Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum How to play this little exercise with legato?

Take a look please. It seems so simple, and yet I can't play it with correct and consistent sound and legato even though my teacher "taught" me some Bethoveen etudes like Sonatina...

Anyways...I don't want to start another thread bashing my teachers. So How can I play the bass clef correctly? I found that it helps if I kind of flatten my fingers so that the middle knuckle is involved as well as the first knuckle. Is that the correct technique for such legato notes? Should I record a video?

I just had a quick go. Didn’t seem too difficult-keep it slow I’d say- having a teacher watch and listen probably help the most or a video that you mentioned
Had to do a similar thing on the first page of bagatelle in C by Beethoven. Drove me nuts at first

It is a matter of keeping the fingers close to the keys and timing the movement between the chords so there is not a space in sound between the chords. Play the first chord, and then play the second while the first is starting to decay in sound. Try rotating your wrist slightly to the right as you progress up the keyboard. You want the transition between notes to sound smooth.practice with your ears.

This may help as an exercise
https://www.pianistmagazine.com/blogs/5-tips-for-creating-the-illusion-of-legato/

Since you are using different fingers for this case, it is possible to have a true legato. It is just a matter of practice. If you record a video, it will be easier to give you a feedback. The issue is more complex when you play thirds beyond this example, like a scale in thirds, in which case true legato is not possible.

As others said, it's just a matter of practice. I suggest making a progressive exercise out of it. For the first measure:

1. Hold 5 and play 2-4 together several times, while holding 5.
2. Alternate playing 5 and 2-4.
3. Same as steps 1 and 2 above but holding 3 instead.
4. Same as above but holding 3-5 instead.

... and so on for the next notes.

One of the tricky parts of playing thirds is to make sure you are hitting the 2 notes at the exact same time. Tricky because the two fingers are of different length. Practice very slowly without pedal to make sure the notes are together.

The most important thing with double notes is to add some arm weight. It's very difficult to play notes simultaneously with fingers only, it takes many years to learn to do that, but with arm weight it's very easy. Flatten your fingers a little bit, make sure they are soft and the wrist is flexible, and play thirds using your arm, aligning your wrist for every next third to let the weight flow smoothly from one pair of fingers to the next. Imagine that your fingers are partly just soft props. It's better to begin slow and piano.

Only the author may call a piece an etude, sonatina is not an etude.

Great replies from everyone, and hats off to you all! Special thanks to Qazsedcft, Iaroslav Vasiliev and PianogrlNW for being spot on about the issue, which is the different finger sizes and the uncooperative 3th and 5th fingers which led me to flatten my fingers more a bit such that the middle knuckle was involved but it's getting better with less flatten fingers.

@Qazsedcft I think your recommendation helps a lot with forcing the 3th and 5th fingers to move more loosely. I'll try them for sure.

@The Russian guy above :-p You hit the nail on the spot about the arm weight. I have something to say about that in the exercise poll thread.
About your last point, yeah well, it's definitely not an etude, but when it's assigned to me, an early beginner I'd say, that kind of makes me underestimate the piece which given my poor technique, can make it seem more of an etude in my eyes.

This is difficult at first, but very rewarding once you have mastered it. Your playing will sound much better. Slow practice is the key.

Exactly. I'm gonna keep practicing this and the earlier exercises like this, to improve two-note legato playing. If it was left to my teacher, I would have been playing a late beginner level piece with all kinds of errors and mistakes and stumbles, without the joy of playing something near perfectly.

Guys it's the usual suspect: the disobedient pinky finger, I guess I have to continue the related pinky finger Hanon exercises alongside this one.

Do the following, slowly, as many times as needed, with naturally curved, relaxed fingers:

1) play the lower line, legato, using the fingering written
2) play the upper line, legato, using the fingering written
3) play the lower line, legato, and "ghost" the upper line
4) play the upper line, legato, and "ghost" the lower line

"Ghosting" can be done two ways;
1) place the "ghosting" fingers on the appropriate keys, but don't sound the keys
2) play the "ghosted" notes much softer than the non-ghosted notes, (this isn't easy!)

When completely comfortable, play the left hand as written, keeping the fingers in a natural curve and relaxed.

Regards,

For what it's worth here's my practice of a similar simpler exercise from the book. I'm gonna apply your valuable suggestions today, particularly BruceD's and Vasiliev's.

video 1
video 2