Group 2

Jenny great question!

Did you learn the piece hands separate? 

It is SO important to incorporate ALL of these difficult things right from the start. You should only play hands separate for a few minutes to get fingering.. but after that, EVERY aspect (dynamics, phrasing, articulation, etc) all need to be incorporated from the beginning of learning.

The key to this is to:

1. do all the mental work up front.... have your fingering, phrasing, articulation, style everything mentally absorbed before you start trying to use your fingers.

2. work in VERY small chunks.... like half a measure at a time! Go small enough that you CAN do everything you planned mentally all at once. Then, move to combining those half measures to do a measure at a time...... then two measures. 

This is a very unpopular way to practice because 1. it's HARD 2. it's not very rewarding up front because you don't hear the music and it feels like you aren't getting very far. 

If you buy into this process, however, you will learn a piece in half the time... and not have to go back and correct poor habits or redo technique to accommodate elements you left out before. 

Thank you Leann i am going to try this as i was always taught to do hand separately first and i do find i take too long to learn a piece. When you say to do everything up front correctly, is that also going at the full tempo?

Dr. Leann Osterkamp He Thank you for this insight, I can see that it will help enormously!

Michelle Webb good question. It is ok to start at a slower tempo BUT work in small enough segments that you can play tiny segments up to tempo from the beginning. For example, I would want to try out a measure at full tempo early on to make sure my fingering is actually the BEST option for full tempo. It would be frustrating to learn the piece well slowly, only to realize that many of the techniques do not function well at full tempo. You don't need to play large sections at full tempo up front (impossible) but be able to "try out" bites here and there at tempo. 

Astrida yes, read Jenny's note.... do NOT practice separately. It may feel helpful at the time but when you go to put hands together.... POOF it falls apart. We've all been there!

It sounds like you are doing an upward lifting motion on non-legato parts. when we pull off the keys, it tenses our muscles and causes that stiffness and maxes out our tempo at a very slow tempo. The drop, stay, move is the key!

Dr. Leann Osterkamp He 

Thank you very much!

Adding a recording. Thanks to the new DMS consciousness :) I’m in a much better place now than I was a week before, however, I’m not quite sure what I’m doing there. While playing I thought this was the best shot for the technique. Rewatching does not give me such certainty. It might be subjective, I also don’t think I hear much difference between my legatos and non-legatos. 
It will take time to assimilate the approach, but I would very much appreciate your feedback on this. Thank you! 
 

https://youtu.be/Arn1mHzanic?si=qvEkbSEI59H55hLo

Astrida a few things!

1. legato/nonlegato is articulation.. we would need to do a whole separate TWI on that :)

2. you are definitely getting the hang of this!

3. I see a lot of fingerings that are not optimal... a lot of times your fingering is keeping your from having control over the tempo and sound. 

4. There are a few times that your STAY is not relaxed and you are freezing. That is the most consistent issue.

5. When we drop weight, our thumb must ALWAYS move downwards in a motion towards our torso. There are many times that you are trying to play your thumb by moving inwards towards the fallboard. That is not allowing you to actually drop your weight. 

6. Your chords are the place that the Drop Stay Move falls apart most frequently. You are often using effort to lift upwards after larger chords. Think about your hand like a jellyfish... after dropping on a chord, your hand should be relaxed and then it is as if your are just moving a dead jellyfish to the next thing. 

Dr. Leann Osterkamp He 

Thank you very much!

A lot of patience expected in the future. 

Regarding fingering, I’m using Perahia’ s edition. Will check now, how consistently I’m adhering to his finger markings, but my idea was to rely on some “set” fingering, in order to avoid fluency hurdles. Can you suggest another edition? 

Thanks a lot again!

Astrida I could give a whole series on fingering.

It is often impossible to just rely on one editor's fingering (no matter the fame associated with the name)... why? Everyone's hands are different. 

I am against ever suggesting "pre-done" fingerings.... with my own students I often start by providing personalized fingering in parallel to having fingering lessons, so that they learn how to create fingering for their own hands.

There are a LOT of bad suggestions in editions out there. If you pop by the office hours I can try and give you a taste of some methods.... or ask Dominic about me doing a course in fingering :) 

Dr. Leann Osterkamp He 

Thank you! And yes, it would be very useful to have TWI-s on articulation, phrasing and fingering. I would clearly benefit.

Stephanie So glad your wrist is starting to feel better!

Gail Starr Thank you!!

Adena good job! on a couple of your "practice drops" I'm still seeing you "control" the arm at the very last second before hitting the key, which essentially stops the drop. Just keep working towards that consistency :) Work in very small chunks, even just a couple notes at a time to get the feel... it will be easier to do phrases if you are already in the zone from working on just a couple of notes. 

Hazel yes, I think all of your observations are correct! Any time you have longer note durations you are tending to press and/or freeze.

In terms of helping the structure of the piece, I think there are also some issues with fingering/directional movement/ and tempi that could help. Most noticeably, there are many sections in which you rush the tempo, which makes it almost impossible to phrase correctly and make the musical structure cohesive. Hope this helps! 

Aaron nice work! There are two things that can make an immediate difference in expressiveness: 

1. You are swaying your torso in and out quite frequently. When you move outward away from the piano, it is causing your balance and arm weight to move away from the instrument, which creates and inconsistency of tone, control, and dynamics.

2. You are tending to freeze and/or press on several longer note durations. Focusing on the relaxed stay instead of the pressing will help a lot with dynamic control! 

Dr. Leann Osterkamp He 

Dear Dr. Leann,

Thank you for highlighting these. No one has told me these things. It makes sense and I’ll try to take these into consideration when I practise. Thanks again and Happy Easter!

Best wishes,

Aaron