What music are you 'actually' playing now? (see below for details!)

Andy,
It is nice to see at least one other player here! Are you taking lessons, exams, etc. or just doing it on your own?

On the cello I am currently in the pre-stages of learning Twinkle, Twinkle....

On the piano, it's a different story. There is always huge piles of music perpetually strewn around the piano that one can't see the floor let alone walk around. Currently (and the past 6 months/years?, who knows) struggling and plodding my way through, bar by bar:
- Bach, WTC Bk. I, e minor prelude & fugue, BWV 855
- Beethoven, Piano Sonata in F major op. 10, no. 2
- Schumann, Bunte Blätter, Op. 99 (1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10 so far)
- Chopin, Preludes, Op. 28 (about 18 of the 24, so far)
- Chopin, Etüde in A flat major, Op. 25, no.2
- Debussy, Prelude, Des pas sur la neige, Bk. 1
- Prokofiev, Visions Fugutives, Op. 22, (#1, 3, 10, 11, 15, 16, 17 so far)
- Brahms, Piano Trio in B major, Op. 8

Usually the huge piles of CD's strewn around the hi-fi reflects what I'm trying to learn/play.

Why, you ask? Even if it is hard, takes a huge amount of time, effort, and commitment every day, sounds mostly horrible and I'll never make it to Carnegie Hall and Deutsche Grammophon will never call it is simply one of the most satisfying and pleasurable activities that one could be involved in, IMHO.

Cheers,
Doug

Dear Andy,

Here is a picture where I am playing a bass on the Twelvth of April this year, in preparation for a concert on the next day.



Really I stopped playing in 2002, and for a fee two years before that, but came out of a retirement for a special commemoration concert for a friend's seventieth Birthday! I used to play for her over a very long time, so it would have been hard to avoid playing this last time.

I am trying to weigh up whether to play some more. At the moment I have put the decision off till the stuation over nature of employment and running a car is settled.

I still enjoy the occasional listen to a few private recordings I have of concerts I played in. More now than at the time in reality, as I was, and still would be, terribly self critical. I think this elememnt makes it hard for me to "actually enjoy" playing, though sometimes it could be satisfying enough after the event. For me the music is my love and my playing followed on, and then left - a relief in many ways.

George

PS: Here is my fine bass, sold in 2002, which one pupil noted [with some sadness!] sounded as is it was an octave lower than his student bass. The difference was this bass was strung with gut and had a remarkably fine and focussed tone! He could not get the gut strings to sound though. Gut is a real problem till the technique is conquered.

quote:

Originally posted by GFFJ:
I am trying to weigh up whether to play some more. At the moment I have put the decision off till the stuation over nature of employment and running a car is settled.

Same me. I borrow a car when I need to drive, but have taken to cycling to save money. With one thing or another I can't remember the last time I took my violin out of its case, and I generally don't feel inclined to play with a life full of largely disagreeable uncertainties!

I thought you gave up playing because of arthritis? Your hands look OK in the photo... anyway, seems to me you should step up the bass playing a bit!

EW

After all of 8 weeks playing bass guitar I am currently playing (or trying to) Lady Madonna (Beatles), Another one bites the dust (Queen) and You give loving a bad name (Bon Jovi)

quote:

re you taking lessons, exams, etc. or just doing it on your own?

In my 14th month of weekly lessons - I found a really good teacher 1st time of trying.

Have done ABRSM grades 1 and 2 - am doing my 3 at xmas. i like playing all sorts, but both my pianos (Roland a90ex and Zimmerman Z1 upright) have introduced me to clasical music also. i find my self listening to piano stuff (obviously) as much for phrasing and trying to sus scales pieces are in etc.

I have no probs with scales, and correct fingering, but summer 2008 is the summer of sight reading - I need to get consistent at the art of...

quote:

it is simply one of the most satisfying and pleasurable activities that one could be involved in, IMHO.

totally agree - totally engrossing and also a great stress reliever...

Hi,

It's great to know that there are some members out there who can make their own music, irrespective of technical proficiency or medium used, whether it be electronically or acoustically.

Timster - indeed - even more gratifying when you get chance to play some Abba alongside another piano player, on two £14k grand pianos!

Well yes, however, I am am sure that you will agree that given the compositional perfection....of the piece in question...that it would sound good on a Stylophone. They didn't have Logic in 1980

...still have to press the notes, even on one of those antequated items - lol. Still, no need to quantise, eh?

Morning frank,

This week its mostly trying to get the sustain pedal right when playing - not too early on, not too late off, etc....

Have nearly conquered the Cloud Shapes piece, which I can't actually play without having to read the music, which is a major step if you think about it?

Re Xmas carols, it was quite strange learning jingle bells in may last year (contained in 'piano for older beginners', by James Bastien)

He's got it well sussed Frank, I was listening to him playing last night

Indeed he is Polarbear. Patience has its own rewards.

Well, I have all the Bartok notes in the right place now - just need to add the emotion to it next....

I'm a complete tart and will play anything that gets me a gig on stage.
My current regulars are; a Blues Brothers tribute where I get to play Duck Dunn, a "dad rock" covers band where I get to play LOUD, and a Cuban (in reality Buena Vista-like) band where I get to play double bass.
I get at least ten times more bookings for bass than guitar. I guess the world is full of hopeful guitarists.

There is a shortage of bass guitarists. I had a friend whose band needed a bassist for a gig so badly that we stayed up all night teaching me their songs on my bass which I had owned for about two weeks at that point! I must have truely sucked, but it was good fun!

quote:

I'm a complete tart and will play anything

...LOL I'm still at the 'nervous' stage when playing in front of anyone other than the piano teacher or wife...

quote:

...LOL I'm still at the 'nervous' stage when playing in front of anyone other than the piano teacher or wife...

Andy, I don't know if this 'nervous' stage ever goes away completely (especially for a solo performer). I know it can gradually get better over time and with experience but it seems to always be a factor when the heat is on and the stakes are high. Some days my knees are knocking and my fingers shaking for days before a performance and other times I can be as cool as a cucumber and be totally relaxed and in control. I guess we're human and not machines! Sadly, many musicians use beta-blockers or other means to control the nerves. This to me is cheating.

I just wish I could play for my teacher and others like I do when I play at home when no one else is around (totally relaxed and in a non-threatening environment.) And for some strange reason my teacher doesn't buy my lame excuses or believe me anymore when I claim, "But I just played it perfectly at home an hour ago, honest I did!" He just shakes his head, rolls his eyes, and shows no empathy. Yes, nerves and playing from memory are the biggest hurtles for me.

BTW, glad to hear that the (#17) Round Dance is coming together. Keep pressing on because #20 & #38 are the important "Drinking Songs"

Cheers,
Doug

Bach - Bouree in A Minor On a "classical" guitar.

I have always played "classical" guitar to keep up my chops for electric bass. Right hand technique is very similar between the two.....


George,

Regarding your gut strings comment.... I experienced the same issue when I restrung my string bass in college. It wasn't until I bought a proper bow that I could get a good sound from them.... and of course developed much better technique.

When I played my teachers bass and bow i felt like I was a virtuoso.

FYI, I had a cheap ($4000) bass and a real shitty bow (thrown in with the bass purchase)

My teacher's opinion at the time was that it is needed to "match" the bow to the bass. In terms of $$$$ he thought you should spend almost as much on the bow as the bass, up to a certain point of course.

When I spent $2000 on the bow, my plywood bass actually started to sing, and I felt as though I was actually a competent player.

lastly... that bass appears to be a 5 string????? If so, your student was somewhat right in that you had 5 lower notes.... the low B always impresses.

Dear Patrick,

The bass was completed in1996 on my own commission. It was modelled on an English bass of 1820, which itself was modelled on a great Maggini of 1666. Of course the old Italian instrument would most certainly have had five or even six strings and be set up as the double bass gamba, called the Violone.

Its body - wide between the "F" holes - shape meant there was no difficulty at all arranging for a set of five strings to be planned. I will not mention the sum involved to pay for it, but it cost me three years of a good many hours overtime, and saving every penny.

It was my second great instrument. The first was a London bass from about 1780, which I will try to get a scan posted one day. That instrument had an interesting provenance as it came from Pates Grammar School in Cheltenham. It was the instrument Gustav Holst gave the school when he retired from teaching - the same instrument he had used at Saint Paul's Girl school in London, for which school [orchestra] he wrote the Saint Paul’s Suite.

That bass was wonderful, but really only a three stringer, which I had set up with four without re-necking it. The gaps between the string were really too small. That had to be strung with gut, as it was very fragile! I got a taste for gut string from learning to play it, and when the new commission came along it was inevitable that it would be made for gut, not steel, strings, much to chagrin of the maker!

It took about three years to really play in, and became a better instrument than my old classical instrument ...

On bows, I only ever had two - neither master-bows, but the second one very usable.

The best bows I ever had the loan of were by PW Bryant, but these frightened me with their value, and particularly one by Paul Voigt, who was a German who immigrated to the UK in the 1930s. To look at it was to think it was a scruffy little thing. About an inch shorter than usual [designed for the opera pit] it played like it was a foot longer than any other bow I came across, such was it power and sustain right to the tip! You could get a proper strong Swarzando accent at the "wrong" end - the tip! So flexible to use and both powerful and subtle.

And rhythms just came of the instrument almost without effort, so live was the stick! I took it to my then teacher, who was the first bass player in the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and himself, a student of Ed Barker [first bass in the Boston Symphony Orchestra] and asked what it was worth! £20K! Rare like hens teeth these short Voigt bows are one of the best non-French bows ever made. Of course it was made in the French [violin grip] pattern, not the German underhand style, and felt deceptively light in use. A product of nigh perfect balance.

That evening he used in a concert including the Planets, but took a horrible old thing to use in the coll legno parts, as he said it was much too nice to use to tap the strings with the back of the stick!

Glad to see two real bass players here - You and Rockingdoc. Maybe I should start again, if I can find an orchestra that rehearses in walking distance ...

George

quote:

I can find an orchestra that rehearses in walking distance

I suspect walking distance will be a bit shorter carrying a bass than unloaded! Have you got a bike? You could make a special trailer!

quote:

Originally posted by GFFJ:
Glad to see two real bass players here - You and Rockingdoc. ...

George

As even my double-bass has pick-ups and goes through an amp, I'm not sure I'll be allowed to join the club. I do have a pernambuco bow however.

quote:

As even my double-bass has pick-ups and goes through an amp, I'm not sure I'll be allowed to join the club.

What do you play? Fretless upright? Can we have a pic?

andy c, one day, hopefully soon, you will reach that state of nirvana where ego takes over from nerves. It helped me no end.

Timster -

Well, the latest form of 'torture' was administered at my piano lesson last night - arpeggio's similar motion one octave apart - bloody grade 4 stuff is that!

Onto the 2nd grade 3 piece to learn:
H. Hofmann - Waldvöglein (Little Woodland Bird) No. 15 from Skizzen, Op. 77

andy c,

At last you are jumping to the next grade as I predicted, no point in hanging around. Once again you obviously excellent teacher understands what it is that you need to know and is instructing accordingly. From my personal point of view, arpeggios, possibly more so than scales, are the backbone of composition. Does anybody else have an opinion on this?

From a purely technical point of view, playing arpeggios will help you to exercise your fingers in terms of spanning the keyboard and also acquaint you with the notation of the relevant keys.

May the Force be with you.