Learning Mozart "Easy Sonata" in 2 months

[faa2010]

Hello,

Do you think is possible to learn Mozart's Sonata KV 545 in 2 months and a half?

What can be the tips and learning process someone need to follow to achieve it?

[hfmadopter]

That depends totally on your existing level of experience. I learned that piece or most of it, in about that amount of time in the winter. I took more time to memorize it and included it in a spring recital. I found the biggest hurdle ( learning it with a teacher a lot of years ago incidentally, so all details are not fresh now) to be the first movement. I was thinking, "I'll never get this done" !  Started memorizing that first movement as I was learning the next and so on. But then blew right through the rest of it to my surprise and delight . I had praticed it so much that memorizing it was not difficult at the time.

 Today I'm lucky to memorized a few lines of much of anything, FWIW. It's the age and short term memory thing going on I guess. The good news is I read better these days than those days and express better as well.

Anyway, it's a great piece to learn, good luck wth it !

[faa2010]

Hello again,

What I have progressed since I sent this post is that I have memorized the 1st movement while I am still using the music sheets in second movement and I have only practiced the first 6 bars of the third movement.

I have listened to some records, and here are my next faults:

1st movement: I am doing it very, very slow, if I increase speed, I start to lose rythym and accuracy and I become more tense.

2nd movement: I need to memorize it, however I feel more relaxed with the speed.

3rd movement: I am still learning it.

I am thinking in performing it between last days of April and first days of May, I don't know if I will have enough time to prepare it.

What could you recommend me?

PS I am also learning and playing the Sonatina op 6 no 3 of Clementi, could this piece can help me?
Maybe I should have learnt first the 2nd and 3rd mov because of the speed.

[hfmadopter]

I'm going back some 30 years here so excuse the memory lapse. What I recall is memorizing the first movement while learning the second. I suspect I did not learn it with the repeats ( second movement) and even when I played in a recital I think I didn't do the repeats till after that. That shortened up memorizing the second movement. The third movement came to me much easier than I ever thought it would. I remember starting into that and my hands just kind of found the notes much easier than I expected. My teacher did a run through of it for me and I thought ya right ! Now at the same time as I learned this piece we also had work shops, so I got to play this before a live audience once a month right up to my recital date. That was a huge help because it created step goals for me rather than just the one big date..

That said, don't worry about the speed. This much I remember my teacher telling me. So I didn't worry about the speed, just get it learned and memorized. Speed came to me once I had it memorized. A little more each time I ran through it.  Also, when I learned the piece I had no Piano Street recordings to listen to ! I'm telling you, maybe come away with a little of the dynamics from the recordings that you are listening to but don't try to mimic them note for note. You should play with your own emphasis on the piece. As you get more and more sure of it the speed will come and so will technique that may ultimately change how it sounds from the raw learning, in fact will.

Keep at it, just keep at it. Work smart and If you need to put in a little more time per day, do it. I know for a fact I did as the recital came closer because I always do for any performance.

I'm not familiar with that Clementi piece.

Edit:

I meant to ask, what type of event are you planning this performance for ? I mean private recital, a group of family and friends like a family reunion, etc. If it's an official recital the prep is more serious obviously.

[faa2010]

I am planning this piece as part of my repertoire for an admission exam in a Music School.

Until now, I have memorized (but I still need to improve) the next pieces:

Invention no 1  Bach
Invention no 4  Bach
Valse op 69 no 2 Chopin
Intermezzo Manuel M Ponce

And the one I have still to memorize it the Easy Sonata.

I hope to put records of my playing so I can get feedback about how to improve.

The audition is going to be around the first days of May.