WTF-Beta

@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!

@Daniel said:

@adagiom Ok, I downloaded the app and created an account.

The Notice of Hearing has the following:

DATE x
Time x
Place: ZOOM
Meeting ID: x
PASSCODE: x
To attend by telephone: phone #

I don't understand.

Does this mean I need to log into Zoom and put the meeting code and password in the Zoom app on that day and time?

Yes that’s what it means. Do you have a laptop or desktop that you can use?

Do you know what "To attend by telephone:" might mean?

Generally that means you can attend by telephone but if you can avoid it, I would.

You should be able to make a practice zoom meeting since you downloaded the app, so if you haven’t already, try that.

@RealPlayer said:

REgifting.

So, that word does not bug me.... well, as long as it's used as a gerund

If someone says "Remember that book that Mark gifted me? I regifted it to Sue" then all bets are off.

Sinner

@Bernard said:

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!

@Rontuner said:

Voiced and regulated as close to the original, so they could quickly be swapped out

Yes, I've read that this isn't that difficult to do. I think the only real problem is making and fitting the actual keyboard, well, the only problem is that it's expensive.

@Bernard said:

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!!!

I have always hated “gifted” ever since I first heard it verbed. Like when someone uses it in the “she gifted me this book” sense.

For some reason it sounds less personal to me, like the receiver doesn’t actually have a relationship with the gift giver.

Separate from that I generally like verbing.

It all depends on the noun that gets verbed.

P.S. just in case: I realized in the OP photo you can’t see the clef, but the LH is in treble clef here.

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.

@RealPlayer you were probably looking at the FB page for this group:

PIANISTS FOR ALTERNATIVELY SIZED KEYBOARDS
https://paskpiano.org/

Maybe this:
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1C3jUD6KYr/?mibextid=wwXIfr

I have always wanted to play a 6.0 keyboard, but I’ve never had the chance. But I’ve read enough about it to think it makes a lot of sense to have the option.

@Mik BTW don't get me wrong, I'm very happy for you that yours was funded. Any studies getting funded in this admin should be celebrated.

But there is (was) a vetting process in place. Trump just ignored it, the way he ignores everything and just does what he wants.

So I wouldn't call that winnowing.

@Mik said:

some sort of winnowing going on

I feel like that's some next-level euphamizing to describe the way Trump operates.

@Axtremus

thanks @kluurs and @jon-nyc !

@jon-nyc said:

I like how the C hits before the A

me too!

BTW, I like my new teacher but she's no where near as dynamic and creative an instructor as my previous teacher was.

That's the way the system here works (uni music school), I don't have much choice, and my teacher last year is graduating in Dec (with a doctorate in piano performance) so she's not teaching this semester anyway.

It's fine, but it really underscores 1) how good my last teacher was, and 2) how inexperienced my current teacher is as a teacher.

All the ideas in this thread are things I don't think she would come up with, but I bet my previous teacher would. She had a trick or a solution to anything I threw at her.

/threaddrift

@AndyD thanks! I'll try to see where I'm sitting, and if I can lean more to the right. That's very helpful!!

@bernard omg! doing the mirror thing is brilliant!! I'm also going to try to do the LH rolled chords an octave (or two!) lower and just see how it feels, because I haven't tried that at all yet.

These two things (mirroring and moving lower on the keyboard) might also help me decide whether to use the thumb on the top two notes.

My current teacher has very small hands, like, to my eye, dramatically small. I'm 5'4" and have probably a slightly larger than average reach for a woman. She is quite petite, maybe only 5' tall, and her hands are very small and her fingers look short to me. But of course, she can get her hands to do all kinds of things that I can't. So I think the thumb on two keys things is probably something she has to do. And it sounds fab when she does it.

But I'm not sure I "have" to do it this way.

So I will try all these ideas -- leaning to the right more, mirroring to see how I'm using my body when the roll is in the RH, and then also playing lower on the keyboard to see what fingering feels natural -- and then go from there.

To your (@bernard point about making up exercises -- I was trying to play just the top three, 3-2-1 and it's really getting over "c" that is the problem. (also I think my 3-2-1 spread is stiff)

There’s a rolled chord in Clair de Lune that is giving me a lot of trouble. Here’s the score:

This is measures 25-27. Oh and for the record, CdL (this part anyway) is in Db major, so five flats.

The part I’m struggling with is the LH in measure 26. First I played it 5-4-3-2-1, then I tried 5-3-2-1-2. Neither fingering choice was working. Then my teacher suggested to take the Db Eb with the thumb (i.e. play them with the thumb at basically the same time o r maybe with a slight lag as the thumb goes down on Db first), so now I’m playing it 5-3-2-1-1. I’ve been trying to play it this way for the last few days.

But with each of these three options, I can’t seem to get it to sound right, or even passable. The rest of the LH here, and of course the RH, are all fine.

Any suggestions about how to practice it? Or any thoughts on these different fingering options? What fingering would you do?

@kluurs @bernard and @andyd any advice?

Anyone else, please chime in!

TIA!!

@Daniel thank you. It’s really frustrating.

Also, would you mind editing your post so that it doesn’t quote me like that? I might want to go back and delete this in the future, since it’s kind of personal.

Thank you in advance!

@Bernard that sounds like a great approach!!