Chopin Ballade No. 3

[cauliflower1]

I worked on this for so long, but it still is really sketchy. Advice?

[j_menz]

Advice?

You should post these in the Audition Room section of the forum. I have asked the gods to do move it there.

First impressions are you are a bit fast. There are also a few patches where your fumbling - you need to practice just those to get them right.

Overall, your dynamic range is too narrow and you don't appear to have a clear idea of what each individual note should be doing; some of the dynamics in the piece are quite fleeting, and you stretch them out too far.  I suggest that rather than playing for a few days, spend some timwe listening to what other people do with the piece - you know it well enough to really listen to them - and steal shamelessly. Exaggerate what they do! Explore the possibilities of the piece, and then settle on what you want to do with it.

Technically, you're pretty much there, but now is when the fun truly begins.  You'll probably find that once you have a clearer conception of what you want to really do with it, the sketchiness will disappear. You're on the right track, clarify your ideas for the piece and it should be quite something.

[cauliflower1]

Thank you, but I don't really understand what you mean when you say I stretch the dynamics out too far.

[j_menz]

Thank you, but I don't really understand what you mean when you say I stretch the dynamics out too far.

Sorry, I wasn't exactly clear.  Some of the dynamic changes in the piece are really quite sudden - you have a tendency to build up to them (crescendo or decresc over the leading several notes), thus destroying the impact.