After I and my students play my upright can be accepted as a master piece of demolishing efforts.
Sokolov here playing it with much more sense than I or my students. The audio is bad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q6fkje4eqo He has such a good fleshy hands and not a tension insight. I am sure his wrists are hollow. However I have seen pianists with narrow hands and they have good sound and they don't tense their wrists or their upper bodies.

George, LOOK OUT!!!!

Oh dear.

Absolutely, George. Abandon that shrubbery! Here, this will get you started:

Martle, I didn't know this tune is actually written and has a name. My mother suffered intensely from my love of the tune when I was about 5. I don't know who tought me the piece (probably some child), but I loved it. I would  play it between my pieces and annoy my poor mother and get on her nerves. I am so glad to see the piece. Thank you for posting.

You kind of started me on my 67 years old student. He is selftought trombone player and play in Dixie jazz band (when he is not teaching children history and something else). He is playing hymns and cursing when he plays wrong notes. I am practicing hands separetely with him and then together and I even tought him to hold the top voice (melody) a little and connect it with his fingers. He suffers from shaking hands due to his love of drink. Piano is good for him now and I am hoping with revival of religious feelings he will leave his drinks to younger people. He comes with his grandson who is relactant player. The grandson is enrolled now to take grade 1 Associated board exam. I don't know how this adventure will turn out.
But grandfather is heaving a good time. got himself an electric piano (to move it with the bands performances) and practicing every day starting at 7 in the morning (he would start earlier but his family would not let him).


The 42 years old with Chopin Nocturne is very inspiring. Only a mad person like me could agree to teach him Db Nocturne after a year. The first piece was Posthumous nocturne in C sharp. He is a businessman and I have to come to him to teach because he wants to be there all the time. He has B&B and he bought a baby grand Petroff. He listens to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXKqUiLiTcc
 all the time. He loves that man on youtube. (I think it is not natural playing etc, but I don't argue).
Now we are on the last page of the above mentioned Nocturne. Richter also did not play scales and started with Chopin. The students explains Nocturne to me, about screams of pain and despaire and how each verse (we call repeated material verses). I think his understanding of this particular nocturne and feelings for the piece are superior to mine. He is amazingly talented man that wanted to play from childhood but parents could not afford lessons.
I love to see people fulfulling their dreams.

Fur Elise is a good piece to start. Everyone starts with a different piece. It brings people so much joy to be able to play the piece for themselves. That 42 years old plays all free time. He says that he can play for 6 to 10 hours. 

As this demonstration clearly proves, pianos can not fly.

Who else feels as I do that it is time we formed a militia for the defence of abused instruments? (perhaps I should get that repeat prescription while I can still see all the colours and actually feel my fingertips?)

Afterthought: Piano thread? why not Piano wire? no. Don't answer that.

calum da jazbo, It all depends on what your daughter is good at. Does she like fast pieces or slow?

For competition it is probably better to have a showing piece (to show her from the best side of course).
Prokofiev 3rd Sonata is 1 movement sonata and it is not easy. If she is on the level it is very effective. However it is not a contemporary piece.
There are Satie pieces that demand different approach. I once had a student that loved to play Satie. However Satie is not contemporary composer too. Perhaps we have to wait until some people who know more will come alone.

Seconded. An excellent series.

I was thinking how nice it is to have some student playing for competition. My students can only enter incompetence competition for now. To be able to prepare someone to be so good is such an achievement and an honour.

One has to be so careful how one practices in order to make a progress and not hurt one's hands.

I played too much lately with exams and trying to play solo pieces. I never played so much before. It is important to rest and recharge one's batteries.
I am still thinking about wrists and fingers. Joseph Levine (the pianist) was noticing how he took the note and even how he left it. His hands must be like spiders then. Is it necessary to do that? May be he achieved some great legato with this walking in deep water and feeling the bottom kind of a touch.
Does anyone uses this kind of thing?

It is very important to find places of rest in very difficult pieces. Chords are difficult if they are fast and are for a long time. One needs to contract hands not to pull muscles. Am I on the right truck of thinking?

In chords one has to be able to bring out any note (top, bottom or middle) at will. So it is important to listen to the chord and learn to adjust the hand accordingly.

Yesterday a student's mother told me that in violin they teach the spider walk holding the bow and walking with one's hand up and down. One learns to use fingers and hold the bow without gripping it.
Does it make any sense to anyone?