Coda of Ballade G minor - Chopin

[mypianoworld]

Hi everyone,

I'm working on Chopin's ballade in G minor Op. 23 at the moment and I'm having so much trouble with the coda. I have small hands and absolutely no idea how to make this work... Any ideas on how to practice? I accumulate so much tension having my hand stretched out for so long. Help! Wish I had bigger hands

[g_s_223]

My teacher(s) said in these cases the answer is in the wrist. For example, lay your hand and forearm flat on a table: then, keeping the finger tips in one place flex the wrist to the left and right; then, keeping the wrist in one place, move the hand to the left and right. In this way, you may start to get a feel for how flexible the wrist/hand combination needs to be. A fixed wrist position will fail big-time. Chopin's Op.10 #1 is a similar situation for the RH.

Think of snakes' movements as a guide maybe...

[pianoisthebest23]

I agree with g_s_223. Also, how are you going about legato work? If you're working too hard to connect each note/chord to the next, that can bog you down and cause tension. Connect what you can and select specific notes in a chord that you can connect to the next. Use the pedal to help with the rest. Good luck!!

[kc_gracie]

Hello. I am curious as to which part of the coda you are struggling with and where the tension is starting. Is it trouble with the opening measures of the coda with the three note chords in the RH, spanning sometimes great than an octave? Or is it in the following measures where you are playing the alternating broken chords (starting with C in the left and A-flat in the right)? I found that I was developing tension in the earlier section that was never relieved until the very end (and I do not have small hands in any regard). I fixed this by using similar suggestions remarked by the other users. You need to really focus on (in all parts of the coda) playing with a relaxed right hand, almost bouncing off the notes when they need to be lifted, so that you can reach the following notes/chords. Perhaps also working on thumb flexibility could help as well (I believe there is a great video by Steinway discussing this in Chords and Arpeggios). A lot of tension is developed when you are playing this section as it sounds very moody and dramatic because that is the impression it leaves in the air. Really make sure that you are not holding or pressing too hardly into the notes too long. Play the notes with the intended dynamic and then relax the hand immediately after, even if you are holding them for any period of time (while still pressing down the keys); or bounce off of them as soon as you play them (with pedal to aid in the effect you desire) so that you can start turning your wrist to reach the following passage. Really practice this section RH only, slowly, and really focus on the feeling in your wrist. If you consciously practice while focusing on the relaxation, it should significantly improve how you feel when you play and it may even sound better than it does already. You will be able to focus on your sound more than just hitting the notes (as when tend to do when we have too much tension). Just don't hold things too long and with too much pressure and I think you will see great improvement.

Sorry for the long winded replay the essentially just repeats what other users have stated. I wish you the best of luck with this piece!

KC

[luddexyz]

You shouldnt be keeping your hands outstretched for long periods of time; you'll get hurt. Only outstretch the hand right before you're gonna play the note that requires it.

[aclaussen]

Hi everyone,

I'm working on Chopin's ballade in G minor Op. 23 at the moment and I'm having so much trouble with the coda. I have small hands and absolutely no idea how to make this work... Any ideas on how to practice? I accumulate so much tension having my hand stretched out for so long. Help! Wish I had bigger hands

Yeah that part is hard as hell. I played as a sophomore in high school and I if I wanted to play the coda at full speed I'd inevitably miss a couple of notes. I could probably play it better now.

If I had to go back and learn it now, I'd actually try and learn that coda in all keys. Obviously slow at first. If you can know it in all keys, it will translate into a sort of relaxed subconscious knowledge, not just in your mind but it will carry over into your body. I also know what you're talking about with the muscle relaxation, my right forearm got tight as hell during that part of the piece. When I searched for technical answers there was a bunch of advice coming from the Russian school of technique and I never found that to be useful in my particular case. Yes there have been pianists that have used it to great success and cannot transpose well, but personally this is what I would do. Honestly it just needs to be engrained on a level that I think only transposition and improvisation and knowing it in a deeper way than can be achieved by constant repetition. I'm pretty sure Liszt and Chopin were able to improvise off the cuff passages like this in basically any key.

If you aren't sold on the benefits of developing your ear (you can make original music and it'll help you perform classical music), I would try breaking the chords up into arpeggiated passages or other ways you come up with. Anything besides performing it the same way over and over again.

Honestly as I write this, I kind of want to try this this week. I haven't transposed something this complex before so it could take a while but it'd be interesting...

And by the way if you've done no ear training or playing by ear yes this is going to be difficult. My professor in college advised I do this and even though I tried I just hadn't developed an ear for harmony and changes. I tried to do it and at that point I was only classically trained so I found it to be an impossible task. But I do believe if you could do this it would solve the technical problems you are experiencing in the coda. I think my ear has developed to the point where I'd be able to attempt this. Maybe in your case, if you've only been playing by sheet music, start with some easier pieces like Mozart and play along with your favorite popular music cause I remember trying to do this as a complete novice and it was extremely difficult.

[aclaussen]

whoops

[jlmap]

I also had this problem. The solution for me was to practice very slowly (half speed), paying attention to relax as much as possible. I learned to never practice nothing at full speed. Everyday I play a trick part of a piece of my repertoire, always very slow. Full speed only when performing. Take your time to reach the notes.
Another thing that miraculously helped was to analyse the harmonic structure, and sing the notes as grades of the scale as I practiced. If you do this, your hands will relax. I don't know exactly why, but I think maybe you get more secure of the notes, and maybe you distract from the difficulties and pay attention somewhere else.