Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Comptine d'un autre été L'après midi by Yann Tiersen

Hello.

I have been playing piano for a couple months teaching myself via DVD lessons. I have randomly come across Comptine d'un autre été L'après midi and fell in love with the melody.

I have spent the last week in spare time learning it from the sheet music pdf. I have scoured Youtube in hopes of finding out a bit more about the performance of this piece. If you are familiar with this piece than maybe you can answer my question.

Does this song entail use of the sustain pedal? I have found it muddy sounding while using it, especially on the melodic parts. I sounds good while playing the left hand ostinato, but when the right hand gets in the mix, like I said, it seems muddy.

Yes, the sustain pedal is used throughout.

Yes, the sustain pedal is used throughout. BUT you need to be very conscious about re-pedaling, and maybe using half-pedaling. Good pedaling technique will prevent the muddiness.

Also, depending on the score you have, there may or may not be accents (for the RH) marked. If they are marked, then of course play as marked. If they are not marked, then go back and listen on YouTube and pay close attention to the melody. When you play, bring the melody in the RH and this will also help prevent muddiness. If you are having trouble bringing out the melody, go through and play just the melody notes in the RH and that will help too.

This piece seems simple, but is deceptive because it's hard to play it musically, melodcally at tempo. Good luck!

After much experimentation, with the first part of the melody, I pedal twice per measure, which cuts down on the muddiness. In the 2nd and third parts of the melody, I pedal every measure.

It's a beautiful piece.

In my version of the score it's marked to pedal twice in a bar. I'm not at the stage where I can pedal competently and at the fast RH arpeggios all heck breaks loose with my playing if I try to pedal too maybe that's where you mean the 2nd and 3rd parts of the melody?

Practice pedaling just like any other technique. Play LH only and pedal twice per bar, do the same thing playing RH only. Then play both hands, very slowly while working on careful, precise pedaling. Speed up slowly. Your pedaling skills will only develop through conscious attention.

Yes indeed, thank you, I should make the effort to practice using the pedal.