Do you sing?

[Giovanni Schwartz]

Sooo.... prodigy.

[Zedability]

Sooo.... prodigy.

I'm a genius. That's not just me bragging.

Okay, maybe I'm bragging. But I tend to avoid telling people I got a degree in high school or telling them how smart I think I am, so while I'm at it, I might as well brag.

[C is for]

So, once upon a time I have perfect pitch...

But my voice doesn't always obey me. In fact I can never trust my tone to sound the way I like it to. I should probably take voice lessons because my breath control is really bad. But for being able to sing any part with not very much practice, I give myself 5/5.

I can also play any piano piece you put in front of me...within reason. Obviously if you're going to dig out Grade 16 pieces and expect up to tempo and no notes missing I'll have a hard time. But I can sight read just about anything one encounters within the realm of accompaniment. For that skill (and for my wonderful expression), I give myself 5/5.

I can also play all the hymns on the organ. With practice (on the harder ones), I can include the pedals. So I'm guessing that's like 3.5/5? 4/5? I can't play any actual pieces.

Oh, and I'll give myself 1.5/5 because I can play one song on the harp really well. And I know what the right technique is, even though I will never get my hands to stretch to play more advanced pieces.

I played violin for three years but haven't touched the instrument in ten. So I have no basis for knowing how proficient I am at it.

[mic0]

http://ericwhitacre.com/the-virtual-choir

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh. Cool. Eric Whitacre is always so cool.

[Giovanni Schwartz]

And his hair is luscious. /sarcasm Apparently he dyes it.

[Whistler]

Okay, so all of you who play organ, what kind of stops do you like to use? Do you make your own stop arrangements, or just use the presets? I still haven't gotten the courage to make my own, but I was happy to find that all the M1 stops are preset (1-5 being prelude stops and 6-9 being congregation ones).

[Zedability]

Okay, so all of you who play organ, what kind of stops do you like to use? Do you make your own stop arrangements, or just use the presets? I still haven't gotten the courage to make my own, but I was happy to find that all the M1 stops are preset (1-5 being prelude stops and 6-9 being congregation ones).

I make my own stop arrangements, just generally based on what sounds good. My organ teacher told me to not use tremulants or celestes when people are singing along, because it makes them subconsciously get all warbly. I also tend to go easy on the gedackt, nasally sounding ones like oboes or clarinets, and dissonant ones like mix IVs and stuff. I use more of them for more energetic or robust hymns. Also, I find the bourdon is too weak to be the only 16' stop for the pedals.

Basically, I just do what I think sounds good, because I'm arrogant enough to assume it must be acceptable.

[C is for]

For prelude I use 8' and 4' flutes, with 16' flute on bottom. Usually because I'm practicing during prelude and don't want to make mistakes too loudly. For general congregation I add in the 8' and 4' principals (sometimes 2'), and the 16' and 8' principals in the pedals. (I'm probably messing things up, since I haven't played the organ in almost a year now.)

So I'm really boring. I don't try anything new except for the occasional oboe. If I'm using the 2' I'll usually take it off for sacrament.

Maybe. My memory is kind of fuzzy about this.

D5 could probably chime in here. And I know Gimmers is an accomplished organist, though he tends to avoid this place.

[Defy V]

Hum, let's see what I remember from Music 116 (Organ 2, essentially) . . .
For energetic ones I did 8' and 4' flute and general and then added a trumpet (similar in pedals). For Sacrament hymns I would usually leave out 4' general, but it depended.
To make things more interesting, I would sometimes build from verse to verse by adding the 2', then IV, then maybe add 2 2/3, 1 3/5, and the whole shebang. I think I got more predictable the longer I was away from that class (more than two years) so that's about all I remember.

Also, I like this: http://organ.byu.edu/3StaveHymns/index.htm

[Defy V]

And by general I mean principal. I'm tired.

[Violet]

After my freshman year, my piano skills dropped dramatically. I lost quite a bit of strength in my hands and I'm still trying to regain it, but not having consistent access to pianos without effort makes it difficult to motivate myself. Also, technique pieces tend to be boring and I hate drilling (I'm a pretty decent sight-reader). So, 4-4.5/5 on piano. Flute I'd give myself a 3/5. Organ... 1.5 maybe?

[Zedability]

After my freshman year, my piano skills dropped dramatically. I lost quite a bit of strength in my hands and I'm still trying to regain it, but not having consistent access to pianos without effort makes it difficult to motivate myself. Also, technique pieces tend to be boring and I hate drilling (I'm a pretty decent sight-reader). So, 4-4.5/5 on piano. Flute I'd give myself a 3/5. Organ... 1.5 maybe?

YES. ALL MY HAND STRENGTH IS GONE. And hand flexibility. I can barely reach an octave.

[Violet]

After my freshman year, my piano skills dropped dramatically. I lost quite a bit of strength in my hands and I'm still trying to regain it, but not having consistent access to pianos without effort makes it difficult to motivate myself. Also, technique pieces tend to be boring and I hate drilling (I'm a pretty decent sight-reader). So, 4-4.5/5 on piano. Flute I'd give myself a 3/5. Organ... 1.5 maybe?

YES. ALL MY HAND STRENGTH IS GONE. And hand flexibility. I can barely reach an octave.

Flexibility is another demon! I can't reach a ninth comfortably anymore. It's saddening.

[Zedability]

After my freshman year, my piano skills dropped dramatically. I lost quite a bit of strength in my hands and I'm still trying to regain it, but not having consistent access to pianos without effort makes it difficult to motivate myself. Also, technique pieces tend to be boring and I hate drilling (I'm a pretty decent sight-reader). So, 4-4.5/5 on piano. Flute I'd give myself a 3/5. Organ... 1.5 maybe?

YES. ALL MY HAND STRENGTH IS GONE. And hand flexibility. I can barely reach an octave.

Flexibility is another demon! I can't reach a ninth comfortably anymore. It's saddening.

I could never reach a ninth comfortably. The best I could do was reach an octave comfortably in my left hand, and semi-comfortably in my right hand. I could never play big chords. It made Liszt and Rachmaninov interesting.

[C is for]

That's totes cray you guys. My hands are smaller than yours and I hit octaves fine.

As long as it's not the melody. Melody + octaves doesn't go well for me (again, looking at you, Liszt). And ninths are something I reach for fun when I'm seeing if I can reach one. They're not for normal song playing.

Also four-note chords that span an octave. Those are no good.

The moral of the story is, my hands are clearly superior to yours.

Way to go, Gio. It's a major brag fest up in here.

[Giovanni Schwartz]

Word, yo.

I prefer the piano-ification of Mack Wilberg's orchestral scores.

I can't play Liszt. He's incredible. (Go watch Erlkonig on youtube. Specifically, I'm amazed by Yuja Wang, but she's really the only one I've watched.)

But I can reach an octave and a third with minimal effort with my left hand, and do full chorded arpeggios with both hands.

[Zedability]

That's totes cray you guys. My hands are smaller than yours and I hit octaves fine.

As long as it's not the melody. Melody + octaves doesn't go well for me (again, looking at you, Liszt). And ninths are something I reach for fun when I'm seeing if I can reach one. They're not for normal song playing.

Also four-note chords that span an octave. Those are no good.

The moral of the story is, my hands are clearly superior to yours.

Way to go, Gio. It's a major brag fest up in here.

You've never seen my hands. But they're pretty average-sized. The problem is that I practiced so long and hard when I was little, before songs had large spans, that my hands essentially became musclebound and I can barely stretch my fingers out. If I hold my hands up to yours, they look only slightly small, but then if you stretch your hands out, there's a good 2 or 3 inches difference in handspan.

[Dead Cat]

Speaking of "The Erlking", this is hilarious.

[C is for]

I've never met an adult with smaller hands than mine. There's a 4-ft something girl in my ward I want to compare to, but haven't got the chance yet.

Also zed that story made me want to never practice again.

[Katya]

I sing soprano or alto in ward choirs (probably 2nd soprano if I was better trained) (4/5 - my other musical training means I have good sight reading abilities and I can hold a part well, but I have poor technique—especially with regard to breathing—and my voice isn't particularly pretty to listen to)

I play the piano (4/5), organ (2.5/5 - but I'm hoping to be called as ward organist again so I can have an excuse to practice), recorder (4/5 - mainly alto, but also soprano and tenor and rarely bass), and I took violin lessons for four years but we don't talk about that (1/5). I also whistle well (4/5).

Also, I come from an extended family of serious classical musicians, so I wouldn't rate myself as 5/5 on any instrument, simply because I'm comparing myself to my uncles/aunts/cousins, etc.