I agree with what Birba says on his video, except that my teacher always told me that when you are still at the learning stage of a piece you should be always practicing slowly and heavy, you should not care about interpretation at this point cause what you are trying to achieve is getting all the notes ingrained into your fingers and your brain, its very mechanical, if you try to do little nuances and dynamics without having the notes really under your fingertips, your going to start making mistakes or you will not be able to make the dynamics right at all. So, after you can play the whole piece, or a whole section of a piece on a technical level, up to speed, them you go back and start the "Details phase" where you get the dynamics, the articulations and all that into your playing, as well as pedaling, this is where you get the sheet music and start reading paying attention to what you missed the first time. After that you go to the final phase that its interpretation phase, where, knowing the limits you cannot cross on the piece, you find your own way of playing it.
I think it's very dangerous to separate the technique from the musical aspect of a piece. I agree you do have to know exactly the succession of notes on a written page, work out those uncomfortable hand positions, thumbs turning under, etc, etc, But I think once you have gotten the basic ground, it's useless to work it up to speed in a way that you will never be playing. Why learn to play the piece at quarter note = 132 or whatever, martellando each note at the same sound and force if this is not the way you eventually want to play it? After you've learned it, let's say, at quarter note = 60, you should begin IMMEDIATELY to incorporate tone production into the phrasing. You can't expect the fingers to respond to your wishes when the piece is already learned up to speed. At least, I can't! What I did in the video was just a candid improvised consideration of what Choo choo did. I was basically talking to myself trying to get MY ideas in order. This is how I would learn the piece. I'm not reccomending my way of playing to anyone. BUT, the way of arriving at your own personal interpretation. It has to be done at an early stage in your learning of the piece. In fact, I might reccomend that you let the fantasie impromptu rest a while and work on something else. That way, when you come back to it - give it at least a month - you begin slow work all over, but not uniform martellando of the notes. Rather with the musical and tone production intentions.
Neither I was recommending the way I learn a piece. I was just pointing out what I've been told by my teacher, and in fact, neither I do it exactly the way she tells me. I think everyone get to make they're own way of learning in the end, just you know what works best for yourself. I think I am too anxious so that's why I have often to go back and play slow again some parts cause I didn't achieve a high enough accuracy, I don't know maybe if I took more time to play slow in the beginning I wouldn't make some mistakes, but that's just me.
I just began working on the middle section (Moderato Cantabile) while I'm working on thebeginning. I have a question for bars 49, 53 and 65 . Are those 4 little notes (C, Db, Eb, Db) that appear before F played before the beat (after the Ab of the LH) or played with the Db and Ab of the LH (2 RH notes to each LH note)? And what do you call these 4 little notes? Are they grace notes? I see a similar pattern in bar 57, but there, the 4 notes are 32nd notes and played with the LH notes. Thanks.
My etude, I'm finishing memorizing the 2nd page, then there is a lot of repetition at the 3rd page, so I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel already. But it's just memorizing, for the real playing, I have a first part like you that is coming along pretty well, but the rest I still have to work slowly a lot more, I don't know how long it will take me to finish this piece at a reasonable level at least, maybe 1 month, or maybe 2, I don't know, but I'm taking my time.In fact I should be playing a lot slower than I am, I have this issue, I'm very anxious, so before I know it, I'm speeding up. And that's a bad habit I know.. I'll probably have a new video by sometime next week!
I play about 75 for half-note, but its marked 84 at the sheet music, although that is just a recommended speed. Yundi Li plays about 90-95, that's fast!
Having watched your latest vid briefly..Bar 14. (and all the that are the same)LH Fingering - 521212 521214Prevents over stretching the fingers and having to turn your wrist to get your thumb up to the G#..Up to you though obviously.
With the LH Fingering - 521212 521214 - wouldn't you have to play with your 2nd finger over the thumb?
Topic: Fantasie Impromptu Project 