Should I Attempt Fantasie Impromptu?

[victor_ching]

Hello everyone. I am new to this forum but not to piano. 

As the poll question suggests, I want to learn Fantasie Impromptu. The reason for this is that I want to enter it in my school's best YR 12 musician award. I am currently in year 10 and will have 2 years to practise it. After 1 weeks of practise I finally got coordination of my left and right hand.

I have been taking piano lessons since I was 3 and now I am 16 (13 years). I passed GRD8 ABRSM piano with a merit (123/150 points). Should I put effort into this or should I focus on another song? Please give some advice.

[rob47]

yes, yes you should.

[hodi]

with 2 years u will be already sick of it
believe me.
i'm sure after 2 years your fantaisie-impromptu will be more than perfect

[Dazzer]

please. you're going to need more than fantasy impromptu to top hsc. I believe you'll be doing mus2 ext1?

I think alot of people fall in the chamber music category. Simply because we just don't have that much experience as pianists in chamber ensembles. we're always playing solo.

So yes... play the impromptu now if you wish, but i doubt you'll be playing it at the hsc.

(oh woops... you mean you want to top your school... well... regardless my stand still stands. do it. but i wouldn't expect you to play it in 2 years time. You should have moved on already. At a diploma level, a person should really be churning out stuff at an above average speed, and not doing the old "4 exams pieces for the exam next year" stuff.)

[shasta]

Ask BREADBOY

[Etude]

[zheer]

Hello everyone. I am new to this forum but not to piano. 

I have been taking piano lessons since I was 3 and now I am 16 (13 years). I passed GRD8 ABRSM piano with a merit (123/150 points). Should I put effort into this or should I focus on another song? Please give some advice.

I think you just want to tell us you passed GRD8 piano. ( am only kidding )

[ted]

I think you might consider employing a random procedure such as tossing a coin to decide whether or not you attempt it. Anything but another breadboy thread.

In passing, I have difficulty imagining how someone can think a bunch of remote people can possibly answer questions of the "Should I attempt ?" variety. In my forty-five or more years of playing the piano it has never occurred to me to ask anybody such a question. Five minutes fiddling at the piano is usually sufficient to tell me with an amazing degree of accuracy how long and how difficult the task is likely to be. I then weigh that against the intensity of my desire to play the piece and the likely pleasure I would experience from playing it. I then come to a conclusion based on ratiocination.

Another little mystery is why Fantasie Impromptu, in particular, attracts this question. I have been on several piano forums for a few years and I keep having deja vu. 

[chopiabin]

Dude, seriously - if you want to do some impressive piece for a highschool competition, there are like hundreds of other pieces that are equally hackneyed, but are more impressive and have MUCH greater musical value. Pieces that come to mind - Revolutionary Etude, Black Keys Etude, Liszt's Liebestraum#3, Chopin Polonaises, Beethoven Eccosaises. I mean, there are a million more that I can't think of now but there are a lot!!

[lau]

I don't think Fantasie Impromptu is that hard. I just finished it. Once you get the concept of it the whole peice just falls together. I have been playing piano for 6 years, and I learned it in about 3 months. But I never get sick of it, I never get sick of anything though.

Best Wishes,

Lau

[pita bread]

Ask BREADBOY

What?

[sergei r]

Surely everyone remembers this thread...

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,4177.0.html

[Etude]

yes

[pita bread]

I'm glad I haven't been around here for that long, or at least I didn't pay attention.

[nightmarecinema]

Someone actually linked me to that thread, and that's how I joined the forum.

[victor_ching]

Yeah me too. I searched up fantasie impromptu in google and the thread came out and I joined piano street

[lau]

Holu crap, when I was learning Fantasie Impromptu I searched for it in google. I saw that thread and that's how I joined pianostreet. I was just about to type that!

Anway, remember my Fantasie Impromptu thread? I think Nils deleted it though. He thought it was nonsense.

[kelly_kelly]

Yeah me too. I searched up fantasie impromptu in google and the thread came out and I joined piano street

Yeah, that was part of the reason why I joined too. That thread was hilarious.

[Tash]

back to the question, randomly
by all means go and play the piece, but do it now for like the next few months and don't spend 2 years playing it because that is a ridiculously long time to play it and you'll get exceptionally bored (hell i was bored in like 6 months). and i highly doubt that you'd top yr12 music blah with it anyway, one reason being that the examiners would probably scream at you for playing it, second reason being that there are other yr12 students who are playing things heaps more difficult than the FI and playing them well. So when you get around to being in yr12, challenge yourself and play something more interesting with a higher difficulty level (not promoting the whole 'let's play the most difficult piece ever just becuase it's hard' thing), because you're going to go nowhere playing a piece for 2 years

[donjuan]

I dont think its the kind of piece you should play if you want to win awards because its so overplayed!  Do something more original!  In my city's music festival, I saw 5 asian girls come up one after another and play this piece.  It was an open class too!  it wasnt like they were forced to play it.  Even worse, they all played it exactly the same and I was so bored and was thinking "ok, so what? lets move on"

dont play it for competitions!  Learn it for technique or whatever instead, but not for performance!  Unless you are prepared to do something daring and possibly terrible to the piece in performance, its just not a good horse to bet on

[nightmarecinema]

I dont think its the kind of piece you should play if you want to win awards because its so overplayed!  Do something more original!  In my city's music festival, I saw 5 asian girls come up one after another and play this piece.  It was an open class too!  it wasnt like they were forced to play it.  Even worse, they all played it exactly the same and I was so bored and was thinking "ok, so what? lets move on"

dont play it for competitions!  Learn it for technique or whatever instead, but not for performance!  Unless you are prepared to do something daring and possibly terrible to the piece in performance, its just not a good horse to bet on

I love this piece, and at some point wanted to perform it (when I got to that level). But it seems like a bad idea now...but what about something like the Chopin Ballades? Are those "too overplayed", or are those acceptable?

[donjuan]

I love the chopin ballades!  I dont consider any of them overplayed except for G minor.  However, I always find myself enjoying listening to different people play that G minor ballade!  I still think it's certainly a better choice than Fantasy impromptu! 

[lufia]

please. you're going to need more than fantasy impromptu to top hsc. I believe you'll be doing mus2 ext1?

I think alot of people fall in the chamber music category. Simply because we just don't have that much experience as pianists in chamber ensembles. we're always playing solo.

So yes... play the impromptu now if you wish, but i doubt you'll be playing it at the hsc.

(oh woops... you mean you want to top your school... well... regardless my stand still stands. do it. but i wouldn't expect you to play it in 2 years time. You should have moved on already. At a diploma level, a person should really be churning out stuff at an above average speed, and not doing the old "4 exams pieces for the exam next year" stuff.)

What do u mean? It doesnt matter how difficult the piece is, its the musicality that counts. A person can play something very simple like Fur elise in the hsc and top it. And fantaisie is a diploma level piece.

Imagine someone playing revolutionary etude. He plays it about average speed but with no musicality. he aint goner score high.

[Tash]

yes but it's easier to play an easier piece well. when you've got people who are also doing the hsc (some of which are freaks from the con) who ARE playing the revolutionary etude and playing it well then they're obviously going to get a better mark. in which case there is no way in hell you can top the hsc playing fur elise because it doesn't demonstrate your technical or musical ability to the levels you could be doing

[lufia]

My school music coordinator teacher who has been a judge marking the hsc said that its about creating a vibe, touching the audience and expressing urself. Its not about how hard the piece is. 4 example playing a simple rock n role song or 80's waheva. ther is only 3 chords yet you can manage to top the hsc.

Anyways if what ur saying is true... is it alrite if you mix the levels around? example. diploma level, grade7, grade6, grade x and still top the hsc? Better off safe then sorry

[Tash]

well it depends on what hsc level we're talking about- if it's music ext then they're going to be expecting, as a classical PIANIST, something more than fur elise. otherwise, if people could just get up there and play that then the entire standard goes down and it's like well why bother playing the good stuff when i can learn fur elise in a day and get full marks for it? that's like music 1 level. yes i do realise it's not about how hard the piece is but if i were an examiner i would still give the higher mark to the student who very convincingly pulled off something that demonstrated their obvious pianistic talents- challenge yourself! and if you're only playing fur elise at the age of 17/18 then you're obviously lacking something....

Anyways if what ur saying is true... is it alrite if you mix the levels around? example. diploma level, grade7, grade6, grade x and still top the hsc? Better off safe then sorry

i have no idea what you mean?!! as in play a few pieces from different levels? well i guess so...it's not like the examiners are going to ask you oh what grade is this piece? play what you want as long as you're challenging yourself and it sounds good!

[victor_ching]

In that case, what is the most appropriate classical song to be played for the best year 12 musician prize in my school (not HSC exam)?

[yoshiki]

In that case, what is the most appropriate classical song to be played for the best year 12 musician prize in my school (not HSC exam)?

The "Song"  that you should play is Liszt's Sonata (90% chance of winning). 

[g_s_223]

The "Song"  that you should play is Liszt's Sonata (90% chance of winning). 

[victor_ching]

So Liszt's Sonata in B minor is the best choice? Its kind of long... 36 pages...