Hey guys. I've been reading your posts on the forum for a few weeks and just joined. This is my first post and I just wanted to say hello to everybody and talk a little bit about myself and my relationship with the piano.

I'm a 26 year old architect in NYC, recently out of graduate school. I began playing the piano at age 11 and played regularly through high school and undergraduate. My teacher from ages 11-18 did not actually teach me a great deal; he basically sat beside me and told me when I hit a wrong note. Technical education was limited to Hanon exercises (which, contrary to many people on this forum, I believe to be very valuable if used correctly). In college I had an excellent teacher who really helped me develop my technique and musicality. I didn't play very much at all during graduate school (the last three years), but after graduating I purchased a digital piano (Yamaha P-140) I could fit in my tiny apartment and have been very happy with it so far.

For the last couple of months I have been working on Chopin's Opus 10 Etude #1 (along with a few other pieces I had learned in the past, including the three movements of the Pathetique, Mozart's "Ah! Vous Dirai-je, Maman" variations, and a couple of others). Right now I can play the entire etude pretty accurately at 100 bpm, pretty okay at 120 bpm, and I have begun to practice the first 16 bars at around 140 bpm.

I don't really have any questions at this point, I just wanted to say hi and let you all know where I'm at. One comment regarding this piece is that, while I do find that slow practice helps with muscle memory and general memorization, I also find that playing the piece through a few times at a speed faster than I am comfortable with sharpens and speeds up my focus and helps me gain speed overall. For example, if I play the etude through once at 140 bpm, I always then play 120 bpm more accurately immediately afterwards. It seems there are countless ways to practice this etude, from rhythm and accent variations to chord attacks and repeating very small sections many times. I really love the etude for this reason and the technique I inevitably gain through practice. But man, that left hand really sits still, doesn't it? I never played Czerny before, but I have been trying to pick up a few of his etudes to keep my left hand going a little bit while focusing mainly on the RH-intensive 10/1.

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Anyhow, I'm starting to ramble. Hi to everybody!

-joe

Welcome to the forum.
I don't think you should use metronome at all.
This etude isn't about speed you know.
And this piece is very difficult.
I wish you good luck with this piece, I play it as well.

I think you should... because you have to practice very slow and in the rithem.

I use the metronome for part of the time I practice. I use it mainly so I know what speed I can comfortably play the piece at and to gradually attempt to increase the overall tempo. I don't really need the metronome to play in time.

Also, I think this etude is, in fact, largely about speed. Certainly it is about speed within the context of arm movement, large chord intervals, phrasing and any number of other things, but it is about speed. I don't think that one plays this etude with the same physical procedures at 176 bpm as one does at 120 bpm, but I do think that the only way to find the natural movements that come with practice at higher speeds is, well... to practice at higher speeds, gradually. And the metronome helps greatly with this as a benchmarking tool.

Thanks for the welcome and for the good luck!

-joe

ALWAYS practice slowly! always because if you practice slowly you learn in the same time the notes. learn it first measure by measure. first right hand then left hand than together. If it doens't work try again until it work. It works. With this method I played with 1.5 hour practice a prelude (bwv 895) of bach its a prelude with 4 voices. so...


gr,

Thank you for the suggestion, but if I practice slowly all the time, when do I play it fast? I know all of the notes, I've played the piece hundreds of times fast and slow and can play every note in my head while away from the keyboard. At this point I think the most important thing for me is practicing my relaxation, dynamics, focus and speed.

Careful not to practice the Mozart "Ah! Vous-....." around non-musicians. I had family over once when sight-reading through it and didn't hear the end of how they overheard me screw up on "Twinkle Twinkle". Damn those non-musicians sometimes.

About practice speed...all slow is too little and all fast is too much. There's an awful lot to talk about in between the two.

Pete

Tell me about it!