Hungarian Rhapsody No 2 suggestions

[mjin1]

Hi.

So here's a little background before I ask my question..

I've been playing the piano ever since I was little, however, never really seriously. My parents never made me practice, and I never really liked it.. Until about 2 years ago. I started playing the music from the "Castlevania" video game series by ear, on the piano.. Somehow found out about the Romantic composers, which brought me to Liszt. Well, after about a year, pretty much every Castlevania song would come easily to me and I got bored with them.. so I got my courage up and started to learn the second Hungarian Rhapsody(From the start of the Friska.)

About the time I started learning it is when I started taking lessons, which I'm very thankful for.. My teacher is a former student of Dr Suzuki, and she really has helped my technique on this song. I've been working on the correct fingering for the song for about... 3 or 4 months, and I can, at times, play through the first 6 pages of the Friska with great speed, something very close to the way marc andre hamelin plays it. Though I generally try to slow it down to the way other performers play it just for consistency.. Of course, having worked so hard on this song, my teacher is baffled that I even am able to get this far with it. She says I can actually play faster than she can.. haha. My only regret is that I didn't start real practice earlier in my life.

Anyways, my questions/concerns are these:
 I can't play through this consistently like I want to. I know it takes time due to it's difficulty.. and there are other factors. It's always cold in my house so my fingers suffer from that.. and a piano tuner has said my piano hasn't been 'regulated' in way too long, so apparently he says certain keys won't repeat quick enough or play pianissimo consistently due to the felt and hammers or something like that. We're gonna get that looked at. However..

What are some ways to solidify this very fast technique? I'll have certain days where I am unstoppable, I can almost play through it with my eyes closed and without any stress in my hands or arms, then the other days It'll be the complete opposite. I can't make any speed and I run out of stamina way early. I'll admit, over the months it is getting better, but slowly..and I think I am the level of player to be able to accomplish this. But..

Are there certain practice techniques for this type of really fast and difficult song that is just better to solidifying it or does it really just take alot of time, given my experience? Thanks.

PS. I don't really know what kind of student I am since I can play advanced level songs, but I haven't really been in lessons that long.. I just posted this question on this forum since I think higher level people would be more familiar with it.

[faulty_damper]

Anyways, my questions/concerns are these:
 I can't play through this consistently like I want to. I know it takes time due to it's difficulty.. and there are other factors. It's always cold in my house so my fingers suffer from that.. and a piano tuner has said my piano hasn't been 'regulated' in way too long, so apparently he says certain keys won't repeat quick enough or play pianissimo consistently due to the felt and hammers or something like that. We're gonna get that looked at. However..

You will be amazed what a regulation will do for your technique.  Practice on a good piano can do wonders in developing efficient and effective technique.  Practice on a bad one...

[mjin1]

Yeah that's what I was thinking..

This isn't a.."bad" piano, not some upright thing.

It's a young chang baby grand, just.. apparently can't repeat some notes very well and can't play pianissimo apparently. I had a feeling that had something to do with it though. Thanks for the response.

[kghayesh]

Well you are so similar to me !! I've been playing for only about 5 years, and now I am playing difficult pieces such as Hungarian Rhapsody no.2 and Chopin Ballade no.1 and some Chopin Etudes. I know it is not the way it is meant to be, as i already bypassed many of the basic building blocks of piano technique ( for example, Bach inventions) but I just simply play this difficult music !

Yeah definitely your piano will make a great difference, but (as my teacher says) we have to get back to technique a lot in order to polish and refresh our playing mechanism.

About the fact that you play the HR one time perfectly and the other badly, if you can play it once good then you definitely can. All it takes is concentration and proper warming up... and off you go !

[point of grace]

i´m scared with that rhapsodyyyy

[nick]

Because of this statement:

What are some ways to solidify this very fast technique? I'll have certain days where I am unstoppable, I can almost play through it with my eyes closed and without any stress in my hands or arms, then the other days It'll be the complete opposite. I can't make any speed and I run out of stamina way early. I'll admit, over the months it is getting better, but slowly..and I think I am the level of player to be able to accomplish this. But..

I would say it is not your piano that is responsible for lack of speed at times, otherwise you would have never played it up to speed. I would do the obvious, practice it a bit slower, a speed where you are playing it consistently perfect, and only rarely bring it up to speed.  Good Luck!

Nick

[mjin1]

Yeah, I'll probably end up having to do that.

I just get so impatient.. I also found that recording myself and seeing exactly how fast I am playing it helps...

Apparently, I had been trying to play it as fast as Hamelin plays it, though I didn't intend to.. I've heard other performers play the especially technically difficult parts a bit slower, so that's what I'm trying to aim to get to first. I don't have much desire to get up to the speed Hamelin plays it anyways, I figured over a long period of time as I keep playing the song it'll come along eventually.

But it's interesting, I'll end up playing what seems slower, then when I watch it back on this camera, it's actually like a decent performance speed.. but it's not like that with every part. I still should probably slow it down to really see improvement.

thanks for the responses.