Do you have a teacher who can help you with that?
Thank you so much! Midway through the piece my left forearm gets a bit bad, then it feels a bit better, and by the end it feels pretty tired again. I think a lot of the uneveness stems from having learned it more or less a tempo, so that would make sense...
Do you have any suggestions for some newer pieces? Currently I primarily play Moonlight Sonata III, Chopin's Waltz in A minor, this piece, and his first Polonaise in G minor... I'd prefer a Chopin piece, as I'm pretty obsessed with him, but anything works! Thanks so much again!!
Sorry forgot to answer this... I do, but we don't focus very much if at all on how to work on lessening tension and they let me choose pieces such as this one above my difficulty level so I am uncertain as to where I really am at...
Thanks so much again! Since I've already begun with this etude do you think there is a way to practice it to bring it to a nice level on the side while practicing scales, arpeggios, and easier pieces primarily, or should I drop it and come back in a few years? If so though, how should I approach that?
I'm curious how long you've been playing and learning this piece. My guess would be uninformed and pretty wild. But, with my background of a few years' lessons, I took about a year to learn pieces much simpler than this to any degree of accuracy.
I agree with the suggestion of more slow practice. When you are practicing slow, one thing I found quite helpful (a hint from Josh Wright) is to make sure my fingers are landing exactly in the center of the key I'm aiming for. For some reason that seems to carry over into fast tempi automatically, once you've gotten used to it. Pay attention to exactly how things feel when you're getting the center of the keys perfectly and then just aim for the same feeling from then on. Also I'd suggest you shape all those long strings of 16th notes in (mostly) the left hand a bit more. So more differentiation between downbeats and upbeats, more shaping of the rises and falls in the bass line. I don't really think this piece is beyond you, at least not so far beyond you that working on it carefully and slowly wouldn't be worth the effort. I'd say keep at it.