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Topic: Keep on pressing wrong notes?  (Read 1480 times)

Offline pirun

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Keep on pressing wrong notes?
on: December 11, 2013, 02:37:18 AM
I'm working on a piece that I'm having trouble with on the two note chords. And most of the piece is composed of two note chords  :-\. My fingers either slip off the black keys, get caught on the black keys, or just end up landing on the wrong notes. I make different mistakes each time I play it, by the way. Any tips on how to fix this problem would be appreciated. I have to play this piece in a competition this weekend and I'm freaking out. Thanks.

Offline j_menz

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Re: Keep on pressing wrong notes?
Reply #1 on: December 11, 2013, 02:42:39 AM
What's the piece?
"What the world needs is more geniuses with humility. There are so few of us left" -- Oscar Levant

Offline bronnestam

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Re: Keep on pressing wrong notes?
Reply #2 on: December 11, 2013, 12:12:25 PM
Make "planned stops" right before where it usually goes wrong. Do a mark in the scores with a pencil or similar. Play to this stop, make the stop - even if you played it soo well - and take a deep breath, quickly plan and prepare how you are gonna move your hands. Then play. Hopefully without errors this time. If you still make errors, you have to analyze in depth  where it goes wrong. Maybe you need to practice just the transition between two notes for a while.

Do this a couple of times, making the preparation pause shorter and shorter, and then try moving the stop to another spot.

Offline lorcar

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Re: Keep on pressing wrong notes?
Reply #3 on: December 11, 2013, 02:47:39 PM
keys for me at least are
1- speed
2- focus
3- reading ahead

1
speed: try it slower and slowly speed it up

2
focus: stay with your mind on what you are doing. Very difficult once you repeat the same passage a hundred times. I force myselfe creating noise around me, with stereo/tv/etc

3
your focus should help you to have your eyes anticipate a bit what you are going to play

Offline pirun

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Re: Keep on pressing wrong notes?
Reply #4 on: December 14, 2013, 03:06:13 AM
Thanks for the tips, guys. They've really helped and now I can play the piece better but it still needs a bit of work. Only a few days until the comp  :'(.

- j_menz, the piece is something from the grade 7 RCM book, it's nothing famous and by Kabalevsky so few would know it.

Offline faulty_damper

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Re: Keep on pressing wrong notes?
Reply #5 on: December 14, 2013, 05:34:44 AM
The experienced pianists would be able to diagnose the possible problems without having played it so it would still be beneficial if we knew the piece.

Let me take an educated guess:
Rondo-March, Op.60 No.1

?

Offline faulty_damper

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Re: Keep on pressing wrong notes?
Reply #6 on: December 14, 2013, 05:45:21 AM
Don't just focus on the notes you have to play, you have to also focus on where your arms move, particularly your elbow as it moves away from and to the body.  Let the elbow guide the hand as it jumps.  These aren't big jumps so the movements are small.

Also, the fact that you are slipping suggests you curve your fingers too much.  Since there are many sharps, you should adjust your fingers so that they are more flat instead of curved when you play the black keys.
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