Since I never have seen a video of my own piano playing I just recorded myself.
During a piano lesson some weeks ago (after a gap of 25 years...) my teacher told me that I am sitting much too far away from piano (almost Brahms-like). I did not believe - after seeing myself in the video I have to agree.

So I like to know what you experts think what anything else can be improved. RH pinky is mostly not curved, and I sometimes make strange grimace (did not realize that while playing). I like also to say that I don't have a serious illness what one could think because of no hairs - it is an hair illness I have from youth on, so I lost bit by bit the hairs, but nothing more.

The recording of that Mazurka 7-2 was done in the way that I recorded parallel the video with a video recorder and the audio with my usual equipment (one of both mics are visible), and replaced the terrible audio part of the video with the better mp3 quality recording. Maybe if my piano is tuned some weeks later I will record the audio part again as candidate for the site, hopefully with less unnecessary flaws.

I can't download mpg at work, so it'll have to wait until tonight.

You will have to tell me how to mix audio with video, as this is what I need to do if I ever want to produce a "video" (have never seen myself play either, and I know I grimace as well, and have my terrible gaze locked on the notes). I have only a cheap digital camera without sound, allowing for some minutes of grainy video, and the Edirol.

That is something I am new to it too. I used PVAStrumento to demultiplex the video and audio stream from the camera, Mpeg2Schnitt for cutting and replacing the audio stream (with trial and error method until both parts were halfways synchronized) and Super by eRightSoft for shrinking the 80MByte mpg file downto somewhat more acceptable 18MByte. I am no expert in this, it took hours and help of collegues to get it to run.

Olaf, I have been sitting here waiting to view your video, but it has been five minutes and nothing is coming up. Windows Media Player says it is 'connecting'. Is it my computer? or is there something wrong with the link? Maybe I'll go to my sons computer and try.

Well, I went to my one son's computer which is a newer computer, and it did not work, so I went to my other son's computer which is brand new and it also didn't work.

I tried it out with downloading the file as *.mpg file to the PC and starting then, and it worked. But it took some minutes for downloading (18MByte).
Unfortunately, I have from now on until Sunday evening no internet access, so hopefully you can save the file to PC, otherwise I could put it on my homepage for downloading, later.

So there's a way to change where you open this up? I click on 'download' and it just goes to windows media player. I'll go push some buttons around here and see anything different happens.

You could try what happened if you do a right-click on the download and click on "Save as" - then the download dialog should appear so that you can store the file on the hard drive first. In my case it has however the name download.php - I need to rename it in e.g. download.mpg so that I can click on that file that the MediaPlayer pops up. Hopefully that helps, and thanks for your trials!

Yea! I did it! I think I killed my son's computer in the process - he always has things running and I accidentally deleted a bunch of stuff and then his computer froze up and now I can't turn it off. Oh well, my other sons computer worked. And he has a huge, flat screen dlc or ldc or cdl(?) monitor but the video plays in only a two-inch square. I have to put my reading glasses on to see better.

Okay, I'm so glad you did this. It is so great to see in addition to hear! Your piano sounds really nice. The whole sound quality is good. As far as where you sit- you do not look too far away to me. But I'm not sure how outstretched our arms are supposed to be. My teacher said that I too sat too far back and I have since gotten used to sitting closer. But in addition to that there are height issues. You look like you are tall so you can't sit too close, right? Maybe I'm wrong about that. I am only 5' 2" and now my teacher has be experimenting with sitting at different heights depending on the piece I am playing. And your wrists looked very relaxed and moving correctly. Bravo for that!

As to the Mazurka - This sounds very nice and definitely ready to put up. I'm curious about the chord in the 8th measure, LH. You play an E maj chord, I have no g-sharp, therefore an e-minor chord.

A small price to pay

Olaf,

Very nicely done! Your dynamics and rubato were good.

I don't think you sit too far frow the keyboard. I'm sure I sit just as far away as you or perhaps even more.

One problem for me. The recording is incomplete when I play it. It goes about three quarters of the way through and disappears.

I wish I had the technical "knowhow" to record like you did. It was well done except for the missing ending.

John

It's interesting to see how you look, because it is not what I pictured you to be. Honestly, you do not look German to me


You do sit "far" from the keys. But if that's what it takes for you to comfortably fit, than it works. I am not too tall 6'2" (~187cm) and when I play real pianos my legs are wedged between the seat and the keyboard (even if the seat is put down all the way).

Nice recording as well. It seems to me that you have a professional-style setup with microphones and all the bells and whistles.

Don't ask to see me play in video format. It'd send people running to the hills!

-JG

Thank you all very much for taking time to watch and comment and sorry for the trouble - especially the crash of the PC of Monica's son!



I am 1.91m long, that seems to be 6,27 feet (transformation may be wrong), so rather long. The piano stool is on the lowest position, but I can't have my knees upright below the piano, so they are before. After seeing the video myself, I think I should come closer to the piano so that the upper arm can hang more loosely down. Hand wrists really feel relaxed, but not so the upper arm area. I am thinking about putting some centimeters wood pieces below the piano feets to raise the piano.



Thank you for your comments. Some trioles sound a bit sloppy, so I will rerecord it anytime if I have something else to record. Interesting with that E maj chord. My Henle Urtext score indicates E maj but in the critical remarks it is stated that some editions have e-minor together with no f-sharp in the LH in the bar before. The Urtext follows the French first edition, but both kinds seem possible according to the different sources.



It seemed to work completely for the others? Don't know why this happened.



From my experience, seeing myself the first time in a video playing piano, it is foremost helpfull. I did not believe that I am sitting very far away from the piano. Now I have to agree, and I swear I will change that habbit, because the upper arms can hang down more relaxed if they can hang down more freely.

So I am sure you will find benefit in watching yourself playing too. And the comments from others will be very helpful too, so just do it!

It doesn't work for me. I never have trouble with video's but with this one. Windows Media Player sez it needs a codec (doesn't say which one, that would be too easy) and QuickTime just says it is not a movie file. I've downloaded it 3 times now but it's the same every time. Hmmmm !

The thing is, 95% of you have good jobs or kids with technology. I can't afford a nifty video camera.

...come to think of it, I could ask my old piano teacher for me to have a copy of the last recital I was in (about 3 years ago). And how I slaughtered Chopin's prelude #15.