Tag Archives: piano lessons

How to Play the Beethoven Moonlight Sonata – Part 2 – The Third Movement

Welcome back to my two-part series on how to play the Beethoven moonlight sonata. Today we will be addressing a question from Dong about the third movement:

I’m still working on the 3rd movement of the moonlight sonata. I can’t get the measures 7 and 8: the problem is that I can’t do the broken chords while moving up octaves each time fast/ precise enough… can you give me some advice on how I should practice that?

For your reference, here is the section Dong is referring to in his question:

This part of the piece is much different from the ethereal first movement; it comes on fast like a bat out hell!

When you slow this part of the piece down you’ll find that it’s simply a broken minor chord going up by octaves, and then moves on to a diminished chord in the same manner. It is actually not so difficult to play once it is broken down into its component parts.

The secret is hand positions and finger patterns.

As I’ve addressed in previous videos, being over the right keys with each hand position change can make any passage much easier to play and helps to develop confidence in your playing.

In this piece, you simply play to the fifth finger – the C# – and then switch your hand position by placing the thumb on the exact same note you started with (the C#) and play the same sequence again.

In your slow practice – which we’ve addressed in a previous video – you’ll want to play up to and not past the 2nd C# – the one in which you switch hand positions and play starting with the thumb. If you play this correctly, you will end up instantly over the next cord simply one octave higher.

The trick is to position your hand over the chord as soon as you play the second C# with your thumb.

Start by playing slowly and then consistently practice faster and faster until you can get up to speed. Try just starting up until the second C# and get that up to speed, then move on from there to the next chord position.

The good news is that this is not just a technique for this piece or this movement. This hand and finger technique is something you can use in all your music. Being aware of hand position and finger patterns can make any technical challenge very manageable.

I’ve really enjoyed presenting these tips on how to play the Beethoven moonlight sonata and would love to provide some tips and help for other pieces of music as well. If you have any requests for other pieces or questions about this one, please email me at: robert@livingpianos.com

10 Tips for Practicing the Piano

tips for practicing piano

Use the music: After you have the piece memorized, you must periodically go back and read the score carefully. I suggest playing slowly without pedal and using the metronome for the most dramatic results.

Practice slowly: Fast practice is like moving in quicksand. You dig yourself into the ground by reinforcing mistakes instead of identifying and eradicating them as you do in slow practice. Slow practice is like putting newsprint under a microscope. You see all the imperfections. This enables you to refine your playing by identifying rough edges.

Practice without the pedal: While the pedal makes everything sound better, when practicing, you can not only hear more critically without the pedal, but you will also be able to quickly hear fingering problems before they become ingrained.

2888760718_f80b63c318Use the metronome: Even in music that has fluidity with the tempo will benefit from metronome practice. You need a reference of time to know how much you are bending the phrase with rubato. Also, when learning difficult passages, it is usual to slow down. Over time you may even overcompensate for difficult passages rushing them. Difficult passages can be mastered by increasing the metronome a notch or 2 at a time to speed up particularly difficult passages.

Take very small sections at a time: It is tempting to try to learn large chunks to save time. The problem is that it becomes overwhelming. If you take tiny sections at a time and master them, you will be able to sustain a productive practice much longer.

piano_playingPractice in chords when possible: Not only does reducing the music to chords help to clarify the structure, it also helps to figure out the best fingering.

Always put corrections into context: Fixing a mistake isn’t enough. After you have mastered a correction, go back and connect the phrase to the preceding phrase. Then go back to the beginning of the section and connect, or you will find your old mistake recurring.

Practicing should be like a fine meal, served in courses: If you divide your practice into different sections of activities, you will be productive longer. First you may do some memorization. Then you can work on refining previously learned material. Then perhaps scales and arpeggios, and then perhaps some sight-reading. Doing any one skill for too long takes much greater mental effort and you may not work at optimum level.

lennon_pianoUse the 80/20 rule: If you focus the majority of your time on the few places that are weak, you will get much better results than practicing equally on all sections of your music.

Be keenly aware of how you feel: It is essential to be relaxed, sitting comfortably at the right distance from the keyboard and at the right height to avoid injury. Also, you should take periodic breaks to stretch or at least take a short walk to keep your body limber. Be aware of any lingering pain and take appropriate steps to avoid injury.

How to Play Piano – Part 3 – Arms Equal Power and Depth

HOW TO UTILIZE PARTS OF THE BODY: Power Versus Speed

In playing the piano, different parts of the body are utilized according to the requirements of power and speed. The more power required, the more mass of the body is utilized. The more speed, the less mass is needed.

– Finger technique: When the utmost in speed is required, only the fingers will do.

– Arm technique: When massive strength is called for as in big chords, only the arms can provide enough power.

– Wrist technique: While not as powerful as the arms, the wrists are faster than the arms and more powerful than the fingers.