Help I suck

[bearzinthehood]

I haven't had real piano lessons in years, and lately I've been feeling like my playing is pretty technicaly deficient (among other things).  Anyways, after a boring stint memorizing the easiest Beethoven sonatas, I thought I'd post some vids of stuff that's giving me trouble and maybe some of you awesome peeps could point out whether my posture/motions are making me a shoe in for tendonitis or carpal tunnel.

This is the opening bit of op. 27/2.  It almost seems alright until that F# minor chord and the chord that I think is a C# dim but don't know for sure (lack of theory knowledge being one of those other things  ).  When I look at it looks like my hand is flopping around a lot so I'm probably wasting energy somewhere, but I don't know how else to switch from pinky to thumb.

Ok this is the next part, I just can't seem to play this up to speed evenly.  Raise the wrist more?  Lower the wrist?  Lean out/in?  Different fingering?  Or just keep practicing what I'm doing now?  This is probably my biggest hurdle in terms of playing this piece cleanly.

This is still 27/2, this part comes out ok but I'm pretty tense by the end of that arpeggio section.  When I look at the video it looks like I have flat fingers, but if I try to curve them a bit I have a really hard time hitting those black keys.

These are my sad attempts at octave trem.  I zoomed out a bit so you can see my shoulders and elbows.  You've got the lean in, the lean out, raised wrist, lowered wrist.  You can tell from my facial expressions that I'm really not achieving total relaxation here.  You can also see me being an idiot after the head scratching part.

Anyways, if any of you piano ninjas out there could give me some tips that would be great.  Even things like whether I am sitting too high/low or far/close from the piano would help.

Thanks.

[steve jones]

I think the best bet would be to get a teacher to advise you. Cant offer much in terms of advice myself, Iv only been playing a short while.

Actually one thing I could say after seeing the first clip (and please remember that Im speaking as a novice) - maybe you could economise on you motion a little? You're fingers seem very 'active'. Many concert players seem to have immense economy in their motion, meaning that their fingers gravitate to the keys without wasting any time or energy. Just a thought, dont know if anyone would agree.

Btw, how long have you been playing? The clip doesnt sound half bad! I'll shall be happy when I can play like that, believe me.

[bearzinthehood]

You are right about the economy of motion thing.  My fingers are all over the place, I'm probably lifting right hand fingers too high or something.  Left hand is flopping about but I think that's ok, I don't feel any tension there.  Maybe I should take a look at that Kempff video I have of this movement in slow motion, although I doubt that would help much since he probably has bigger hands than me.

[hazypurple21]

I can help you out with the octave tremolos. What really helped me when I was learning the pathetique was practicing using my whole hand, as opposed to just my thumb and pinky. Also, whichever finger is landing on the beat should receive a slight accent, and the other finger could be played a little lighter. Hope that helps.

-Steve

[chopintod]

OK, hang with me, I'm gonna "review" this as I watch, so it might seem a bit disjointed...I'll wrap it up.  (Note that I ain't no pro, but I think my experience level will let me comment....others feel free to correct.)

NB: I'm gonna watch these without sounds, since you aren't concerned about sound...it'll just throw me off, so don't get pissed if I don't comment on the music.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
PART I: OK, I've finished Part I, it was enthralling....  At first watch, it seems your hands are too far above the keys.  This is causing the lack of economy in your movement; since your hands are so high up, your fingers are forced to slam down and flop around instead of play smoothly.  This also could be causing the trouble you have with finger curving.  Try moving the hands down closer to the keys; this should facilitate the curving of the fingers which is needed for an "emoted" performance.  Let me watch again....OK, more than your entire hand, it's more like your wrists that are too far up.  Try bringing the wrists closer to the keys.  Everything else looks OK so far.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
PART II: Again, a lot of flapping here.  It seems that you aren't moving your wrists when you play...this is very important.  Your wrists should flow somewhat ahead of where your fingers are playing (again, others correct if I'm wrong, this is what I think).  Otherwise, your fingers will have to work too hard to reach the keys.  It's prob. hard to do with this high speed passage; in this case, simply stretch and lower the wrists a bit.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
PART III:  This looks good, can't see too much to comment on here.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
PART IV:  Same as above, but enjoyed the headscratching.....wait, what in God's name is going on with that lean?    I never lean out, unless it's a particularly expressive, slow passage and I'm performing something for an audience.  Leaning out creates too much tension and stretching in the arms.   Definitely lean in, or straight up, but please not out.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

One big thing that I've remembered after rewatching all of this: don't play with the wrists!  Don't sound with the wrists.  My teacher always made this painfully clear with exaggerated imitations of my bouncing wrist syndrome (hopefully cured now).  Keep the wrists steady vertically and play (really press down into the key) with the fingers.  This could be causing a lot of the flapping.  If you need to play really loud or stuccato, use your shoulders, not your wrists.

Hope that helps, please comment on my comments, it'll make me feel better....haha  

Terry

[thierry13]

Hahahaha the random Campanella transposition in D-sharp minor 

[thierry13]

By the way for La campanella, you seem to slow down on bigger leaps. Keep the same speed all along, no matter how far is the jump.

[bearzinthehood]

Lol, thanks for the help.  I'm gonna try out your suggestions, I seem to have a lot of problems with economy motion, both in terms of flopping around with the wrist and in terms of lifting fingers way high above the keys.  I tried sitting on a stack of books and I think that helped a lot for me, I'm a bit on the short side so maybe that had something to do with it.  Hopefully I'll get a teacher when I move in a few weeks who can sort some stuff out.

Hah, and that La Campenella thing was so goofy I just had to leave it in.  Not that I have aims of playing that piece in the near (or possibly distant) future, just me being retarded and wasting time as usual. 

[thierry13]

Hah, and that La Campenella thing was so goofy I just had to leave it in.  Not that I have aims of playing that piece in the near (or possibly distant) future, just me being retarded and wasting time as usual. 

You allready proved you weren't learning it. First, it was one hand, and second, it was in the wrong tonality 

[bearzinthehood]

Yah def.  So I watched the Kempff video and I am choc full of ideas to try.  Thanks for input, it was really helpful.  I'll take down the vid links now so my ISP doesn't get pissed and I quit wasting your time.