Chopin 2nd Ballade

[dancingfingers]

This piece never gets enough press in comparison to its sisters! I'm playing it now, and it's a brilliant work full of tenderness, virtuosity, and intriguing harmonies. Definitely worthy of its own thread.

That said, I've hit a bit of a wall with some of the technique in the presto-- specifically, the ascending contrary motion passages on the various diminished seventh chords. Surprisingly, I find these passages more challenging than the coda. How to coordinate the two hands? How to keep the right hand accurate (and preserve the crescendo) without getting fatigued? Help appreciated.

[maxy]

This may sound weird, but try working thumbs only.  Sometimes both thumbs play together (easy) sometimes not (somewhat harder)

[Motrax]

When I play these passages, I mentally focus only on the thumbs. Maxy is right in saying only to practice them. The left hand skips become awkward at the end of each passage, but the two non-thumb notes of each left hand triple (F and A, for example) become easy to play if you don't think about them so much.

For the right hand, make sure your wrist is relaxed. Use down-up motion with your wrist to help propel the diminished chords up the keyboard in a fluid, easy manner (let your wrist drop a little when you use your thumb, and let it "bounce" up when you use fingers 2 and 5).

For these passages, I think slow, relaxed practice should be enough. They'll eventually come together - don't get frustrated, and you'll do fine.

Hope that helped.

-M