Slow Practice: Chopin Nocturne in F Minor

"The Transcendence" (my title for it), cut and pasted for the blog.

This morning, as I practiced the section of the Chopin nocturne that I call "The Transcendence," I became momentarily overwhelmed by a sense of profound gratitude: gratitude for Chopin and his music, gratitude for the miracle the is the modern piano, and gratitude for my ability to practice and play this magnificent music.

I also realized something I'd never thought about before: As pianists, we get to experience the music up close, in a way that mere listeners never do. Sure, they can listen to Rubinstein on their earbuds and feel like the pianist is right there with them. But the pianists themselves? We can slow the music to a crawl, practice the inner voices only, gain a greater understanding of all the parts by playing hands separately, etc.

Non-pianists can't really do that. A non-pianist can listen to multiple renditions of Chopin's F Minor nocturne and they can wonder at the beauty of "The Transcendence," but they will only hear it at the relatively fast clip that Chopin tells us to use. Here is Rubinstein's recording, where the Transcendence runs from 4:33 - 4:50.

One thing I've noticed about Chopin, and I don't think this is true for all composers, is that his music sounds amazing no matter what tempo you're using. You can play the fast passages slowly, or the slow passages fast, and both will sound beautiful.

I thought about this today as I worked on The Transcendence. Here is that same passage as I played it this morning, slowed to a crawl (one minute and nine seconds, as compared to Rubinstein's 17 seconds!). (Please excuse the puffy jacket; I had just run outside to start the car so it could thaw out for a few minutes.)

Slow practice is so important! Even so, it usually hard for me, and for many piano students, to keep with the slow practice. It's too tempting to speed up and play at tempo. But with this Chopin? I could slow-practice this section every day. And I think I will. One of these days I'll have it at tempo. And when I do? All that slow practice will have been worth it!

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