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Hey everyone! I uploaded a video of Chopin Ballade 1 and I'm wondering if anybody has any comments or suggestions. Thanks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E255feOrjXc

Coda was pretty nice, could use a little more power and speed all around (but I can't get enough of that). The double notes and a few other tricky parts need some work, but I'm sure you know.

-Always "hear the line". Sometimes the melody sounds choppy or discontinuous (e.g. part near the end right before the loud chord (D1 D2 Bb4 D5 Bb5) at 7:57, your F# A is building up, then the G and A lose the energy).

-You're using the pinky on the top note for all the 6ths at 8:01, try using the 4th finger on the black keys. Typically for double notes, you want to use "baroque fingering", where black keys are relegated to 2,3,4 as much as possible (limited by stretch, but your hand looks big enough).

I'll keep those in mind. Thank you so much!

It is a good version, even if the coda is still technically at your limit. You are already at an advanced level. Now there are obviously plenty of things that you can fine tune. Those would be around phrasing and articulation.

At the beginning, the moderato section you have decided to take it at a somehow slightly faster pace than some other versions. Thats fine, but you need to put more breathing into it and vary the touch. Currently it sounds too metrical and linear. For example bar 14 you definitely need to slightly ritar before the continuing section. The ornaments could be improved as well.

The coda is difficult. You manage to get through (which is already a technical achievement) but it is unequal. Of course it absolutely needs to be faster but that is not the priority. First you need to get back to an absolutely steady tempo with no hesitations to keep it relentless. If needed slightly slow down, and around bar 232 a little boost would be welcome to land bar 238 through 241 with more power and speed. With Bar 242 comes the liberation. In other words you have to build a story with a climax. To give a sense of urgency what is important is the relative acceleration not the absolute speed.

But of course, its already excellent to be able to play such a piece end to end. Cheers.

I wish I could play that well when I was 14... I’m not sure I can play this ballade this well even now that I’m 40 and have learned it years ago.

Anyway, regarding your playing, I’d like a bit more feel, more emotion, more rubato, more energy. Right now it’s a bit mechanical and metronome-like but you already covered the technical aspect so I have no doubts you can also relax beyond the technicalities and feel the piece with your heart 👏🏻

Thank you! I do end up hesitating in the coda because I don't want to hit any wrong notes though, but I will work on those.

Thanks for your suggestions! These have been extremely helpful for me

Leona ., This is of course is a very difficult piece. You are getting there........
BUT Please have your piano tuned .You would do yourself and your piano a great favour. You will be even more focused and even more creative !

...
I had it tuned less than a year ago... it's a Kawai so it stays in shape
And also I can tell whether a piano is tuned or not pretty well
So it's probably the recording quality. I used an iPad, which obviously has an awful mic haha

There's no such thing as a perfectly tuned piano, and it goes slightly out of tune as soon as you start playing it or as the temperature changes.

BUT...a year is a really long time between tunings lol. My tone deaf ears can usually hear wonky unisons within 3 months. Just FYI, every 6 months, if not more often, is usually recommended. If you want to save money, you could even record the pitch deviations your pro tuner sets and learn to touch up the tuning yourself.

Some people are less sensitive to a piano's level of tuning than others. I think most piano owners have their piano tuned once a year or less even though it's recommended to have more frequent tunings. PW members are far more fussy about tunings than the average piano owner. Some people can't afford more frequent tunings or don't want a tuner coming during Covid.

I think it's inappropriate for a poster to recommend to another person that they get their piano tuned although I have seen that happen fairly often. If someone feels that strongly about the sound of someone else's piano they should just send that a person a private message. Anything else I find mean spirited because it could easily embarrass the person whose piano may need tuning.

the OP is a 14 yo, who probably has no control over tuning frequency

People out here are just assuming that it's actually out of tune...
The last time my piano was tuned was in February. Before that, my piano had not been tuned for a full year, and I knew that overall the whole piano was going slightly flat, and especially some specific notes had wonky unisons. The tuner came and they told me that I was right, it was going a little flat but not much, and told me I should get it tuned every year. This is just for my specific piano - it can stay in shape pretty well. On the other hand, my old teacher's piano went out of tune in 3 months and I could tell very easily. In conclusion, my ears are working fine, and the iPad (which by the way, is turning 5 years old now) has a dead mic.

Hi Leona
There are several members here who are hearing an out-of-tune piano, which is not explained by a non-functioning mic.

Could it be that you, like most of us, become accustomed to the gradual tuning degradation in our own pianos, and don't notice it until it gets to xxx point? I think you would hear things on my piano that I don't hear, and the reverse is true.

The way so many people telling me it's out of tune is making me doubt my sanity haha
So to make sure, I checked by playing the youtube recording along with my grand piano, the recording with my digital piano (which obviously doesn't go out of that nice A440 tuning), and my grand piano with my digital piano. To the best of my hearing ability, the recording is very slightly flat than the digital piano, and the grand piano is slightly sharper than the digital. I also used my tuner with the digital and grand, which told me that the digital is perfectly in tune (obviously) and the grand is sharp. So yes, the recording is flat which you probably heard, which I think is an audio problem. You could argue the cold weather has made the piano go sharp since the 2 1/2 months ago that I recorded it, but it's 66 degrees F outside so no. It's the whole piano that's slightly sharp, no notes that are going wonky or anything because I can tell. A few years ago when the E5 went flat it drove me crazy because I was playing Chopin Waltz in C# minor and that was literally the second note And also my ears are trained, I've tuned my own violin since I was 9.

Hi Leona, regarding the out of tune comments may I suggest that what they are hearing with some notes is that the individual strings of those notes are not in unison with each other.

Ok thanks, pretty sure that's still my mic quality
But at this point y'all can think whatever you want. This thread now has nothing to do with Chopin. Peace out :))

Hi Leona

I'm not a 'classical' specialist, and don't know the piece that well; though I generally love Chopin. So I don't have any specific criticisms, but to me it sounded a like good performance.

Cheers