Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Prelude in C-sharp minor - Post your progress!

I can't get out of the idea that that last section is someone taking their last slowing breaths, with the octaves the exhales and the chords the drawn out inhales trying to hold on but getting weaker, and then the last measure is the final exhale. My teacher tried really hard to get me to think more positively about it, "okaaaaay. But then, after it ends, REBIRTH! Yay!"

Nice try.

You're off to a flying start. You'll see c sharp quite a few more times in this piece, so it's a terrific thing you've learned where three of them are.

That sounds like powerful enough emotion to keep anyone's attention.

Now if you can bring that emotion so the listeners feel they are at the side of a death bed, you are gold.

As long as it's not my own!

Two Snowflakes, I keep thinking about your comments about being an adult returning to the piano after a long hiatus. It's kind of weird at times.

My teacher just got back to me to say he is rethinking his approach with me for Rachmaninoff. He wants me to wait one more month before starting me on Rachmaninoff.

Why? Because he thinks I need to get more firmly grounded in the piece I'm currently working on. Past experience has shown that working on two challenging pieces at the same time can be problematic.

I am in agreement with this and of course will take his advice to wait and get started near the end of March. It was the adult Carl who promptly got back to his teacher to say, "OK! That makes sense. I'll go with that plan"

However, I must share with you that a kid, AKA Carl, was disappointed. It was only a brief moment of disappointment because the kid was reminded that adult Carl is paying for the lessons and advice, not kid Carl's parents.

Anyways, I suppose you and others can relate to these kinds of moments.

Lol, I totally hear, ya, Carl.

I've been in a bit of a slump, to be fair. My recital did not go very well, and I have been questioning the general wisdom of having tried to tackle this piece and pieces like it. I wonder if my teacher made some assumptions based on what I used to play and my inability to break through where I am is evidence that I should not be playing the things I'm playing.

That sense gets exacerbated because of late, I can't play anything well for my teacher and it's a huge circular trap. The worse I feel about it, the worse I play and then I get stuck.

But sometimes I knock it out of the park and I don't know where it came from. this happens every so often right in front of my teacher and she gets so excited. My arms free up, I fly. Everything is clear, and it's like I'm directly hooked into to the piano and all I have to do is feel it and the sound is just...there. I control everything. Like that scene in the Matrix where Neo becomes The One and dodges those bullets. Everything I've been working on--everything my teacher has been working so hard to mold and adjust--all those things start coming out and they start working for ME rather than me working for THEM. In that moment, I just can tell that plenty has changed and improved.

Then it goes away. I can feel it going and in an instant I go from Neo to Wile E. Coyote when he looks down and realizes he's run off a cliff.

I put up my little "Eep!" sign and down I plummet.

I can't figure out if I should judge myself from my worst or from my best. I don't know how to tap into my skills consistently enough, and it's frustrating.

I memorized the prelude today, though. At long last. I swear, I needed to take my medicine long before this.

And I played it through like champ today. Then murdered it. Then slowed it way back down and then again really well.

My teacher comes tomorrow for another lesson because she owes me a makeup lesson. We'll see if Neo or Wile greets her at the door.

Carl/griffin2417,

You describe the adult/kid dilemma so well! That's why I wasn't sure about being able to participate in this thread for a while. I'm glad to have survived to Week 2 as of today's lesson.

Week 2 Assignment: Keep playing 1st section w/o pedal, add in LH. Continue to address those wrists! Apparently, not only are the wrists supposed to go down and then up (relaxed) on each chord, the hands also are supposed to sort of move in toward what I think is called the fallboard (or away from the pianist) before moving on to the next chord. Less tension, more attention, something like that. Is there a name for this movement? I was assigned to knead dough to get the feel of it, but since I don't bake, I will get an F on that. (I wonder if I was supposed to bring the baked goods in for the next lesson?)

I don't know if these notes (no pun...) make any sense to anyone else???

TwoSnowflakes, I'm sending waves of empathy over the seesaw of the adult returnee experience. Playing "dependably" is one of my goals -- at some point.

Ha, that's hilarious because I am actually going to bake bread for my teacher tomorrow! It wasn't an assignment, though. She's bringing me some yummy stuff from a grocery store we both like, so I'm going to swap her for some freshly baked bread!

I'll think of my prelude when I knead it.

Yay!

TS, I can totally relate to the Wile E. Coyote feeling of running off a cliff. I've been at this for more than three years and have come to realize that it's all part of the learning process. Your sense of humor will get you through it, however.

Also, congratulations on getting the prelude memorized!!

Lesson went ok. I had my little moment but instead of soldiering through with the wrong approach, I stopped, asked for permission to restart, took a deep breath, and started again, trying to just keep focused. And it largely worked. I made 5-6 errors, annoying but not catastrophic, and my tempo climbed due to the anxiety of "performing" so my expression lagged.

After a few run-throughs of individual sections, I could give her my best and she could make corrections based on my best.

It's almost there. I can feel that in a small amount of time, this piece will be more hit and less miss.

ElaineAllegro,
Your notes made sense to me. I really appreciate your sharing what the first lesson was like. It was a good reminder for me that my teacher made the right recommendation for me to wait another month before I get started on the Prelude. That way I won't feel too overwhelmed with all of the new things I'll be working on.

BTW, I've already benefitted from learning about your first lesson. Just in case my teacher assigns me to knead dough, I'll pick up some dough from my neighborhood pizza shop and knead it. I won't bake anything with it, however. If my teacher is expecting baked goods when I arrive for the lesson I will offer to call the pizza shop and have them deliver a pizza. I don't see how he could object. Adult Carl is only paying for piano lessons-- not baking lessons.

Adult Carl probably likes some delicious herbed focaccia flatbread! Adult TwoSnowflakes certainly does. So easy and delicious.

So don't throw out that dough!

Both Adult Carl and the kid LOVE focaccia flatbread. Yum! I've only had it at restaurants. I didn't know it's easy to make. I'll try it out, and I happen to have a rosemary plant at home I use for roasted rosemary potatoes.

Thanks for the cooking tip!

I'm so glad your session went well. I've recently started doing deep breathing during my practice sessions, and now in front of my teacher before I start on a piece. I think it is starting to help me focus better.

You are definitely on your way with the Prelude! It's very telling when you don't let a few errors throw you. BTW, I'll probably need for you and others to help me remember this when I get started with it.

I too really appreciate all the practice tips everyone is sharing. phantomfive and ryanthepianist, great ideas for stretches! I'm not always the most disciplined but recently I've been trying to stretch frequently while at the piano. Stretching, especially around my wrists, and shaking out my hands to make sure they are relaxed.



Thanks richard. haha. the only chords I recognize at the piano in all of that are the C# minor ones. However, I did memorize that small section of the piece. whether it will all stick in the long run who knows. Each day I try to slowly go over the chords descending down the keyboard, just to reinforce the memory. It took me a few days to learn it. RH first, then I did the LH, then put them together. I'm glad I learned this first, so I can practice it and hopefully get some tempo while I'm learning the rest of the piece.

Other than that, I'm still working on bars 1-5. I think I'll try to memorize those, and that's really only 3 bars to memorize. I might try to do some memory work for this piece away from the piano. Dunno, we'll see.

I must have made some progress with the kneading motion, as I was told to add pedal after playing the first few measures during today's lesson. I'm going to stop saying which lesson # this is, because I don't want to see what the total is at the end.

My assignment/today's possibly helpful hints (Section 1/Lento):

1. For LH octaves that are played with the sustain (R) pedal (not sostenuto pedal), release the pedal just before playing the octave, play the octave, then quickly depress the pedal. So there is a moment totally without pedal. (Ordinarily, we would leave the pedal down, play the next octave or chord, then quickly up-down the pedal.) He feels this new approach provides a less muddied sound for this piece.

2. For the groups of 3 or 4 chords under a slur, hold down at least one if not two of the notes until the last possible moment while moving to the next chord, for better legato - while realizing this is not possible going from the 1st to 2nd RH chord in m. 4, 5, 9, etc., but if at least one hand can hold something down, it will help. (???m. 4 is actually the 5th measure that has any notes, but I guess partial measures aren't numbered; your score may vary.)

Re item #2, it's the kind of thing I've been advised over and over for so many pieces, but seems difficult for me to internalize, generalize, and apply automatically. Like so many things in piano. <sigh>

My teacher seems to have forgotten about the dough, so no baked goods, no pizza, no focaccia, and that's just as well. But maybe I'll plant rosemary if it ever thaws here.

Thanks for passing on this (pun alert) note, Damon. For those who don't want to translate from Henle's German website, my edition comments "Although it has often been printed, recorded, and misread as D natural, the D-sharp in the left hand here (measure 5) and in measure 48, is correct." Not that I doubted its correctness for a moment!

We went back to this piece during today's lesson. I was stopped after the third note for sidebar and demo on using shoulders, trapezius, back, not just elbows, to produce ff with nice tone. Sidebar led to shoulder roll forward and back exercises, to be done daily. First part/page is proceeding better, finally sort of connecting the slurred chords, getting the dynamics, mostly memorized, still much slower than "Lento, quarter note = 76." I need to listen to some recordings with my metronome. What bpm are the rest of you using for this page as you get it "recital ready"? (Not that I will be recitaling this for a long time...)

On to page 2, agitato, yes! But at lento pace for now. Tips for measures 14 to 35.5:

1. Start by playing just the melody notes in the RH, but with the other fingers over the keys where they would go. Try to connect the melody notes within each slur. So, a lot of 5-4-5-4 legato, oh joy, and some 5-5 legato, how is this possible??? Hold down some of the other notes while shifting, I imagine.

2. If that starts to sound good, add the 2nd and 3rd notes of each triplet, much more softly but still audibly.

3. Then add overall dynamics, including accent notes over tome of the melody notes (m. 25 and beyond).

I think it will take me longer than a week to get through #1 above to my teacher's satisfaction.

I'm enjoying posting these notes here; helps me keep track. It would be interesting to know how other teachers introduce new sections. I think the specific hints may reflect my own technique gaps, though, so I'm not sure how generalizable they are. Thoughts? Thank you...