how fast can you scale chromatically- IN THIRDS

[allchopin]

this has become another one of my aggravations- thirds (minor) dont chromatic well! i can barely do them chromatically at all myself, but i wwould like to know who can.  

[R.Q.]

Interesting idea. I think they would make an excellent excercise! I've never really bothered with them, but after reading this post I went and worked on for a minute and - after overcoming the initial 'what note next?' bug - find that it takes me a full eighteen seconds to scale the keyboard fully. However, I'll work at 'em and I believe I will be able to report back a speed of 10 seconds or less in a day or two.

~ Young Virtuoso

[Beethoven87]

Just take a gander at Chopin's Etude Op. 25 #6... You'll never have problems with chromatic thirds after that.  I think you just need to develope a good fingering technique.  Once you know which fingers to put down, it's like a normal chromatic.

[allchopin]

im well aware of this etude- i have attempted it.  I just want to know who can do this...

[eddie92099]

You must hear Josef Lhevinne play it - it's the fastest recording there is!
Ed

[pianiststrongbad]

I have never clocked how fast I can do my chromatic thirds, however Liszt wrote many exercises to help this.  This might help you.  (book is called Liszt's technical exercises).  He does parallel sixths, thirds, along with other drills that give people a bad time.

[thracozaag]

You must hear Josef Lhevinne play it - it's the fastest recording there is!
Ed

 Listen to the Friedman recording--it's even more amazing.  The old Ashkenazy is damn good, too.  

[jakester]

The Lhevinne hands down contains the fastest double thirds. The musicality of the performance is like a breath of fresh air, though the surface noise of the 78 RPM record transfer does get in the way (somewhat) of a wonderful performance. The Cortot recording, just bring up one that hasn't been mentioned yet, is interesting and very even, though not as brilliant as the others (and sometimes filled with wrong notes). Interestingly, Gavrilov's is not as good as I expected it to be. Mei-Ting has a not bad recording up for free (!) at www.mp3.com. just search for "doublethirds".

Jakester

[eddie92099]

Yes I know the original Ashkenazy etudes are far better than the later version - I have not heard the Friedman but I have heard some of his nocturnes and mazurkas and they are incredible,
Ed

[ahmedito]

hmm.... when I was a teen, I had no idea how to do these... then I played the Grieg concerto. Grieg gives you a great fingering for a downward scale. Youll get the hang of it in no time, just learn how to slide that second finger down... once youve got it, go up!... youll get the hang of it in no time.

[opus10no2]

Very.

[invictious]

Check out Koji and his 25/6, freaky.

Power people..

[imbetter]

Really fast...I once spent a whole day practising this as  an exercise. It also helps when you get to chopins third sonata

[teresa_b]

I don't think I'm the world's best at it... I'm doing Beethoven PC 4 (Chamber Version) this spring, and I have to say, the solo passage immediately after the long orchestral intro challenges one to do the smoothest thirds (both chromatic and diatonic) possible.

Teresa

[el nino]

i have been practising 25/6 for some time and the key of playing thirds fast is fingering. the second voice should be played like this d#2 e2 f1 not d#2 e1 f1 besides speed you get legato. its hard when you start with this fingering but after some time its very comfortable. peace to everybody lets grab hands and sing sing when you are winning

[kriskicksass]

the second voice should be played like this d#2 e2 f1 not d#2 e1 f1 besides speed you get legato. its hard when you start with this fingering but after some time its very comfortable. peace to everybody lets grab hands and sing sing when you are winning

Not always true. I play my thirds with the jumping thumb rather than the sliding 2nd, and while I'm not going to say that my thirds are the best ever, they're certainly better than any other student I know. Different fingerings are better for different people, remember, and I play my thirds with impulses from the arm, so the lack of finger legato has never gotten me down.

[el nino]

btw anyone knows a piece that has harder chromatic thirds than don juan?

[pianistimo]

brahms paganini variations?  i don't know.  probably not as hard actually - becasue they just go up and down in the hand - and not wayyyyy up.