Chopin minute waltz

[sebastian1]

Am an adult beginner. Been learning for 5 years.  I have started to learn Chopin minute waltz. (It's on the Trinity grade 8 syllabus).  Advice on how to start playing it faster please?  Or maybe I should tackle a different piece of music before going into this.  Any advice welcome.  Thank you

[adodd81802]

I wrote a response to somebody else asking pretty much the same thing and i'll stress the same again DO NOT WORRY ABOUT SPEED.

This, at performance level is a very fast pace, and it has to feel natural at that pace. You cannot force it, and it surprisingly requires a lot of practice before it gets naturally fast.

As exercises, Master the ornaments, the trill, the B major scale and then work out a suitable fingering, I found that was the hardest part, now it feels natural and I can play it all day.

As you have said you have started i dont know what that means in an actual time frame, but i certainly would not worry about speed until later on. Any specific difficulties you come across with regards to technical ability let me know and I will be happy to help.

[briansaddleback]

This is a deceptively difficult piece to refine, and I do agree that you have to not worry about speed at this point. The main ideas is to really get the notes into the fingers, really know how to nail each note
get the accenting correct. And also very important , know the correct pedaling for this piece.

This piece is best sounding if played in a correct and refined way. as opposed to a very fast tempo but missing the other points above.
Speed will come naturally after a year (it did for me)

[sebastian1]

Thank you both for responses.  Very helpful and will take on board.

[briansaddleback]

No worries, again I reiterate, the main focus now should be:

1) accuracy of notes
2) ACCENT correctly
3) get the PEDALING right!

I cant tell you how lovely a slow Minute waltz played w above in mind w good musicality and expression is compared to a fast one which I have heard so many times , sometimes just out right disrespecting the music and the composer.

Listen to Lang Lang's (I have his Chopin CD it is decent) playing of this waltz it is so beautifully playful and done actually , very slowly compared to his peers. I was so surprised to hear it. But now I agree, this waltz is best played playfully and slower than one might think.