Week 2 Assignment
Assignment Week 2:
Video Link:
Do one more round of no pedal-practice, using the same repertoire from Week 1.
Review your mental mind map and/or written pedal-markings on the score. Now apply them to practice.
Give a 'rhythm" to your foot pedal-ing (watch video for details), so we are changing and balancing the pedal at an appropriate pace. If it is challenging to put everything together at once, start with practicing just the LH only and pedal. Then take it step by step.
You are welcome to upload recordings of your progress! Even if you do not share any recordings on this platform, I encourage you to record for yourself the "before and after" of pedal practice for your personal studies. Experiment also applying this same practice techbique to the other pedals (una corda and sostenuto) if your repertoire requires it.
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Hi Eloise! Here's where I am in the Schubert minuet so far. I'm trying to make the right hand stand out a little better in the trio section, although I'm sometimes unsure about how to handle a singing melody in pp situations. When playing quietly my left hand tends to overpower the right, and I feel like I need to play the right hand at least mf to get that nice cantabile sustain, but then, it feels like I'm ignoring the pp.
The minuet theme repeats a lot, so I'm experimenting with playing each one a little differently--varying pedaling and dynamics, mainly, in this video. I want to play around more with voicing and left pedal also when I get the time
I will experiment more with pedaling in rhythm. My default is just to do it by ear, listening for the atmosphere/connectedness I'm trying to achieve (or avoid).
There are some hesitations and I'd like to make it all a smidge faster. Any feedback would be well appreciated. Thank you!
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Marc M Hi Marc! Thank you so much for sharing your video and notes! This sounds beautiful, and the tone you achieve is very fitting with this Schubert. You give a sensitive attention to the details of the score too. And the dynamic differences and shaping are portrayed very naturally. Yes, to answer your question about the "pp" in the trio, I do agree that it should still maintain a singing line; therefore, we actually should not take that "pp" dynamic 'too' literally. Maintaining a deeper touch there so we still have a 'substance' the tone is very important--and you do that. As an experiment though, you could also try applying the soft pedal at the beginning of the trio section, while maintaining the same deep singing touch in the fingers physically. This might not work for every piano/every room, so it is best to also follow your instincts and listen very sensitively to the whole space.
I just have a couple suggestions that I hope comes in helpful for your next application in your practicing
:Physical motion: The balance you maintain sounds terrific. I think we can apply a more relaxed arm motion though to help the singing melody have more lyricism and natural breathing in between the phrases. This arm motion can be applied in the longer note values (when you have dotted half notes or longer tied notes in the melody). At the very opening, the right and left arm can move outwards in contrary motion. I like to give an analogy with swimming: as if we are in pre-"butterfly" stroke mode. But just like when we push our arms underneath water: the speed should not rapid, but applied with breath control--hope this makes sense, haha. It is also important to make sure that the touch we maintain in the fingers are still deep without tension. This arm motion can also be applied the trio section when the RH hand reaches for the higher register: B-E-G# (m. 41-42) and F#-C#-E (m. 45-46) phrases: the arm can help navigate in the direction of the notes so it helps for a more singing quality. Feeling the shoulder, arm, hand as one 'bone' is a good way to think in piano playing.
Pedal: Your pedal application sounds great in this recording! I like everything you are doing. As a personal suggestion, in m. 47 and m. 56: rather than changing each quarter beat, it could also work to add pedal just at the first downbeat and letting go of the pedal in the remaining measure so the RH melody can sing out the scalar eighth notes cleanly, and the LH quarters just pulsing close to the keys. However, with that said, if you are performing this in a 'dry' space, I would just stick with the pedal that you are already doing.
Hope these suggestions help, and thank you again for all your dedicated work! All the best to this Schubert--he is certainly one of my favorite composers!
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Here are the opening bars to Beethoven Sonata Op 90, 2nd movement with my pedaling plan. I ended up changing a couple of the fingerings so that my RH fingers/hand and arm are more aligned and I’m not twisting my wrist to maintain the legato line. I added a pedal at the end on the cadence.
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Ellen Weaver Hi Ellen, thank you for sharing your video! Your pedal application sounds terrific. It adds a nice color while still maintaining that classical era sound. Bravo. I like how you are paying attention to the alignment of the arm, which is very important, and I also know takes a lot of getting used to. The balance sounds great too between the melody and accompaniment.
As a small suggestion for the RH: it will help for the hands to stay a bit more physically closer to the keys while applying the relaxed arm movement. You maintained this very well at the beginning of the excerpt. When you get into the octaves, which is very tricky for that section to connect lyrically: it might help to play with a slightly lower wrist, and lifting in between each octave just slightly less above from the key. That way, the hand is moving more laterally and maintains the open hand position. Applying more weight to the top of the octave can also naturally assist with this positioning. But of course most importantly: we should make sure there is no feeling of tension.
Your tone sounds beautiful, and I am so happy you are applying this exercise to this Beethoven movement. Great work!
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