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 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.
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Of course! You can try covering even a short sections or pick one piece that relates to any of the 4 topics I mentioned :)
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My repertoire is quite limited and anything I can play with a bit of musicality tends to suffer with recording/performing. In addition, none of my examples here are played at tempo.
For scales and trills, I chose Bach Invention No. 4 in D Minor. I am not quite sure how to apply your practice technique for scales here. My trill is particularly heavy handed, but I think that is largely nerves: https://youtube.com/shorts/pGp1V0npBWQ?feature=share
For arpeggios, I chose Chopin Waltz in A Minor (Posthumous): https://youtube.com/shorts/cNn00mEtFB4?feature=share
For voicing chords, I chose Debussy The Little Shepherd mm 24-25. For each measure, I would voice the RH top notes for the first half measure and then the RH bottom notes for the second half.
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here is section from Little Shepherd
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I think my repertoire options are even more limited than yours! We work with what we can, knowing that any work we do here will help us in the future.
One thing I did to help me with any difficulties I experienced with recording was to have my laptop on the side with the camera "open" but not actually recording. I used it as a mirror, to watch myself and help me become accustomed to being recorded (or being watched!!).
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Thanks Michelle - I'll give it a try.
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And if it helps any, my teacher (who is quite experienced as a performer as well) has said that he always got nervous when he recorded. We're working on using/embracing the nervous energy and learning to use it in performance.
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Exactly!
In Bach, try practicing relatively fast in groups that stay within one hand position, then move on to the next position, and afterward focus on the transitions. Not sure if that makes full sense written down, but the idea is very similar to what I mentioned in the video, only here the sections are more irregular, adjusted to the fingering in the Invention.
For the trill, try practicing it in triplets: give a strong impulse on every third note, and then keep the others light.
In the arpeggios, focus on the transitions between positions and aim for a smoother legato connection.
In The Little Shepherd, I would pay special attention to all the voices, especially that major 7th in the right hand (C#–B#) and the middle voice on the third beat (E#–F##–D#).
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Thank you.
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Hi Piotr, I would appreciate any suggestions for improvement. Thanks for offering this skills bootcamp.
Scale practice - I am learning the Rachmaninov Etude Tableau Op 33 in g minor. This g minor scale comes at the end of the piece. I practiced using your tips and also with my eyes closed. I would like to increase the tempo.
https://youtu.be/XTs_Ibynid4?si=PZOV6m8FIwzNc97V
Chord practice - I’m learning the Ravel Menuet from Le Tambeau de Couperin. These are small chords, but I would like to make sure I’m bringing out the melody.
https://youtu.be/GSiVntjlQbw?si=LitA8p3WdslSQWfT
And this is a Brahms Intermezzo I learned last year. More dense and octave chords. I think the special part to bring out is the syncopated harmonies.
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Thank you for this great intensive.
Here are some examples of pieces containing the technical concepts we're working on. (Uploaded the links instead of the files that I previously uploaded.)
Scales: Mozart 12 variation on Ah, vou dirai-je maman, Var. VII (C major). I haven't played this in a while but thought this was a great chance to work on musically playing the C major scale. Here's a video excerpt. In general, I have a harder time with tension and agility with descending scales and am not entirely sure what the issue is and how to specifically practice effectively. Any advice would be greatly appreciated on how to work on descending scales.
https://youtube.com/shorts/d66dX4vijXA?feature=share
Arpeggios: I haven't really worked on pieces with lots of arpeggios (or, at least, I can't remember any for now). I was wondering if Debussy's Arabesque No. 1 Left Hand (Bars 6-12) would be examples of arpeggios. But it seems like these aren't quite the typical arpeggios. I often have trouble with the portion boxed in red and making smooth transitions.
Chords: I'm currently working on Bach WTC I, D major fugue. The last section (Bars 22-25) has chords, and it was helpful to think about making sure the top notes were highlighted as I play.
https://youtube.com/shorts/u8j5puQB1oY?feature=share
Trills: Bach WTC I, B flat maj. prelude has trills. I'll apply your practice suggestions on this. One question I had was if you had suggestions on how to practice short trills. For example, in Mozart's 12 variation, Var. III, there are short trills throughout. And I have trouble playing them with crispness and lightness. They sound heavy and clumsy.
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I studied Liebestraum no 3 in A B major by Liszt
I’m still struggling with cadenzas bars 24 -26 and bars 60-61 .
I would like to improve the flow of the tone as well would you suggest better fingers for the both hands.-
Your recording looks pretty good, it's just the beginning.... Was the original fingering not doable? I find it quite interesting.
I would practice the transitions by grouping it across, for example going from the lower double note, not the higher one, and focusing on connecting legato and finding ease. For instance, start with Eb–G to Ab–Db, then another pair G–Bb to Db–Fb, and so on.
You might also try thinking in triplets, using little anchors every three notes: starting Eb–G, then Db–Fb, then Eb–G again, etc. Maybe that will help.
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Good afternoon Piotr,
sorry I don’t understand. My question was about the two cadenzas. I studied many years ago but wasn’t able to play it completely because of these 2 cadenzas ( I practiced it many times, but I was not happy with the result). Hopefully with your help, I can make it better.😊
Back to your comment,
If I am understanding it correctly, you are talking about the 2nd cadenza, LH practice as a double 3rd?
And then practice in group of 3 notes?
On another note I found a Schirmer’s edition and it showed different fingers for the second cadenza. I won’t mind to use if you think it would work better. -
Hi Gloria! I was mostly referring to the recording you attached, so the m. 25 "quasi cadenza." I was also mentioning the right hand double notes in those measures, I marked the score so you can see what I am talking about: red-grouping it across; green-triplets. I think it is ok to stick to the fingering you've already learnt.
What seems to be the issue in m. 59-60? Always start slow, look for anchors, places you are certain of, try to organize the section in your head so it makes logical sense and look for patters. You could also practice this in chromatic double thirds (see another marked score), and arpeggios as chords so your fingers, ears, and brain learn harmony first before playing it as written.
I really like the hand redistribution in your edition.
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thank you very much for your awesome help. I am practicing now and the 2 weeks video is helping a lot for these cadenza too.😊
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Thanks so much Piotr. Your presentation was very helpful and very timely because I just got back from a chamber music program and feel like I need to focus on some of these technical areas to have more facility, learn music faster, and reduce my overall stress about performance (the festival mixes adult amateurs like me, students, pre-professional and faculty in groups so I had very strong groups this year)!
I had a trouble with the arpeggio section of Schubert's E-flat trio in the Andante movement (partially because of the jumps too) to make sure that section was flowing so any pointers on how to practice that would be helpful (and I haven't tried what you mentioned yet, but will this weekend!). I did wind up dropping a couple of notes in the lh because of the jump which I don't like to do but I didn't want to lose tempo. (two on way up and one on way down).
Also, in the Faure c minor quartet, I had trouble with the chords in measure 22 - playing forte while still getting a warm sound (not sounding like I'm crashing into them).
Here is our performance of the Faure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY_RZ270j9k (1 min 50 seconds and also landing on the top chord cleanly in measure 14 at 1 min 37 seconds). It wasn't horrible but I spent A LOT of time practicing these sections and I'm sure I could have been more efficient.
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Hi Piotr, Here are two short sections of arpeggio and trill practice.
Arpeggios - These are the opening bars to Scarlatti Sonata K531. I worked on this a while ago and then got discouraged because I had a hard time increasing the tempo. I found that anchoring the descending arpeggio with my thumb worked best for me.
https://youtu.be/kf_nQO5bzEM?si=5vdiGMxNtz7kMmo2
Trills - I have been working on Mozart K330 for over a year on and off. Again, tempo seems to be the issue. My experience with trills is that I need to raise my hand a bit and get some air time right before the trill. Otherwise I get stuck in the keys. Any advice?
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Here's a short snippet of the scale passage in the Little Prelude (Bach BWV 939) which I'll be learning in the next month or so. After watchng the recording, I think I need to work on keeping the wrist more level.
I'll post some other recordings soon - we've had our local Chamber Music Festival (with Jon Kimura Parker) over the past two weeks, and I'm the Festival patissiere so I've been busy cooking! Today is the final performance, so I now have more time to practice.
