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Joined: Mar 2008
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OP
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Hi I'm preparing for the competition. I feel like I have no consistency in a good playing. I think it depends on my emotion and the piano used that day. Some parts it has to be danced but at the moment I don't really feel it. And to say about touches,I cannot control all of them that I want to listen to. So Do you have any tips? That would be very helpful. Thanks
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Joined: Sep 2010
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You need to be aware of when which touch is appropriate. You undoubtably use arm weight but do you know you're doing it? Can you look through a score and say exactly where your fingers, hand and arm will be at all times?
Laissez tomber les mains
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It's not clear from your post whether your problem is purely technical or musical.
If it's the former, it's remedied by practising passages with a range of touch ranging from leggiero to pesante. Mendelssohn is great for the former (e.g. his Rondo capriccioso, 'Bee's Wedding'); Prokofiev is great for the latter (e.g. Montagues & Capulets from Romeo & Juliet). Above all, acquire complete finger independence and control of voicing to the extent that it becomes second nature.
If it's a musicality problem, maybe you need to widen your horizons - watch ballet, learn to dance, listen to chamber music, opera and song recitals as well as piano recitals.
If music be the food of love, play on!
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Joined: Nov 2009
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Good replies so far. BTW, you sound as though you don't have a teacher, which is fine but it makes it a bigger uphill battle than usual when you're trying to do stuff like competitions.
(If you do have a teacher, it seems surprising that you'd be at such a loss on what you're asking!)
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Joined: May 2012
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I'm not sure what OP is asking.
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I'm not sure what OP is asking. I think it's pretty clear. It's just impossible to answer simply, especially other than 'in person.'
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I'm not sure what OP is asking. I think it's pretty clear. It's just impossible to answer simply, especially other than 'in person.' It isn't clear to me whether s/he's talking about general quality of tone production, or consistency of tone from note to note during a long melody per say.
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Good question. You're right that that's not totally clear, but it sounds pretty much to me like it's mostly something pretty close to the former (more like, having the desired sound in a given section) but some of both.
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Joined: May 2012
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Whatever it may be... step one: have a well-regulated action. (especially if you're going to play Chopin op. 36)
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Consistency is not necessarily a good thing. If your mood tells you to play a piece one way, even though at other times you play it another way, that opens your mind to other possibilities. If your technique allows you to play it in different ways according to your mood, you may have better control than you are giving yourself credit for.
Semipro Tech
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As a technician, the first thing I check is its overall dynamic range from soft to loud.
"Imagine it in all its primatic colorings, its counterpart in our souls - our souls that are great pianos whose strings, of honey and of steel, the divisions of the rainbow set twanging, loosing on the air great novels of adventure!" - William Carlos Williams
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Joined: Jun 2005
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I actually hear a third possibility in all of this: consistency from day-to-day, which could be translated as "...still playing a piece the way it needs to be played even when you're not in that particular mood."
I want to lean towards technique over musicality, but man, there's a good argument there for both. If we considered musicality to include, at least, being able to put yourself in the mood of the piece (or being able to "feel and translate" the mood of the piece), then it could easily be the culprit over technique.
I'm not sure, given the information available, that this one can be easily answered?
Every day we are afforded a new chance. The problem with life is not that you run out of chances. In the end, what you run out of are days.
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Can't swallow that. The day one's 'mood' equates with musicality will be a sad one indeed!
Laissez tomber les mains
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Can't swallow that. The day one's 'mood' equates with musicality will be a sad one indeed! I agree. That's why I didn't say that.
Every day we are afforded a new chance. The problem with life is not that you run out of chances. In the end, what you run out of are days.
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Some years ago I went to a well known pianist's concert. I knew he had just jumped off the plane and had a 100ยบ fever. Was he in the mood? I wouldn't think so. Did he play magnificently? Sure did.
Last edited by chopin_r_us; 12/31/13 05:30 PM.
Laissez tomber les mains
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Excuse me, but he had a 90 degree fever?
Regards,
Polyphonist
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Sorry, I was confusing my heatwaves with my fevers - 100ยบ.
Laissez tomber les mains
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That sounds more like it.
Regards,
Polyphonist
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Sorry, I was confusing my heatwaves with my fevers - 100ยบ. If you're talking celsius, that'd be one heck of a heat wave..
Every day we are afforded a new chance. The problem with life is not that you run out of chances. In the end, what you run out of are days.
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and one heck of a fever.
p.s. I forgot about the bizarre heck thing. Was this forum's software written in the 19th century or what?
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