Practising Chords (Part Two): An Extract from Rachmaninov

In this post, I aim to give a thorough approach to practising an extract, the return of the “A” section from Rachmaninov’s famous warhorse, the Prelude in C sharp minor, op. 3 no. 2. I have chosen this because it is a good example of a reasonably extended stream of full fortississimo chords (interspersed with some double octaves) that uses the full range of the keyboard. It calls for a certain amount of stamina as well as an ability to measure distances accurately. The passage in question occupies four staves, two for the RH and two for the LH:

Firstly, the right tool for the job is a strong grip in the hand to support the transfer of weight from the shoulders and upper body through the keys. The fingers will be in touch with the keyboard before the release of weight – certainly not landing from any sort of height, as this would produce bad sound, extraneous noise and there would be next to no control of right notes, let alone of voicing. Have the hands on the surface of the keys before playing, feeling the appropriate (strong) grip in the hand. Grip does not equal tension, at all. If you were transferring a fledging back to its nest, you would need a very different sort of grip in your hand from the one involved in carrying a tray of lasagne to the table (each of these braced conditions happening naturally and spontaneously with no need whatever for conscious thought). The best way is to imagine that with one thrust generated from the torso you are aiming to shove the piano through the wall ahead. It will be a short yet powerful burst of energy away from the body. As soon as you sense the key bed (or actually a nanosecond before this), all effort ceases. The trick here is to release the effort as quickly and as completely as possible before moving on to the next event. It might also be helpful to feel an almost imperceptible grabbing motion in the hand, as though you were going to make a fist, except that you use only the very first part of the range of motion from a naturally curved finger to an actual fist. I recall an exercise I used to do to strengthen the small muscles of the hand with a large sheet of newspaper when broadsheets were still in use. Being strict about using one hand with no help from the rest of the body or other surfaces, you screw up the page into a ball.

Before we go much further, we will need to make sure the (not inconsiderable) distances between each event are measured extremely accurately in the practising so that there can be a sense of bravado, élan and panache in performance (isn’t it interesting that foreign words describe so well the “je ne sais quoi” of the mystery and magic of performance?). The paradox here – there is a correlation between the sense of abandon in performance and the precision and care that have gone into the preparation.

I attempt to describe the two complementary practice methods I call “quick cover”, and “frogs”, indispensable for measuring distances in all piano music (if the verbiage is too convoluted, here is a video link to a demonstration of it).

QUICK COVER

• With each hand separately first (and then together), play the first chord and hold it. Like a cat ready to pounce, prepare yourself to move to the next event/chord. When you are ready, in your own good time, use an ultra-fast (yet free and loose) motion of the arm to move like lightning to the surface of the keys of the next chord. DON’T PLAY IT YET!
• Before playing, check to see that you arrived directly and dead centre of the keys, that no finger is in the cracks between the keys. What you are after here is a spot-on millimeter-accurate measurement of the distance involved both across the keyboard and within the hand
• If you were 100% accurate, and you got there fast, then go ahead and play the new chord. Now sit on this chord, and prepare for the next quick movement. Notice the tempo of the music is DEAD slow (there is no rhythm involved in this process actually), but the motions extremely fast indeed
• If your measurement was not 100% accurate, or if you overshot, undershot or otherwise fumbled then the rule is you are not allowed to play the new chord! Be like the ethical angler who discovers a stray Chilean sea bass in his net – throw it back. First learn from your mismeasurement however, so that you can make the necessary adjustments when you try it again. Perhaps the span between the second finger and the thumb wasn’t quite wide enough, so that the second finger was too far to the left?