Piano Fun
In an earlier post, I asked if there were any videos out there that showed people performing certain feats/tricks on the piano. Then I realized that I might as well do it myself and have it recorded. Now I am far from a virtuoso, and the things I do in the upcoming video are not impressive or ground-breaking (in fact I made a few mistakes). But it was fun. If only for a while. Because playing in strange positions really hurt my arms, hands, and shoulders. Folks, listen to your teachers and practice good posture!
First, I performed Fur Elise. Now it’s far from my favourite piece (I can’t stand hearing it all the time, and yes I recognize the irony), but it was simple enough for me to play with my hands crossed (in fact it’s the only piece I’ve tried like that, and I don’t know why I haven’t tried other pieces). Second, one of my fondest childhood memories was watching Amadeus and seeing Mozart lose at musical chairs. His penalty was to listen to a short tune and play it back in the manner of Bach, Salieri, and upside-down (not in that order). There were a number of people lifting Mozart up in the air as he performed upside-down, however, I don’t have that luxury. In the past (yes, this is not the first time I’ve played upside-down) I’ve tried placing my uncomfortable wooden piano bench perpendicular to the piano, but that hurt my back. But seeing as how my piano is currently out of tune, for the purposes of the video I played on my keyboard while lying on my comfy bed.
There was one more shot I did, and that was of me playing one of Mozart’s piano sonatas in C major (K.545), backwards, but I could only manage the first four bars before the excruciating pain stopped me from going any further. That, and there was no way I was going to try the next few bars of scales! So in the end I decided not to show it to you guys.
