prokofiev toccata

[s1d1f1]

I can't start this poiece,I just can't.I don't know why,because is not that hard for reading but there are so many notes that my mind just can focuse,but I don't know why,I read so many dificult pieces.How shoul I start/should I practise separate hands?and how much time will I need to do this piece?


 s1d1f1

[viking]

My friend memorized this in two weeks, but this is not normal.  I'd recommend at least a month or more to memorize the notes, and several more to assimilate it into your technical capabilities without hurting yourself.  Good luck!

[fnork]

memorization? that's not really the problem here - could be done in a day or two...I played around with this just a few days ago actually and memorized half of it, the real problem is getting up the speed and finding the fingerings that will work the best for you.

[thierry13]

By memorization I think he meant the complete job up to memorization done, or at least learning all the notes up to speed and in memory ...

[lohshuhan]

i found the biggest pain in the toccata to be the chromatic major thirds, which totally threw me off...

most other compositions use chromatic minor thirds.  fortunately there were few long passages of major thirds. 

[michael_langlois]

i found the biggest pain in the toccata to be the chromatic major thirds, which totally threw me off...

most other compositions use chromatic minor thirds.  fortunately there were few long passages of major thirds. 

That's Prokofiev for you, always presenting new technical challenges.

[viking]

By memorization I think he meant the complete job up to memorization done, or at least learning all the notes up to speed and in memory ...

Correct.  Lucas memorized the whole thing at 90% speed, minus maybe 1 bar that he couldn't play at speed in a little under 2 weeks.  Pretty amazing. 

[lostinidlewonder]

The original poster hasn't really asked any intelligent questions and i wonder how serious they are really in learning this piece? If you can't start this piece I doubt you can carry onto the next parts. The first few pages are relatively easy, later on you get the tricks. If you have no idea whether to do hands together or separate (which is a newbie question to ask for such piece as this) you shouldn't be practicing this.

If you say the reading is easy then why are all the notes in your mind confusing you? Sounds like a contradiction. This piece is hardly a sight reading walk in the park anyway.