What works are you learning?

My piano teacher in high school had really small hands, and she played it 5-5-1-5-1-1, which might explain why I compared it to the 25/4. I've never seriously worked on the 10/9, but my hands aren't very big either so I don't know if I could do it the way it is indicated, or even your version.

Just out of curiosity, can you play a (white key) 10th easily, or is it uncomfortable for you?

You turn pages really loud!

 

Thanks, it's an awful lot of fun to play, despite its difficulty. It still has its inaccuracies so I can't submit it yet (for some reason I flub the descending f major scale?!?!). But I think with not too much practice I can get it into really good shape. I'm also working on the other two movements of the sonata, I can post those a little later. The recorder is an Edirol R-09.
I can't believe you've never heard this one! It's Beethoven's sixth sonata in F major; the opus no. escapes me at the moment.

I haven't forgotten about the Moonlight Sonata in its entirety, that one's coming soon, too.

Pete

 

I can play an augmented 11th with my LH and a perfect 11th with my RH.. A 10th is very comfortable. Actually, I wish my hands were a little smaller, just a little.

Here's a scan of my left hand. This frame is 8.5" from left to right.

 

Wow. That's a big hand! I have trouble playing 10ths. I think the only reason I can play 10ths is because my pinky fingers curve inward a little - it's hard to explain how that helps, but it does.

Can you imagine me trying to play the 10/9 with the proper fingering? Perhaps I really could do it if I worked on the stretching for a long time, but it seems impossible to me.

 

Oh, you are too, worthy! :lol:

Small hands are not a detriment, by any means. Sometimes, quite the opposite! Within reason, there really isn't a proper fingering; it depends heavily on the individual and the piano. Don't try to stretch beyond your physiology , it's easy to injure yourself doing that.

Here's a score of the Beethoven sonata from the aforementioned recording.
http://imslp.ca/images/imslp.ca/b/b4/Be ... ata_06.pdf

Pete

 

Rachmaninov Etude Op. 39,6 (done in a few hours practice)
Horowitz/Bizet: Carmen variations. Just practising the parts I can pick up with my ear, will receieve the scores some time next week.
And I hope to be done with Jeux D'eau before christmas.

 

Cool, you should make a recording.

 

:idea: :idea: :idea:

I just had a GREAT idea!

As I said before, I was waffling on my "contemporary" piece for this semester. And of course I'm going to cheat and go with something tonal like Rachmaninoff, because I'm rather fond of functional harmony. Anyway...I was considering Rachmaninoff preludes, but then Bohumir kindly reminded me of the Elegy in E-flat minor, which I already love! I can't believe I had forgotten about it so quickly, because my mom had suggested it to me for my scholarship audition in May, but I ended up going with the Debussy Doctor Gradus because I only had 2-3 weeks to work up a repertoire. I just found the Debussy to be much easier to execute musically than the Rachmaninoff Elegy.

So, now I am very happy with my fall repertoire:

Bach Partita in E Minor (I'll do 3-5 movements of this for the fall)
Chopin Etude 25/12 in C Minor
Rachmaninoff Elegy in E-flat Minor, 3/1

weeeeeeeee

...is it bad to play all minor key stuff? :?

 

Huh... early Rachmaninov as "contemporary" piece ? That is stretching the limit a bit... I'll be surprised if that will be accepted by the powers that be. It's gorgeous piece but it does nothing for one's appreciation of more contemporary music.

 

I agree of course, which is why I fully admit it's cheating. That's the problem with Chopin (yes, there are a few of those...lol) - he disqualifies everything from late Classical period music to late Romantic/early contemporary music, which happens to include a lot of my favorite music! I have come to appreciate contemporary harmony, but I've learned that appreciation from exposure to jazz of the mid-20th century and onward. It's heavily improvisational, anyway - the figured bass of the 17th century becomes the jazz chart of the 20th, contemporary harmony has been added to the mix, but functional harmony is equally prevalent - and I currently don't have near enough command of my instrument to do that genre justice. I'm just a listener.

I am hoping that there will be some school equipment to utilize. :wink: But I'm scared, too! I shouldn't be, either...Chopin's Op. 45 prelude is not really a scary place to start. :lol:

 

To further clarify my repertoire requirements - I only have to play 3 "contrasting" pieces. So, it's not required that my pieces be from any particular period. My teacher is the one that suggested I play some Rachmaninoff for my after-Chopin "contrasting" piece, so I'm assuming that he is okay. The prelude she suggested isn't quite as early Rachmaninoff as the Elegy, but I can't imagine it would make too much difference.

Although I think Rachmaninoff's style, especially with this Elegy, is not exactly "contrasting" to Chopin, Rachmaninoff was apparently enough years after Chopin (if barely) to qualify as "contrasting", while Beethoven and Schubert are not enough years before (playing a Chopin piece disqualifies them for my repertoire).

This is by the opinion of my current teacher, though - the teacher I had before allowed me to play Chopin and Beethoven in the same semester.

 

Hmm, I think Beethoven and Schubert are quite a contrast to Chopin (especially Beethoven is), much more than Rachmaninov. And this elegy is one of the pieces where Rachmaninov comes the closest to Chopin. :?

 

Well, I think that some later Beethoven and Schubert is very close to Chopin in style, but the early Beethoven especially is contrasting to Chopin. Problem is, I'm more fond of late Beethoven. :lol: Schubert, I'm not really so familiar with his piano music as I am with his song cycles, though I know his impromptus.

I agree of course, but the Rachmaninoff prelude my teacher suggested was the Op. 23 No. 4 in D Major (she knew I would also choose something by Chopin), and I don't think that one is really any less similar to Chopin than the elegy. If I were playing a Chopin nocturne, I don't think I would also play the elegy, but I'm playing the 25/12 etude, which is a bit more contrasting to the elegy than a nocturne would be.

The main problem here is my own ignorance of piano repertoire - I have to like the stuff I'm playing, obviously, and I'm just not familiar with enough piano music to have a great deal to choose from. I'm reluctant to take others' suggestions on what I will like, too, and it usually takes repeated listening for me to warm up to a piece.

Anyway, that ignorance is something that I hope to lessen a bit through piano society (there is all sorts of music I don't know that is posted here), and I'm also taking a keyboard lit class this semester, with listening and reading assignments.

But for now, I can take advantage of the subjectiveness of "contrast" (it's totally dependent on my teacher's opinion).

 

I actually completin the first of Chopin Ballads ( in g minor ) and fourth Prelude from op. 23 by Master Rachmaninov. Preparing for some Janacek pieces and want to study Bach - maybe Partita no. 6.

Anyways, want to get into the jazz harmony, coquette with latin jazz.

 

Chopin 24 preludes opus 28. The chopin etudes lay in wait.

Pete

 

I'm working on Brahms' rhapsody in G-minor, Debussy's Passepied from "Suite Bargamasque", a Novelle by Kabalevsky, an Etüde by Sibelius and Mozart's "Sonata facile" in c-major

 

My over-ambitious heart is gonna kill me ... I'm working on the Liszt etudes and his Hungarian Rhapsodies. *sigh* 17 years from now when I've mastered them, they'll eventually be posted here!

 

One at a time, now! :lol: