Christmas Concert

As promised, here is your Christmas concert.

Funny thing about these videos, I can play these songs all day long, but as soon as I turn on the camera, I start messing up.  You wouldn't think I'd be so nervous playing by myself in my living room, but there it is.

First up:  Jolly Old St. Nicholas



Next we have that old favorite:  Joy To The World



Now, the thing about this one, I had been working on a different arrangement of this carol.  After spending several weeks learning it, I decided I just didn't like that arrangement.  I found this one in one of my other books.  It's a bit simpler, but makes so much more sense.



And no Christmas concert would be complete without my Mammaw's favorite carol:  Silent Night.




There you have it.  My little gift to you.  I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, and I'll see you later. 

Piano Recital #2

It's that time again, folks.

It's been four months today since my keyboard arrived, so I thought I'd give you another little recital to update you on my progress. 

Again, I'll have to ask you to excuse the poor sound quality.  One of these days, I'm going to get a new -- better -- camera, but for now, you have to put up with this.  And the background noise.  I think one of these has the dryer buzzer going off in the background.  I remember hearing it, but I don't know if the camera captured it or not.  No matter.  It's life. 

So, without further ado, my first song is the French folk classic Alouette.



For my second number, I'll be playing the old Irish folk song, Cockles And Mussels.



And finally, as always, I end my recital with this one, which needs no explanation.



Now that my Fall recital is behind me, I'm going to begin working up a little Christmas concert for you. 

Hey, you'll have something to look forward to! 

Piano Recital

When I was a kid, I took piano lessons for a year.

And when I say a year, mean a school year, so it was really 9 months, or so.

By and by, recital time came around and my teacher began preparing her students for said recital.  Now, there was this one piece she had me learning called Our School Band.  I still remember it -- mainly because I hated that piece with a passion.

And when I say with a passion, I mean the passion of all the fires of a thousand volcanoes.

I seriously hated that song.  I don't know why.  It didn't even have any words, but I still hated it.  Guess which one Mrs. D chose for me to play at the recital?  Yep, that horrible song.  I told her I hated the song and didn't want to play it.  I begged her to let me play something else.  I said I'd be too embarrassed to play that song.

She said, "Embarrassed?  Why would you be embarrassed?  There's nothing wrong with that song, and you're going to play it."  She also had me playing two other songs, and to this day, I don't understand why I had to play all three.  Surely, two songs were enough, especially when one of them was Parade of The Tin Soldiers by Leon Jessel, played as a duet with the teacher.  But nooooo.

Finally, the big day arrived, and we had a rehearsal that afternoon, before the actual recital.  When it was my turn to practice, everything seemed to go well.  Until...I got to that horrible Our School Band song.  Oh, how I hated that song, but I was up there gamely banging my way through it, when I heard laughter.  It came from a group of girls, other students, waiting their turn to rehearse.  They laughed and laughed through the whole song.  I was convinced they were laughing at me having to play that song.

My mother insisted they were laughing at my younger brother, and not me, but I wasn't having it.  That night, I flat out refused to go to the recital.  By the next year, my mother had cancelled my lessons.  When school started back the following August, I hadn't yet gotten into the routine of things.  I kept forgetting which day my piano lesson was on, and would walk home from school instead of to the teacher's house.  My mother was furious, claiming I was being defiant and refusing to go to my lessons.  I tried to tell her I wasn't forgetting on purpose, but she wouldn't listen.   She said she wasn't going to fight me on this, and she stopped my lessons.

Thus, I have never been to a piano recital.

I've always regretted not continuing with my piano lessons, and if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you'll know that listening to The Piano Guys has inspired me to take it up again.  I cashed in my iBotta savings and bought myself a keyboard.

Today, I've had my keyboard (which I call my piano, even though it's technically not) for exactly two months, so I thought I'd invite you to my own little recital, so you can see how I'm progressing.

*Please ignore the crappy sound quality.  I'm afraid it's going to be that way for a while, until I can save up for a better camera -- or until Cody comes home and can film me on my phone.

For my first piece, I'd like to play a song from Alfred's All-In-One Course.  This song is called The Cuckoo.



This next song doesn't have a title.  I guess it's really a technical exercise, but I liked it.  I hope you do, too.



And finally, I will end my recital with this one.  No explanation is necessary.

I will say, however, it isn't in my piano course book.  I downloaded the sheet music, and truthfully, I haven't even learned some of these notes, which is why I'm playing so slowly.



Thank you for attending my little recital.  I hope you enjoyed it.

P.S.  Be kind.  I have only been playing for two months, after all.