Wrong chord...then?

[stormx]

Hi !!

Let's suppose you are performing (it could be in a big concert hall, or just for your family and friends). Stopping and restarting is out of question 

If you hit a wrong chord FF that should last for some time (the whole bar, for instance). It could be a triad with just 1 wrong note, or the whole triad shifted 1 key to the righ or left, whatever. What is the best way to deal with this?

Do you stick with the wrong chord, no matter how horrible it sounds?
Or, do you play it again inmediately to correct the mistake?
Or (other trick?)

[thalberg]

Great question.  Unfortunately,  this is one of those situations in life where you simply have no good options.

I can think of lines of reasoning for both ways of thinking, but in the end I say play the chord again correctly--maybe just do it on a beat so it's not so much of a hiccup.  Horrible chords just need resolution, whether the composer wrote them or your wayward fingers did.

[faulty_damper]

Depends on whether the chord was a dissonant one or not.

If the chord can be resolved (because it was played a semitone higher) then it could fall to the correct chord.

Since is was a chord, it may be difficult to follow voice leading methods if the chord was clearly a mistake, but, if only one or perhaps two notes were a incorrect, the could be resolved to the correct pitchs.

It really depends.  The speed also factors in: if you have enough time to correct musically, and are able to because you know how to, then you would be able to.  But if it was is rapid progressions, then the interuption to play the correct notes would be more detrimental to the music than if you just continued.  Stopping is breaking the rule of not stopping because it draws more attention to the mistake!

[bernhard]

If the piece is not well known by the audience (most pieces actually) play it with the utmost conviction (“A mistake played with conviction is not a mistake, it is interpretation”), and do not let it show to the audience (by cursing, by your body language, by looking distraught) that it was a mistake.

If the piece is well known, well, do the same.

There is a famous story about Rudolf Serkin getting it monumentally wrong, as told by Charles Rosen:

I remember, for example an execution of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier  by Rudolf Serkin in Carnegie Hall, where he missed the difficult left hand jump at the opening , and unnerved, from then on never got it right even once on its various returns; when, in the final fugue, he arrived at the unison passage in the right-hand octaves and left-hand single notes, he began with the correct A in the left hand but started on G in the right, and unable to stop himself, played dissonant sevenths throughout the passage; even his phrasing went awry on this occasion.

(Charles Rosen – “Piano Notes” – Penguin)

(I also read somewhere a story about some famous pianist who decided to play as an encore Mendelssohn’s SWW “Duetto”. It was the end of the recital he was tired, and to his horror as he played the first notes, he had a monumental blank. He could not even remember what the piece sounded like. So he just improvised a tune in Mendelssohn style, and apparently no one noticed).

You are in good company.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[ako]

I agree with Bernhard. Never replay a wrong note during a performance. If you replay it, you are telling the audience you played it wrong the first time. If you just let it be, no one might notice it and even if they did, the sound will pass so quickly that no one will remember a single wrong chord if the piece as a whole is well-performed. IF you replay it, the audience will remember that more.

[beginner0]

What if it's for an exam and the jury is looking at the music?

[jeremyjchilds]

If you are in an exam, you will be docked marks for the first "wrong chord" mistake.

If you correct the mistake, then you will be docked again for adding new material to the score...

[Etude]

The best thing I can think of is to immediately release all the wrong notes.   
Missing notes are better than a sustained wrong chord or immediately playing the right chord after a wrong one.

[jeremyjchilds]

The best thing I can think of is to immediately release all the wrong notes.   
Missing notes are better than a sustained wrong chord or immediately playing the right chord after a wrong one.

I agree!!