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Schubert: Cue the Hard Section

I really shouldn't refer to the ben marcato section as the "hard section." I'm sure that does something negative psychologically. Still, it's considerably more challenging than the flowing E-flat scales, and for several reasons. It's much more disjunct, for one thing, so that hands are jumping around a little. And then there are lots of accidentals, so your brain can't relax and just play what's expected for the key.

For my mom (and any non-theory people), what this means is:

If I'm in, say, B-minor, then I know that my fingers will be playing any combination of the following notes: B, C#, D, E, F#, G, and A (or generally, A#). Those are the notes in the B minor scale. So when I see a "C" in the music, I automatically know to play a C#. This is a challenge when you're first learning music, but I've played long enough (and I know my scales well enough), that I really don't have to think about it. My brain just automatically knows to play C#.

An accidental is when the composer says something like, "Yeah, you would normally play a C# here, but this one time I want you to play C-natural." (Or sometimes, in the case of this piece, C-flat!) There is a lot of that in the Schubert, so there is this ongoing adjustment of playing what's written vs playing what's expected.



There are also a few ... nonstandard? chords in there. As you might have noticed, I typically label every single chord in every single measure. This helps me because, if I know I'm in an E-minor chord (for example), then I know that (most of) my fingers will be playing E-natural, G-natural, B-natural, or some combination thereof. There is a lot of B-minor and F# major in this section, which makes it easier, but then there are things like this:

I'm not even sure what that is. It's an E-minor in the RH, and there's that A# in the LH. B-minor can have an A#, and we're in the key of B-minor, but ... what is that, even? An inversion of an A# diminished chord? And then we have that A# playing right next to the B-natural, which is quite dissonant and "sounds wrong" at first. I love the sound of the dissonance, but it doesn't feel like it "fits," and my hands and ears and brain took a minute before I could play it without concentrating too hard.

So this whole section is a mix of jumpy familiar chords (mostly B-minor, E-minor, and F# minor--the musical holy trinity of i-iv-V) and chords with accidentals. Here's part of what I worked on for my 20-minute practice this morning:


I also covered a few measures on the following page, plus the simpler, more repetitive section that I worked on yesterday morning.

In-Progress Recording

I hesitate to post my stumblings and bumblings with new material, but one of these days, when I have this piece down, I'll post all of the in-progress recordings together, and it'll be cool to hear the progress. This recording of measures 134 to 168 avoids being too stumbly and bumbly, mainly because I'm playing it at such a slow tempo. (I probably shouldn't use the word "tempo" here, as I'm not paying a lot of attention to timing yet.) This recording is of section shown above, plus the easier section from yesterday. I'm playing it very slowly--slowly enough that I can play it without missing notes.

This is what I call "laying down tracks." Going slowly, getting it into my brain and my fingers. I'll focus on dynamics a little later. For now, I just want to get the notes.
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