Team,

I'm having some trouble with this one. I can hit all the notes now, but it just doesn't sound how I want. This is the first piece where I can hit all the notes in some semblance of order but can't play the piece.

Left hand sounds either weak or brash, depending on how I play it - I just can't get it to sound how it should in my head, soft, consistent, and pretty. It's like I'm playing with a claw.

Right hand reacts to left hand and sounds like either an inaudible whisper or a cacaphonous disaster.

Now that I can actually hit the notes in time, I have worked on expression over and over, but it sounds like a 5 year old banging on the keys.

Have you ever had a piece where it was technically well within your grasp, but still sounded awful? How do you get out of that rut?

HELP!

Chopin's work is sometimes as much about expression as it is about playing the right notes. He used a lot of rubato in his pieces, perhaps you are playing it too metronomically.

Do you have a teacher who can help you with this, or maybe you could listen to a professional recording?

I know there have been many attempts at Chopin's pieces in the recitals so I'm sure there'll be help around the corner here...

Thanks Mt Ash. I have a teacher - sorta. My travel schedule is crazy and I really have started to work on my own. It is next to impossible to find a teacher who has the flexibility to accomdate me.

My teacher is a good music reader, and is willing to reschedule at a moments notice, and that's it. I appreciate where he got me, but I feel like now that I'm past the basics, he has little to offer. The pieces I'm proud of are all things I picked and learned on my own. In fact, he's going bye-bye after my next lesson when I can give him some materials back. Unfortunately I just had to cancel our Monday lesson because I'm going to Minneapolis for work, so I have to put this off again...

Back to the piece - I think it's not a tempo thing, but a control or consistency thing......is repetition what I need?

As for tempo - it is real slow. About your left hand - make sure that you play with flat fingers, use the very cushioned part. Don't lift your hand of the keys after a note but keep in touch, the left hand has to be played very soft so as to not drown the right hand melody. Although the right hand is piano, you will have to play that a slight bit harder so that the melody can come out.

What about pedalling? My first teacher said I should change pedal with each new chord in the left hand, my second teacher said, no, even more often, but I haven't tried that out, it sounds about right for me to pedal with each new chord.

Do you listen to the effect that each chord change has in terms of a changing emotion it evokes? This is just how I perceived the piece - it becomes steadily darker, more and more desperate. Try to follow this, your hands will then automatically become more expressive - there is no escape to Chopin's genius (big smile).

Good luck and enjoy!

Patty

This is a beautiful song, but I agree it can be difficult to play it right. I agree with Patty, you have to play the left hand softly and not overwhem the melody in the right hand. It's important to bring out the melody in the right hand. And it really is a beautiful melody, try playing the right hand separately so you can get the feel of the melody.And then slowly bring back in the left hand. Good luck to you!

This is a gorgeous piece, but I agree the LH causes problems because it has to be so soft, though not consistently the same volume or it's too repetitive. My teacher recommends faking the LH while you play the melody in the right hand. Once you get used to touching the LH chords without playing them, then move on to depressing them a bit without them sounding. If you keep increasing like that, eventually you'll get to the point of making a sound without imitating a jackhammer, and you can adjust from there.

I heard a professional (and Polish) pianist do this piece as an encore last year, and it really struck me at how beautiful a piece could be even if it wasn't a flurry of notes. This pianist could get so much color out of this simple piece; I came home and told my husband something like, "I play with the three primary colors, but this guy has the Crayola box of 64." Or more. Hearing him left me determined to work on some of those finer points of playing.

Good luck with this. I'd recommend recording yourself a bunch playing this. Sometimes hearing it without having to pay attention to the notes will give you some ideas you don't get otherwise.

Nancy

Thanks for the awesome tips, everyone!