Help with this rolled chord in Clair de Lune?
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5-4-3-2-1, but I have big paws. And a thumb that bends outward more than usual (don’t know what that’s called).
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I think I am going to leave out that Gb. If I do that, I can roll the chord in one motion.
It seems almost blasphemous to drop a note when this whole is all about tone colors, but it’s one nanosecond across the whole piece, and trying to get those five notes in was making my wrist hurt. Four notes seems much more doable.
We’ll see what my teacher thinks at tomorrow’s lesson.
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I think I am going to leave out that Gb. If I do that, I can roll the chord in one motion.
It seems almost blasphemous to drop a note when this whole is all about tone colors, but it’s one nanosecond across the whole piece, and trying to get those five notes in was making my wrist hurt. Four notes seems much more doable.
We’ll see what my teacher thinks at tomorrow’s lesson.
@ShiroKuro If it were me I'd leave out the Db in the left hand as it will be far less noticeable and a Db appears in the right hand as well so it won't be entirely missing from the chord. The Gb seems pretty important to the harmonic movement and it's the only Gb in the chord so it's elimination would make a big difference.
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@ShiroKuro If it were me I'd leave out the Db in the left hand as it will be far less noticeable and a Db appears in the right hand as well so it won't be entirely missing from the chord. The Gb seems pretty important to the harmonic movement and it's the only Gb in the chord so it's elimination would make a big difference.
If it were me I'd leave out the Db in the left hand as it will be far less noticeable and a Db appears in the right hand as well so it won't be entirely missing from the chord. The Gb seems pretty important to the harmonic movement and it's the only Gb in the chord so it's elimination would make a big difference.
Thanks so much for this suggestion!! I wasn't tracking that Db in the RH, but of course, there it is!
I played it w/o the Gb and thought it sounded fine, and it was sooo much easier to play, so I thought I'd go with that. But finger-wise, if I don't have to get 2 on that Db, doing 5-4-3 on Eb-Gb-Ab and then 1 on Eb ought to be relatively easy.
I will try this tonight when I practice.
Thank you!!!
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If it were me I'd leave out the Db in the left hand as it will be far less noticeable and a Db appears in the right hand as well so it won't be entirely missing from the chord. The Gb seems pretty important to the harmonic movement and it's the only Gb in the chord so it's elimination would make a big difference.
Thanks so much for this suggestion!! I wasn't tracking that Db in the RH, but of course, there it is!
I played it w/o the Gb and thought it sounded fine, and it was sooo much easier to play, so I thought I'd go with that. But finger-wise, if I don't have to get 2 on that Db, doing 5-4-3 on Eb-Gb-Ab and then 1 on Eb ought to be relatively easy.
I will try this tonight when I practice.
Thank you!!!
@ShiroKuro I barely notice it if the Db is dropped from the left hand. Think of it as changing the voicing (dropping the LH Db) versus changing the harmony (dropping the Gb).
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@ShiroKuro I barely notice it if the Db is dropped from the left hand. Think of it as changing the voicing (dropping the LH Db) versus changing the harmony (dropping the Gb).
I barely notice it if the Db is dropped from the left hand. Think of it as changing the voicing (dropping the LH Db) versus changing the harmony (dropping the Gb).
Yes, it makes total sense! I'm looking forward to trying it this evening. The big question is how it feels under my fingers. I will report back!
And thank you for this suggestion, now I won't look like an idiot in my lesson tomorrow for not having noticed this!
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@bernard I think you found the answer!! Leaving out the Db feels like it solves everything!
My wrist is very stiff (in terms of lateral movement) and when I bring my hand to this part of the keyboard, I just can’t get it in a good position. Leaving out the Gb, I was able to play the roll in one movement that sounded nice but it involved a fair amount of contortion that was pretty uncomfortable.
But by leaving out the Db, first of all, I can get all my fingers on the notes at once with no contortion, and crucially, no discomfort! So I could play that just as a block chord, which I couldn’t do when playing all five notes, and when playing the Db and leaving out the Gb, I could play it as a block chord but as I said, it was uncomfortable.
And second of all, even with the Db missing, it still sounds nice and lush, and it requires very little attention to get my fingers where they need to be. And that was after only practicing it for maybe 5 minutes.
Yay, thank you Bernard!
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@bernard I think you found the answer!! Leaving out the Db feels like it solves everything!
My wrist is very stiff (in terms of lateral movement) and when I bring my hand to this part of the keyboard, I just can’t get it in a good position. Leaving out the Gb, I was able to play the roll in one movement that sounded nice but it involved a fair amount of contortion that was pretty uncomfortable.
But by leaving out the Db, first of all, I can get all my fingers on the notes at once with no contortion, and crucially, no discomfort! So I could play that just as a block chord, which I couldn’t do when playing all five notes, and when playing the Db and leaving out the Gb, I could play it as a block chord but as I said, it was uncomfortable.
And second of all, even with the Db missing, it still sounds nice and lush, and it requires very little attention to get my fingers where they need to be. And that was after only practicing it for maybe 5 minutes.
Yay, thank you Bernard!
@ShiroKuro I'm glad it was helpful. Yay! Hopefully your teacher will be on board with it.
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@ShiroKuro I'm glad it was helpful. Yay! Hopefully your teacher will be on board with it.
@Bernard She was mostly on board. She sort of started out by saying that it's such a well-known piece and I might try to keep all five notes in the roll. But I said I didn't really want to strain just to get that, so she agreed to dropping a note. And she definitely agreed that the Db is the one to drop!
I'm working on this piece up through page three on my score, which is measure 34 (of 72) so I'm about halfway through it. I asked her what I should do for the next week of practice, whether I should focus of the first three pages or should I move ahead and work on parts that are new that I haven't looked at yet.
She said move ahead, so that was interesting to me.
I only have two more measures and then the key changes (for 8 measures before changing back). So I guess I should work on those two measures, and at least start the key change section.
I keep thinking I'm on the edge of giving up on this piece, and then something happens and it feels do-able... And then I realize that is total folly...
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