Rondo alla Turca: Octave Trouble

At my piano lesson Tuesday, Eric pointed out the fact that I wasn't playing my white-key octaves cleanly in the broken-octaves section of Rondo alla Turca. The "B" was particularly sloppy; I was brushing its "C" neighbor with my thumb each time.

Horrors!

Seriously, this is why I have a piano teacher, even though I already know how to play the piano. Because I know I have blind spots. I had no idea that those white-key octaves weren't clean as a whistle, probably because I'm listening to two versions of the piece as I play: the version in my head, and the version at my fingertips.

I found a brief but helpful "lesson" on YouTube, where Noriko Ogawa had some good advice:

Chromatic/scale sections: Don't overpower the left hand, but make sure the arpeggio is audible. Right hand should be full of energy.

Look into each phrase with a magnifying glass and think about how you want to phrase each one. (This is great advice for any piece of music!)

Broken octave section: Practice with hands very close to the keyboard. Should not be a lot of movement/twisting of the hands/wrist.

Coda: Emphasize the percussive effects; imitate percussive instruments.

Remain very lively throughout! (Yay!)

Good advice. I'm going to take it all. For the octaves, I'm going to work slowly on some Hanon exercises, really focusing on both accuracy and economy of movement. I've been treating these octaves kind of like tremolos, pivoting from my wrist, and maybe I need to to less of that -- or at least lesson the movement, which I can do if I keep my hands a little closer to the keyboard.

Hopefully I'll get a chance this weekend to make a few videos and share them here.

Comments

The Rusty Lock and Key

I'm in a room. There's a door in front of me. On the other side of that door is a whole world of adventure and imagination and joy and delight, but for the moment, I'm locked in this gray little room. The door itself has a lock that is all rusted. I've tried to open it in the past, but I've never gotten very far. Sometimes I try to scrape the rust off the lock. I also have a rusty old key that I occasionally try to polish. Each time, after I've made a little progress, I'll put it into the keyhole in hopes of opening the door. It turns a half a millimeter or so, but the brief excitement at my progress dies quickly when I realize, once again, the lock isn't opening. I set the old key aside, and from there I can forget about the door, the lock, and the world outside, for months—years, even. But then something happens—I hear birdsong, or I catch a glimpse of color—and I pick up the key and start picking away at the stubborn rust. That dark little room is my ...

March Goals Recap/Looking Ahead to April

It's April 1, and time to revisit the goals I set for last month. I practiced a total of 50.45 hours in March, averaging 1.62 hours (or just over an hour and a half) per day. Realistically, I practice about 45 minutes to an hour a day on weekdays, and I usually get at least one longer practice (or multiple shorter practices) in on one or both days of the weekend to bring the average up. CLASSICAL GOALS Chopin, F Minor Nocturne March Goal: Have entire piece by memory and performance-ready. I have about 90% of the piece by memory, but I still have some work to do before it's performance-ready. The only two sections that I don't quite have are "The Agitation" and the "stretto" section with the seventh chords. I'll work on both this week and will have them both memorized before the weekend. April Goal: Finish memorizing, and polish, polish, polish! My focus now is really on phrasing and dynamics. I have the notes down, even in the difficult passages. Fro...

The Amazing Practice Tracker 2.0: Leveling Up My Piano Game

(Apologies for the cheesy clip art. I needed to come up with something, or the Blogger template would show a fuzzy, overly-enlarged snippet of the first chart below.) When I showed my husband my piano practice tracker, he said I should market and sell it. Ha. It’s not for sale, but I’m excited to share how this tool has transformed my practice—and why it might inspire all three of my readers. Since my last post about the Amazing Practice Tracker, I’ve made it even better. Here’s a peek at how it works, using my June data. All The Pretty Colors, All the Pretty Winners My tracker now sparkles with color: darker shades for active pieces, lighter ones for maintenance, technique, and sight-reading. Each day, the piece I practice most gets a bright yellow highlight—a little “gold medal,” if you will. (Click image for a slightly larger view.) A leaderboard automatically shows the day’s top piece and time. And if that isn't enough, I keep track of the month's leaders--specifically, ho...

Picking Up the Pieces

Search This Blog