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Joined: Jul 2005
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BruceD, it is with that partita I overcame my difficulty with ornaments. I practiced those things incessantly in order to once and for all fix my left hand's inability to move gracefully; after perhaps four months of tortured ornamentation, I finally figured out how to do it smoothly.
With that said, if I go too long without working specifically on left hand ornaments (I use some modified Dohnanyi exercises for this, or I sightread slow Baroque works and improvise embellishments in poor taste just for the practice), they become clumsy again.
The first partita is perhaps my favorite keyboard work of Bach's.
- Silence
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Playing softly and still making all the notes sound.
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Accuracy and consistency. Performing a piece 100% without mistakes, every single time. The repetitive mechanical side of this discipline sometimes eludes me.
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Originally posted by Minaku: Accuracy and consistency. Performing a piece 100% without mistakes, every single time. The repetitive mechanical side of this discipline sometimes eludes me. I think you may be either asking too much of yourself, or too little. By that I mean to get every detail of expression correct (not just playing the right notes, but also at the right time, at the right volume, and for the right duration) is in my opinion impossible to do exactly the same way every time. If you ask of yourself to get the expression right every time, you will quickly find that note mistakes matter less and less, as you realise that they are just symptoms of unclear thinking.
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The technical aspects - that is, hitting the chord, making sure my hand gets down to where it needs to be and back in that split second - are what detract from the artistic performance. I won't always play something the same way artistically every time. What I'd like to have there is that technical foundation that WILL be there at least 99% of the time. Whether that means I need to drill more or approach the piece in a different way, I'm not sure.
I don't care about making little slips here and there. It's large sections (read: lots of big chords, moving at fast tempos) that are a headache for me because my hand span is exactly one octave. To be accurate and consistent is something I really have to work for.
Edit: I suppose if I wanted to be the most clear, I should say that if you listened to me play, and the beginning was great, you wouldn't want to hear "splat splat splat CHORD splat" towards the middle, and then the next time hear "splat CHORD CHORD splat CHORD". I'd like it to be "CHORD CHORD CHORD CHORD CHORD" *TRIUMPHANT* you know?
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Ornaments with the weak fingers when the thumb is holding an inner voice. I usually have to spend much more time on these than the surrounding material. When I do chord/voice leading excercises I often add these ornaments, knowing that it is a weak point.
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once"
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Originally posted by Minaku: Edit: I suppose if I wanted to be the most clear, I should say that if you listened to me play, and the beginning was great, you wouldn't want to hear "splat splat splat CHORD splat" towards the middle, and then the next time hear "splat CHORD CHORD splat CHORD". I'd like it to be "CHORD CHORD CHORD CHORD CHORD" *TRIUMPHANT* you know? It sounds to me like your arm isn't moving fast enough. The only good way to move quickly is to sort of 'throw' your arm. This is because it absolutely must be relaxed (muscular tension will only slow it). Try to practice throwing your arm between 2 chords without actually playing them until your fingers are absolutely square in the middle of their keys. i.e. play one chord, then throw your hand at the other one and aim to land on it, but don't play it until you have gotten all of your fingers onto their notes (in the middle of the key), leisurely if need be. Rinse and repeat. You will soon find that you are getting your hand to the chord BEFORE you have to play it, and this is absolutely paramount. Note that this may not apply in all situations. I think that for instance at the end of Chopin's 4th ballade it may not be possible to prepare all of those chords.
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Well, I'm aware of how to do it. My fingers won't reach and the best way to really get it into my head is to practice the section eyes closed. It's helped a lot, I just need to do it more. My arm and hand preparation is fine.
Like I said, accuracy and consistency.
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Well if you are not consistently accurate, to me it either means that physically you are struggling, e.g. your hand is smallish for the piece, or your method of practice needs something.
Presumably you practice with your eyes open but from memory...?
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My hands are small for the piece, so it's already a struggle to get the chords into the hands. I've had to make adjustments, hopefully it won't sound too off. I practice with eyes open and closed, with music and without, pretty much in any way possible.
(I'm sure if my hands were just a teeeeeensy bit larger things would be easier.)
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Originally posted by Minaku: My hands are small for the piece, so it's already a struggle to get the chords into the hands. I've had to make adjustments, hopefully it won't sound too off. I practice with eyes open and closed, with music and without, pretty much in any way possible.
(I'm sure if my hands were just a teeeeeensy bit larger things would be easier.) Well best of luck. My undergraduate professor (who has an octave reach) told me that he once did all sorts of stretching exercises so that he could perform Scriabin's etude in 9ths, which he did. I found that pretty amazing, however, his hands went back to how they were when he stopped practicing the exercises.
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Amateur Pianist, Scriabin Enthusiast, and Octave Demon
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The hardest thing for me is to maintain focus, which slows down my practice considerably. My brain finds it convenient to re-think the decisions/events of the day right around practice time..
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double thirds and double third trills.
solution: scales!
"I was obliged to be industrious. Whoever is equally industrious will succeed equally well."
J.S. Bach
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Accuracy is a problem for me as well. It's improving now that I've figured out how to practice for accuracy - hands separately, very slowly, and with a metronome. The pieces I learn this way are 100% accurate; the ones that I learn in any other way are sloppy.
Oh, and scales in thirds terrify me. Never have been able to play those smoothly.
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Hardest thing is getting home at night. I am usually brain dead after a day on the boards. I need a Tuborg and ten minutes of absolute silence...
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Originally posted by Auntie Lynn: I need a Tuborg and ten minutes of absolute silence... And a nice Italian red wine could be so festive also... oops, you're in San Francisco- so perhaps Napa Valley has something similar?
Jason
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Originally posted by Larisa: Oh, and scales in thirds terrify me. Never have been able to play those smoothly. Thirds can really get me too, I find it hard to perform them equitably across the keyboard. It is one of those techniques that seems quite easy from some positions, but in others the difficulty multiplies, so my brain gets confused with the sharp contrast. My current solution is to quickly find all the most challenging spots and drill those, meanwhile forgetting about the 'easy' ones until I've leveled the playing field.
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once"
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Joined: Jul 2007
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Originally posted by Larisa: Accuracy is a problem for me as well. It's improving now that I've figured out how to practice for accuracy - hands separately, very slowly, and with a metronome. The pieces I learn this way are 100% accurate; the ones that I learn in any other way are sloppy.
Oh, and scales in thirds terrify me. Never have been able to play those smoothly. Scales in double thirds? They scare me too. I think about that one passage in the Brahms 2nd concerto and it freaks me out. Makes me thankful that I don't need to learn that one. Picked up the Chopin etude in 3rds to deal with the 3rd trills in Chopin's Barcarolle. I am no longer as scared of them, though when I listen to how fast Alicia de Larrocha does them on her recording I get intimidated.
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No particular movement really bothers me but having said that I have had to work pretty hard over the years to get anywhere; nothing ever came easily.
Straight stride tenths in the Waller transcriptions push me a bit. I can do them but they're just a tiny bit taxing if they go on for too long and are fast. There is no solution to this except to start breaking them when I feel the need.
"Mistakes are the portals of discovery." - James Joyce
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Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:34 PM
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Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:23 PM
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