Tips on how to practice Ravels sonatine?

[fnork]

I'm playing the first movement from Ravels sonatine right now, going to play the whole sonatine when I get the time. It's quite difficult though, especially the first page where you have to play the 32th-notes very quitly and the melody must stand out. I'm practicing it slowly, and it works okay, but I don't always manage to do it right.

Could anyone who has played it give some tips in general in how to practice this piece? By the way, do you think it's the most difficult of the three movements? I thought the third was more difficult, but a piano teacher in my school said that "once you're done with the first page in the first movement, you'll play the rest quite easily..."
Sounds like an exaggeration to me, or what do you think?

[Sketchee]

I've performed the whole thing. I performeded the first movement in Sping 2003 and then the next two movements just this past spring!  (I feel like all the pieces I play are really popular lately when I used to think they were rare!  At least no one plays Chopin/Liszt's Zyczenie..)  Anyway, a classmate of mine liked this movement so much he made a copy of my sheet for him and he's learning it too.

It's a lot easier to play this piece if you practice it as a series of chords.  Just put each chord together to the rhythm of the melody and play slowly.    When you do this hands together you'll have more than one finger on a note sometimes.  That's good as you can prepare for the crossing fingers.  For the first chord, for example both your left thumb and right index finger will be on C#.  I play it with the thumb toward the front of the key and the index finger on the center of the key.

After you're good at playing chords hands seperate and hands together at speed, play it slowly hands seperate with the rhythm as written.  Make sure to play each note for it's full duration but observe the rests.  Then try playing just the inner 32nd/16th note pattern together using your same finger to get an even sound.  Finally, you can practice playing it all together slowly and then speed up over time. 

Do all of the above without the pedal.  You should ultimately add pedaling and an amount of subtle rubato (it's marked "doux et espressif") but not until you've achieved the sound and rhythm without it. Try to make the the melody legato and note that the melody is in octaves.

You can probably do this in just a few practice sessions to get the first section or so.  After that, similar sections apply pretty much the same technique.  At all times try to be conscious of the me

Here's my recording of the piece I made a year ago for free mp3 download.  I should probably rerecord it since I know I can play it better now than then, but still it's okay: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00026QY6Q/103-2913993-6845440?v=glance

Here's the second movement even though I think this is probably a little fast: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002DQUO0/103-2913993-6845440?v=glance

I think the third moving seems long on paper, but it's actually shorter timewise than the first.  I think more of the difficulty in the third movement is getting the accents and crescendo/decrescendo.  It has a lot of subtle harmonies and melodies and you have to try to maintain a distinct sonority between what each hand is doing.  The second movement is very pretty and I heard a jazz player do a version of it on a PBS special about the blues.  It shouldn't be played too delicately though; it should have a march-like quality (for lack of a better description).

[shasta]

Hi Sketchee

Keep your shoulders relaxed.  This will in turn relax your arms and then, most importantly for this piece, your wrists. They need to be soft, loose, and flexible.  Tension in the wrists will destroy any piece, but particularly the Sonatine's 1st movement.  Ironically, one of the biggest criticisms of Ravel as a pianist was his "inability" to perform his own stuff well due to his own tense wrists!  Whether this has merit or not, I don't know.

Try to memorize as quickly as possible so that you can focus more of your attention on motion and touch.  I learned the Sonatine 12+ years ago and can still play it w/o music.  I can't remember the score visually for the life of me, but my hands and body have never forgotten it --- it was very easy for my muscles to memorize.

When I learned the 1st movement, I shared the inner voices of the main theme between both hands so that both my thumbs were alternating on whatever note the right hand thumb hits.  I can't remember if that's how the music was written to be played or if it's something my prof suggested I do.  Using a gentle "brushing" touch with the thumbs keeps your hands relaxed and allows the upper voice to sing out.

Another thing is to not play the 1st movement too fast.  I've heard some people rip-snort through it and you can't even tell its the Sonatine.  In reality, it's not as fast as it looks like visually on the score.

Good luck!

[fnork]

Thanks for your advices! They are very useful.