Con Bravura and Ledger Lines

[squinchy]

I was trying to analyze part of Chopin Etude Op. 10 No. 3-the 'Con Bravura' part. [What does 'con bravura' mean, anyways? With bravery?] My teacher said that I should find a pattern in the notes before I tried to play it, so I sat down with the score and some manuscript paper.

The thing is, I couldn't read it, much less analyze it. I usually don't have trouble reading that high; notes up there were usually part of a scale or other recognizable pattern that I could follow. Also, there weren't usually skips larger than a major third.

I think there were several reasons why I couldn't read it.

1. The bass clef area was written in treble clef, but so were the lines of the treble clef area. I think the overlap confused me or my brain.

2. The way the ledger lines were broken and not connected to each other hampered my ability to use intervals (or some other ability), and so did the aforementioned larger intervals.

I think it'll take me forever if I kept going "F, A, C, E, G" every note, and I'll never be able to play that section. How should I go about learning to read really high (or low) ledger lines?

[donjuan]

"Con Bravura" means "with bravura".  Bravura is associated with virtuosity, cleverness, and showoff instint.  It is meant to be played very confidently.  This place in the piece is hell.  You need great theory to be able to learn it easily..Ask Motrax, he's the composer of the forum and will know a great deal about chord progressions.  I learned this piece a VERY long time ago, and can't really remember details..I think I learned it note by note, bar by bar, looking for repeating patterns and it took a great deal of time..Ledger lines can be a pain, but just be aware of the key points, for example the high C two lines above the treble staff.

Good luck! It will be worth it in the end!
Really! ask Motrax or Bernhard about this stuff.

donjuan