Piano Forum

^ thanks, this is actually one of the easier parts of the concerto in my opinion ... so if i were to record the more painful parts for you, you'd unequivocally agree!

O.o a very interesting turn-around from your initial post

Anyway, the first is, you like to randomly lift up your hands with your wrist (e.g. 0:29). It may be intentional, or it may be bad habit, or it may be something you're unconscious of, but if possible get rid of it. It doesn't help you produce any better sound and may only produce unnecessary tension.

The second is something you need a teacher for instructions, but basically in the big sections you're using only the available apparatus from your forearms forward. On a digital piano the volume really depends on the, well, volume button, but on a real piano it depends on not just the velocity at which you press the keys, but also the kind of weight you put on the keys, and how you put it on.

Well taken, thank you. I welcome technical advice anytime (versus a treatise on the *snooty sounding* "thematic sub-text counter-polyphony" I'm ignoring). My one gripe with classical music is that we're playing music that's been played a billion times before..... we can get lost in minutae of interpretation (like thousands before us) or we can play it honestly, as we think it should sound.... and who knows, maybe even re-define the piece in the process.

On the wrist-lifts..... interesting.... didn't know I was doing that and I didn't know it was a bad habit. I think I do this to make the notes sound a little more detached than normal and I would have thought the wrist muscles are a little more quick/rapid-fire than if I were to move my whole arm. Will give it a try!

As for not moving the rest of my body. Noted as well. That's definitely a function of playing it on a digital piano where one can hit the loudest sound without needing much body movement. I'm slightly more animated on an acoustic, esp in the slower sections where such body movement doesn't compromise balance and the ability to cover alot of space on the keyboard.

When I was a kid, I competed against this girl who who was so f*cking melodramatic with her Chopin Nocturnes..... (she was literally kissing the keys) so I'm a bit stigmatized in this respect. Thankfully, she got her hair caught in the piano one time and I felt partially vindicated.