Beethoven's Piano Sonata No 8 in C minor is another one of Beethoven's  most popular ballads. It was the second sonata of Beethoven's that I attempted (the first being the Moonlight Sonata). And I can confidently say that it is a very difficult piece to master. While it doesn't have the very quick notes of the Moonlight Sonata, it makes up for it with very awkward and fast jumps. The first movement itself has many different ideas and tones that make it incredibly hard to play.

The piece starts off with slow dramatic chords. These are meant to set up for the first theme of the piece which has the difficult jumps I mentioned earlier. Additionally, this theme is accompanied with tremolos (rapid reiterations of notes) in the left hand. This part can be very taxing for the hands so it needs to be played efficiently. To prevent fatigue of the fingers, I had to use my wrist to hit the notes rather than just my fingers. This eased the burden on them and allowed me to be less relaxed. The piece has lots of repetition but with new ideas every time. The 1st movement ends dramatically, with loud, massive chords.

This was one of the most fun pieces to play especially because of all the different techniques I learnt through it. I am also playing the second movement of this piece now, which is a very slow and emotional piece. It's melancholy mood really contrasts with the aggressive and fast sections of the first movement.

Liszt's consolations is a set of 6 piano works, which are similar in style to Chopin's Nocturnes. Consolation No. 3 is one of the more popular ones due to its beautiful melody. I enjpyed learning and playing as it reminded me of my last Chopin Nocturne I learnt. It was a relatively easier piece but to play it well, I had to be very very precise and also bring in a lot of emotion and tranquility into it's passages.

Level 9 Theory and Practical Examinations, 2022

Chopin is one of my favorite composers. In my opinion, He represents the peak of the Romantic Era and I find myself listening to his pieces for hours on end. I have played many different pieces of his, but the pieces I find most captivating are his Nocturnes. He has 21 nocturnes and they are all amazing. I learned how to play two of them: Nocturne in E Minor and Nocturne in C minor. Chopin uses the minor keys to convey a dark and heavy mood. While the pieces may start off slow, they can be incredibly difficult technically in many places. However, I feel that the most important part about Chopin pieces is the emotion that they need to be played with. If played correctly, his Nocturnes can silence audiences and awe them.

One of the ways this is accomplished is through a concept called rubato. It is something unique to the Romantic period. Rubato is short for Tempo Rubato which means stolen time in Italian. The term entails rhythmic freedom and expression. So, in contrast to Mozart and Bach with very strict rhythm, Chopin used rubato to be make his pieces more expressive and sensitive. Usually, it is used to speed up the first part of a measure and then slow down in the second half. This makes the piece more dramatic. While the Nocturnes are technically very tough, the mastery of rubato can take even longer and it is important that it be used sparingly.

Chopin's Nocturne Op. 48, No. 1 in C minor is truly one of his most underrated ballads of all times - it shows everything about Chopin's developing ideas for his Nocturnes, with a well-thought out storyline and a beautiful melody and atmosphere for the song - a perfect masterpiece. Here's a video of me practicing this ballad:

Junior Category, Age 11 to 14, March 2020

Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu is widely regarded as one of the most difficult piano pieces from the Romantic period. It is very technically difficult due to the awkward time signature, but also needs to be played with a lot of musicality.

When I first started learning the piece, I had just mastered Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, so before I starting playing it I didn't think it would be so difficult. However, the entire piece is written in 8:6 rhythms. This means that for every 8 notes in the right hand, there are 6 notes in the left. Additionally, the piece is very fast, so playing the piece up to tempo with the correct rhythms took a lot of slow practicing. After a fast and dramatic first section, the middle section begins. The middle section of the piece is a nice contrast. It is very slow but demands very good control of dynamics. Without proper dynamics, the section will sound very repetitive and boring. I like to think of it almost as one of Chopin's Nocturnes. While it still has some tricky polyrhythms, the section is largely tame compared to the rest of the piece. As the second section slowly fades away, the original fast melody starts right back up again, identical to the first. However, the ending is different. This time Chopin adds some very tricky jumps and arpeggios to build up the coda. Finally, the piece ends with another slow and touching section. The Fantasie Impromptu is one of my favorite pieces to play and listen to.

Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata is one of the most famous pieces of classical music. It is played in films and commercials, and is even sampled in some modern songs. It is also regarded as one of the most difficult pieces in the piano repertoire. It was the first piece that I completely mastered(all movements). I initially started learning the piece out of interest, as I really enjoyed listening to the first movement of the piece. The first movement is relatively simple compared to the other two movements. It is slow and not technically complex. However, it is very important that the dynamics are controlled and meticulous. When playing it, I had to keep the slow and soft tone throughout the piece. The second movement on the hand is much more cheerful and light. It has some tricky jumps, but it overall it is straightforward. It is not as popular as the other movements, but I like it because it is short and fun to play. The third movement is completely different. It is not only incredibly fast but also long. It had so many notes and pages that it took me months to learn it. It was certainly a great challenge for me. The third movement has so many different techniques throughout it that really helped me improve as a pianist. For example, it introduced me to dominant seventh chords and arpeggios. Mastering the Moonlight Sonata will always be one of my favorite pieces of music and I will always look at it as one of my greatest accomplishments.

Here is the First Movement:

Here is the 2nd Movement:

Here is the 3rd Movement:

I am very interested in music. I didn’t really see piano as a hobby when I lived in New Delhi, due to the fact that I was in a group class. Once I started working with a private tutor and starting seeing the extent of my musical abilities develop over time, it grew into one of my primary hobbies. Now I enjoy it more than ever. It has taken a lot of work and effort but I have learned so much about sound and music.

Music has helped me find something in me that I never knew before. That is my love of performing. I would usually think to myself that I would be too timid or scared to go up in front of my class and present something, let alone a concert hall!

Earlier this year, I practiced on one of my favorite pieces, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (Opus 27). Once I could play the 3rd movement well enough, I entered and was selected as a winner in an International Piano and Strings competition and I got to play at the Carnegie Hall, which was one of the most exciting moments of my life!

Here's a video of me playing the same piece that I performed at Carnegie Hall from a smaller recital a few months earlier:

Here's a video of my recital of the well-known melancholic 1st movement from the same sonata from a recital a year before:

Here is a video of my recital of Chopin's Polonaise in G Minor last winter. Did you know he composed this piece when he was just 7 years old?

I wrote a little more about the effect music has had on me here.

Recently I was asked my Maths Teacher to help her husband during his concert performance, There’s A Place For Us, which was held to support my school. I helped him as the piano "page turner" and it was an amazing experience being on stage with so many world class opera singers, who literally shook the stage with their powerful voices!

Title Image: my performance at Carnegie Hall this summer.

The definition of music is vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion. Many people believe that music has the power to change a person. I myself believe this because music has changed me. A few years ago when I lived in India, music wasn't a big thing - it was just an after-school class that my parents sent me to once a week. I didn't practice enough and didn't take it seriously. I was also in a group class and didn't get much attention from my teacher. I also had to play on a digital keyboard, though I didn't know enough about the difference at the time.

When I moved here in Jersey City, one of the first things my parents did was buy a piano. We got a used Yamaha U1, which is an upright piano - very old, almost 40 years but very well restored! I really liked it. The next step was of course to find a good piano teacher. We had the option between two teachers. One lived close to us and the other lived a little bit further but seemed strict. We decided to choose the strict one. His name was Paul Vazopolos and that was one of the best decision we made.

When we met him for the trial class he seemed really nice and he told me to practice at least half an hour. Since I barely ever practiced before, I had a hard time making time for this in my schedule. I was also going to a new school. but over the course of his classes, I became better and better. Then he told me to practice for 45 minutes. And I did so, as far as possible. I had many recitals in which I played pieces that he chose for me. That was when I brought up the Moonlight Sonata 1st Movement by Beethoven.

I told him I wanted to play this piece and he was actually quite excited about the choice. We worked on it for a quite a while to learn this rather difficult piece. The Moonlight Sonata uses many complex techniques to produce its beautiful harmonics. Mr. Vazopolos taught me the broken chords and the chords in the piece. I also learned different rhythm patterns to help me play the piece steadily. There were short long short long, short short long long, long short short long, short long long short and all short and all long.

These patterns really helped me pick up the speed for the next part: the Moonlight Sonata 3rd movement. One other very important technique for piano is dynamics.Dynamics are how soft or loud you play. The two terms are forte and piano. Piano means soft and forte means loud. If you are able to control your dynamics you be able to perform really well. Another thing that helps with your dynamics is right-pedaling. The pedal makes the sound last longer. So if you want to end a piece dramatically you can use the pedal.

After learning the 1st movement, I started on the way more complex 3rd movement. This is much faster, playing at 140 beats/minute and with lots more broken chords, pedaling, and dynamics. After 6 months of intense practice, I was finally ready to perform in a public space! Here's a sample of the 3rd movement that I played at the TECCS Show in March 2018. Hope you enjoy listening to it!

Playing the piano has been one of the most exciting and fulfilling accomplishments of my life. It took a lot of work and effort but I learned so much about sound and music and got a better understanding of how complex playing and composing music can be. Music helped me find something in me that I never knew before. That is my love of performing. I usually thought to myself that I was too timid or scared to go up in front of my class and present something, let alone a concert hall! I am really thankful for my parents and Mr. Vazopolos for making this come true. And of course, a deep bow to those geniuses of the past: Bach, Beethoven, and Chopin!

This is a story about one of the biggest accomplishments of my life. It all started 5 years ago in India. I was interested in learning piano and started taking lessons. It wasn’t such a big thing and I didn’t practice that much. I took group classes and  was fine with it. Later my family moved to the US and things changed. I got a new teacher. His name was Mr. Vazopolos and he was strict but very good. He helped me push myself and play very complex pieces. He also made me practice 45 minutes every day. I also became much better at piano because I was doing a solo class.

About a year later in June 2017 Mr. Vazopolos introduced me to the American Protege International Piano and Strings competition. The competition was in Carnegie Hall. He told me to audition for it. So I started preparing for it. I was planning on auditioning with the Moonlight Sonata third movement. It wasn’t easy so I had to practice one hour everyday until the competition date! On January 20th I sent my audition in. I was nervous because I thought I didn’t do well. But I got in! I was really happy, but I still needed a lot of work.

Later on June 30 I went to Carnegie Hall and performed. It was surely an amazing experience. The Weill Hall was the smaller of two halls and was really beautiful and the piano was also quite amazing. A lot of other kids were there too - some from halfway across the world! I had almost my entire family there to cheer me on, including some of my friends.  When it was my turn to play I got a little nervous, but I took a few deep breaths and walked onto the stage. I had expected the hall to be much bigger but turns out it wasn’t so big after all. It had about three hundred seats and was beautiful. I played the best I could and enjoyed the experience very much. After the concert my family and friends celebrated and we went for lunch nearby.

It was an amazing experience and I absolutely loved it. I think it made me more confident in performing in front of large audiences and made me better at piano overall. I hope to enter this competition and other ones in the future. I want to continue my experience of performing in great halls for as long as I can.