Chopin - Nocturne Opus 9 no. 2 in E-flat, as performed by Derek Andrews

[Derek]

Hi everyone, I thougt I'd put up one of my repertoire pieces instead of nothing but improvisations. Please give me feedback! 

Disclaimer: this is the first time I've successfully recorded a repertoire piece and had it sound half decent. So go easy on me. lol. Oh, and the reason the volume sounds uniform is because I compressed it in Cool Edit. Makes my piano sound bigger.

[Nightscape]

It's pretty good. You certainly have the idea - what it needs now is more defined phrases and more smoothness.  Of course, these are among the hardest things to do.... harder than learning the notes I think.  It's also a little hard to explain how to do it.  The best I can think of is to listen to good recordings of this piece and then try and emulate what you hear (being able to record yourself helps out a lot here.)

That will at least give you a good start.  Like they always say..... we learn by imitating others!

[Derek]

Thanks for the feedback. I wish I had a nicer piano, I think you could hear my attempts at phrasing a little better then. haha

[Siberian Husky]

this particular nocturne is my favorite...sounds really good man

[Rach3]

Lol - I opened the mp3 twice, it was playing on top of itself with a two-second lag, I was thinking "my, what strange counterpoint!". Anyway, good job with it.

-Rach3

[gorbee natcase]

Lol - I opened the mp3 twice, it was playing on top of itself with a two-second lag, I was thinking "my, what strange counterpoint!". Anyway, good job with it.

-Rach3

What only twice

[rafant]

I liked the phrasing of the right hand. Only some left hand chords need to sound more solid, those where one can hear micro-arpeggios. Review also dynamics, I don't have the score here but, I think some parts sounds better piano than forte. Nice job, keep finishing it.

[teresa_b]

Hey, Derek,

You sound very nice!  You articulate clearly and you have a good idea of the phrasing. 

Think of the long lines and don't concentrate too much on the three-beat rhythm set by the left hand.  You've got that down--now use a bit more rubato in the RH--agogics, a little stretch here, a little compressioin there (a little!).

I used to have more trouble with Chopin until I finally realized it isn't Bach, and precision is not the goal (Of course, it's a prerequisite!).  To express the emotion in Chopin you just gotta let go and drown in it!  So that's my (ahem) advice. 

Good luck!
Teresa

[milkcarton08]

okay overall it was good, i don't know if it's just the recording, but,

sometimes there was a little too much hesitation which put in some breaks where there shouldn't be any, i think it was because you were reaching for those base notes, i thought the trills were good, i wish i could have heard more ppp, on the second page, m13, there should be a more dramatic change in dynamics, same with m21,

anyways good job, (edit: nvm, first real recording)
- michael

[bachs_homegurl]

Wow! I thought it was very beautiful....I could really tell that you invested a lot of emotion into it when you recorded it. Some notes I found to be too 'hot' though. Good luck with finding out what my term 'hot' means. And one more thing was that on your last trill in the piece you kept the sustained notes previous to it which sounded very awful. I couldn't enjoy the trill so perhaps you should let off of the pedal in situations like such. Perhaps this is just me but I did discuss it with another and they agreed with me. Overall you did great!

miriam

[milkcarton08]

Wow! I thought it was very beautiful....I could really tell that you invested a lot of emotion into it when you recorded it. Some notes I found to be too 'hot' though. Good luck with finding out what my term 'hot' means. And one more thing was that on your last trill in the piece you kept the sustained notes previous to it which sounded very awful. I couldn't enjoy the trill so perhaps you should let off of the pedal in situations like such. Perhaps this is just me but I did discuss it with another and they agreed with me. Overall you did great!

miriam

What an articulate, well thought out critism, you are obviously a very skilled piano player.

- Michael

[Derek]

I did not anticipate having so many comments for my recording! Thank you all, many of your suggestions have been very helpful. Now why don't you check out some of the improvisations I uploaded? Tell me if you hear anything you like. Just look for more posts started by my name in the Audition section.