Tremolo octaves in Pathetique sonata 1st mvt

[sjskb]

My piano student is doing Pathetique sonata for DipABRSM next year. Everything is fine except for the LH tremolo-like octave passages.... She does have big enough hands to play octaves, but gets tired or limb fairly easy. This results in lack of control. (technically, supposed to play 8 quavers per bar, but sometimes she will just 'cheat' with six or even four!!!) There are similar passages in the RH as well.

how do i address this problem? i have no trouble playing the same passages for hours, how do i teach her to relax her wrist so that she can get through the passages and still have energy for the rest of the piece? 

many thanks!!

[will]

Try  https://members.aol.com/chang8828/techniqueIII.htm

Find 'Tremelos" about half way down.

[sjskb]

thanks will!!

that's really helpful

[tunneller]

Did this work with your student. I'm having trouble understanding exactly what Chang is saying. I can do very rapid 5,1 parallel sets on the octaves, and slightly less smooth 1,5's. These without any arm rotation. The result has a "pause" in between, definitely doesn't sound like a tremolo, kind of 5,1,,5,1,,5,1 with the first slightly louder than the second.

Alternatively, I can do arm rotation. Sounds pretty good, but I can't get any speed up, at least without it not sounding terrible.

What I can't work out from Chang's text is to somehow combine the up-down of the parallel sets with the arm-rotation.

Did you find a good way to explain how to do this combination? If so, please share :-)

Thanks, John

[tengstrand]

We filmed a technique seminar at a piano festival this summer, and the first question that came up was about tremolo...you can find the video on the youtube link below, and there are more on the website link. Maybe this would help your student.

Regards,
Per

https://pertengstrand.wordpress.com/helsingborg-piano-festival/

[supertonic]

We filmed a technique seminar at a piano festival this summer, and the first question that came up was about tremolo...you can find the video on the youtube link below, and there are more on the website link. Maybe this would help your student.

Regards,
Per

https://pertengstrand.wordpress.com/helsingborg-piano-festival/

Wow, this is really very useful video, thanks!

[thalberg]

We filmed a technique seminar at a piano festival this summer, and the first question that came up was about tremolo...you can find the video on the youtube link below, and there are more on the website link. Maybe this would help your student.

Regards,
Per

https://pertengstrand.wordpress.com/helsingborg-piano-festival/

This is great!!