Is Clair de Lune too hard for me?
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I posted this question on Piano Tell, but I think many of you here may have helpful advice, so I wanted to ask here as well.
A few weeks ago, my piano teacher and I looked at Clair de Lune and she said she thought I was more than ready to tackle it. I now have a new teacher (that’s how the uni music school works) and she agrees, so last night I started working on it. But I’m worried it’s too hard..
I was looking at the score for Arabesque No 1 and Reverie and they both look easier than CdL… and the patterns look quite similar to other things I’ve played.
So here’s my question: would playing either (or both) of these pieces, Reverie and Arabesque No 1, before starting CdL make CdL much easier to learn?
When I spent some time last night working on CdL, I felt like it was much harder to read through than I’d anticipated. One thing that felt challenging was making fingering decisions, especially in the section that starts in measure 27 …
It’s not that I felt the piece is beyond me, but more that it felt like I would have to devote so much time to it that I couldn’t really work on much else… which is not how I want to spend my piano time.
OTOH maybe I just need to spend a little more time with it (I was exhausted last night and didn’t get to the piano until after 9pm, so that didn’t help). Maybe working through fingering choices for a few key sections would make the rest of it easier to get through.
Anyway, so my core question right now is, would Reverie and/or Arabesque No 1 act like stepping stones to Claire de Lune? And if yes, which one would you recommend to start with?
Or is it possible that neither of these pieces would necessarily prepare me for CdL because CdL has challenges that are a bigger jump? (metaphorically speaking, not literal keyboard jump!)
TIA for any comments or advice any of you can share!
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Trust your teachers.
What grade have you passed & how long ago?
I'd add, the bars are quite repetitive regarding fingering...
And the fingering on the free music I limked on the other thread works wellVentosa viri restabit
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IMO, Clair de Lune is not much harder (if any) than Arabesque No. 1, some might even find Clair de Lune easier. I think Reverie is harder than either of them. Fingerings shouldn't stop you from working on a piece, and I think fingerings for Clair de Lune are easier to come up with than either of the other two. They can always be worked out and your teacher should be able to contribute to that. I am a big believer that one should be working on a piece that is just beyond one's current ability. The struggle is real but it is how one grows.
So here’s my question: would playing either (or both) of these pieces, Reverie and Arabesque No 1, before starting CdL make CdL much easier to learn?
They might but I don't think it's because they are easier. If someone asked me to prepare one of these three for a student recital next month, I'd pick Clair de Lune. But everyone is different.
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Trust your teachers.
What grade have you passed & how long ago?
I'd add, the bars are quite repetitive regarding fingering...
And the fingering on the free music I limked on the other thread works wellthanks for the comments everyone!
What grade have you passed & how long ago?
I have never taken any grade exams, so I don't have a sense of my level. I've been playing for over 25 years, but I started as an adult.
Although, one piece I'm close to finishing is apparently an ABRSM grade 6, and that piece is easy for me. The internet AI says CdL is grade 8, so that should be do-able in theory...
Clair de Lune is not much harder (if any) than Arabesque No. 1, some might even find Clair de Lune easier. I think Reverie is harder than either of them.
this is interesting because just looking at the score, CdL looks harder to me...
re fingering
They can always be worked out and your teacher should be able to contribute to that.
Yes, but I don't want to spend my whole lesson working out fingers for the whole thing, if it's a piece within my level, I ought to be able to do the bulk of it myself.
OTOH, learning this would probably push me forward...
Anyway, I'll see how I do during tonight's practice.
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Re fingering, I spent an hour at the dining table adding numbers to various notes (on the third(?) day of practising it) copying from the free music link; then another hour playing it & pausing to add more.
Worth the effort.I spent an hour at the dining table adding numbers to various notes
Wow! I can't do that kind of thing away from the keyboard!
And one of my concerns with CdL is that it won't just be a matter of figuring out the fingering, because I won't know what fingering to choose...
Anyway, as I said, I'll look at it this evening and see what I think.
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You are more than capable of learning it.
I have never played it. But, I'm pretty sure I could learn it. I have been so focused on Chopin over the past year that I feel like I should move on to a different composer.
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You are more than capable of learning it.
I have never played it. But, I'm pretty sure I could learn it. I have been so focused on Chopin over the past year that I feel like I should move on to a different composer.
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Trust your teachers.
What grade have you passed & how long ago?
I'd add, the bars are quite repetitive regarding fingering...
And the fingering on the free music I limked on the other thread works wellAnd the fingering on the free music I limked on the other thread works well
This one, right?
https://vmirror.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/5/5a/IMSLP664379-PMLP2397-SheetMusic_29267.pdf
I wish it were bigger, but it’s very helpful!
I think I’ll use my Henle score and use this one tonight in some fingering away from the keyboard.
Also I just realized it suddenly seems much easier if I turn my iPad sideways, bc the score is larger and easier to see
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Yes.
I'd be surprised if the linked music and the Henle have many differences in fingering. There's usually an accepted best way for fingers.(e.g. no matter how big your left hand, arpeggios will need a certain finger next over your thumb in preparation for the continued run.
Although the lowest note may be played with 5 or 4 if hands are big and it helps flow.And in the right hand for thirds, where all hand sizes will find a run easiest with the same fingering depending on how black notes fall, and what's to be played next)
Ventosa viri restabit
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You are more than capable of learning it.
I have never played it. But, I'm pretty sure I could learn it. I have been so focused on Chopin over the past year that I feel like I should move on to a different composer.
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Yes.
I'd be surprised if the linked music and the Henle have many differences in fingering. There's usually an accepted best way for fingers.(e.g. no matter how big your left hand, arpeggios will need a certain finger next over your thumb in preparation for the continued run.
Although the lowest note may be played with 5 or 4 if hands are big and it helps flow.And in the right hand for thirds, where all hand sizes will find a run easiest with the same fingering depending on how black notes fall, and what's to be played next)
Yes.
I'd be surprised if the linked music and the Henle have many differences in fingering. There's usually an accepted best way for fingers.I’m going to sit down (at a table, not at the piano) and compare the two scores. It might be that the one you linked just has more fingering written in.
Anyway, practice went much better last night. I just focused on the first 15 measures. Oh, and as I wrote about, I turned my iPad sideways so that the score was much bigger. That might seem silly but I feel like the Henle score I have is rather cramped and it just made it feel hard to read.
As soon as I could see it better, it became much easier to read-play and that made a huge difference in subjective feeling of “difficulty.”
I also decided not to work in the part that starts in measure 27 (where the LH from chords to 16th notes). I’ll work on that with my teacher. Or maybe I’ll work on it this weekend, turning the iPad sideways makes everything feel easier
Anyway, thank you again everyone for encouraging me. I may yet decide this is too hard and put it away, but I’ve done that with a lot of pieces, and then when I come back to them, they are much easier the second time around. CdL is only 72 measures. If nothing else, I will aim to get through the end of it before putting it aside.
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Yes.
I'd be surprised if the linked music and the Henle have many differences in fingering. There's usually an accepted best way for fingers.I’m going to sit down (at a table, not at the piano) and compare the two scores. It might be that the one you linked just has more fingering written in.
Anyway, practice went much better last night. I just focused on the first 15 measures. Oh, and as I wrote about, I turned my iPad sideways so that the score was much bigger. That might seem silly but I feel like the Henle score I have is rather cramped and it just made it feel hard to read.
As soon as I could see it better, it became much easier to read-play and that made a huge difference in subjective feeling of “difficulty.”
I also decided not to work in the part that starts in measure 27 (where the LH from chords to 16th notes). I’ll work on that with my teacher. Or maybe I’ll work on it this weekend, turning the iPad sideways makes everything feel easier
Anyway, thank you again everyone for encouraging me. I may yet decide this is too hard and put it away, but I’ve done that with a lot of pieces, and then when I come back to them, they are much easier the second time around. CdL is only 72 measures. If nothing else, I will aim to get through the end of it before putting it aside.
As soon as I could see it better, it became much easier to read-play and that made a huge difference in subjective feeling of “difficulty.”
I also decided not to work in the part that starts in measure 27 (where the LH from chords to 16th notes).
As I have become less young I've noticed that having good light and a good manuscript is more important than ever.
The nice thing about the chords at measure 27 is that they are easily recognizable.
The industrial revolution cheapened everything.
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As soon as I could see it better, it became much easier to read-play and that made a huge difference in subjective feeling of “difficulty.”
I also decided not to work in the part that starts in measure 27 (where the LH from chords to 16th notes).
As I have become less young I've noticed that having good light and a good manuscript is more important than ever.
The nice thing about the chords at measure 27 is that they are easily recognizable.
As I have become less young I've noticed that having good light and a good manuscript is more important than ever.
I may actually be in need of a new glasses prescription. But I also think it has a lot to do with the layout of the score I have, and the harmonic density of the notes.
So anything that makes it easier to read, and makes it feel easier to learn, is all to the good!
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As soon as I could see it better, it became much easier to read-play and that made a huge difference in subjective feeling of “difficulty.”
I also decided not to work in the part that starts in measure 27 (where the LH from chords to 16th notes).
As I have become less young I've noticed that having good light and a good manuscript is more important than ever.
The nice thing about the chords at measure 27 is that they are easily recognizable.
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Hay SK, This should get you going.
Link to video
Thought I had seen Hugh Sung was doing something like this.@CHAS Oh nice, thanks for the link! I've seen other Huge Sung videos, he's quite at explaining things!
@bernard I think he is or was a partner or employee with Cunningham? Maybe someone else here remembers...
Ok, I was mostly right, I checked Wiki, it says:
Sung became the Director of Institutional Solutions at Cunningham Piano Company in 2016, and then became its Vice President in 2018.
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Here's the second video:
Link to video
The video is something of a trip back in time.
There are at least three in this series, maybe more?I wonder if these videos were made back when there were more time limits on what you could upload to YT...
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