A Piano Teachers Journey with MDP

Very technically driven, this piece is fun to play, with simple and clear musical goals. Good for studying in conjunction with Level 8 Arpeggios! Main ideas and challenges presented Clear and smooth arpeggios in BOTH hands. The tendency is for LH to be the worst culprit in this matter. Suggestion to begin by practicing LH alone. The broken chords at m. 17 can be problematic. And this pattern in m. , I would consider to be the hardest part of the whole piece because it can be difficult to execute with consistent accuracy.  Other tips and consideration Focus on efficient motion with no extraneous arm movements. Allow for a “magnetic” sensation into the bottom of the keybed.

Fast and fiery, this is a great piece to work on balance with a LH melody. Main ideas and challenges presented : Balance between the hands - melody (in the LH) should always be the focus. Chords have to be controlled carefully. This is a great tool for dynamic range, but only if the chords are played with tidy ensemble (e.g. notes of the chord come down precisely at the same time.)   Tempo and meter go hand in hand for this piece. If the piece is not felt “in 1,” rather a fast “3” it has the strong possibility to sound pedantic and is more likely to drag. The right metric accents and general intention will drive the student to play in an appropriate tempo.   Pedaling is a concern as is always the case when LH has melody in romantic style music.  Remembering too that something that sounds over-pedaled can actually be related to voicing issues (too thick chords, too heavy RH). Other tips and consideration: With the intense A section, it can be ...

Our Set-Up: Since my teacher is in Canada and I am in the United States, we meet via video-conferencing software. In this case, Google Hangouts, which allows me to simultaneously record my lessons for archival purposes. Additionally, we had to search long and hard for a method to exchange currency. Luckily, Paypal has an awesome system for that! I have set it up so that my iPhone camera is aimed horizontally at my hands from near the keybed and my laptop is situated behind me catching part of my hands from the other side and my body overall. The laptop camera is also our main form of communicating during the lesson. On Practice - Of course with the excitement of a new project, I started out of the gate with a lot of enthusiastic practice leading up to my first lesson. However, the few days before were a holiday weekend, so that put a big damper on my presentation at the lesson. Since then, I have found practice on the weekend nearly impossible. Practice during the week is no easy...