Am I ready for Gaspard de la Nuit

[charlieli13]

Hey guys, I am a 14 year old pianist.

I was wondering if I am ready for Gaspard de la Nuit by Ravel, particularly Ondine and Scarbo.

My current repertoire is:
Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6
Bach Partita 2 BWV 826 Sinfonia
Beethoven Tempest 1st mov.
Ligeti Etude No. 10 "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"

Also, I have played a lot of Chopin and Prokofiev in the past, including Chopin's scherzos and Prokofiev's sonatas. I can reach about an octave plus two at best.

Thanks!

[adodd81802]

Hello Charlie.

Here's the most logical response you can receive here - Only you know if you're ready. Simple as that. An internet forum is not going to be able to give you a simple yes or no answer, sure we can use the repertoire to gauge whether or not you would be capable IF you can play such pieces at a performance level

Also your age is somewhat irrelevant.

I always find it difficult to understand how somebody can play advanced pianists, and yet still not be able to gauge their ability against new challenges.

[nw746]

I generally check to see if I'm ready for something by sight-reading it and seeing how many problems I have. If the number of problems exceeds the amount of effort I'm able to put in to solve those problems, a ratio that is referred to in technical terms as the giving a *** quotient (GAFQ), I conclude that I'm not ready and try something else.

[ahinton]

How can anyone expect to know whether you're ready for this or indeed any other piano music if they've not heard you play?

Best,

Alistair

[visitor]

no one is ready. ever.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Man quit asking and start learning that sh*t man!

Also your age doesn't matter idk why people who are under the age of... 16 always post their age like it has to do with anything lol

But in all honesty though that piece is WAY harder than everything you mentioned.  It's about as close to impossible as you can get.  So give it a shot and you'll find out yourself if you're ready. 

[charlieli13]

To clarify, I stated my age because my hands are still growing and I can attempt these pieces in future years if bigger hands help.

Thanks for the input everyone! Also anyone that has played any of Gaspard de la Nuit, is a bigger hand required or is it just beneficial?

[mjames]

Big hands/long fingers can help out with some pretty big chords (wider than an octave reach) in le gibet and scarbo.

[rachmaninoff_forever]

To clarify, I stated my age because my hands are still growing and I can attempt these pieces in future years if bigger hands help.

Thanks for the input everyone! Also anyone that has played any of Gaspard de la Nuit, is a bigger hand required or is it just beneficial?

I can reach an 11th and still can't play all the chords in Le Gibet.  There's one chord in the left hand near the end that's impossible to play I don't care how big your hands are.  But there's people who can barely reach an octave but play it so hand size doesn't matter there's ways around playing big stuff.  And the acarbo the chords aren't THAT big but it's so damn fast so it's a matter of opening your hand fast enough

[suoyung]

I think you won't be able to play it yet. But size of hands doesn't really matter for this peace (unless you have really small hands).It is not like Rachmaninoff's or Liszt's pieces. But that doesn't mean that you should not start to learn it slowly. I play it for a year now, but before taking it I was learning little by little, when I wanted to, just because I couldn't wait This was my favorite piano piece.
And that really helped me. I suggest you do the same.

[suoyung]

And then, after learning it on the side you end up thinking, that it isn't so difficult for you, then you shall take it. It may be a year after this, maybe 2, maybe half a year.