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This is the thing for which Rachmaninoff was highly known. Large-scale structure understanding. This gives music its soul.
I'll look into Henselt.. but more important is the idea that Technical Proficiency is essential. You cannot play adequately unless you have the technique.


III. PROPER PHRASING
Goes with musicality, largescale structure, etc. Just basically required to give the music direction, make it flow, and make it mean something

IV. REGULATING THE TEMPO

You just can't let your tempo go.
My teacher taught me that you need to learn it solidly, perfectly cleanly, with the same tone and volume on every note. When it is learned that way, then you can begin to feel it in pulses, as in feel each beat and each measure. After that, you construct phrases. After phrases, you construct larger phrases and after that, sections in the work. Then expressiveness where needed, accents, etc. Work up tempo in the clean solid way. If you can't play it and *know* that your fingers will go to the right keys every time and control your tone and volume to have the same on each note, then you won't be able to properly control them at tempo. At the very least it will be reliable.
After this, when you have it at speed , you insert balance , apply the right tone, the pulse, the character, pedal, musical understanding, and, of course, the "Magic Spark."
She was worried about my practice habits and we went in detail about it. After learning that you don't just sightread it and fix the mistakes, this method is much faster and more reliable than what I had been doing. It works quite well and I am learning pieces much faster and better.

V. CHARACTER IN PLAYING
As above


VI. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PEDAL

Partial pedals, etc. I need to investigate this further. This description of Chopin Sonata is interesting.

This is great! This is what the attitude of a genuine student should be. We don't really want a superficial exhibition on the piano- we want great music. We want to feel its power.

VIII. REAL MUSICAL UNDERSTANDING
Fairly straightforward, and of course, correct.

That's why I don't play a lot of music I don't like....
The is the pinnacle. The final mandate. This is what reaches deep and finalizes everything. T

I have a story about this last statement.

A scientist (Henry Eyring, Sr.) had a son who was in physics, and being a chemist, Eyring could help his son with his homework. One day they were working on a problem in the basement. They left it unfinished. A few days later, the son asked the dad for help on the problem again.

The dad was incredulous. He asked him what he was thinking about as he walked down the street and took his shower if he hadn't solved the problem. When he was told that the son didn't think about unsolved problems all the time, he then said something very important:

If you don't love physics enough that it is what you think about when you don't have to think about anything, then you should not go into physics.

And this applies to music. If you don't think about the music and how to shape and express it, show something, and say something with the music at the times when you have no obligations to think, then you aren't doing what is most important. (Now, you can think about music or you can think about physics. I recommend both. )

\Alkan left an alto A beating against conflicting harmonies in one of his pieces. He was a modernist born ahead of his time. Then Busoni comes along. He wrong some rather modern things involving unique combinations of thirds.

However, Rachmaninoff's best and most inspired works are the good ones in old ways, like the first three concerti. The symphonic dances, I confess, sound uninspired.

oopd sorry about clicking 'add reply' before I'd done so...

Just wanted to say that it's quite possible to play at this speed, but NOT if you're only thinking 'fingers'. You must (like Rubinstein played) have enough awareness of tension/relaxation so that you can know where to drop the weight and then release and let the fingers fly loose to the next metronome beat. If this is true as I read it and they were actually using this test/exam in their proof of technical proficiency, i'm pleased because right there is the cure for how to NOT become injured.
ScrpPian
www.myspace.com/scrppian

Originally posted by Pumkinhead:
Yes, that is what he means. It is fast, but advanced pianists can do that on a regular basis.

Hanon rules!

120 is fast, but not too difficult. All it really requires is a good technique and some practice. Also you need to think the scale in pulses (Feel the octave of notes as one continuous motion.) That makes it a lot easier to play quickly if you have developed the technique/skill/etc.

That is still ridiculously fast for me though. I don't think I'll ever be able to play them at that speed. At the moment, I can play them at 200, with four notes to the beat. That's still pretty fast, but not 120 with eight to the beat. Can any of you guys do the latter?

Yes, but not in all keys - those which use most or all of the black notes are much easier to execute at speed.

Well, not so hard I think. I can do it...

Yes it is fast! as I said before. But it is not ridiculously fast.
I can do it. If you can play four notes at 200, sooner or later you will be able to play eight to 120 beat.

Wow. Thank you!

Hanon? I didn't start that until about a year or two ago. And now I use a different exercise.

Again, it's about knowing where to drop your wrists and weight and where to relax and let them "float" so your fingers can 'fly' for lack of a better word. Make sense? Also see my previous posts on mind/body awareness. Feel free to write if you have no idea what I'm getting at...
ScrpPian
www.myspace.com/ScrpPian