Week 1 - Scales, arpeggios, chords and trills!
This week, we’re diving into four essential areas of piano technique: scales, arpeggios, chords, and trills.
In the video, Piotr will guide you through each of these, sharing tips on how to approach them with ease and musicality. We'll also look at specific examples from the repertoire to ground the technique in real music.
Your task: For each element, find at least one example from a piece you know, have played in the past, or are curious to learn. The goal is to apply the technical concepts to music that already feels familiar or accessible.
Write down below any questions, or submit your video excerpts so that Piotr and help you further!
Here are the examples Piotr will show in the video:
Scales: Beethoven Sonata in E major, Op. 14 No. 1, mm. 91–93 (left hand running scales)
Arpeggios: Mozart Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, 3rd movement, mm. 67-69 (shaping and transitions between hands)
Chords: Chopin Fantasy in F minor, middle section (voicing, shaping the outer lines)
Trills: Scarlatti Sonata in D minor K. 9 (light, elegant trills that fit the character of the phrase)
After watching the video, spend time exploring where similar techniques show up in your own repertoire. Practice them with the ideas we covered, and focus on sound, ease, and expression.
Let this week be about connecting technique with real music.
Have fun and let me know what you discover!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHVRVs4OTcA
94 replies
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Hi everyone, I am working on Beethoven’s piano concerto No. 3 first movement. This is the first piano concerto that I have ever practiced. It has all the technique elements discussed in this lesson. There are a few Beethoven’s signature scales, for example, in mm 225-227. There are also parallel scales at the octave or at other intervals that I found quite challenging. The cadenza has the most amazing arpeggios and chord progressions. The double and triple trills at the end of the cadenza are difficult to figure out. I hope to have some guidance as to how to approach these measures. I am attaching pictures of the problematic sections. Thank you, Piotr
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Hi and everyone. Thank you for the invitation to TWI. I will read, watch and learn from videos and discussions.
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There is no CC. On full screen can you able to fix this problem? Thank you.
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First day for me today, & I concentrated on chords as I've had a long day at work & feel too tired to do all aspects! I've been looking at Chopin Preludes 6 & 7, & Dvorak Slavonic Dances (Op 72 no 2). My music theory is so rusty, & although I could identify the obvious I, IV, V etc, there are so many chords in these pieces that leave me scratching my head completely befuddled, unable to identifythem! I guess the main thing is to listen & work out voicing & phrasing, but must admit I feel a bit discouraged by how much I'm not understanding!
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I spent some time working on the sixth Liszt Paganini Etude some months ago and had a substantial amount of trouble with the sixth variation, specifically in measures 128-129. I've set this piece aside for a bit recently, but would love to come back to it with new ideas.
I find that landing the chords from the octaves is very difficult to get accurate.
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Hello
Been back to piano after a long hiatus. I’m not sure about these:
Beethoven op 14 no 1 Rondo has scalar and I think enough arpeggios (or broken cords?)
Chopin Nocturne op 72 no 1 for chords, trills and scalar of different type.
Thoughts? Thanks
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Thank you Piotr for the wonderful class and to Tonebase for offering this. I am working on Sarabande HWV 437 by Handel. I am excited as I can apply the lessons here on my piece. When I did the Hanon for the Technique, I followed your advice to lightly hit the keys and it worked better. My fingers and hands are not strained as it used to be.
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Hello everyone, I'm practicing my chords on Sibelius's Valse triste. Playing the top and bottom notes only to start with and then adding in the other voices clarifies things tremendously from measure 155 to 162. I'm still trying to voice the tenors (G in measure 19 and A flat in measure 35) properly but cannot nail it every time yet. Bach's Goldberg variation No.1 for scales and arpeggios and trills in Scarlatti's Sonate K.1 (practicing them as triplets gives an interesting perspective which helps me pay attention to each note). Thank you very much for the tips, Piotr!
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I've just begun learning Scarlatti's Aria in d minor (L423, K32) and will soon be learning Bach's Little Prelude in C major (BWV 939). I think I'll take my examples from these pieces. Will this work for the TWI?
Scales: Bach
Arpeggios: Bach
Chords: Both
Trills: Both
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I am currently working on Bach's Italian Concerto 1st movement - lots of scales, which I think is not usual for Bach? And of course trills and ornaments.
But another piece I am working on is Barber's Pas de Deux, which ends with this scale passage in 2 hands. Any advice for tackling this? It is not a major or minor scale pattern, and the hands are separated by a 4th.
Thanks!
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Hi Sam, Bach is a great selection, love the Italian Concerto!
As for the Barber, yes, you are right, it is neither a major nor minor scale pattern, however, let's try to analyze it. It seems the closest to harmonic minor with a raised 4 (E-F#-G-A#-B-C-D#). This will help you understand the pattern and notice it. The only thing is that the C natural in the RH disappears at the very beginning and very end of the passage, which is so confusing haha.
Then, let's think of fingering. I found this would be the simplest approach for me (see below). Another thing, it is quite soft and not extremely fast. There is also a diminuendo at the end, so keep it calm and getting softer. No rush, with one long pedal until the end.
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what a strange little passage that is from Barber. It looks like he's thumbing his nose at some harmony teacher who may have corrected his parallel 4ths in college..
FWIW I'm seeing it as an E minor arpeggio, with half step approaches to each chord tone, but then with the b6 mediant (i.e. the c) added to prevent resolution to the tonic until the end. The implied c chord harmony (unclear whether it would be major or minor) is emphasized by the parallel perfect fourths, followed by parallel perfect fourths to the tonic note (when it's on top). The concluding unambiguous resolution to the tonic via parallel 4ths omits the preceding parallel 4ths to the c tonality, perhaps to emphasize it as a final cadence. Sounds complicated explaining it that way, but thinking of it that way would help me to memorize it!
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That's an interesting take on it Peter. What I think he has done is make up a scale with the leading tones for all the keys he visited through the piece. e minor, G, b minor, c minor. So you have d#, f#, a#, b natural. And you have to include the c natural, since he spent some time in that key. So it is a rehash of everything he touched on.
Look at his Nocturne if you really want a theory headache. The RH is atonal - 12 tone serial - just start listing the pitches in the RH and it doesn't repeat a pitch until he covers all 12. The next 12 are the first 12 in retrograde. The LH is tonal - looks like Ab. Yet he makes it work.
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Thanks for the fingering Peter - that is going to help a lot. I played it for friends a couple of months ago, and when I got to that scale, I just played the RH. Since nobody knew the piece, nobody noticed!
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Sam, that is SO interesting. I never would have picked up on that, but I wouldn't be surprised if that is exactly what he was doing with this passage!
I've never really studied or learned anything by Barber, but whatever I've heard of his does seem to pull towards a tonal center, despite these wild departures from textbook harmony. I hope we get to hear you play this piece someday soon!
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haha, that's certainly one of the possible solutions... I love the Nocturne, I performed it a lot last year. Quite advance harmonically and yet, so beautifully melodically.
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Piotr, managed to learn this two-handed! Using your LH fingering, and a slightly modified RH. Thanks!
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Back home on monday. I’ve watched the video
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Hi Piotr - thanks for giving this TWI. I'm afraid I have overcommitted myself time-wise and will not be able to actively participate in this TWI. I will follow along with the videos and look forward to participating in a later TWI. Thanks again.
