Chopin Nocturne in C-sharp minor No. 20

[pjotrik]

Hello, this is me playing this Chopin's Nocturne. I am self-learner, who have been studying piano mostly from youtube and pianostreet. When practising I try to be both teacher and student at same time, but probably I can't detect all my errors, so constructive criticism is highly appreciated!

[awesom_o]

Putting an accent on every beat makes me think of a peasant chopping wood with an ax.

Your RH needs to sing like a bel canto opera diva. She needs to put down the ax, and sing with more flexible phrasing.

[pjotrik]

I recorded it one more time on acoustic piano and I was trying to play it more melodically:

What do you think? I am not sure if I understood your mention about accents. Could you explain more?

Thank you awesom_o

[awesom_o]

The axe has disappeared! Beautiful work, pjotrik!

I was impressed by the scales at the end! They could be even more magical, but on the whole I am extremely pleased with the progress you have made.

Beautiful, musical, expressive playing!

Bravo.

[ranniks]

You did this all by yourself? No teacher? You must be a genius of hard work. Just getting these pieces mentally doesn't mean you can play them. Your hands/bones etc need to adjust. And that adjustment can only be achieved with tremendous amounts of hours.

Let's say a child of 10 or adult of 20 see a piano. They can't magically be able to play two hands apart like in a Bach invention etc/etc. Practise must be done.

Bravo sir.

[awesom_o]

This deserves a bump!

Have you been practicing on this piano quite a bit lately?

I love what you wrote about being the teacher and the student at the same time. This is the work of a real artist!

Please post more!

[pjotrik]

Have you been practicing on this piano quite a bit lately?

Not really. It belongs to my aunt, which lives in different city than I do. I only did 2 practice sessions on that piano in these days. I have access to another acoustic upright in my city, but it's rarely free - there is always somebody else playing it But when it will be free, I can try to record something on it. I have very small repertory of classical music - besides Chopin's nocturne no. 20, I know only nocturne op. 9 no. 2. But I can learn some easy pieces in no time!

I love what you wrote about being the teacher and the student at the same time. This is the work of a real artist!

Thank you I always try to use minimum effort approach and to play with maximum relaxation. I tend to watch pro pianists on youtube and carefully observe their style of playing. Everybody looks so natural, relaxed and it looks that playing for them is piece of cake. And I try to copy this approach - like Bernhard suggests. When I practise, sometimes I tend to record my hands with camera This helps me to analyse my movements and detect possible flaws. Or I usually listen to thousands of different interpretations of the same piece I am learning, then I record myself playing and I look for major differences. It's hard to notice them during playing, because if the piece is hard, I can only concentrate on technical details - it's difficult to listen and feel the music at the same time.