Chord attack/parallel sets overlap <-> legato

[stephane]

Hi all,

In different pieces when playing legato I'm getting (true) remarks form my teacher that I'm overlapping notes. I have this problem mainly on fingers 5-4-3 RH (descending) but also a bit on 4-3-2. (and 5-4, 4-3...)

To correct this I should, according to my teacher, focus on clearly separating them (the notes should follow each  other immediately but not overlap), focus on lifting high the fingers that are leaving the keys and doing some exercices where I hold 3 fingers and kind of trill between the other 2. (ie. depress the keys under 123 and trill with 4-5)

This seems to work with regards to removing the overlap but is also slowing down my playing.

1) Is this normal? Did one of you have this problem and solved it?

2) Are there other ways to work around it?

3) I've read (and tried) a lot about chord attack / parallel sets to increase/set speed. But here basically you start with total overlap (chord), slowing down with less overlap. But this conflicts with my problem (the main reason why I stopped trying this method). When I want speed I get overlap and when I remove the overlap I'm back at my original slow speed.
Am I missing something. Where do I go wrong? What can I do to use this chord attack method (which makes absolutely sense and speeds up things)

Best regards,

Stephane

[CC]

You are not missing anything and your teacher is giving you very good advice.  It is one of the most common and difficult problems.  This is exactly what I meant, when I wrote in my book that parallel sets will get your speed up if you  use phase locked parallel sets (the fastest way to increase speed) but that is only for increasing speed and that is NOT what you want.  This is one reason why many teachers hate chord attacks, because they (correctly) call it cheating and not correct technique. The real practice starts AFTER you get up to speed using any kind of chord attack, then you have to work for finger independence so that you can play fast WITHOUT parallel sets. What you need to learn are all the speed tricks, and many of them will require time to acquire. Here are some: always practice for technique w/o pedal. When you do the type of exercises suggested by your teacher, know the difference between fast and slow muscles; you need to convert as many slow muscles to fast ones, which means short, quick movements followed by relaxation, even when playing slowly.  When "lifting fingers high" don't stretch and leave them up their for any length of time, because that is an isometric exercise and will only increase the slow muscles.  You need to develop the speed of your brain and nerves (parallel sets), and fast muscles -- these take a long time, comparable to body building. Then you need to experiment with different finger/hand/etc motions, such as flat fingers, curled, or combinations of them, etc. You will need quiet hands also. Ask your teacher to play the section and see if you can catch the details of the motions.  A lot of students practice the down motion of fingers but forget that it is just as important to lift them at exactly the right time.

[stephane]

Thanks CC for this answer.
I hear I have lot's of work to do. Good tips I think I can try out.
Now, a month after I wrote the initial mail. My teacher told me that there is no overlap anymore for the piece I'm mostly working on. Speed is still the issue.
So I will try the parallel sets to get it up to speed where appropriate and work on the different suggestions you gave.
There is also a nasty arpegio Bb-Eb-Bb-Eb, 5-4-2-1 with left that I'm trying to get in my hand. With a small hand (8-9 reach) it's tough (I am using your wheel idea to move my hand left to right). I'm getting there slowly using fast but less accurate practise to get my hand up to speed and then slower practise to get my fingers with good grip on the right notes.

Thanks again CC for the usefull information in this reply and your book. I've downloaded the update and will go through it in the near future (already read the 2nd edition).

Kind regards,

Stephane