Is Clair de Lune too hard for me?
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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 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.
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So thanks to @kluurs I had a very productive practice session last night, with much less frustration! I was working from a Henle edition score, which was fairly high quality. The nice thing about the Henle app is that you can adjust the size, but on the CdL score, the only thing you can change is the number of staves per page. This helps, but you can’t change the number of measures per staff line.
The score I had has five measures in the first line. The score Kluurs shared with me has three. All the notes are the same of course, but this score is just so much easier to read.
Then of course his score has tons of info, fingerings and more, so that is very much appreciated.
Yesterday I focused my practice on the first 26 measures, and it just felt like I made so much more progress.
Yay!
My next lesson is Monday and I’m hoping to have looked at some of the @kluurs !!
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Looking forward to hearing you learn & play it Shirokuro. I'll struggle along beside you.
Suddenly I miss my old (literally) piano teacher. She was in her 70's, and would occasionally demonstrate what she wanted by taking the seat and playing, always so beautifully. How, musically, would she have played it...
I realise there are very good players here and I'd really love to hear any of you (by my count at least 4) who know it, if you can spare 5 minutes for a quick recording please.
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Looking forward to hearing you learn & play it Shirokuro. I'll struggle along beside you.
Suddenly I miss my old (literally) piano teacher. She was in her 70's, and would occasionally demonstrate what she wanted by taking the seat and playing, always so beautifully. How, musically, would she have played it...
I realise there are very good players here and I'd really love to hear any of you (by my count at least 4) who know it, if you can spare 5 minutes for a quick recording please.
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@kluurs in measure 26, for the last rolled chord, are you moving that low C into the right hand, and then having the lowest note be the Gb?
@kluurs in measure 26, for the last rolled chord, are you moving that low C into the right hand, and then having the lowest note be the Gb?
If I understand you correctly, I play all 4 notes of the bass in the left hand - and the top 3 in the right.
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After answering I looked at what Bavouzet actually does - and he does it the same (4 bass notes in left hand) - see his video at around 16:34 - though he plays it a bit more straight forwardly than I do. Both Bavouzet and Debussy would probably hate that I introduce a ritard there - but then I'm not playing for a jury.
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After answering I looked at what Bavouzet actually does - and he does it the same (4 bass notes in left hand) - see his video at around 16:34 - though he plays it a bit more straight forwardly than I do. Both Bavouzet and Debussy would probably hate that I introduce a ritard there - but then I'm not playing for a jury.
After answering I looked at what Bavouzet actually does - and he does it the same (4 bass notes in left hand) - see his video at around 16:34
thanks!
Both Bavouzet and Debussy would probably hate that I introduce a ritard there - but then I'm not playing for a jury.
Me neither!Oh wait, conceivably, I could end up playing this for a jury...
(It would be my choice though)
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After playing with this a bit, I played it that way because that's how I learned it. After looking at it a bit more and playing it this afternoon, if I were learning it now, I might do what they recommend as that allows one to hold the important bass note. But then, of course, why Debussy not just put the c on the other clef - or some other indication? I'll defer to Real Player.
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Last October, 2025 I started taking lessons again. Jon's NYC Piano Party was the catalyst that prompted my desire to learn new pieces and to find a qualified teacher. I found the teacher and after about 2 months of me going to his, after my knee replacement surgery, he started coming to my house for lessons. We haven't been back to his place since. I think he likes my piano.
I started out with The Valse Op 64, No 2. Then moved on to two Nocturnes, Op 9, No 2, and Op 72, No 1.
I have all three of them memorized now. I play through all three at least once daily and since the Op72 No1 is my latest, I concentrate on polishing it more. I am still working on at least 2 or more areas in each piece to attain better accuracy, dynamics, etc.
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Last October, 2025 I started taking lessons again. Jon's NYC Piano Party was the catalyst that prompted my desire to learn new pieces and to find a qualified teacher. I found the teacher and after about 2 months of me going to his, after my knee replacement surgery, he started coming to my house for lessons. We haven't been back to his place since. I think he likes my piano.
I started out with The Valse Op 64, No 2. Then moved on to two Nocturnes, Op 9, No 2, and Op 72, No 1.
I have all three of them memorized now. I play through all three at least once daily and since the Op72 No1 is my latest, I concentrate on polishing it more. I am still working on at least 2 or more areas in each piece to attain better accuracy, dynamics, etc.
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