Rachmaninoff Etude Op.39 No.6

[bjahdc]

Hi!
I am having difficulty with the jumps in the left hand (the octaves section) in the Presto section of this piece. 

Can anyone provide suggestions to play these chords accruately and with speed?

It is unbelievable how Lisitsa plays this piece on youtube.  Simply amazing.

Thanks!

[imbetter]

It's just like having a piece totally memorized, if you play it for long enough eventually your hands will have the distance between the jumps "memorized". Until then another option is get the right hand down and look where your left hand is going.

[ramseytheii]

There are some ways to practice this.  First, you have to understand the underlying motion.  It's actually very pianistic and if you are in control of the mechanism (this has nothing to do with fingers) it is not that difficult.  I don't mean to demean the difficulty, only to say, it isn't as hard as you think.

Think of this gesture as one of pouring tea from a kettle.  To pour tea from a kettle, you have to tilt it enough so the lid pops open, then the liquid will come out.   In tilting a tea kettle, your elbow (in the left arm) moves in a clockwise direction.   "Tilt the kettle" towards the chords; the octaves will play themselves.

To practice: practice the octaves by themselves until they are melodic, with a strong touch.

Practice the chords by themselves with a light touch until they are rhythmic, meaning they sound like off-beats.

Practice playing the octaves one octave lower than written, and the chords loco.

Practice playing the chords one octave higher than written, and the octaves loco.

Practice playing the octaves one octave lower than written, and the chords one octave higher than written.

Practice playing the octaves as two sixteenths, or two thirty-seconds, instead of one eighth note.

Practice playing the chords as two sixteenths, or two thirty-seconds, instead of one eighth note.

Get the idea?  Be creative.

Walter Ramsey

[bjahdc]

hi,
thanks for the suggestsions!

what did you mean when you wrote "practice the chords loco". what does loco mean?

also, did you mean to play the octaves normally, and when i play the chords that immediately follow the octaves, tilt my elbows?

i am having trouble playing BOTH the octaves and the chords at a fast speed. i find i am not hitting the right notes OR that i am not hitting any notes at all b/c i am trying to play fast.

thanks!

[ramseytheii]

hi,
thanks for the suggestsions!

what did you mean when you wrote "practice the chords loco". what does loco mean?

also, did you mean to play the octaves normally, and when i play the chords that immediately follow the octaves, tilt my elbows?

i am having trouble playing BOTH the octaves and the chords at a fast speed. i find i am not hitting the right notes OR that i am not hitting any notes at all b/c i am trying to play fast.

thanks!

I am recommending taking the music apart so that playing it fast isn't difficult.  Half the difficulty of playing fast comes from people trying to make all things equal.  So a person might try and play the octaves and the chords all at equal weight and volume.  This is incorrect and gets in the way.  You have to take the music apart so you can practice adjusting your touch for each eighth note, and in this way you will learn to play fast.

When I described tilting the tea kettle, I meant the motion from getting one place to another.  How do you get from the octaves to the chords?  Tilt the tea kettle.

I won't answer your question about loco because you can look it up.

Walter Ramsey

[ramseytheii]

I just thought of something else, and that is another barrier to speed, beyond trying to play everything equally, is not knowing the notes well enough .  If you practice as I suggested, both things will work themselves out.

Walter Ramsey