Rach C# minor prelude

[invictus]

I couldnt play the agitato passages quickly, my arm tightens up and gets tired, I can't pull out the top notes clear enough, and it ends up in a mess, i tried practicing slowly and Hands seperate, but still, i couldnt play it with clarity

[jlh]

bummer

[zheer]

bummer

   Shame

[jason2711]

don't worry, just keep the slow practice up.  This problem often happens when learning this piece.  Focus not on the difficulty/ virtuosity but think of the music and the purpose.  When practising slowly try to add in touches of accelerando and ritenuto in parts when you feel the music could use it.  This will help with you adding rubato when at speed, as well as being able to play it at a faster speed due to the random accelerandoed practice.  Focus at bringing out the top crotchets and their equivalents in the left hand and the other notes may follow (they may not though ). 

If you're having difficulties at speed, then take the right hand part and just focus at being able to play it a bar at a time at a faster speed.  Despite this, this part does not need to be played as fast as you think, instead, play clearly, bringing out the melodic lines and accents and throw all the emotion you have into it.  Good luck

[jlh]

I couldnt play the agitato passages quickly, my arm tightens up and gets tired, I can't pull out the top notes clear enough, and it ends up in a mess, i tried practicing slowly and Hands seperate, but still, i couldnt play it with clarity

Do you have a teacher currently?  I think the main thing I would worry about based on what you said is the arm tightening and getting tired.  Once you fix that, it will be much easier to play the notes properly.  See if your teacher can help loosen you up -- there's no need at all to be tight in the fast part of that prelude.  Also, don't try to do it all with your fingers, but use more of a whole hand/wrist/arm motion in this section (motion is somewhat counter-clockwise at the wrist if that makes sense).  By using larger joints and muscles, you will be able to play faster and looser and the whole thing will sound more natural.

Hope this helps!

Josh

[invictus]

Thanks for your replies, it workds, right now i am just trying to get the nitty gritty bits of details in place (my style of course)