Our bumper Practice Clinic this month features answers to questions on pedalling, playing cantabile, practising chords, arpeggio fingering and pesky polyrhythms in works by Sibelius, Schubert, Mayerl, Piazzzola and Beethoven!
Practice clinic questions
Sibelius Etude, Op. 76 No. 2 – My hands are on the smaller side so they get tired halfway through the piece. Do you have any suggestions to play the right-hand melody in a relaxed manner? Secondly, how much should I pedal for this piece? Some recordings online play the left hand very shortly, while some pedal heavily throughout. Lastly, how do I make this piece sound interesting given that there’s so much repetition?
Schubert Impromptu in A-flat Major, Op. 90 No. 4 / D899 – How can I best achieve a singing line in the upper voice of the right hand in the middle section (trio)?
Billy Mayerl Marigold – I finally have a fingering for the arpeggio figure in bar 5 on pg 7 that seems to work and it feels comfortable under the hand. However, despite practising it every way I can think of, it ‘sticks’ or comes out bumpily. I’m at the point where I’m dreading it, knowing that SOMETHING’s going to go wrong, it’s just a matter of what!
Correcting a cocking wrist – I have a young student who cocks her wrist up when playing. I tried adjusting the height of the bench and keeping a distance from the keyboard, but she still has this habit.
Piazzola Milonga Del Angel – Can you advise me on how to practise the big chords in bars 33 to 44? Furthermore, do we need to pedal throughout this section and if so, how?
Beethoven Sonata in G, Op 14 No. 2 (1st mvt) – My question is how to approach the polyrhythms in the first movement, e.g., bars 81-98. Would you do a similar practice to your suggestion for the Chopin Fantaisie-Impromptu which was a miracle fix?
Next practice clinic & new format
Going forward, our practice clinics are no longer taking place on Facebook live but are rather pre-recorded and published alongside our regular blog posts. Please sign-up to our mailing list here for updates on future practice clinic dates and to receive links to the recordings when they become available.
Watch previous clinics
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How they work?
Further information on how our practice clinics work is available here or please click here to find out more about the Online Academy.
Online Academy subscribers can submit questions for practice clinics up to two weeks before each session. This can be done using the link provided on the Online Academy dashboard under “subscription benefits” (click here to sign-in and visit your dashboard).
Further information on how our practice clinics work is available here or please click here to find out more about the Online Academy.