Transitioning from contemporary piano to classical.

[eleutherarch]

Hello everyone,

This is my first post on this forum.  I have referenced this site daily for the past 4 months or so and I thought it was time to take the plunge and get an account.

I have been playing piano for about 10 years.  I took Grade 1 (passed!) but shortly afterwards, I decided to stop and go it alone.  For the subsequent 9 years, I played for pleasure and learnt purely by ear.  It was really beneficial to me, and I really fell in love with it.

Recently, I decided to tackle Chopin's Op.25 No.12.  My father introduced me to it (he himself plays classical piano) and it was the reason I took up piano in the first instance.  I knew it was a radical departure from what I usually do, and I had no illusions about the difficulty.  Four months on, and with the aid of a teacher, it's coming along well.  It's going to take a few more months to clean it up and make it as fluid as it should be.  As for interpretation, well I realised early on that it would be a lifetime's pursuit.  Am I wrong in saying that you can improve upon pieces like this, but never perfect them?

Anyway, hopefully I gave an indication of ability.  I hope to tackle harder works, such as Ocean, (difficulty from my perspective) in the future.  I particularly like Prelude No.8 in F sharp minor, Op.10 1, 2 and 12 and Un Sospiro by Liszt. 

I realise that all of these pieces are out of my grasp for now - so I was wondering if anyone here could outline the best courses of preparation to get me ready.  I know it might take a couple of years and I'm not going to delude myself otherwise.  For example, I'll probably attempt the Prelude in G major and hone it, before thinking about the revolutionary.

I want you to know that, I know I don't have the technical prowess.  But I lack the knowledge to get there.  Hope you can give me a helping hand.

Thanks,

Eleu

[davidjosepha]

How are your sightreading skills? Does it take you a long time to figure out what notes you're supposed to be playing, and the proper rhythms, or does that come easily? If you struggle with that, I would suggest starting with something a bit easier than what your technical ability allows you to play. That way, once you start working on more difficult works, the challenge will lie in the musicality and ability to actually play the notes, instead of the hours you'll spend trying to figure out what the notes are.

[eleutherarch]

It is a valid point - thank you.

My sightreading is not of a great standard, but if I'm honest I use it as a crutch when I can't immediately figure out the notes by ear (washes of pedal sometimes render it impossible to listen for precise notes in my case).  I learnt large tracts of the Ocean etude by ear, and then double checked it against the score afterwards for certainty.

The rhythmic aspect is not the biggest problem either.  I play drums primarily, and I find some similarities between permutations of stickings of drum rudiments, and rhythm on the piano.  So I can make reasonably quick progress in that regard.

It really is the technical aspect.  I lack dexterity, speed, hand independence and strong 3-4-5 fingers.  As I've never had much formal training, it does knock my confidence.  Worst of all, I think the musicality of whatever I am playing suffers, because I have to focus an inordinate amount of attention on the behaviour of my fingers.  It doesn't seem natural.  Does that make sense?

[davidjosepha]

The rhythmic aspect is not the biggest problem either.  I play drums primarily, and I find some similarities between permutations of stickings of drum rudiments, and rhythm on the piano.  So I can make reasonably quick progress in that regard.

It really is the technical aspect.  I lack dexterity, speed, hand independence and strong 3-4-5 fingers.  As I've never had much formal training, it does knock my confidence.  Worst of all, I think the musicality of whatever I am playing suffers, because I have to focus an inordinate amount of attention on the behaviour of my fingers.  It doesn't seem natural.  Does that make sense?

Cool! I play drums too.

Yes, that makes sense. Scales and arpeggios are the best way to improve general dexterity. As someone (I can't remember who) once said, roughly, "Learning a piece teaches you to play a piece. Learning scales teaches you to play all pieces." Things like Czerny exercises and Bach inventions will also help with other technical aspects of playing. I recommend them. Also, I would suggest playing something you find challenging, but not so challenging that you can't focus on the musicality, since, after all, that is the most important part of music. I know it's exciting to play difficult pieces, but if the piece is too difficult, you're often better off with something easier. Playing a difficult etude will help teach you to play technically difficult music, but if you're spending all that time on the technical aspect, you will learn very little about how to interpret music, voice notes, phrase a line, and other equally important abilities.

Good luck!

[eleutherarch]

I will definitely have a look at those exercises.  I understand what you mean.  It was never my original intention to run before I could walk.  With 25/12, I felt it was within reach and that I could do more than leaving it as a cold, emotionless study (Lisitsa seems to miss the point when I hear her play them).

I'll start drilling the scales and arpeggios.

Thank you very much for the guidance.

[chopin2015]

If you are a great by ear, may I suggest a fast way to learn difficult passages? This will not help learning independence of hands, reading helps that. But I usually learn well by ear and when I feel it is best to learn a piece this way, I use:

*drumroll*

MIDI.


I have a noteflight.com account. I get midi files from classicalarchives.org

I load that girl in there and have the freedom to click on notes and passages I want to hear and learn them immediately. There are few midi files available. When one is not available, I enter the score myself, and that helps learn notes too! You just cannot loose. You can slow and speed pices down and play along to them and learn many things with your special gift, a good ear. You should use your ear as much as possible, you will be able to catch many microscopic details after such training. NEVER forget to sight read the pieces many times before you do this, though!

So in order:

follow the score to a recording of your favorite interpritation(s)

then sight read the score, every time you do, I guarantee you will get further and further each time.


Use the midi/audio files to help with the rest.

-J