Week 2: First Impressions & Trouble Spots

Ok, so week one passed.

What’s done:

 - full recovery of the piece text wise and memory wise (well, with some obvious memory slips but that will improve). I haven’t touched it over one year. 

Technical problems:

- octaves in LH

- flow in LH, including voicing in the beginning (well and later on )

To do in Week two:

- technical issues from week one

- dynamics - it’s too flat

- find the “perfect” tone

My piano is a bit out of tune but it is how it is - I’ll try to find some better piano for the next recording. For now here comes the “out-of-the-blue-on-the-first-go” version . All the comments and pieces of advice are highly welcome

https://youtu.be/b5_Y-mDOyhY?feature=shared

https://youtu.be/BFLQTf3kY_w

I’ve been on vacation away from a piano, so I’ve been working on the piece entirely away from a piano. Yesterday, at a children’s play museum in Maine, there was a very-out-of-tune mini piano that I got to play. I didn’t have the score, and the bass F# that repeats was very flat (closer to F), so I had to transpose the bass line up an octave. It was an interesting exercise and I didn’t get very far before I started getting mixed up, haha.

I’ve been continuing to annotate the score (has my impressions etc also) and memorize progressions etc., which I’m not used to doing without adding muscle memory. I’m a bit scared of the middle, esp. the double trills (my LH trills are quite slow and if I let them “lead” it might sound unexciting), and occasional 6-over-4 fast bits, which tend to make me tense up…will be tricky to keep the stormy section together well.

Impromptu As moll op. 90 #4 . It has been a fun week learning the text and it seems going quite well. But I see a lot of risks in my practice already. With Schubert generally I have one major problem. His music kind of immediately finds the "hedonic spot" in my mind and once I get the notes I start binge-playing the piece until I practically ruin every bit of previous diligent work. At times, other composers can do that as well, but they are by far less addictive than this incredibly talkative, emotional and slightly self-loathing genius.

Alrighty - here's our first attempt at playing the 4-hands piece. I played only the A section since I'm not yet confident enough with the B section to play it with someone else, but Thurmond went ahead and played through the B section (since this is supremely easy for him). The plan is to increase tempo just a bit, but he will play around and have fun on the repeats. The primary challenge I'm having is how close we are, I'm not accustomed to needing to limit my sideways movement! I expect Thurmond's challenge is slowing down for me. 

https://youtu.be/qhd_LiBWcZs

As promised my progress on Schubert's waltz in b minor:

This is how it sounds after 2 weeks into practise :) I really like how it improves!

In week 2

- I gained more pedal control. I have made clear decisions on how and when to use both pedals, and am confident to apply it in part A. In part B I still forget about my left foot pedaling choices and still do it randomly, right foot feels good.

- Part A also feels good in phrasing, articulation and dynamics. I worked on the accented notes and will continue there, to make sure they aren't aggressively accented, but more an emphasis thought, and that the second note in the bar is not doing a crescendo and reveal that an accent is about to come too early.

- I worked on arm/wrist movement and will continue with that. But it's gotten a lot better/smoother. Also I feel more relaxed, pinky is not sticking up so much anymore

- already more secure in part B, especially the end! But there are some "troublespots": For whatever reason my instinct tells me to go to tonic instead of dominant chord in one spot, and I keep doing this regularly although it doesn't make any sense at all. Plus I tend to mix up or get confused by two similar turns. Also in part A there is a spot where muscle memory/sensation is not "save" yet, I feel insecure, and often mess up because my brain doesn't trust the fingering.

- memorizsation got a lot better, thinking gaps are shorter now and expecially in part A I need way less concentration now, which gives me liberty to shape the music.

- I changed some fingerings, because the given fingering tempts me into legato in spots where my hand should raise. So I decided to use a fingering that forces me to reposition my hand in the right moment.

To do for week 3:

- left foot pedaling details in part B

- focus on arm/body/wrist movement for the phrases/legato: work in phrases +1

- continue focussing on relaxation - get troublespots into muscle memory by repeating in short sections. Fix fingering insecurities there.

- continue securing memorizsation

- part B needs some attentive work on phrasing. As I memorized the piece, I don't look at the score anymore, and start getting sloppy with the phrasing, phrase it by intuition, which is not always what's written there. Same goes for part B dynamics. So in week 3 I will spend more focus on details!

- my forte part is too harsh, need to work on softer tone there.

- want to continue to focus on precise, clear, intense pianissimo tone as well. And I hope that my inner tempo will adjust better. If feels so much faster when I play it than when I listen back. I know I can play it faster than last week,  but this recording is same tempo as last week's video, so my inner speed is not adjusted. I think I should do more metronome work to check where I want to end. Decided for +/- 72 bpm, which is not much but slightly faster than the recording now. I think it's not the tempo itself, more the feel. There are stretches in the video where it feels right to me, for example in the repetition of part B, I note that I feel more secure there, and "let loose". Which is nice. This attitude throughout is what I aim for (as the average tempo, with rubato then applied)

Hi everyone, thanks for the very kind feedback from last week :)

This is the wk 2 update which includes a bit more of the piece (up to bar 40). 

Trouble spots for me are maintaining balance between the melodic line, bass and the bubbling accompaniment in the background. There are a few tricky passages around bars 27-31 where the harmonies are quite fleeting and difficult to bring them out cleanly.

My aim for next week is to run through the full piece and also start to memorise in parallel if I can.

Derek

Really busy this week working on the piece for my tonebase Fast Track mentorship and the piece I'm studying with my piano teacher, but today (Sunday) I finally carved out a couple of hours to write out the fingering for my chosen Schubert piece (Impromptu in A flat major Op. 142 No. 2). That way, I could at least make a first attempt at playing it through from beginning to end in slow tempo. I promised myself to do only one take and record it with all the mistakes that would occur; it's always good to have a baseline from which to improve.

So far, I've identified a few areas I want to work on in the next couple of weeks: 1.) Getting the piece into a more fluid tempo while making less mistakes; 2.) irrespective of the tempo, find a more flowing and graceful rhythm and avoid any plodding heaviness; 3.) identify spots of those typical Schubertian harmonic changes and surprises and bring out their "magic"; 4.) sing out and balance the different voices! 

My other important goal for next week is to catch up with listening to the recordings you all - my fellow participants - have submitted so far; I haven't had any time this week yet to do that, but I'm looking forward to it. 

https://vimeo.com/1099212928/9c85a5c89e?ts=0&share=copy