EDIT: HERE IS A RECORDING OF ME playing Vers la Flamme I just finished memorizing it! So still very rough, but I lost it towards the end here...
I haven't written about my piano stuff in a while. So here's a brief recap of everything that happened
2014:
Polished/Set aside Chopin 9-2 Polished/Set aside Debussy Etude X Polished/Set aside De Falla's Ritual Fire Dance Learned Hungarian Rhapsody 2 for the Liszt Competition, some paperwork got screwed up, didn't compete >< Learned Beethoven Moonlight I Learned Mozart k545 I
Learned Rachmaninoff 3-2 on my own Learned Liebestraume on my own Showed teacher Liebestraume, worked on it Learned Miroirs I, II (Night moths, Sad birds) but realized that impressionist music wasn't my thing (at the time)
After competition fell through, dropped Hungarian Rhapsody 2, started Rachmaninoff 23 -5, Chopin 15-2, and Debussy Cathedrale Engoultie
2015:
Worked on those pieces for a bit, didn't play as much because personal issues Teacher disappears ?!!?!? Started Chopin Etudes Op. 10-1, 4 on my own
Got bored during summer, learned La Campanella (though it could use some practice haha) Learned the bits of Rach 2 that I wanted to analyze for composition purposes Learned that dreaded Rach 3 ossia cadenza (but not the rest of the thing LOL) for composition purposes
Took a break Went CRAZY after meeting a girl who plays violin and inspired me to play (ironically, I watched Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso around the same time I hope she doesn't + Show Spoiler +
DIE
LOL sorry spoilers]
Learned the ENTIRE Appassionata (in 2 weeks O_O) Started Chopin Ballade 4
2016:
Worked on Appassionata, Chopin Ballade 4 Decided that that damn coda was way too hard (Ballade 4), putting it to rest for now Learned Ballade 1 instead LOL finished it but this coda is hard too qq Chopin Etude 25-5 (learned) Drilling Chopin Etude 10-1, 10-3, 10-4, polishing 10-5, started 25-6 as a joke Started Schubert 90-3, Rachmaninoff 23-4 Doing a lot of composing as well, expect a set of preludes from me by summer, I'll just need a good grand to record them at
Started Pathetique I because a friend is learning it and I figured I could help them out ***Started Scriabin's VERS LA FLAMME
Vers La Flamme, Op. 72, is a CRAZY work by Scriabin consisting of a ton of tritones and nonstop buildup towards the end, which reflects Scriabin's vision that the world was descending into fire.
Horowitz:
Sofrinitsky:
Richter:
Katelsky:
***Neuhaus***
It sounds absolutely demented and it's so cool, and I decided it to pick it up. I sight read the first 3 pages, the middle 3 pages were too hard for that (oh my god polyrhythms galore), but the last 3 pages...are surprisingly "easy." Well, they're all technical difficulties I've already encountered, and that tremolo is surprisingly easy for me...so I thought why not let's learn it and play it at tempo.
On my 15th playthrough, something WEIRD happened to me, something that's only happened one other time, which was the second time I played that damned Rach 3 ossia cadenza at tempo (and made a shit ton of mistakes. I don't blame you Van Cliburn)
So normally, I listen very closely to the music and make changes accordingly based on how it sounds and how I anticipate it to sound (because every piano is different). But when I was playign Rach 3 that one time, I literally just blanked out, and I don't remember seeing anything, I vaguely remember hearing the music, and I saw these twisted visions. While playing Rach 3, I saw a man clawing his way up a cliffside in a snow.
In Vers la Flamme, I saw buildings, houses, trees, all ablaze...the world was a fiery red and everything was literally on fire it was freaking scary. Then I finished the piece (I think, I can't recall if I was playing or not), and I was like damn dafuq just happened. It didn't happen again today though. I hope I don't David Helfgott LOL. Maybe I'm just imagining things [literally]. I hwish I recorded myself, I would LOVE to know what I sound like in that zone...
UPDATE as of 4/11/2016: I finished Vers la Flamme. Oh my god it is so epic to play through. I think my sanity is okay for now though. Dropped Rach 23-4 and Scriabin, on an Etude grind. Started Liszt Transcendental Etude No. 4: Mazeppa. Talked to an experienced composer and got a lot of motivation! I'm writing 10 preludes by summer (then I'll start work on my first Sonata), and I have 1, 5 completed, 2, 3, 4 pretty fleshed out, 6 is in the works, but I'm having a ton of fun and for hte last 3...;D
Looks like an extreme form of "being in the zone", as that's called when your a very deep state of concentration. I wouldn't call that going insane, but that's surely weird. Were these scenes something you've already seen, like from a movie or something? Or was it completely random?
That's incredible (all the pieces you learned)... how long have you been playing, and how many hours per day? La Campanella alone is so technically demanding, and then you also learned Hungarian Rhapsody and Liebestraum??? Wow.
On March 15 2016 19:08 Ragnarork wrote: Looks like an extreme form of "being in the zone", as that's called when your a very deep state of concentration. I wouldn't call that going insane, but that's surely weird. Were these scenes something you've already seen, like from a movie or something? Or was it completely random?
I'm sure it's some weird amalgamation of experiences I've had/things I've seen in the past, but it definitely wasn't something I've seen before, in that state at least. It was super cool though
On March 15 2016 23:51 beg wrote: Can I ask you something?
What is your goal? Do you want to be a good performer of old piano pieces? Or do you want to make music yourself?
Given the option at the end of high school, I would have chosen to major in Piano Performance/Composition, and become a pianist-composer like Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin etc before me. But I wasn't confident enough back then (and even now I'm not that confident) to try it, so I played it safe and majored in math haha
On March 16 2016 03:03 Walnuts wrote: That's incredible (all the pieces you learned)... how long have you been playing, and how many hours per day? La Campanella alone is so technically demanding, and then you also learned Hungarian Rhapsody and Liebestraum??? Wow.
It really depends, I usually practice at least 2 hours a day, but during breaks and stuff that number can jump to 6. I practiced 13 hours a couple Fridays ago haha, but a lot of that was composition time
On March 16 2016 03:29 Glowsphere wrote: Pretty intense... no need for drugs, get high on music!
Haha I know right? To be honest, I never understood why any of that was necessary, I can have plenty of fun without it. Even with alcohol, I don't enjoy considering it as the main event, but having it there to spice things up is certainly nice ;D
Pretty cool that you are playing Scriabin, I'm not broadly educated in classic music, but Scriabin certainly is one of the composers I really like.
Really nice piece as well btw.
Tbh I often imagine things listening to music, so if playing feels natural to you and you don't need to micromanage your fingers a lot, I can imagine that you zone out completely, playing is more intense than hearing after all.
On March 16 2016 09:28 Blackfeather wrote: Pretty cool that you are playing Scriabin, I'm not broadly educated in classic music, but Scriabin certainly is one of the composers I really like.
Really nice piece as well btw.
Tbh I often imagine things listening to music, so if playing feels natural to you and you don't need to micromanage your fingers a lot, I can imagine that you zone out completely, playing is more intense than hearing after all.
It certainly is, and I certainly feel it! Though what I'm terrified of is that I sound like absolute bollocks because I can't hear myself lol. Like there was this one guy I was talking to, and he sounded great normally, but like he had a "moment of ecstasy" while playing the d minor Prokofiev Toccata and he was like "THAT WAS PURE ECSTASY I LOST MYSELF FOR A BIT THERE" but he sounded like 50x worse than he did normally and I hope it's not like that for me too...
On March 16 2016 09:28 Blackfeather wrote: Pretty cool that you are playing Scriabin, I'm not broadly educated in classic music, but Scriabin certainly is one of the composers I really like.
Really nice piece as well btw.
Tbh I often imagine things listening to music, so if playing feels natural to you and you don't need to micromanage your fingers a lot, I can imagine that you zone out completely, playing is more intense than hearing after all.
It certainly is, and I certainly feel it! Though what I'm terrified of is that I sound like absolute bollocks because I can't hear myself lol. Like there was this one guy I was talking to, and he sounded great normally, but like he had a "moment of ecstasy" while playing the d minor Prokofiev Toccata and he was like "THAT WAS PURE ECSTASY I LOST MYSELF FOR A BIT THERE" but he sounded like 50x worse than he did normally and I hope it's not like that for me too...
Well if we are distracted, we are bound to play a bit worse. Dunno, wouldn't worry too much about it. We partly play music to feel the music and to have fun. As you explained earlier it's not a job for you, so having fun should be part of the goal, right? Also that experience certainly peaked your interest, and fun and interest are great motivators.
From my experience things like that sharpen our hearing and our understanding in the long run.
Having played the piano myself for about 12 years, I know that feeling. I have stopped playing "high level stuff", because I got taken away by learning other instruments (drums, guitar, step sequencers). Being in the zone is awesome. I never hallucinated, though. The closest I came to your feeling was when I was doing a live set with a vocal / laptop / guitar setup. The track was supposed to go on for about 7 minutes, but I just was feeling it. So I spontaneously decided to extend the track to a 20 minute hell ride that culminated in a six minute crescendo with feedback loops and layered vocals (tape delay power). The audience liked it, I think. At least they were baffled enough to want an encore.
The pieces you're playing are very cool (and pretty difficult, too). Keep it up!
Given the option at the end of high school, I would have chosen to major in Piano Performance/Composition, and become a pianist-composer like Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin etc before me. But I wasn't confident enough back then (and even now I'm not that confident) to try it, so I played it safe and majored in math haha
Okay, cool.. I was asking this, because I neglected composing for years, even though that's what I really wanted. I spent years trying to be a technically good player, not practicing composition. It was a mistake.
Maybe it's something to think about... Or maybe not... I still wanted to get it out.
Given the option at the end of high school, I would have chosen to major in Piano Performance/Composition, and become a pianist-composer like Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin etc before me. But I wasn't confident enough back then (and even now I'm not that confident) to try it, so I played it safe and majored in math haha
Okay, cool.. I was asking this, because I neglected composing for years, even though that's what I really wanted. I spent years trying to be a technically good player, not practicing composition. It was a mistake.
Maybe it's something to think about... Or maybe not... I still wanted to get it out.
Have a nice day.
Use your technique as an inspiration for composition! Like this is probably a good thing because you're able to play your compositions sooner! While I'm not hte biggest fan of Liszt's music in terms of theory (though I love playing/performing it), it must have been so cool to be Liszt because anything he heard he could just immediately play!
On March 15 2016 15:06 XDJuicebox wrote: On my 15th playthrough, something WEIRD happened to me, something that's only happened one other time, which was the second time I played that damned Rach 3 ossia cadenza at tempo (and made a shit ton of mistakes. I don't blame you Van Cliburn)
So normally, I listen very closely to the music and make changes accordingly based on how it sounds and how I anticipate it to sound (because every piano is different). But when I was playign Rach 3 that one time, I literally just blanked out, and I don't remember seeing anything, I vaguely remember hearing the music, and I saw these twisted visions. While playing Rach 3, I saw a man clawing his way up a cliffside in a snow.
In Vers la Flamme, I saw buildings, houses, trees, all ablaze...the world was a fiery red and everything was literally on fire it was freaking scary. Then I finished the piece (I think, I can't recall if I was playing or not), and I was like damn dafuq just happened. It didn't happen again today though. I hope I don't David Helfgott LOL. Maybe I'm just imagining things [literally]. I hwish I recorded myself, I would LOVE to know what I sound like in that zone...
Definitely record yourself! I've had these kinds of moments before, but they tend to happen when I'm already drunk and it's 3 AM. Listening to yourself play for what you remember as the first time is incredible.
On March 15 2016 15:06 XDJuicebox wrote: On my 15th playthrough, something WEIRD happened to me, something that's only happened one other time, which was the second time I played that damned Rach 3 ossia cadenza at tempo (and made a shit ton of mistakes. I don't blame you Van Cliburn)
So normally, I listen very closely to the music and make changes accordingly based on how it sounds and how I anticipate it to sound (because every piano is different). But when I was playign Rach 3 that one time, I literally just blanked out, and I don't remember seeing anything, I vaguely remember hearing the music, and I saw these twisted visions. While playing Rach 3, I saw a man clawing his way up a cliffside in a snow.
In Vers la Flamme, I saw buildings, houses, trees, all ablaze...the world was a fiery red and everything was literally on fire it was freaking scary. Then I finished the piece (I think, I can't recall if I was playing or not), and I was like damn dafuq just happened. It didn't happen again today though. I hope I don't David Helfgott LOL. Maybe I'm just imagining things [literally]. I hwish I recorded myself, I would LOVE to know what I sound like in that zone...
Definitely record yourself! I've had these kinds of moments before, but they tend to happen when I'm already drunk and it's 3 AM. Listening to yourself play for what you remember as the first time is incredible.
Haha I know rightttt I love Scriabin.
I'll definitely record myself some time! A bunch of people on the internet (some other forum) don't believe how much music I've played so I'll probably end up having to record myself anyway LOL
EPT
