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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!
I posted previously about this piece and got some great tips. I thought I will share the end result. I did underestimate the piece. I spent probably 4-5 months and got to this point. I'm aware it is not perfect but decided in the end to have a break and then try to finish it off later when I have more experience.
Great start! Currently learning this piece at the moment as well. Can only play up to about bar 32 so far.
One thing I would say, you seem to play slower and then in the crotchet triplets you speed up, I hope you know what I mean, the second half of bar 3 for example. I prefer the other way around, play the main passages a little bit quicker and slow down the crotchet triplets.
I can't offer much else at the moment other than stick with it. For me it is the most beautiful piece of piano music ever written. I have a recital in September/October and I'm hoping to be able to perform it then, however it's taken me a month to get the first 32 bars down.
Also I'm sure you've seen it but just in case you haven't, Horowitz's performance here at 34:10 is utterly sublime.
Bechstein A114 Enjoying piano since May 2018 My Youtube
Thank you for the tip and the video. No I have not heard the performance but I enjoyed the performance by Horowitz. I think it is a level about what you have played WTM so good luck. I'd be interested to see how you do. I too had intention to perform it but its too slow as the pieces need to be shorter than 7 mins. I had a similar problem with Listz Consolation 3 and found when I returned to it after 1 year it was very easy and I got it up to a much higher standard after only a month. I have a theory that breaks work best for slower dreamy pieces but not so much for very fast or busy pieces (which normally need a lot more work to get up to scratch after a break).
Accurate, and bringing the melody out well and all that. Slightly slower than I'm used to hearing it. If you're keeping it slow for accuracy then I applaud you. Good discipline with the tempo.
Sometimes the melody needs joining a bit more, when you get the four lead up notes. Sometimes it was ok, sometimes a bit separated.
I couldn't really pick anything apart with it. Gun to my head - A tad slow, but a decent performance. Perhaps a few too many slow-down rubatos for my taste, why not balance it out with a few speed-up ones in the angst-ridden bits. That's nitpicking at this stage.
Hi, Moo! I agree that you project the "singing line" with a great deal of sensitivity -- it is shaped appropriately throughout, and as you're aware, this is NOT an easy task with this piece! I agree with others that the pace is simply too slow right now -- think of the "singer" trying to sustain the vocal line at this tempo. If I were the soprano, I'd be flat on the floor midway through! In that same vein, I'd also aspire to more tasteful rubato as part of projecting the melodic line -- right now, while note-correct, it feels too tightly reined-in to be thoroughly satisfying. Briefly put, an appropriate tempo for me would get you under the 7 minute mark that you cited as one of the stipulations in the recital agenda. But, as others have said, a good overall "feel". Thanks for sharing it!
Thank you. I found it very difficult to project the melody and keep the accompaniment even and soft. I am aware it is slow but this was intentional. Also please bear in mind that when I first posted it was 12 minutes long and it took me months to get it to this stage. It is still a bit uneven in the accompaniment in places and I was trying to get it even rather than worry about rubato. I am not able to play it quicker as all the mistakes I spent so long to correct all go wrong very quickly. I think it is just a technical difficulty. I actually dont mind if the piece is a bit slow but otherwise reasonable. I think I'll be able to get it up to speed later without much difficulty. Thats the theory !
Just seeing if you're still practising this and if so how you've been getting on with it? Still working on this myself. Just got the last 4 bars left before it comes back to the A section again. Then I just need to learn the coda .
Any chance of a new vid with progress if you're still working on it? Or have you moved on to something else.
Will
Bechstein A114 Enjoying piano since May 2018 My Youtube
Hi. At the moment Will I'm learning this Brahms op 76 no 1. My other piece is melody op 3 by rachmanionv which my teacher gave me some great tips about. Please post a video of impromptu 3 when you've done .
I did an experiment today for you Will. I have not touch the piece in a few weeks and recorded it faster. Everyone keeps telling me to play it faster so maybe I should practice it a bit faster. Interestingly I could play it faster whereas I could not several weeks ago but it is a bit unsteady at speed. I do think it will take some work to get it accurate up to speed. Not sure if I want to return to the piece so soon as it may be a bit frustrating. :S.
1. The tempo is quite unsteady. I don't know whether this is note recognition problem or technical problem. I would suggest practicing it with a metronome and separately practicing measures or phrases where the tempo is not steady. You could also practice the piece in chords i.e. use the given rhythm but instead of playing the rippling accompaniment play all the notes together.
2. Some phrases where the melodic line should be connected or sound legato are not played that way. You could try a different fingering or check to see that you are changing the pedal quickly enough in the "legato pedaling",
3. I think the melody is too soft compared to the accompaniment. Since the accompaniment seems soft enough you should play the melody louder.
i am aware the accompaniment being unsteady and it is very noticable with this piece. it is a technical problem and getting it up to speed it has always been an issue every time i slowly increased the speed. i'm just working on the accompaniment evenness at the moment. i was given a great tip on reddit to try practice in rhythms which has been really helping. long-short, short-long were very easy. but playing short-short-long x 4 was really helpful. it took me a few minutes to work it out as you through 4 patterns. i've learnt to do long-short-short. i'll try to do short-long-short x 4. after the rhythms i was able to play it evenly afterwards more easily. so just some rhythm work at the moment.
Yes, rhythm practice is good, despite one of my former teachers insisting otherwise (lol).
Another similar practice you could do is "Accent" practice. You don't change the rhythms, but every group of 3 notes in the accompaniment, accent the first note, and play the other two much more softly (the two soft notes MUST be played evenly in terms of tone and dynamic, otherwise this won't work). Then, take each group of three and accent the middle note while keeping the first and third quiet. Then, the first two quiet and the third accented.
And then, you can do this with groups of 6. It's tedious, but working toward mastery is tedious in general, isn't it?
This, along with rhythm practice as you've already been doing, are two of the practice methods I used when learning this impromptu. Best of luck, and I hope we can hear it again from you in the future!
Thank you. My feedback from my teacher was similar to what was suggested. He said project the melody, play the melody as legato as possible and to release the pedal fully when changing.