Black Key Arpeggios

[kghayesh]

I am having great trouble learning black keys arpeggios. The problem is that i always get some wrong notes, even if i played slowly.... I play all major and minor white key arppegios with complete simplicity and with speed...

I use Hanon's fingering, (start with 4 in the right hand instead of the thumb) for black key arppegios..

Any advice........

[nanabush]

Practice, practice, practice, and you'll soon find those arpeggioes easier than black/white combination arpeggios.  Just practice at a speed where you make no mistakes, and slowly speed up, the best way to do it, then just keep practicing, then you'll be pro in no time!

[aerlinndan]

Yes, but how should one "practice, practice, practice"?

I suggest incorporating flat-finger playing into your black-key playing. For a complete, detailed, and meaningful description of this, check out Chang's book, in the part about gaining technique. With flat fingers you won't miss the notes. I have extensively incorporated flat-finger playing into my Schubert Impromptu Op 90 No 2 in Eb major, especially in the arpeggiated figures, and it has increased my accuracy to as good as 100%.

[i_m_robot]

play them as progressive chords

then rolled chords

then staccato chords

then slowly play the same chord 10 times move the next play it 10 times continue

then slowly play the same chord 9 times and continue as above until you reach one

play the chord ascending and descending

then try playing each note of the arp/chord staccato

then slur the arp but accent the tops notes

then slur the arp but accent the bottom notes

then take a break

repeat

(might be bad listening to self)

[lagin]

Personally I use my thumbs on black key arpeggios, but anyhoo, going slow is the way to go about it.   Press down into the keybeds to "train" your fingers where they are suppost to go.  You can lighten it up, once you add more speed of course.  What really helped me is instead of just playing strait--all the way to the top of the 4 octaves and then back down--my teacher recommended that whenever I made a mistake I should go over and over that spot up and down and up and down say 5 notes in either direction of the slip.  Then my fingers learned the notes rather then just being dependant on the familiar motion of once all the way up and once all the way down.  It's tricky learning to run up and down within an arpeggio, but very helpful.  Try whenever you pass the piano or when you first sit down, just doing some of these arpeggios even once.  This way you'll learn to do them cold as well as getting in a bit of extra practice.  Alternate rhythms is a good idea, but I think someone already mentioned this.  So yah, practice lots and go slow.  Remember, you're not hindering yourself by going slower, because your fingers are still being trained.  Actually, the slower you go, the longer your hand and arm muscles are in each position, so the more they get 'trained.' They were a kill for me to, but I'm finally taming them. 

[lostinidlewonder]

If all black notes, that usually equals very flat fingers. Usually if you are not flattening the fingers enough it can become tough to find the form that the black notes provide since your hand contorts.

Play the arpeggios with different simple rhythms, like, daaaa da, daaaa da, daaaa da etc. and da daaa, da daaa etc, observing how each finger which rests longer on its note feels. Make different groups up and in the end you must have it worked out. If still not then thats a mystery to me.

[nomis]

It helps to learn each hand separately. Playing with two hands when you don't have the technique isn't beneficial as it will cause one hand to lag behind. Playing hands together is much more difficult than playing with one hand. So concentrate on one hand at a time, until you have each hand perfect on their own, then you can start thinking about putting the hands together. Also search on this forum for "repeated note groups" and read this thread: https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2449.msg21204.html#msg21204