Moonlight Sonata 1st Mov. Question

[lanzuis]

Hello, this is my first post on this forum, so it's a sort of introduction thread too, anyway.

I am Bill, I have recently turned 13, and I have been playing piano since February this year. Anyway, I am currently playing the 1st movement of the Moonlight Sonata and I am having trouble with the diminished chords about half-way through the piece. I keep pressing the keys a semitone above or below, can anyone suggest any tips to fix this? I have played it over constantly, and I keep missing the notes, and it is starting to stress me out quite a lot. I don't understand how I can play the 3rd Movement, and not this... Anyway, I need to learn this piece as quickly as possible as I have a concert in 2 days and I started learning it today. Is there a way to accelerate this learning process?

Thanks!

[bronnestam]

Try to pinpoint the places where you make the errors, exactly. Then you practice just these tricky places, with just a few notes as "introduction" and one or two afterwards in order to keep it all connected. Take a few moments before you start playing, in order to calm down and to analyze WHAT the error is, exactly, and make a plan on how to overcome it. Then you play just this little part, over and over and over and over again. (Just make sure you do it right ...) And don't forget to keep on doing this in your head when you leave the piano!

I have spent a lifetime trying to overcome errors by playing the whole piece over and over again, hoping for a better result in the next attempt, with the result that I "practiced errors". Believe me, that was a stupid idea. You really got to analyze your mistakes instead of just repeating them. Sounds like you already have, by the way.

[sucom]

Hi Bill

You could try slowing RIGHT down and telling yourself that you are going to play these sections accurately, without a single mistake, three times in a row.  If you make a mistake, start again at one.  Continue doing this until you play slow enough to ensure you don't make any errors