Chopin Nocturne Op 48 No 1

[lamagalula]

Hi, welcome everyone here!

I’m really looking for advice, I’m not professional pianist but in the past I had some lessons. Now after six years break with playing I start to learn some pieces. One of them is this Nocturne that I’ve never think can manage but after 4 months I can play almost every note. If any one of you can listen my performance and give me some advice what I should to do for more control and better sound quality. Sorry for my piano.

 

Kind regards

[lelle]

To be honest you are doing quite well already, well done! You play the melody with pretty good legato, and you seem to have a good foundation in place.

I would advice you to play the left hand much softer in the opening section. You could also bring down the right hand a notch - Chopin marked the melody mezza voce, so you are not singing with a lot of projection here. You should bring down the left hand much more than the right hand, so that the overall contrast between the hands is higher, directing the spotlight towards the melody.

Watch out for "aggressive" hits on the keys. You mostly have a good touch, but occasionally you almost seem to hit certain keys, and the resulting sound is too spiky and hard. Watch your video and see if you can spot the instances I'm talking about. Example: 3:54, the high register right hand chord just after the trill.

Ending section - play most of the inner voices (chords etc) much softer, and play the melody (and maybe parts of the base) correspondingly louder. You'll end up with something that still sounds forte, but the sound is much nicer, and the melody will become easier to follow.

[stringoverstrung]

If any one of you can listen my performance and give me some advice what I should to do for more control and better sound quality.

Hi,

I am not a pro either but that`s why we are here. I will give you my 2 cents (=not pro advice). Maybe it helps you: -> good , If not find a teacher :-)

First of all congratulations on mastering this piece. I think there is a lot of improvement possible since you manage to play the difficult section (last 2 pages more or less) better then the beginning.

number 1):
It is important to have supple wrists but this does not mean flapping wrists e.g. like in the bass in the beginning. The disadvantage is that it destabilizes the bridge of your hand (alignment and organization of knuckles) and can also lead to uncontrolled wight impulse. See also the left hand stability on your one but last chord compared to the last chord which is much better.

2) to generate more sound you must not press "through" the keys but kind of "pull them out" (speed of fingertip versus "prolonged' (i.e pressure after key has reached bottom) weight. If you do that on big grands they will say "ouch" to you. I know this might have to do with your piano  but if you want more sound, don' t press harder but " pull" the key or just remove the top cover of your piano and you will have more sound. :-)
3) you should also keep your hands closer to the keyboard at some places. The farther you launch from, the less control you gonna have. I know that some top pianists do this but we are not top pianists and the majority of them stays also pretty close to the keyboard. Examples are the top G and Ab at around 0:25-0:30. you even come from submarine state (from below the keyboard) and then at some point your upward motion must go down and gravity kicks in (arm weight where not necessary ). Compare this to some recordings of the Chopin competition for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtnljX1bjRs who is also some sort of "amateur" lol .

4) interpretation: listen to the balance and indeed softer middle chords will improve the balance.

So in general limiting the unnecessary movements of your hand / wrist and not pushing weight on the piano after the key has reached the keybed will imporve both control and touch and will thus affect the quality of your tone.

Another thing to strive for is relaxation when playing Forte but this is another debate.
Hope it helps! Let me know and above all keep enjoying and practicing.

kr,
Gert