Hello,

My name is Tony Rowe and I wish to be considered as a pianist for this website. I started learning at a young age, and progressed through my AMEB (Australian Music Examinations Board) exams but then decided to go onto a scientific/mathematics career and thus piano playing is just a hobby (and a major source of enjoyment) for me, and has been now for 25 years, since my last exam.

Anyway, I haven't had anyone critique my playing in that time (that is anyone particularly expert in the field) so I am curious to see whether these recordings are OK for submission to the Piano Society.

The Chopin and Beethoven recordings were done a few months ago, on a Lindahl piano (Chinese apparently), which I have since replaced with a Yamaha U1. The Schubert is recorded on this, only a few days ago, if you were wondering why the pianos are different.

Regards

Tony Rowe

PS I note that you don't seem to have the 20th Piano Sonata of Beethoven, so I thought providing it would help your website.

Hi Tony,

Sorry to disappoint you, but these recordings are a long long way from being acceptable. The sound is really bad, and to put not too fine a point on it, the playing is not much better. To list everything that goes wrong or needs improvement would take many pages. It's likely that you don't hear the slips and rhythmic fallacies while playing, that is very common and understandable, but a listener will hear them all too load and clear. We do require much more accuracy and stability hear, as well as a tolerable sound quality.

It's great that you picked up playing again, and enjoy doing it. Don't let this bad critique discourage you. Rather, try get a good teacher to
improve your skills. Last not least, listen carefully and critically to yourself, try to put yourself in the place of a listener, and ask yourself if you are playing all the right notes in the proper tempo and rhythm. It's not so that we don't tolerate a single slip, but they should be the exception not the rule. Especially in easy repertoire like this (maybe not the Schubert, that one is quite tricky and tiring).

I hope this helps some.
Cheers,

Chris