u/Advanced_Honey_2679

Some influencers like Hedrick say you should pound the bed (coffee bed) with a high altitude, high flow, high turbulence pour. Others say the pour should be a slow gentle flow. Curious if anyone tried both and what did you find out?

Besides “get a teacher” - our favorite advice in this sub - what other advice have you gotten that you’d rather not want to hear. Curious to see the responses.

Lot of beautiful slow movements, I’ll start by throwing one out there.

Schubert Sonata D958. The Adagio in Ab major is one of the most incredible 10 minutes of music ever written, and rewards close and careful listening.

Go ahead and nominate yours.

And why do you love it? I’m really enjoying Scriabin’s Sonata No 3 right now. When people mention his sonatas it’s usually 2 / 4 / 5 / and the late ones that get the love.

For me Sonata No 3 is a masterpiece. There are almost no wasted measures or movements in it. Every movement is exceptional. The first movement features Scriabin’s trademark dotted repeated notes which he uses heavily in his later famous masterwork Fantasie Op 28. The second movement is brisk, energetic, fun. And the third movement is so sensual when played right it’s just takes you to another realm. And the final movement “Presto con fuoco“ is such a perfect way to cap off the 20 minute work with flair.

Would love to hear some of yours, a description of why you love it would be appreciated!

I’ve been getting down the rabbit hole of pourover recipes and the more I watch them the more confused I get.

Recently I saw Kasuya’s 10-pour recipe and he’s like, this is THE BEST recipe ever, backed by years of research yada yada. And Lance Hedrick has this video where he does it and he’s like, I just can’t recommend it.

And then we have James Hoffmann’s “Ultimate” V60 recipe. And it’s a 5-pour recipe, using water OFF THE BOIL. And I try it myself and it just tasted way overextracted no matter what I do.

Then we have these influencers who say the Orea dripper is the BEST THING EVER, and then people who actually tried it (mainly Redditors) just say it tastes mostly the same as a V60. Hedrick actually says it’s worse than a V60.

I see these videos like some World Brewing champion gives their ultimate recipe. And it’s always something different, some brew super hot some brew super cool, some grind super coarse some grind super fine, some do a 2-pour a 3-pour a 5-pour a 6-pour. Etc etc.

At this point it just seems like hand wavy in the sense they’re just making some stuff up and they are saying it’s the best because they said so. And everyone follows them because clout. Until someone else says this other recipe is the best. And nobody even knows what’s going on.

For me, because of all the people in the house, my dream piano would have to be a Novus NV12. I get the grand action in a compact space, and I can practice without bothering the family.

What‘s yours?

(2000 rapid here)

I see a lot of posts here asking how to get my ELO up, my ELO is stuck, by ELO is dropping help.

The one attitude that gave me the biggest improvements is stop trying to protect your ELO. Specifically, stop trying to be afraid of losing.

A lot of learning in chess comes from trying new ideas and see what happens.

• Let’s suppose I see a complicated situation and I think there might be a tactic here but I’m afraid to take it because I’m afraid of losing.
• Or let’s say I want to learn a new opening but I’m afraid that it will set my ELO back so I will go back to my bread and butter conservative stuff. You don’t grow this way.

I have streaks where I lost a TON of games in a row because I was trying ideas and see what happens. But the thing is through this whole time I was learning even though I wasn’t winning. At some point these ideas came together and I took a MASSIVE leap forward.

It’s like that farmer who waters the bamboo tree. Initially there is nothing there but dirt. It doesn’t sprout for the longest time but when it does, it explodes out of the ground.

So it is summer and our kids are at home all day long. It’s a constant cacophony of sounds. I can’t practice for 10 minutes without a kid walking up to me, or arguing with each other about something trivial.

I’m like not motivated to practice at all. lol

But then school will start, and all will be peaceful at home. And I will be motivated to practice once again.

Once or twice a year, I book a one-off lesson (paid at their hourly rate) with a local teacher besides my own.

I like to get to know different teachers in my metro so I usually don’t book the same teacher twice. I’ve gotten lessons from probably about 10 - 12 teachers in my area so far.

Usually it’s just to get an outside perspective on my playing, my technique, my journey, my repertoire, anything my current teacher may have missed, and so on.

I really like and appreciate my current teacher, I’m not looking to switch or anything. Let me know what you think of my approach, whether you’re a teacher yourself or a fellow student.

So almost none of my friends, family, or neighbors are interested in pour-over. But I feel like some desire to share with others, like a pour-over meetup, a pour-over competition, basically anything where I get to hang out with like-minded folks.

But I am starting to think this is niche enough that unless you’re in a major city, it’s tough finding others who enjoy pour-over who also happen to want to meet up. Any ideas welcome!

I saw the other post about “piano elitism” and just had to chime in.

When we - as experienced pianists and piano teachers - advise beginners to (1) get a teacher, (2) don’t bite off more than you can chew, (3) caution about injury risk.

That is SOUND ADVICE. Not “elitism”.

In fact the opposite is true. When you think of ANY other instrument. Let’s violin for example.

If I go in waltzing to the r/violinist subreddit as a 1-month beginner and saying I don’t want a teacher, I am currently learning the Paganini Caprice 24. Any advice? They would tell me to move my post to circle jerk.

To think the piano is somehow easier to learn because it uses keys instead of a bow and strings, to me, is just arrogance.