Help! How to get a piece into your fingers as quickly as possible?

ShiroKuro

TL;DR version: as per the title, what's your advice for getting a new-ish piece into your fingers as quickly as possible?

I need to get three pieces into my fingers in the next 3 three days. 😅 Fortunately, they are all somewhat below my level (as opposed to being at or above the difficulty level of what I normally play) otherwise it wouldn't be feasible. But I just started working on them tonight, and they need to be "ready-ish" on Saturday.

This evening, my practice approach was to practice as slowly and accurately as I can, and to write in fingering and make note of tricky sections. I can play all of the pieces all the way through, so now I need to pick up the tempo and smooth out the tricky sections.

I think what I'll do tomorrow is start at the end or the trickiest spot for each piece, and then work backwards. Keep the tempo down mostly, to cement the fingering....

So, any other suggestions that I can use to kind of push these forward?

The details:
I find myself in the happy predicament of needing to prepare three pieces to play with a cellist -- this weekend! Fortunately this won't be a performance, just a practice, but this will be my first time playing with him and I don't want to give a bad impression! I think the plan is that we'll play/practice this weekend, and then do a little home concert in July (because he's going to be away for most of June and July). It all came together sort of suddenly, and I didn't want to postpone, because then he'll be away and so on. And I've been trying to find a cellist to play with for forever!!

So in order to get as much out of this practice as possible (so that I can really get things polished and be ready to perform with him), I want to be as ready for this weekend practice session as I can be.

TIA for any suggestions! 🙂

pseudonym58

Try starting in odd places, the middle of phrases, arpeggiated or scalar passages. It feels awkward, and I find it sometimes helps me learn difficult sections.

ShiroKuro

pseudonym58 Excellent suggestion, thank you!
ETA I think this kind of practice will go well with starting at the end as well.

Monviso

I wonder if getting it into your ears would also help? So listening to recordings many many times when you're away from the piano?
What are you going to play? It sounds like immense fun

ShiroKuro

Monviso I wonder if getting it into your ears would also help? So listening to recordings many many times when you're away from the piano?

thanks for this suggestion! I will absolutely do this! — Like, right now, because it’s 5:30am and my husband is a sleep so I can’t practice, but I can do some listening.

What are you going to play?

Three pieces by Einaudi, I will go and grab some video links hang on…

ShiroKuro

Monviso What are you going to play?

Three pieces by Ludovico Einaudi. Here are some videos and samples of the piano parts.

Resta Con Me

Una Mattina

Sarabande, this one is actually written for violin but he said he it would be fun to transpose it. Plus it’s kind of low anyway, so it should work.

(I have to make a pdf of the score that includes the string line, but the piano part is the same at the opening.

MRC

Keeping it slow and writing in the fingerings is certainly the way to go. I'd add a few tips:

Take a good look at the cello part. Make sure you know how it all fits together.
Be certain you keep a steady tempo. No cellist wants an unsteady pianist. You could play through with the metronome at a moderate setting to see if you're unwittingly slowing down or speeding up anywhere.
For difficult passages, prepare a plan B. For instance, if you have some rapid arpeggios in the left hand, see if you can play just the main harmony notes. It's much better to hold the tempo while still making the music sound recognisable, than to slow down or go completely off the rails.
When you get together with the cellist, listen to their sound and try to dose your volume accordingly. It's easy to play too loud: even experienced pianists fall into the trap.

Most important thing: relax, have fun! I've had some of my happiest musical moments playing with cellists.

ShiroKuro

MRC

Take a good look at the cello part. Make sure you know how it all fits together.

Will do, I will do this during my listening session and then again this evening when I practice.

Be certain you keep a steady tempo. No cellist wants an unsteady pianist. You could play through with the metronome at a moderate setting to see if you're unwittingly slowing down or speeding up anywhere.

Ah yes, thank you! I also need to make sure I’m not speeding up across the life of the piece, or slowing down at the hard parts and speeding up during the easy parts.

For difficult passages, prepare a plan B. For instance, if you have some rapid arpeggios in the left hand, see if you can play just the main harmony notes. It's much better to hold the tempo while still making the music sound recognisable, than to slow down or go completely off the rails.

Thanks for this! I did sort of have in mind I can just drop a hand if I need to, just to keep the pulse going.

When you get together with the cellist, listen to their sound and try to dose your volume accordingly. It's easy to play too loud: even experienced pianists fall into the trap.

I was already worried about this, I think it’s going to be one of the challenges for me, and also maybe for the piano space. I also need to figure out where he should sit. I think I I’ll move some of the chairs that are near the piano to make room for him.

Most important thing: relax, have fun! I've had some of my happiest musical moments playing with cellists.

Thank you! I had a cello friend years ago, before we moved here, then he moved away. (And then we moved too.) Since we moved here, I’ve been trying to find a cellist to play with but haven’t been successful.

This person is a doctoral student (in cello performance) at the music school at the university where I work, and I’ve heard him perform, he plays beautifully!

Monviso

ShiroKuro
Thank you for sharing those! I had never heard them before. I particularly Una mattina, and imagine they'll all be great fun to play!

KevinM

ShiroKuro this sounds fantastic. Fingers crossed for you it works out well.

ShiroKuro

You can see how easy the piano parts are.

Resta Con Me will be the easiest because I’ve played it before, although it’s been several years since I touched it.

Una Mattina is wonky to count so as long as I get that part into my brain, it will be easy on the fingers.

Sarabande should be doable as well, I was just starting to practice the solo piano version, so I’d already played that for maybe two practice sessions because it was decided that we’d play together. And it looks like the piano part of the duet version is actually a little bit easier than the solo version.

He usually plays music in the classical repertoire, so he said he was excited to play these contemporary pieces. 🙂

ShiroKuro

Monviso I will let you know how it goes!!

Monviso

ShiroKuro
Yes please!!! I'm excited for you all over the way from this side of the ocean!

ShiroKuro

Monviso thank you!!!

ShiroKuro

And of course the piece that I thought would be pretty manageable is giving me trouble 😅

pseudonym58

As a cellist myself, I would say it's a pretty reasonable assumption that you will, as a general rule, play everything down one level dynamically. f becomes mf, etc.
I accompany my cello students at their lessons, and that's what I do.

ShiroKuro

pseudonym58 it's a pretty reasonable assumption that you will, as a general rule, play everything down one level dynamically. f becomes mf, etc.

Yeah, I'm actually really worried about this, about my ability to control the dynamics enough so that I don't drown him out. Especially right now becuase my piano needs to be tuned and it's kind of jangley. 😅

The last time I played with a string player, it was a violinist and I can remembering feeling how big her sound was. First, she stands up, which changes the acoustic profile. Then, there's the pitch of course. I just remember noticing how much she filled up the space!

But from the few times I've played with cellist, I know it's hard for the piano to not just totally roll over the cello.

MRC

When playing with other musicians, the essential thing is to listen to your partners. There's no point in fixing your attention on the written dynamics: f and p don't correspond to fixed levels of volume, they are expressive indications that need to be interpreted differently depending on the context.

Listen to the sound of the cellist and try to adapt your sound accordingly. If the passage is marked f, but you find that, in order to create a musically satisfying effect together with the cellist, you need to play really softly, so be it!

Aim for a transparent sound. If you use lots of pedal, it's easy for the cello to get lost in the wash of sound, even if you don't feel you're playing very loudly.

But always, listen, listen, listen! It's not just about playing softly, it's about adapting to the situation. You may find places where the cello is in a high range that carries well and will sound even better when supported by some really powerful bass notes in the piano.

ShiroKuro

MRC This is going to be challening, it's been such a long time since I played with a cellist! And my piano is a little hard to control because it's so jangley right now, but I'm waiting for the weather to calm down before I call my tuner, probably a few more weeks. But yesterday during practice, I noticed that I felt it was hard to play more quietly. Especially because these are all Einaudi and Einaudi is all pedal!

What about adding the una corda pedal? Maybe as a last resort?? I'll try that today as well. (Probably I won't like it though!)

Anyway, I recall that the last time I played with a cellist, he was sitting right next time me and I could hear him fine so it was very hard to have any perspective.

We'll see, it's a different house as well, so that may impact things as well.

pseudonym58

MRC I agree, when you're playing music with other people it's the relative dynamics that are as important as the absolute dynamics.

MRC

ShiroKuro But yesterday during practice, I noticed that I felt it was hard to play more quietly. Especially because these are all Einaudi and Einaudi is all pedal!

Keep a light foot on the pedal and see what you can do with partial pedalling. You can make lovely airy effects with that sort of figuration if you use variations of half or flutter pedalling.

ShiroKuro What about adding the una corda pedal? Maybe as a last resort?? I'll try that today as well. (Probably I won't like it though!)

It is indeed a last resort, but can be useful if the piano is in a really bad state. A few years ago, I accompanied a singer on a piano which was in a terrible condition. I wedged the una corda pedal down with a piece of wood and played the whole concert like that.

ShiroKuro

pseudonym58 Obviously the acoustic profile of the cello requires special consideration. But I have to say, I think dynamics are always relative. What counts as f vs mf is influenced by the room, the piano, the people, the weather… as well as the presence or absence of other musicians.