Chopin Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat Minor
I had been studying Brahms Op. 79 Rhapsodies rhapsodies for the last six weeks. I had been particularly happy with how it had come along. I tended to avoid his music because I had been told how awkward it could be. However, I actually found the work to fit really well under my hands and much less awkward than many Schubert pieces.
We were working mostly on my interoperation and I felt that I only need about another week to bring the Brahms to the level that I wanted. I usually like to have a week over so overlap between pieces so that I have enough material to bring to my teacher when starting a new piece. So after finishing my lesson, I asked my instructor what I should prepare next week.
His response: "Chopin Scherzo No. 2 in B-flat Minor". I mildly chuckled since I assumed he was joking. But just like Chopin's scherzo, this was no joke. After realizing he was serious I simultaneously became ecstatic and nervous all in the same instant. The scherzo is one of my bucket list pieces. While I hoped that I would one day be able to tackle some of them, I didn't think this day would happen so soon.
For some reason this seems like a huge step. There is something about learning a piece for which I specifically would go to a concert to see. I know that this is going to be a lot of hard work, but I am ready to put it. I feel like this is the start of me becoming a "real" pianist.
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This piece is either going to make me a pianist or kill me. Not sure which one yet :) It basically requires every technique that I have my toolkit with the added twist that they come right after each other. It's this rapid polarity switch that makes it is so fun to listen to but man does it make it hard to play. Plus the rhythm. Counting this is a beast. I have been alternating between very slow practice counting all three beats, to faster practice pretending it's in 4/1 and counting one "beat" per measure, for four measure. The second one is just to make sure I am feeling the bigger pulse which is clearly denoted in these four bar phrases.
I am going to take bit of break and come back again later tonight. I will try to get a recording of the sections (1) and (2) so as to capture my progress.
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Michael Good luck with this piece! I hope you're comfortable sharing your recording once you make it. I enjoy listening to your playing.
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Michelle R of course! And so glad that you enjoyed my playing. I took a little break from posting on here because my last community concert went so badly, but I feel ready to rejoin the community :)
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Michael I don't remember it going badly...but then again, I'm usually sitting in awe of the wonderful pianists who are here. I'm just finally able to get back to the piano after an ill-fated lesson left me with an injured finger. So, I've been away, too. Hopefully I'll start posting my renewed beginner's attempts soon.
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Michelle R I just attended an interesting seminar on the "Piano with Jonny" Jazz platform that I'm also a member of. SO many of us have injuries! Check out the Taubman approach here on Tonebase, Jarred Dunn has a great session and Robert Durso has lots.
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Gail Starr thanks, Gail. My injury came from my very first piano lesson in which I was given a technique which in hind-sight was rather ill-advised. The day after the lesson I woke to a swollen finger. After several months it finally healed enough for me to consider lessons again, with a different (and quite wonderful) teacher. But it is still sensitive to certain things - I think the term for what I have right now is traumatic arthritis. If I'm careful, I'm ok. I do like Robert Durso's videos, and Jarred certainly has quite the way about him.
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You are going to ACE this one, Michael! Approach it in "little marshmallow" bits, like Juan Carlos says. Enjoy every little bite!
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Gail Starr thank you for the vote of confidence! I totally agree that I need to just do this section by section and lots of detailed work to get the sound that really want. This is definitely a dream piece for me, I have wanted to play this since I was young and I really want to do it justice :)
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Michael We are totally in this boat together. I'm finally getting around to learning the Brahms Piano Quintet, which has been on my bucket list forever...I really feel like it is too difficult for my playing level, but my local amateur string quartet has been bugging me to learn it for 2 years...so I'm jumping in and hoping I don't disappoint them.
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As promised, I came back to the piano later this evening, and I recorded a decent amount of my practice session. I broke the session into 4 videos:
- Practice: Brahms' Rhapsody in G Minor, Op. 79 No 2
- Performance: Brahms' Rhapsody in G Minor, Op. 79 No 2
- Practice/Performance (@ 12:30 mark): Chopin Nocturne in B flat minor Op. 9 No 1
- Practice: Chopin Scherzo in B Flat minor, Op. 31 (sections 1 & 2)
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Michael I think you're doing really well with these pieces, Michael. I love the sound you're able to produce and the clarity (well, most of the time!). I'm glad I'm not the only one who sometimes vocalizes, "ahhh!" or chuckles when a mistake is made.
It's kind of fun to be a "fly on the wall." -
Michael Your Brahms is sounding great! I like the different "personalities" you give each section. It sounds like you've put a lot of time and thought into it.
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Michael And no apologies for using a metronome. It is something I should do more often!
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So it's been a rough few weeks work wise and I have barely been able to make it to the keyboard more than 2x a week (and my progress shows). But I figure I should post some updates from last time. I have had two lessons, where we have attempted (still need work) my sense of rhythm in this piece as well as tone. I am still struggling a lot as well with so of the faster d-flat passages. I actually found this kinda funny when I listed to this. I am worked up the tempo to about 67 bpm per dotter half note. I thought I was finally getting this piece to sound fast! And when listening it sounds still slow as a snail! Oh well! I will post sections 3 and 4 later this week after another practice session or two. I have been trying a lot of rhythm practice and other techniques to help smooth out the awkward crossing.
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I am alive (sort of anyway). I had to take about a month and half off due to a finger issue. I started developing trigger finger (it must be hereditary as my mom had it and wound up having to have surgery to get it fixed). I hope I have it under control for now but it's definitely something I need to be cautious of.
Anyway back to the scherzo. I was working on the middle section this evening and while recording one of my takes I spontaneously decided to play it though to the end.. I am starting to like my playing of some parts of the piece although I have a lot of work left to do before I could ever play it in front of anyone.
Still no where near up to tempo in the fast sections. Very sloppy in a bunch of places even at the slow tempo. I feel like I must have some inefficient hand placements or finger or something because I have no idea how people can play this as fast as they can.
I am hopeful with another month or two of practice I can bring it up to a decent level. This piece was a major stretch for me but I am glad that my teacher suggested it as I have learned so much.
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Michael It's great to see and hear you again! I had wondered where you disappeared to. Sorry to hear about your finger, and hope it remains under control. I enjoyed listening to your recording and think your playing sounds just lovely. Thanks for posting.
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Michelle R thank you so much for listening! I definately missed the community here as well. I got into a bit of funk when my thumb started to give me pain. It was annoying because I had another hand injury earlier in the year the stymied some things I wanted to do. However, I am hopeful that I have it under control. It seems to be hereditary as my mom wound up developing it in both of here hands and then had to get surgery to fix it. She tried PT and shots but that was only temporary and it kept on coming back. I am trying to be more cognizant of when I have any pain though so as to hopefully delay necessitating anything as extreme as a surgery.
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Okay so I don't know what was going on this evening but the runs in the first section were just flying like butter. Of course when I went to catch them on video they were not as good, but still way better than usual! Hopefully this sticks :)
