Merry Christmas!

[49410enrique]

1 well not yet anyways but just curious who usually learns holiday repertoire?

2 are you already?

3 if so for how long?

4 what are you learning?

mainly ask since for as long as i can remember usually October 1st or so is the latest i'll wait to start looking at holiday music (probably stems for my early years in the method books where one of my teacher's would normally transition us to the christmas collection of whatever level we were on around this time until the end of the term).

1. yes

2. yes

3. early May (i know seems a bit much but one of them is quite a leap for me and very difficult, i also knew i woudl have a very busy summer and fall so i needed to get prelim work started as early as possible)

4. a percy grainger paraphrase on tchaikovsky's flower waltz (which i will perform when it's ready, so if i just need more time, i'll just not do it in december and play it early 2013, no big deal, it's traditionally heard at christmas time but not a christmas piece per say so im not going to get spun up about it if i don't make the deadline, mainly since it is such a difficult and time intensive term academics wise),

also a couple of pieces a charlie brown christmas/peanuts ('the christmas song/aka chestnuts roasing on an open fire' and "christmas time is here'), and the reinecke op 251 no 3 weinhacts sonatina 'aka christmas sonatina') so far at least.

[chopin2015]

Good idea! I would like to learn some jazzy christmas tunes to play during the holidays. Oh, it's already October 

[49410enrique]

Good idea! I would like to learn some jazzy christmas tunes to play during the holidays. Oh, it's already October 

you totally should at least work up a few, doesn't have to be anything super difficult...i really hope people post some Christmas music in the audition room as we get closer to the holidays.

i dread and will mourn the loss of my 'hour of sunshine' when we switch to the new time next month but at least we get Christmas as part of the deal.  i love it about as much as i love thanksgiving (which i'll leave at that as I think it totally gets the shaft as far as holidays go, its one of my favorites and people just see it as stepping stone to christmas, we should totally have thanksgiving carols! ....*goes of into the interwebs to see if such animals exist...)

[hfmadopter]

Yesterday I had a root canal done on one of my teeth and tonight I am so tired my piano is just banging back at me instead of sounding like music, just ringing in my ears even with the top down. But none the less, yes, I am and yes I have been etc. putting together a bit of a Christmas program. My final selections are not complete but I am working on a couple of solid choices thus far.

As this thread evolves I'll solidify my choices and post them.

Tonight I don't want to think about it, in fact I think I'm going to bed now, 7:03 PM !

[chopin2015]

Interesting! I would totally like to rock out with some holiday music for the holidays! Perhaps the Bach! Which ones are you working on? I've always enjoyed jazzing up some tunes too, so maybe I will do that as an exercise, eh? Nice post!

Also, Halloween is first....I will totally improv on that(hopefully)

[j_menz]

1. No  2. No. 3. Never 4. Nothing

Oh, and bah! humbug! 

[49410enrique]

1. No  2. No. 3. Never 4. Nothing

Oh, and bah! humbug! 

[j_menz]

Who has been filming me on the sly?!  C'mon. Fess up!

[hfmadopter]

Ok so my daughter some time ago asked for jingle Bells at my little Christmas performance, something I was not interested in doing. I'm including that now, I was working on it last night. I've decided to make it a morphing Jingle Bells, starting off traditional simulated sleigh ride bells intro then one time through normally, moving to long arpeggios and a rhythm change to give it a new age feel with a little syc change and ending with the simulated sleigh ride bells trailing off.

More to come.

[49410enrique]

am still looking and reviewing some works out of this, im looking for chances to find lots of good 'sounding' music that is not neccessarily going to take a ton of prep, i didn't say 'any prep' but would like to be able to get a decent amount under my fingers with score reading so i can just enjoy playing and listening as we get closer in addition to maybe going to a few places with 'public' pianos and playing a short set, maby 15-20 minutes of music, some of the hopsitals around here have some pianos, i like playing on those from time to time.

truth be told i have a TON of great christmas music, both original, traditional, and super way cool arrangements but many are 'concert' quality type stuff of sufficient advanced technical demands that they would need a substantial time commitment many months out to prep so perhaps next year on those, so far many of these in this album have a nice blend of sound/challenge relative to 'ease' of reading once you get very familiar with some of the complex chords and keveren composes in a 'classical' style, that is his arrangemnts are not pop/chord symbol improv style but to be played as written so it all must be 'read'...

[costicina]

Ok, Enrique, you are as always very motivating!
Reading your thread I've decided instantly to learn a not too difficult piece (along with another much more demanding one) to celebrate Christmas and my birthday (I was born on December 24  ). For reasons too  long and too boring to explain, that  piece will be Rachmaninov's Elegie op 3 n 1. Not a jolly music, I know, but around Christmas I tend to get very depressed.
Besides, it will be a kind of Funeral march to my harmful yet beloved habit of smoking: yes, I'm painfully quitting !!!

 

[starstruck5]

If I was giving a recital I suppose I would take about ten trad carols and write a variation to each -ending in -We Wish You A Merry Xmas -but I make Scrooge look like a Xmas elf -tis a season to ignore completely as far as I am concerned -

[stoudemirestat]

Liszt's charming Christmas Tree suite. It contains arrangements of traditional Christmas tunes as well as some delightful, fully original numbers.

[49410enrique]

Liszt's charming Christmas Tree suite. It contains arrangements of traditional Christmas tunes as well as some delightful, fully original numbers.

wow! how long is it taking you to learn this and will you perform it publically or are you studying it just for yourself?

[outin]

Besides, it will be a kind of Funeral march to my harmful yet beloved habit of smoking: yes, I'm painfully quitting !!!

 

You can do it, I did!
Just play the piano every time you feel for a smoke and make sure the piece requires both hands so there's no way you could light a cigarette

[costicina]

and make sure the piece requires both hands so there's no way you could light a cigarette

...there are the breaks between sessions that worry me the most  ...
but sure I'll do it!!!!