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I gave up on this piece a few years ago in lessons. I tried it again but seem to have hit a wall again and not getting much further. Has anyone any practice tips or suggestions ?
This was the video the I first heard it. I put all the chords on the score so the notes are not the problem. I just lost with the jumping around of the voices particularly in 3 parts
This is the one. I have not played a fugue before and it jumps around so I get a lost easily.
From the last video, this piece seems quite difficult . a lot of jumps and need to play fast . You said "you have not played a fugue before"? Why not pick a beginner level fugue first then upgrade to more complicated ones like this one? Like "little fugue in g minor" , a slow mini fugue with clear subjects and structures, composed by Bach when he's just 20y old .
Rameau was grade 7. This is a grade 8 so it's not a huge increase. I think little prelude doesn't look any easier to me. I have played easier baroque for sometime now so it should be doable.
Ha ok. It is opus 87. In fact it is A major, because you said A minor and i did not recognize. It is a beautiful piece but rather difficult. Like all fugues, each voice is somehow independant. So it is not like a melody with chords, and with 3 voices it is more complex to coordinate. What works for me, but that is quite personal is that i do a quick pass at the piece, understand the architecture, harmonic progression, rhetoric, and then i study each voice, by section. For relatively simple fugues, i can sight read them but to play them at speed, i need to study how the voices get combined together. It gets easier with practice, but you need to play a lot of them before it becomes more natural. For some fugues, the layout of the 3 voices is fairly simple, but for others much less. These pieces require a very good hand and finger independance as you also need to be able to play each voice differently, more or less dynamic, staccato vs legato, ....
So all in all, this one would probably take you weveral weeks of work until you can reach a reasonable tempo and fluidity.
Suggestions: 1. Don't worry about thinking about the separate voices in the beginning. Only worry about holding notes to their indicated length and bringing out the theme when it enters. 2. Practice 1-4 measure at a time until you have them down. 3. Practice hands separately if needed. 4. Write in fingering.
The first 30 seconds or so seem fine in terms of no hesitations so it's mostly just a matter of practice IMO. After you can play it steadily at the current speed you can worry about increasing the tempo/
Maybe to supplement, as i was not very clear, in passages that are really complex, i would practice each voice separately then put 2 voices together and then 3. Also often times to help get the rythm right, i can play the same one note from one hand and the voice from the other. Once i am comfortable playing in rythm each voice, i would put together. I dont do that for every bar, just the ones that are really difficult to coordinate.
Another thing that helps is to play the voice eye closed just to get used to play the sequence. So nothing really fantastic, just a lot of detailled work and patient practice. When i practice these passages, i start slow but try to get to a reasonably close to target tempo relatively fast (10 percent). I try not to stay too long practicing at slow speed, once i have the passage under the fingers.
I think you can pick out your stumbling points from your video. You should note them in the score and work on them individually.
Sometimes you seem to be stumbling because you are not familiar with the way the music is going. Sometimes the problems are technical, like not being sure of the fingering, or how the rhythms mesh together. Try to identify exactly what the problem is in each case, and this will help you iron them out.
I have a query about this piece. I was told to bring out the melody whenever it comes out. the only time it was very hard to do this was at bar 21 where the melody is in the middle so I worked on bringing it out with the left and right hands. I had to draw a horizontal line to join on the music so I didnt get lost.
Is this correct? I have had a listen to youtube, which I often dont do, but it seems it is normally played faster. I can do this eventually but I'm wondering about bar 21. This is the other version at bar 21 and i cant really tell where the tune is so i'm not sure about bringing out the melody here.
Thank you for the tips. I have no teacher until hopefully next month seeking some tips still online.
It is less important to bring out fugue voices than to make sure that they stay connected. You have the difficulty that your digital piano is not particularly responsive nor even, and that makes it harder. I think that you should concentrate on playing the notes correctly for now, and work on the interpretation later.
