chopin op 25 n 12 attack

A small recording to understand the problem? It's not very clear to me...

I agree with TheSimon, in general maybe it's better to let it rest.. the piece improves even if we don't play it for a short period of time

Ok...as soon as I get back to the city I will register. Thanks...

I used to start it with a rhythm well-framed within the groupings of four, making the low and high accents clearly audible, without thinking too much about it... impulsively... but without hammering, and aware of the fact that it starts with F but halfway through there is FF, so it's good to make the difference audible.

What is useful is to articulate well and follow the left hand closely to have the confidence of moving together with both hands; this is the main memory of how I used to study it (and how I would study it if I had to take it up again)

I am still at the seaside and therefore I cannot record...

i also focus on extreme accents and before starting I try to focus on the attack time, the hand position of the first arpeggio, and the physical sensation related to the execution. But even if it is improving as a problem, the fact remains that if I approach it cold, I am rigid, slow, and quite messy....after working on it for at least ten, fifteen minutes, it becomes just...fast, fluid, and clean. I would never feel comfortable performing it publicly...I wouldn't dare imagine what would come of it

But dear Nancy, it is an quite easy étude!!!! Precisely because it incessantly insists on the same piano gesture from beginning to end. I don't think Chopin made it the "twelfth" by chance! I have studied it, but not performed it. In the past, I wanted to read it, like many other études, to realize the type of difficulty and complexity. I must say that, naturally, as you will have already discovered, the balance of the two shoulders, the two forearms, the two hands, etc., is fundamental. The tricky part is that the body oscillates a little to reach the upper part of the keyboard, and this can lead to imbalance. Studying it in chords seems trivial, but in my opinion, it is not. Each of us has different finger lengths and therefore each of us assumes, with the hand, slightly different positions when playing the triads simultaneously. The fact is that, I believe, it is fundamental to find oneself in the entire position from the moment one plays the first of the notes of the "triads" themselves. I noticed that moving with the entire new position, without rotating the wrist at all, helps us repeat the same groups of notes back and forth, repeating the "same position," the very same "thing," without the idea of having to "turn" to change the position itself. Perhaps for you, maybe, Nancy, I am saying something trivial that you have already overcome. I learned this in the final arpeggios of Schubert's Wanderer or simply by playing the sixteenth-note arpeggios in the third movement finale of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. Finishing the arpeggio up to the 5th and then moving to the new position and vice versa, as if playing "loose" chords. I also find this mentally easier. In this étude, this type of technical trick is inevitable. A bit like what we said about scales: not thumb underneath, but thumb at the side. Never rotate the wrist. Thus, between playing the triad and playing the notes in succession... the difference in movement is minimal, almost imperceptible. I hope I haven't been trivial, otherwise, ad abundantiam! Enjoy your sea voyage!!!

....no Paolo, you weren't banal at all! I felt strange because the technique you describe so well is something I have acquired, and I can handle the whole piece well, feeling it as my own and no longer so difficult. It is probably more of a psychological problem. Trying to understand what is happening, I have the impression that the problem is a sort of initial stiffness. A wrong mental attitude.. which I am working on..

The things you suggest for practice are very useful; moreover, I have also worked on the fluidity of movement in the 5-1 change.. and I am satisfied with the result. It's a shame I can't play it effortlessly...

.......It's like flying. The first time you take a plane, you are happy, curious, excited, etc., and all of this leaves no room for fear. As you take more flights, you learn to know all the pilot's maneuvers, the ways of landing and takeoff, the approach method. In plain words, you acquire "more awareness" of what is happening. Don't you think it's the same thing in Music? Let's not forget to "want" to fly and let ourselves go. Let us even authorize ourselves to be fallible and not stand there thinking that from one moment to the next we might make a mistake. Music wants us to be available and willing to take risks. Only afterwards will we see what didn't work and why. You are good and you can afford to enter into the Music without asking "permission."

Today I was rewatching on SKY a concert by Mutter with André Previn, now seventy-five years old, at the piano. Great virtuosity in a Mendelssohn sonata. And yet tranquility and relaxation prevailed and transformed into great energy. Naturally, I am not saying this to you, Nancy. You know how to manage your technical abilities well. I say it because you give me the opportunity to generalize. Thank you and bye

.....your words describe two fundamental concepts wonderfully. Learning to let go by accepting the risks and the fallibility of the great pianistic gesture. Sometimes too many CDs are listened to and too few concerts. Often one is marked for life by castrating teachings....etc. and furthermore, one often remains entangled in one's own limits, without having the courage to launch oneself and fly free.

I am printing your words and I will hold them dear as one of the best lessons received. Thank you.

Thank you, I don't deserve so much.

Great discussion! I would say the study is very demanding; I wouldn't even dream of approaching such a study... my goodness. I fully agree with Paolo regarding the advice; my teacher always told me at a certain point... go, go... have faith in your hand!!! And it worked! Perhaps the psychological limit lies exactly in that, doesn't it?