Haydn's Sonata in C Minor

My friend Daphne mentioned that this piece is her favourite. Since I never heard it before, I am posting it here so that we can all enjoy it. And amazingly this little genius play it beautifully. I can't stop staring at her fingers on they keys, so fast and swift and accurate too.

Hey Daph, do you play like this?

I Have Another New Passion(s)

Lately I am guilty of not practising enough. Why?

1. I think I am spending a little bit more time blogging. I made some new nice friends online, writing comments and feedback and update my blogs.

2. Since my garden is ready with the grass, now I am motivated to plant some trees. I always dreamed of having a 'herbal garden' where I will plant all my cooking needs like lemongrass, tumeric, curry leaves, lime, chillies etc. etc. Whenever I need to use them, I don't need to dig my refrigerator to find a skinny twig of almost dried lemograss from last week, or ran out of chillies and need to drive to supermarket just to buy that. The only thing I can't plant now is rice coz my backyard is not big enough for a padi field that can last me a week's supply.

3. My cats, Oreo and Minty, are starting to demand for more attention, now that I am converting them from a confined cats to totally free house cats. My story and pictures on them in my Great Minds blog.

But, all the same, I still love piano playing. It still give me much pleasure that I treasure, even though I'm not 'that good' yet. Need to practise on new sets of nostalgic songs like Eternal Flame, St Elmo Fires, Cavatina Deer Hunter and maybe..... Chopin's Nocturne in C Sharp minor.

Hannah plays Chopin Nocturne #20 in C Sharp Minor

I was at my friend Shirzad Lifeboat's blog on Hitler and Chopin Nocturne #20 in C Sharp Minor and I look it up to hear the piece and found this cute little girl Hannah playing the song.

I Want To Play Like This..!

Imagine....

I may be able to play this song, but this perfect...? Takes lots of time to learn and practice. Somehow, I will get there, soon....

In the meantime, enjoy this piece by 'Honouredman' from YouTube.

Hand Switching

When listening to songs, I sometimes notice that they (the pianists) play the melody using the right hand and the chord the left hand.

I tried to play it that way. Not too successful. In fact, disastrous...hahaha.

So I tried again using the basic. One hand at a time. Left hand on the melody. Quite a high success rate, but very slow and of course some mistakes here and there. It doesn't come as naturally as my right hand.

I'll try again tomorrow and if it works, try the chords on the right hand. Should be easier.

The Feel...

As I was practising my favorite songs this morning, I realised that there is one element that need to be present when playing the piano. This is crucial especially when you play by ear.

The feel of the song. Whenever you play, you must have the song in your mind, feel the music, the rhythm and the melody. And you transfer all that to the keys when you play the song. Sometimes I even sing in my heart when I play. (Can't sing it out loud. It'll distract my own playing..hahaha)

That actually helps me a lot in my rhythm of the song, beacuse I am yet to master the consistent tempo and beat of the songs. It is my weakness in playing piano at the moment. However playing the song in your mind and simultaneously playing the keys keeps my songs in the right tune.

But that doesn't mean I should ignore practising the beat. I must, I must, I must...