Spring Piano Recital - Chopin Nocturne And Beethoven Sonata

Hi, My piano teacher is having adult student recital twice a year and this time I have attempted to tackle the following pieces: Chopin Nocturne in C minor op. posth. Beethoven Sonata 19 in G Minor Op. 49 no. 1 I am not very pleased with my performance, especially for the Beethoven. I am not experienced at performance and I get quite tense physically -as a result I lose the "flowing" quality of the music and I have a lot more rhythmic glitches and "tense" phrasing. I remember I had to remind myself to breath at certain moments during the performance. I am sure that you heard it so many times - I sounded so much better when I practiced at home. What can I do to minimize that gap? Maybe I just need more performance experiences, but if you have any suggestions from your or your students' experience, please share them. Also, any other feedback on my playing would be appreciated. Zack

The recording doesn't do you justice, really, I think you're doing just fine I can see some of the tension you talk about on the other hand at moments you forget to be tense! It's very hard to say something so I might be totally wrong I don't have Alans ability to diagnose. But I think you're tension is more than nervousness to me you're sitting uncomfortably and maybe your position does leed to accumulation of tension in your biceps/triceps. It's like if you're playing the haprsicord. Here is what I mean: It's good to find pianists with the same constituion and I guess, just guess, that you might ressemble Ivo Pogorelisch. What I think could improve your technique is: Playing more from the knuckles and establish a sceletal stability in the finger bones You could use at least some armweight even if I hardly dare to write it in this forum, you are to eager to stay "glued" to the keys the effort to look energysaving actually tense you up if you see what I mean Be more relaxed and involve your body like this: Best regards Eric

Thanks Eric. I agree with you that there are moments in the performance that really sound nice - I am hoping to make these moments more consistent and the other tense moments more of the exception. I can see what you are saying regarding playing too close to the keys and not enough from the knuckles. I think I can definitely improve on that and it will make all the runs clearer, more even, and have more singing quality. However, this is not my main concern with the current performance - a lack of robust pulse is the thing that disturbs my ear the most when I listen to it. I think it has a lot to do with the excitement/anxiety of live performance, which leads to physical tension throughout the body, which leads to an uneven pulse. This is especially evident in the beginning of the Beethoven - it takes me several phrases to "settle" on a somewhat constant tempo. I think your advice could help me - if I learn to use my entire body more consistently I will feel the motion of the beat more instinctively and will be able to maintain it regardless of stress. It might also help me reduce stress - moving and breathing at regular intervals. In one of my previous posts Alan recommended that I "push" the piano on every pulse note to help me physically feel a reliable pulse. I started doing that and it really helped me, but I think it is not an instinctive behaviour yet. My instinct when performing are apparently still to tense the entire body when reaching a technically challenging section and as a result the fingers move alone - disengaged from the rest of the body. That's definitely something I will focus on in my practice and I hope I can keep those habits even when performing in public. Great feedback. I would love to hear some more. Zack

A lot of confusion here. 1) The Landowska clip is great. She has wonderful technique, and it is interesing to see that it isn't really harpsichord technique at all but a piano technique adapted to the harpsichord. What I mean is, she articulates but does not do so in a way where she can feel the plectrum on the string before sounding the note. Fascinating. 2) The Pogorelich clip is interesting because it shows just how much inner tension there is in his supposed relaxation. Artistically and phyically HE is the tense one compared to Wanda - it's like night and day! You may be surprised to hear me saying these things but watch again and try to figure out what I'm talking about. 3) Now about your own playing. The one exercise which would most effectively lead your 'pianistic self-image' in a useful direction is the rolling-the-hand-forward exercise at the beginning of Honing. You have pretty good lumbrical action but with you its purpose is mainly to save your hand from falling off the keyboard. Its main purpose should be to sound the notes. So you have to achieve some pretty big changes to make this shift in the of your lumbrical action. This is for sure the source of your nervousness and lack of comfort. Alles Klaar? AFF

Thanks for clarifying things Alan. I am amazed by your ability to analyze these things from such a short video clip that doesn't show much of the hands Indeed, I have a lot of lumbrical action, and I use it to prevent the hand from falling. I think I have a misinterpreted some of your ideas because I though that this is what I was supposed to be doing! I thought "unstable equilibrium means the hand is "almost falling" but then "saved" by the next finger playing in a similar way to running - we throw our body forward and we fall on our foot instead of falling down, which in turns throws us forward again. Obviously I was wrong. I need to go back and re-read those chapters and do these exercises. Zack

Ah, the trouble with trying to communicate these ideas through the written word... well, at least we have the forum to discover the misinterpretations and correct them! I am writing a new chapter about that just now which is perhaps why it's on my mind - it's not the movement per se but what the function of the movement IS... In this case it's to MOVE THE KEY not to save the hand. But you bring up a good point - in my version of unstable equilibrium you stay so close to equilibrium that you don't have to bring yourself back... the fingers just manipulate the keys cleanly... Thanks for the opportunity for clarification! AFF