[Nicol Armarfi]

Ah, good luck to ya' !

[LegendaryCloud89]

Originally Posted by The-Real-Link

I like competitions a lot. I don't mind playing in front of people too much. It makes everyone nervous to some degree. I have had some pretty bad mess ups, and some really good performances. I've got a competition today and tomorrow. Today I'm playing Chopin's Mazurka in F Major O. 68 no. 3 and "to Zanarkand from the Final Fantasy X Piano Collections. Tomorrow I'm playing Shuffle or Boogie from the FFVIII PC and my Bach Prelude (BWV 848)

Wow, good luck then. It's cool that you're incorporating video game music into competitions. Some people just think of video game music as fake or a lower form unfortunately.

[The-Real-Link]

Yayz!
I got an "A" on Chopin, and an "A+" on Zanarkand!

[Nicol Armarfi]

Originally Posted by LegendaryCloud89

Wow, good luck then. It's cool that you're incorporating video game music into competitions. Some people just think of video game music as fake or a lower form unfortunately.

Honestly I can't disagree with a lot of people about this. Technically most video game music can be rather bland, but that's why I turned to JRPG music. It's still not Mozart, but it is a very shining example of this period in music, and is one of the only things I can enjoy outside of more modern music (metal, techno etc.), as the only other alternatives are, essentially, contemporary classical music and jazz. I do respect video game music however, but I still greatly prefer classical music.

Also, great to hear about the competition, TRL. If I may ask, how are the contestants judged? Do they just check to see who got the highest average between their two pieces, or is it a vote?

[CarloCrizaldo]

That is true. My old piano teacher said that the music I was playing, which was mostly video game music, wouldn't teach me anything. This led me to quit piano lessons. I'm still doing fine on my own, however =D

[jushi-kun]

the closest ive come to a piano "injury" is having a cut beforehand on my fingers and playing wasnt helping at all.

[AS90]

This is off-topic but I'm interested to know what kind of Final fantasy piano collections pieces are in about 7-10 levels? We don't have such grades here but I'd like to know in what level I can play.

[Nicol Armarfi]

Not a lot of them are, frankly. At least according to the series I used, 10 would be the highest, and 7-9 are quite challenging as well. The Final Fantasy piano collections are quite moderate in difficulty, closer to the 4-6 range. The most difficult ones I can think of off the top of my head are One Winged Angel from Final Fantasy VII, Decisive Battle from Final Fantasy X, and Final Battle from Final Fantasy IX. The IX and X pieces would be around a 7 or 8, while VII would be around a 9. In general I'd have to say the Final Fantasy VII collection had the most difficult pieces in terms of technique, while the pieces from VIII and IX are more mature in emotional depth. Really, it depends whether you have trouble playing the notes, or if you have trouble with how to play them that decides how difficult the collections are.

[MilesOfMusic]

Originally Posted by LegendaryCloud89

Wow, good luck then. It's cool that you're incorporating video game music into competitions. Some people just think of video game music as fake or a lower form unfortunately.

Where I am, a lot of teaches that I've had hate Video Game Music (FF Piano Collections mainly). I love this music heaps. It sucks that people in places like New Zealand can't really appreciate VG Music like they do in the US? Oh well, I'll definatly keep playing it though.

I've played FFVII's 'Those That Fight' in a competition in Wellington and got a first place which was cool, and I also played 'People from/in? the North' from FFX Piano Collections which got a third.

The pieces that I'm currently learning are
For my ATCL exam
-Bach - Toccata in e minor
-Beethoven - Sonata in Ab Major Op.26/No.12
-Poulenc - Trois Novelettes (C major, Bb Minor and e minor)
(These aren't to strenuous on the body)

I'm also learning the score to Urinetown: The Musical, which leaves me pretty sore - it's actually really hard (but I hope not to get injured!)

I admire Nicol Amarfi learning the Chopin Etude Op.25/No.12 in C Minor (Ocean Etude). It's soooo my favourite one and it would be soooo cool if I could play it. If you look on You Tube 'Valentina Lisista' playing this, you'll see how she uses her body in this performance to glide around the keyboard with ease - which will probably be a factor in not becoming fatigued or injured.

[MilesOfMusic]

Originally Posted by Nicol Armarfi

Not a lot of them are, frankly. At least according to the series I used, 10 would be the highest, and 7-9 are quite challenging as well. The Final Fantasy piano collections are quite moderate in difficulty, closer to the 4-6 range. The most difficult ones I can think of off the top of my head are One Winged Angel from Final Fantasy VII, Decisive Battle from Final Fantasy X, and Final Battle from Final Fantasy IX. The IX and X pieces would be around a 7 or 8, while VII would be around a 9. In general I'd have to say the Final Fantasy VII collection had the most difficult pieces in terms of technique, while the pieces from VIII and IX are more mature in emotional depth. Really, it depends whether you have trouble playing the notes, or if you have trouble with how to play them that decides how difficult the collections are.

In my opinion they are all pretty hard to play amazingly and tastefully like the people on the CD's. I can play the ones I know pretty well, but still I think to play them amazingly you have to a a real mature touch and aproach. On all of the Piano Collections from 7 upwards - the piano playing is pretty hot! Even the FF XI piano collections that I dont really like that much sound really good due the perfomance. So you can view the FFPC's as playable, but I have found them difficult to make them amazing.