Hi Su,
Many thanks for your informative feedback answer to my question. I have a better idea now what you’re up to. And no, no worries, I don’t dwell at all on whether any responses to my post are coming. I leave that totally up to the OP!
Regarding the info you provided, a couple of things to consider:
1) Right hand shifts and discomfort
Sounds like, when you start to speed up past your comfort zone, your hand position changes and gets tensed up. That shouldn’t be happening.
What I would suggest, now that you have surely memorized the left hand movements, is to practice using a mirror, and focus your attention on the right hand, making sure that, no matter what speed you are playing at, it stays steady. No bouncing, turning or tensing up. If you can’t prevent it from happening, then you’ve exceeded your current speed limit. STOP. Turn it back down to where you are in control. And stay there for the time being.
Keep it clean and steady. With time, you’ll be able to notch it up. But the right hand has to look the same, just as if you were playing slowly. This piece is especially demanding of good right hand control.
Practicing with a mirror is very useful for this purpose. It should help you find your maximum comfort zone, i.e. where you need to be at this time.
(Speed will come later, but you can't rush it).
2) Metronome BPM settings:
Personally, I can’t deal with a metronome clicking away at those fast settings you mentioned. I’m not even sure how 200 bpm figures into the music itself, in terms of the pulse or what you’re hearing in your head.
What I would do is select a much slower metronome setting, and steadily integrate the various parts around that, rather than always the triplets.
Here’s what I mean:
I have a few transcriptions of this piece but the one I used many years ago is a Schott Edition (GA 445) by Konrad Ragossnig.
The piece is in 3/4, and his suggested tempo is (1/4 note = ~ 108).
That’s very fast. Faster than even many performances by top players. Perhaps also slower. But it’s a righteous goal nonetheless.
A suggested practice would be:
BPM 1/4 note = 60. Or even lower. Start at the first triplet section (measure 17), going as far in as you want, but with the thumb only, playing only the melody (two notes per click). Then, start over and add i at that speed, alternating with the thumb. Focusing on clean execution, with good tone.
Lastly, play the full triplets.
So, I would break it down like that, and minimize all those extra "full" steps you are doing, i.e. playing triplets only at various speeds.
It should help solidify your control as your fingers rhythmically adapt to the changes, at a steady tempo, but all the while keeping the melody in focus.
You’ll start thinking less about triplets, and more about the flow and expression of the music from measure 1 and beyond. (The triplets are really just an emotive tool for the music, not to be thought of as anything mechanical or separate from the rest. Not that you are thinking like that, but sometimes we tend to get stuck in a rut, especially dealing with technical challenges. It helps to look at the issue from a different viewpoint).
If you get past or around 80 that way,(i.e. 1/4 note beats) you are already playing it pretty darn fast.
Maybe that's what you meant by:
You're so right!. It's the kind of music that can sound good played and practiced at slow tempo. Use that as a helpful tool! I do it all the time.
I hope the above makes sense. Note: These are just practice suggestions on my part. In the end, you decide ultimately what works best for you!
