Dynamic Percentages

I'm watching a Tonebase crash course on dynamics, and the instructor, Dr. Leann Osterkamp He, talks about assigning dynamics percentages to each note in a piece. You begin by determining what volume (i.e., how much weight on the keys) will be your "50%" dynamic. Essentially, this would be the half-way point between what you expect to be your loudest and your softest notes in the piece. From there, you assign each note the percentage dynamic that you want to give it when you play.

I have never thought about dynamics and phrasing in this kind of detail! Phrasing was just always what felt right ... but could I guarantee that I would use the same phrasing every time I played something, or anything close to the same phrasing? No. I mean, it would be similar, but I've never played with a number in mind of, "When I play this note, I want it to be at this weight of my arm."

I'm traveling this weekend and don't have access to a real (or even a digital) piano, so I won't be able to practice at all until Saturday night. Waaaah. But what I can do is listen to other pianists playing my Chopin Nocturne, and get a sense of what percentages they are using.

I did this for about a half-hour on the drive to North Carolina this morning, and it was enlightening, to say the least. I can't say for sure, but it sounded like some of the pianists had a clear sense of where their phrasings and dynamics were going, where others had less of a clear sense.

I brought my old Chopin book, so I think I'm going to run a couple of copies of the first dozen or so measures and write percentages for several different recordings. It's so interesting, and educational, to see the various choices that the different pianists made. Here's a bit of what I wrote for Rubinstein. It took a while, so I'm rethinking the plan of doing this for multiple recordings!

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