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Topic: Ballade Op 23  (Read 4330 times)

Offline jorley

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Ballade Op 23
on: October 24, 2014, 11:49:08 AM
This is a work in progress. Life is strange, since I over the last year have doubted if I even can play the piano. Looking at me playing the first ballade seems surreal and after I learnt the piece a year ago I sort of experienced a mental breakdown. I looked at my hands, sat down at the piano and just... Couldn't play anything. I started with the simplest beginner pieces thinking "I need to start all over". I has been a difficult year and I have almost not practiced anything at all. I am largely self taught which you might hear. This has been a reason for my doubts of course, along with the fact that I lived with the illusion that once you turn 20, you cannot learn anything new(I am now 20 and started playing at 15/16)... Sort of a neurotic illusion I guess, since I have realized now it is not true(which I have been given man examples of). Anyway, the last few months I have finally gotten weekly lessons with an excellent teacher, who has helped me getting my confidence up. I have now realized that I always have to originate from myself, that we are all unique and that embracing our own and everybody elses uniqueness, without ever comparing with others, is where we will find each other and bring peace and joy to life. Anyway... Now to the ballade... I now it is not perfect, but still, I think it is not all that bad. You have to consider that I have only been playing the piano for 4-5 years with a long break in there, and that I am largely self taught. Now, this teacher I have has helped me enormously though. Another 5 years with her would be great!!! :)
Here is the video:



I would be really glad if you could give me some constructive criticism on what you think needs to be improved and so on... Thank you all in advance! :)

Offline amytsuda

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Re: Ballade Op 23
Reply #1 on: October 25, 2014, 01:24:46 AM
You are amazingly good for self-teaching only for 4-5 years. I envy your hands! I am not qualified to give you any feedback, and if you have a great teacher as you say, you don't need any feedback from online bystanders. But if you are looking for some affirmation from the world that there's some value for you to continue your piano, I can assure you that you should never doubt. The fact you self-taught means music means a lot more to you than to people who grew up being fed and arranged to learn music. Enjoy playing wonderful music!

Offline jorley

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Re: Ballade Op 23
Reply #2 on: October 28, 2014, 08:42:38 PM
Thank you for your kind words.

Offline pianoman53

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Re: Ballade Op 23
Reply #3 on: November 01, 2014, 10:16:45 AM
Dear Jorly,

I tried to make a video response, but it never really turned out that great. I've never played this piece myself, so I mostly played wrong notes when I went through it.

Anyways!

In general it's good. Especially since you haven't played for very long. Just some things:

The first note was good, but then you have to keep listening to the connection to the next one. Some teacher told me that this chord (neapolitan6) is some symbol for hope. No idea if it's true, but it sort of makes sense. And it's sort of improvisational, so let go a little bit after the first few notes.
Once you arrive to the highest c, the hope goes away, so listen carefully to the g-f# intonation (which you did). And the rest! You forget to do most of them in the beginning, but they are really important.

Then you need to count (even Rachmaninov counted long rests, so nothing embarrassing about counting).
Then this cool E-flat major7 chord also needs careful counting. Then, you need to listen to the Bflat. The first 4 beats with the chord, but then it's alone. So the rest at the 6/4 bar is important, because it connects it to the theme.

So now the theme itself. It can be a little freer. It's somewhat of a waltz, but not too much. It can be played in a lot of different ways, so just try a few. Like, some more free version, and some more stable. Then when you let it rest, it will sort of decide by itself.

Then it's all good, until the  A major chord, before the passage. It goes Cm, D, A/c#. The A chord needs to be a little bit special, and the c# needs to connect with the coming Cnatural.
Don't worry about the passage, it will come.

The next part was good! Only thing is that you need to listen to the top of the left hand more. In general, you need to practice slowly, and really make sure you listen to everything. It doesn't mean that everything has to be heard, but you have to hear it, and then decide what you want to do with it.

Then loads of arpegios in the right hand, and once the horn arrives in the left hand, they need to be heard. They are the thing that connects the second theme, so they can't just randomly appear when the second theme start. So once you play GD DG GD, voice it and listen to it.
Once the smorz. comes, it  will tell you how much you need, if you listened enough to the horns and the bass. Now it was too much, because the bass didn't lead, and you needed too much time to introduce the horns.

I have class now (on a saturday -.-), so I can't write more now. I'll do more later :)

Pm if any of this didn't make sense, and I'll try to explain!

Offline amytsuda

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Re: Ballade Op 23
Reply #4 on: November 01, 2014, 02:13:08 PM
Then loads of arpegios in the right hand, and once the horn arrives in the left hand, they need to be heard.

That is Horn!! The arrival of spring! I came back to this piece so many time, but never realized that. I am not the OP, but please keep going through the rest...
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