Learing Chopin's Barcarolle - some tips needed!

[thesixthsensemusic]

Hello there, I am actually new on here, I've been playing the piano since age 10, gave it up for a few years after I went to college, but took it up again a year ago, I don't have lessons but just study myself and pay close attention to things like fingering etc in the score. It generally works.

But, now I've started practicing this wonderful piece a while back, got the hang of it mostly, can play it by heart without making major errors, maybe a week or 2 and it's done, but there's a few minor issues that drive me nuts:

- any ideas how I can learn to play these darn double trills that occur a few times throughout the piece? For the time being I have ignored them but just played a single trill on the top note of the 2 simultaneously played ones, even though it still sounds OK it's cheating, I want to get over this nuisance. Does anybody know any etudes or perhaps a trick to practice double trills with?

- in the 7th page of the piece (the Peters edition) (containing the transition part from the B-part back into A) there's a few figures in the left hand using triplet-like irregularities but with 7 and 8 notes instead of 3, while the right hand keeps the regular pace and 16th notes, a problem similar to the left vs right hand rhythms of the Fantaisie Impromptu.

Because the latter has these rhythms throughout in the left hand, it's not much of an issue, one just learns both hands apart and then playes them simultaneously. In the Barcarolle, these discrepancies are much more difficult to overcome as the pace in the left hand is only briefly changed to an irregular notation, and OFC one can always just 'do something' which sounds OK but is not true to the score, and feels, again, like cheating.

Thanks, any advice is more than welcome.

[ajspiano]

- any ideas how I can learn to play these darn double trills that occur a few times throughout the piece? For the time being I have ignored them but just played a single trill on the top note of the 2 simultaneously played ones, even though it still sounds OK it's cheating, I want to get over this nuisance. Does anybody know any etudes or perhaps a trick to practice double trills with?

Chopin 25/6 is the obvious one.

n the Barcarolle, these discrepancies are much more difficult to overcome as the pace in the left hand is only briefly changed to an irregular notation, and OFC one can always just 'do something' which sounds OK but is not true to the score, and feels, again, like cheating.

I would most likely work on the section with the irregular rhythm as an isolated phrase, cycling it in a never ending loop until it is comfortable and true to the score, and executed how I want dynamically. (this will require you working out exactly how to construct the right phrase and phrase length to ensure it loops correctly in time and without presenting additional problems)

I'd then have an opposing phrase (without the irregular rhythm challenge), which may be right next to the former in the score or it may not - or it may be of my own construction (because it needs to cycle properly, and I need to isolate the rhythmic challenge). I'd also cycle this to ensure its execution is very solid.

I would then actively practice the transition between the two, in a way that allows me to  time to think and transition accurately..  such as 4x phrase 1, followed by 4 x phrase 2 - all in a fluent continuous pattern. Then I'd reduce the repetitions of individual phrases. 2 x phrase one connected to 2 x phrase two. Then lastly, no cycle like repetions, and then work on the phrase in context with the barcarolle as a whole.