Welcome to the first in a three part series on learning Clementi’s Sonatinas Op. 36 in C major. If any of you out there are piano teachers or intermediate level piano students, you are probably familiar with this piece. This is a great piece for students. I have personally taught it hundreds of times, and I have encouraged all intermediate level students to learn it. Today we are going to discuss some tips for the first movement.
This is a great piece because it was written in an era when pianos had no pedals. This allows the students to focus on the clarity and execution of their fingers. The two big techniques to master and differentiate in this lesson are finger technique and wrist technique.
The first recommendation I have for this piece is to memorize it. It is not that hard to memorize and it will serve you well to do so because you won’t have to be looking back and forth at the score while you are playing it.
Right in the beginning you will notice that you have a lot of different phrasing in this movement. You’ll need to learn how to utilize your wrists independently from your arms to get the proper sound and learn how to separate staccato from the legato articulations. If you play staccato from your wrist, you’ll be able to get a crisp sound.
In the right hand you have many passages of slurred notes which end with a staccato note. To tackle this, you press down on the first note of the slur and come up with the wrist on the staccato note. By utilizing the wrist in these sections you will be able to create a smooth slur with a crisp staccato. If you use your arm instead of your wrist, you will get a cumbersome sound because your arms are too heavy to respond quickly enough.
The other important thing for practicing this piece is to practice with the metronome. There is not much nuance of tempo. so it’s imperative that you learn to play the piece with the metronome to get the timing as precise as possible. I recommend starting slowly and working your way up to tempo to develop clean playing with security.
You’ll also want to make dynamic changes in this piece sudden and impactful. Play with extreme, sudden dynamic changes to give the piece clarity.
Thanks again for joining me here at Living Pianos. If you have any questions about this piece or any questions at all please contact us directly: Info@LivingPianos.com (949) 244-3729