Piano Forum



Rhapsody in Blue – A Piece of American History at 100!
The centennial celebration of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue has taken place with a bang and noise around the world. The renowned work of American classical music has become synonymous with the jazz age in America over the past century. Piano Street provides a quick overview of the acclaimed composition, including recommended performances and additional resources for reading and listening from global media outlets and radio. Read more >>

Topic: Found Weird Legato Slow Practice for Prokofiev's Precipitato  (Read 1485 times)

Offline mrcreosote

  • PS Silver Member
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 229
But it seems to be helping me a lot:

Play very, very slow - one "note" per second - but although leaps everywhere, legato as possible.

The legato makes the leaps as fast as possible, but since slow tempo, there is ample time to focus on each one carefully.

What also happens is a arm weight phenomenon which I comically refer to as "Frogger" Style: the leaps are started with a push off from fingers/wrist (frog is jumping), and letting arm weight take care of the landing.

This slow legato also causes minimal motion in closely spaced chords (non-leaps.)

The beginning of the Coda (last section, last 2 pages), starts with more leaps including 2 extreme ones.  Once pass them it is "easy" sailing.

Although this has helped me, I don't know how effective it will be as I learn to increase speed. 

Fortunately, I absolutely love what Sokolov does with the "slow" tempo so that is my target.  Slower lets Prokofiev's exotic melodies and chords breath and be enjoyed. 

NOTE:  Buniatishvili is at the other extreme.  Yes, piano is definitely a Marshal Art and B is a Grand Master - she may actually be able to rival Cziffra.  B's Precip is entertaining virtuosity but more of a novelty if you're after the Prokofiev.

Offline cimirro

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 86
Re: Found Weird Legato Slow Practice for Prokofiev's Precipitato
Reply #1 on: September 06, 2016, 06:18:55 AM
It seems good!
I always consider important study any and all piano works very very slowly.
Sometimes you need do it few times, and you will notice it becomes easy to play faster than you can imagine.
After some examples of Gould and Katsaris (I'm not saying something good about them), I would say to you, make your own heart be the metronome - that is the right speed, Not what the others decide for you ;-)
Best
"Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong."
Winston Churchill

Offline mrcreosote

  • PS Silver Member
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 229
Re: Found Weird Legato Slow Practice for Prokofiev's Precipitato
Reply #2 on: September 06, 2016, 08:47:02 PM
My issues are Memory and Speed in every form except perhaps in leaps, my strength a la Kung Fu. 

Until this little discovery, slow play only served to flush out weakly memorized areas.  It never helped me play faster.  (Perhaps the only suggestion I came across was to play something at speed, you actually have to practice it at times FASTER (!)  This helps because when we slow something down just a little (5-10%), accuracy sky-rockets.  So you practice too fast sacrificing accuracy and back off.

What is different about the Precip is that its speed "limit" are the leaps - not scales or arpeggios.

However, that's where the "legato" comes in - since it is impossible with leaps, you have to make the fastest leaps possible.  Eventually, you will make the fastest leaps possible from chord to chord without any delays - so your memory and your leaps had better be flawless and fast, fast, fast.

'Tishvili boggles my mind.

Offline j_tour

  • PS Silver Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 3790
Re: Found Weird Legato Slow Practice for Prokofiev's Precipitato
Reply #3 on: September 18, 2016, 02:00:46 AM
This is an extremely interesting account -- I've still got the Bb Sonata on the back burner for a while.  Not that I don't want to play it, it just seems to require more of my attention than I feel I can spare.

I'm curious to know if you've found that this technique helped you to get that basic rhythm part of the Precipitato well-ingrained in your head?  Or maybe that aspect was one that didn't give you much trouble.

I find that's the only truly difficult part of the movement -- the one that has to be absolutely perfectly relentless and accurate, and it doesn't help that it's kind of an odd division of labor between RH and LH that never feels right and is hard for me to internalize.

That may well have been part of what Prokofiev wanted.

Anyway, I'll try this out -- maybe the slow practice will help burn the Precipitato in my head.
My name is Nellie, and I take pride in helping protect the children of my community through active leadership roles in my local church and in the Boy Scouts of America.  Bad word make me sad.
For more information about this topic, click search below!
 

Logo light pianostreet.com - the website for classical pianists, piano teachers, students and piano music enthusiasts.

Subscribe for unlimited access

Sign up

Follow us

Piano Street Digicert