Piano (2 Viewers)

[starlet212]

hsc this yr for me ... performance major
beebn playin for 8 years working on various pieces one of which i had to get a board of studdies exception for cos a non traditonal instrument im justin with my performace ... playing AMEB 6grade pieces mainly

 

[MikiRei]

The pieces are so long....I'll be playing for an hour in the exam at this rate!

Yeah - they are about an hour long - if not longer. I remember having to play an entire Beethoven Sonata for Lmus (I think - hell can't remember anymore)

From the looks of your HSC program, I'm guessing you didn't do performance extension - that was longer by memory - or was it? Can't remember. I just remember it to have 2 extra more pieces than normal Lmus and Amus exams.

Oh well - good luck. It's not that bad. Learn your General Knowledge well though - I CAN'T stress enough.

 

[lala2]

Haha, thanks MikiRei! Yes, I did just performance elective for Music 2--no Music Extension for me! So just three HSC pieces. Haha, thanks for the tip on General Knowledge--I heard they do place a really heavy emphasis on it, so I shall be studying up when the time comes

 

[lala2]

What are some of your 'favourite' technical books for piano? I'm currently playing no. 14 in Czerny's Art of Finger Dexterity and am finding it supplicates my hand (is that a word) much better than his School of Velocity. I played Junior Hanon in like Grade 2 or 3 and found it really boring and tedious, so didn't really have any technical books until about 2 years ago.

Edit: Forgot to put in Pischna, which helped balance my 4th finger really well, and physically stretched my hands to play octaves more comfortably. However, still having trouble with consecutive octaves, but I purposely picked pieces that don't involve octaves!

 

[Silver Persian]

I've been using Hanon for the past...7ish years, but I use the term 'using' loosely - I do it once a week with my teacher I had Czerny, but it was too hard (I really cannot sight read, and Im not putting effort in to learn some stupid dexterity exercise).

I hate playing octave runs too - my hand are easily big enough to cope with them, but whenever I play them it sounds really stodgy and lumbering

 

[all_of_myself]

Wow, I feel so lazy. I've just being performace exams with ANZCA for the last 3 years, and i'm doing an 8th grade piece for the HSC...still haven't finished learning it. Oh dear.

 

[MikiRei]

What are some of your 'favourite' technical books for piano?

Like hell I had any. Prefer learning actual music. Nonetheless, I use Hanon and Czerny these days for my stdudents - they do their jobs well - INCREDIBLY well

 

[joy_sze]

Aiish... I feel stupid... Been playing since I was 3... So that's like um... 16 yrs already... It's been a long long journey from hating piano to loving it... Wasted almost half the time...

For my HSC, I played
Colours of the Sea ~ Elena Kats-Chernin
Trio Pathetique for Clarinet, cello & piano (1st mvt) ~ Mikhail Glinka
Au Lac de Wallenstadt ~ Liszt

Think I'll be doing my Amus next year...

 

[diesel815]

is anyone else into more contemporary piano stuff and synthesizer stuff in here or is it just all classical stuff?

 

[steban]

hey theres, played piano for 8 or 9 years..lost count lollerz, currently studying with an awsome teacher, Peter Wang from the conservatorium if it rings a bell, and im working on a Cmus, havent really started but im getting there. I play mostly classical though im workin on a jazzy style peice known as Bumble Boogie which some of you may know of, pretty much a jazz adaptation to the flight of the bumble bee, great stuff, though i focus on violin nowadays but i still play de pianoz.

 

[ledge56]

Hey everoyne , i have been playing the piano for a long time , for the hsc last year i played

Right Here waiting by Richard Marx
The Special Two , by Missy Higgins
Down South Jazz Peice
When you say nothing at ALL, BY Ronan Keating

Email me if you wanna chat .. ledge56@hotmail.com

 

[Niren7]

JOY SZE :
"Aiish... I feel stupid... Been playing [piano] since I was 3...Wasted almost half the time..."

lol, i laughed when i read that because it sounds like something i would say.
I started when i was 4 and started grades when i was 9 (don't noe why i didnt start earlier) but i wouldnt say that time was like.. wasted (i felt annoyed though, cos others boasted that they had completed more grades than me).

I got mostly A's /B+'s for the grades i did before i was 15, but in year 11 i decided to do the 'leisure' grade 7 (predictably others boasted that they did more sophisticated 'classical' grade that i no longer did) because its so much easier for the lazy who dont like the technical work!
Now im in year 12 and im doing my leisure grade 8 in June. I barely practice my exam pieces but spend most of my time screwin around on the piano or the guitar..

Btw, Steban, what is Cmus? - bumble-boogie isnt very hard at all...im doin it for 8th along with Sonny Chua's Theme and 12 Deviations (awesome piece) and Schubert's Standchen. I actually regret not doing HSC Music 1 but i might drag my arse back to the conservatorium next yr to do my AMus...jst to impress the chicks at parties LOL

 

[SDDpeteMUS]

hey,
playing piano for about 3 years now... better late then never...
i'm actually quite annoyed about pianists because everyone simply classifies your skill against every classical performer, because i recently performed Superman by Five for Fighting, and only got 10/20.. i'm not bragging but everyone thought i should have got at least 14.. umm.. WHY DO MARKERS COMPARE US TO CLASSICAL PIANISTS!!!

 

[kony]

What are some of your 'favourite' technical books for piano?

Chopin etudes for the win!

Liszt/Moszkowksi ones are good too.

also, for speed buffs - Czerny's op. 299, school of velocity. lol crotchet = 200, playing semiquavers.

 

[tfie]

been playing for 8ish yrs?! not quite sure coz i took a massive break in between when i THOUGHT i hated the piano... picked up flute instead and realised that was a silly idea coz i could never get my embouchure right =S
but now im back to it, along with playing bass altho ive ditched classical and picked up jazzz...

 

[Silver Persian]

I'm learning new pieces now. I'm doing the Piano for Leisure Finishing Certificate as preparation for another AMUS attempt.

Pieces are:
-Prelude in C# Minor by Rachmaninov
-Send in the Clowns by Sondhiem
-Arabesque No. 1 by Debussy
-Still up in the air. Possibly the fast Schubert Impromptu, or a couple of Beethoven sonata movements from the Tempest or Appassionata Sonata. Or if I cant find a classical piece to play, maybe something jazzy.

 

[araminta]

Another pianist here, though I did the HSC last year, it's so fantastic to see all of us celebrating the beauty of piano, rather than trying to out-compete one another, that's not what music is about.
I always wish I had been allowed to start at a younger age, as I was a late bloomer, and only started when I was 8. It's meant I'm not as advanced as so many others my age, and I'm honestly not prepared to dedicate ever day to eight hour practice sessions, six was enough for me during my A Mus.
Anyway does everyone here have a favourite piece?

 

[sleepy12]

ah i love piano.
ive been playing about 12 years now i think? and am 16 now.
for music 1 im going to play 8th grade pieces i think

i've got rhythm - gershwin (funnest song to play.)
satin doll - duke ellington

havent decided other two.
heart asks pleasure first by michae nyman is possibility
and sweet georgia brown (another 8th grade) maybe.

and i want to do a composition....
how do you decideeee?

 

[RedZenith]

I've played about 12 years, but I'm not doing music for VCE because I don't wanna spend all ma precious working time at the keyboard. In my spare time I try to learn all of Bach's preludes and fugues. So far I've learnt the first six.

 

[Undermyskin]

Hi,

I'm not doing HSC Music but I learn playing piano on my own. I'm looking for Canon in D major by Johann Pachelbel and also the C major one arranged by George Winston. I would appreciate if anyone can PM me. TIA.