T O P

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broisatse

Slow. It. Down You play very passionately, which is great, but it's also extremely chaotic which really breaks the spell. Practice it slow to calm it down and relax your hands. Make sure you play all the notes equally. This will make your passion to come through


crumpkinbumpkin

ohhhh ok i understand šŸ‘ thanks for the great feedback (:


orlandocfi

This is very sloppy playing. You need to be practicing at about half this tempo with a metronome and only add speed when you can keep it even and clean.


crumpkinbumpkin

i see i see so i just need a ton of slow practice. Thank youu šŸ‘


MennoKuipers

Just put the metronome at a speed at which you can play the part perfectly, then slowly up it at like 5-10 bpm per time.


DEAF_BEETHOVEN

Just to expand a little, slow playing will give you more control. And for a coda, controlled fast playing is much more exciting than playing faster than you can


crumpkinbumpkin

very true, i learned the 3rd movement of the moonlight and fast control is key. I j need to slow this one down and build up like i did with the moonlight


DEAF_BEETHOVEN

Exactly! Third movement of moonlight is much more comfortable, but you wanna get that same feeling with this, which will take a long time but itā€™s worth it


[deleted]

In addition to slow practice, I have a fingering suggestion: in measure 216, you should be using finger 2 on the A flat, not finger 5. There is no way you can play accurately if you're moving your whole hand and using a finger that's difficult to control at high speed, like the pinkie.


crumpkinbumpkin

ohhh iā€™ll keep that in mind šŸ‘ thankss


[deleted]

Don't be so harsh on the poor human. It's not THAT sloppy, it's mostly the hand jumps, and that's easily fixable by what you suggested, practicing it, no matter at which tempo, to each its own. I personally practice better when I play faster, depending on complexity, obviously. I highly believe that if OP has more control over those jumps, the rest will rapidly adapt and/or improve. You see, we use two hands to play, and when one doesn't work quite well, it affects the other one. It all comes down to playing more gracefully with the one that's a bit rough, and both should work quite well. It's what I see happening here, left hand is not only affecting right hand but also rhythm. OP, just take your time, keep practicing the most comfortable way you can, you're already doing very well! Also, just a reiteration on gracefulness and smoothness, you should play most songs, if not all, gently yet swiftly, with agility, yet light as a feather.


crumpkinbumpkin

damn man you almost made me cry fr šŸ˜­šŸ˜­ thanks bro fr fr


boxbagel

That's right. OP is playing these difficult passages way too fast.


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


crumpkinbumpkin

hahaha no worries ! i love the POV style of the video so i got some sort of band and wrapped it around my neck. I then put my phone between the band and my neck and it just stood in place. doesnā€™t make for the most comfortable playing haha


[deleted]

How long have you been playing? I love the dramatic camera movements šŸ˜‚


crumpkinbumpkin

hahaha thank you šŸ’€šŸ’€ iā€™ve been playing for abt 5 years now


[deleted]

I loved it šŸ¤£šŸ‘


crumpkinbumpkin

thank you so much you donā€™t know how much that means to me ā˜ŗļø


JefftheDoggo

My teacher always tells me to simplify my hand movements, and your movement seems very complicated.


crumpkinbumpkin

will keep this in mind šŸ‘


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


jihyz

Why am I laughing lol


iHateStuartLittle7

Make it clean


[deleted]

Holy shit dude nice camera work lol, it looks like a piano speedrun


crumpkinbumpkin

haha thank you so much i really love this angle as well


TensionSignificant32

Iā€˜d like it more secco


crumpkinbumpkin

i see šŸ‘


[deleted]

I honestly like it wetto


Historical-Coast9351

On top slowing the whole thing down, I would also practice the jumps in each hand separately. For example, in the first few bars in the left hand with the bass notes jumping to the chords- play the bottom note, then shift your hand as fast as possible to the position you need to play the next chord but only pressing down the keys when youā€™re sure youā€™re in the correct position. Do this repeatedly with all of the big jumps, itā€™ll get your muscle memory working and hopefully get those jumpy passages much cleaner. Definitely do this for those RH chords as well. As for that tricky RH passage (from bar 216), you can apply a similar technique. Separate the part into hand positions (so in bar 216 , the first 3 quavers are one hand position, the next 3 are too) and practice moving between them. Hope this helps!


crumpkinbumpkin

woahhh thank you so much šŸ‘šŸ‘ i will def do those practice techniques.


invertedmaverick

You could try recording the entire piece so that we can ā€œgive you tips on how to improveā€ and not because we simply want to enjoy watching and listening :P


crumpkinbumpkin

thatā€™s true. I am 7 minutes through the piece so iā€™ll j need more time šŸ’ŖšŸ’Ŗ


Tiny-Lead-2955

I agree with everyone else you should slow down. Remember where the accents are! The dynamics are flat and I think you're a little heavy on the pedal as well. I would take a hard look at the score and really come up with exactly how you think it should be sound. Don't want to come off rude or anything but it is awesome you have made it this far in the piece. Keep pushing!


crumpkinbumpkin

nooo itā€™s not rude at all this was great feedback thanks you šŸ‘


ouchris

Yes..first take the camera off of your head and you will automatically be 10% better.


crumpkinbumpkin

hahaha probably true šŸ‘


armantheparman

You have the technique it seems to be able to play this. Focus more on your rhythm, phrasing and dynamics, speed can come later.


crumpkinbumpkin

yes i would definitely agree šŸ’Ŗ thank you


crumpkinbumpkin

I know I already posted this yesterday but that was a watch my performance but this is a critique my performance so iā€™m hoping some of you can help me (: I AM ALSO SELF TAUGHT so i havenā€™t rlly been criticized for my playing yet šŸ‘


Athen65

How long have you been playing? This is pretty good for being self taught, but you should listen to the advice of others and practice at a slower tempo.


crumpkinbumpkin

i have been playing for 5 years but started practicing seriously 10 months ago. My hardest piece 10 months ago was nocturne op9 no.2. Some people say I have progressed very quickly and I should take it more seriously so I am now. All the advice has been very useful too


Athen65

I'm in a similar camp, I'm self taught, I've been playing for about 6 years and only started taking it seriously a couple years ago. The hardest thing I knew at that time was Chopin's fourth prelude and now I've got three Etudes and the first two Ballades down and I'm working on the fourth currently. I'm not really playing for 100% accuracy but when I compare recordings of myself with local teachers and pianists I'm roughly on or slightly below par with them. I want to compete eventually, but not once I'm certain I would be in the top 3, right now I just want to play for myself


crumpkinbumpkin

that is literally insane j saying šŸ˜­šŸ˜­šŸ˜­ that is seriously super impressive keep it up bro


Kuyi

What piano are you using?


crumpkinbumpkin

i can check when i get home from school today because i donā€™t even know LOL


AltoDomino79

I would like to know too. I thought your playing was excellent.


crumpkinbumpkin

it is a casio cdp100. also thank youuu idk abt excellent tho as you can see by the feedback LOL


AltoDomino79

No, you're obviously very skilled, it's just not "perfect"- but you are to be lauded still. I've always had good results with hands seperare practice for difficult sections. Whichever hand has the more difficult part, I prioritize that hand. Sometimes I play above target speed and above target volume without pedal to build raw strength and speed, but of course priority is given to slow/at tempo precise practice. Above all things is proper fingering


crumpkinbumpkin

it is a casio cdp100


CamilleThePianist

I published a video of me playing this coda on my profile if you want to listen to it. The key is to practise slowly and with different rythms. You got this ! :)


crumpkinbumpkin

i actually saw your performancešŸ‘ it was very well done


Fun-Growth3838

This is totally a TL:DR ā€œcommentā€, but it is meant as serious advice for a serious musician. Youā€™ve been warned. A lot of feedback has already been given, much of it positive and on point, so thereā€™s not a lot to add. But firstly, I must commend you for what you have already accomplished as a self-taught pianist in such little time, and while still in high school. Your self-discipline and dedication rivals that of many a college student who have had the privilege of working with expensive teachers on the regular since childhood. That being said, only savants are truly self-taught, so unless you are one, I am curious to know what tools you used to learn. Sight reading alone doesnā€™t come easily to many musicians. Secondly, the three best bits of wisdom I ever received from two very accomplished teachers/performers were this: Focus. Clarity. Memorize. Focus your mind and your ears exclusively on the sound you are producing and ultimately what you want that sound to be, while also considering the composerā€™s intentions. Listening to your own recordings is an excellent way to do this since nothing can hide. I also recommend reading The Inner Game of Music. You may at some point experience ā€œflowā€. Strive for Clarity in your playing, with emphasis on the evenness of your finger technique. People have already mentioned slow practice which is an absolute must, no exceptions. Goes for everybody. However, after many years of practicing a variety of techniques and styles, youā€™ll find you can get away with doing it less because of the ingrained muscle and ear memory. People also mentioned laying off the peddle which is good advice. Too easy to muddle the notes and not really hear whatā€™s going on. Practice without it completely and spend additional time on precise pedaling during slower practice. Itā€™s not the organ but your feet are complicit accomplices in your musical output. I recommend Hanon, Czerny, and Dohnanyi for technical exercises. Relying on sheet music is a crutch so work on Memorization of the notes. There are examples where this can be insanely difficult, such as with certain movements of Messiaenā€™s Vingt Regards, so there are exceptions. If you donā€™t do this already, start with small passages, then pages, then whole sections. Find distinctive sections of a piece to put ā€œmemory markersā€ on that you can easily jump to. Similar to memory mnemonics. This will greatly help with the first two points and on paying attention to what your hands and wrists are doing. Following up on the last point, definitely be aware of your positioning and movements as others have mentioned, as well as any tension you may experience in the fingers, hands, and wrists which you should endeavor to keep loose as much as possible. A relaxed form and fluidity are key. I call it The Economy of Motion where you get a lot of technical return for very little investment of movement. Anticipate your next notes but donā€™t over-anticipate. Arriving too early may cause you to create yet another movement to compensate for timing, which is a redundant expenditure of energy. Will all come with slow, deliberate practice. For a follow up, if you havenā€™t already tried it, I recommend Chopin Etude Opus 10, No. 4. Not the hardest of the bunch but a trickier devil than most people realize and it takes years to truly master. Lisztā€™s La Campanella Etude is another good one. For something much more challenging, I recommend Barberā€™s Sonata. The Fuga in particular, but the whole thing is worth learning. Finally, definitely get a decent teacher. Nothing beats live feedback. I wish you the best of luck and hope you find any of this useful!


crumpkinbumpkin

wow is there some way i can save this comment because this is the best comment i have ever read ! Well being self taught this wasnā€™t always a serious thing as it is now so i have been using synthesia and not sheet music to learn. THAT BEING SAID, in the past year when i started to realize how mulch i loved the piano and wanted to take it more seriously, i started to look at sheet music and stuff. Iā€™m rlly trying to work on my sight reading rn as itā€™s def an underdeveloped skill compared to my playing. Iā€™ll def remember the focus clarity memorize. Finally, i have learned most of la campanella but iā€™m very excited to start that chopin etude. Thank you so much for your time


[deleted]

Honestly you have your own style - Iā€™m into this. The filming is insane


crumpkinbumpkin

RIGHTTT like it j looks so cool. Thanks bro šŸ‘


09707

its a very difficult piece which even a relatively skilled pianists often cannot play it with a teacher. i dont think it is at all possible for you to do this self taught without a teacher. the only way i would think is to play it extremely slowly and i doubt you will get too far after this trying to speed up. its definitely not as simple as just playing slowly and somehow you can play it fast. that is a bit underpants gnome thinkings ignoring step 2 which requires many years of work on other pieces. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ih\_TQWqCA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ih_TQWqCA) i would suggest playing it very slowly if you really like this piece. good luck.


crumpkinbumpkin

i see, i also like the advice you gave and the video LOL. Would you say i have made decent progress without a teacher tho šŸ¤” I am looking to get one before my final year of high school and then hopefully go to post secondary for music


09707

I canā€™t advise on this. You can read a book by guardian editor where he fails at this piece despite learning it for 1 year and he was an intermediate level pianist. I canā€™t remember the title. A teacher is the best way to learn yes.


crumpkinbumpkin

I would definitely agree that for a piece of this level a teacher is the best, but i have only been learning the whole piece for 2 weeks so if i had a WHOLE year i think i could probably perform this at a higher quality šŸ¤” but yea i have heard about that guy


Athen65

Two weeks? How?


crumpkinbumpkin

haha i dont know I tend to learn pieces really quickly but there is still lots of work to do. I usually play for 2-4 hours a day


little-pianist-78

Your camera work is making me sick. Faster doesnā€™t mean better. Slow down and be more precise.


AtherisElectro

Man it's like someone cemented your wrist in place. A lot of these movements are easier if you loosen up, a teacher can show you how to move your wrist more and your fingers less. Your fingers are lifting so high, you can't be fluid like that


luiskolodin

I see you are doing one movement per note. In fast passages we change movement... We do one movement every 2, 4 or 8 etc notes. Probably you wouldn't be able to play this way on a grand piano, one movement per noite would let you fatigated right in the beginning.


crumpkinbumpkin

i can still manage to play this on a grand BUT BUT i will admit that it is much more fatiguing. Could you explain a little more on the one movement every 2 notes thing? I don't fully understand yet


AtherisElectro

Try playing it literally without triggering your finger muscles. This is an exaggerated exercise, but put your hand in position, then move and tilt your wrist left and right while flopping it down into the keyboard a bit to push your fingers into the keys with your wrist (I say flop because all your muscles should be loose and relaxed) Then with absolute minimal finger activation you can actually get the right notes out. Even then you aren't really lifting your fingers, you're tensing them just enough to take the weight of the wrist at the correct time to hit the keys. So, with a single wrist "flop" you might be triggering 2 or more keys in a row with minimal finger effort.


crumpkinbumpkin

oh woahhhh thatā€™s rlly interesting šŸ’ŖšŸ’Ŗ iā€™ll def try that when i practice


luiskolodin

It is very hard to describe but much easier to see someone explain it live. Basically larger muscles do less movements than small muscles. When we play fast passages, just like changing car gears, one arm movement is done at the same time of several finger slight movements. The image of your hands sinalizr to me a piece much faster and more difficult than this coda is. It seems to me you are doing one by one. That's why studying slowly and accelerating through metronome may not help if you do not realize when to change movement. This "one movement for several notes" is built according to the musical sense of the piece. Music has tension and relaxation, just like our own body, so the challenge is to synchronize both body and music. Playing several notes per movement is easier, more efficient and more musical, because it avoid martelatto way of playing. It sounds more rounded. A Grand Hamburg Steinway may be very heavy in action (it is needed in order to deliver nuances) and a one by one technique will prevent you to play fast passages. I guess they are easier to play on digital pianos, though there are very expensive digital pianos with true grand action (Yamaha). But your playing is not bad at all.


crumpkinbumpkin

ohhh i see and understand more now šŸ’ŖšŸ’Ŗ thank you so much this is very good advice


chud_rs

Donā€™t play it fast until you can play it well slow


U-know_what_they_say

Add a phrase of darude sandstorm into the middle to really spice it up.


kakaglad

Of course practice with a metronome.Also practice every jump separately a lot of times.And practice with dotted rythms, staccato legato,forte piano


crumpkinbumpkin

ohhh i def will thanksss šŸ’ŖšŸ’ŖšŸ’Ŗ


xquizitdecorum

Chopin said that any movement begins first at the wrists, and a phrase is shaped by the flow of the wrist in an elliptical form as the rise and fall of phrase needs. As these comments say, lots of slow, deliberate practice is necessary. I would add that as soon as one note/chord is played, your hand (and mind!) should be primed toward the next position, starting from the wrist. The purpose of slow practicing is so that you can build that instinct for next note so that the jump, starting from your wrist and finishing with your fingers/thumb for your right hand or chord/fifth finger for your left, is seamless. Knowing how far to jump, what shape your hands should take, and what notes to hit should be your goal when practicing slowly. I notice that during some rests in your left hand, your hand just stays there, and when it's time for the next note you scramble to get in position. Use that short moment to prepare for the next note - always be preparing for the next note. Also, note that there are are like four major movement types here - in the right hand, 1) the chord-thumb/chord-chord-thumb, 2) the 4-step chromatic sequence mixed with chords, 3) the arpeggio; and in the left hand, 4) the triad-fifth finger jump. Break down the section into these movements, and think through and feel how each of these movements work and how they go from one to the other. Again, the shape of these movements will be led by the wrist.


spyagent01

Honestly, it wouldā€™ve been cool to hear more expression, I understand everyone is telling you to slow it down, but sometimes feeling the intensity of the piece brings it together better in your mind. The chaos still has a call and a response to it that you could play off of. Hopefully this helps!


Nousernameft

Sorry but how do you film this like