Hi, I'm writing from Italy
I'm 16 years old and my name is Daniel
I attend the Gioacchino Rossini Conservatory and my grade is ... uhmm ... well, it's not easy to tell what grade I am according to ABRSM graduation or other examination bodies in UK and US since they're so different from Italian graduation system
I'm studying Cramer etudes, Mozart sonata K 283, Schubert Impromptu n.3 and English Suites
I don't know what grade is this in US or UK
It's 5 grades out of 10 here in Italy; grade 6 would be Gradus ad Parnassum, Well Tempered Clavier, Three Parts Invetions and more complex sonatas
I live in the countryside and it takes me 1 hour of bus to reach my school
Practicing at the piano is a solitary activity
I've always had this idea that it can become a less solitary activity by sharing your practicing pieces with a friend and let him/her analyze, try, give suggestion about the pieces you're practicing and viceversa
It's not like practicing together but it gives the idea that you're less alone
Unfortunately living so far from the city I can't do this with my classmates and many of them doesn't have a computer or especially access to the web
So I wonder if someone here at the same grade I am at would like to "practice with me"
This mean sharing pieces so that I can try to play other's pieces and one can try to play mines
In this way if there something to play attention to in that piece and it was not noticed by the first person the "practice-buddy" can instead notice it and helping the other one in finishing the piece sooner or practicing it better
I tried it one day to do this with a friend and it worked
As for my piece he told me the way he would practice those damned 16th notes and it worked and as for his piece I suggested him a way of practicing those damned octaves in the left hand and it worked
Living in Italy we have to study on book written by italian teachers that no one outside of Italy would ever be able to buy or read and I think it's the same for you in France, Netherlands, Canada and so on
So it would be also a cultural interchange as my practice buddy would have the chance to see how our nation use to teach music and its unique cultural piano method
I don't think copyright would be an issue
First of all many pieces are public with no copyright (Czerny and Cramer etudes, almost all the sonatas, Bach works and others) and then all the national exercises book (such as Italian Longo, Pozzoli, Marciano, Mannino and others) are not sold ouside of Italy and therefore they don't lose money by letting someone in a foreign country read a study of them (and we're talking about a study of two pages not a whole book)
Copying a whole book for an Italian student so that he doesn't need to buy it would be unfair but I don't think scanning two pages out of a book of 200 and sharing them with a foreign friend who would not have buyed that two pages would be an issue
Deleting the material after viewing and studying would resolve all the "marketing-ethical" problems since you don't posses them
Anyway sharing few pages with a friends is a not issue ihmo, my piano teacher agree and he agree with me that this "practcing together by sharing pieces and give suggestions about the piece the other friend is studying" is a good idea for self improving (expecially now in summer that school are closed and we have to self-teach ourselves)
Let me know what do you think
If you don't live in Italy, are at my same piano grade
and own a scanner you can be my practice-buddy for this summer ... and since I may be good in one aspect of playing piano but weak at another aspect and it is likely that you're instead good at that aspect that it's my weakness and viceversa we may improve by supporting each other
Let me know if you're interested and I'll give you my email
Anyway, this forum is cool !!!!!!!
Thanks to everyone
Daniel
Topic: Practicing toghether