I did manage 180 bpm this morning, but you are right, it is very difficult and uncomfortable. My whole shoulder and upper arm are tensing like crazy and I'm really sore afterwards. I did search before starting this tread, but I couldn't find anything realy helpful. What I am doing now, is just starting the metronome at 100 bpm, and gradually increasing it until it falls apart at 180 bpm+. A few more specfic pointers on how to get this up to tempo would be very appreciated.
The biggest breaks in the musical line, or at least the motion that feels most akward, is when I'm doing lateral shift above my thumb. (Ascending with my left and descending with my right). I am using the thumb over-method, but I guess it still needs some more work.
On my right hand it is my 4th finger causing the uneveness, and the fact that my hand is not big enough to do a F-minor chord with a double F. Well, not that fast anyway, so I have to really roll with my wrist.
In theory, at some point I have mastered _every_ difficult arpeggio group in the score, and learning it hands together should only be a matter of memorising. Am I on to something or is this a bad idea?
So here's something to consider: holding your arms relaxed like you were playing the piano, jerk your elbow out and in. Notice that your hands move quite a bit of distance very quickly. Now to apply this to the arpeggio, you shouldn't be thinking about your elbow but thinking about how to move your finger over to the next note quickly enough to prevent the break. In actuallity, you are really moving your shoulder out and in which makes the bent elbow leverage the forearm which moves the finger/hand. But don't think about your shoulder, either.Notice one more thing: This is NOT thumb over. Thumb over only effectively works moving outward. But in both outward and inward movements, the shoulders' out/in movements, coupled with the bent elbow, provides the quick leverage needed to displace the fingers/hand to the desired location.
Chords:I am not entirely sure how to play chords as easy as one should. I just move my fingers in position and push down, I guess. If you could elaborate on how to play these correctly, it would be great!
Lateral shifting arpeggios inwards:Your explanation, well, explains alot. Also, my thumb seems to automatically reach for that last note when I'm descending with my right hand. That is making the motion tense and forced, maybe I just need more wrist motion. I will isolate the problem and just do some more descending arpeggios, taking all your advice in consideration.My techical issues causing unevenness:I've uploaded an excerpt from the score. This is the part my right hand is looping on my recordings. My markings in red is were the unevenness occurs. There is my 4th finger, the big stretch of the four notes, and the descending lateral shift all at once in succession. Maybe the anticipation of the upcoming lateral shift is what is making my thumb tense and my playing weird.
Sonata recordings:I listened to some samples from the John O'Conor collection, and it did sound great. Different, but great! I have the impression that most people (maybe just the youtube-mob, I wouldn't know), tend to like the first version they hear the most. Was these the first recordings you heard, or did you hear a lot before "settling" on this one? Slightly off-topic perhaps, but interesting nonetheless.
That's an interesting and I think effective description of a difficult problem, that is the role of the rest of the arm in maneuvering the keyboard. It seems to me though that you describe it backwards: you say that the elbow moves because the shoulder moves. This seems impractical and counter-intuitive: the shoulders move because we desire our elbow to move. I can't imagine deliberately moving my shoulder to do anything except roll it around after I wake up in the morning.
Topic: Beethoven op2no1 and a more general question regarding long pieces 