Mastering Tricky Passages and Answering Your Questions!
Due to the popularity and overflow of questions from last month's LIVE session, Dominic is back to help you! Do you have questions about your playing, fingering, challenging passages, or musical hurdles youâre trying to overcome? Whether itâs a simple query or a complex issue, every question matters, and every solution makes a difference! Join us live today for real-time advice and solutions from Dominic Cheliâyour guide to mastering music, one finger at a time!
Leave any questions below in the chat!
Follow this event link to tune in!
https://app.tonebase.co/piano/live/player/pno-live-solutions-dominic-cheli-3
We are going to be using this thread to gather suggestions and questions!
- What questions do you have on this topic?
- Any particular area you would like me to focus on?
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Hi Dominic,
I'd be interested if you could discuss bars 9-11 in the vivace movement of Prokofiev 2nd Piano Sonata and any fingering tips for the two-hand arpeggio (especially left hand starting at far treble side of the keyboard) as well as tips for speed.
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Dear Dominic,
for measure 190 of J.S. Bach's Contrapunctus XIV (the unfinished fugue) i'm searching for a fingering to play it fluently and musically. The challenge is to get the second C in the bass and the tenor voice sound beautiful together. It is the fourth-to-last measure of the second fuge. I love that ending (and after that the B-A-C-H theme (german notation, in english: B-flat-A-C-B) is introduced for the third fuge
). Maybe it's just one of those âpractice, practice, practiceâ moments. Any ideas on how to twist my fingers cleverly to make it work? Regardless whether you get to this i hope to join live on April 8thâif i can't, I'll catch the recording! Best wishes Rainer-
as far as i got now i might suppose that keeping the hands exactly sorted (left hand bass and tenor voice, right hand alto and soprano) it's maybe really a practice thing to get a sensible touch for the second lower c? As the pinky has to arrive there pretty fast yet still play to sound with feel to beautifully integrate the note into its corresponding bass line. Coherent integrity of each of the four voices is key to let these pieces sound so amazing., There are many moments that make me imagine Bach mischievously grinning as he put these lines to paper with his quill.
Free Complete Art Of Fugue Score (with a suggested fingering that i find hard as well)
https://tinyurl.com/4vcwcpmu page 121
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Hi Dominic, I'm struggling with how to finger a chord voicing frequently used by Rachmaninoff. It's where you have an octave played on the natural 7th of the chord, simultaneously with the 1 and the 5. It's a very difficult stretch when the 7th is a black key. For example, for a D chord: C#,D,A,C#. (see attached PDF)
Rach uses it for example several times n his A Major Prelude, in measures 15, 16, 17, 19 and 21. (see attached circled in Red), and in other of his Preludes, including the climactic M. 66 of the D Major, and even in the bass such as in M. 35 of the B minor .
I feel like the dissonance of the 7th against the 1 is a very important feature of the sound and that therefore the 1 should not be left out of the voicing. For me it requires a real stretch of the 2nd and 5th fingers to play the interior root (2 on the RH) and the upper 7th (5 on the RH). The 5th of the chord is less of a problem, as it falls rather naturally on the 4th finger when the other fingers are stretched like that. I can reach the voicing but in the quicker passages where it appears multiple times with accents, it can hurt.
As an alternative, I've tried sliding off the bottom note when it is a black key onto the adjacent white key with my thumb, which dilutes the effect somewhat. Someone else recommended bending your thumb knuckle to hit both the C# and D at the same time.
Can you share how you approach these voicings? Thanks a lot.
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Hi Dominic. A couple of rolled chord questions regarding Rachmaninoffâs Prelude Op 23 No 4. How would you handle the rolled chords (both hands) in measures 27 and 43? Thanks in advance.
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Vidhya Bashyam I have the same question about the E minor chord there and whether to roll it quickly or slowly. I've experimented with using the 2 on the G in the RH and then 1 on the B to make it an easier reach to the B above. And also with 1,2,4,5 in the RH, though that brings a greater risk of missing the top note! as for the LH, I tend to let it just fall where it may, and do it simultaneously, though I have wondered whether, instead, it should be rolled all the way up from bottom of LH to top of RH.
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Hi Dominic, my questions relate to note redistribution issues in Schumannâs Kinderszenen, for instance # 10 Fast Zu Ernst and # 8 Am Kamin. The pedal markings have such broad coverage that any redistribution challenges can be sidestepped recklessly by using any convenient finger to tap on the notes. Butâif there is a value to more nuanced and âcleanâ phrasing (i.e. more limited pedal usage)âhow would you redistribute the notes to minimize unnecessary hand overlap? A simple example in # 10: left hand can play the basso continuo and the right hand overlap it to play the upper two voicesâbut that is awkward. What strategy would you use to play the middle voice and upper part of the basso triads? Am Kamin is even more daunting, Clara seemingly imposing note distributions that form a vipersâ nestâunless she doesnât really mean it, but expects broad pedal coverage.
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Michael I can't wait to hear the answer because I'm working on this now, also
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Gail Starr I had always assumed that the Kindern in these scenes were sweet innocents. But now that Iâve become better acquainted with them, I realize that many are the spawn of Satan.
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Michael We definitely have the same interpretation! Little Kindern who have ADHD.
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Hello!
How to study the non-solo pieces? From accompaniment to concerto... What's the study routine and how to cut for solo performances?
You could do a livestream on this, if you please.
Ciao!
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Hi Dominic! I'm working on Beethoven Op. 28, and by the time I get to the final Presto section my hands feel kind of tight/tired so I can't play this last little bit at the correct tempo. My hand sort of "freezes up". Any suggestions? Maybe I'm just too tense in the majority of the last movement, so that's why I'm tired at the end? Thanks in advance!
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for Chopin nocturne B Flat minor Op 9. no1, for bar 36 and 37, I can reach an octave with 1-3 fingering but it makes my hand quite tense and tiring. I can't decide whether I should keep using 1-3,4,5 so the notes sound connected. Or change to fingering to 1-4, 1-5 only?
Also, any tips on practicing bar 73?
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Hi Dominic,
as I already asked to discuss about prelude &fuga BWV 855/1 /2 earlier.
My questions are how to determine doctrine of Affects in this piece which has two different tempo slow and presto also how to structure of dynamic terracing of this piece? I am thinking long notes on the first beat are the key to getting louder and softer within 4 bars phrasing? ( m1-22) and regarding this fuga has a 2 voices, would you explain how to tone control through continual switches of balance ? I am frustrated how to do it right.
thank you Dominic
