Is Clair de Lune too hard for me?

[ShiroKuro]

I haven't watched this one yet, but I'll post it here so it's easy to find.

Piano Lesson with French pianist, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet on How to Play 'Clair de lune'

Link to video

[Bernard]

@ShiroKuro Oh, that was wonderful! He reminds me a little of the teacher of our group class (except our teacher is Polish or German, I'm not sure which).

[ShiroKuro]

@Bernard oh good! I plan to watch it tomorrow morning

[AndyD]

Bars 27 & 28

Bars 29 &30

I'm playing as the score as written, bars 27 and 28 both start with 4 notes left hand, then 3 and 3 in the LH.

[AndyD]

Quite interesting is if you play the first page, 9/8 time signature, counting each bar as 123, 223, 323, and fit the notes... strictly, exactly.

[AndyD]

@shirokuro
I'd add that in bar 27 the second arpeggio in the right hand may be better played fast using 2/1/2 then 3with5 rather than slipping over 1/2/4 then 3with5. I'll choose what feels better when its up to speed. Such is the learning process.

[ShiroKuro]

@AndyD I worked on those bits a little bit yesterday, and my fingering is the same as yours. Of course I’m only just getting into this part, so it might change, or maybe my teacher will suggest a change. But this fingering is also in line with how the score is written, and I’d prefer to play it that way.

In his video, Hugh Sung says he tries to make fingering choices that avoid over-stretching the hand. This is a good idea as a general rule, and I usually do the same. But those LH notes are not held notes and you don’t need to keep your pinkie on that Db (for example) so I don’t think playing those first four notes with the LH will necessarily cause an over-stretch.

Actually, maybe it’s just as important to work on bringing the LH over (to the right) as you play those notes… I’m trying to remember which video it was, but I was watching someone play CdL with a nice overhead video shot and really noticing the horizontal movement of their hands.

Anyway, I’m not saying I’m in a position to question an accomplished pianist like Hugh Sung, but for now, I’m going with the standard fingering.

Also, as an aside, I seem to keep wanting to type this name as Huge Sung…. And the famous actor as Huge Grant…

(Sometimes you can’t blame it on autocorrect…)

[ShiroKuro]

Ugh. Yesterday’s practice didn’t go so well. I’m back to wondering if this is just too hard.

OTOH, it seems clear that the degree of difficulty I feel from CdL is inversely proportional to how tired I am. I need to stick it out until my lesson (Monday) and see if my new teacher can get over a few specific challenges — currently the section starting in measure 27 and the one starting in m37…

[ShiroKuro]

ShiroKuro said:

the degree of difficulty I feel from CdL is inversely proportional to how tired I am.

Or just proportional, depending on how you read that…

The less tired I am, the easier it feels. The more tired I am, the harder it feels.

Whatever. That’s why I only do qualitative research.

[kluurs]

You can definitely play it - I'll send you everything you need. DM your email and I'll send you a marked up score - with fingerings and other suggestions.

[jon-nyc]

You can absolutely play it. It’s no more difficult than many of the things you’ve recorded.

In m27 just work on the arpeggios first and add the right hand melody after. And even then practice slowly.

[ShiroKuro]

@jon-nyc @kluurs thank you guys!!

@kluurs I'll DM you now, thank you so much!!!!