Chopin: Nocturne, op. 48/1 - Doppio movimento left hand

[marijn1999]

Hi guys,

Today I started practicing two new pieces, one of which contains three movements (Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1, I'm gonna perform that with a local youth orchestra here in Amsterdam). I already have question about both of them right now. But I'll adress both of them in seperate threads.

So, back to my question. The way I'm practicing this nocturne is by dividing it (actually Chopin already has done this) into three sections: The lento; the più lento; The doppio movimento. I practice all three of them for 20 minutes every day so I won't get to eager to move on to some more exciting passages.

So, I did 20 minutes on the lento. It went fine, no problems (also didn't expect any). The same goes for the più lento. All fine and no problems yet. However (and here, I did expect problems) when I moved on to the doppio movimento, thing got less and less toilless. I'm not sure how to practice this texture. Do you guys think it is a good idea to divide the texture into three layers: base line/chords, treble chords and the melody line. Then practice those three seperate and put them together later on, or do you have some other advice. Did anyone here play/perfect this nocturne and can s/he tell me how they practiced it?

Thanks in advance!

BW,
Marijn

[quantum]

IMO the easiest technical portions of this piece are also musically the most difficult.  Take care to study and understand the direction of the music in the less active parts. 

For the Doppio movimento, I would identify four different parts: bass, LH chords, RH chords, melody.  You can practice these in pairs to gain better understating of their interaction.  If you do this, make sure to do all permutations of the pairings.   I would also practice the RH alone, working on the shaping of the melody as well as distinction between chords and melody.  You could try dividing the upper staff between both hands to even further outline the two parts in your ear. 

There might also be a need to practice flattening the texture of the Doppio movimento to work on rhythm.  There are parts where a lot of stuff is going on and competing for brain power.  It might also be good to get the section into the fingers and work out basic muscle movements, then later go back and refine the various musical lines ones your hands have a basic idea of how it all goes together. 

[marijn1999]

IMO the easiest technical portions of this piece are also musically the most difficult.  Take care to study and understand the direction of the music in the less active parts. 

For the Doppio movimento, I would identify four different parts: bass, LH chords, RH chords, melody.  You can practice these in pairs to gain better understating of their interaction.  If you do this, make sure to do all permutations of the pairings.   I would also practice the RH alone, working on the shaping of the melody as well as distinction between chords and melody.  You could try dividing the upper staff between both hands to even further outline the two parts in your ear. 

There might also be a need to practice flattening the texture of the Doppio movimento to work on rhythm.  There are parts where a lot of stuff is going on and competing for brain power.  It might also be good to get the section into the fingers and work out basic muscle movements, then later go back and refine the various musical lines ones your hands have a basic idea of how it all goes together. 

Thanks, I'll use that in tommorow when I practice it again. Another question. I have a really hard time to hit the right chords in the left hand after playing the bass octave and somtimes also because the two chords in which the triplets are divided are far apart. When I play slowly it works but as soon as I speed the triplets up, I hit wrong notes...

Thanks again!

[quantum]

For the chords, try to make a groupings of two chords, as if it were one massive chord playable under the hand.  Use this larger chord to construct your fingering.  You can even think of the chord grouping as a large arpeggiated chord, if all of the notes are unreachable.  The point is to economize your fingering and reduce the frequency of shifting fingering patterns.  The less you shift hand shapes to accommodate different fingerings, the less you have to think about.  

For the jumps, practice the jump without playing the target note.  

Do this exercise:
play chord/note #1,
visually aim for chord/note #2,
lift off chord #1 and move swiftly,
land on the key surface but do not sound chord #2 using correct hand formation

The arm movement between the jump points needs to be quick and decisive, as opposed to slow and searching.  Even if you are practicing at a slow tempo, do your jumps quickly.  Jump speed is independent of the music tempo.  You need to be secure with your hand formation of the chord before you get there.  You can also practice forming your hand in to the shape of chords on a closed fallboard.