How can I acquire a godlike command of many arpeggios?

[maxim3]

SUPPOSE a person wanted to become a master of arpeggios.

God himself, rumor has it, can instantly play (with closed eyes) every conceivable chord in arpeggios, with all their inversions -- many hundreds of thousands of permutations.

Unfortunately, after much questing, I have been unable to discover God's arpeggio practice schedule on the Web.

Can any of you suggest a few steps in God's direction, besides the usual scale-and-arpeggio manuals which I am already studying (MacFarren, Cooke, conservatory stuff, etc)?

Or is this the sort of 'dirty laundry' that every self-taught pianist must work out for himself?

My current level: I can slowly but fairly confidently play all the 3-note diatonic arpeggios and all inversions, and dominant 7ths, and I can pick my way through the major and minor 6ths.

[visitor]

get a good teacher to work with you on this

[maxim3]

Mr. Visitor, you are without any doubt correct in advising me that the best way for this is a good teacher. I should have mentioned in my post that getting a teacher is not possible for me at this time, pardon me.

[fftransform]

You already mentioned Cooke, so use that.  If you can do it well quickly then you can do it well slowly, and his method (and similar 'rhythmic' methods) is really the only cheat to build up speed.  Otherwise, in terms of getting the sound you want, just experiment and improvise.  You will come across what feel gives you what sound naturally.  If the staccato is just too hard then it simply means you aren't yet strong enough, in which case find some 3 finger exercises that you can stand.

Also, if you have slender wrists then you should feel free to use a fair deal of wrist motion, especially for when you want a big sound.  It is actually an advantage with arpeggios.

[adodd81802]

Hi Maxim,

What is the last piece of music you successfully performed on the piano? From start to finish, at correct tempo, at the point you was somewhat happy with your performance?

[keypeg]

You already mentioned Cooke, so use that.

I seem to remember that there are two Cookes.  If it's the one I'm thinking of, the older one, then it is the book I used when I was self-teaching before finding a teacher.  It has taken my teacher ages to undo the damage from using that book.  Do you have a reason for recommending it, and maybe some advice to the OP on how to use it?

[maxim3]

Thank you all for your responses. The 'Cooke' I'm referring to is Mastering the Scales and Arpeggios by James Francis Cooke (1913). The last piece of music I played reasonably well was Bach's Prelude in C Major, you know, the famous one. Once upon a time I could also play the Allemande from French Suite No.3 in B minor BWV814.

[pianoplunker]

SUPPOSE a person wanted to become a master of arpeggios.

God himself, rumor has it, can instantly play (with closed eyes) every conceivable chord in arpeggios, with all their inversions -- many hundreds of thousands of permutations.

Unfortunately, after much questing, I have been unable to discover God's arpeggio practice schedule on the Web.

Can any of you suggest a few steps in God's direction, besides the usual scale-and-arpeggio manuals which I am already studying (MacFarren, Cooke, conservatory stuff, etc)?

Or is this the sort of 'dirty laundry' that every self-taught pianist must work out for himself?

My current level: I can slowly but fairly confidently play all the 3-note diatonic arpeggios and all inversions, and dominant 7ths, and I can pick my way through the major and minor 6ths.

A little bit of God's direction:

Chopin - Etude Op 10 number 1.   ( AKA  - Waterfall )
Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata  ( All three movements )

Dont worry about playing fast.  The manuals specific to arpeggios are only as good as you can apply to music so need some balance between the tech manuals and music. If you are studying and practicing arpeggios you should practice music that has arpeggios in addition to the manuals.

[maxim3]

The voice of an angel! Heheheh I get a chill of fear when I see the name CHOPIN but I guess it can't hurt to try.

[maxim3]

Now that I've thought about it some more, it seems that I should be developing a godlike command of many CHORDS, which of course I can arpeggiate to my heart's content. I believe there is quite a lot of accessible material on the Web and in the library for expanding one's applied-chord facility, but if anyone wants to throw down a link or document recommendation of course I'd appreciate it.

By the way: Chord theory, construction, naming, progressions, sequences, etc. I know all that stuff, but I can't bang it out quickly on the keyboard. So if you were to name three 'funny' chords in F# minor, for example, and tell me to play them, it would take me several seconds of thinking and searching.