For those with a lot of patience that cannot play double thirds…
One third per second.
Always ff when practicing.
First, you go through it legato the bottom note of the third, staccato the top note. Then, the other way around… legato the top note, staccato the bottom note.
Always super slow and ff (the way Kapell practiced).
Then, both legato.
That’s the easy part. Now the hard part…
And you just do it every day, a few times, for a couple of months.
Then again, there are people that just “have” double thirds…
Good luck. Make sure you post if it works… it has worked in the past!
My thirds used to suck, until I started doing thirds while sitting through lectures at school. Now my thirds are more than good enough, and I didn’t really spend any time practicing them at the piano.
True, that’s actually how I got my thirds as well. I was on vacation in Turkey for a month, didn’t touch a piano the whole time I was there, so I just did thirds on all the tables I sat at. Great work out, works just fine. You have the fingers to play the notes, you just have to prax em to play together in thirds. You don’t exactly have to learn this at the piano.
Good method! When someone thinks his/her third are ok. Try to play Godowsky-Chopin Etude Op.25 No.6, it’s killing!!! Impossible to play, for me at least.
I played the Godowsky arrangement for several years, please don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say I find it easier than the Chopin originals. One, Godowsky’s tempo mark is fairly generous, and it’s a totally different set of problems, but doesn’t have the demands for absolute clarity and evenness in pp that Chopin’s does. In the lower octaves, it’s virtually impossible to obtain any kind of transparency to equal the original, his piece is a much darker conception, with an enormous climax.
It’s great fun to play, but takes a lot of patience to learn properly.
I do have to point out that I would never play either in public. I just use them both in practice as my own personal Golgotha.
I think the thirds technique, is a technique which is very difficult for most people. But i belief that there’re also people who may find easy, without practicing much. For example i don’t have difficulties with playing op.10 no.1, a lot of people think it’s one of the most difficult etudes.
Anyway, i can’t play the thirds well. Your lucky you can!
Sorry for my misunderstanding that Godowsky’s tempi should be ignored. I’ll stand back and wait for someone else to demonstrate.
Caspar, you’re right every hand and nervous system is different. I was lucky that I had a teacher who insisted that I learn all of the double notes
etudes long before I thought I could do it. I’ve performed all of those except the thirds, because it’s too dependent on the piano, and I don’t have 12 hours to practice on the day of a performance.
