any advice? practice
feel free to add info so that the answers can better target your needs -- years studying, experience w/Chopin, etc. I would not recommend it if you are not done with Moscheles yet. But since you are attempting that, I suppose you must be quite advanced already. Ideally you should be able to play several Etudes of Chopin from opus 10 and 25 before you start studying Ballade no. 1. and Ballade No. 4 is even more difficult.
5 hours of practice a day is the key. Take the most difficult passages and play that over and over until you can no longer take it. Concentrate on that before moving to other passages. Don't play the entire piece at once when you are still beginning to study it. Have patience and perseverance. A question. I hope you want consider it stupid, but I'm surprised at the number of would be pianist who are unaware of it: HERTZ exercises for the piano? If you don't have it, I highly recommend that you get it, and use it.
If the above is not an issue, I can recommend the following:
First,try to memorize it section by section. Second, practice the fast sections slowly at first, gradually increasing the speed until you are up to tempo.
Third, pay close attention to all markings: dynamics, etc. If you want to impress an audience, don't innovate, take any liberties with how the composer meant it to be performed.
And as one of your other responders suggested: practice, practice. And I would add dittos, ten fold.
Good luck
Wotan |
