Methods of practicing vary depending on the type of challenge presented by the passage. For fast passages, there are several techniques that can be helpful. First, slow practice is extremely important—it is much easier to play a passage quickly after having practiced it slowly, rather than having pushed the tempo during practice. Practicing slowly ensures that we are reinforcing the correct notes and motions. However, slow practice must be done intelligently; it is helpful to practice large leaps slowly, but the slow-motion leap must be “representative” of the faster version of the leap. In addition to simply practicing slowly, one can move very quickly from one note to the next without actually playing the note, then play the note, then move very quickly to the next note. Practicing with various rhythms is helpful (as long as one alternates between opposite rhythms), especially short dotted rhythms. This has the effect of practicing only half of the notes of a passage very quickly (the movement from the dotted note to the next note), which helps with accuracy and relaxation. When practicing a passage, we should feel physically relaxed, but our minds should be actively engaged. The mirror-image technique helps in this respect, as does practicing a passage backwards (probably better for short passages than long ones).
Much of the difficulty in reading full scores lies in transposing, making decisions about distribution of notes between the hands, and omissions. The pianist must be able to recognize quickly which parts are important and which are doubled by others (either in unison or in octaves) and can be omitted or condensed. To illustrate some general techniques, we can examine the excerpts from the Tchaikovsky Symphony VI and Beethoven’s Egmont Overture. In the Tchaikovsky, we first identify any transpositions or difficult clefs, then locate the melody and bass line, and finally the inner voices. The only transposing instruments are the clarinets in A (which transpose a minor third lower than written), the horns in F (which transpose a perfect fifth lower than written), and the double-bass, which transposes an octave lower than written. The melody is found in the first violins, as is very common, and is doubled an octave lower in the cellos. As the cellos use tenor clef here, we can read the first violin part and double it an octave below. The bass line is found in the double-bass and bassoons, also very typical. The horns, violas, and clarinets fill in the middle voices. We must read the horn parts harmonically, mentally rearranging the notes into triads. Besides the octave doubling, there are few omissions that can be made here without losing the harmonic character. The Beethoven excerpt provides a few more opportunities for omission and doubling. Again, the first violins have the melody, and the cellos have a very important descending bass line. The violas and second violins have the inner voices, joined later by the woodwinds. The most important parts—those that cannot be omitted—are the first violins, the flutes (who share the melody with the violins), and the cellos. As in the Tchaikovsky, the basses double the bassoons an octave lower.
From Hallie, November 5, 2007
The piece that I decided to practice for keyboard skills this week is Arabesque No.1 composed by Debussy. I tried using the way that was suggested in the article on passage-work by George Kochevitsky, but I just found myself getting extremely confused, and it did not help me remember what I was actually supposed to be playing. So instead I concentrated on passages by working both hands separately. This is especially in important in Debussy because the right hand is playing triplets over the left hand’s eighth notes. By working my hands separate, and then putting them together, I was able to progress faster through the music, and it was easier to memorize because I practiced this way. As for the complicated chord section, I went through it slowly, trying to pick out differences between the extremely similar phrases. By remembering what was different about each passage, whether it was a different inversion, or a completely different chord progression, it was easier for my fingers to play it because my brain already knew what to expect.
As for the full scores I practiced, I went through the Tchaikovsky Symphony, attempting to play all of the parts correctly and at the same time. I found that if I went through the parts separately (because I now had time to do so outside of class) that it was much easier to put the parts together rather than blindly stumbling through all of them at the same time. I also made myself fold over the page so that the piano reduction score was not available to my wandering eyes. I also played through the Egmont Overture by Beethoven. This one I could not fold the page over, so I just did not allow myself to cheat. I’d first play through a line on my own, and then check my results with the piano reduction. I was usually pretty close to the accurate portrayal of the piece according to the piano part. I even found the C clef easier to read once I figured out which chords I was supposed to be playing. After I ran through the Overture a few times, I played the piano reduction just to get an idea of which parts were left out and found that almost all of the overture could be found in the piano reduction.
From Patrick, Noveember 5, 2007
The piece I have been working on the most this week has been Chopin’s Polonaise in G-Sharp Minor. One of the more challenging spots in this piece involved descending arpeggios. At first, I did not put my fingering knowledge to use; I used random finger assignments. This, as you might expect, did not work. I went back and examined the ideal finger placement and realized that crossing over with my second finger at a key passage would work the best. I also did a lot of work on the muddier parts, configuring the best pedaling strategy. The legato areas, which include descending groupings of two notes, were another primary focus point. I figured out a unique fingering that allowed the two note groupings to coincide with each other, creating a smooth, descending contour.
My score reading skills are improving. I am getting better at choosing the proper melodies and accompanying patterns to include. However, when a line with the alto clef proves to be important, such as Bach’s “Exercise No. 15,” I am still mildly confused. I need to play such pieces much slower. It will help to make a general overview of the piece before I even attempt to play it. Also, I think that looking at the surrounding lines of music will aid me in finding out the proper chord that the mystery clef will create. For example, when I played through a certain score (Wagner – Tannhauser), I was able to connect the notes in the alto clef to a G chord or an E chord, et cetera. This strategy will serve me well in my score reading future.
From Kelvin, November 5, 2007
In my current repertoire, the piece I am having the most trouble with is the seventeenth sonata by Beethoven, better known as the “Tempest.” One of the most important techniques to perfect in this piece is the idea of the quick two-note slur and playing the slur as a single motion—down on the first note and up on the second. To perfect this, I worked for a long time simply playing that motion over and over, gradually making it a natural motion. Another problem area comes in ms. 69-74 and similarly in ms. 199-204, where the left hand plays a moving eighth note passage while the right hand adds chords above. The difficulty is in watching the passage in the left while hitting the leaps in the right. The easiest way I found to perfect this passage is to memorize the left hand to the point of unconscious perfection, then focus on the right hand leaps. In general, a simple way to discover flaws is to play the entire piece without pedal. For example, in passages with fast triplet work, the pedal can blur out uneven tuplets, but playing without the damper quickly reveals these mistakes.
For my score reading assignment, I chose to revisit the Pavane for a Dead Princess, one of my favorite pieces by Maurice Ravel. The trick in this open score reading is to determine what to omit purely due to reach issues. Already in the second measure, neither hand can comfortably reach the middle voice, so there’s a choice to be made: either cut the left hand octave and play the top note of the bass with the middle voice, or cut the top note of the right hand octaves and play the two lower notes of the right hand with the middle voice. This overstretching of the range of two hands occurs repeatedly throughout the entire score. Another trick to watch out for is the idea of inner voice melodies. In the beginning, the middle voice clearly carries the main melody, but in ms. 3, that voice lies between the notes of the upper staff. To make a musical interpretation, the middle voice must sing out despite being surrounded by harmonies. Also, to interpret the piece musically, one must take note that in ms. 28, the melody lies in both the top and middle voices, but at ms. 30, the middle voice alone continues with the melody. It is imperative to take note of and even emphasize this difference in melodic distribution. The same goes for ms. 33, where the top voice takes the melody from the middle voice. Throughout the entire piece, the ninth chords provide slight hitches for reading, but it is still a beautiful piece that should be read with a long flowing melodic line in mind.
From Bob,November 5, 2007
Technical issues and strategies in Grieg's Piano Concerto (1st Movement)
At first, I found the opening (and its counterpart at the very end) hard to execute without hitting wrong notes. Both hands move in parallel octaves, which are filled in with chords on the beats. My teacher recommended a "touch then play" approach – always looking ahead and moving my hands quickly to the next chord before playing it, rather than just lifting my hands off the keys and landing directly on the next chord with the hope of hitting it correctly. This worked well for me.
The Animato section is the hardest part of the piece for me. It has quick grace-note-like (actually 32nd note) rhythms in the right hand and simple chords in the left hand. I practiced this with a variety of different rhythms. For example, I played the patterns in the right hand as straight sixteenth notes instead of quasi-grace notes. The descending thirds at the end of this section were no problem for me because I had already practiced the pattern over and over when I learned Chopin's Prelude no. 24 in D Minor.
Reading full scores
Today I read through portions of Air from Suite no. 3 (Bach) and Symphony VI (Tchaikovsky). The first thing I did for each was look at the score carefully to try and figure out what would be most difficult. The rhythms in the Bach were no problem because I'm pretty familiar with the piece, but it was hard to read the viola part because I'm relatively unfamiliar with alto clef. In the Tchaikovsky, the hardest thing was making sense of the transposed parts. I did this by thinking about the key and what notes the composer would most likely use to harmonize the melody.
