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Topic: Solfeggietto - practice approach?  (Read 6564 times)

Offline sharmayelverton

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Solfeggietto - practice approach?
on: December 03, 2009, 11:48:15 PM
Hi guys,

I've been playing piano for about 10 years but have largely focused on jazz and have allot of technical groundwork missing. One thing in particular is I struggle with is the kind of speed and even weighting of fingers needed to play C P E Bach's 'Solfeggietto', which is precisely why I decided to try and play it. I now know the piece inside out with all the correct fingering can can play it well at about  100bpm, (and by well I mean smoothly, evenly, quite, loud, ) however when I speed it up much it it gets rushed and uneven. I've spent quite allot of time going through it slowly and have started playing Hannon exercises to work on the evenness of my fingers. But can anyone give any further advice on how to practice this piece (or other similar pieces that might help) in order to play it evenly and fast.

Thanks guys.
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Offline alysosha

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Re: Solfeggietto - practice approach?
Reply #1 on: December 04, 2009, 12:53:52 AM
One thing i think i've learned over the years is that i practice too fast. Meaning that i end up memorising the wrong way of playing certain passages. The only way i've found to fix this is to slow it right down to the point where i can control exactly how i want it to sound, which takes alot more concentration as you have to play with emotion to really understand how you want it to sound. Then just keep at it until it becomes fluid and let the speed come of its own accord.

I also used to play with too much of the flat of my thumb rather than the tip which made it very hard to get an even sound.

Offline guendola

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Re: Solfeggietto - practice approach?
Reply #2 on: December 10, 2009, 09:11:18 PM
It is hard to tell what you need to do without seeing you play. But there are two things that won't hurt trying:

Play the piece fast and stop instantly when you notice that one hand feels awquard and find the reason. Don't expect to find it on the note you were playing last. It could be a few measures earlier or even in the other hand. Now find a way to play this better, this might include new fingering. This will eliminate a lot of unevenness already.

At a reasonably slow tempo, overdo the "natural" accents of each measure, i.e. strong 1, weak 2, not so strong 3, even weaker 4. 60 to 70 bps in quarter notes will be enough at first. This will be a bit amusical and you have to come back to a more natural playing later on. But it gets you back to the pulse of the music. Often it is enough to practise a few measures this way. With the constant rhythmical changes in this piece, I am not sure but you can try.

There are a lot of other things you could do, but that really depends on your very personal weaknesses. A teacher would be most helpul of course.

Offline sharmayelverton

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Re: Solfeggietto - practice approach?
Reply #3 on: December 11, 2009, 12:03:30 AM
Thanks for the advice. I'll try that and then I'll see if I can record myself and upload it to you tube to get further feed back.

Thanks
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