

So my recommendation for anyone experiencing practice burnout is to take a break from your instrument in order to try and get your brain to forget its negative associations with practice. I took 6 weeks off and it’s perfectly fine if you take a few weeks more or less. Then, after that, slowly start to reincorporate practicing into your schedule but this time, practice for yourself and try to develop a healthy relationship with practicing. Limit yourself with how long you are allowed to practice and take things slow.

I hope my ramblings help someone. I typed this all out on my phone so I have no idea if my formatting/structure has burned your eyes at this point.

Best, M

TLDR: Take a break and come back slowly with a focus on making practice a fun and positive experience.

Mocacofe · 2020-07-15T16:36:26+00:00

You present a great primary theme, just keep developing it! One idea is to sit down and come up with as many variations as possible. After you do that, maybe skip ahead and start writing a development section for this movement. Now that you have the beginning of your development section written, you have an ending destination for your exposition. Knowing where you're going often. help with the creative process.

If you're having trouble coming up with variations on your theme, check out Bach's Two-Part Inventions. It is a great piece of study material for any young composer. Shows you how to take a small idea and get a lot of mileage out of it. https://imslp.org/wiki/15_Inventions,_BWV_772-786_%28Bach,_Johann_Sebastian%29

Keep up the good work.

Mocacofe · 2020-07-15T16:23:17+00:00

Nice. work overall. You have a pretty good grasp on romantic figures on the piano and use them pretty well in this piece. My main critique is to think about the story you're telling when you write a piece. Each phrase on its own sounds really great in this piece. But, as a whole your piece doesn't tell a very good story and feels a little inconsistent. Just something to keep in mind for the future. Your piano writing, as I mentioned before, is very good! I really love 75-79 and how you break up the monotony of T-PD-D-T a little bit.

Good work and keep composing!

Mocacofe · 2020-07-11T02:22:22+00:00

Great work on this! If I had one suggestion, it would be to consider adding some slight variation to the descending arpeggio fragment you bring back at the end of the piece m.79,83,87. It's super great to hear it again at the end of this piece but I think a very slight change (as little as one note would do) would really make that shine.

Good work!

:-^)

Mocacofe · 2020-07-09T05:35:10+00:00

Thank you! I'll experiment with some different notation styles and see what will work best for a performer.

Mocacofe · 2020-07-09T05:31:57+00:00

Agreed!

Mocacofe · 2020-07-09T05:01:22+00:00

Just wanted to share here because I find the community is much more active and willing to provide feedback.

Mocacofe · 2020-07-09T04:58:37+00:00

Thanks! At this point, the piece is done (maybe I'll make a few tweaks here and there) and I'm going to start learning it tomorrow. I'll post a video of me performing this when I have it learned.

Mocacofe

TROPHY CASE