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Topic: Looking for piano repertoire that helps with Arpeggios  (Read 243 times)

Offline nickmarcelo

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Hi I'm an advanced piano student who has been learning for 11 years, I don't experience tension as such but while playing arpeggios I notice that I have a tendency to leap rather than cross the thumb under, it hasn't affected my playing yet but I wish to correct this as I have been told by many people that this is incorrect. I also don't like the aesthetic of it.
What are some etudes or pieces I could play to ensure that this issue is corrected/
I was considering Mendelssohn's Opus 104 B
Thanks for the help in advance

Offline essence

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Re: Looking for piano repertoire that helps with Arpeggios
Reply #1 on: April 17, 2025, 09:44:50 AM
Chopin op 10 no 1 is definitely is based on arpeggios, but may not address your specific issue.

Offline ronde_des_sylphes

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Re: Looking for piano repertoire that helps with Arpeggios
Reply #2 on: April 17, 2025, 12:09:34 PM
The Mendelssohn is a good starting point. I wouldn't use the Chopin etude tbh, because it deals with a very specific formation where the arpeggiated group is greater than an octave in span, and thus the movements required are different. You will find a lot of arpeggiated passages in operatic transcriptions and that's where I'd recommend, not least because you'll soon find out if you have problems with tension and lack of fluidity manifesting themselves as fatigue.

Good examples arise within Liszt's Rienzi fantasy (pages 3 and 4, and in the coda) (relatively straightforward), and more testing would be the coda of Thalberg’s Moses fantasy and the famous mid-section of Liszt's Norma.
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Offline pianistavt

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Re: Looking for piano repertoire that helps with Arpeggios
Reply #3 on: April 17, 2025, 02:40:08 PM
Hi I'm an advanced piano student who has been learning for 11 years, I don't experience tension as such but while playing arpeggios I notice that I have a tendency to leap rather than cross the thumb under, it hasn't affected my playing yet but I wish to correct this as I have been told by many people that this is incorrect. I also don't like the aesthetic of it.
What are some etudes or pieces I could play to ensure that this issue is corrected/
I was considering Mendelssohn's Opus 104 B
Thanks for the help in advance

I wouldn't accept the notion that a perfect reach is the correct way and a slight lift off the connecting note, i.e. "a leap" is definitively incorrect.  It depends on the size of the hand and the arpeggio in question. 

Anyway, the obvious solution is to practice arpeggios - all keys, all inversions (root, 1st, 2nd), including arpeggios with minor and major 7ths (all versions, all keys).  Cover 4 - 5 octaves.

If you want some etudes, have you considered Czerny?
These are ones I have worked on and would recommend for arpeggios:

The Art of Finger Dexterity op 740
#2 in G - titled "smoothness in passing the thumb under"
#31 in a minor - it's titled "for passing the thumb under"
#21 in D

Offline satoru

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Re: Looking for piano repertoire that helps with Arpeggios
Reply #4 on: April 17, 2025, 04:21:20 PM
Why not Chopin op25/12? Plenty of arpeggios practice there.

Offline liszt-and-the-galops

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Re: Looking for piano repertoire that helps with Arpeggios
Reply #5 on: April 17, 2025, 05:41:58 PM
Anyway, the obvious solution is to practice arpeggios - all keys, all inversions (root, 1st, 2nd), including arpeggios with minor and major 7ths (all versions, all keys).  Cover 4 - 5 octaves.

If you want some etudes, have you considered Czerny?
The Art of Finger Dexterity op 740
#2 in G - titled "smoothness in passing the thumb under"
#31 in a minor - it's titled "for passing the thumb under"
#21 in D
This is probably the way to go.
I also recommend Liszt's Arpeggio Etude, S. 141 no. 4. It's probably Liszt's easiest Etude and it's almost entirely arpeggios with a handful of thirds/other stuff.
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Offline lelle

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Re: Looking for piano repertoire that helps with Arpeggios
Reply #6 on: April 19, 2025, 11:16:13 AM
No piece will correct any issue.

You can play all the arpeggio pieces you want and still do an awkward jumping motion instead of something that is smooth unless you actively engage your intelligence, get help from a teacher, study material on what others have said, or analyze the issue yourself in order to solve it.

As for pieces with arpeggios, there are many Czerny studies that exclusively deal with the issue. Just google "Czerny arpeggio" and you will find stuff.
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