Just a thought about Le Onde and if it has already come up before....my apologies. I seem to remember someone having difficulty in keeping the strong RH notes emphasized, D C A D C A etc. The second note, in this case, the C, IMO has a tendency to fade as we play. If you make a concerted effort to bring out that second note in all the runs, it is surprising how it all seems to come together much easier.

That was beautiful. The more I listen to his music, the more I enjoy it. I never perform in situations like that and always admire people who do. The increased confidence in your own abilities after a recital must be huge.

hmmm.... I'll have to give that a try.

I haven't played Le Onde in months. I know at some point I will dig it out (yet again) and try to get a better recording of it (yet again).

AWTPP, I think "I giorni" is an excellent next step. I found it only a little bit harder than "I due fiumi." The hardest part for me was playing the delicate arpeggios in the last part softly enough without skipping a note, and then voicing the chords in the last couple of lines. I'm used to emphasizing the highest note on a chord, but in this case, it's the middle note you have to emphasize.

(p.s. Oh, and I couldn't reach some of the big chords at the end and had to rearrange them, which sounded fine.)

In "Le Onde" I can't hear a difference between holding the first note, of the two eight notes figure, while playing the second or releasing the first note while I play the second.

Talking about (D-F#, C#-E, A-D)

Ok, talk to me about this .... I just came across measure 86, and thought to myself, "Ok, there is no way Monica can play this without rearranging the chord." I could maybe reach it, but it would be hit or miss. Then there is the same reach in measures 186 and 187 at the very end... is this what you are talking about?

Can anybody here play these measures as written, and if so, how?

I'm out of town right now, AWTPP, so I don't have the book in front of me. But I'm pretty sure those are the chords I was talking about. And I'm also without a piano so I can't even say for sure how I re-arrange them. I think what I did was take the bottom note and move it up an octave, so it would then fit in between the other two notes. But that's going by highly imperfect memory, so I won't guarantee it.

If you don't have it figured out by the 25th (when I get back), shoot me a PM and remind me to tell you more specifically how I resolved it.

Hi,

I'm learning Le onde, and have come pretty far with it, perfecting it quite well. I can play up to the part where the right hand 3 -step structure moves up an octave, and it gets faster/louder.

Anyway, i was wondering, how do you use the pedal for this piece, as my sheet music doesn't indicate with any sort of number system.

Thanks,
Ed

Hi,

I'm learning Le onde, and have come pretty far with it, perfecting it quite well. I can play up to the part where the right hand 3 -step structure moves up an octave, and it gets faster/louder.

Anyway, i was wondering, how do you use the pedal for this piece, as my sheet music doesn't indicate with any sort of number system.

Thanks,
Ed

I recorded this one probably around a year ago. From what I recall, I did manage the large chords as written. However, my fingers were taking the scenic route, and hanging off the edge of the keyboard, rather than going straight over the top of the keys!

I have some Einaudi performances on my youtube page, Passaggio, Le onde, Divenire, Primavera, in un altra vita and Questa Notte. Cheers

Hi mwf,

Bit of a random question here, but do you know any other pianists from the Peterborough area? I did some work in that area of the country in 2008, and spent a week working with a young piano student called Richard Allum. I think he must have been around 22 or 23 yrs old. He gave me a cd of his playing which was fantastic.

According to his website:
He was a Finalist in the European Piano Teachers’ Association Piano Competition in 2007 (2nd prize) and 2008 (1st prize), and was awarded a double scholarship to study at the 2008 Birmingham Interntional Piano Academy with John Lill, Peter Donohoe and Piers Lane.

Welcome to the forum, Ed!

Einaudi's sheet music rarely indicates pedaling (but I play close attention when it does). What I do--and I believe it's consistent with what Einaudi does on his recording--is pedal with chord changes.

Good luck with Le Onde! It's a toughie, all right.

Ya, that is pretty much how I am going about it.

Wow, mwf! Thanks to the link to your YouTube channel and the covers of the Einaudi pieces. Those are beautiful. Am I correct that your intro to "Divenire" is played by ear and rather different from the sheet music? I think your rendition sounds even closer to the recording than the sheet music version. (I'd ask if you had a transcription of that section, except that it sounds even HARDER than the sheet music, and I have a hard enough time with that! )

p.s. I'm listening right now to your transcription of the "Transformers" soundtrack... just stunning.

New question on I Giorni. Beginning with measure 82, there are some 8th notes that... how shall I explain it... alternate back and forth between two fingers and one. I am sure there is a standard way to do this, but (no surprise) Alfred's Book 2 doesn't cover it.

How do you do the RH in 82-86? For the life of me, I can't figure a way to make it smooth.

Strangely, when I first started practicing Dietro Casa a while ago I had a similar problem playing with certain fingers together. I guess I had gotten so used to either a chord or one note at a time that it was quite tricky to do!

What you may want to start with for this section is to practice hitting all three notes together. Then try hitting the two then the one. In that last section the thumb appears to be doing duty moving between the D and the E.

Anyway, here's what I came up with a few minutes of practice on that part. I've never played this section before and it sounds pretty strange until towards the end when it gets a bit more recognizable with the ending interval chord and arpeggio. I may have played it with the style of the ending of the song, I couldn't help myself there.

Here's my attempt at measures 82-87

The main hurdle I had with playing this section was just trying to start out as the E is used right in the beginning then the thumb goes to D. I kept starting out hitting the D as my hand wanted to revert back to that position right away...

Good luck learning the rest of the song aw2pp!

Thanks, AnthonyB. I have been alternating between 2/5 - 1, as you suggest, and couldn't get it to sound smooth. I will try your suggestion about starting with all three notes first, and just play it over and over until it gets smooth.

Okay, I finally got home to my book so I could look up those measures. I use the fingering you describe: For measures 82-84, I use 2&5 alternating with my thumb. For measures 85-86, I initially tried to keep that fingering, but the stretch was way too hard for me, so I ultimately ended up using my thumb to hit all the low notes. These were the hardest measures to get smooth, but the nice thing about "I giorni" is that you're really not going too fast at that part so it is doable.

In addition to Anthony's suggestion, just try tapping that 2&5 vs. 1 rhythm out on the table (or steering wheel... whatever) whenever you've got a few spare seconds, and you'll eventually find it coming naturally.

Monica,
I have heard all of your YouTube recordings (and loved them) and I would like to start my Einaudi experience. Is his music about as difficult as David Nevue's? Which book do I start with?
Thanks,
Woody

You are very sweet, Woody, though I suggest that for the TRUE Einaudi experience that you listen to HIS recordings, not mine.

Definitely get the "Best of Einaudi" book... it's the most bang for the buck and has the full range of difficulty from very easy to downright hard. As for how Einaudi's music compares to Nevue's, difficulty-wise, hmmm... they're overlapping distributions. Nevue's easiest pieces (Solitude, say, or Wonderland) are easier than Einaudi's easiest pieces (Limbo, Exit). But Nevue also has some very difficult pieces that I can't play yet (as does Einaudi).

Enjoy! But be aware that Einaudi-addiction is just as profound as piano-addiction.

Thank you Monica for both the information and the warning (it is not taken lightly)but I'm afraid it may already be too late. Besides, what's one more healthy addiction anyway?
Woody

Ah, there really is no better feeling than the one you get when you get done learning the final few measures to a song and now can play the whole thing.

I think this is also a bit of a record for me getting ready for the online recitals. It feels nice to get to this point of learning a piece with so much time to go.

I even feel good about mentioning the piece I'll be playing for the online recital this next time around since I'm so far along with it.

I'll be playing "La Nascita Delle Cose Segrete" from I Giorni (Somehow I keep learning pieces from this album and I've yet to do I Giorni itself!)

Do we have any idea yet how many Einaudi pieces we can play for John Frank in the next recital?

Way to go, Anthony!

I'm (probably) playing "Africana Melodia III" for the recital. I've got it maybe 80% there, so it depends on whether I get it polished and recorded by Aug. 1st, or *gulp*, the 14th. A safer backup plan is "Bella Notte," which was super-easy to learn because half of it is identical to "In un'altra vita," which I did for the first recital, and the half that ISN'T identical consists of: quarter notes. Nonstop quarter notes. But given the overlap I'd rather play AM III for the recital, especially as I don't recall anybody playing that here in PW yet.

I gave the beginning of III a try a while back but it's the ending that gets pretty quick that scares me. I also had laughs when going from practicing the beginning of III back to playing I Due Fiumi as I'd easily mess that all up...

The part of La Nascita that I need the most practice on is the part starting at measure 52. I seem to mess up there more than in any other part I've been playing. Luckily that part only comes around once in the song as the second time it would come there is a variation before leading into the ending. I really like playing the last part especially when compared to the part that always gets me tripped up. I also am a bit choppy on the g#-a-b-a-e bit when compared to the one that starts on the e. Sometimes it comes out alright and other times the fingers don't want to hit the notes smoothly. At least I've got lots of time to work it all out.

Yeah, it's that ending that I'm still working on polishing. This may sound pretty weird, but the only way I am able to play it is by going on pure autopilot and letting muscle memory take over. If I try to concentrate on fingering or the notes or anything, it's hopeless. Maybe because the two hands are playing such different patterns at the same time. It's great hand independence practice.

Well, I made enough progress on I Giorni this past week to where there may be a possibility of my recording it for the recital. So add that to the list.

I Giorni, unlike IDF, has extended measures of both hands playing 8th notes. IDF had a couple of measures here and there, and indeed, those were a lot of fun once I had them down. More than a couple of measures' worth of concurrent 8th notes... this is new ground for me. If / when I get I Giorni down, I may take a look at In un'altra vita, which was probably the first Einaudi piece that captured my attention around this time last year. At the time, I wrote it off as something to return to, oh, maybe in 2 or 3 years. But maybe not.

So, Monica, to that end... I Giorni has a repeating pattern of 8th note arpeggios in the LH, which has made progress on the piece come more quickly than I expected. (I believe there are 4 chords that just keep repeating, in roughly the same order. I am sure a little music theory would help here.) Is the same true for In un'altra vita (and hence, Bella Notte)?

Yes... and it's actually true for most of Einaudi's music. He sure likes those repeating ostinato bass patterns. The challenge is when he uses a right hand pattern that goes in the opposite direction of the bass. For 'In un'altra vita' (and many of his other pieces), it's often just a matter of brute force playing LH and RH over and over separately and then HT slowly until it clicks.

BTW, Monica, you are seriously jeopardizing your "I don't do Allegro" status with Melodia Africana III. Don't think we aren't paying attention to these things.

LOL!! You're right about that. One of the sneaky things about that Einaudi book is that he doesn't put metronome markings in it, and since I'm one of these clueless self-teachers who is too lazy to look up the Italian terms, I often don't realize just how fast it's supposed to be until I sit down to play it. (I just try to make it sound like the recording, so my estimates of tempo are based on aural memory.)

I'm still slogging away on the beautiful Elijah Bossenbroek piece, "Song for Simplicity" (there was a thread about it a while back). It's got a section in there where dotted quarters are slated at MM=168. Now THAT's fast!! If I master that section, I'll probably consider it my biggest piano achievement of the year. (But that's a big "if". )

Wow, this thread was buried on page 6. ABF is a busy place.

2 things.

1. With I Giorni, I can pretty much play all the passages, in isolation. Putting them together, however, is going to take some time. Since I have put a lot of focus on the (for me) trickier sections, those now sound great (er, acceptable). The slower (ahem, "Easier", but not really) sections are rougher. And if I had a recording for you (I don't) you'd hear the seams between sections I have been practicing. Whether I get this in for next month's recital depends on whether I can iron out those rough seams.

2. Since last month's recital, I have now had three people email me for suggestions on I Due Fiumi. My latest blog post is a summary of lessons I learned from IDF, as well as some tips y'all were kind enough to pass along. If you've got a moment, and if you have some sort of magical tip that made a difference for you on IDF, I'd be honored if you could throw in a comment on the blog.

Thanks all.