Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner What's The Greatest Technical Difficulty For Pianists?

I really want to improve my technique and I was wondering about your thoughts on what is the greatest technical difficulty for pianists and how to overcome that challenge with like ex) exercises. Is there one specific challenge that the Greats have conquered that few ever reach or know of unless you dedicate a lot of time to the instrument? Many thanks in advance.

The biggest struggle most pianists have, great or not, is finding the passion to keep on practicing and playing. Everyone goes through that problem, regardless of how great they are. For example, the great Horowitz took a decade long hiatus from performance from lack of enthusiasm in playing; but he came back stronger than ever, and still a classical sensation.

It's not something that you can just "train" yourself to do; you have to find that reason for pursuing mastery of the piano, or you'll lose motivation to practice and eventually make less and less progress. I myself had a 2-3 year period in my life where I contemplated whether playing piano was even worth it anymore; I hadn't had a teacher in many years, and I just wasn't making anymore progress, so I kind of gave up on it. For me, what got me back into the swing of things was listening to classical music again, and rekindling my love for the genre. When I became fascinated with the music itself again, that was motivation enough to get me back to practicing. And now, some years later I can go for 3-4 hours without a break and still be fine, whereas before I'd get bored after just 45 minutes. You have to find your reason like I found mine. Once you have the passion, the rest will come eventually.

Why are you worried about conquering something only the greats have conquered? That might be appropriate if you presently play at a level just below the level of the greatest pianists or have already mastered every other aspect of technique except the hardest one(if such a thing existed)

Technique consists of many different things like playing very fast, octaves, thirds, scales, trills, chords, leaps. playing very softly or very loudly, tone production, pedaling, etc. ad infinitum. I don't think one can say that one aspect is harder than any other.

While some great pianists have certainly lost interest in practicing or playing, I don't think that applies to the majority of them.

Re Horowitz I think it was mental problems that caused his hiatus...more than a lack of enthusiasm. While he was certainly a sensation when he returned, I think many/some would say his playing was less great than in his earlier years.

In any event, lack of interest is not a problem of technique but of the mind.

[/quote]While some great pianists have certainly lost interest in practicing or playing, I don't think that applies to the majority of them.

Re Horowitz I think it was mental problems that caused his hiatus...more than a lack of enthusiasm. While he was certainly a sensation when he returned, I think many/some would say his playing was less great than in his earlier years.

In any event, lack of interest is not a problem of technique but of the mind.
[/quote]

I guess if you want to strictly speak technically, thirds, big arpeggios, and fast octaves seem to be the biggest. And of course, the trick to mastering them is proper posture of the hands, relaxed arms and wrists, and TONS of practice

I think the hardest part is probably very fast chords, and leaps. By leaps I mean like some of the trill endings in the Hammerklavier fugue, where a third hand would come in handy. There's also a couple of similarly challenging passages in the Diabelli Variations. Then of course you have the obviously virtuosic leaps like in the Schumann Fantasie.

For fast chords, to me the most obvious example is Prokofiev's Toccata.

+1 and +lots for the TONS of practice.

I think it makes no sense to say one type of technical challenge is more difficult than another. It's an apples to oranges type thing. Just like trying to decide if becoming a great tennis player is harder than becoming a great swimmer or great chef. For every type of challenge(the ones I listed and many more) one can find particular passages that are extremely difficult for almost every pianist.

I believe pianoloverus is CORRECT!

Pianoloverus has covered all the bases. Every pianist has different challenges and talents.

OscoBosco, there is no single answer because everyone's talents, available time, budget and physiology are different. If you want to improve your individual technique, practice hard and work with a top notch teacher who can pinpoint your weaknesses and help you work through them.

While your post has little to do with technique per se, I'm sure many of us can relate to your personal experience.

Sure, I'd say double notes in the left hand, large fast jumps are things that most pianists have trouble playing.

The problem with this kind of thinking ("I'll play the HARDEST piece to prove my technique is good!") is that there are many unrelated "areas" of technique that are all important. You need to work on all of them. It's a slow process, don't trick yourself into thinking you can make it faster by just practicing "the hardest" stuff.

I will say that fast dense chords are pretty much universally applicable, but they're also extremely hard for that reason. There's so many possible chords you can play this is just something you pick up over a long long time.

To improve your technique, work on your technical problems, not the ones that other people have. Do you have a clear idea of what your problems are? If not, you need a teacher to observe and advise.

Yeah. Horowitz was still making some really great records during those 12 years.

It might also depend on the anatomy of the hands.

Rachmaninoff might be difficult for small hands whereas music that requires playing between black keys might be difficult for large finger widths.

Some hands might be flexible and have wide webs between fingers while others might have closely packed fingers with narrow webs.

All of this might make some passages harder than others for different pianists.

That sounds like a candidate for gentle stretching exercises.

Currently mine is speed in arpeggios and scales and actually stamina. To improve, I'm currently working on etudes and relaxation techniques, and to be able to play with more effective movements. Not to mention, I've added a lot more time devotion to working on scales in all keys and arpeggios. Honestly, the "biggest" technical difficulty varies for each player and there is no one best way. However, I've found that to really improve, effective practice is really key. Also, it's better to master something cleanly with slow practice than to play something up to tempo but really messily. The metronome and slow practice (at least until you can cleanly play it at a slower speed) is definitely your friend!

If there is one technique that I am not really confident in, it's extremely fast, legato, ppp octaves. My hands are small, so I struggle to be fast and clean using 4-5 fingering in the right hand when this is called for. Average speed is no problem, but when they need to be soft and fast the difficulty seriously ramps up for me.

With things like double thirds, leaps, etc, it's just a matter of practice. Sure, they are difficult, but that can be overcome in a straightforward way with work. With the octave situation, it's a physical limitation that I have to work to find a way around. It's a different type of difficulty than something that just requires drilling.

Dr. Andrew Aarons made a video just about playing simultaneously soft and fast: