Mastering Tricky Passages and answering your questions!
Welcome everyone - Dominic is back to help you! Do you have questions about your playing, fingering, challenging passages, or musical hurdles you’re trying to overcome? Whether it’s a simple query or a complex issue, every question matters, and every solution makes a difference! Join us live today for real-time advice and solutions from Dominic Cheli—your guide to mastering music, one finger at a time!
Leave any and all questions below!
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I’m interested in hearing more about the benefits of Marc-André Hamelin’s Exercises for the Mind and Fingers, specifically the exercise of mirroring. Developing a musical mind is critical, and it appears that he uses the mirroring exercise (he refers to technique as mechanics) more to improve mechanics than to develop that musical mind. From my practice of mirroring, I find an improved awareness of intervals to be the greatest benefit (and so far, the only one).
He quotes Ganz as saying that, other than developing the left hand, mirroring is of considerable benefit.
Is there something more to mirroring?
PS: On page 10 of the workbook of this lesson, bar 4 of Bach’s Invention in C major, might the 4th last note in the bass be a Bb instead of a B#?
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Hi Dominic, I'm looking forward to another great session. I've learned a lot from each previous one.
My question for this one has to do with the climactic measures 26 and 27 of Rachmaninoff's Prelude in Bb Minor. (see attached PDF). There are a couple of places where I must reach down with my RH thumb to play the top notes in the LH chords, because my LH can't make the stretch, and because rolling the LH chords seems to weaken their impact. My question is, should I also do the same thing with each of the other chords in order to maintain a consistent hand shape for each parallel beat.
The two places in particular where I must reach down are the Gb Minor chords on beats 4 of each of measures 26 and 27. I play the top Bbb in the LH with the thumb of my RH. These are circled in red and labeled "RH" [with no question mark].
My question has to do with the down beats of each of the other chords - the Db7 and the Bb7 chords in each measure. These spots are also circled in red and labeled "RH?"on the attached PDF. I can reach the LH chords comfortably with my LH, but should I nonetheless play the top notes of each chord with my RH thumb in order to maintain a consistent hand shape accross all of these parallel passages? The consistent hand shape requires less thinking and adjustment from chord to chord, but then requires a bigger leap back up to the following 16th notes of the RH. Efficiency is at a premium here, since the tempo is fairly fast and the RH leaps are formidable. .
Actually my real question is: what would YOU do with this passage?! thanks!
