Anyone interested ?

[aaron_ginn]

I'm on dial-up so I only listened to the video of the Moonlight Sonata.   I'm impressed.  I think you're going to do just fine.

However, if I were in your position I'd do things just a little differently.   Mainly I would slow the whole thing down considerably and shoot for perfection in timing and flow rather than shooting for speed.

Some will say not to play slow and that it's best to get up to speed ASAP.   And there's a good reason for that philosophy, but ironically the reason has little to do with speed.   The idea is that if you play things slow in the beginning then you will hit a speed wall when you try to speed up.  But the reason for the speed wall comes from having to change cadence.  In other words if you learn something at a walk and practice it that way for a long time, but the real speed requires a gallop, then you can only push the walk so fast before you need to break into a cantor and that's where the speed wall comes into play.  You need to then relearn the whole thing over at a cantor.  It uses different muscle to cantor than to walk.

However, you already have the correct cadence.  Not to imply that you have perfect cadence.  But what I mean is that you are already playing the piece at a gallop.  You can slow it down and still be galloping.  Just as you can slow a horse down to a cantor without actually breaking into a trot. 

That's what I would do if I was in your current position.  I'd play it as slow as you possible can whilst still maintaining the motion and feel of a "gallop" at slow speed.  Then focus on smooth timing and hitting perfect notes.   Don't worry about the speed.  The speed will take care of itself if you continue to play at a cantor.   You won't hit any speed walls.  You're already there as far as the correct cadence goes.

However, if you press on to force the speed whilst playing sloppy timing and notes, then it will be extremely difficult to iron that out later.  Much better to tackle the smooth cadence and perfect notes early on and let the speed take care of itself.  And the speed will talk care of itself too.  Don't force the speed.  Focus on perfecting the flow of the cadence and on form.  Never hit any note just to whack it.  PLAY every SINGLE note METICULOUSLY and you're be GREAT!  Let the speed grow on you naturally.  Be patient with it.

I usually play it much more slowly as you say, particularly the ending which I didn't record becuase no one really wants to listen to the ending of this movement played at andante tempo!   I actually tried to play as quickly as I could without cratering for this video just to show what I could do ideally.  I really appreciate the suggestions and I'll definately take them under consideration.  I'll try to post video from time to time to track my progress.

Thanks again!

[penguinlover]

I just watched your video of the Mvt. 3, and the Maple Leaf. You are doing very well, but I do think you could profit from a few lessons.  There are markings, especially in the Beethoven that can be explained by a teacher.  I was going to comment on your sitting too close, but that had already been mentioned.  Just keep up the good work! 

Here's a hint I used in the Third Movement.  When you get to measure 9-14, work the duet voices alone until you get the notes perfect.  That would be the bottom note in the RH, and the top notes of the LH.  Once you get that learned fairly well, adding the upper and lower G sharp shouldn't be difficult.

[ludwig]

I feel that this project is a great idea generally speaking. You may want to do a little experiment out of it, and perhaps change the criteria a little. For example, 3rd mvt of moonlight is a substantial work, perhaps, if anyone's interested, you could get someone willing to have a few "online" lessons via this forum and choose something around 2-4 pages long, I feel a theme and variation could also work very well here since its clearly sectionalised and with a different element to work on in each. Something not focused on technique but on the musical elements, such as voicing, texture, articulation etc... Beethoven's my fav composer but I would also say his pieces are quite difficult to master in a short amount of time. You could get teachers on the board to give suggestions and have say 2 "online" lessons a week ( a set time to post perhaps) so give the student a bit of time to work at it. It could be interesting to see the results and gather info on what works best.. Of course the most important thing to keep in mind is that people learn differently, and they have their strengths and weaknesses so we could probably only make general assumptions on what works best! Goodluck!!!