Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Moonlight sonata 1st movement required hand span?

Hello, I span comfortably 1 octave but when playing the first movement of the moonlight where you have to start adding G# in the right hand, it starts to get really difficult for my hands and it feels as if it was meant to be played by someone with bigger hands because I am struggling to reach. Or is it just lack of technique?

When I first started playing that piece I developed pain in my left hand that lasted for a long time (at least months). I can't say for sure that was the cause, but I am now more careful with large spans. There are others with more expertise that can probably give you better advice, but I don't try to hit both or all the notes at once anymore. Instead I use the sustain pedal and hit them one at a time quickly.

The G# is an octave span -- ?? Can you hit the AB in measure 8 and the BCnat in measure 16? If so, I think you just need to focus on relaxing. There is a rhythm to the right hand movement in this piece and once you find it, it becomes far, far easier to play. Notice how you can pivot your hand slightly on the last note of the measure (3rd or 4th finger) to reach the next measure's opening notes? You may need to raise your wrist slightly. The end result should be that you can casually walk your hand up and down the keys instead of locking your fingers into a claw - which creates a lot of tension and forces you to pick up your whole hand off the keys and move the claw to the next group of triplets. That doesn't sound very pretty, although my Mom used to tell me it was beautiful.

I think its technique, although I am unable to speculate why it feels uncomfortable for you. You just said you're physically capable of comfortably reaching an octave (sounds like our hand spans are similar), so I'm not sure why the following notes might be straining your hands/fingers.

If anything, I would have thought you'd be asking about playing the ninth in the eighth measure, but you don't mention that. That one is a bit of a stretch for me.

Can you elaborate more on the discomfort?

It was not painful it was just quite a stretch for some reason. The ninth is not a huge problem since you have G# to B which is a little bit smaller than a G natural to B

I think it's just lack of experience of such music at this point.

I think most of the discomfort comes from playing it both hands at the same time from the very beginning. Struggling to stay focused and read both staves (not that there is anything much going on in the left hand at the beginning) but I suppose it puts extra pressure.

This will be one of the things I'll pick up again at a later point I was just curious about playing a little bit of it and I got as far as I wanted already, so that's enough.

I was assigned this piece last year (after much reluctance) and only studied it after hearing an andras schiff lecture who made it different piece. I wouldn't recommend his tempo preference until you can play with ease.


Anyway concerning your hands I had the exact same issues at first. Your octave span isn't the issue but the muscles/tendons (Taubman students here? hehe ) in between.

When you play pieces like this where you're playing the melody and accompaniment on one hand lack of suppleness is going to be felt. I had to shake my hands a lot but it wasn't a problem for long. There are a few more tricky stretches along to way. There is one near the end it was very hard on my hands. It must look for the score again and see if I've grown

My right-hand span is about 12-13mm longer than my left . Most probably from that damn piece.

Devane,

Thanks for posting the Andras Schiff lecture. How wonderful and enlightening! He has quite the funny personality.

Debra - as it says in the title of the YouTube video, he did a series covering every single sonata. They are just wonderful.

I was trying to work my way through each of them but found I needed to devote more attention to them than I ever seen to be able to find! Anyway here are all the lectures.

No problem. It’s a well known resource here. Since this lecture put a new spin on this piece plus the opportunity to learn a new skill I decided to learn it and subsequently forget most of it . Memorization is another story though.

Notice the speed in "Immortal Beloved" is the same
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITz7jYDZI_0&feature=player_detailpage#t=101s




Thanks for finding the page. I downloaded the lot last year. I thought they would be gone by now considering the whole things weighs in @ 943Mb. A pretty generous from the Guardian.


In the piano grades at my local board the skill of playing a melody and accompaniment on one hand is something that appears around grade 5-6. It’s really easy to play this piece with your melody inaudible if you don't pay attention. This piece is an ideal piece for this vital skill.
And if you master this within the time it takes to learn this piece you're bloody brilliant.