So during my freshman year of high school, I was under the tutelage of my section leader in marching band [the trumpet], Jesse. He had been taking private lessons and whatnot since like the age of 4, and he was incredibly well-versed in music; and for some reason he taught me a lot of things at that age. We got pretty close during this period.
Then he went off to college, and for the next four years we didn't commune much, but a few weeks ago, I hit him up for some music advice, and he was supposed to come hang out with some of the old group that used to hang together, so he told me to stop by at his place before that...and it somehow turned into a piano lesson.
It's become a regular thing now, and once again I am under his tutelage. His analysis of music is so wonderfully deep, and he really tries to get me to make music when I play; I think for too long I'd relied on technical difficulties for a performance, and not enough on the sole musical quality of something, and that's something that Jesse is really trying to get me to do.
I'm working on two pieces under him right now, Chopin Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2, and Chopin Etude Op 10. No 6, both of which are not very technically demanding [at all], but I find these pieces to be incredibly difficult because of the sheer expression and all the little details that I want to put in. I've learned so much not only physically [like what was causing most of my injuries, and new motions that made things easier], but so much musically, and it's helping me so much as a composer and a musician.
It's no longer boring for me to play slow songs, and I find them to be more of a challenge because every detail has to be perfect, exactly the way I imagine it in my head, or else I would not be satisfied.
Learning from the Polish lineage [where he learned his piano] is quite awesome also, it has so many unique advantages, and I love the incredible emphasis he places on musicality. It makes the playing experience so much more enjoyable, and I'm really motivated to practice now.
I love practicing like this. It's such a relief from the stresses of my everyday life; to be able to merge with the piano as a whole, as opposed to the shallow level I'd been doing before; to make music, my one eternal friend in life, alleviates so much of the strain from my life. I love it so much.
Also, he says since I'm progressing so quickly, he's going to start entering me in competitions :D:D:D and he's going to let me learn a piece that I absolutely LOVE - Beethoven Sonata quasi una fantasia [Moonlight]
So I'm super excited, and I'll post a recording of myself once I polish up the Nocturne.
On November 07 2013 05:28 Serpest wrote: Moonlight gets very fast very quickly. Deux nocturnes has some great pieces as well (i.e. # 10).
Playing fast isn't really a problem; my qualm with myself, or I guess the challenge, is whether or not I'll be able to deliver the intensity that was Beethoven when I play that third movement
I also find it strange (if understandable at some level) when people call difficult pieces like that not technically challenging.
unusually it isnt, but everything is relative. theres plenty of piano literature more difficult than that movement so people look at that and say, "wow thats not actually hard!" of course theres the interpretative parts as well, but it seems that pianists in general arent as bounded on that sonata compared to lets say (just for pure example) barraques piano sonata (not that many pianists bother to learn it ) , or if you want a more tonal example, alkan's grand sonata
generally the hammerklavier is considered to be beethoven's most technically challenging piano sonata, the fugue movement of which is extremely difficult to play without mistakes at anything close to beethoven's written metronome speeds
I also find it strange (if understandable at some level) when people call difficult pieces like that not technically challenging.
unusually it isnt, but everything is relative. theres plenty of piano literature more difficult than that movement so people look at that and say, "wow thats not actually hard!" of course theres the interpretative parts as well, but it seems that pianists in general arent as bounded on that sonata compared to lets say (just for pure example) barraques piano sonata (not that many pianists bother to learn it ) , or if you want a more tonal example, alkan's grand sonata
generally the hammerklavier is considered to be beethoven's most technically challenging piano sonata, the fugue movement of which is extremely difficult to play without mistakes at anything close to beethoven's written metronome speeds
They say that Beethoven's metronome was broken, so the speeds on it were insane
I also find it strange (if understandable at some level) when people call difficult pieces like that not technically challenging.
unusually it isnt, but everything is relative. theres plenty of piano literature more difficult than that movement so people look at that and say, "wow thats not actually hard!" of course theres the interpretative parts as well, but it seems that pianists in general arent as bounded on that sonata compared to lets say (just for pure example) barraques piano sonata (not that many pianists bother to learn it ) , or if you want a more tonal example, alkan's grand sonata
generally the hammerklavier is considered to be beethoven's most technically challenging piano sonata, the fugue movement of which is extremely difficult to play without mistakes at anything close to beethoven's written metronome speeds
They say that Beethoven's metronome was broken, so the speeds on it were insane
certain metronome speeds have always varied until postwar times, so yes, keeping the exact indicated speed will never be known to be accurate, but when i do hear it played faster and not slower it sure sounds a lot more like beethoven to me than the slower interpretations.
as for the metronome being broken, many of the compositions he did write tempo markings, most notably his 9 symphonies, are now often performed around the indicated metronome markings, though some people think theyre still too fast. personally i think beethoven was just concentrating on the composition and not the difficulty
EPT
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/V1ZJjvM.png)
) , or if you want a more tonal example, alkan's grand sonata
