Chopin Prelude Op. 28 No. 4

[ranniks]

- Started this piece 3-5 weeks ago I think, not exactly sure
- I could not do the 4 fingered chords in this piece, excuse that please (not experienced enough)
- Need to get control of my left hand and learn to count the chords and not do too many of them
- Piece is not done, need to go over it with my teacher and put the final touches to it
- Felt like I could pour more emotion into it

Ummm, how did I do?

Thanks for listening!


(PS: Messy room, should clean it soon^^)

[zezhyrule]

Nice playing! 

Instead of counting the number of chords, count the rhythm in your head. Or feel it, rather. Try playing with a metronome if you haven't. And stay with it the entire way through the piece. I would recommend at least making sure you can play it all the way through with the chords right on time before you experiment with rubato.

Also, clean your room!

[outin]

As you know it still needs work, but with such limited experience it is an achievement to be able to play the notes with only a few mistakes

Here are some things that came to my mind right now...

Right hand: There were a few wrong notes, but you probably noticed yourself. With this piece it's easy to concentrate too much on the left hands chords because they are so beautiful and have a melody of their own. But the right hand still is the singing melody and must come out as such and not be weak or drowning under the left hand. My teachers note for me: use both arm and fingers to achieve a good singing legato tone.

Left hand: In every 4 chord group you should emphasize the first and as much as your piano allows it, don't lift off complete after the first one, try to group them. But you should first practice to play them in exact time hands separate, it was quite uneven.

And then the really difficult part for a beginner, the balance. The left hand always wants to be too loud. It takes time to gain that much control.

This is not an easy piece, so don't get discouraged! Some things you probably won't be able to achieve before you have gained more experience. I have played it for 1,5 years and only now I am beginning to be satisfied with the way it sounds. I'll try to post a recording some time...

BTW: Your piano sounds lovely, great purchase for such a small amount of money!

EDIT: After a second listening I realized how much you have achieved in such a short time, one can hear in many parts that you can draw very good sounds from your piano, and that should be the main thing IMO. So congratulations!

[ranniks]

Nice playing! 

Instead of counting the number of chords, count the rhythm in your head. Or feel it, rather. Try playing with a metronome if you haven't. And stay with it the entire way through the piece. I would recommend at least making sure you can play it all the way through with the chords right on time before you experiment with rubato.

Also, clean your room!

Thanks for your comment and advise!

About the metronome, I'm not really sure. I always thought it made you a robot? I can't phantom that one can use the metronome and then play it the exact same way without it?

I'm afraid that if I use a metronome I'll take away the feeling behind this piece in fear of missing the beats.

Maybe you could elaborate on the metronome use?

As you know it still needs work, but with such limited experience it is an achievement to be able to play the notes with only a few mistakes

Here are some things that came to my mind right now...

Right hand: There were a few wrong notes, but you probably noticed yourself. With this piece it's easy to concentrate too much on the left hands chords because they are so beautiful and have a melody of their own. But the right hand still is the singing melody and must come out as such and not be weak or drowning under the left hand. My teachers note for me: use both arm and fingers to achieve a good singing legato tone.

Left hand: In every 4 chord group you should emphasize the first and as much as your piano allows it, don't lift off complete after the first one, try to group them. But you should first practice to play them in exact time hands separate, it was quite uneven.

And then the really difficult part for a beginner, the balance. The left hand always wants to be too loud. It takes time to gain that much control.

This is not an easy piece, so don't get discouraged! Some things you probably won't be able to achieve before you have gained more experience. I have played it for 1,5 years and only now I am beginning to be satisfied with the way it sounds. I'll try to post a recording some time...

BTW: Your piano sounds lovely, great purchase for such a small amount of money!

EDIT: After a second listening I realized how much you have achieved in such a short time, one can hear in many parts that you can draw very good sounds from your piano, and that should be the main thing IMO. So congratulations!

Thanks Outin! You were one of the people on this site I kind of wanted to show this video to. Just to show you that I''m not all talks or whatever.

I really try to play the piece with a soft left hand, but it's hard. The wrong notes were me trying to concentrate while trying to play with a somewhat noisy potential from the other room where my sister and her friends were (sigh).

The ending should be more powerfull imho. Practise practise I guess.

While this piano may be cheap and old, I definitely like it. Not so sure if the 60s/70s is old though. It belonged to an old couple apparently.

We have so much in common btw. I had to listen to the ending twice before nodding to upload it. I wanted to upload the prelude and the improved version of the minuet, but that's for the future.

Definitely not leaving this piece until I'm satisfied. So while working on other pieces, this piece will have my attention. Especially the part of the right hand in the second sheet is beautiful. You can hear Chopin in your hands!

What is your opinion about a metronome Outin?

[outin]

Thanks Outin! You were one of the people on this site I kind of wanted to show this video to. Just to show you that I''m not all talks or whatever.

I really try to play the piece with a soft left hand, but it's hard. The wrong notes were me trying to concentrate while trying to play with a somewhat noisy potential from the other room where my sister and her friends were (sigh).

The ending should be more powerfull imho. Practise practise I guess.

While this piano may be cheap and old, I definitely like it. Not so sure if the 60s/70s is old though. It belonged to an old couple apparently.

We have so much in common btw. I had to listen to the ending twice before nodding to upload it. I wanted to upload the prelude and the improved version of the minuet, but that's for the future.

Definitely not leaving this piece until I'm satisfied. So while working on other pieces, this piece will have my attention. Especially the part of the right hand in the second sheet is beautiful. You can hear Chopin in your hands!

What is your opinion about a metronome Outin?

I have not used the metronome myself. So I am not sure if it would help. If you have trouble hearing it yourself when you are off time, maybe it would be useful for very slow practice. But trying to play fast with the metronome might just make you ignore so many things and hurry.

I think you should just slow down a bit with learning this piece and practice only the left hand chords with counting (or if you prefer the metronome) to make sure you can play in precise time. Also make sure you get the pulse correctly, the first and 5th chord on each measure accented. Maybe even work without the pedal even if it sounds very wrong. This is what I did in the beginning and it did sound awful, but I think it was useful. After you get the left hand timing together, you have only small things to work on, this is IMO the biggest challenge for you now with this piece.

In general this is my (unexperienced) opinion from listening, reading and little playing of Chopin:
Chopin may sound emotional and free when played by the experts, but he was a very precise guy, maybe a perfectionist really. You have to get technical precision first, the emotion should come naturally when you get the piece to sound as it should. I do not think you need to worry about that in this stage, just to get everything exactly the way he wrote

You don't have to worry about sounding like a robot either... Playing precisely in time is not the same thing and you would only become a robot if you practiced for a long time without thinking about what you are doing. I doubt an adult beginner would be able to become a robot anyway...they have too much going on in their heads about the music 

[zezhyrule]

I'm happy you're focused on the musicality, but one of the biggest aspects of musicality is the rhythm. You do not have a steady rhythm at all when you play. If you're against using a metronome, at least count in your head:

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and

each chord should fall on those beats. count out loud if you have to. keep it steady

don't worry about wrong notes and such, the biggest thing you should work on right now is rhythm. phrasing and everything can mostly come later. maybe listen to some different recordings, get some ideas. never hurts early on.

it wasn't bad at all, and sorry if I sound harsh. I'm not good at teaching, so my post probably didn't make much sense  (not that they ever do anyway)

[ranniks]

Thanks both of you! I understand what you mean and I'll try to keep the rhytm in it.

I've watched other videos of it and I finally see what I did wrong. Basically the rubatto part. I need to keep the left handed chords steady and flowing. Instead I think I've broken them up.

Practised on constant today so hopefully my teacher can further help me tomorrow. Also trying to keep left as soft as possible for this piece.

On a short note: Hedwig's theme is awesome. A few months ago I could not read it well, now it doesn't seem that hard. My reading is getting better, hurray!

[outin]

On a short note: Hedwig's theme is awesome. A few months ago I could not read it well, now it doesn't seem that hard. My reading is getting better, hurray!

Great!

I had no idea what you were talking about, had to google, I'm so uncivilized 

[ranniks]

Great!

I had no idea what you were talking about, had to google, I'm so uncivilized  

Well, as it stands it does not matter=p. Will never read a Harry Potter book again I think....Will feel like betraying Snape if I did.

[starstruck5]

I agree with Outin regarding the technical stuff -but that will come -you already have something no one can ever teach -you reach into the notes and them alive in a way which is close to my heart -I look forward to hearing you develop as a pianist -This Chopin Prelude is sublime and you may not have played it exactly as Chopin wrote it yet -but I still got the sublime -

[ranniks]

I agree with Outin regarding the technical stuff -but that will come -you already have something no one can ever teach -you reach into the notes and them alive in a way which is close to my heart -I look forward to hearing you develop as a pianist -This Chopin Prelude is sublime and you may not have played it exactly as Chopin wrote it yet -but I still got the sublime -

Many thanks! Means a lot to me!