Mozart runs

[reelypiano]

I have a concerto competition coming up. I'm gonna die. Help meeee. 

We all have to play Mozart for the first round. I'm doing K467 (C major, no.21). It's honestly quite good already, except for a few runs here and there* that I can't seem to get completely even and smooth no matter what I do. It's driving me crazy! I keep practicing but it's only getting marginally better. This is the only obstacle left on this concerto for the moment. Yes, it's convincing enough, they're quite even, but they lack the perfect evenness you'd associate with a well prepared concerto. There's still a bit of time left before the competition so I have time to practice it, but I need help with how to go about it! Please list the methods you prefer to use when practicing for evenness in runs. I think some of the problem lies in the wonderful little 3-4-5-4-3...

Thanks for the help! It's nearly there, just needs that last edge..


Oh and if any of you should, by chance, remember my earlier posts from a couple of years ago, please delete that memory. I've developed. 



* (specifically 1.mov bars 124-5 and parallell passage, bars 347-8, 3.mov bars 68-71 as well as whole section 128-53, 207-13(!) and finally section 371-404)

[sucom]

Mozart has some really tricky passages to play with both the left and the right hands.  When I was practising a Mozart concerto, I put the metronome on and, starting at a speed which allowed perfect evenness, I repeated tricky passages while gradually increasing the speed a minimal amount each time.  Doing this means that the passage remains perfectly even at an ever increasing speed.

There may be other ways of doing this, but it worked very well for me.
Good luck!

[p2u_]

For practice as indicated by sucom, it is important to realize that unevenness usually occurs just before or just after the "turn" (the place where the thumb has to play). You could create your own exercises in ALL keys to solve this problem, and not abuse Mozart's Work of Art to do this.

Generally, I would say that SLOW practice, concentrating on a clear sound/movement image with 100% involvement and awareness is most effective.

Paul

[pts1]

In addition to Paul's very good points, allow me to add a couple of observations of my own.

Unless you have trained otherwise, the hand is naturally "lazy" when it comes to playing piano.

The thumb and 4th and 5th fingers are especially "bad actors".

Frequently instead of really playing the thumb, pianist merely "rolls" the hand to the left to produce sound. The same is true of the fifth finger (and somewhat the 4th) and the pianist simply rolls the hand to the right to produce sound.

Certainly there are times you can "get away" with this, and it may even be the pianistic solution.

But if you are not aware, you will likely attempt this in scalar passages, which will ultimately fail with all the hand rolling, wrist dipping, and so on by the larger muscles trying to do what is the job of the quicker smaller muscles.

This will never work.

So what to do?

You have to train, IMHO, to play with ALL fingers by exaggerating the natural range of motion of all playing elements.

In a C maj scale, for instance, this mean purposely raising the thumb ("cocking it like a trigger") about even with the bottom of the second finger, so that you MUST play the key with this finger instead of rolling the hand. Likewise with all the other fingers, raising them slightly (about half and inch or so) so you make a clean, healthy stroke. You should notice that when done correctly -- and it must be slow while still maintaining the musical intention of the passage -- you'll see that you begin to eliminate the hand rolling, wrist dipping, etc., that will always fail, and replace it with a healthy feeling of actually playing each note with each finger employed.

Also for this training, the hand can be raised slightly higher -- about half an inch -- to yield this larger range of motion.

The practice using this method is always with ease, never strained and feel "good" and strong.

After doing this for a few days, you'll likely find your passage work has "automatically" improved when attempted at speed.

Make sense?