Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner How do you play 'Für Elise'?

I am practicing 'Für Elise' nowadays, but I find it not easy to play the second and fourth phases, I wonder how you guys practice it? I wonder how pianists can play it that fast? Is it all about practicing?

Lc:

It's sort of a vague question when you ask "how" one practices the second and fourth "phases."

I think you need to be specific about what difficulties you are having before people will know how to respond.

Learning every piece well is "all about practicing," isn't it? But that means knowing what the difficulties are and how to reasonably go about solving them in meaningful and efficient practice sessions.

Regards,

My kid played this a couple years ago. He got very fast. The technique his teacher recommends is starting it at a painfully slow speed with a metronome where you can hit every note. Slowly increase the speed with the metronome from there. Only up the speed when you can play that passage without error and with good voicing/phrasing. If you're honest with this system, it works great for building speed here.

Couple things. You need to do a search on analysis. They often say that Fur Elise should start off like it's appearing from nowhere, suddenly there. I picture a woman coming up over a hill, suddenly there she is. Follow the crescendos, descresdendos carefully. Again I think of it as up and down a hill. Steady counting 1 and 2 and 3 and 1 and 2 and 3. Expression, quietly. For additional sections, follow articulation, practice trills/apoggiaturas carefully. Get it correct at a slower speed first. Always practice at the speed you need for the most difficult part. Then slowly increase speed as others have mentioned. Let us know how it goes. You are listening to it? Not everyone plays it fast. It's fallen open to interpretation just by it's popularity. Good luck.

I would suggest trying to identify the specific spots that give you trouble. Where exactly do you stumble when you try to play faster?

My teacher advises looking for transitions between particular notes that are causing you trouble. Then focus in on those spots to get them working. The more specifically you can identify what's holding you back, the more efficiently you can practice. (Of course, a good teacher is a huge help, both in identifying the problems and in solving them!)

Then when you put the piece back together, you may notice other spots as the speed increases. If so, I'd stop and work on those. You can move back and forth between checking your progress with the metronome and working out trouble spots, if you like.

Hi, thanks for the instructions! I checked the pieces that are not easy for me are:

Piece 1 , Piece 2 ,
Piece 3

The images are not very helpful. You have included images of 37 measures of the music in three sections - which means one-third of the entire work - but you don't say what, specifically, is difficult for you.

That might be part of the problem; if you can't specifically articulate the problem, people can't offer solutions. You have to be able to pinpoint what techniques exactly are difficult for you (scale passages - evenness and fingering; repeated notes, Alberti bass accompaniment) before anyone can attempt to offer practice solutions.

Regards,

Like BruceD, but I was thinking of a more specific sort of specific.

For instance, in your first example above, people would give different advice depending on where and what your problem is. If the third measure, it's probably an issue of two-hand coordination. Third measure of the second line, you need rapid rotation in the right hand.

Within each section, see which measures are ok for you and which you have problems with. Then see which particular notes. See if it's a problem playing either hand alone, or only when you put them together.

Work really slowly on the bits you find difficult, to get them comfortable before you worry about speed. But I think you need a teacher to help you.

BTW I haven't looked, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are other forum threads about this piece, since it's so widely played. You might want to try doing a search.

What note or group of notes is giving you trouble?

Get a teacher.

Linda Dear,

The section(s) you posted are the most difficult textures to play in that piece. They're very hard to do if your tempo is too fast. This is most likely the case.

The overall tempo of this piece is quite slow, slower than most of the garbage you hear on Youtube by 3-year-olds trying to make their super-competitive teachers happy. Pay no attention to them.

Having said that, about the tempo I mean, you should be practicing these new sections even slower than you will play them at the suitably slow, lyrical tempo. Until you can do them slowly, you should not try them faster.

Let us know how that works.

Hi, Laguna,

Sounds like you understand me exactly, I guess that's the case, it's not any easy to play those textures. Even with right hand it won't be easy, additionally using the left hand along, it's just not working naturally. And sometimes I can't find the correct place for left hand. I guess I shall practice those textures slowly. When I listen to the pianists' mp3, they are always quite fast, so I thought it should be played in fast tempo. I guess it's not for me at the moment.

How about like this:

http://youtu.be/mCfGXwx1mJs?t=33s

If your having issues at the start don't learn the rest. The middle of the piece is quite fast and complex for a beginner.

Hmm, that sounds right. Could you please recommend some easy and simple piano music sheets, I just can play C major at the moment, hehe. Thanks.

Some of these might work !!! And they'll get you out of the key of C major !!

Kabalevsky - Clowns

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/528546/Clowns---Kabalevsky

http://youtu.be/jPLoAbGzMG0

Mozart - Allegro in B Flat K.3

http://youtu.be/T7zC-0cQVwM

Bach - Musette in D

http://www.8notes.com/scores/613.asp

http://youtu.be/Fa8Wqn2fDaA

Schumann - Soldiers March

http://www.gmajormusictheory.org/Freebies/Classics/Soldiers.pdf

http://youtu.be/w7ouYmyW3vo

Beethoven - Sonatina in G

http://www.allpianoscores.com/free_scores.php?id=155

http://youtu.be/t36bnDrgQ20

Hi Carey,

Actually all the Kabalevsky pieces would be suitable from that opus.

Also, you could look at my favorite set for advancing intermediates, the Alexander Tansman "Pour les Enfants" in four graded books.

Good point !!

More than two-thirds (70%) of the dreaded Fur Elise plods along at a slow gait ... thank goodness Ye Olde Beethoven
threw in a few gallops to prevent us from falling asleep.

Pardon the frivolity chaps ... but when as Piano Teacher,
we hear the umteenth crass student ham the jolly little ditty,something needs to be said of the structure of the piece, where the likes of the mighty Vladimir Ashkenazy,
provide a guiding hand to slacken the pace to a crawl,
so as to add sparkle to the fast bits.

1. From m45-57 (12 measures) ... zippy duet climaxing at m49-50 repeat
2. From m82-99 (16 measures) ... blocky chords over a drumming rhythmic bass
3. From m100-106 (6 measures) ... arpeggiated triple ascent/chromatic descent
So get the above quick measures sorted out and Fur Elise is a piece of cake.

Hope you like cake chaps,
regards, btb

@Carey, Thank you for the recommendation, they sound nice. However, do you have any recommendation for C major? Like easy simple music at the moment?

@Laguna, what are your favorite sets?

@btb, sorry I have no idea what you are talking about? I didn't learn piano in English, maybe that's why I don't understand you?