Piano Forum

  Dear Aaron:
 1) about your video, I think that's quite good. You just seem a bit stiffy, especially your forearm and wrist. Try to relax, and your playing will certainly come smoother and better.
 2) about the trill, anything is better than 34. I would suggest 13, to both hands. Give this fingering a chance and you will see both speed and control enhanced, even more if you combine this with some wrist movement. Of course that sometimes you must use another fingerings, and odd ones (such as 45, or 34 while holding down the 5), but this is my general pattern.
 
 Dear Steve:
 

(...)With Chopin, the use of rubato and pedalling makes it alot more 'free' imo. (...)

1) Let me disagree with you: rubato and pedalling are both disguises for unsolved technique. In Bach, there's a "rule" that forbids you from both, what is nonsense, since you do use pedal and agogic in Bach. In the other hand, taken for granted that Chopin used both, almost everyone start studying a piece by him with lots of pedal, lots of "ritardandi", i.e., full of expressive playing... but normally it is not. Try to play a piece by Chopin with no pedal and no rubato and see what happen. Of course I'm not saying that you must perform this way: it's just an experience. A very good example: Prelude 20. Everybody overpedal it: try with no pedal, but with a very legato melody.

(...) But with Bach, its far more metronomic and that makes it hard for me. (...)

2) Take care: what Bach do you mean? An allemande in the french style is anything but metronomic. A grave or largo from a sonata is probably more agogical than Chopin. By the way, there are even people who propose more "strict" pieces, such as our very inventions, with tons of agogic.

 Dear Aaron, again:
 

(...) It seems that many Romantic compositions allow for more freedom than Baroque works. If you look at the music for a Bach work, it looks so simple, so neat, so orderly, yet you almost have to play like a machine to pull it off. (...)

It only seems less free: in some cases, it's even more than a romantic work. Compare, for instance, a prelude by Chambonnières with some Schumann work. And about Bach, you touch the great problem of Bach playing: try to do it like a machine. That kind of thought generates very poor renditions of his works and a battle with every page by him. Notice that it's not you: many people think that way, have a very bad time studying Bach, and play it in a very boring way.

 Dear Invictious:

(...)Baroque music is a common misconception, people think it's impossible to play Baroque music beautifully and musically because of it's organized structure. True, it's difficult, that's why it's difficult to play properly and beautiful, because it's hard to express it musically.(...)

I agree 100%. I'm not sure why that happens, but you're right. What really astonishes me is the fact that some people find baroque music more complex or organized than Brahms, for instance. Or Debussy. For the later, anyone who knows his music should agree that it only sounds free, because it's very well organized and structured. Remember only Voiles or La Soirèe dans Grenade.

 Dear Brahms:

(...)You have to have complete independence of the hands and this requires a few months (dare I say "years") of preparation. (...)

It only happens when someone confront himself with the inventions too early, specially if it's the first contact with polyphonic music, what happens - unfortunately - very much. I wrote above what I think it's a general order of Bach music, and it's impossible to start with the inventions. Furthermore, I would never say to anyone who have less than about three years of regular piano playing to do this. In my experience, that followed this "rule", I always found the inventions very smooth to play, and despite some problems with the length of number 2's theme and the arpeggi of number 13, they all (I played 8 of them in my student years) came easy.

(...)It's a journey well worth embarking upon. Have fun - you'll learn soooooooo much!

Yeap! 100%.

 Best to all!