Group 1

Silvia Hi Silvia! Would love to hear any of your exercises and/or if you have any questions!

Silvia Thank you for sharing these, Silvia! Very thoughtful playing. For the exercises in both hands, you were getting a good sound. I watched a few times, and my overall comment is that with the "down - up" motion for each note, my observation is that your wrist in both hands is getting a bit too high (in the "up" part). My recommendation would be to try staying in the "down" portion of the movement just a little bit longer (it's almost as if there's glue there and it's harder to bounce back up immediately!); I think this will promote even more richness and depth to the sound. I noticed this more in the left hand than the right hand, so just something to be aware of! It could be helpful to play it a few times slower than what you were doing. 

For the Mendelssohn, this is a very good start. Some very small comments: I appreciated that you brought out the accents in measures 3 and 7 clearly, but I would say to keep the subsequent notes a bit louder/resonant. The impression was that the accents were clear, but the notes immediately after were noticeably less resonant and therefore less "singing." For measure five, I would recommend playing a few times in exact tempo (like if you were playing with a metronome). This way, if you do decide you want to give some flexibility to certain notes in that measure, it is completely on purpose (I wasn't sure if you were aware you suddenly slowed down in that measure). Sometimes playing exactly in tempo can give us awareness where our rhythm is not as precise. Last comment: when arriving into measure 15, it's not necessary to physically pick up your hand as much as I observed (my impression was you were honoring the slur from the previous measure), but I think this added physical movement is not necessary when going from that last 16th note to the downbeat of 15. Please let me know if you have any questions about the further exercises in Mendelssohn! Happy practicing. :)

Jarkko Janhunen Hi Jarkko, I hope to hear some of your exercises if some feedback would be helpful! Or, please let me know if you have further questions. I completely understand: evenness is always something to be worked on! Did you mean specifically for the Mendelssohn in the sixteenth-notes or the overall melodic material?

Jarkko Janhunen Looking forward!

KBEdwards Hello Kim, thank you so much for recording these exercises and sharing! In the Mendelssohn, I particularly appreciated your attention to dynamic contrast where indicated, your attention to shaping and rounding off of phrases, and your overall evenness of the sixteenth-note accompaniment. This is a very good start! My overall comment would be to "dig" even deeper into the melodic line of the right hand; I would suggest going back to the melody alone and playing one notch of a dynamic louder than you were playing, really listening for the amount of sustain and resonance in each note. Then, practice that melody alone with the actual fingering you will be using when you put all parts together (the fourth and fifth fingers are always weaker and therefore need a bit more care!). Try to replicate the sound you got when using a more "comfortable" fingering. Then, put all the parts together again, continuing to play a louder dynamic in the melodic line than all other parts (everyone has different dynamic tendencies when they play, and I think you are playing a little too softly in this line at the moment). You are doing a lovely job with this though! Please let me know if you have further questions.

KBEdwards For the C major chord voicing exercise, well done overall! For the left hand, I would recommend playing one or two octaves higher than you were (it's already a part of the keyboard that has quite a lot of resonance, so sometimes it's harder to listen for absolutely clarity of the voicing as well as coordination of the hand if there's extra resonance). For the right hand, very good; continue to work on this, listening to make sure that E natural in your second finger is still clear regardless of which note you are "voicing" (I noticed the E natural more than the other notes tended to get a bit lost or not sounding). Good work!

KBEdwards For the Chopin right hand melody, also good start! A few details: even when the melody has a sixteenth note or grace note, try to get a little more resonance (it's easier if you lengthen slightly that smaller note). This way, the chorale, more sustained texture of this section sounds even smoother! Small correction: at measure 29, there are two eighth notes in the melody as opposed to a dotted rhythm at measure 25 (unless your edition says something different than mine!). Lastly, when you come to the end of a phrase, make sure the last note is not "too" soft compared to the note before it. You have a tendency (this is a good habit to have than the opposite tendency!) to round off phrases in a way that sometimes loses the resonance of the very last note. You want to make sure you maintain the resonance all the way through (even when there is a decrescendo). 

KBEdwards For Chopin right hand chords, great start! Not an easy task to voice these chords, phrase, and do it without pedal. You're doing a very good job in the voicing; one thing I noticed in measure 25 was that I don't believe you played all the notes in the sixteenth-note chord of beat four. Just something to pay attention to! Also a fingering suggestion for the downbeat of measure 31: in my right hand, I START with my second fingering in the rolled chord, so 2-1-2-4-5. 

KBEdwards Hello Kim, Thank you so much for recording these again! Definite improvements, especially with "digging deeper" into the keys in order to create a richer and more defined sound in the melody. Thank you for pointing out the mechanical issue in your piano on that C sharp; I can imagine that's frustrating! But you really are doing a beautiful job despite that. One small comment for the melodic line: if you can create an even more legato connection between the C sharp of beat 4, measure 4, into the A of the downbeat at measure 5, that would be even better! Otherwise, each melodic note was beautifully connected. One comment on the pedaling: make sure to change a bit more clearly in places (just making sure you're not blurring harmonic changes, e.g. measure 14 was one spot). Great work!

KBEdwards For the Chopin, good start with all parts! Lots of elements to be aware of constantly (voicing, rolling of the chords, creating long lines, etc.). My first comment is for measure 25 : make sure that second chord of 25 is slightly softer than downbeat chord (start of the melody). Otherwise, it sounds a bit less smooth than I think you want! Listen even more carefully to how the sound of that first chord slightly decays; then you will know what dynamic to play the next chord. For the fourth beat of measure 27, I usually interpret this grace note in the right hand chord by playing the following order: "E-A-E-D," and the left hand A octave sounds with that D in the right hand. Different editions in Chopin can be slightly different in many pieces, but I would say there were many places in the right hand where I would not recommend rolling the chords (unless your edition specifically indicates to do so). For instance, I would play the fourth beat of measure 28 as one unified chord between both hands, rather than rolling the right hand. Another example is in measure 30, beats 2 and 3: I would play both of those chords in the right hand without rolling (unless your hand cannot stretch!). In addition, for those places where the right hand does not have a roll, but the left hand is written so the hand needs to roll the chord, I would place the right hand chord at the top note of the rolled left hand chord. For the places (at least in my edition) where there is one long roll starting from the bottom of the left hand to the top of the right hand (e.g. downbeat of measure 31, and third beat of measure 32), I would observe that literally. This way, the music has a beautiful and grand "sweeping" effect from the bottom of the keyboard to the top! 

Please let me know if you have any questions about my comments. Good work, Kim!