La Campanella help

[campanella]

Just recently I've really gotten into La Campanella by Franz Liszt. I'm having trouble staying relaxed and reaching those really high D#'s. Sure I can play them, but I have my hand in an uncomfortable streched position. My teacher says not to stretch them, but to just move your entire hand to the note. I cant do that because of the speed of the piece. She says it can cause hand injuries if I do it wrong. I find my hand in that steched position in many parts of the song especially in the trills. Do you guys have any advice?

[thierry13]

Do it slowly, and concentrate on your hand movements and not to stretch. I have this position too when I play La campanella, and i know it's bad too, but I don't feel incomfortable with it... but i'm not learning it seriously right now so I don't care for the moment 

[musicsdarkangel]

Your teacher is correct, mine gave me the same advice, and I am glad that he did.

Ways to practice this -------------

1.  Keep your hands in normal position (yes you will stretch a bit, but don't strain)
2.  Practice SLOW, but, instead of doing the jumps slowly, get used to throwing your hand whenver you want to hit a high D sharp, and do it quickly.  Play this with a metranome and gradually increase tempo.
3.  Try even bigger jumps - Jump two octaves instead of one, this will make the one octave + jumps much easier.

You will notice (if you watch any video of la campanella) that when the pianists play the jumps, they always throw their hand at the high notes and come back, making it look effortless.

This is the only way to conquer that page with relaxation.

Speaking of, remember that La Campanella has much movement involved in it, but this does not mean you should be loud.  The majority of the piece should be played very lightly, with relaxation, ease, so if you are tense, you need to slow down and play softly.

If you have any questions at all, please feel free to e-mail me (kingsha@yahoo.com) or keep posting on this thread.

I am actually still having difficulties mastering a couple of sections.

La Campanella is an incredibly difficult piece, so don't let it get you down, and don't overwork it.  In a book by Charles Rosen, he mentions on how pianists often have problems nailing and mastering difficult pieces, and he refers to La Campanella and the Rach 3....

Although it is not as difficult as the Rach 3, to be compared in that manner lets you know that it isn't childsplay.

[Ludwig Van Rachabji]

Oh, I remember this piece well. I HATED learning it. It hurt.... that's really all I have to say about it.

Musicdarkangel has the best idea. Once you have figured out which notes you are hitting, the rest is all based on technique. Practice the way that musicdarkangel suggested. But make sure you memorize the part in question first, so you can watch your hands and improve your accuracy rather than the music and hit wrong notes.

[bravuraoctaves]

Move your hand. Do NOT stretch in any way. If you do it right it should look like a hyperspeed waving motion. Hit the high d# with the middle of the 5th finger to avoid injury. This way you can get it up to very high speeds.

I only learn the first bit. I found the trills too hard.

[shasta]

Don't be afraid to move your entire body and arm to help your hand movements.  Make sure that you aren't "pivoting at the elbow" (keeping your right elbow closer to your body than your forearm is).  Your right arm should be rounded and supple:  shaped more like  )  than <

[ramseytheii]

There's only one way to practice La Campanella, and that is slowly, and melodically distinguishing all the voices.  The repeated high notes have to even sound melodic.  The lower voice in the right hand especially.  The left hand parts have to sound melodic.  That is the only way.
That being said the mechanism needs to be "well-oiled" and free of any creaky, or stiff joints.  Actually my years of experience have taught me, that nobody can say, move your elbow like this; situate your shoulder like this; shape your hand like this.  These physical things, are not "Requirements," but only side-effects - side-effects of the expressive intent.  True beauty resides in side-effects, in things unintended.  Look at nature for instance.   So it is actually enough to know, that the mechanism has to be free; as soon as we start to plan each minute movement, the head gets in the way.  The keyboard works with the human anatomy, without question.  We only need to discover how, ourselves.

Walter Ramsey

[etudes]

oh yeah i practise it also
La campanella
IMO i think u can try practising relax your hand and play only melody with thump and make it very flow and when you practising with the top note just care about melody and keep relax slow practising and u will find that is very easy to play that part
but the next with repetitions and trills and also cadenza i got more problem
anyway try trills with all finger 35 45 34 practising them all!

[nikodr]

Try to find this book "On Piano Playing: Motion, Sound, and Expression
by Gyorgy Sandor" and then
a second book "Mastering Piano Technique : A Guide for Students, Teachers and Performers
by Seymour Fink"
 I think many of the difficulties you have will disappear when you read those 2 books it is a must read for anyone wishing to play chopin or liszt.

[ramseytheii]

I would be curious to see what prescriptions Cortot has for practicing this piece.  Does anybody have his edition?

Walter Ramsey

[bflatminor24]

La Campanella...

What a great piece! I remember learning this piece, and all of this advice rings true. I have little to add, only that the ending deviates from the rest of the piece, and here's why.

I found that all of this advice was true for 90% of the piece, but as soon as you reach the coda (both hands on a D# octave), You have to do that difficult sequence of jumping octaves in the left hand. I found that I had to keep my left hand pretty much stiff in one position for me to nail those octaves. The minute I tried a "light touch" or "relaxed fingers" my left hand octaves became sloppy. Try keeping the left hand in a fixed position, but moving your arm to hit each octave.

Lastly, when you play the final few measures where you play a chord in the center and then jump outwards to reach the last few high chords, you have to just "throw" your arm out there and practice being accurate, because you don't have time to really aim. It's kind of like the ending of Chopin Scherzo 2 where you have to throw your arm out there to reach that high F. Just take a risk on the piano, it's fun and it's the best way to keep the rhythm of the piece.

-Max