Need help on Rach prelude op 32 no 12

[ivorycherry]

Hello,
I’m working on Rachmaninoff’s prelude in g sharp minor for a coupla weeks now and I need help with some technique on some parts. From measures 24 to 31 I’ve been playing the RH as just solid blocks instead of the flutters? of notes just for practice, but now I need to learn how to actually play them. My teacher said something about instead of playing with the fingers with the RH on those parts, to just shake the wrist or hand or something I don’t remember. How do I play those RH clusters? I’m having trouble just playing the clusters with the fingers which I know is wrong. Could anyone offer some insight or tips on this part? Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Alex

[lelle]

I don't know, I feel like I am playing those with my fingers. Like how are you going to succeed getting the keys down without individual finger movements? That doesn't mean you should use tense finger movements or hold your arm rigidly stiff as you move your fingers.

Try this:

In bar 24, first play the figure just with the bottom part, so it all becomes a figure with single notes only, meaning f-doublesharp, d#, f-doublesharp, a#. And do this for each figure in the bar. Move smoothly and make sure you are relaxed and supple. Then, play it just with the upper part, meaning a#, d#, a#, a#, in the same way, still single notes.

Then combine these two, so the technique for playing the figure with double notes remains more or less "the same". It should feel fundamentally the same as playing it with single notes, it's just that sometimes you use two fingers at a time instead of one. But don't forget that your arm and wrist need to be supple and you need to move smoothly regardless if you are playing single or double notes, or mixes of the two. You might need to do this slowly and patiently for a while, to develop the coordination needed.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any questions.

[getsiegs]

I think it’s a combination of both the fingers and the wrist. If you’re not sure how to differentiate the two, maybe this might help:

-For playing “with just the fingers”, try doing it staccato. Your wrist will likely stay in a fixed position and you’ll probably end up doing almost all the work with your fingers.

-For playing with the wrist, try just doing a tremolo between the upper and lower A-sharps. Try starting slow, and then see how fast you can get the tremolo to go with rapid wrist rotation.

-Now try playing that tremolo with the “fingers” approach. If your wrist is locked and low and you’re playing from the fingers, it’s not going to go nearly as fast as it could if you rely on the wrist rotation instead. Hopefully comparing these two approaches will show you how the wrist comes into play here.

I don’t know if this made much sense or if it’ll be super helpful, but hopefully it aids you in separating techniques and solving this problem. Having (poorly) learned this piece, I believe being able to use and control your wrist here is crucial.