Week 2 Assignment

Kerstin Hi Kerstin! This looks great to me! I also appreciate your attention to the articulations and lifting the pedal when the repeated staccati occurs, which will help clarify the character. And also keeping the pedal within the same harmony works well for this Beethoven concerto. For moments when the pedal lasts longer, I would suggest to apply half-pedal, rather than all the way down, so the notes do not become too 'wet' sounding. Looking forward to hearing how it works out when you apply these markings!

Kerstin This sounds terrific, Kerstin! I love the color changes and attention to the articulation you are giving into this excerpt. And very well done with the pedal! You are indeed correct that each piano is different, and the way we pedal will often need to adjust depending on the room we play in as well--some rooms give more resonance than others. So what we have 'originally planned' could sometimes change even during the performance itself. It is a lot of experimenting even while having a mapped out plan, but that is the beauty of music! Bravo work to you!

Kerstin Hi Kerstin, Wonderful work with the Chopin! And your recording sounds great. This excerpt in particular has a lot of chromaticism, so it is a challenge indeed to apply the pedal in a way that we are able to hear those notes clearly while giving color enhancement. I just reviewed your pedal markings, and I can tell you are already paying attention to this. Bravo!

Just a few personal suggestions: the damper pedal can return at the last quarter beat of m. 124 (half pedal) so that we can hear that RH tied high C into m. 125. But of course, change the pedal at the downbeat of m. 125 since the LH harmony changes. And then for the remaining part in m. 125, the RH descending: that can be finger-pedaled with a relaxed arm/flatter finger touch. Another technique you can apply in this measure (m. 125 + and all similar sections that have more chromaticism) is flutter pedal. Of course, feel free to experiment many ways until your liking. I love your detail attention at m. 133-134 of the slurs. I would apply the damper at just the beginning of each of those sets (as you marked) to help enhance that unique phrasing. Hope this comes in helpful for some ideas. Excellent work!

Michelle R Wow this is a beautiful method of practice! Thank you so much for sharing. I loved it, Michelle! I often suggest students to sing while practicing because our natural voice is the 'goal' we want our piano playing to imitate-so that is fantastic that you added singing the RH while working on the pedal choreography with your LH. Naturally, your LH was also playing with a very natural sounding longer line because it followed along with the lyricism of your RH  singing. The pedal pacing also sounds great too! Bravo!

Michelle R Thank you so much for your kind words, Michelle! And thank you for sharing that book suggestion! I have heard about many great things about Joseph Banowetz, but did not know about this particular textbook, so that is very helpful for my own self too!

That is a terrific suggestion from your teacher about watching the dampers. I appreciate how you opened your piano to see what is physically going on. Indeed is very fascinating to see the science behind how the mechanics work, and understanding this takes us to a better level of timing the appropriate choreography and plan for our pedal technique. 

It makes me so happy to hear that this TWI has been helpful for you, and so wonderful to have you! I look forward to seeing your next video when you are able to share with us

Ellen Weaver Hi Ellen! The pedal plan looks great! I like your attention to the details of the melodic line and also releasing at the rests. I look forward to your video of applying this to the excerpt when you are able to record :)

Ambs Hi Ambs! Impressive work! This looks terrific to me. I like your detail attention to both the release and pressing-down of the pedal. At measure 16, smart idea to release the pedal so the turn embellishment of the RH is heard with clarity. Bravo to you! I am excited to hear how this works out when you physically add this altogether to your playing, and feel free to share any videos too

Ambs Hi Ambs, the pedal sounds great! I like the energy in measure 17, and it indeed is a character of 'frustration' that Chopin is expressing here. It would be more effective though if we can keep the moving eighth note accompaniment steady while expressing that 'frustration' character in volume with a fuller warmer tone. Those eighth note acts like a heartbeat to the music, so we ideally want to keep this steady.

Measure 16 prepares us for that climax measure (m. 17) through the crescendo marking, and the decrescendo marked at the end of m. 16 is just a slight decay in sound. The LH chromatic harmonies in measure 16 also foreshadows that dark resolution to measure 17 too.

Just couple suggestions: For the timing of the RH turn at measure 16: this can be a bit stretched out so it can lead more melodically into the high G. It is OK to take slight time there as long as we do not get in the way too much of the overall heart-beat pulse underneath. As a personal pedal suggestion in m. 16: you could maybe add one more pedal with the third chord, then release at the fourth chord (when the RH turn takes place). The rest is excellent.

Thank you for your hard work and sharing your progress!

Sheetal Patel Fantastic job, Sheetal! This sounds beautiful, and I am seeing much improvement with the flatter finger and relaxed movement technique! The application of the pedal sounds great. I totally understand this flatter finger and applying that relaxed arm motion technique may feel a bit foreign at first but you are already adjusting well into it  Bravo! Sending my cheers to your continuous practicing for this work!

Sheetal Patel My pleasure! That means a lot to me. Wish you all the best for your continuous music learning, and so happy to have you here at this TWI!

Sedef CANKOCAK Hi Sedef! Thank you so much for sharing this. Your pedal plan looks terrific to me. Very sensitively done! In this particular excerpt, the pedal-ing will be coming down just slightly after the 1st beat rather than right on it. The physical action of the pedal going down usually comes right after we press the note so that we can 'catch' it. We call this "legato pedaling" or "delayed pedaling" for the reason of how it is timed. However with that said, there are occasions in other piano repertoire (often in some romantic era works) when the pedal goes down before we even press the very first note, in order to 'open the strings' and start pieces with a more resonant rich sound atmosphere. I would not apply this particular pedal-ing for the Mozart, but it is a useful tool to know

Wonderful to hear you are starting with the LH only and pedal first. It is best to break it down and take it steps at a time to achieve more solidity in the practice. Bravo!