🎵 JJ's Piano Playing 🎹

Documenting the journey rediscovering my piano hobby.

Project maintained by jjvanzon Hosted on GitHub Pages — Theme by mattgraham

📈 Frédéric Chopin - Ballade Ⅱ

JJ van Zon, 2022

Practice Schema

Click here for method description.

Fragment	Read	Memorize	Technique	Expression
1a	- - - 8 -	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- - 5 - -
`--------`	`---------`	`---------`	`---------`	`---------`
2a	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -
3a	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- 2 - - -	- - 5 - -
4	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- - - 8 -	- - 5 - -
3b	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- - 5 - -	- - 5 - -
5	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- - - 8 -	- - 5 - -
`--------`	`---------`	`---------`	`---------`	`---------`
1b	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- - - 8 -	- - 5 - -
6a	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- - - 8 -	- - - 8 -
7a	- 2 - - -	- - - 8 -	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -
8a	- 2 - - -	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- 2 - - -
9a	- - 5 - -	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- - - 8 -
6b	- - 5 - -	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- - - 8 -
7b	- - 5 - -	- - 5 - -	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -
8b	- - 5 - -	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- 2 - - -
9b	- - 5 - -	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- - - - -
`--------`	`---------`	`---------`	`---------`	`---------`
2b	- 2 - - -	- - 5 - -	- - 5 - -	- - 5 - -
2c	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -
10	- - - 8 -	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- - - 8 -
11a	- 2 - - -	- - 5 - -	- - 5 - -	- - 5 - -
11b	- - - 8 -	- - 5 - -	- - 5 - -	- 2 - - -
`--------`	`---------`	`---------`	`---------`	`---------`
12	- - 5 - -	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- - 5 - -
13a	- - 5 - -	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- - 5 - -
14a	- - 5 - -	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- - 5 - -
13b	- 2 - - -	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- - 5 - -
14b	- - 5 - -	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- - 5 - -
`--------`	`---------`	`---------`	`---------`	`---------`
15a	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- - - 8 -	- - - 8 -
15b	- - 5 - -	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- 2 - - -
16a	- - - 8 -	- - - 8 -	- - 5 - -	- - 5 - -
17a	- - - 8 -	- - - 8 -	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -
16b	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- - 5 - -	- - 5 - -
17b	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -
18	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- - 5 - -	- - 5 - -
1c	- - - 8 -	- - - 8 -	- - - 8 -	- - 5 - -
19	- - 5 - -	- - - 8 -	- - - 8 -	- 2 - - -

Technique / Slow Practice.

The way I tend to do it, like before, seems to fail.
It seems the mind needs to follow the notes.
Slow practice works.
Then adding pace a bit. Bit faster than ‘slow’ is already good enough.
Then adding pedal end dynamic / expressive nuance.
Ever so slightly goes a long way.
Not ‘loud with body’.
Not fast with haste.
If it happens, let it be an exception.
It may lead to an OK performance counter-intuitively.
But the way I used did it seems wrong. It won’t work, it seems.

Fragment 2 ‘Roll Downward’ Technique

Some variations, the control / memory of notes seem less than desirable.

Fragment 3 ‘Arpeggios’ Technique

Quick left hand melodic passages bit a of a problem.
Perhaps apply ‘join point’ trick.
And try mirroring a cross-over motion, as the right hand would do it.

Fragments 7 ‘Chords Upward’ Technique

Right hand trouble, might try:
More mental awareness of notes, less motor memory.
Not too fast or loud everywhere.

Fragment 11 ‘Trill-Like’ Technique

Both memory and execution of the right hand lower trill like structure is less than ideal yet.
The control over the trills at the end deserve some attention.

Fragments 12 - 14 ‘Before the End’ Memorization

Just a little bit of memory problem here. Not a lot. Just a bit.

Fragments 16a - 18 ‘Coda’ Technique

Eye movement may matter.
Loud influences accuracy.
Awareness of body weakened.

Eyes ‘Following’

Sometimes I ‘need’ to focus my eyes on one part e.g. octave melody in left hand to hit them accurately.

Eyes ‘Still’

Other times I might be better off keeping my eyes still evenly on the entire piano keyboard to avoid confusion (fragments 17a and 17b).

Eyes

Eye position seems part of technique here. I have often ignored that, but separate focus on senses in piano technique seems appropriate.

Other Senses

Relying on other senses seems hard in these fragments, but needed.
If there are black keys near, this may even increase success of accuracy, because tactile sense can help.
I think I have a fragment here, where eyes cannot look at keys literally, but also tactile sense is not helped much by differences in key sensation.

Loud

That it is loud can influence accuracy. Maybe try to pretend it’s soft. Trying not try to be loud with emotion (that usually fails me), but loud using dry pressure or velocity. Emotion being added to the wish to hear something. So taking away emotion’s influence on body motion seems to matter a bit more when it is loud, in particular with with these fragments.

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