Tip on how to do Chopin opus 39

[iratior]

I was trying to play the C# minor scherzo but was having a lot of trouble at the leggiero (measure 158 or thereabouts) where the left hand has fast notes.  After trying all kinds of fingerings and arm positionings and movements and so forth, and in the end getting nowhere with them, I tried doing the left hand part with my right hand alone.  What a difference!  Somehow, the right hand "taught" the left hand how to do it.  It's something to remember:  when something isn't working, try doing it with the other hand alone.  And I like the new-found ability to do that scherzo.

[westciffian]

Not specifically on this work, but for those of us with weaker left hands it can be a good idea to practice the right hand as a mirror image of a left-hand passage (using the geometry of the keyboard) and then let the right hand "teach" the left how to do it. For example, a left hand falling chromatic scale starting on D is the mirror image of a right hand rising chromatic scale on D, because it involves exactly the same distribution of black and white notes. But the mirror image of, say, a falling left-hand scale of A major would be a rising "scale" in the right hand G Ab Bb C D Eb F. Then the right-hand can teach the left-hand by playing both hands together (if you can bear the cacophony!)
Try this on the left-hand part of the Revolutionary Etude, (ascending arpeggio figure on C becomes descending figure on E) or the running passage in the left-hand of Mozart K576 last movement (First three notes D E F# become D C Bb). It was surprising (to me) how different the feeling in the two hands can be when you start doing this, but the right-hand often does it better!

[iratior]

Thanks for pointing this out.  I was aware of the possibility of doing such "mirror image" playing, but haven't gotten around to doing it in this specific case.  However, I once took an arrangement of the Pennsylvania polka and did it "mirror image".  It changes the key from major to minor.  My sister said she liked the "reflected" version better than the original piece!