Piano

While I have not taken lessons for a few years now, I have not ceased to play. I'm not progressing as I should, because what I enjoy is to get the hardest piece I can find and play what I can of it... Unfortunately this doesn't lead to me advancing in the field very much.

Most recently, my song list has been as follows: (No particular order)

* Only part(s) of song

Sergei Rachmaninov: Prelude in C# minor

This song is quite fun to play. While I haven't quite made it through the first part, due to the "down cascade" run, but it's really because I haven't given it enough practice. The middle section is great and I can complete it, albeit with "stuttering", followed by the first two phrases of the final part. This last section is rediculously fun because it's in ffff and each hand has a double staff!

Free sheet music download: PDF - 225KB (Piece is in public domain)

Franz Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2

This is a song I have been with for years. I first encountered it undoubtedly in Looney Toons as a child, and it has always stuck with me! I really love this song, and thus naturally attempted it at a very early age. Poking around with this piece was really a factor in my coming-to-understand of things such as double sharps, ossia etc. - things I would not have learned taking lessons for years.

I can play the beginning easily enough, up until measure 24, where the first fast-fingery section appears. Mostly I play around with the Friska section, the latter half of the piece. This part is what most people will recognize.

Free sheet music download: PDF - 1.03MB (Piece is in public domain)

Frédéric Chopin: Ballade No. 1 in G minor

This is another of one of my all-time favorite piano pieces. I first discovered this one when listening to the soundtrack from the Roman Polanski film The Pianist. I actually receieved the soundtrack on CD a few years before I saw the film, and thus was quite disappointed when the cut so much from Ballade No. 1 - my favorite one of the lot!

This is a beautiful piece: It's very expressive, but also quite playable. My favorite section that I can play is the Meno mosso up until when the chords start getting ugly.

Free sheet music download: PDF - 795KB (Piece is in public domain)

Billy Joel: Root Beer Rag

Coldplay: Amsterdam

Phillip Glass: Metamorphosis One

Yann Tiersen: "Comptine D'un Autre Ete: L'apres Midi"

Here is a song I have actually recorded! My laptop (part of my micro music studio) has major problems with recording/playback, so it was very quiet and I had to amplify. Hence the artifically low S:N ratio.

Free audio download: MP3 - 2.01MB