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
17 replies
-
Hi everyone! Welcome to TWI :)
I’m looking forward to seeing what kinds of examples you can find. Share some excerpts from pieces you’ve played before or are working on now, old or new. Let’s make these two weeks a great mix of focused work and fun!
-
Excited to take part! Just now watching the first video!
-
What a fantastic idea! Thank you for this video and I practice just I’ll come back home…but my thumb is very crazy…doesen’t want to relax properly and gets in my way in the scales….😫😫
-
THIS! I feel like I should fire my teacher. Demanding “don’t call me til you have all the scales in your hands”. Granted, it’s taken a while. But has he once shown me anything but rote fingerings???
-
Thanks so much for your presentation Piotr. Such a great idea! For the scale element I’ll try and apply it to Chopin Prelude 24😵💫
-
Awesome instruction, Piotr. Thank you. I love this "intensive" approach.
-
Thanks for this. I've made notes for tomorrow's practice. I suspect I'll find plenty of arpeggios, scales & trills in my Bach Little Preludes, whilst I'll probably use the Chopin Preludes I'm studying for chords. Or should I add another composer into the mix - perhaps Mozart for the trill?
-
I have been working on Beethoven's Sonata in C Minor Op. 14 (Pathetique). I feel like I can apply many of the elements of your instruction to this piece. The opening (Grave) of the first movement is great for working on chords as is the reprise of the Grave at measure 135, as well as the Grave section at the end starting at bar 297. There are also 3 passages with trills in the first movement (starting at measure 51 and with its reprise at measure 223, as well as the passage from bars 175-188). The adagio movement has some nice chord passages throughout. The Rondo movement provides some nice arpeggios in the theme. This movement also has many scale passages (i.e. mm 12-16, mm 36-37, mm 59-60, mm 72-76, mm 97-105, mm 116-118, mm 197-201 and mm 207-209).
-
Hi everyone! I worked on the C natural minor scale today and a passage from Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata Op 13 Mvt 3. I am also on Day 5 of recording my own practice for 30 minutes. Applying Piotr's method went pretty well. I think I can rewatch the video again to better apply the methods.
One question: I noticed that the fingering for Beethoven's Pathétique (Schirmer's edition) is completely different from Hannon's scale because Beethoven starts and ends at different places. Is there a point in practicing the scale and the passage together in this case?