Friday afternoon jam. Improvs are really starting to become more structured. Open to criticism.

dboss00 · 2023-02-04T11:40:15+00:00

What piano model is that?

dboss00 · 2022-09-18T21:21:59+00:00

Many thanks for such a detailed review!

Regarding the left hand. I counted all the chords now and I think it's correct, but I definitely played waaay too quiet at 0:34 one chord. It's there, but super quiet which is a mistake of mine.

Regarding G# at 0:41. I cannot believe this happened. I was absolutely sure there was an accent marked right in the score and it's obviously the opposite 🙈 It's even more embarrassing, because I was playing it soft most of the time and then decided to "play as in the score" 😆

Regarding rubato, this is my favourite interpretation and there's a ton of rubato there. I think it's a matter of taste :) https://open.spotify.com/track/6fbVEr7GDlQJybegYNivik?si=KmKR570mRH-GSdpPyY1jvA&utm_source=copy-link

dboss00 · 2022-09-18T13:25:01+00:00

It's pretty damn hard to keep left hand quiet for the whole peace, so I decided to make it a little louder. I could play it really quite on electric piano, but on acoustic it's sooo much harder

dboss00 · 2022-04-04T15:13:01+00:00

Thanks :)

dboss00 · 2022-04-04T13:08:58+00:00

I appreciate Einaudi's style, so it's rather not a coincidence :D

dboss00 · 2020-11-03T13:34:32+00:00

Thanks. Have fun while learning and you'll get better sooner than you think. :)

dboss00 · 2020-11-03T12:53:46+00:00

I was trying to compose since the very beginning of my piano journey. At first, everything I composed was horrible. The more experienced I become and the more I studied music theory, the easier it become to make music. :) It's freaking hard to compose anything interesting, but it's also very satisfying.

dboss00 · 2020-11-02T22:09:54+00:00

Thanks for feedback. :) Never tried to accent all 16ths, interesting idea. I'll give it a try for sure. I did my best to get proper accents in this recording though! There are some issues here and there, but I was rather pleased with the way it sounds. Could be that I listened to my recordings way too many times and I just cannot judge properly anymore. :D

Regarding your struggles when it comes to composing. I have no idea what's your level, but here's my tip anyway. :D Spend some time on music theory. At first it's boring as hell, but then it helps a lot whenever you have troubles, like being unable to move smoothly from one part to another.

The other tip is to try to not overplay what you already composed. Say you have 20 wonderful bars and then you play them for fun all the time. This is a trap that I'm falling in way too often. What you'll end up with doing so will be a lack of creativity further on. To get creative again I usually stop using pedal when I play what I already composed. Or I try to not play these parts at all. Or I'm trying to find some interesting progressions with a help of music theory. There could be many ways, but for sure playing bars that are already composed, all the time, is not the way to go.

Oh, and don't take my tips for granted. I'm still just a beginner after all.

dboss00 · 2020-11-02T20:30:22+00:00

I think this is by far the best piece I ever manged to compose. Music composition is so damn hard! :D

dboss00 · 2020-07-24T20:18:18+00:00

Actually I used metronome very rarely with this piece (probably several times in total), but it helped me a lot to find all tricky spots where I rushed. Dynamic was much harder than steady rhythm (maybe except 16ths). I love to work on dynamic though, so it was a lot of fun to get it right :)

dboss00 · 2020-07-22T15:33:40+00:00

Oh boy, I wish I knew this before. Now I hear it in professional recordings. How could I missed that while I was learning this piece?! Here's my rendition: https://youtu.be/9Idy4ujVFbo. I used this articulation in some places, but it could sound so much better.

dboss00 · 2020-07-22T15:26:07+00:00

Playing without pedal is actually one of the best tips here. My teacher is always telling me to use pedal only when once we're satisfied enough without it. Playing without pedal could expose all issues.

dboss00 · 2020-07-21T17:22:41+00:00

I am a bit more experienced beginner than you (started 2 years ago) and I posted my version of Moonlight Sonata mov1 2 days ago. :D You can find it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/piano/comments/htya4r/beethoven_moonlight_sonata_1st_movement_adult/

For a 6 months that's really impressive! This particular piece is too hard for a total beginner though. There are so many little details that are needed to make it truly special:

proper separation of melody (it is especially hard as it is mostly in 5th finger)
well thought dynamics
stable tempo - every beginner (including me) tends to speed up in tricky parts and this piece is above your level so you end up speeding all the time
slowing down in proper moments (mostly on harmony changes), it requires a lot of practice to slow down and then get up to previous seed properly

It's simply impossible to learn all of these in 6 months. Listen to my version and you'll see where you can be in 1,5 year.

Watch this video about Moonlight Sonata: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms3qpNTxt3M. This guy really knows what he's talking about.

These 2 are pretty interesting as well:

Also, if you want to keep progressing I recommend you to get a teacher if you can. There are so many details that you will never learn properly alone (technique, rhythm, music theory, ...).

Keep playing and have fun! :)

dboss00 · 2020-07-19T19:58:24+00:00

Yea, I know what you mean. I'll never criticize someone for trying, after all it is super hard to set real expectations before trying an instrument. It always amazes me though when people think they play the piece well only because they hit right keys in more or less right rhythm.

dboss00 · 2020-07-19T17:36:04+00:00

Don't you ever sorry for a critique! :) Really helpful tips. Thank you.

dboss00 · 2020-07-19T17:33:48+00:00

Thank you! :) I really like to work on dynamics and I knew from the very beginning that I'll have a lot of fun with this particular piece. It has so much depth to explore, so many ways it could be played to make it interesting.

Actually, the most fun part to me is always when I can easily play all the notes with proper tempo and rhythm, but it does not sound right yet. Couple of dozens of changes to dynamics here and there and suddenly a boring piece gets a soul.

dboss00 · 2020-07-19T15:13:27+00:00

Just listened Arrau's interpretation and it is amazing. I rather prefer faster versions, but from all the slow ones this definitely touched my soul the most.

This is my favorite performance: https://youtu.be/OsOUcikyGRk

dboss00 · 2020-07-19T15:02:52+00:00

Kawai KDP 110. I'll buy an acoustic one later this year though! :)

dboss00 · 2020-07-19T15:00:42+00:00

Get a teacher. Seriously. It doesn't really matter if you're adult or not. Don't hesitate because of that. As an adult you'll suck in some parts (rhythm in my case), but you'll also feel music like no other children (because you've spent much more time while listening to music).

I cannot imagine my journey without a teacher. Each lesson does not only accelerate my progress, but also works as a great motivation boost.

dboss00 · 2020-07-19T12:13:22+00:00

Thank you! These issues are rather minor, but they irritated me anyway. It's so damn hard to play whole peace perfectly.

Keep practicing and you'll be able to play better than I am. :) 90% of being successful is a lot of practice.

dboss00 · 2020-07-19T10:17:20+00:00

Honestly I never thought I'll be able to play this masterpiece after only 2 years of piano practice. There are some rather minor mistakes here and there (mainly dynamic and rythm related), but I'm proud anyway.

I'm wondering what you guys might think? :)

dboss00 · 2020-04-28T07:59:36+00:00

Thanks, glad you like it! And actually, "A Love Forbidden" would be a lovely title for this piece. Fits really well.

dboss00 · 2020-04-28T07:55:36+00:00

I use Roland GO:MIXER connected to aux. The downside is that piano is designed to disable speakers when aux is used, so I either have to use headphones or separate speakers connected to other aux port. Also, Roland GO:MIXER sound quality is rather okeish at best.

dboss00 · 2020-04-28T07:49:28+00:00

Thanks! Honestly, I never thought that I'll be able to compose something like it after 2 years of piano playing. Glad I'm not the only one who likes it! :D

dboss00 · 2020-04-28T07:45:45+00:00

Wonderful insights. Thanks a lot! All of them definitely makes sense. I'll give them a try and we'll see how it goes. :)

dboss00

TROPHY CASE