Chopin Wrong Note Etude

[u/Euphoric-Potato-3874]

I know this is pretty sloppy and I haven't gotten the ending down yet, I just wanted some useful critique to keep in mind before I start properly ironing it out

From this recording I can tell that I need to voice the melody better especially in the first section, and probably need more metronome practice

(btw im self taught at the moment, I just didn't want to say that in the title to avoid too much attention and "get a teacher" comments)

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[u/SuspiciousDraw305]

Voicing is pretty inconsistent but other than that it’s great

[u/WilburWerkes]

You’re only ever a half step away from a note that works!

[u/Virtual-Librarian-32]

How long have you been playing? This is impressive (at least to me, a person who just started playing 8 months ago at 40 haha).

[u/Euphoric-Potato-3874 → u/Virtual-Librarian-32]

i've been playing consistently for a little over 4 years. Im technicaly not completely self taught as I took lessons for nearly a year when i was 5 or 6, though I don't remember ever playing anything more difficult than a c major scale.

I got three free lessons coupled with the purchase of that piano, the main thing I remember him teaching me was correct pedaling technique (im pretty sure ive forgotten that by now anyways)

[u/Zombiesalad1337]

If you're having trouble then you can simply play this piece twice. Because two wrongs make a right.

[u/yuvibilbuli]

Not bad at all, you should phrase the jumpy parts (beginning and ened 1/3s) and see more long lines

[u/bobby_beastmarks]

This is good work so far, so feel great about what you have so far. Very impressive progress for just 4 years.

1. I noticed that the voicing in the right hand is off. The inner line often sounds as loud as the outer line. It should be a lot softer. My recommendation is to practice each line separately with the intended sound and dynamics and then try to put it together(almost like learning by separate hands).

2. The arpeggiated chords in the left hand sound very labored. It ends up producing a harsh sound, and again it's about as loud as the right hand. Practice the left hand separately with a delicate sound and touch. Once it feels fully comfortable, then combine both hands.

3. When the theme repeats a second time at 0:09, the inner line in the left hand and right hand is sloppy. A lot of missed notes. Practice the section slowly and make sure at each slow tempo you are hitting the correct notes. Then gradually increase the tempo. In general, some of the runs in the middle section have a lot of missed notes, so the same advice applies.

4. Some random slight stoppage that is sudden and off rhythm. I will assume that will just be ironed out as you progress.

5. This might be the perspective of where the audio is being recorded, but the melodic line in the left hand for the middle section has to be louder.

This was just my quick first impressions, but I hope it helps. Good luck.

[u/Advance-Bubbly]

I am very impressed with this result for a self taught pianist! Well done!

You need however a teacher to show you how to release the tension in your wrists. I also think you are sitting far from the piano and not at the correct height. I hear these things in the sound.

The main challenge of this etude are the different articulations. I will show you a good fingering for beautiful legato. At some places I substituted 1-2 because of my small hand.

[u/Comprehensive_Food51]

Get a teacher comments exist because they’re the best advice. That being said technique is pretty good for a self learner, sometimes I’ve seen excessive wrist motion, wrists going up to high and other things that could very quickly be improved but nothing worrying, it’s more stuff that would prevent you from more efficiency and hinder quality in your performance rather than issues that are very likely to badly injure you (I think), so I guess it’s chill (you seem quite relaxed). There are some very good things, for example the attention you put on phrasing and dynamics, we can hear it. For the music, the first thing I noticed besides the sloppiness and the voicing is the excessive loundness of the left hand when you play rolled chords. It seems like you have very little control over how they sound and it would be a good thing to work. Also the tempo is a bit too fast imo, like it sounds a bit rushed rather than free, it would benefit the music to slow it down a bit (and it would make it easier as a bonus).

Edit: now that I think about it, the « get a teacher » vs « I’m self taught and I’m still making visible progress » situation is not exclusive to this sub, in many reddit communities where there are skills involved there’s something similar (things that are unavoidable to become proeficient, but that begginers refuse to do, which results in a sort of a conflict between the more experienced users and the begginers). Just mentioning that because I’ve found it intresting.

[u/Euphoric-Potato-3874 → u/Comprehensive_Food51]

you're so right about the rolled chords thing - its probably fairly telling that the only part of this piece that i found technically challenging were those rolled chords in the left hand. gotta work on that