A little experiment...

[omnisis]

Alright, time for an experiment.  Let me explain my situation 25yr/old, adult beginner male, 1 yr of piano exp thus far using mainly method books.   Now working on a collection of "Martha Mier" romantic pieces published by Alfred.  Decent sight-reader given limited exp (I can pretty much sight-read the Mier pieces I am playing though not always at tempo in the tricky parts).

I LOVE CHOPIN!   I also love the C minor prelude of his (Op 28 no 20), it's nice and dark, my kind of piano music    Anyhow, it's meant to be played slowly (lento) and has mainly octaves in the left hand.  I can play the first 2 measures but want to play the entire piece.  Everytime I tried before I start "stalling" on some of the RH chord changes.  I have avoided learning it because I thought it was "too hard for me" however, I think I can tackle it if I approach it in a structured manner.

I would like to learn it by utilizing all the methods discussed on this forum (Repeated Note Groups, Memorization, etc.).   Can someone (Bernhard if possible) outline an approach to learning this piece?  I am keeping a practice log and I will post my progress everyday and also my thoughts on how the practice methods I am using are working.  I would really like to do this as an experiment with some of the practice methods espoused by CC Chang, Bernhard and others on this forum.  Whose up for helping me out with this little project?

~omnisis

[i_m_robot]

 

practice a bar (or two) for twenty minutes a day

it repeats a bit so it shouldnt be too long

slow will help a lot

play a chord - listen and let the sound go away then think about the next chord

quickly (after you know the chords a little) move your hands above the next chord to be played but dont play them

then let your hands fall to the chords

this will help you practice making  quick jumps

review the previous day before you practice

-try playing the different voices separate so you can hear how they sound

selfs version has the voices separated for a few bars (like G note and C minor chord played with same hand but one different staves for the first measure)

but most important, since you are beginner (like self ) find a fingering and try to stick to it

changing will only complicate matters

if any of this is complicating tell self and self will try to clear it up

[omnisis]

UPDATE - Practice Day #1

I now have the first two bars of this piece memorized and down cold.  After analyzing th piece I realized that bars 5-8 are identical to bars 9-12 ! This reduces the total number of bars to just 9!  I used RNG between chords to help me remember the chord shapes and transitions.   I Plan on trying to learn the first four bars completely today.

~omnisis