Quest to Complete Chopin Etudes - chromatic op 10 no 2

[ahoffmann]

Hope to inspire others to join me in this quest.

This is the one I find most difficult. It's a monster. I'm not satisfied with it at this stage but will have to take a break.

[adodd81802]

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[ahoffmann]

Definitely inspired.  Your performance was nice to hear, good work, did you practice any particular exercises for this?

Thanks

You bet I practiced exercises. Plenty. I'm thinking of sharing them in some videos.

[jimroof]

I am currently working on 10,2 alongside 25,6. 

Assuming you did experience some 'growing pains' (literally) as I am, how long before your hand was fully acclimated to this piece?  I get some discomfort in the right side of my hand after about the 3rd time through this piece. 

I initially used this as a 'read through' to warm up for work on 25,6, but after it started to fall better into place I decided to fully embrace it. 

Good job.  May I ask how long you worked on it and roughly how intensely?

[kalospiano]

sweet! Keep up the good work!

[ahoffmann]

I am currently working on 10,2 alongside 25,6. 

Assuming you did experience some 'growing pains' (literally) as I am, how long before your hand was fully acclimated to this piece?  I get some discomfort in the right side of my hand after about the 3rd time through this piece. 

I initially used this as a 'read through' to warm up for work on 25,6, but after it started to fall better into place I decided to fully embrace it. 

Good job.  May I ask how long you worked on it and roughly how intensely?

Thx. In the early stages, what helped me was "ghosting" - i.e. playing the right hand but just touching the keys, not pressing them down at all. Then pressing them down ever so slightly with absolutely minimum motion and effort.

This piece easily causes pain but not for the reasons one might think. The mere usage of the outer fingers isn't the problem. I can play the upper voice on its own with relative ease. It's the chords that make it so nasty as they interrupt the arm movements that naturally support the upper voice. There is no easy solution to it. At least I haven't found one.

You can try just playing the lower parts of the chord (the thumb) and see how much easier it is when your 2nd finger is allowed to stay close to the 3rd. Some pianists (won't mention names) also perform it like that even.

You can practice the upper voice while holding both thumb and 2nd finger far away (so you stretch between 2nd and 3rd) while doing that. Another approach is to snap the 2nd finger up as soon as it's "plucked" the chord. The thumb can stay close to the key as it's independent.

It's relatively new actually. I'd only learned the notes of it some years ago and periodically practiced it a little. Since the summer about I started regularly practicing it but only alongside others. I focused my attention on it after the last etude (November or something) but got interrupted with real life. But really turned the heat up about 2 months ago. I was worried I'd hurt my hand. Always had to curb my ambition to go that extra mile. This piece punishes that.

[ahoffmann]

sweet! Keep up the good work!

Thanks Appreciate that.

[adodd81802]

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[ahoffmann]

Thanks I'll keep an eye out, Think these things would be helpful and an insight to the preparation work going torwards learning these pieces.

Just remembered I uploaded an unlisted trial version a while ago. It's quite a bit more messy as I hadn't yet started working on evenness properly. I recorded it in two speeds.

[adodd81802]

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[ahoffmann]

That's cool. I'll take a look at Jimroof. Was thinking of doing something like that actually.

[briansaddleback]

Thanks for posting ahoffmann for posting versions of your work in progress publicly.
It means your confident enough in yourself to not let any screwy response get to you.
I worked on 10-2 a few times and a couple times I had to re approach it w a new tool or tactic I had to devise up.

[ahoffmann]

Thanks for posting ahoffmann for posting versions of your work in progress publicly.
It means your confident enough in yourself to not let any screwy response get to you.
I worked on 10-2 a few times and a couple times I had to re approach it w a new tool or tactic I had to devise up.

Thx. One of the things I'm trying to do is show people that it's ok to struggle - normal even. It's a journey and part of it is the many setbacks and difficulties. And I want to inspire people to perhaps join me on that journey or start on their own.

Yes I had to re-think this piece a lot and still am. Currently somebody had the idea of shifting the beat in your mind so the chords don't fall on the strong beat. I'm also considering another fingering as I've not meddled with that enough yet. Lot's to do.

[pjjslp]

Wow. My hand aches just watching that! Thank you for sharing!

[ahoffmann]

Wow. My hand aches just watching that! Thank you for sharing!

Thx
This piece doesn't need to involve pain the way many people think.

[briansaddleback]

Ahoffmann have you done 25-8 yet?