PianoTell Recital #7 Is Now Live!

navindra · 2026-02-15T16:40:00+00:00

Welcome to PianoTell Recital #7 iternabe — Invention No. 6 in E Major, BWV 777, by J.S. Bach Sophia — The Windmills of Your Mind by Michel Legrand Nightowl — Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven Peyton — I'm Going to Miss Me When I'm Gone by Peyton keff — Take Five by Paul Desmond KevinM — Erster Verlust (First Loss) Op. 68.16 by Robert Schumann rogerch — Mystery by rogerch pianocat — Ave Maria by Gounod & Bach arr. by Tolga Karaca Player1 — Passacaglia by Handel/Halverson WieWaldi — Blueberry Hill by Vincent Rose Opal — Etude Op 76 No. 2 in A minor by Sibelius MarieJ — Piano Sonata op.27-2 ‘Moonlight’ 1st mov. by Ludwig van Beethoven lilypad — The Rainbow Connection by Paul Williams & Kenneth L. Ascher plop_symphony — Waltz in A minor, B. 150, by Frédéric Chopin rsl12 — A Tune for Howard to Improvise Upon by Billy Taylor ShiroKuro — Song for Gavin by Ludovico Einaudi Cratersmash — The Lark by Mikhail Glinka & Mily Balakirev rach3master — Piano Concerto No. 1, Movement 2, by Sergei Rachmaninoff Pathbreaker — Arabesque No. 1 by Claude Debussy navindra — Laura by David Raksin & Johnny Mercer You can reply to each performance directly or click below for an optional template that you can copy/paste to comment on each performance: Enjoy!

pianocat

rsl12 On the euphonium side, be careful particularly of your concert E, which is consistently flat.

I downloaded a tuner app and yeah, it was really flat. I'll use the tuner app while playing long tones now, to see if I can get a consistent embouchure and airflow for each note. Thanks for the suggestion!

Nightowl

lilypad Thanks, I'm pleased you feel that I captured the essence of the piece. 🙂 I played it slightly too fast, as I got a bit bored and impatient with the recording process, but I'm pleased I got it to a reasonable standard in the end.

pianocat I'm confused - is there a way of tuning a euphonium, or is it a case of just playing it differently to get the correct pitch sounds? Also, have you ever watched the film Brassed Off? It's quite an entertaining film and features a euphonium, plus some decent (and poorly played) music. I think you might like it.

pianocat

Nightowl The instrument does have slides you can pull out to adjust pitch. Mine are pushed all the way in, so there's no way to make it sharper (the more tubing the air passes through, the lower the pitch).

You can also adjust the shape of your mouth to change the pitch. Brass players can play vibrato by moving their jaw while buzzing their lips (example). I need to work on the quality of my tone in that range of the instrument in my recital video, from F -> Bb below middle C.

I have not seen Brassed Off, but my quick internet search shows me it's British humor and Ewan McGregor is in it, so I will probably enjoy it. Thanks for the recommendation!

rsl12

pianocat The instrument does have slides you can pull out to adjust pitch. Mine are pushed all the way in, so there's no way to make it sharper (the more tubing the air passes through, the lower the pitch).

According to this website, the problem shouldn't be that E is flat, but rather that C, D, F, G, and B all tend to be sharp. This assumes you are tuning on Bb. If that's correct then 1) you should tune on Bb and 2) you should work on intonation for all those notes other than E! But if you were using a neutral embouchure/air support in your recording, it would require you to push the slides even further in! So either your instrument is defective, you should try a different mouthpiece, or there is something unusual about your technique...?

Assuming that this website is accurate. I know nothing about euphoniums!

navindra

plop_symphony Waltz in A minor, B. 150 by Frédéric Chopin

Very elegant, light, and free/unhampered performance! I loved it! Your ease and fluidity with this piece makes it that much more enjoyable. I enjoyed your musical choices too — well done! Loved those effortless trills. Bravo! 👏

pianocat

rsl12 Based on that web site and all the experimenting with the tuning app I did, I think I'm consistently playing flat in a certain range. Probably loosening my embouchure too much. So I'm flat when that web site says I should be neutral, and I'm neutral when that web site says I should be sharp.

lilypad

navindra - Wow! That was really nice. I went through Alfred's books 1 & 2 years ago and don't remember anything as nice as that. It must be your performance and the sound of your Estonia.

lilypad

keff - Bravo for taking on that challenging rhythm. That tune is a favorite of mine, but I don't think I'm ready to tackle 5/4 any time soon.

ShiroKuro

Nightowl
Fur Elise - ABRSM Grade 5-6
Moonlight Sonata, 1st Movement - ABRSM Grades 6-7

@KevinM and @Nightowl this is super interesting to me, because like Kevin, I would have put Fur Elise above the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata. I’ve played Fur Elise (a million years ago) and the second half (i.e., not the famous intro theme) has a lot more going on. And the tempo makes it challenging. I’ve only dabbled with the Moonlight Sonata (never enough to get it playable) but just based on that, IMO one of the main things that makes the moonlight challenging is the stretch. And then there’s the balance between the LH and RH…

Or I maybe the ranking is just because of the key? Isn’t The Moonlight Sonata 1st mvmt in C# minor? (Just going from memory)? Whereas Fur Elisa is in A minor.

So maybe that’s it? If so, then I’m good with saying Fur Elise is harder, because the key of Moonlight Sonata isn’t really what makes it difficult IMO. (But maybe that’s because I’m one of those weirdos who prefers sharps to flats, and thinks four sharps is easier to read than five flats 😅

KevinM

I wonder if this is a difference between young learners and older learners.

I think young learners have the ability to learn to play fast in the way older adult learners don't. I don't remember as a child having anything like the issues I have now with playing quickly and so pieces like Für Elise were less of a challenge.

Whereas something like the first movement of Moonlight Sonata I think is improved by a player with more life experience to give it that extra depth.

I did learn the second movement of Moonlight Sonata as a child, and I've attempted it as an adult but it was very unsatisfactory. I do feel the poor second movement is under appreciated, stuck between the famous first movement and the over dramatic third movement. It really misses the attention it deserves in my mind.

Nightowl

KevinM Yes, it's widely believed that young brains are more "elastic" and certainly the ability to memorise information does seem to decrease as people age. Maybe it's because our brains only have a finite amount of storage capacity, so that limits our brain power as we age? I wonder if one day scientists will find a way to alleviate this issue? More importantly, if they could cure/prevent dementia that would be brilliant.

I know there are probably hundreds/thousands of young children who would be able to play my recital piece better than me, but I'm pleased with the progress I've made in the last 26 months, with no doting parents or dedicated piano teacher to guide me - I think I've done quite well to persevere. That said, the Alfred method books have done a good job of teaching me the basics and I've also received useful advice and encouragement from people on this forum - thanks kind people! 🙂

ShiroKuro

KevinM re the sonata, I agree with you on the second movement!

On playing fast… this is interesting.. I wonder if it’s more about “fear” than skill (I mean fear loosely!) my current teacher says I have “fast fingers” but that I get in my own way. This was interesting for me to hear, because I always thought fast pieces or fast passages were hard for me. But the piece I played for my final last semester was fairly uptempo (and lots of passages with runs of 16th notes) and it was ok.

I also agree with you about the first movement of the Moonlight being improved by “life experience” 🙂

plop_symphony

rsl12 Very bluesy feel indeed, and you seemed very comfortable with improvising.

plop_symphony

ShiroKuro This'd be a great soundtrack to staring out the window watching the snow fall.

rsl12

Pathbreaker Lovely and delicate. I like how relaxed you sound throughout.

rsl12

navindra BTW, Laura is a great movie, and I recommend you see it, if you haven't already! The theme you play features prominently. Good dynamics, and it sounds very polished! You have some rhythm irregularities. I've noticed it a few times in your previous recitals, so it may be worth spending some extra attention to making sure your rhythm is correct.

rsl12

navindra Nightowl I haven't 100% followed the discussion, but it appears the question is more about Chopin, and no, we won't be banning Chopin here. 😂 What's the easiest Chopin piece? It might make a good PIYW or quarterly recital entry for next time. 🙂

Whew, thanks for not taking Nightowl seriously! I put a short, easy Chopin piece in the PIYW suggestion box as a reward.

rsl12

ShiroKuro Fantastic! I always enjoy your pieces, and this one is no exception. I especially enjoyed the second half. So how much of this do you think you play the same (or mostly the same) each time, and how much do you do differently each time you play it?

Well, I treated this piece as a learning experience, so I purposely tried to add certain RH licks and techniques that I'm trying to "internalize" (in other words, make part of me so I can recall them whenever I feel I need them or their variations). Particularly the blues vocab. So if you were to look at the failed recordings before this one, you would definitely hear many licks repeated, though in different places. On the ii-V-I part, just trying to execute Db major scales and the little bebop decorations was enough of a challenge, so I played conservatively. I would say if you compared it to other recordings, the ii-V-I part would sound quite different, but equally conservative.

The left hand is pretty set, though I go though it 3 or 4 different ways so I have some flexibility. Tiny improvisations, but mostly set between those 3 or 4 options.

Nightowl

rsl12 I never wanted Chopin banned - it's @WieWaldi who seems to have an aversion to the thought of playing his music. I'm a fully paid up member of the Chopin fan club. 🙂

smithac345

iternabe Congrats and well done! This is my very first day on Pianotell, and my first comment. Woo-hoo! I agree with what others have said about your playing, and quite good progress for 2 years of playing. As a next step, (if you haven't already), maybe you could sing parts of it while you play, in case that helps you add even more feeling and dynamic range (you may have seen that in the preface to his Inventions, Bach stated that they were above all written to teach players to express a singing line); you do a great job of keeping it steady and I think a slight increase in tempo and a shade more variety in dynamics will make it even better sounding. Thanks for sharing your playing.

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