We’re into the last three teaching weeks of the school year; final marking is nearly done, and I’m looking forward to a bit more time at the piano.
🎧 YouTube – Beethoven Literally Used Four Chords to Write Für Elise
YouTube analysis channels can be a goldmine. Jazz pianist Charles Cornell – co-founder of Better Piano and author of Jazz Piano Improv – has a terrific breakdown of Für Elise. He looks at the key (A minor), the 3/8 time signature (so it doesn’t feel like a waltz), and the chord movement from A minor–E and then C–G. It’s almost note-by-note, showing how harmony and melody fit together rather than just listing Roman numerals. If you’re learning the piece, it’s a great way to go beyond “just remembering the notes”.
📺 Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-W8VbPgpkU
📝 Essay – Unexpected Benefits
You’d think the main benefit of learning piano would simply be playing piano. In practice, it’s opened far more doors.
Learning has also reconnected me with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra: spotting names like Daniil Trifonov, Sir Stephen Hough and Nobuyuki Tsujii on the program nudged me into a subscription, pre-concert talks, and a deeper understanding of composers and form. A music episode of The Rest is History podcast has slipped into my regular listening too.
All of this has brought more concerts, more conversations in foyers and festival tents, and more chances to meet like-minded people than I expected when I first walked into a piano shop.
🎼 Review – Chopin: Complete Preludes, Nocturnes and Waltzes (Schirmer)
Another “aspirational” purchase: Chopin – Complete Preludes, Nocturnes and Waltzes (Schirmer Vol. 2056). I can’t yet play most of it, but the A-major Prelude Op. 28 No. 7 is firmly on the “soon” list. The edition is edited by Rafael Joseffy, a 19th-century Hungarian-born Chopin specialist, who also provides fingering.
The book includes a brief introduction plus 26 Preludes, 21 Nocturnes and 19 Waltzes. The engraving is from older plates but clean and readable; at 248 pages it’s a chunky perfect-bound volume that will stay open with a little encouragement. For 66 pieces, AU$48.95 from Music Junction feels like good value.
Links:
🎹 Progress
Practice continues on Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata – still not as even as I’d like, but improving – and Wynn-Anne Rossi’s A Wild Chase, now mostly from memory, with the drum machine back on the piano to rebui
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