Melodic line

[softbn]

Helllo.
How do you accent the melody in a piece ? I know that when there’s a double note sound in the right hand as in Claire de Lune first bar in the right hand you play the highest note a bit louder with your pinky - and the rest which is the left hand and the lower sound in the right hand quieter ( by the way do you play left hand and the lower non melodic note in the RH at the same volume ?) - Claire de lune bar 1

What about octaves or chords which have an octave in them - should you accent the highest melodic note then? Bar 13 Claire de lune

Or when there’s a chord both in the left and in the right hand at the same time simultaneously played and the melody in the highest note in the right hand - then the melody note with your pinky should be played louder and the rest quieter - at the same volume both in the left and in the right hand ? - Claire de lune bar 10


What about arpeggios ? It 3rd movement of Beethoven tempest sonata starting in Bar9 and on there’s arpeggios starting in the left going up to the right hand. - should you play the left hand quieter as usual or treat it as a whole?

[bwl_13]

It's somewhat challenging to figure out what to voice (that's the word for drawing attention to something). As you say, in some chords certain notes might be voiced louder than others. Oftentimes it's just the upstemmed notes or the highest notes, but sometimes you want to change things up in highly repetitive passages.

How to do that? Lots of practice with balancing and touch. You can try playing forte legato on your melody and piano staccato on your accompaniment.

At the end of the day I think you're overthinking the specifics. You need to trust your ears and let yourself do what comes naturally. The flow of the music and tailoring to its needs is more important than any specific rules