Trouble lining up hands in Chopin op 25 no 2

[ivorycherry]

Hey guys, so i picked this piece up a month ago and so I’ve been playing it as a side piece sort of right now but I’m having some trouble. I can play hands separate at around that 80 bpm to the half note(six notes per beat), and, I’m having trouble actually accurately lining up the hands when playing them together. I’m playing at a much slower tempo hands together(69 bpm, and even 60), and my hands just done seem to line up in some measures. Any help? Btw, practicing this etude is really boring imo lol.

Any advice is much appreciated,
Alex

[brogers70]

Sorry you find it boring; I love practicing this etude. I'd say don't let the triplet quarter notes in the LH worry you into trying to get a sort of polyrhythmic feeling between the two hands. I've never heard a performance that brought that out. Instead it's just two notes in the RH for every note in the LH. Do that, and think of each measure as either two or even just one big beat. Don't group the RH in threes, but in sixes or twelves. Another trick to help you hear the alignment better is to shift your piano bench an octave to the right and play everything an octave up (moving the bench means that your arms are in the same position wrt the keyboard as they were in the original octave). It's impressive how much easier it is (for me, anyway) to hear the alignment when everything is an octave higher.

[ivorycherry]

Sorry you find it boring; I love practicing this etude. I'd say don't let the triplet quarter notes in the LH worry you into trying to get a sort of polyrhythmic feeling between the two hands. I've never heard a performance that brought that out. Instead it's just two notes in the RH for every note in the LH. Do that, and think of each measure as either two or even just one big beat. Don't group the RH in threes, but in sixes or twelves. Another trick to help you hear the alignment better is to shift your piano bench an octave to the right and play everything an octave up (moving the bench means that your arms are in the same position wrt the keyboard as they were in the original octave). It's impressive how much easier it is (for me, anyway) to hear the alignment when everything is an octave higher.

It’s not that boring lol it’s just the whole piece is the same pattern wise. I tried grouping the rh in sextuplets and that definitely helped. My teacher wanted me to start off thinking of them as triplets to make them “more precise” for now. I feel I’m pretty precise though so I’ll start practicing it mainly in sextuplets but later(I feel like crap rn I got my 2nd vaccine this morning and I don’t feel like practicing at all)

[anacrusis]

It’s not that boring lol it’s just the whole piece is the same pattern wise. I tried grouping the rh in sextuplets and that definitely helped. My teacher wanted me to start off thinking of them as triplets to make them “more precise” for now. I feel I’m pretty precise though so I’ll start practicing it mainly in sextuplets but later(I feel like crap rn I got my 2nd vaccine this morning and I don’t feel like practicing at all)

Cut yourself some slack man and let yourself rest and be unproductive, your body is dealing with the vaccine after all. Which measures are you having the most trouble lining the hands up?

[brogers70]

It’s not that boring lol it’s just the whole piece is the same pattern wise. I tried grouping the rh in sextuplets and that definitely helped. My teacher wanted me to start off thinking of them as triplets to make them “more precise” for now. I feel I’m pretty precise though so I’ll start practicing it mainly in sextuplets but later(I feel like crap rn I got my 2nd vaccine this morning and I don’t feel like practicing at all)

One thing that helps me with evenness is to take the RH notes and play them in 2's, then in 3's, then in 4's, then in 5's, then in 6's, phase shifting each group in every possible way, with a pause between each group.

[ivorycherry]

Hands together?

[lelle]

For what it's worth, I think your teacher's advice to practice the right hand as triplets is sound. It may or may not be perceptible to the ear when you play it fast, but I think it makes a difference in "feel", and is at any rate a valuable exercise for rhythmic development.