Piano Forum

Hi,
I ended up recording the op49 for the audition. Thanks for the reply, it's probably what i needed to hear anyways.
I'm sorry if this seems obvious to you but i'm not too sure what you mean by playing the chords together. My ears aren't exactly professional   but I don't really hear any gap between most of the cords at the start?

I mean that the different notes in the chord do not sound at the same time - they are not synchronized, and that they should be. It is true that sometimes we might play select notes of a chord out of synch for interpretative reasons, but it needs to be a choice that we can actively make. It doesn't sound like you are totally aware of it in the recording.

In the first bar, the Eb-G third is not entirely together and the Bb-F fifth is definitely not together. In an audition you will probably lose 90% of the judges already there. They will think that you didn't even bother playing the first bar correctly and be harder to convince with what you are doing next. (You know, first impressions and all that stuff. Why skip taking care of that if it's easily fixed?  )

In bar 3 the notes are 99% together but it could be 100%. In bar 4, nice orchestration of the inner voices but your hands are out of synch. In bar 5 and 6 the hands are out of synch in almost every chord. You do have the occasional chord in the introduction that is very nice with all notes together, you just need to make sure you are able to play all the chords in the intro like that. Otherwise I can hear that you are a very musical person so just fixing this will elevate the level of playing in the intro by three times.

Just make sure you don't tense up your hands when fixing this, your hands will still need to be nice and relaxed, control it with your fingers (without tensing), not by locking the muscles in your hand.

Are you satisfied with how bar 29-33 sound in your recording?

(Don't worry, even many proffessionals struggle with and need to practise these bars a lot to get them good. But nevertheless, your hands are in fact not synched!)

Bar 47-61 there are many instances where your hands are not synchronized, especially when playing chords.

Bar 62 you are rushing. Practise this slowly and gradually increase the tempo and pay attention that the overal rhythm is a completely even flow of 8th notes even if the notes alternate being played by different hands. You should be able to say ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta completely evenly (at the same speed as your 8th notes) while playing and have the notes you are playing fit perfectly with that.

can you explain a bit on what you mean by this? My teacher has heard me play it but hasn't mentioned anything of the sort. how do i fix this?

thanks.

For example in the left hand accompaniement in bar 21 your fifth finger is barely moving, you are holding it like a tense, straight stick and pushing down the key by moving your hand. The same with the thumb. Even if this accompaniement is widely spaced it's still possible to play with relaxed hands and fingers. Your fingers need to be very awake and move on their own when playing a key (but don't lock up, clench or in any way tense your arm when doing this! It needs to be relaxed, just with more movement in the fingers). So when your fingers play a key, they shouldn't hesitate one millisecond, but know exactly what they are going to do and when. It's kind of like, your finger tip should initiate the finger movement to pull down the key to the bottom and hold it there while your arm and hand feels calm, passive and relaxed, but you are doing a bit of the opposite at times; your arm actively moves to push down the key because your finger is stiff or moving sleepily. But this is something that is better if a teacher takes care of in a lesson, because it is hard to describe in writing and easy to get wrong.