Saturday, December 28, 2013

Concluding 2013

Hello everyone!

I hope everyone had an awesome 2013 as we'll be welcoming 2014 in a few days! I'm so excited for next year as I would get more opportunities to play chamber music and tackle a vast repertoire, playing challenging pieces by Haydn , Beethoven and Mozart etc. Also, I wish to master a few of those pieces on my < To-play list> because apparently I've only completed 1 out of the 13 pieces listed.!

Recently, I've been listening to a lot of Haydn's Piano sonata. I'm not exposed to his works considering the fact that I've only played 1 of his piano sonata and 1 piano trio. I would like to recommend Sonata in E-flat and Sonata in F  .

Apart from practising piano, I'm now reading <The Fault In Our Stars> by John Green. It is an excellent book. No wonder it is a New York Times best seller. Another thing that I'm working on is getting my Scorpion a.k.a a Needle in dance, I will definitely post a photo somewhere once I've achieved it! :)

~Criserl

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Happy Early Christmas!

I'm wishing you all an early Merry Christmas!! Wishing you all love, peace, and a good time with your families. :)

In the upcoming year, I really plan on finishing a lot of the pieces I never learned this year, and that will be my main goal for 2014. Mainly, the pieces I want to have finished are Ballade No.1 by Chopin and Tempest Sonata Third Movement, and also a few songs from movie soundtracks. I will probably try to only work on learning two pieces at a time, probably one being classical and the other modern. More original compositions will be uploaded as well. :D

Sorry for not uploading anything. The camera really gives me problems... I hope to be getting one for Christmas, or maybe afterwards. Then I'll have no excuse for not uploading anything.

Lately, what I've really been working on is sight reading. I've noticed already a lot of improvement this past week. Today I was focusing on the Time Travel Theme from Secret. I still have two pages to work through on that. I hope to be able to read music very quickly by the end of next year. :)

Oh, and for the Christmas music I was supposed to record, be expecting that around the New Year or a little after that... Haha.

Anyway, have a Merry Christmas. God bless. :)

Viviana.

Saturday, November 30, 2013

December News : Criserl

Hello!

I'll be performing a concerto on Christmas Eve 24th of December. There will be 2 different sets of concertos performed by my friends and I. Some of my friends will perform Beethoven Concerto No.3 while others together with me will be performing Mozart Concerto No.27 . I'm assigned the 1st movement and we will be playing with an accompanist on piano. I'm so excited!!

I'll definitely upload the performance on to YT! :D

Also, as promised , here is my recording of Debussy on YT :)




If you would like to see me play it live, it has been uploaded on Keek!




Love,
Criserl

Monday, November 18, 2013

Criserl : Update

Hello!

Today, I would first like to wish Viviana a Happy Birthday in advance as I will not be in Singapore after tomorrow. After tonight's concert I'll be flying to Vietnam to attend a music event with my family and friends, so I would like to wish Viviana an early Happy Birthday! :D

I haven't been practicing the piano often due to concert preparations , but I hope to upload a new video soon!


Love,
Criserl

P.S I can't wait for Christmas to come! I set up the Christmas Tree last night !

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

A clip of Ballade No. 1 by Chopin! (plus news on what I'll be learning for Christmas)

Hi! Here is a clip me playing Chopin's Ballade No. 1.



As you can see, there's still some parts I need to work on and perfect. :)  


For Christmas music, I'm planning on learning Silent Night, O Holy Night, O Come O Come Emmanuel, and maybe a few others. I will start recording them towards the end of November.


More music will be coming soon, especially those original compositions!!!

By the way, have any of you seen The Book Thief movie yet? I haven't, but I plan on seeing it very soon. From what I can tell, the music sounds great. John Williams can surely always be trusted to compose a beautiful soundtrack. :D

Until next time,
Viviana.

Friday, October 25, 2013

Criserl : New upload!

Hello everyone!

Finally, I found time to make a new video and blog. I have just finished one week of intensive examinations and there is a week break before the next few papers. So, I decided to make a video :)




This is the first ever Haydn Sonata I've ever played. This piece is actually quite technically demanding due to the frequent turns and trills in the 1st movement. Before this recording, I did try for an hour a week ago to record, but I didn't manage to get a satisfactory recording.

I used to listen to Richter play this piece and I thought his playing was perfect! In this recording, I chose to not use any pedals throughout as firstly, there are no pedal markings for this piece in my scores and secondly, I do believe that Haydn would prefer this piece on the dry side to draw the emphasis on those ornaments - the turns and trills rather than having the lines all muddy and unclear.

I was taught that Haydn was a guy full of humor so, I tried to add my own interpretation to make this piece sound fun and not just the usually sonata. Also, I skipped the repeat section as if I had repeated the piece it would be about 6 mins and it would take a long time to get it on YouTube, considering the fact that it took me 40 mins to upload this :X

Again, this time there were mistakes in the editing process as towards the end, the credits section should have been removed but my friend who helped me edited this forgot to remove it. Sorry about that.

I hope you enjoy listening to my playing.
Do come back for more updates,
Love,
Criserl

Thursday, October 10, 2013

New Uploads! ~ Viviana

Hello, finally got around to recording! I re-uploaded The Love in Us, and for sure that will be the last recording of it. It is dedicated to my little sister Katia who loves this piece so much. :)





Since I had never recorded Indescribable, I finally did today. :D   There is a note missing at the part where the video was cut (that was due to the fact that the camera turned off).



I may not be posting too much on here for a little while, but at least twice a month. I will record my original compositions very soon. :)

~Viviana

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

October 1st, 2013

Hey everyone!!! I will be uploading soon!!!!!! I just completed two original compositions, and I will be recording them soon.

Not too much news as for learning pieces. I will be having to work on one piece from Debussy's Children's Corner in December, as Criserl and I were requested by a fan. I haven't chosen yet what to learn, so what is your opinion? I'd love to hear ideas for that. :)

I'm going to be uploading Indescribable by Emily Bear, since I have never uploaded it before. I may also record Northern Lights and I would like to re-record The Love in Us (I've never gotten a good recording of that). I have to finish up Italia soon, and then I will also have to finish Final Journey (I don't have the sheets for that, so I'll have to do it by ear). :D

In November I will start practicing Christmas songs and will record them starting around Thanksgiving. (My birthday will also be around that time!!! :D )  Give me some songs that I should learn!! :D



Thank you all for always reading!

Viviana

Monday, September 9, 2013

Re-Uploaded Video: The Fate of Himmel Street. Played on tuned piano!!

Hello! Summer is almost over, and so school has begun for me... Of course, I'm happy about that. :)

I finally got the piano tuned. The piano tuner said that it probably hadn't been tuned in 20-30 years, and now it sounds a ton better. The keys also have a lighter touch to it. I'm so happy it's finally tuned! All my recordings should sound better now. :D  

I re-recorded The Fate of Himmel Street and I'm going to re-upload some other pieces as well.


I actually just found out last week that The Book Thief movie is coming out November 15th, and I'm happy to know that the composer is none other than John Williams! I'm hoping to go see the movie on my birthday. :)


I'm planning on recording an improvisation soon, that will be off of Sad Romance/Sad Violin by Thao Nguygen Xanh. The camera has been giving me a hard time, but I would like to have it recorded by at least the end of this week. What other pieces should I do improvs based on?

Today while I was studying, I was listening to a playlist of Chopin Nocturnes. They sure are really relaxing, and each one has a different emotion possessed in it. I would love to learn to compose like Chopin! And of course like Beethoven... :D

Recently, I've been enjoying listening to movie soundtracks. My favorite soundtracks are Schindler's List, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Lord of the Rings. What soundtracks would you recommend?

I will be recording some compositions soon, but they don't have names... Sometimes it's kind of hard coming up with the names. The only one that was easy to come up with from the start was The Fate of Himmel Street. Usually I just name a composition based on what was on my mind when first composing the piece, or what the piece reminds me of.

I think I will return to learning Emily Bear's music (but I'll still be learning the Tempest Sonata along with it). Italia is more than half-way finished, so I guess I'll start with that. Northern Lights is fairly easy and not too complicated, and that will be finished soon as well.

Thanks for reading. :)

~Viviana

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Back from a little time off! :D

Hey y'all! I'm back! I took a break from posting on here and uploading videos due to some construction going on at my house. But I'll be posting on here regularly again. :)

My Mom just told me the other day that I can have my piano tuned within 2 weeks from now. I'm excited! We just have to call the tuner to schedule a date. :D 

Once the piano is tuned, I will be re-uploading some pieces. What would you like me to re-upload? I'm planning on probably re-uploading my original compositions The Fate of Himmel Street and September Breeze. Any other suggestions?

I've memorized the first 4 pages of the Tempest Sonata 3rd Movement! Last week I was caught up with a few things and didn't learn too much from the 5th page, but I will be learning more of it this week. :)

After I'm done with the Tempest Sonata, I will once again work on Emily Bear's pieces from Diversity. The first two I will upload will most likely be Peralada and Italia.

A few months ago I asked you all what I should learn next, and Debussy seemed to be the answer. Since I have to upload a special video in December, I will do either Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum or The Snow is Dancing. Which one do you think is best?

As always, thank you all for your support. :)

Until next time,

Viviana.


Monday, July 29, 2013

New upload! Moonlight Sonata! - Viviana

Bonjour! Today I got the chance to film Moonlight Sonata. I was always afraid to film it because it's so long, and can be hard to get right. Thankfully, mostly everything went fine with the filming. I had to play on the keyboard so that all the lower keys would sound alright. I hope you all enjoy it!


I'm also thinking of filming about a minute or less of Peralada. Do you think it's a good idea?

I've been working all day on Tempest Sonata. I like to go by sections and perfect it before moving on to the next part, which is probably why sometimes it takes a while to finish a piece. I like to record when I feel the recording will go well enough, and that I know the piece really well by memory (which is how I remember all the pieces I play. None are ever read off of the sheet music).

I also have some original compositions that need to be filmed and also need to be named... Let's see when I can get around to that...

Like I said in the previous post, I may not blog and/or upload during the month of August. I may get the chance to do either after 6:00 at night, so hopefully that will be the case. :)

-Viviana



My new blog: http://talesfromthejourneyofmylife.blogspot.com/

Saturday, July 27, 2013

An Update!


Hello everyone! If you haven't already seen, here is Invention 8.

According to someone on YouTube, I made "quite a few mistakes." Obviously I knew that. Bach is pretty hard to record well. But at a later date I will re-upload a lot of videos.

For the month of August, I may not record anything. We are having some construction done in our house, so that may not give me any time to practice piano until 6:00 at night.

I really appreciate all of you who have supported Criserl and I through thick and thin! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! I can never tell you how much I appreciate every single view! :D

I recently was pondering thoughts about having a musical career when I'm older, and realized that I probably will not do so. I mean, I love music so much, but to do it as a career would be very hard. I already have many critics, so I don't want to even imagine how it would be if I were a well-known pianist. Plus I just probably would like to keep music as a side type of job/hobby. I'm going to be starting the 3rd year of high school this year, and I'll have to be thinking about colleges and such soon.... :)


I am not really sure what to be doing with music right now. It's summer and I get busy or sidetracked by other things, and haven't been practicing music like I did before. The only pieces I've even been REALLY working on are Peralada and the 3rd Movement of the Tempest Sonata. By the end of August I will probably put together a list of what pieces I will need to complete and finish them.

Once again, thank you all for putting up with my ever-changing schedule of music. :)  You all mean so much to me!


-Viviana



p.s. I started a new blog about everyday things. Here's the link: "Tales from the Journey Through Life"   :)

Friday, July 26, 2013

Criserl's first anniversary on A Pianist's Life !!

Hello!

As the title says , it has been one since I started to post on the blog. I'm really happy to be able to blog here and work with Viviana. I've also met a lot of supportive fans through this blog. :)

So this upload is dedicated to all my viewers on this blog!



As Handel was one of the composers of the Baroque period so I tried to mimic the sound of a Harpsicord by playing the notes in a detached manner.

Here is another of my recent upload :




 This was the Jazz piece that I had mention :) I find it's rhythm and chords beautiful and really nice to play :)

For those who are interested, I'm actually learning Gershwin Prelude No.1 and Beethoven Sonatina Op.49 No.2 Mvt.2 . Actually Beethoven was not one of the pieces in the list to be played this year, it was actually more Kuhlau sonatina but since many gave feedback about my limited repertoire for Beethoven and Mozart, my teacher decided to assign me with some Beethoven music!

Love,
Criserl

Saturday, July 13, 2013

A quick update : Criserl

Hello everyone!

I know that a lot of you are asking me to blog and upload more videos like I did last year, where I blog almost every week but due to my busy schedule now, I can only blog once or twice a month. I've quite a lot to share today.

Firstly, I've just learned and memorised Bach's Fugue No.1 from Well-Tempered Clavier Book I . It is a really long fugue but I love it as it has beautiful voices. I'll be doing a Piano Demonstration and this Fugue will be one of the piece that I'll be playing together with other famous classical piece. For more information visit : http://criserlpiano.webs.com/upcoming-events 

Secondly, Keek has a Discover Me Challenge. #DiscoverMe So, please support me by listening to it. I chose to play Chopin Grand Valse Brillante as it was the piece that I started with for my YouTube Channel.







Lastly, 27 of July would be my first anniversary on this blog and I'll be uploading videos! Yay! :)


Monday, July 1, 2013

New Upload! -Viviana

Hey guys! I finally uploaded Waltz in C Sharp Minor! Just so you all know, I do realize I could've played better, and I promise to re-upload this when I get my piano tuned which will be VERY soon. I was a little nervous when I played, so I messed up. As you can see, I had to cut the first video, and then film a second one to make the piece complete. Hopefully you all can at least find a little enjoyment while listening to this piece. For the time being, I might film a version of this piece on the keyboard to put on public for YouTube (since this one is on unlisted), as the keyboard doesn't have to be tuned. :)



I will also be uploading some original compositions soon. :)

Until next time,
Viviana.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Criserl : Videos from the recording session

Hi!

I've embedded all the videos that are on YouTube from the recording session :)

I had lots of fun and learned a lot , you can read all about it here : JJCOify Recording Session
Feel free to give me suggestions/comments. :)





Another Debussy piece is actually online but it is unlisted so happy finding! :P


Some are asking if I'll upload the Happy Song, I wish I could but I can't as my friend don't want it on YouTube, so I'll respect her decision.

Love,
Criserl



Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Viviana's Update for June!

Hello! I plan to film a few videos very soon. Sadly, I cannot film it with my piano, so I shall have to film it with the keyboard. :(  I hope you all will not mind that...  So the videos I will film are the following: Chopin's Waltz in C Sharp Minor, Invention 8 by Bach, Italia by Emily Bear (it should be finished very soon), and a few original compositions.

I received Diversity a few weeks ago and worked on some pieces for the first two weeks. This past week I did not play piano much, and then I became ill. Today was the first time in three days that I got the chance to practice piano. The pieces I have been working on from the Diversity songbook are Peralada, Q, Italia, and Diversity.

I have recently been apart of many interesting things, including Irish step dancing and helping out with a children's musical. I have been enjoying both tremendously. :)

What are some things you would like to see added to the blog? I would appreciate any ideas you all may have in helping me improve the blog. Also, I would be quite obliged to any of those who share this blog. :) 

I have some pieces to finish learning, and I was wondering which ones you all would like me to learn at the moment... Here are the pieces to choose from: Tempest Sonata Movement 3 by Beethoven, Claire de Lune by Debussy, Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum by Debussy, or Waltz in A Minor by Chopin.

Thank you all so much for being supportive and reading our blog. It is greatly appreciated. :)

~Viviana

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Preparing for concert - Criserl :)

Hello!

It is Criserl writing here:) Today I don't have piano lesson as my teacher is out of the country so , I've decided to use this time to blog! As the title says, I'm going to share about my concert, apart from the actual performance, another reason why I like concerts is because I get to listen and look though the scores for many many pieces! And I think it is really fun!

As many of my readers on Google+ have known, I've gotten many suggestions for my concert repertoire. My teacher and I just Skype and had a mini discussion of what are the best pieces for my December concert 2013.

My admin just sent me an email after she collated the results. (the number behind ':' represent the number of people who voted for the piece)

Chopin Etude Op.10 No.3 : 5
Beethoven Moonlight Mvt1: 3
Chopin Variations Brilliante : 3
Beethoven Tempest Sonata Mvt. 2 :3
Prokofiev Harp Prelude : 2
Yiruma Kiss the rain : 2
Balakiev 'the lark' :1
Liszt Gnomenreigen :1

Chopin Scherzo No.1: 1
Yiruma River flows in you : 1
Beethoven Moonlight Mvt3 : 1

After the little discussion , we still did not come out with a conclusion but we did eliminate some pieces.
Actually I really like to learn the Prokofiev but my teacher said the brushing of the keys is an entirely new technique and would require quite a lot of practice so she did not recommend that.
In the end , we agreed on Yiruma Kiss The Rain as it was one of the more popular choice with the highest number of votes. And we are now deciding between tempest mvt.2 and etude op.10 no.3 :)



I'll be releasing my December Concert Repertoire very soon.
Criserl :)





Monday, May 27, 2013

I ordered the Diversity songbook!!! - Viviana

Hey everyone! I ordered the Diversity songbook by Emily Bear a few days ago!!! It should be coming in 3 to 6 days from now. I'm excited!!! The pieces will challenge me in techniques I've never done before. :)

I finished Chopin's Waltz in C Sharp Minor last week. At the moment I'm still trying to get it ready to record. I also have to make sure that Invention 8 is ready as well. For the next week or two, I will be finishing Intermezzo by Manuel Maria Ponce. And whenever I get the Diversity songbook, I'll start off with probably Q or Peralada.

As you all can see, we added a To-Play List of pieces page! Those are most of the pieces we hope to learn at some point. When you see a song highlighted in red, that will mean that one of those pieces were completed, and that it will be removed from the list and be put on the repertoire page. :)

Blessings to all,
-Viviana.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

New upload: Criserl

Hi!

Here I would like to share my latest upload,




Do you like it?

I've recently mastered Goodbye and Tutti Cuore by Emily, but all are learned by ear:) I'm not going to upload them on YouTube but maybe you can find them on my Keek :D

I'm currently polishing Bach Courante and the 3 Debussy pieces that I'm going to record with JJCOify.

So see'ya next time,
Love,
Criserl


Thursday, May 16, 2013

Some News and Such... :)

Hey! I'm so glad the weather has been nice here. It had been cold for a while. :)

So I finished Invention 8 yesterday! Right now I'm perfecting it, and I will record it soon. I made a checklist to first finish Invention 8 for this week, then Waltz in C Sharp Minor for next week (I'll have to complete it by next Friday), and Intermezzo by Manuel M. Ponce for May 30th. The recordings of these will not be on the day they need to be completed on, but I'll record them when I feel that it sounds fine. These following videos are ones that I use to try to base my interpretation of the pieces:


On Monday I went to a concert at Merit School of Music in which pianist Christopher O'Reilly played some pieces by Liszt. It was really fun! I think that most of the pieces he played were ones that Liszt had either transcribed by other composers or had made variations of. The music was really dramatic and sounded sooo hard to play. And I thought Beethoven's music was dramatic... 

Before the concert, I got to play on a Yamaha Upright, and its sound was so rich and clear, and perfectly tuned. I'm hoping to be able to go to Merit School of Music for lessons, but I'm not sure that I will. Let's hope that I get that chance. :)



~Viviana

Friday, May 10, 2013

May update : Criserl

Hello!

Firstly, I would like to wish all Mothers a Happy Mother's Day! I'm grateful to receive so much support from my mummy!

May God bless all the Mothers
That give of themselves
And tend to their household needs
Before the needs of ‘self’
For they are there with comfort
For each child’s broken heart,
Bringing them to God in prayer,
With His love to impart.


I've been blogging much recently due to hectic school life etc. So, basically I didn't get a lot of time to practice. I've just uploaded Clementi Sonatina Op.36 No.5 ( excluding the third movement as I didn't have time to record a good version of it ). I've now working on Bach's Courante.

It had been a long time since people give me comments on this site until recently Mr/Mrs anonymous commented on our previous blog post and part of the comment was directed to me. I felt really glad to answer him/her as I could feel his/her sincerity in the comment, as not many gives such a long comment to us.


 
Also, like Viviana , I would like to give a to-play list for this year too!

-Arigatou by Nao Matsushita 
-Haydn Sonata Hob. XVI:35 in C Major
-Chopin Nocturne No.21 in C-Minor Op.Posth
-Mozart Piano Concerto No. 26 in D Major, K. 537, Movement 2

I really hope to get started on my first piano concerto! No.26 is also known as Coronation and is one of Mozarts easiest concerto but of course , Mozart is never easy. :P

Come back again for another video :)

Criserl:)


Thursday, May 2, 2013

Update for May! (Plus a to-play list) - Viviana

Hey!! I haven't posted for a long time... Sorry about that... I just felt I didn't have too much to update you all on. But today I have some things to broadcast about. :)

I've been working very hard on Invention 8, and have about a page left. It's waaayyy harder than it looks. :P  I have two original compositions that I need to film soon, but I'm not so sure what to call them. The waltz...I have a little left and then I'm finished. I kind of lost interest in it, but I do want to finish it soon. It'll be done at least by the end of May. I finally reached 41 subscribers... I hope to reach 100 by the end of this year. For some reason, the stats on my YouTube channel show I have 1,900 video views, but I have a lot more than that...

So here's my to-play list for the summer, fall, and winter of this year! (but I may only do a few of these)

~Intermezzo by Manuel M. Ponce

~Three Part Invention no. 15 in B Minor by Bach

~Doctor ad Gradus Parnassum by Debussy

~Nocturne no. 21 in C Minor by Chopin

~Tempest Sonata, 3rd Movement by Beethoven

~I am the Doctor from Doctor Who

~Fantasy in D Minor by Mozart

~Nocturne Op.48 No.1 by Chopin

~Aquarium by Saint-Saens

~Turkish March by Mozart (the full version though)



What do you all think about Emily Bear's new album that comes out on May 7th? I really like the pieces that are on the album, especially Italia (I like how it's a little more complicated than before) and Diversity. I want to learn the jazz pieces. I've never played any jazz music before...


For the next post, I plan to either upload something or write a post about some of the best original compositions I've heard from people who aren't well-known yet. :D

Until next time,

Viviana.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

April Update!

 Hello!

I'll no longer be using my old google+ account, my my email remains the same. My new google+ account is now connected with my YouTube channel.
Add me here : https://plus.google.com/105900563866939012717/
My old account is now given to my cousin Adela :)

This is my lastest video on YouTube :





You can read more about my recital here : http://criserlpiano.webs.com/apps/blog/show/25426427-beautiful-concert-

Friday, April 5, 2013

Re-uploads and a Snippet of Chopin's Waltz!

Hello! After not uploading any videos for a month, I have uploaded 3! I filmed the first minute of the Waltz in C Sharp Minor, and did two re-uploads, those being Invention 4 by Bach and 23 Free by Emily Bear. Sorry 'bout the piano though... I made some mistakes in the waltz... I hope you still enjoy it either way. :)






I'm so excited for Emily Bear's new CD that comes out next month!! Have any of you gone to her website recently? Previews of the songs on the CD are on there now!! :D

~Viviana~

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

4,000 BLOGGER VIEWS!! YAY!! :D

We've reached 4,000 views here on the blog!!! YAY!!! :D  My goal is to reach 10,000 by the end of 2013!

I'm really close to being done with the waltz, which is exciting for me!! I think it's great to have in my repertoire. :)

I've been composing a little, and what I find strange is that I'm kinda composing in the Spanish style of music... Hahaha. Don't know what that's about...

Twice a year, we do a homeschooling talent show night at my church (not sure when the upcoming one is), and I'd like to do either a trio or duet with some other homeschooling musicians... It seems like fun. :)

One of the next pieces I want to learn is Aquarium from The Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saens. It sounds so dream-like...

For any suggestions or questions you have, you can contact me at vivianapianistgirl21@gmail.com

Au revoir,
Viviana.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Criserl's first anniversary on YouTube!

To celebrate my first anniversary on YouTube, I've uploaded a classical piece - Mignon! My favourite section of this piece is the ending which is played at Presto ( super fast ). I hope you'll like this piece as much as I do!

Thursday, March 21, 2013

New upload-Criserl



Hello!

This piece is called アジアンタムブルー (Adiantum Blue Suite, 1st Mvt.) composed by a Japanese actress, pianist and composer arranged by Tialys86. You can get the sheet music free here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/39298391/Sheet%20Music/At%20Sea%20%28Adiantum%20Blue%20Suite%2C%201st%20Mvt.%29.pdf
This video is choppy and it cuts at certain section because of my horrible camera but surprisingly the audio is still fine so I decided to upload it. :)

26th of March is my 1st anniversary on YouTube, so to celebrate I'll be uploading another video! YAY!

Stay tuned,
Criserl:D

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

An Update!! (since I haven't been posting)

Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't been posting anything... I didn't know what to write...

I hate that moment when I'm trying to practice piano since I hadn't practiced in days, and then I'm forced to stop because no one wants to hear the piano... Exactly why I wish I had my own practice room that was soundproof... :(


Good news though!! Since you all have been waiting for the waltz for a while, it just might be finished soon! I had taken a break from it for a long time, but I resumed learning it last week. I'm on page 3, which means that once I learn that whole page, I'll know the whole piece since it's very repetitive! Of course, I'll want to perfect it and get the piano tuned (yes, still haven't done that. It's not so easy, since I'll have to get the info from a friend), and once that's done I'll be happy!! Besides learning that piece, I've got even further in Final Journey, and it's almost completed! I've got it up to 2:10.




As I had said before, I am going to learn a song from the BBC show Doctor Who, and the song is called "I am the Doctor."



March 9th was the anniversary of me being on YouTube for a year! The first video I posted was Nocturne no. 2 op. 9 by Chopin. I'm hoping to gain more subscribers soon, and I also want to upload more classical music. The next classical piece I want to work on and resume (after I finish some other things) will be Manuel M. Ponce's Intermezzo. I love the fact that it's by a Mexican composer!! :D

Until the next post,

~ Viviana


By the way, I'm thinking I'm going to compose some music for books (well, it'll be like me imagining that the book is becoming a movie, and that I'm the composer). Any suggestions? :)


Monday, March 4, 2013

A part of Final Journey by Emily Bear!

Hi! I filmed a  little of Final Journey. I don't know the whole thing yet... Still working on that. Not all of the notes are correct though. Other than that, I believe I have it in the right pitch. :)



I decided that for a new piece to learn I would try "I am the Doctor" from Doctor Who. It seems like a fun piece. :)

I am going to try composing again!! Maybe I'll use some new techniques...




Saturday, March 2, 2013

Beginning of March Update - Viviana

Hey!! I haven't posted for a while... The reason for that would be 1) the computer wasn't working and 2) I just haven't felt like uploading anything. I haven't really been practicing piano much. Well, not a really good, long practice. I don't know what to play... I want to learn short pieces that are nice and simple.

Like I said, I haven't been learning anything new. I need some ideas, something modern and simple/fast to learn. I don't want to spend a lot of time on one piece, which is why I like to do short pieces. So any ideas? I'd maybe like to try a new modern composer or something like that. Or maybe some more of Emily Bear's music? I don't know... I would like to try making a medley of either Emily's music or mine... What do you all think? I need some new things to try out.

Hopefully I'll try filming an improvisation. Not sure if I'd upload it though, since I don't always do well at improvising... It really depends...

What are some things you'd all like to see (besides the Chopin waltz or anything by classical composers)?
Give me any suggestions or requests, and I'll see if I can fulfill them. :)

Did any of you see the video of Emily on the Katie Couric show? I kind of wish she had a longer interview or got to play more music...

I'm going to take a month off of teaching piano lessons after next week. Maybe then I'll try some new pieces out or something. :D

Should I do weekly polls?

Until next post,
Viviana. :D


Friday, March 1, 2013

A new upload!!

Hello everyone!

I've just uploaded an old video ( recorded in October 2012) of my friend Xin Yu and I playing Cannon In D duet. This is just a short practice video so there are a lot of mistakes and also lots of giggles :)
Subsequently, I performed this piece in December 2012.



Hope you enjoy,
stay tuned for the next video!
Criserl

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Another of Criserl's YouTube video hit a thousand views!

I'm really elated to say that another of my YouTube video has been watch a thousand times! Thank you for those who have been watching it:)



I've now moved on for theory, I'm no longer doing Alto and Tenor clefs. I'm now working on Time Signatures which includes things like simple and compound time etc.

Also, I've started using Keek where users get to post 36 secs of video.I was introduced to Keek by one of my fans Sherry.

Here is an excerpt of me playing Mozart Concerto No.23  by ear which means that I do not have the scores.




Don't forget to follow and subscribe to me on Keek! :)
Stay tuned for more YouTube videos.

~Criserl

Monday, February 18, 2013

Tutti Cuore by Emily Bear - played by Viviana

Hi! I finally filmed Tutti Cuore! It's not perfect (or close to it) but it's okay enough... I got the sheet music from soccer8sarah and you can go to http://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/84ab621557ec5a0dc01683e131868932c6111c3e   for the sheets. :)


  I don't know what to learn anymore... Any suggestions? I have months to learn Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum, so I want to learn some other pieces...

~Viviana~

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Criserl's March Recital

Cood news!

I will have a Recital on the 30th of March. You can find out more about the recital on my website : http://criserlpiano.webs.com/upcoming-events . I'll be performing two pieces :  To a Wild Rose  by Edward Macdowell and Adelita  edited by Nancy.

I'm now working on a contemporary piece - At the sea. I plan to upload this piece in the few months to come.

Back to working on Alto Clefs,
Criserl :)


Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Pieces that will be recorded at some point...

Hi everyone!! How are you? I've been good, and a little busy lately. :)

Remember how Criserl and I were requested to learn pieces from The Children's Corner? I have decided that I will most likely learn Doctor Gradus as Parnassum. It will challenge me to play quick and give me some more technique, as well as develop  skills. It also seems like a fun piece to play, and a great one to have in my repertoire.

Today I kind of  finished Mozart's Sonata K. 545 Movement 1... What I mean by that is that I know the whole thing (well, the shortened version) but it's not exactly ready to be recorded; I like everything to be perfect, or at least try my best...

There's a certain part (or maybe parts...) in Tutti Cuore that I'm trying to get right... Once I have those down nicely, I will record it.

Waltz Op. 64 No. 2.... I haven't really felt like bothering with it much. Believe me, I'll finish it though. I usually always return to a piece to complete it. :)

I want to re-record some pieces, such as: 23 Free, The Fate of Himmel Street, September Breeze, The Love in Us (for the FINAL time, hahaha). And the pieces I'd like to record that I haven't yet: Tutti Cuore, Indescribable, Ka'iulani. 

I will start uploading a little more often if I can get around to it. :)

♥Viviana♥






Sunday, February 10, 2013

Moving Away~

Hello!

I'll no longer be blogging on my old blog but no worries, I'm not going to stop making videos and I'll continue to blog here . I'm now using a free site that allows me to do everything I can do on blogger  but it looks more professional. Here is the link to it :
http://criserlpiano.webs.com/   The site is still under construction but you can go and have a look! :)

Also, I'll not be using my Google+ account anymore but I don't plan to delete it either. I've removed some of the pictures...

Anyway, I hope to see you at my new site!

Love,
Criserl

New upload on YouTube : Criserl




Sorry for the lack of uploads...

This is Connie Talbot's Beautiful World on piano. For those who want to play this, the sheet music can be found here : https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4-zQkdH4geEMDhlNjUxMjYtN2MzMC00ZjczLTg2YzEtZDZjYTM5Zjk5MTA0/edit?pli=1  . This is not the full song because I can't find the full sheet music uploaded anywhere online... I guess due to copyright issues the entire score is not available free so this is know as Beautiful World Demo. :) Anyway, I hope you will enjoy this one.

Recently, I'm not learning any new pieces but focussing more on theory.  In the upcoming months I may post a few old videos of me when I was younger to make up for the lack of videos.

~Criserl

Monday, February 4, 2013

New Uploads!!! - Viviana

Hey!! I have new uploads finally!! :D

For the name of the original composition, it is called Winter Impromptu, because 1) I couldn't think of a name and 2) I composed the rest of this in winter. I hope you like it though... The technique is a little different from usual, which I'm happy about. I have 2 other compositions I'm working on.

The Mozart Symphony 40 theme: I finished it on Friday and have been perfecting it, therefore I decided to film it today. It's not perfect, but oh well...



I want to wait to upload Tutti Cuore. I need to perfect it more; it's not ready for filming...

I've been working on Mozart's Sonata k545 Mvt. 1. It's a shorter version I found in a songbook. I knew the whole right hand parts of it, but not the entire left hand; the version I am learning now is different from the one I knew before. Let's hope this one works out... :)

--Viviana

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

News and Things of That Sort

Hi! Sorry I haven't posted any videos... I've been wanting to, but just haven't gotten around to it.

If any of you ever looked at the comments on Emily's videos, there were many rude comments on there, jealous sounding comments. This was all 1 month or longer ago. What I noticed about all the users who were posting these comments was that they typed similar, and were all promoting Mercedes Barcella. Have any of you heard of her? I have watched her videos, but I must say, she isn't as talented as Emily... And she shows off a bit much... Oh well, you can't do anything about stuff like that... Anyway, I had responded to some of those horrid comments, defending Emily, and the users started attacking me and being rude, calling me a liar and an ignorant person. So I replied logically yet tried to be kinder than they had been to me... They kept saying that "Mercedes is Mozart, Emily is Beethoven; Mozart taught Beethoven" and other things like,"Mercedes taught herself piano, Emily had years of professional teachers" and so forth. In the end, I stopped replying. The other day, I saw a video of Mercedes and saw that she had a website. I decided to check it out, and when I went on the guestbook, there were some things regarding Emily Bear (or that was what I inferred). A person had said that me and some other users had said mean things to Mercedes (not true; I only commented on Emily's videos) and that we were cyberbullies. Then, the person also gave out our YouTube channels, and said that she had been keeping a very close eye on us, to see if we'd say anything about Mercedes. She said that Mercedes should report us... None of us (except one user...) had ever said anything directly to Mercedes. I realized that some dislikes I had recently gotten must have been Mercedes Barcella fans....

 

                                   Here is an original composition by Mercedes Barcella.
And a composition by Emily.
  



I finished Tutti Cuore and I am just perfecting it now. I will upload it once I feel it is good enough. :)

I am hoping to record the new original composition. I don't know what to call it though... I'm also working on composing something else. I'm trying decide what pieces from Always True are ones I'd like to learn.... I kind of feel like skipping those pieces and go straight to the Hope songbook; I haven't ordered it though. I have so much sheet music that I don't think it makes sense to buy more... :D

Until the next post!
♥Viviana♥




Tuesday, January 22, 2013

100 posts!!! - Viviana

Hi! How are you guys? It's soooo freezing in Chicago, with weather that feels like -3 degrees. I can't wait for spring now! :D 

WE HAVE REACHED 100 POSTS!!!! Wow!! 

I've been working pretty hard the past few days! I learned more of the waltz, finished an original composition, started re-learning Tutti Cuore, added more on to Final Journey, and can finally do that run in Piano in the Sky. I think my family is really tired of those pieces... :P  I will be recording the original composition soon.

What I want to uploaded next is the rest of the Emily Bear pieces I have not recorded yet. So that would be all the ones I mentioned above, and the rest from the songbooks The Love in Us and Always True. I've actually started trying out Always True, since it seems right to learn the piece that the songbook is named after... I REALLY do want to upload an improvisation, but sometimes I don't have anything creative enough for a video like that... And I've also been wondering this: what do you guys want to see next? What kind of pieces? Or posts? I want to try out something different. Should I do a video update? Tell me what you think.

Oh, I no longer use the email thepianistviviana@gmail.com   If you need to get a hold of me, you can contact me through here, YouTube, Google+, or Twitter. :)

I've really been trying to put more emotion into every video I film now. I must say, it's really hard to do so. Sometimes I can't feel the emotion of the piece, and therefore the playing isn't as well as it could be with more emotion.

Should I do more polls? If so, what kind? A new year means trying out new things! :)

Goodbye for now!

♥Viviana♥




Saturday, January 19, 2013

Another upload!

Here is Kuhlau sonatina op.20 no.2 movt. 1 :)


I'm currently spending more time learning Alto and Tenor clefts, they are really an important part on music theory so do check them out :)

Love,
Criserl

Original Composition: Fading Flower

Hey! Here's another original composition. I don't think I did a very good job with this one... There's just certain times where it doesn't work out well. I was trying to re-record 23 Free, but the camera started going crazy, and stopped recording. :( 




I haven't asked my Mom yet if I can order Hope... I'll have to do that soon.

♥Viviana♥




Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Update for January - Viviana :)

Hey!! How are you all? I'm starting to feel sick... It's been pretty bad with sickness in my family, and when you have 4 siblings, it's really easy to get sick...

I haven't been really working on getting further in any pieces. I like to perfect parts before I move on... That, and also I'm somewhat of a procrastinator when it comes to learning pieces... :P  I finished an original composition, and I'm working on another one as well. Sometimes, I find a certain melody on the piano, but can't seem to figure out what should come next, so I can't finish it. But what happens a lot is that I'll try finishing it months later, and my creativity returns!! Hahaha. It seemed like I couldn't really compose well for some weeks... I'm trying to learn some more techniques to use in my compositions. I will be filming both of the compositions at some point, maybe this week or next week. :)

I'm thinking about getting Emily's other songbook Hope soon. I haven't finished all the pieces in Always True but that's because the rest aren't all my favorite... The pieces I'd love to learn that are from Hope are the following: Final Journey, Italia, The Music in Me, and Soaring. What do you all think? Should I order Hope? :D

What other Emily Bear pieces would you like me to upload that are from The Love in Us and Always True? I'll see if I'd be able to get around to it.

I'd like to widen my repertoire a lot this year... With classical music though. I must say, my favorite thing to do with music is compose and improvise. :D

Au revoir,
♥Viviana♥

New youtube upload!

Hello!

Today I'll like to share with you an audio excerpt of my performance of Liszt transcription of Schubert Schwanengesang No.7 Ständchen/ Serenade.



This piece was performed on the 14 of December 2012. As there are many interpretation to this pieces I've decided to upload a part of it for all of you :) I made some minor mistakes in the playing, do you hear them? ( I hope you don't :x )

I've just finish learning the 1st movement of Kuhlau's op.20 no.2 sonatina and the video should be coming soon :)

Meanwhile enjoy this!!

Love,
Criserl

Friday, January 11, 2013

Criserl answer a few questions on Chopin Etudes

Hello!!

It has been about a week since my last post and today I want to answer a few questions about Chopin Etudes. (View Criserl's playing of the Revolutionary Etude op.10 no.12 here)

Yep,  although I will not be working on any Chopin pieces this year, but my love and desire for Chopin music is still as strong as ever! I'm recently in love with his etude op.10 no.9 and I think it is really nice!!

Qsn: Must my hands be really huge to play Chopin's Etude?
Ans: I would say not really but having a larger hand span would definitely make things easier.

Qsn: I just can't play the Chopin's etude it is too fast and complicated. How?
Ans: Do not be upset if you can't play it right, everything takes time, so be patient :) You can start off with a easier etude or at a slower tempo.

Qsn: How do I know which etudes are the easy ones?
Ans: You can either google or I would recommend this site that gives full analysis to all Chopin Etudes:) Check it out!

Lastly, I've decided to play Debussy's The Little Shepherd which is the shortest of all other pieces in the Children's corner:) Do you like it?

Love,
Criserl

Monday, January 7, 2013

Freestyle by Emily Bear

Here is Freestyle! It does have mistakes...sorry... I was getting distracted by my siblings who were being a little loud... LOL

Anyway, I hope it doesn't sound too bad... I still need to get it tuned, and will have to wait until I earn more money. :)




Like Criserl had said, we were requested to play something from Debussy's Children's Corner. I have the sheet music for Golliwog's Cake Walk from a book, and I may learn that one. We have until December, so there will be plenty of time. :)

Here's a video I made:

It's not the best, but it's not so bad. :)  I found some of the pictures on Pinterest, and added the words on Google+. Some of the pictures are ones that I took on my own.

What kind of post do you all think I should do next time? Give your ideas here. :D I want to write about something different.


♥Viviana♥

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Update : Criserl

Hello!

Today is the end of the first week in 2013.How has everyone been? Good?

If I'm not wrong, I'll be performing at a students' recital on 30th march 2013, nothing has been confirm yet, but most probably, I will be involve.

If confirmed, I plan to play French Suite No.6 in E - Courante by Bach and To a wild rose by Edward MacDowell :) Then, I'll record it for all of you! Also, I'm happy to say that I'm done with the Allemande in A by Handel.

It has been quite sometime since I last played Emily's music...

Anyway, both Viviana and I had receive a request to play a piece each from Debussy's children corner and we are working on it right now. I guess Viviana will talk about it in her next blog post or something:)

I must apologize for the lack of uploads recently.. more will come soon:)

Here is accomplished pianist George Li playing the entire Bach French Suite no.6




Get the latest updates about Criserl : Criserlpianomusic.blogspot.sg

Emily Bear - Ellen's Song - played by Viviana

Hi everyone! I hope you're all doing great in this new year. :)

I finally uploaded Ellen's Song. At the end there's some noise...
I filmed this at a new angle. What do you all think? Should I keep it on the left or on the right? :)



We have reached 3,000 views!!!!! And we're now at 92 posts; only 8 more till we reach 100!!

Should I start uploading improvisations?? 

~Viviana


Tuesday, January 1, 2013

New Year Resolutions ~ Viviana

Hey everyone! I hope you had a great New Years! I made a video of snippets of my piano compositions that were composed in 2012, and you can view it here.

Here are my new year resolutions, as requested (These are all related to music. I will do 13, as it is now 2013):

1) I want to compose at least 20 compositions this year
2) Reach 3,000 views on the blog
3) Learn 10 classical pieces
4) Become better at sight reading
5) Finish any pieces I had previously been working on
6) Upload at least 2 videos a week
7) Gain 20 more subscribers
8) Play music by other modern composers
9) Learn a few of Emily Bear's pieces by ear
10) Pretend I'm a movie composer, and compose music for books that I love
11) Re-record my older compositions on the piano (since the others were on the keyboard)
12) Inspire other young pianists/composers to upload their videos
13) Upload some of my sister's original compositions


I have almost finished Freestyle by Emily Bear. It's a very fun piece to play! There's some corrections I need to make in it, so maybe I can upload it in a few weeks.

The waltz...I know...I haven't worked on it much. I kinda lost interest at this moment. I have to listen to it some more to finish a part that I was learning. I was asked by Kate what caused me to want to learn it. I would have to say that I really liked the key it's in (c# minor) and the part of it that I like the most would have to be the piu mosso part. The first time I had heard it, Emily Bear was playing it, and I loved how it sounded. I hope I will continue with the piece.... :)

I'm close to finishing a piece I had been composing. It reminds me of either snowflakes or flowers blooming...not sure which. Hahaha.

Until the next post,
Viviana