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comment by nowaypablo
nowaypablo  ·  3658 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: So I made it to Carnegie Hall

Join the club homie!!! Woah. This is really big, congrats. Also I didn't know you were a pianist!

Now here are some coinky-dinks.

1) Is it in Weill? I hope it is. I've had the opportunity to play there twice, and both were the greatest performance experiences I've ever had. The piano is loud and fuckin euphoric but the keys are a little "sturdy," careful doing any sort of flurrying movements or notes might not sound.

2) I was just working on that piece– by the way, holy fuck is that a difficult piece! How the hell are you pulling that off? I demand some sort of video, seriously, wtf. I was working on it with a family friend who asked for my help in learning it. She lost her right arm under collapsing debris during the big Earthquake in Armenia. She didn't touch the piano for 25 years since, despite already being a committed professional musician.

After 25 years, her boyfriend buys her a keyboard out of the blue, and hires me to help her learn again. She can't even read notes anymore (out of trauma, or just time) and has apparently "blocked everything" from her memory regarding the piano. Yet she requests that we work on that Scriabin. I'm astounded and terrified, so I print it out and take it to her. In 2 hours, she's gotten to the Nocturne section but still can't name a note. Just some crazy, crazy shit, and this was yesterday, so I don't know if "it's a small world" cuts it with your post.

Anyway, lots of luck and please deliver us a video! And be weary of sticky keys, the sound and everything else will be perfect. This has been inspiring for me btw, thank you.





demure  ·  3658 days ago  ·  link  ·  

1) Yes it's in Weill. Good to hear that the piano is fuckin euphoric but um...the loudness will present itself as a...challenge, shall we say. Quiet piece demands quite the level of exactness and it's very hard to play on loud pianos.

2) I'm not playing the Nocturne, though I'll be learning it over winter vacation :) Honestly, I got the piece itself pretty easy, and while I will be the first person to admit that my technique sucks (no really, it does. Had a teacher from SFCM for the first 8 years of my piano playing and still my technique sucks) but apparently I'm musical enough to outweigh those flaws. It's all in the feeling :P

I'll try and post a video of the submission I made to the competition that put me there.

nowaypablo  ·  3658 days ago  ·  link  ·  

About the loudness, don't worry! The hall may appear packed or even cramped when it's full, but somehow the acoustic space is vast and sound really travels. What I meant was that you can play very, very delicately (as you may need to) and it will still be audible for everyone in the back. I say that because I personally used to panic a bit about playing too softly or loudly during performances, whatever.

The nocturne requires twice the patience, good luck ;)

demure  ·  3658 days ago  ·  link  ·  

oh that's good to hear.

user-inactivated  ·  3658 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Damn, that's interesting.

demure  ·  3657 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Uploaded me.

nowaypablo  ·  3657 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Woo!!!