Chopin Prelude Op. 28, No. 11

[akonow]

I can't seem to play the appoggiature correctly in measures 15, 16, 19, and 20. When I try to play those parts hands together I always miss one of the notes because my book says you use the thumb to hit the G#... Also, it seems that my left hand is drowning out the right hand a little. Help please.

[ramseytheii]

That's not an appogiatura, it's a mordent.

The trick is in the fingering: G#-A#-G# should be fingered 3-4-2, or if you use a thumb on the previous F#, finger it 2-4-3 (advisable).  Use the stroking touch, or as one person described it "petting the cat" or "dusting the keys."

If your left hand is overwhelming the right hand, play the left hand softer.  Remember that the piano is not two-dimensional.  Your mechanism has to go in and out, according to the length of the fingers, or around and about (clockwise, counter-clockwise) according to the shape of the music.  I am guessing that a general tension and two-dimensional playing (ie back and forth across the keyboard, without any hills or valleys) is the cause of your poor sound in the left hand.  By the way, have you checked your fingering?  Sometimes it is as easy as changing one finger.

Walter Ramsey