Chopin etude op 10 no 1

[fnork]

op 10 no 1

I'm playing this, Ondine and a Beethoven sonata on an audition on Friday. I'm also sending these recordings for various summer courses. Comments are appreciated.

BTW, the battery on my MP3-player was almost at zero and I could only do one take, so I ended up playing very fast to make sure that I got the whole piece recorded  I usually play it more accurately...

[hakki]

Bravo! Very good.

I wish you had a better sounding piano too.

Regards,

[fnork]

Thanks

I know! I had to record it in a small practice room. Everything becomes smaller in a practice room - nuances, dynamic changes... I'll find a better place to record soon. And make sure that I'm better warmed up too...

[thalberg]

Wow, fnork.  I listened to your Ravel and now this.  You're really good.

[ganymed]

i dont think that its to fast .  Its nice as if thousands hands are playing on the piano. Everytime I listen to this etude i get so nostalgic. it has something magical somehow in my opinion which i cant distinguish. But can you tell me how did you approach that etude it looks very hard, e.g the rather long intervals at this very rapid tempo. Im sure that if you play on a better piano you would sound just like the real pros

[fnork]

ganymed

well, the first thing you should know is that I learned the etude 3.5 years ago, and while I haven't practiced it everyday since then (obviously...), it is really the time it takes to learn a piece like this - for all pianists, I guess, if you're not Liszt who was able to sightread all of op 10 perfectly. I still feel I have a lot to work with, but having recorded the piece I want to move on and learn other (easier!) etudes and focus on that. This etude is so good for building up endurance and power, but it can also be damaging if you practice the wrong way.
Practice without pedal, possibly without bass notes too in the beginning. Every note must be distinctly heard - a lot of students make the piece sound "blurry". Do it very slowly at first, and maybe mezzo forte. Now that I've played it for a while, I often practice it super slowly and FF on every note - it helps in building up endurance, but also in making every note heard.
For speed, I suggest to sometimes practice very slowly (contradictory or what?!) but with fast finger motion. In other words, with the fingers not playing highly raised, striking the key from a distant position.

Another problem you're likely to encounter is that the 4th and 5th fingers aren't working as good as the other fingers. I use a rhythmic variant to help strengthening them:
The arpeggios are written out like this: C G C E etc etc. Instead, play in 16th-triplets: C G C E C

Hope it helps!"

[fnork]

Uploaded a higher quality file but kept the old one, in case someone has slow connection and wants to download a smaller file.

[virtuosic1]

ganymed

well, the first thing you should know is that I learned the etude 3.5 years ago, and while I haven't practiced it everyday since then (obviously...), it is really the time it takes to learn a piece like this - for all pianists, I guess, if you're not Liszt who was able to sightread all of op 10 perfectly. I still feel I have a lot to work with, but having recorded the piece I want to move on and learn other (easier!) etudes and focus on that. This etude is so good for building up endurance and power, but it can also be damaging if you practice the wrong way.
Practice without pedal, possibly without bass notes too in the beginning. Every note must be distinctly heard - a lot of students make the piece sound "blurry". Do it very slowly at first, and maybe mezzo forte. Now that I've played it for a while, I often practice it super slowly and FF on every note - it helps in building up endurance, but also in making every note heard.
For speed, I suggest to sometimes practice very slowly (contradictory or what?!) but with fast finger motion. In other words, with the fingers not playing highly raised, striking the key from a distant position.

Another problem you're likely to encounter is that the 4th and 5th fingers aren't working as good as the other fingers. I use a rhythmic variant to help strengthening them:
The arpeggios are written out like this: C G C E etc etc. Instead, play in 16th-triplets: C G C E C

Hope it helps!"

Well done.    Are you by any chance either sight reading parts of it, or have the music open on the stand "just in case"?

[fnork]

Virtuosic,

Sightreading this piece? Hell no - as I wrote, I've played it for a few years now -- memorizing is not the difficult part in playing a Chopin etude. If you were thinking about the mistakes in the etude, it's just because I had to prepare it for a recording in short time - it certainly needs perfecting.

Wasn't it you who recommended transposing the etudes? I've started transposing a few of them - the revolutionary and op 10 no 8. Since I have to practice them slowly, I figured that I could transpose them anyways...