"Long time no see" here.I just finished my debut recital on the 27th February. Phew!Wow Bernhard, once again I'm impressed by your long and eloquent reply!One question on performing sonatas. Would you eschew playing sonata single movements as encore pieces the same way you would in the proper programme?
Bernhard - do you spend most of your time on here? You never seem to have a short simple answer.
I totally disagree. I think it's much better to read through the piece to get your own idea of it, if possible without having heard any recording of it. That way you discover the piece by yourself instead of looking for the elements you know are there because you heard them in a recording. Generally if I'm working on a piece I try to avoid listening to any recordings of it before I've learned the notes and made some idea of what my interpretation of the piece will be like.
I usually work on difficult sections first, then fill in the gaps. I get each hand down, then combine the two. I work at a slow speed at first to really get the technique, fingering, and phrasing down. Then I speed up. After a couple speed ups, everything falls in place and I begin to really understand the piece. It's all downhill from there. I find it hard to believe that some members of this board can instantly play passages at the correct speed. In more complex pieces, this simply can't be done. Most of the time there is a lot of fingering to be learned, and your brain has to process all the new information you are giving it. You have to train your brain into playing the notes, and develop the proper technique. Usually, starting out slow and speeding up is the only way to properly accomplish this. Banging away new notes at super speed will only hurt you in the long run, but whatever works for you I guess.
I think that the process of learning fingering and technique should start out slow and develop as you speed up. I've never ran into any barriers because once I have everything in my mind (all the phrasing, fingering, dynamics), it will naturally develop at full speed into how it should be. Sure, I'll play little passages at full speed here and there, because they are easy. I'm talking more about massive Rach 3 type pieces I guess, or pieces of higher difficulty. You can't just go in and say "Hey I'm going to play this at full speed!!". If you do, it will be a mess, and I can't see any benefit from it.
Sure, you could try to get correct fingering by playing something fast, but in most cases you can't. In advanced pieces, you'll be killing yourself trying to play things fast on the first try, and your fingering will be mashed and useless. You'll sit there forever working out fingering if you are playing it at full speed. I find it inefficient. I like to build a solid foundation with all the elements first, then all I have to worry about is speeding it up. Which really isn't hard at all since I have everything already in my mind. I rarely change fingering on speed up, and if I do, it's a quick fix. Just my opinion and how I do things.
There aren't too many posters I agree with as often as I do with xvimbi.
Yes, please explain it - It's been mentioned several times on this board without adequate explanation as to what it means. Thumb over ........ what, exactly? the whole hand? I toss my thumb UNDER all of my fingers once in a while.
I am a newbie here... found this great post....and even though it is a bit old I like to add my 2 cents:I am learning Scriabin's sonata #5 and Beethoven Appasionata. What I do is I learn a section from the exposition, analyze it with the piano (i.e. memorize the harmony, melodies, intervals, texture etc, play it on the piano and listen how it sounds). Then I go to the recapitulation, find the 'equivalent' passage, notice that it has been transposed by say a perfect 5th. So I transpose what I learned from the exposition upward a perfect 5th on the keyboard, without looking at the score - I need to do this extremely slowly since i am not good in transposition on the fly. Then I check my 'result' with what is composed on paper in the recap. I then realize there are lots of 'suprises' - such as a bar is dropped to intense the emotions, or notes has been added to intense the texture since it is a perfect 5th 'higher up' and sound 'thinner'. When I practise, I practise 'equivalent' passages side by side - it makes sense to me since they usually are musically very similar if not exact. and they require the exact same technique. It becaomse extremely easy to memorize a piece - just memorize once in exposition and you almost have memorized the recapitulation.Similarly I do the same with development section - again extract what was from Exposition and see how the composers developed that theme. then memorize the harmony, melodic alteration etc... right on keyboard. find out how he transposed or modulated, then transpose myself on keyboard and then check back what the composer wrote - again you would find lots of 'surprises'.This makes me find learning a piece extremely interesting - as if I am entering into the composer's mind and compose togetehr with him.Of course you should only do this if you are in no rush to learn a piece - because you would be spending time analysing and transposing, and rechecking. But once I learned the piece, I would not just have the piece "learned in the fingers", but I can explain pretty much every note in the composition - why the composers wrote that way. and can identify any nuances in the composition.
I for one consider it a privilege to have the benefit of your (clearly) extensive experience. I'm sure I'm not the only person here who is grateful that you take the time and trouble to explain and teach things thoroughly. Please keep it up, it helps my playing and practice