the piano help thread! :D

Started by daj, August 11, 2017, 11:42:41 PM

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daj

Gonna use two posts for two points! ^^ Keeping it organised ahaha

Quote from: Maelstrom on September 06, 2017, 05:11:07 AMI'll give this a shot today and see what's up. I can say for  sure the  problem is not #1. I listened to this song on and off for a few years before ever arranging it. I practiced it a lot last semester, and, you know, spend hours with it to arrange it. Oh, and the song is 90% memorized at this point. I'm coming to belive the problem might be tempo. I should also note the issues seem to lessen when playing with one hand; I can regularly perform the entire song, one hand only, at 98%, even with my eyes closed. And yes, that includes the RH in the 3rd section. Now that I think more, it has been more of the octave jumps for me. I may see if I can make a quick recording or something and PM a link to you so you can kinda see what I mean by this.

Edit: and the first section hasn't given me problems at all in ages.

I'd love to hear a recording, yeah! ^^ If you could shoot your hands up close (from an above-keys angle) that'll really help too, maybe I could try to point out some minor details~

From what I've gathered in text though, it sounds like you've been doing quite a bit of work of each of the parts in isolation, but less so of the parts together - this was one of the habits I had when I refused to go at a slower tempo, not sure if it's a thing for you too. Either way, unless a part is particularly tricky on one hand, I don't see too much use in practising separately. The only part I'd work on separate hands is the octave melody, for your sheet~

It works on the same rationale as playing a contrary motion scale - you need to know your left hand scale and right hand scale individually, but once you know both of those, you take an entirely different mindset into learning the contrary motion techniques ^^

Anyway, looking forward to that recording! :)

~

Quote from: braixen1264 on September 06, 2017, 07:02:12 PMThe way I practice is as soon as I encounter a measure where I make a mistake, I'll slowly go over that measure(and the surrounding ones) a dozen times or so and try it again. Don't know if this is the best way to approach learning pieces, but it's worked for me :p

I think this is a pretty efficient way to practice! :) For most sheets that don't pose super big technical challenges, I learn them this way ;)

One extra tip though - if the sheet is any tougher than sight-reading difficulty, practice by section. Most sheets do come with some form of technical challenge, but these technical challenges are either isolated (eg. flourishes and licks) or kept within sections (eg. riffs and ostinatos). For pieces with circular structures where sections tend to repeat, this significantly cuts learning time ^^

For example, you mentioned you were learning Chopin's Revolutionary Etude! ^^ The rough structure of that is Intro-A-B-C (based on Intro)-A1-Coda. You could learn this straight through, but if you chop it into sections and work them one by one, I think it compartmentalises your mind to associate the repetitions with each other much better, and at least when I know my structure first I do a lot less work - do give it a spin! :)

daj

Quote from: Latios212 on September 06, 2017, 07:53:09 PMSomething I've been pondering for a little while now is a good way to play the beginning section of SMW's Athletic theme. The way it's written on site right now doesn't really lend itself to being played at 300+ BPM due to repeating notes (i.e. see below, the RH plays two eighth note E's in a row several times), or at least that's why I have a problem with it. I don't really have a problem with anything else in the sheet (minus a couple of notes I cut in a place or two for simplicity), but when I try to play this section at full speed I just muddle through the notes in the chord keeping the contour of the notes roughly what they're supposed to be. Was wondering if anyone had a good way to write out this part for the right hand.

This is the first of several similar figures from this sheet here.



ahaha...you could even dream of doing this at full speed, and meanwhile i gave up at 170 </3

This section though!! >< I really agree with what you said, especially with the way you phrased it: this section is definitely playable, but it does not lend itself into being played at a rushed tempo. At all. There's a different between "fast" and "rushed": "Bonetrousle" is fast and "Gourmet Race" is rushed, as a frikkin brilliant example (that i will use every time from this post onwards bwahaha i just found a brilliant example off my head <3)

If you want something rushed, it really helps to cut on the leaps and jumps. So in that vein of thought, the left hand could definitely be reduced~

...I digress. xD How I'd write this section is:
A-A-E-G-C#/A-E | A-C#-E-C#/A

Basically, cut all chords to two notes, and only keep the ones that are on off-beats. The on-beats will naturally emphasise themselves, especially since they all happen to be on either the root or 5th of the chord. So with that rhythmic and harmonic accent I don't really see a need for a textural (i.e. vertical number of notes) accent~

I'd still struggle to play it in the way I suggested though, because of the G-A on 4-5...but I suppose there's no way around that xD

Pianist Da Sootopolis

So, I don't know if we have any jazz masters here on the forum, but I'm having difficulty sounding like Herbie Hancock does and it's a bit frustrating.

..wow, now that I type that out, I sound ridiculous.

No, but really. I'm playing his solo on One Finger Snap, and once I leave the transcription, I can never really get my own lines to sound remotely like his when I'm soloing. What should I do?
what is shitpost

Latios212

Quote from: daj on September 08, 2017, 07:12:58 AMA-A-E-G-C#/A-E | A-C#-E-C#/A

Basically, cut all chords to two notes, and only keep the ones that are on off-beats. The on-beats will naturally emphasise themselves, especially since they all happen to be on either the root or 5th of the chord. So with that rhythmic and harmonic accent I don't really see a need for a textural (i.e. vertical number of notes) accent~

I'd still struggle to play it in the way I suggested though, because of the G-A on 4-5...but I suppose there's no way around that xD
Perfect! That was exactly what I was going for (and sorta thinking of, but not really solidified). Thanks for confirming that in my mind ;D

...and haha, yeah. Time to get my fourth finger to actually work.

~~~

Concerning the left hand, how un-sloppily I play it just depends on how I'm feeling that day xD I normally play it at a bit under tempo, but it's certainly fun to try at full speed :P maybe I can assemble a recording sometime I'm having an "on" day.
My arrangements and YouTube channel!

Quote from: Dudeman on February 22, 2016, 10:16:37 AM
who needs education when you can have WAIFUS!!!!!

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mastersuperfan

Quote from: NocturneOfShadow on February 11, 2016, 03:00:36 PMthere's also a huge difference in quality between 2000 songs and 2010 songs
Quote from: Latios212 on February 11, 2016, 03:29:24 PMThe difference between 2000 songs and 2010 songs is 10 songs.