Bernhard, this practice technique does not seem to be working for me, even though I am trying to follow the directions exactly.
Unfortunately, verbal instructions in a forum cannot contain all the possible details. Therefore, even if you followed them strictly there would be no guarantee of success because of necessity
a map is always incomplete . Even with me watching like a hawk over my students, they still do not follow instructions. It is not their fault completely, and it is not my fault completely. Communication may well turn up to be impossible after all.
I am working on the last section of Chopin Ballade #4, (starting about measure 215, after the quiet succession of 6-beat chords) which is very difficult for me but a piece I would like to learn. I am working HS--the right hand is the hard part. I can not play the broken chords at speed, and I can't play the chromatic ascending minor thirds at speed. I have broken them into the smallest sections I can "master"--often just two 16th notes or one triplet and the first beat of the second set of the triplets. And yes, I've worked the overlapping sections. But I can't put them all together--and this is without my left hand! It is very frustrating. Often, I can't get the notes to sound together. they sort of "trigger" or sound like flams or grace notes. The only rest and relaxation I get with it is to play the passage very slowly in a relaxed fashion, which feels good and sounds good, but does not contribute to playing at speed, and flies in the face of the idea of "mastering" this in little sections. Despite several weeks, I simply can't master even one ascending line of chromatic minor thirds, let alone the whole 3-bar section or the previous section of broken chords. I'm sad about the whole mess, and disappointed that the technique isn't working for me. Suggestions?
Yes. Here is my suggestion: learn about the method on a much simpler piece. I do not really know what is your level, but the 4th ballade is one of the most difficult pieces Chopin ever wrote, and also one of the most difficult pieces of the repertory. It may well be the case as Mamut said that his piece is too difficult for you. This does not mean that you cannot master it, but it does mean that it will take a long time and you must have the necessary patience and endurance and persevere even though you are not seeing any results.
This is also the kind of piece you tackle after you have mastered all sorts of practice tricks and learning strategies. If the practice tricks and learning strategies I have regularly written about are new to you, you must first get thoroughly acquainted with them. The way to do that is to apply them to pieces that represent no real difficulty for you. Once you are conversant with the methodology then you will be able not only to apply it to any piece as to modify it to the particular demands of specific pieces.
I do not like to leave people on a limbo though, so here is something you may try on the ballade. The bars that are giving you trouble are the most difficult bars in the whole piece, so do not expect an easy ride.
First ask yourself: What is the nature of your difficulty? Technical difficulties are always solved by the appropriate movement. Are you sure you are using the appropriate movements? There is no single answer to this question. Just watch different pianists playing it and you will se that they do no all use exactly the same movements.
So start by getting yourself a video of someone playing it and watch how they do it. You will not be able to replicate exactly what they do, but it will show you that – if they play it well at all – they manage to make it look easy. Whatever the piece you are playing, if you are struggling through it, you are using the wrong movements. The reason why superlative pianists make it look so easy, is because for them
it is easy. This is a very profound statement and I urge you to reflect on it: The sole aim of practice is to turn something impossible into something easy. It is that simple.
Superlative pianists were not born finding everything easy. To them it was an uphill struggle until they figured out the way to make it easy. This is what you have to do. Watching superlative pianists play this piece will show you that it is possible to find it easy. It will also show you that what maybe the easy way for one particular pianist may be a very different way for a different pianist. So again, you must find your own way
So let us go through the chromatic thirds. I assume you will by now have decided on the fingering and memorised the notes. If you haven’t, this is the first step. Notice that startingon bar 217 (RH) there are 13 groups of three thirds. (The last group being the first three notes of bar 219). Ignore the melodic notes for the moment (the 3 quavers on the top voice), and concentrate on the thirds. You will add the melodic notes later on.
1. Start by playing only the first group of three thirds (group 1). If necessary stay 20 minutes on it. Play it at the fastest yet comfortable speed you can manage.In the beginning this may mean pretty slow. Just keep repeating. As your body takes over and the movements become more smooth and streamlined, you will notice that speed will increase naturally simply as a result of the repetition. You have several aims at this stage: ingrain the fingering (so make sure this is indeed the final fingering you will be using), ingrain the movement, make the movement less and less clumsy (if no matter how much you repeat the movements are still clumsy, you have the wrong movements. Typically with thirds the problem is to try to do it all by raising and lowering the fingers in isolation Hanon style. You want the arms and forearms to help the fingers as much as possible, so any movement that can be done with the arm should be done with the arms). Your final aim is to be able to play these three thirds smoothly, easily in a cyclical movement (as opposed to stop-start). You want to feel like your fingers are acting independently of your mind, that you do not need to think about it, your fingers just seem to know where they should go. Once you can do that, move on to the next group of three thirds. Do not worry about overlapping about this stage. You will overlap plenty in the next step.
So if you have 13 groups of three thirds, you should go through 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 - 6- 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 - 11 – 12 – 13. In my opinion, this is too large a chunk, and I would work only on the first 7, that is 1 – 7, and later on I would go 7 – 13 (7 being the overlap group). So let us work only on the first 7 group of three thirds. Maybe you can do all of them in one 20 minute session. If you can only do the first group, that is fine. But make sure that at the end of 20 minutes you have completely mastered it. This is important. Not mastering something at the end of the session means a completely wasted session. So tackle a passage you can be sure of mastering. Leave it to the next day. Next day start by doing group no. 1 again. It may feel as if you had never seen it before. Do not get discouraged, just go through it again. You will find out that it will take you only a couple of minutes to get to the stage you got after 20 minutes the previous day. So use the rest of the session to work on group 2. Or if the previous day you mastered 1 – 2 – 3, master 4 – 5 – 6 the next day. In any case, whatever you rate of progress, as soon you master 1 – 7, move on to the next step.
2. Now you are going to do two groups. That is 1-2; 2-3; 3-4; 4-5; 5-6; 6-7. You can now see that there is a huge amount of overlap going on. You can also see that most of the difficulties have already been tackled the day before (so only move to this next step if you have truly mastered th first one. Whatever extra time you have to spend on the first step will be handsomely rewarded on the next steps). Once you can do these new groupings perfectly, move to the next step.
3. Now do three groups: 1-2-3; 2-3-4; 3-4-5; 4-5-6; 5-6-7.
4. Next four groups: 1 – 2 – 3 –4 ; 2-3-4-5; 4-5-6-7
5. Next five groups: 1-2-3-4-5; 2-3-4-5-6; 3-4-5-6-7
6. Finally 6 groups: 1-2-3-4-5-6; 2-3-4-5-6-7
7. Doing the full 7 group passage now should be easy. The next step is to repeat this procedure for groups 7 – 13 and then join both groups, so you can play the whole chromatic thirds section.
If you have not cut corners, and if you have stuck with each step of the process until completely mastered, by the end of it. You should be playing the section with comfort and ease. Perhaps not at an amazing speed, but nevertheless you should have experienced an noticeable improvement in accuracy an d comfort. You should also feel that your fingers “know” where to go without you having to think about it. Now you must repeat this process but with a number of variations.
1. Do not play thirds. Instead play the top notes only (but use the final fingering you will use for thirds). Then play the bottom notes only. If necessary apply the procedure above to relearn the passage with isolated notes. Then join them together and play the sequence as thirds again.
2. Use rhythm variations (fast-slow and the reverse slow-fast; fast-fast slow; fast slow fast and slow slow fast, etc.). You can do both as isolated notes and as thirds.
3. Use accent variations, by accenting all the first thirds in each group of three, then every second third and then every third third.
4. Use articulations variations: play the whole section staccato, and then legato. Or play the first third of each group staccato, then the second third and then the third third.
5. All these variations will force you to really know the passage and they will increase your control. Problems with speed and accuracy are very often problems with memory: your fingers do not know where to go, and at a fast speed your thinking is simply not fast enough to cope with it.
6. As you repeat the 13 groups of thirds, do not repeat continuously, but after each repeat stop, put your hands in your lap and in your mind, hear the passage you are about to play. Visualise your fingers flying through it. Hear the passage as you want it to sound. Feel the sensations of the movement. Since this is all taking place in your mind, make it perfect! It si all imaginary, so you might as well imagine it taking place absolutely perfectly. Once you are satisfied that your mental run of the passage was just like you wanted it, play it at the piano. At the end, stop again and ask yourself: Was it like I wanted in my mind? If it was not, what was missing? Repeat the whole thing in your mind again, and play again. Keep alternating mental practice with piano practice like that. The results will blow your mind.
I hope this helps.
Best wishes,
Bernhard.
Topic: How big are your hands??