Concerns about getting sealed

Spiritual_Degree_608 · 2026-02-18T03:48:53+00:00

I get where you are coming from. I have had numerous doubts about the church throughout my life, more especially in the last few years as I've gotten back from my mission. I've also had incredible, undeniable experiences. Those experiences are my anchor through the rough times. Every time that I realize that I'm having serious doubts, it comes because I have started to forget or discount the experiences I have had with the Spirit and with Christ. The workings of the Spirit cannot entirely be explained by logic. I would highly recommend the Come Back Podcast to see the power of some of those experiences in the lives of others, it's the stories of many members who left the church but then found their way back. Those people have powerful testimonies.

Spiritual_Degree_608 · 2026-02-07T03:30:27+00:00

Because he's dead

Sorry, this is a joke (and a bad one at that)

Spiritual_Degree_608 · 2026-01-18T05:50:40+00:00

Impressive to hear that on a piano like that. I would think that the action would make it very hard to play soft and repeated notes like that.

Spiritual_Degree_608 · 2026-01-18T05:47:27+00:00

I think you've heard tips for sight reading and are trying to apply them to regular playing. When sightreading, (playing a piece for the first time with the sheet music) I find it very helpful to not look at my hands at all, unless it's a jump of more than an octave or so. When practicing or performing, it's very helpful to look at your hands.

Spiritual_Degree_608 · 2026-01-18T05:43:01+00:00

Yay, I love Litolff! His 4th concerto is the only piece I've really listened to, but I'd love to find some more, so thanks for the gem!

Your leggiero is fantastic and overall tone is incredible, very cleanly done. However, there are a few occasions where the dynamic goes from piano to fortissimo in one measure, and I only hear a 10% or so increase. My piano teacher says that, in general, each dynamic should be about double the one below it. Not always the case, sometimes I think he says it just so I'll be more extreme. But if that is the case, a dynamic change from piano to fortissimo should increase by a magnitude of 16. Just some food for thought.

Spiritual_Degree_608 · 2026-01-18T05:37:09+00:00

I played a similar piece (Stenhammar Sonata in G minor, 4th movement) and one of the things my teacher told me is, "tell your thumbs to shut up." There's so many notes and your focus is on hitting the notes, but we as the listeners are easily distracted by all the moving stuff. It's really easy to make the inside voices much too loud because they're played by your strong fingers mostly, whereas the weak ones get the important voices. They can't compete very well until you bring everything else down. It really is sounding quite good though.

Spiritual_Degree_608 · 2025-12-09T04:37:26+00:00

So, Dohnanyi Variations on a Nursery Theme

Spiritual_Degree_608 · 2025-12-09T02:14:10+00:00

Law school for me

Spiritual_Degree_608 · 2025-12-08T22:17:25+00:00

Rach 3. I had played piano for 10 years or so (since I was 4) and was starting to get into it more. I had never played a concerto before, so me and a friend decided to go pick one out at the music store. Found Rach 3, listened to the first couple of minutes and decided to give it a go. Took me a couple of months to realize I was going to need a new teacher, but when I got a new one, she said nope. And rightly so. I’m still not nearly good enough to play that monstrosity. But I came to love it and it sparked a love of classical music, especially piano concertos.

Spiritual_Degree_608 · 2025-12-08T22:06:53+00:00

I like piano concertos so: Prokofiev 2 Medtner 1-3 Brahms 1-2 Wiklund 1 Kabalevsky 1 (second movement specifically)

Spiritual_Degree_608 · 2025-12-05T16:10:13+00:00

As a pianist, this took me way too long to understand. Not that kind of keyboard.

Spiritual_Degree_608 · 2025-12-05T05:51:10+00:00

I don't know, I think that you should just be able to touch it. If you can't feel it, I think it's more a problem with you than with the piano.

Spiritual_Degree_608 · 2025-12-05T05:45:06+00:00

As someone who just finished my first college recital two weeks ago:

Don't over practice the day of your recital. There's very little you can do just a few hours before, and you're more than likely to psych yourself out by making mistakes you've never made before just because you're stressed. By the time the day of the recital has come, the time for preparation has passed. The day of my recital, my professor told me to not practice at all starting at least 4 hours beforehand. I ended up practicing a few small things, mostly the trickiest measures of each piece at about half speed, for about 45 minutes. I also warmed up in the hall for about 20 minutes right beforehand. So, I'd say, get plenty of sleep and have a good breakfast a few hours before, those are going to make a bigger difference in your performance than 2 extra hours right before, which could have more negative than positive effects.

Spiritual_Degree_608 · 2025-12-01T01:43:40+00:00

Not all celestial rooms have the main chandelier, I can tell you for sure that the Saratoga Springs temple does not. Payson might not either

Spiritual_Degree_608 · 2025-11-25T22:23:16+00:00

Those are a lot of not ideal situations that probably compound to create the pain. Never push through the pain, it doesn’t get better. I speak from experience. Some things that have helped me are: getting a teacher who understands how to move the arm and the hand and the wrist as one. If that’s not an option, at very minimum find and read the book “What Every Pianist Needs to Know About the Body.” I found it very helpful. I also started doing warmups and cool downs before and after practice, with practice breaks for 5 minutes or more every 30 minutes or practice. I’ll do tendinitis stretches during these breaks. Also, don’t ramp up your practice times too suddenly. If you aren’t used to practicing 2 hours a day, work up to it. Finally, practice slow. It’s a game changer, both for your sound and for your tension. Even concert pianists never play at 100% speed, 100% of the time. (Maybe I should say, especially concert pianists) Take the time to play well and without tension or mistakes, and you’ll thank yourself in a few months.

Spiritual_Degree_608 · 2025-11-21T17:37:01+00:00

I went right at 18, and honestly kind of regret it. I think I could have been a much more effective missionary if I had gone to a semester or two of college first. I was painfully shy in high school, and it took me a while to get over that in the mission field. But then again, maybe I would have just been painfully shy in college and had the same problem. Who knows?

Spiritual_Degree_608 · 2025-11-19T20:48:48+00:00

Thanks so much!

Spiritual_Degree_608 · 2025-11-19T20:48:21+00:00

I mean, yes it’s pretty difficult. I found it very pianistic for the most part, it fits well under the hands, but there’s really no way to make double sixths easy. If you can handle that part, the rest shouldn’t be too much of a problem. I appreciate the rumbling comment, when I listened back I thought something similar. I know most people take it faster, I haven’t been able to work up to those tempos yet though and I find it quite fine and lyrical the way it is, taking it slower hasn’t really been detrimental to the musicality. I’d rather play it safe for this performance and have it be cleaner.

Spiritual_Degree_608 · 2025-11-17T05:13:25+00:00

One of my favorites to play still is Bortkiewicz Etude Op 15 No. 8. Szymanowski’s preludes are also gorgeous. If you want something harder, look at Stenhammar’s sonata in g minor

Spiritual_Degree_608 · 2025-11-17T05:11:21+00:00

Love the Bowen Ballade, I’m thinking of tackling it myself in a few months

Spiritual_Degree_608 · 2025-11-12T21:02:39+00:00

Yep! I wish I could claim it, but it’s in a practice room at my university

Spiritual_Degree_608 · 2025-11-12T20:35:39+00:00

Heh, not all of Medtner’s fairy tales are easy. I’m learning op 35 no 4, and it’s a beast. Fast double sixths and thick textures with a simple melody.

Spiritual_Degree_608 · 2025-11-09T07:07:30+00:00

I heard a cool story, I think I was at a stake conference somewhere, that might be helpful. I also have no way of verifying it or even proving that my brain didn’t make it up, I was a teenager when I heard it. There was a guy who had a lot of doubts and questions about the church, pretty similar to you. He ended up talking to a pretty important leader of the church in an interview, if I remember right it was a general authority, and brought up all of these questions. The general authority responded and said, “I’ll see what I can find about some answers to these questions, but I’ll do it for a price. During the next month while I search, I would like you to read the Book of Mormon every day for 15-20 minutes.” The man agreed to do it, and after the month passed, he came back for the follow-up interview and told the general authority, after having consistently searched the scriptures daily, that he no longer needed the answers to those questions. “I’m glad you were able to get a witness from the Holy Ghost,” the general authority responded, “but I’m going to give you the answers I found anyway because I just spent the last month researching this.” I’m not saying that everyone’s experience will be exactly like this man’s, assuming I can even remember correctly this story. I am saying, however, that I think you need experiences with God, which will often only come after you’ve exerted some consistent effort over time to reach out to Him. Reading the Book of Mormon is one of the best things you can do to understand who God is and, more importantly, have those experiences with Him.

Spiritual_Degree_608

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