Make sure to find a consistant, fluent motion for 10/1 or you will freak out in front of people. I used to do a kind of slight semi-circle with my wrist downwards… going up each arpeggio and then would restart the motion at the thumb every time. It also helped me a lot to do displaced groupings (starting on the 2nd note of each arp and ending after thumb really quickly) and just to plain-old connect the notes into large shapes rather than thinking individually.
Ahh you also fell victim to the 6th partita;
it’s been on my list of things to do since I fell in love with it last year.
For now, I’m just sticking with the E minor Toccata and Daniel Shapiro wants me to pick a suite of some sort on top of everything I’m currently working on (oh boy).
I actually rotated too much in the beginning, right now I do a small sideways motion with my hand. Really just slightly reach out for each note with my wrist only so much to completely release any tension in my hand and fingers. It works best. My wrist’s “ambitus” was too large, so now my wrist sort of stays at the same height from the keyboard at all times. Or at least that’s what happens when I practice. When I actually play it through there’s more motion.
Also, thinking in harmonies rather than positions and “fuck, now’s the hard part”, and practicing slow-motion pianissimo with this technique improved my playing IMMENSELY over the course of a couple days only.
E minor toccata is awesome, got to know it thanks to Koji
Hewitt’s touch in the middle section of the E minor is unparalleled; Gould has accents scattered everywhere. I am still not sure how Hewitt pulls it off.
However, she does lack conviction at times, such as the (organ-like) opening to the E minor, but the playing itself is brilliantly executed and all of her soft lyrical sections are golden.
not a huge fan of hewitt myself-she is an incredible pianist (no one can deny that) I just don’t care for her style.
I just finished transposing 10/1 into C sharp (can play it now at about half speed) most of the peeps I talk to seem to regard it as a waste of (wayyy too much) time-maybe if u’ve done all Beethoven sonatas and WTC but still there’s probably something more worthwhile. It’s a great party trick though.
Still-if you can play ALL the chopin etudes WELL, isn’t it best to move on to something else?
My friend tells me transposing WTC is VERY good though…
have you seen the chopin/wührer etudes “in moto contrario”? they are sort-of like you said, mirroring except he tries to keep the chord progressions and stuff like that.
got the sheets maybe? that would be damn interesting for my thesis (which is about left hand music, how to improve its technique and mirroring music to benefit ur tech)
There! It’s not all 27 etudes nor even all from op10 or 25, but its a pretty nice selection and contains some very elegant solutions. (Wührer: mediafire.com/?h1aak2nmdgu)
You could also check out Auclert’s 30 exercises (mediafire.com/?wfgiujt1mry), they’re also after Chopin but excerpting passages and stuff like that.
Is it the Ganz one that people are always talking about? I wanna look at it!
randomly late, but thanks a lot. the Wuhrer actually looks like a pre-godowsky set, very interesting. The Auclert isn’t exactly what it should be (it’s not mirrored, sadly)
I’ll upload the ganz asap, if no one else does it first
Notice the op10 no5 one, its almost exactly the same yet not as harmonically interesting as the godowsky one. Its one of the more natural sounding ones inside - I think op10 no1 from the Wuhrer sounds far too different from the original
Wthat’s the point of doing transposed chopin etudes? it just turns them into exercises. Personally I’d rather get technique from pieces. What’s the point of being able to play 25/6 transposed for the LH (for eg) if you never have to face anything like that in the repetoire? Seems like a waste of time to me.
Simple, to gain ease in left hand execution. If you notice how much better your right hand becomes from playing 25/6, and not only in thirds, why wouldn’t you want your left hand to benefit from the same?
True - also, it does help sightreading, as your left hand is more secure in its technique for you not to have to look at it all the time. After I played stuff like 10/3 for left hand and the Blumenfeld op36 the difference was tremendous.
plus a few ones I just sightreaded through a few times.
Some etudes just seem impossible to play that fast that it sounds like a fluid run instead of single notes (e.g. 10/2 or 25/6)
There are some I dislike so it’ll make the goal to complete an entire set quite unreachable.
I play 10/1+12 and 25/6 every time on warmup and intend to refresh and add more etudes to that again.
10/1 is quite easy to play, but very hard to play flawless in a very fast tempo, one of my most favourite renditions of that one gotta be by Mei-Ting Sun’s (Chop Comp 2005…check on youtube).
I also love 25/4 because it’s awesome Might somewhen try to add this and 25/3 to the repertoire.
i’ve actually grown tired of chopets for a while. can’t be assed to keep on doing rhythmical varations on every run. i’ve been studying rockets for the moment :rob:
Might somewhen try to add this and 25/3 to the repertoire.
