S
Shenlong
New member
Does anybody have any tips on how to play this incredibly fast piece on the piano?
I got the escalation part down but not the rest.
I got the escalation part down but not the rest.
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J
Jesse Worley
Guest
I played the whole sonata a number of years ago. It's been a while since I've looked at the score, but here's what I remember.
A lot of people think this piece should be played really fast and really loud. Wrong. It is, first and foremost, a dynamic piece of music that should be approached with more of a measured and flowing mentality. The melodies are very powerful, but not always where one expects them to be, so it takes a great deal of control to pull it off correctly. The sheer number of notes sprayed across the pages is daunting to most people, but in truth that's the easy part. Once you get the work under your fingers the real difficulty is realized. Still want to play it? Read on.
In the main ascention (escalation) themes the left hand it actually pretty simple, but it is your guide. In many cases a pianists left hand is much weaker, so it may be difficult to play the low notes quickly at a very low volume. The right hand is running simple broken chords, which should not present any problem. Make sure to play these passages very quietly, and with quick, lithe strokes. Do not "punch" the piano in the right hand, but play each note with a defined stroke. You should feel your finger glide slightly across the key, which allows you to play softly, yet with some power. At the top of each escalation pound the utter hell out of the chords. What you're looking for is the greatest dynamic range possible between the escalation and the top end. If you can pull off the broken chords early at ppp, rise to pp, then give the top a nice punchy fff, go for it.
When the melody line breaks free of the ascention, you've struck gold if you've got the dynamics right. Feel free to let it flow a bit, maybe take it off the beat some. The left hand should be nothing more than a dull roar, barely discernable, until the octave section. At that point you can unleash the octaves, pound the crap out of the melody, and relax your hold on the left hand. By this point you should be sore. If you're not, try it again until you are.
In the secion with the right hand scales and the left hand stacattos, the left hand is actually the melodic part of the music, but should be played just a little under the dynamic range of the scales. You want them to stand out for the lead in to the chord section, at which point the left hand becomes the undisputed melody.
Man, where does it go from there...it's been too long. If I'm not mistaken it goes into a modulation o the original theme. I do recall taking the "punchy" element out of the music somewhere in this area, and allowing the ascending chords to flow a little better, rather than being very precise.
As I can't remember the actual progression past that, I'll just tell you some of the techniques I employed to get this piece under the fingers:
Simplify. To get the basic relationship between the multiple elements of the music down, break the hands apart and simplify them. For instance, the left hand drops to an octave early, getting out of the simple "bounce" pattern. Leave this out to get the relationships down, or simply octave it where you're at. Later, you can move the notes and get it right once it's more natural.
The left hand has a cute trick that I found pretty useful in the later portions of the piece. Split your hand in two. 3 and 4 almost always play notes that carry melodic lines, while 1, 2, and 5 are almost always rhythmic. You can get this down by playing scales quickly and stressing fingers 3 and 4. After a couple of hours those fingers will naturally carry more weight, and you'll notice a little improvement in the overall tone of the piece.
Slow it down! I hear too many people try to fly through this piece. You can't possibly get the singing melodies to come out if you're too busy trying to keep your fingers from flying off. It sounds better slow and melodic than it does fast and bland.
Pay attention to the long accents. A lot of stacatto notres are thrown into this piece, but if you have a good version you'll notice a number of them are accented as well. Draw them out for an additional tick for instant clarity.
Slow the trills. One of the coolest things I've ever heard during a performance of this piece is a guy who had no affinity toward quick trills, so he just dragged them out, dropping the music to half the marked speed and executing a quick crescendo and accelerando in the middle of them. He probably played no more individual notes than anyone else during the trills, but he took 4-5 times as long to do them, which actually sounded pretty amazing. I tried to do that myself, but could not get my mind around the timing. I would suspect that someone learning the piece for the first time might have a better time of it.
Make a mess of it. This is really one of the more difficult pieces of music to learn on the piano insid of a standard curriculum. Don't be afraid to miss some notes. Even the professionals take a long while to get this monster down.
I'll drag a copy of this one out this weekend and go back through my pencil markings. Maybe I can come up with some more distinct tips for you then.
-Jesse
A lot of people think this piece should be played really fast and really loud. Wrong. It is, first and foremost, a dynamic piece of music that should be approached with more of a measured and flowing mentality. The melodies are very powerful, but not always where one expects them to be, so it takes a great deal of control to pull it off correctly. The sheer number of notes sprayed across the pages is daunting to most people, but in truth that's the easy part. Once you get the work under your fingers the real difficulty is realized. Still want to play it? Read on.
In the main ascention (escalation) themes the left hand it actually pretty simple, but it is your guide. In many cases a pianists left hand is much weaker, so it may be difficult to play the low notes quickly at a very low volume. The right hand is running simple broken chords, which should not present any problem. Make sure to play these passages very quietly, and with quick, lithe strokes. Do not "punch" the piano in the right hand, but play each note with a defined stroke. You should feel your finger glide slightly across the key, which allows you to play softly, yet with some power. At the top of each escalation pound the utter hell out of the chords. What you're looking for is the greatest dynamic range possible between the escalation and the top end. If you can pull off the broken chords early at ppp, rise to pp, then give the top a nice punchy fff, go for it.
When the melody line breaks free of the ascention, you've struck gold if you've got the dynamics right. Feel free to let it flow a bit, maybe take it off the beat some. The left hand should be nothing more than a dull roar, barely discernable, until the octave section. At that point you can unleash the octaves, pound the crap out of the melody, and relax your hold on the left hand. By this point you should be sore. If you're not, try it again until you are.
In the secion with the right hand scales and the left hand stacattos, the left hand is actually the melodic part of the music, but should be played just a little under the dynamic range of the scales. You want them to stand out for the lead in to the chord section, at which point the left hand becomes the undisputed melody.
Man, where does it go from there...it's been too long. If I'm not mistaken it goes into a modulation o the original theme. I do recall taking the "punchy" element out of the music somewhere in this area, and allowing the ascending chords to flow a little better, rather than being very precise.
As I can't remember the actual progression past that, I'll just tell you some of the techniques I employed to get this piece under the fingers:
Simplify. To get the basic relationship between the multiple elements of the music down, break the hands apart and simplify them. For instance, the left hand drops to an octave early, getting out of the simple "bounce" pattern. Leave this out to get the relationships down, or simply octave it where you're at. Later, you can move the notes and get it right once it's more natural.
The left hand has a cute trick that I found pretty useful in the later portions of the piece. Split your hand in two. 3 and 4 almost always play notes that carry melodic lines, while 1, 2, and 5 are almost always rhythmic. You can get this down by playing scales quickly and stressing fingers 3 and 4. After a couple of hours those fingers will naturally carry more weight, and you'll notice a little improvement in the overall tone of the piece.
Slow it down! I hear too many people try to fly through this piece. You can't possibly get the singing melodies to come out if you're too busy trying to keep your fingers from flying off. It sounds better slow and melodic than it does fast and bland.
Pay attention to the long accents. A lot of stacatto notres are thrown into this piece, but if you have a good version you'll notice a number of them are accented as well. Draw them out for an additional tick for instant clarity.
Slow the trills. One of the coolest things I've ever heard during a performance of this piece is a guy who had no affinity toward quick trills, so he just dragged them out, dropping the music to half the marked speed and executing a quick crescendo and accelerando in the middle of them. He probably played no more individual notes than anyone else during the trills, but he took 4-5 times as long to do them, which actually sounded pretty amazing. I tried to do that myself, but could not get my mind around the timing. I would suspect that someone learning the piece for the first time might have a better time of it.
Make a mess of it. This is really one of the more difficult pieces of music to learn on the piano insid of a standard curriculum. Don't be afraid to miss some notes. Even the professionals take a long while to get this monster down.
I'll drag a copy of this one out this weekend and go back through my pencil markings. Maybe I can come up with some more distinct tips for you then.
-Jesse
C
C-Lovely
New member
I haven't played the third movment, but my teacher has a good way of learning hard pieces. It's called the stop sign method. Break each mearsure down, starting with the first beat, play what's written from beat 1 to 2 and pause for a second, Then continue from beat 2 to 3, pause, and so on. You can change up the rhythm,i.e, if it's straight 16th's, then swing them, ex,..
AFter awhile you can add more beats. Instead of playing from count 1 to 2, play from count 1 to 3 and so on. just keep adding on. It's like learning the piece in small doses. Take it slow and gradually speed up. That way you won't get over whelmed and start to lose it. Hope I didn't confuse you, but it's kind of hard to explain.
AFter awhile you can add more beats. Instead of playing from count 1 to 2, play from count 1 to 3 and so on. just keep adding on. It's like learning the piece in small doses. Take it slow and gradually speed up. That way you won't get over whelmed and start to lose it. Hope I didn't confuse you, but it's kind of hard to explain.
D
Dade
Guest
this is such an informative thread. i think this section of the forum is where i belong. you people are quite inspiring.