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

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Picking Up the Pieces: A Piano Practice Journal

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