::^.^ Thanks. — ''[[User:La Pianista|<font color="gray" face="Times New Roman">La Pianista</font>]]'' <sup>[[User talk:La Pianista|♫ ]][[Special:Contributions/La Pianista|♪]]</sup> 18:27, 10 March 2011 (UTC)
::^.^ Thanks. — ''[[User:La Pianista|<font color="gray" face="Times New Roman">La Pianista</font>]]'' <sup>[[User talk:La Pianista|♫ ]][[Special:Contributions/La Pianista|♪]]</sup> 18:27, 10 March 2011 (UTC)
::: Page has been edited a little more. We have so many sources to work with it's hard to choose! Let us know what you think :D --[[User:AestheticFriends|AestheticFriends]] ([[User talk:AestheticFriends|talk]]) 23:30, 11 April 2011 (UTC)
Please assume good faith. If any of my edits have seemed unconstructive, please keep a cool head and notify me of my mistakes promptly. I try to be helpful and if I cause a problem, it is purely accidental; in no way are my edits meant to be offensive to anyone. Besides myself.
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Aw, thank you for the photograph (and the cookie). I've grown up with exotic fruit my whole life, and picking a music-related photo is just a touch too predictable. :) And, of course, it's a gorgeous picture. —La Pianista♫ ♪02:06, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you! Wait...one, two, three, four...yes, four "thank you"s
Oh, I'd like to remain anonymous for my recordings. "La Pianista" is just fine. :)
I'll be doing more recording tonight, but as it's a two-piano piece, I'm pretty sure the second pianist doesn't want his music on Commons. I'm sure to have a few solo noms for FS in the coming months, though. —La Pianista♫ ♪21:22, 15 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Post-recording editing: why is this an ethical issue? You're not pretending it was a live performance in front of an audience. It's a studio recording. Placing the mike to best advantage (perhaps to enable us better quality in some respects than an audience would experience) seems not to be an ethical issue. Fixing a wrong note ... but hey, you played the right note in another take of that passage: all we really care about is to hear the piece played beautifully and accurately—it's not a status competition where you're cheating if you optimise the recording. Everyone does this, because the realities of the recording industry are that time is money, and what matters is getting a beautiful product to market most efficiently. Heck, you could doctor the whole thing electronically in the op room afterwards by yourself, using your musical judgement, and I wouldn't care a toss. It's still you. By analogy, we are allowed to edit FACs to remove the glitches after the writer(s) have done their big job, aren't we? All the reader sees is the product; that is all that matters.
Let's hear some of your recent repertoire.
"I love the audience and hate the sterility of recording"—you're like Glenn Gould. But recording gets it out many many thirsty ears all over the world: it's a 21st-century reality—intimate two-way contact sacrificed for large-scale dissemination. Please indulge us.
Relaxation: sure, you'll be less nervous now you're older, but please consider concentrating on your breathing as you rehearse. It can transform muscle control. And BTW try rehearsing passages the wrong way to own any weaknesses you may perceive! Tony(talk)09:17, 20 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I understand your point entirely. I do recognize that optimizing recordings is accepted and even encouraged in the recording industry, and I do understand the natural desire for perfection, especially in the 21st century, when all those ways to achieve "perfection" are possible. But I am not recording CDs for sale at Barnes & Noble. I am uploading music to Wikimedia Commons. This is purely something I do on the side, my gesture to the world to just share music. Money and esteem and media pressure for perfection will never be a part of that.
"all we really care about is to hear the piece played beautifully and accurately" Really? If so, I'm greatly disappointed. The audience should want more than beauty and accuracy. The audience should want humanness, reality, a person behind the music. The "intimate two-way contact" you mention may not be entirely possible in the digital age, but isn't it worth striving for? And I do know that simply fixing a single wrong note hardly detracts from such "humanness," but where do we draw the line between natural and contrived? I'd rather leave my recordings as they are.
Call me a romantic, but I want to retain as much of the humanistic aspect in my recordings as possible. If that results in recordings that don't meet FS standards, I'm content with that. Personally, there's something beautiful about a completely untouched recording - everything you hear was made by the performer, the piano, the acoustic, and the composer. That's it. And, perhaps naively, I think that some audience members will appreciate that, since, as you say, everyone else makes post-recording edits.
The Beethoven WoO 80 is the most recent recording I have uploaded. In a month or two, I will have made at least two more recordings to upload to Commons - what those pieces are, I'm not quite sure of yet. But I am sure I will keep those unedited; again, if this means they aren't FS-quality, I'll still upload them for use on articles.
I may hate recording, but it doesn't mean that I won't continue to do it. I do see the value in it, and I am particularly fond of the idea of letting anyone in the world hear Mozart, Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, and all the other geniuses. I just don't like the process involved. But I will continue to upload recordings of mine to Commons and nominate as many of those for FS as I can. —La Pianista♫ ♪00:17, 21 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
You both have valid points. I will say that if all we ever wanted was a perfectly accurate recording, we would just compose everything in MIDI and allow the piano to play it for us. At the same time, there's a difference between correcting one note and making something artificial. In an ideal world, you'd have more time in the studio to do it as many times as you can until it meets your standards. This isn't an ideal world. In the end it is the artist's right to edit or not to edit. However as it is under a free license, it is everyone else's right to tweak that file (under a new file name, of course.) Of course, I'd be against that entirely in this case since I'd rather have works with a few flaws than no works at all. The last thing I want to do is chase off La Pianista. So I think the current "take it or leave it" is the best option we have. La Pianista will get better as time goes on, she's still training, and some people (who are not as tone deaf as I) can tell that she's improving. If only half of her 10 or so released works make FS, that's okay with me, as that's five more than we'd have without her. Sven ManguardWha?00:38, 21 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
This message is going out to all of the Online Ambassadors who are, or will be, serving as mentors this term.
Hi there! This is just a friendly reminder to check in on what your mentees are doing. If they've started making edits, take a look and help them out or do some example fixes for them, if they need it. And if they are doing good, let them know it!
Hey there. One of the classes working with the Wikipedia Ambassador Program, Jonathan Obar's Media and Telecommunication Policy, is working in small groups and would like us to assign a mentor to each group (rather than having students request the mentors they'd like, as other classes are doing).
I invite you to sign on as the mentor for one or more groups, especially if any of the topics catch your interest. To sign up, go to the course page and add yourself as "Mentor: you" in the section for that group. They students and/or professor or campus ambassadors should be cleaning things up soon to list all the usernames for each group and add a few more groups. Once you know who the students are in the group, you can leave them each a quick introduction to let them know you'll be mentoring their group.
The Featured Sound Main Page Proposal Voter Barnstar
I was truly humbled by the overwhelming community support for the recent proposal to place featured sounds on the main page. The proposal closed on Tuesday with 57 people in support and only 2 in opposition.
It should take a few weeks for everything to get coded and tested, and once that is done the community will be presented with a mock up to assess on aesthetic appeal.
Finally, I invite all of you to participate in the featured sounds process itself. Whether you're a performer, an uploader, or just come across a sound file you find top quality, and that meets the featured sound criteria, you can nominate it at Wikipedia:Featured sound candidates. Featured sounds is also looking for people to help assess candidates (also at Wikipedia:Featured sound candidates.)
I doubt you feel like tackling Scarbo (though I suspect you could do it, actually), but is there any chance I could convince you to tackle Ondine or Le gibet, which are incredibly beautiful? Adam Cuerden(talk)19:15, 23 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Who's Randon, and why did he make you ask me a question instead doing it himself?
Click here first. I believe you're in possession of a scroll wheel. If you are one of the unfortunate individuals who do not have one, there's a handy bar to your right (which is that direction →). You'll see a little rectangle in the bar. Click on it, drag it down alllll the way down to the bottom of the bar, and look at the screen. The word should be toward your left (which, if you've forgotten, is in that direction ←). It helps if you use your finger to point along as you read; don't forget to sound out all the letters. Don't give up! You'll see it soon enough. — La Pianista♫ ♪23:48, 23 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
(don't worry, I recall Pianista forgetting to scroll all the way to the bottom once herself and making the same mistake... :D) Icy // ♫14:42, 27 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Looking through your remaining unfeatured recordings, and ignoring the ones still up for review:
I think the Brahms is just too short of an extract to feature, well-played as it is.
I may be able to edit the Beethoven with a filter to attempt to reduce the background noise, if you don't think that's misleading.
The Mozart is a bit too recent to review again, though I do think we should consider revisiting it in a couple months.
We should probably skip the Satie Gnossiennes 4-7, unless we can get a really definite statement on copyright. As it is, they're a little too ambiguous in that respect to consider for the main page.
Does that sound about right? Obviously, from a musicianship perspective, I don't think that any of these have any real issues, Tony's incredibly picky critique of the Mozart notwithstanding. Adam Cuerden(talk)09:21, 28 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, er, sure. I wasn't even looking into nominating these, haha. Thank you, really, very much. :)
I know - I only uploaded the Brahms for use in the article.
Noise reduction is perfectly fine. Thanks. :)
No need to re-review the Mozart - actually, in retrospect, I agree with Tony's comments.
Indeed, the copyright regarding the Satie is quite sketchy. As you say, it's best to leave them as is. And yes, this is an absurd hour for me in the US. Up late studying, as usual. — La Pianista♫ ♪09:27, 28 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I did wonder about the time there, I must admit =)
Anyway, noise reduction's pretty fast to apply. I cut 7 seconds at the start to remove a "scooching in the piano bench" sound, but the actual performance is completely unaltered, outside of the noise reduction (well, it may have become very slightly louder thanks to how I do noise reduction, but not significantly). See what you think! P.S. There is seriously no need to credit me for this edit, ever. Adam Cuerden(talk)09:50, 28 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict) I like it! And..."seriously no need to credit" you? How about non-seriously? I can do that.
Additional note: I'm opposed to editing that has to do with modifying the performance itself - in other words, the notes that are actually played. As far as acoustic, noise reduction, cropping...it would be silly of me to be against that. Thanks again for all your help, Adam.
By the way, out of curiosity, what was this? It's what you accidentally uploaded instead of the Piano Sonata the first time. It sounds very interesting, but it's not a piece I know. Adam Cuerden(talk)10:22, 28 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Oh gosh I was hoping no one would find it. >.> It's a very embarrassing rendition of Brahms's Op. 79 No. 2. In my defense, I had gotten only four hours of sleep the night before, and had played the first movement of the Tchaikovsky first concerto twice that day. And I was chock full of Benadryl to combat some awful allergies I had had that afternoon (and, as you know, the best medications are not non-drowsy) :p My eyes were literally drooping at the piano, and I was looking at the keys through my eyelashes. Not the best of days.
I forget in a couple of places and severely mess up in others, although the ending isn't quite a disaster, if I may say so myself. Still, it will be quite a while before I get to redo it and upload a passable take. — La Pianista♫ ♪10:26, 28 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I think you're being a little hard on yourself - there are some moments of brilliance in there, particularly in the interpretation of the main theme. Talent shows, even on a bad day. Some passages are a bit awkward, and there's some flubs (fairly well-covered) around the starts of some sections, which do merit a rerecording, but I wouldn't call it embarrassing, exactly, simply not quite up to your usual standards, which are very high.
You've done Tchaikovsky's first concerto? That's one of my favourite pieces of music. Probably can't upload it, though, given the orchestra or orchestral replacement, alas. Adam Cuerden(talk)10:53, 28 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
...You see, normally here, I'd rant about my standards being perfectly fine, and how bad my Mozart/Chopin seem to be already. But I lack the energy, and I'm starting to feel like a bitch at this point, with all you nice folks complimenting and appreciating me and so forth. So I'll hush.
It's good your standards are high. It's what drives you to do as excellent work as you do. =) But there's a certain underlying talent that you have that shows through, even in a relatively bad performance such as the Brahms Rhapsody. I can't wait to hear the good version of it. =) Adam Cuerden(talk)11:08, 28 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Boy, remember the days when we mindlessly jabbed at each other on a minute-by-minute basis with little getting done? Now look at us. You're accumulating featured sounds at a torrid pace and I've got a bunch of featured articles. Betcha no one would have guessed this outcome in late 2008. :-) Ed[talk][majestic titan]22:44, 1 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Just to note, you may want to upload this locally: Bartok's in copyright in Hungary, but not in America. En-wiki accepts works that are only out of copyright in America, but Commons does not. As for the work itself, it sounds great. =) Adam Cuerden(talk)01:53, 2 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
By the way, you may want to hold off a little bit on nominating the Bartok; I'm explaining why a Ravel work is out of copyright in America, and once I have, it won't need explained for the Bartok =) Adam Cuerden(talk)02:57, 3 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Please take a look at this project page and see if you can be a mentor to one of the many Areas of Study. If you can, please put your name in the "Online Mentor" area of the Area of Study of your choice and then contact the students you will be working with. As the Coordinating Online Ambassador for this project, please let me know if I can be of assistance. Take Care...Neutralhomer • Talk • 04:19, 3 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Check Your Area of Study
Hello, I have updated the Project Page you are mentoring on with usernames for all the students in your Area of Study. Please send them a message introducing yourself and let them know you are there to help.
This is a quick message to all the ambassadors about marking and tracking which articles students are working on. For the classes working with the ambassador program, please look over any articles being worked on by students (in particular, any ones you are mentoring, but others who don't have mentors as well) and do these things:
Add {{WAP assignment | term = Spring 2011 }} to the articles' talk pages. (The other parameters of the {{WAP assignment}} template are helpful, so please add them as well, but the term = Spring 2011 one is most important.)
If the article is related to United States public policy, make sure the article the WikiProject banner is on the talk page: {{WikiProject United States Public Policy}}
Add Category:Article Feedback Pilot (a hidden category) to the article itself. The second phase of the Article Feedback Tool project has started, and this time we're trying to include all of the articles students are working on. Please test out the Article Feedback Tool, as well. The new version just deployed, so any bug reports or feedback will be appreciated by the tech team working on it.
And of course, don't forget to check in on the students, give them constructive feedback, praise them for positive contributions, award them {{The WikiPen}} if they are doing excellent work, and so on. And if you haven't done so, make sure any students you are mentoring are listed on your mentor profile.
Adam wanted me to make a mock up for multi-part FSes, and I decided to have fun with it. Figured I'd show you. Since you were not on IRC I have to post it here, where everyone can see it. Mock up.Sven ManguardWha?07:17, 16 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
(edit conflict) Meh, if I had a time machine I'd send her to go chill with Barkok or Debussy or Chopain. I'm sure she'd look fetching in a toga, but it dosen't seem like the best use of resources to send her to Ancient Rome. Sven ManguardWha?04:27, 17 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Can you copy this over to En-wiki? The copyright status of this in Russia is a little ambiguous, so it's best to have it here, under a {{KeepLocal}} template. Commons can be really, really horrible about keeping things on track, and it'd be a shame to lose this, three years before its status becomes completely unambiguous. Adam Cuerden(talk)16:14, 17 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Hope noone minds, but I've shoved the local copy ontop of the one Commonsside. If the Commons copy gets deleted, there would have been bunches of red links. Three years from now, we can just zap the local copy. (And if no one remembers, it's not a big deal.) Courcelles03:59, 18 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Nobody minds at all. That said, I'm a nobody...<mopes>
Check out what Ed did, it's quite great and relates to what we do as a job. Also, how is the playing as these long nights are quite lonely without my comic relief on the internet. Kevin Rutherford (talk) 03:45, 19 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Got a message about an hour ago from Professor Obar of the Media and Telecommunication Policy project and I think it is viewed best in full:
Can you please communicate to the online mentors that I DO NOT want them moving student material into the main space for them. This is a big problem. I have noticed that this has happened with a number of the projects already, for example, in the broadband.gov article and the media cross-ownership article. We need the students to be doing this on their own, of course so they can learn how to do it, and also so that I can grade what they've done. How am I supposed to follow student submissions if the data is associated with online mentors? A BIG PROBLEM ALREADY... please help me with this. None of you responded to my post about this on the discussion page. This is about to get out of hand. Jaobar (talk) 05:27, 20 March 2011 (UTC)
With that, of course, please only give instructions on how to move, don't do it for them. Please only let them know what to do and let them do it themselves. If they run into problems, provide further instructions. Do not it for them. This seems to be making a mess of Prof. Obar's grading system and I would like to avoid that. Thanks. - Neutralhomer • Talk • Coor. Online Amb'dor • 06:14, 20 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Done, although I'm sorry to say that this will be the last of my participation in FS. I tried my best not to be selfish, but I feel that the gains no longer outweigh the setbacks of my being there. — La Pianista♫ ♪22:57, 21 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I am very sad to hear that but I understand after see the reply you received. I hope you rethink this some day after the winds change. Please accept this:
This is the third issue of the Wikipedia Ambassador Program Newsletter, with details about what's going on right now and where help is needed.
Where the courses are - A brief summary of how each of the 31 Public Policy Initiative courses are faring so far in the Spring 2011 term, as of 9-11 March. Feel free to add more detail.
Tracking students' articles - Make sure students' articles are tagged with {{WAP assignment}} on the talk pages, and have the newly improved Article Feedback Tool active.
Online Ambassadors logistics - If you don't have a Wikipedia Ambassador sweatshirt, now's your chance to get one! (Also, some other more mundane, but important, details.)
Steering committee preparing proposals - Look for discussions about two major proposals about the future ambassador program soon: the "Regional Ambassador" role, and elections for a new committee.
I'd like to echo that. Having seen the various discussions and recognising the name I followed the link from today's Signpost. It's absolutely superb. Bravo! MalleusFatuorum02:22, 22 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I am music stupid, honest, but is there some way you could play SOMETHING in the Myrrha music section? It is not about the stunningness as in listening to a CD (although I quite liked your piece that I listened to and I'm even classical music stupid, but it had a nice feel to it). But I just want to try to cross-fertilize. not just have music in articles about music and composers, but even in articles about subjects! Please consider!!! TCO (talk) 06:26, 23 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I tried Internet searching (not sure I know how to find stuff, but)
Here is a site that has a sound file for Myrrha gavotte (John Philip Sousa) done to piano. http://www.angelfire.com/ks/landzastanza/ (can I use that or will that be non-free)?
What do you think of this piece? [1] - it has a big advantage over the Sousa of being a recognised piano composition (well, more or less - the instrument it was written for doesn't exist anymore, and was some sort of pentatonic harmonium). Adam Cuerden(talk)17:10, 23 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I would take whatever I can get, whatever we can find a sound file of, or are willing to play and make a recording. This piece sounds good too. Started slow, but got good at the end.TCO (talk) 17:30, 23 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Hm, after a few determined weekends, I think I could write up the sheet music for this (unless you can find the sheet music for me :3 )
TCO asked to be blocked until May 1 so he could concentrate on other things. I refused, but another admin did. Hopefully we'll see him back in a month.--Wehwalt (talk) 16:21, 30 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I worry about this type of thing, La Pianista. You should play what you want and what is best for your training. Sure, taking one or two requests is a nice gesture, so long as you're still enjoying yourself and this isn't setting you back, but it seems like you've taken a lot more than one or two requests as of late. Wikipedia is like a great tentacled sea monster, it's big, it's ugly, and it'll suck you in and consume you if you're not careful. Perhaps if you said "I can take this many requests for the next three months, set your own terms on what you're willing to do and when, and then make us compete for your affection have us request your time within that type of framework, it would be better. I feel guilty that we're setting your musical education/playlist for you. Sven ManguardWha?17:13, 30 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Just as a talk page drive by, I have to agree. It sounds too much like the Wiki affecting your real life. I'm somewhat older, so I have the time to do stuff like travel to archives and whatnot, but you are learning, I would not let this affect your real life so intimately.--Wehwalt (talk) 17:16, 30 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
"A great tentacled sea monster"? Omai. If you say so, then. :) I admit, I'm relieved to let this go. I hope TCO won't have a problem with it.
As for letting Wikipedia affect my real life overmuch - I think this is the only time I've offered to take requests. The Miroirs decision was mostly my own, and I've been wanting to play that for a while. No worries. — La Pianista♫ ♪18:29, 30 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
I'll work on the Myrrha Gavotte, then (which you shouldn't, anyway: It's literally impossible to play as written. See Page 3, starting on the second bar of the page.) The Mirra Intermezzo does sound like a very interesting piece. If you cannot find it, let me know - I've been meaning to run down to the British Library, and they have a copy. Adam Cuerden(talk)00:02, 2 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Just wanted to let you know that I created the talk page for this group. Have you been in touch with them? Let's start communicating about this group. As noted on our course discussion page, I have provided my private email address if you need to ask me something in private. Let's get this project going! Jaobar (talk) 16:34, 1 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Ah yes, I was going to email them only two days ago, in fact. But real life got in the way, my apologies. Where is the discussion page? — La Pianista♫ ♪19:30, 1 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Hi, I'm Elif, assisting Dr. Obar for this course. We just created the discussion page on the " Minority representation in media" article page. Just wrote a sentence to get the discussion started. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Elifyilmaz (talk • contribs) 04:36, 3 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]
