Mastering Tricky Passages and answering your questions!
Welcome, everyone.
If you’ve been sitting with questions about your playing, fingering, tricky passages, or musical roadblocks you haven’t quite cracked yet, this is a great moment to bring them out.
Whether it’s something small that’s been nagging you or a bigger challenge you’re ready to work through, every question is worth asking. Join us live today for real-time guidance and problem-solving!
Leave any and all questions below!
50 replies
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MORE ON THE MIDDLE PEDAL!
Hello everyone, including ,
To all those interested in the “Middle Pedal” discussion during the Apil 22 “Tricky Passages” LiveStream, I have posted an audio-only recording of myself using the Middle Pedal in the Rachmaninoff E Major Prelude, as performed in a student recital given on May 19, 2000 as part of a Continuing Ed “Piano Performance Seminar” at New England Conservatory. I’ve re-uploaded the score so you can follow along...(page 2 of the PDF.)
The section featuring the Middle Pedal starts at 2:20. There you will hear a complete descending E Major Scale, played legato, starting with the E above Middle C, right in the middle of the piano, while both hands are also flying around to other registers, making it impossible to hold the E major scale notes and play the others at the same time. . I addressed this by grabbing the scale notes with the Middle Pedal as soon as I could without interference from the surrounding notes. I thereby managed to play the scale legato and the surrounding notes staccato (on purpose, I might add!).
The scale begins on the first measure of the next to the last staff. Some of the notes I could hold, but others I needed the pedal for, and those are circled in red
I dug this out of an old box of tapes in my basement, and was surprised to hear that I seemed to have pulled it off. There is a generous allotment of mistakes elsewhere but not in that section. So you will be able to hear why I was so interested in cultivating this technique.
The recording is made on a CASSETTE, copying off a Digital Audio Tape (DAT), using a quickly cobbled together inexpensive stereo microphone set up. No video of course. (pocket size movie cameras weren’t invented in those days!)
I took this seminar 8 times during a 4 year span from 1997-2000, and managed to stagger through all 24 Rachmaninoff Preludes, generally 4 per semester, in recitals like this. Somewhere I have cobbled together a single cassette featuring all of the Preludes, which I may post some day if I have sufficient temerity.
My present day goal is to re-do and polish all of these pieces, now that I have a nice piano of my own and advanced recording technology, all in my own home!
I have taken the liberty of cc’ing: Noel, Doug and Dominic himself, as they all offered thoughts and suggestions, I hope that others will find it interesting also.
Hope you enjoy it!
Peter Golemme
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UPDATE: My timetable was pushed back by 2 hours so I WILL be able to join today. see you all there.
Regretfully I can't make this session as I'll be loading my equipment into the car for an evening gig with my rock and roll band! I'll check out the recorded version afterwards, but will miss the fun of participating in the chat. -
I’m working on Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, Op 75, III. Menuet. In the last section I’m not sure whether to play the grace notes in the RH before or on the beat. Also, if you could provide suggestions on when to use the damper pedal, that would be great.
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Hello Dominic,
can you help me choose better fingering for small hands ( myself, I can reach C-E(10) ) for Widmung by Schumann
I circled in red where I am having problems to choose the fingering and how to play legato? I think it plays slightly shorter the chord but play evenly?
also mm36 LH 2&3rd beat how to play them?
the most challenge in this piece is choose the good fingering to play legato.
thank you for your help. -
Hi Dominic,
You’ve previously provided some great advice on a section of the Rachmaninoff Bb Minor Prelude. Here are a couple of other parts that I have questions about.
The primary motif of this piece is a Siciliano rhythm of eighth note triplets, consisting of a dotted 8th note – 16th note – 8th note. Sometimes the dot is replaced by a 16th rest.
My question has to do with this: Sometimes that first 8th note is marked staccato on the top with a held harmony note below, and sometimes it is not staccatto – often in parallel places within the same section. Do people tend to play these notes staccato or is this some convention of the Russian School that means strike them more brightly while holding the pedal (or something like that)?
The notation seems quite deliberate and so I’m trying to learn it that way, playing the top note staccato while holding the bottom notes, and then trying to jump in with the pedal when the hand has to leave the held notes to reach the next 16th.
At times like this, I ask myself: “what would Dominic do here?”
I’ve attached a copies of pages 2, 4 and 5 of the Prelude, which exhibit these markings. The non-staccato 8th notes are circled in GREEN, and the parallel Staccato 8th notes are circled in RED.
Thank you.
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Hi Dominic! I'm having fun playing around with Liszt's Eroica Etude. How do you get comfortable with sections like these, where the right hand plays arpeggios with 19 notes over 3 beats while the left hand marches along?
Additionally, this RH arpeggio is very awkward to me, and I'm not sure what fingering to use. Any advice would be appreciated!
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How do you tell the difference between harmonic,natural , melodic ,and relative minor?
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Hi Dominic,
I have more (relatively non-specific) questions regarding the Wandererfantasie:
1. Do you have any advice on the fast right hand jumps between arpeggios/runs and the G-Bb-C#-G chord in measures 31-32 and 37-38?
2. I find the LH arpeggios and chord-arpeggio transitions/jumps measures 134 and 136 awkward and frequently play wrong notes. I am not sure what my specific problem is but I would appreciate any advice!
3. Also relatively non-specific:
I also find the LH part of measures 155-161 awkward, but especially the jumps in the highlighted measures (160 and 161). I would definitely appreciate advice!
Semi-related:
My teacher sometimes says I seem tense when I try to play legato octaves. I can reach an octave easily with 1-4, but less easily with 1-5, so I do find legato octave fingerings difficult. She has proposed that it is a flexibility issue and I need to stretch; however, I actually have hypermobility and can easily stretch my 3rd, 4th, and 5th fingers to form a straight line with my thumb, so I don't think it is a flexibility issue. I think it because of the fact that due to my small hands, I cannot easily switch between 1-3, 1-4, and 1-5 in octave passages.
I am aware that that is not a specific question, but if you have advice related in any way (regarding tension, small hands, legato octaves, etc), it would also definitely be helpful!
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Also, is pedalling for measures 113-132 overuse of the pedal? I don't think it is possible for me to play the RH part of measures 117-132 legato without at least half-pedaling/flutter pedaling. I would appreciate advice!
I do practice it without the pedal but it doesn't sound nice.
I apologize for all the questions!
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Hi Dustin, would you mind if I checked in with you a little later about this concept of "parlando"? I'm not sure exactly which aspect of the articulation you were talking about.
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Sure. It refers to the tenuto being used to indicate a 'speaking' of the note. I will find the part from Roskell's book in which she briefly talks about it for you.
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I was able to find it quickly. She sums it up pretty well below and aligns with Dominic's great advice on your particular prelude (apologies that it is a bit crooked):
The example she refers to is below:
Edited to say that this is from "The Complete Pianist" by Penelope Roskell. I believe it was featured on Tonebase a few years ago. It is probably the best pedagogical book I've seen on piano and piano technique (and I have many!). It is a massive book and for some reason does not have an index but it is a great resource for teachers and serious performers!
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thanks a lot Dustin, I really appreciate the way you share your wisdom & experience as a teacher with us. I'm going to grab that book! I've seen it referenced on Tonebase, and her sessions are great.. running out right now to my gig but wanted to send a quick thank you.
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That's very kind of you to say. You are very welcome and I am happy to do so for you and anyone else here =)
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Dustin you are very generous to all of us with your thoughtful comments and I wanted you to know that they were appreciated.
I've always wanted to go to music school, and Tonebase feels to me like the campus of a giant conservatory that spans the entire world. You and Noel (and several others that i could mention but for fear of leaving others off the list), are like the graduate students. I'm there among the underclassmen, having great fun mingling, sharing ideas and performances with my classmates, working on my pieces and occasionally skimping on my technical practice when I shouldn't, and attending every party that I can get to!
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Wow, what an honor for you (and fully deserved!) that Dominic shared your entire performance of that prelude during the livestream! You can be proud of yourself. And Dominic is right, you got fast feet. I'd say the fastest this side of Bill Superfoot Wallace.
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Thank you Dominic, it was a great webinar. I now understand what I should be aiming for in intepreting Schubert’s music. It helps us all a great deal even if we don’t play a particular piece of work being discussed.
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Thank you Dominic for a very informative session. I now know for certain what to do with those trills and the appropriate dynamics for Schubert.
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Thank you, Dominic! You and the Tonebase community are amazing resources!!
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Thank you Dominic. You are truly amazing performer and a wonderful teacher. I have been learned so much from you.
thank you.👍😊
