What Piece(s) Are You Working on Right Now?

Pallas · 2024-05-31T12:42:16+00:00

I've been posting my progress inside an Alfred thread for some time now, but I'm interested to know what other people are working on, not just us method book...

BartK

hebele please tell me that "Minuet in G" is not an early beginner piece as opposed to what some part of the internet thinks

The internet is stupid (except this forum of course 😉). The adjective "early" means that you have just started that level and "late" means you have been at that level for a while and are close to moving to the next level. So, "early beginner" means you just started playing piano. That piece is not something a raw beginner who just started is expected to play.

Pallas

hebele I've recently gave that version a go instead of the simplified version in my method book. And found myself saying "I will never be able to grok this". My hands are refusing to play together, even after disregarding the trills.

I've found "not knowing what I don't know" to be the hardest part of piano. I can sit down with this piece, and throw myself at it, and completely not understand what I'm not getting. And then in the lesson I'll find out there's yet another layer in the ol' onion I didn't know was there. I keep thinking I can figure it out! I can! But, I can't. I need it broken down and explained to me using small words, one syllable words, enunciated slowly. 🤣

lilypad

Pallas The local community college had this piece as part of a Piano III class. The teacher also taught it in his Piano II class that I took years ago. My guess is that it was either too difficult for some of the Piano II class students or he was teaching it again to add more layers to the onion.

As far as the internet and piece levels go, I recently watched a YouTube video where a concert pianist was recommending pieces for intermediate pianists. They sounded pretty advanced to me and when I looked them up on the Piano Street syllabus they were grade 10!

Baroque music seems to take up a lot more bandwidth for me than other eras. I generally have to learn in much smaller chunks. I've had good luck with just adding a new note each time I repeat a passage. I also discovered a close to painless way of adding "onion layers" of articulation or dynamics. When I do "X times perfect" repetitions I work on adding in whatever I can manage at a time with each repetition.

Pallas

lilypad Wonderful, helpful reply. Thank you so much. My lesson is today, so I'm going to tell my teacher how it went with this piece and ask her how that sounds. If she thinks it's fine and I'm track as she expected, I'll stop worrying about it.

thepianoplayer416

The last piece my teacher got her students at RCM level 3 to play was "The Elegant Toreador" by Seymour Bernstein. A modern Spanish-sounding piece like you're in a bull fighting rink.

In the middle are 2 notes (1 for LH and 1 for RH) with a wavy line "gliss.". The teacher did a demo in class how we'd use the finger nail on 1 hand and glide across the white keys. Be careful not to cause your finger to bleed.

keff

thepianoplayer416 Be careful not to cause your finger to bleed.

I was taught not to use tips of fingers/finger nails but to use the back of fingers. I find it most comfortable if I use three fingers to sweep up and down but also possible with one or two. This technique will not cause bleeding or be painful.

iternabe

iternabe Picked one piece I really want to play from Faber Popular Book 1. Still working on dynamics and tempo, but at least I've got one recording that's passable.

Finally at tempo now. Having a hard time keeping left hand quieter. And getting that arpeggiated chord at the end come out even is still hit or miss.

WieWaldi

iternabe Never watched Dowbtown Abbey, so I don't know its soundtrack and how fast it is played in the TV series. I listened to both your versions back and forth, and I like the slow one better. It has more musicality in it.

Pallas

iternabe In my still not very informed opinion, I think you're making great progress. I'm noticing that you seem to have quite a bit of tension in your hands. I also have tension in my hands, and I often get feedback that relaxing my hands and focusing on hearing the singing line of the phrases will help smooth out what sounds a little choppy/thunky right now. I think the balance between hands is actually good, and the legato is what needs more attention, including holding all the notes to the full value. So you might consider slowing the piece back down quite a bit, until you can really feel for the tension and locate the source. I always love your videos. Good luck!

BartK

iternabe

I haven't listened to any previous version but I think this tempo is good. It does sound a bit choppy though. To make it more flowing and musical you should think in phrases rather than notes or measures. Imagine signing the melody line. You start a bit softer and then it grows to a high point and then tapers off. The final phrases should be like an echo - much softer.

A few comments about your technique. In the LH you are using too much finger movement and not enough rotation. Your hand arch is too flat and your joints are collapsing. Go extremely slow and observe your hand shape. The knuckle joints should be the highest point of the hand and make a nice arch, and when you press keys the last joint of the finger should not collapse inwards. It's better to practice slowly with correct form than try to go faster and ingrain bad habits.

thepianoplayer416

The last piece was a simplified version of the Bob Dylan song "Blowin' in the Wind". It's for an upcoming piano meetup event tomorrow.

iternabe

WieWaldi iternabe Never watched Dowbtown Abbey, so I don't know its soundtrack and how fast it is played in the TV series. I listened to both your versions back and forth, and I like the slow one better. It has more musicality in it.

@WieWaldi If the faster one sounds less musical, it's entirely on me.

The tempo marking on the sheet is "Moderately fast". Faber's own demo is at 148 bpm. My faster version is about 135 bpm, and slow version is about 100 bpm.

WieWaldi

iternabe In the fast one, you seemed to be focused in being fast. In the slow one, you seemed more relaxed. The Faber demo on Youtube sounds too rushed to my liking, too. Not from a playing perspective, I just had the feeling this music needs to be played slower.

So I tapped the original soundtrack: ~108 bpm

Edit: in your last videos, you played really beautiful. You developed a very good sense for musicality. Don't let this be destroyed by the impression you need to play faster just because someone else did.
Another finding: The original soundtrack has a quite relaxed melody line, but the string-section (bass-line) sounds very busy. It is almost as if the strings are playing double tempo than the left hand of the Faber piano arrangement. Or they used a delay effect in the production studio. Maybe this busy mood of the strings made the Faber-Youtube pianist go up so fast.

iternabe

WieWaldi Another finding: The original soundtrack has a quile slow melody line, but the string-section sound (bass-line) sounds very busy. It is almost as if the strings are playing double tempo than the left hand of the Faber piano arrangement. Or they used a delay effect in the production studio. Maybe this busy mood of the strings made the Faber-Youtube pianist go up so fast.

The original sound track is probably in 3/4 time signature, and the accompaniment plays 3 notes per 1 note in the main melody. That's why it gives the impression of faster moving sensation while not rushing the melody. Faber's arrangement for level 1 simplified the left hand to 2 notes per 1 note in the melody. Played at the original tempo for the main melody, the mood feels too slow.

iternabe

WieWaldi Edit: in your last videos, you played really beautiful. You developed a very good sense for musicality. Don't let this be destroyed by the impression you need to play faster just because someone else did.

I am curious what contributed to my version at faster tempo less musical. Is it just the speed itself, or is it something else I did differently?

WieWaldi

iternabe It is hard to tell. Let me try, you are generally hitting all keys harder, a bit of hammering. I feel the melody should be soft, but you had a tack of staccato in it. In the slow version I had a feeling of a bit of rubato as well. In the fast one, you did beat-beat-beat, except for the end. Your ending was very good, loved the smooth slowing down and getting softer.

iternabe

BartK Your hand arch is too flat and your joints are collapsing. Go extremely slow and observe your hand shape. The knuckle joints should be the highest point of the hand and make a nice arch, and when you press keys the last joint of the finger should not collapse inwards.

@BartK I noticed that in my video recently, too. And I've been trying to figure how to correct it. It sounds like simple to fix, but it turned out more complicated for me. I may start a new thread on this topic. Thanks for point this out.

Pallas

iternabe I may start a new thread on this topic.

I would really benefit from that topic too. I look forward to it.

WieWaldi

iternabe BartK Your hand arch is too flat and your joints are collapsing...

@BartK I noticed that in my video recently, too. A

This I noticed, too. And I remembered someone saying, imagine to hold a orange in the palms while playing. On the other hand, I have seen many fantastic players in YouTube like Peter Bence and Jonny May, and they are often doing a very flat hand, too.
So who am I, myself a total beginner, giving tips about technique? Only thing I can do, is to tell if I liked the outcome.

BartK

WieWaldi On the other hand, I have seen many fantastic players in YouTube like Peter Bence and Jonny May, and they are often doing a very flat hand, too.

What looks flat isn't really flat. Even Horowitz didn't have completely flat hands. It's true that in some music the hand has to be more spread out and flatter. The important thing though is that the knuckle bridge should never be lower than the fingers at the instant the fingers are hitting the keys and all the joints have to be stable.

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