No New Piano Technique Evaluations?

It has been quite some time since anyone posted anything here, and I am beginning to wonder if I am too honest. Is nobody sending a video of themselves because of fear that I will tear a strip off their technique? I am interested to know this really - it is a serious question! AFF

Maybe because of youtube and malicious comments.But i believe there is a way to upload a private video or something like that!? If you would like to upload videos for evaluation on a specialized site/place, i think i can help there.Let me know, and i will get us our youtube clone then. Jovan

I truly value your posts and really think you never say anything to demeanor or hurt anyone, your comments are always very clear and insightful, I'm actually preparing a video myself so you could tell me what you think. Please don't discontinue this section of the forum, it really helps us a lot and it's greatly appreciated!

I myself just look forward to post my own playing. Only that I'm still living oversea with only an eletronic piano (one with a hammer action touch but not very good sound) with me. I expect it to be critized bitterly, since when I first videotaped my playing, I was amazed by how inefficient my motion was even in the passages that I believe I'm doing well. Things look so different from the side view...... I only got a sense that my motion's inefficient, though, and even if I try to correct it slowly, I encounter some difficulties.

Hey Alvin, I guess you didn't see some of the other video posts, one guy played the Moonlight Sonata on a Clavinova! And it was fine, you could see what he was doing well, what he was doing not so well, evaluate it and criticize no problem, it was all perfectly clear even on the electric instrument. So don't worry, just do it! We'd love to see just what it is you're talking about... AFF

How very frivolous ':x' to put emoto-faces on a high-minded web site such as this one!! ':lol:' I love it--makes me feel comfortable and welcomed. Now a response, Alan, to your post about no one posting videos for evaluation. I hope this forum will still be available when I am ready for it, or that there will be another way to get your diagnostics and guidance. I just learned about you and your site yesterday. I've ordered your DVD. Before I post any video of me at the keyboard, I want to see if studying the DVD might equip me to ask the right questions and present appropriate examples of my technical problems. I am hopeful that I can be helped. I'll say up front that I am not much interested in being critiqued by other amateurs. And, I won't critique others. There are a number of forums where amateurs critique and judge and evaluate each other. I have avoided those after visiting a couple. I am excited finally to find a site that offers guidance by a master teacher. Gee, does that sound mean? ':evil:' Let me be clear. Amateur is not a bad word to me. I mean it in the sense of one who does music for the love of it and not as a profession. Certainly, sometimes we amateurs can help each other. But, I join this forum for YOUR help. I expect my comments about other forum members should be limited to encouragement or an occasional question, and I welcome the same from them. (And I promise not to be so long-winded in the future.) I am appreciating your master class vids on youtube. I guess I'm lucky no one ever told me to relax my hands. On the other extreme, some teachers did try to get my hand into more of a claw shape, but I resisted--it just didn't feel right, and maybe I was lazy. JIM

Welcome Jim! 1) Maybe they just didn't explain "the claw" in a way that might have empowered you. As I write in my book, I myself at first misunderstood it and only after many years did I begin to get the hang of it - how to do it in a functional way... 2) You can always learn from an "amateur's" evaluation - often it's not that their advice is good but it shows where they're at, what their understanding is and where are the missing holes in their perception. Thus even though I agree with you that for the most part I haven't the patience to wade through the copious "amateur evaluations" on some of these other sites, they do serve this positive purpose: to engage in dialogue and through mutual investigation arrive at a clearer picture for all... It might be interesting to have one video post from you BEFORE you read the book and watch the DVD - so we could possibly measure the "before-after" effect?? Greetings, AFF

Thanks for your response. 2) My preemptive strike against demeaning and useless feedback from other learners was premature. After I wrote it, I read some insightful comments and questions by some sojourners on Craft of Piano forums. I will keep an open mind in that regard. On other sites, I have seen pointlessly demeaning criticisms and name-calling and other juvenile behaviors that will not appear on this site, I am certain. I am especially pleased to see that, as master teacher, you are a sojourner as well--that you continue to discover, to discard error, and to perpetually improve your approach. Yes. My strategy includes recording some bits before I study the DVD and even before I continue viewing the master classes, because just the demo and the first few master class sessions have already influenced my thinking.