Learning WTC 1 C minor prelude

[peterl]

My teacher is using a method I've never come up against before - I was wondering if this is a traditional way to teach this prelude.

After a couple or weeks of standard HS practice she told me to put the hands together - but with the metronome at 40 to the sixteenth note (that's a semiquaver to non-US folks)!  Only once I can match this beat throughout the whole piece (and that's 38x16 = 608 beats = 15 minutes) will I be allowed to start to speed up.  I'm having trouble staying awake, much less matching the metronome for 15 minutes straight.

Has anyone encountered this form of torture practice with this piece, or any other?

[scottmcc]

that's similar to one of bernhard's tricks.  seems painful to me.  oops.  edit.  I had some other stuff here, because I thought you said cmajor, not cminor. 

anyway, I would just go in small sections of a couple bars and work on them slowly, then ratchet up to speed.  once you have that section down, move on a bit, then integrate several together.

[dwee]

So this probably isn't relevant anymore since you posted a couple months ago, but I have encountered that method before and it is worth the boredom, although I wouldn't worry about going through the whole piece in one shot. That's a little extreme. I'd use that on sections I'm stuttering through. Actually, I find it mostly useful in reverse. After I've learned a piece through and I'm down to working out the kinks, then I'll start at my highest comfortable speed and work down as far as I can go. It takes serious control to keep the measure when it's that slow so it really helps  memorization (you have so much time to think at 40 beats that your finger memory stops working) and just plain control over what you're doing. After playing it at 40 you can play it at nearly any speed, no sweat. Anyway, even if you're done with this prelude that trick works for nearly anything.

[lostinidlewonder]

I cannot understand why you would practice this prelude hand seperate. Sack the teacher now

[birba]

Two weeks hands seperately?!?!?!?!?  40 to the 16th note?!?!?!?
Either your teacher is nuts or you aren't cut out to be a pianist! (And I have a feeling it's the former)
There is no set "method" for learning everything.  Every piece has it's particular requisites.  This prelude, I think, doesn't even have to be practised hands seperately.  Or maybe just to read through it a couple of times.  After that put the hands together and start at least 60.  I think the fact that it's putting you to sleep means the "method" is NOT working here.

[timothy42b]

Have you noticed that this one is just chords? 

You play them as arpeggios, but there is no hand motion within measures.  That makes HS fairly meaningless, in my opinion.

I rewrote this (in a notation program) AS chords just so I could see all the changes, not to mention fit it all on about half a page so no page turns.  I see more value in playing these measures as chords and then as the eighth notes rather than starting slow and speeding up. 

On the other hand.  Your teacher could be working on some other aspect of technique, as opposed to just learning this piece. 

[birba]

She's talking about the c MINOR prelude.  The fast machine gun one.

[scottmcc]

Have you noticed that this one is just chords? 

You play them as arpeggios, but there is no hand motion within measures.  That makes HS fairly meaningless, in my opinion.

I rewrote this (in a notation program) AS chords just so I could see all the changes, not to mention fit it all on about half a page so no page turns.  I see more value in playing these measures as chords and then as the eighth notes rather than starting slow and speeding up. 

On the other hand.  Your teacher could be working on some other aspect of technique, as opposed to just learning this piece. 

if you can play this piece with no lateral motion within a measure, then you have significantly larger hands than I, and I can reach a 10th.

[lelle]

Have you noticed that this one is just chords?

You play them as arpeggios, but there is no hand motion within measures.  That makes HS fairly meaningless, in my opinion.

I rewrote this (in a notation program) AS chords just so I could see all the changes, not to mention fit it all on about half a page so no page turns.  I see more value in playing these measures as chords and then as the eighth notes rather than starting slow and speeding up.

On the other hand.  Your teacher could be working on some other aspect of technique, as opposed to just learning this piece.  

Dude, you are talking about the wrong prelude

As for how to learn the c minor prelude, I just started out at a tempo where I could comfortably read the music, pay attention to what harmonies and chords are used for easier memorization, and continue this way until the presto section. The presto section I would start using your teachers method, learning the hands separately and slowly, this section is easy to *** up the fingering in so pay close attention to what you are doing, practise, and you should be good to go! It may look difficult with all those notes but it is pretty easy actually.

[timothy42b]

You're right, I had the wrong prelude.

Sorry!  I've played the C major but never tried the minor.  Looks interesting.