AboutDonald Expertise I am a choral conductor/keyboard player/singer who is completing a DMA in music education. I can answer questions regarding music education, music history, music theory, general education, and conducting.
Experience Finishing a Doctorate (all but dissertation) in music. Passed comps in 2003. Over 20 years successful teaching and performing experience in all styles.
Question Hi Donald, Thanks for being a volounteer helper.
I am trying to learn a piece of piano music in which four notes are played in the right hand whilst a triplet is played in the left. If I apply math to this the top notes occupy three twelths each whilst the
lower notes are 4 twelths long. Based on this, the only notes to coincide are the first notes in the upper and lower staves. Am I applying math in this way inappropriately? The work (F Chopin op66) viewed in this way seems almost unplayable to me. Thanks again.
Answer I hear your frustration and I share it! Chopin is so difficult to play well! You are obviously an intelligent musician to be approaching the triplet/quadruplet in such a mathematical manner. Your assessment is correct. Percussionists are quite good at this ratio, but we who play keyboard instruments often struggle with these difficult rhythms. Try breaking the figure into a smaller chunk; i.e., try to play the first two notes in your right hand and the first one in your left. Then try the last two notes with each hand. Try to get a feel for what the two figures are, and then combine them.
Another strategy would be to simply estimate the figure and see if the notes would "fall" into place. Sometimes it is easier to use the other side of the brain (the intuitive side) when dealing with such a complex figure.
Finally, secure a good recording of the piece and try to get it into your inner hearing. This might help the abstraction to become more concrete.
I hope that one of these suggestions is of help to you. Don't give up! You sound like a fine player who has hit a rough patch. It will smooth out in time!
Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions, and good luck with your work on this piece.
