I'm asking this primarily to those who have done it, but anyone is welcome to comment on their opinions. How do you go about studying and recording a multiple-part piece for piano (4 hands, 6 hands, etc.) by yourself? Do you study one of the parts all the way through first? The prima, the seconda? Do you practice segments of them in parallel? What works best?



Marcelo

I've screwed around a little with this kind of thing but have not yet made a 'real' recording. Still waiting on a Granados duet book I ordered weeks ago. It must have circled the globe several times by now and I do wish it would hurry up and get to me!

(sorry - a little rant there.)

Marcelo, I do think that you just need to be able to have both parts down solid. Then just start doing some trial run-throughs. The hand that plays first should be the hand to record first. And when you have a good clean version, listen to it in earphones while you record the other part on top of it.

I would not make that a rule. In some cases the secondo part simply stamps out the rhythm (like in the Petersburger Schlittenfahrt I recorded with myself) and then I think that's best recorded first. Although I could not say why exactly - it just worked for me.

Recording each part separately works well, especially when you're listening to one part while recording the other. Otherwise there may be a tendency for the two parts to separate little by little (actually that can happen even if you have somebody playing the other part )