Is Chopin's Waltz in A minor too difficult for me?

[RappinPhil]

Greetings all. I'm sorry if it seems I'm posting constantly about my problems. I promise to hush up for awhile after this 

 You may remember me for a post I made not too long ago talking about Prelude in E minor (been playing for 1 yr). Well, now that I've gotten that under my belt, I'm looking add another to my repertoire. I thumbed through my easy Chopin pieces book and came across a few that caught my attention, particularly Waltz in A minor. Now, this is a sharp contrast to my previous piece, Prelude in E minor. I knew from the beginning that this peice (the Waltz) would be much more difficult because of its tempo, trills, grace notes, and appoggiaturas. However, such difficulties are what infact compelled me to tackle the piece, knowing how invaluable they would be to my technique.

So I began, knowing it would be slow going from the start. However, after about 1 week of solid 30-45 practice so far, the results are very discouraging. For instance, bar 5, with the trill is giving me extreme difficulty. Playing the trill itself is not so difficult, as timing the grace note that precedes it to play it with correct timing with the bass clef has proven very frustrating. I've broken the part down and improvement is actually beginning to show, however slight, but it is nonetheless proceeding at a snale's pace. The infamous bar 21 (or 22) I have not yet even begun to ponder, but I imagine that if bar 5 can produce so much difficulty, I'm in trouble.

So I pose my question. Should I continue or choose a less difficult piece? Help save me [possibly] several months of frustration. Thanks!

[bernhard]

Have a look here, and if you still have doubts, come back:

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4713.msg44552.html#msg44552
(how to master the waltz in Am)

Scheme for learning this piece in 14 practice sessions:

   Session 1 – Bar 22 (add first beat of bar 23. This is the most difficult bar).
   Session 2 - Bars 1 – 6. Keep working on bar 22.
   Session 3 - Bars 1 – 17 (This completes the first part). Keep working on bar 22.
   Session 4 - Bar 22 – 25.
   Session 5 - Bars 18 – 22 (add first beat of bar 23).
   Session 6 - Bars 1 – 25 (First and second part).
   Session 7 - Bars 26 – 33.
   Session 8 – Bars 34 – 37.
   Session 9 – Bars 38 – 41.
   Session 10 - Bars 26 - 41 (This completes the 3rd part. Bars 26 – 31 = bars10 – 15).
   Session 11 – Bars 1 – 41 (Parts 1 – 2 – 3).
   Session 12 – Bars 50 – 57.
   Session 13 – Bars 42 – 57 (This completes the 4th part. Bars 42 – 51 = bars 1-10).
   Session 14 – Bars 1 – 57 (The whole piece)

(if you can master the material in  any one practice session in 20 minutes/day, we are talking 14 days to learn this piece, practising 20 – 30 minutes a day. However you may have to work on a practice session for several days before moving on to the next. In any case, by all means do more than one practice session a days, but do not linger on a practice session for more than 20 – 30 minutes).

Anyone can learnthis piece if they approach it correctly. So, by all means persist, but do not persist on the wrong approach.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[RappinPhil]

Thanks Bernhard 

[teachum]

Another beautiful Chopin piece.  YOu have good taste.  I play that one too, as well as the E minor prelude, the A major and working on the B minor. 

[johnnypiano]

Hi! You are right - the A minor Waltz is a beautiful piece. 

If you are not playing it for your teacher, and there appear to be some problems here, there is no reason why you shouldn’t practise just part of it.  Wouldn’t you get enormous satisfaction from doing just the sixteen bars after the introductory bars, initially, which are probably the ones that attracted you to the piece in the first place?  If you get this section going your morale will be lifted enough to try the harder parts.

If you do practise from the beginning of the piece, (and I can tell you like challenges) you immediately get the difficult left-hand trill. This will take valuable time and energy and, if you can’t do it, pull down your morale.  The trill here is difficult for many pianists!   You could leave out the trill, even though it is an important feature in this piece, and put your skill and imagination into making the left hand part sound like a cello, and getting the balance between the hands right.

Piano pieces aren’t consistently difficult or easy.  Take the famous “Fur Elise”.  The first section is quite easy, the second twice as hard, and the third somewhere in between.  But most people play just the first section and it is recognizable as “Fur Elise” - and they are quite happy with that.

You like the technical challenges, BUT take one or two challenges at a time.  What is your aim? To build up your piano playing ‘muscles’ or play beautiful pieces?  Technique is essential, and often enthusiasm can give us extraordinary results.  However, enthusiasm can sometimes work against us and, in this case, you seem to be having a very frustrating time.

How about this as a summary:
(1) continue to be challenged by difficulties, but be content to practise just bits of pieces and be patient about being able to play the whole piece one day. 
(2) Fall in love with some easier pieces that you can learn more quickly and without so much frustration.

Good luck.  John

[berrt]

Have a look here, and if you still have doubts, come back:

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4713.msg44552.html#msg44552
(how to master the waltz in Am)

Scheme for learning this piece in 14 practice sessions:

   Session 1 – Bar 22 (add first beat of bar 23. This is the most difficult bar).
   Session 2 - Bars 1 – 6. Keep working on bar 22.
   
etc etc
   Session 14 – Bars 1 – 57 (The whole piece)

(if you can master the material in  any one practice session in 20 minutes/day, we are talking 14 days to learn this piece, practising 20 – 30 minutes a day. However you may have to work on a practice session for several days before moving on to the next. In any case, by all means do more than one practice session a days, but do not linger on a practice session for more than 20 – 30 minutes).

Anyone can learnthis piece if they approach it correctly. So, by all means persist, but do not persist on the wrong approach.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

i applied this scheme and.. well it took me not 14, but 50 or something sessions...
so i may be a particularly untalented student - but at least: it worked!!

HURRAA!!

bye
Berrt

[lani]

Hi, just wanted to post that my daughter played this a couple of years ago, then had to play it again recently for a competition (it was a required piece).  She got discouraged in picking it up again, then listened to Ashkenazy's version and was inspired by his version.  Hope this helps a bit.