Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Is this an incorrect approach to playing this? (Eintritt)

I'm working on Schumann's "Eintritt" and have a question regarding the fingering. I've found that I can, in most cases, divide the inner voices of the piece between both hands, which is most comfortable and effective for me, or put them all in the right and play just the bass line in the left, which seems a lot more uncomfortable but the way many on youtube do it.

I've attached and image to show what I mean:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/844/eintritt.png/

all of the notes within the red lines are played in the left hand and everything above in the right. Am I cheating myself from developing proper technique or would this fingering be OK?

I believe that it's much easier to get the proper balance of the two outer voices along with keeping the internal accompaniment notes softer using the fingering as the original scoring suggests.

Splitting the accompaniment between the two hands doesn't make musical sense for me. I believe that it is harder to keep the accompaniment notes absolutely together and balanced when you split them between the two hands.

For me I would never contemplate doing that. I wouldn't say that it won't work, but I feel that the idea is somewhat misguided.

Regards,

I would use the original fingering too.
Why do you feel uncomfortable with it? Are your hands too small or do your fingers feel weak? I have actually small hands too, but I just tried and I don't have a problem with it.

Well, in measure 4 beat 3, for example, I find it difficult to sustain the D with my pinky while playing the D and F accompaniment notes in the right hand. It seems like a real stretch and I have difficulty with the line in general. My hands are not particularly small, either :S but I have not been playing piano very long, so perhaps I just don't have the strength in my hand/fingers yet? What would you all suggest to help with this? To what extent should I perhaps use the sustain pedal to help?

This edition does not have fingering within the notation, which makes it a bit more difficult as well to figure the most effective way to play it.

In measure 4 beat 3: if you are playing D with the fifth finger and F and D with second finger and thumb, I find it hard to imagine that it "seems like a real stretch;" it's almost a normal hand position for someone whose hands are "not particularly small." It's not a question of strength and shouldn't even be one of flexibility; I'm having difficulty imagining why this is a problem.

Regards,

If you have problems sustaining a note while playing other notes, there are some exercises to strengthen your fingers. The best but probably most difficult ones are in Dohnanyi's Essential Finger Exercises, but Hanon's The Virtuoso Pianist and Brahms's 51 Exercises also have some nice ones.

I don't see any point to dividing the middle voice between the hands. The fingering BruceD mentioned for measure 4 would work for virtually everyone - because it's assumed that virtually everyone can reach an octave with 1 and 5.

Also, many (if not most) can reach an octave with 1 and 4. I would play the octave on Middle C and the C above with 1 and 4, because it's most suited to articulating the slur in the upper voice.

I'll definitely check those out! Yes, it isn't so much that it is a big stretch (I can stretch a 10th with 1 and 4 xD) but rather sustaining the D while playing the other notes; I haven't been playing very long so this is one of the first pieces where I have to do this, I'm just not used to it yet I suppose. Thanks for you help!

With a hand span like that, then the idea of dividing the inner voice is definitely a bad approach. Polyphony - where you'll need to hold one or more notes while playing other notes with other fingers in the same hand - is really common in piano music. This is a straightforward example of it, and I recommend you use it as a technical challenge to get used to it.