MAKE VERY FAST SCALES AND ARPEGGIOS SOUND LIGHT AND EFFORTLESS // Grieg Piano Concerto Tutorial

Hi, this is Danae, and in today's video we will be talking about the opening of the third movement of Grieg's Piano Concerto. This opening contains some of the fastest passages. It has to be played in an extremely fast tempo, so today I will be sharing my personal tips and tricks on how to and what to look out for to make them sound as brilliant and as virtuoso as possible. So if you are interested in that, then keep on watching. First off, as I do with any hard passage, of course I practice these passages slowly. I try to play them at an extremely slow tempo so that my fingers really get used to the position that they have to be in, really get used to the keys that they have to press, before I get into the actual very fast final tempo. I isolate the very first passage, which essentially is a B major chord with a 7 going upwards in both hands, not in a parallel way, each hand is playing different notes, but it is a B major chord going upwards, and I isolate that and play it with the exercise that I always add one note. So this means that I start by playing the first two notes, then I completely relax my arm, I've talked about this exercise in previous videos as well, then I add the third note, I kind of bounce off that note in order to make sure that everything is relaxed, I go back to the first B that I'm starting with, I add the fourth note, I add the fifth note, and so on until I have the entire passage. I do the exact same thing with my left hand, and again I make sure that I really am very relaxed in between those passages, so even if I'm just playing three notes, I take my time to bounce off the note, relax by putting my wrist forward, and then go back to the starting note. Then, because the passage is not played in a parallel way, which kind of increases the difficulty, I do the same exercise with both hands together. So I start again by only playing two notes, bounce off of it, relax, then add the next note, and the next note, until I have the entire passage with both hands. Now I would like to say a couple of things about this passage specifically. I have the Hindle edition here, it's the Vortex edition that I can really recommend, and I want to talk about the fingering a little bit. So as you can see, Hindle actually recommends to use the fifth finger twice on that F in the left hand, and then on the B. So play the fifth finger twice, and I actually do that. As you can see, I've actually circled it, because I find it extremely helpful. You have that fifth finger on the F, kind of as a first, let's say, statement bass, and then you start the passage with both hands. Because the first note is in the left hand only, it really helps to kind of separate it from the rest of the arpeggio, and then start after you've played that first fifth finger with both hands. So repeat the fifth finger. So this is definitely a fingering that I would recommend. Also, the next thing you can see that I have marked is this, which basically means that I want my right hand to play this D sharp. So I play this in my right hand with 5-2, again, just like Hindle suggests. And I also find that an extremely helpful suggestion, because the left hand ends on the thumb on the last B, and then it is so convenient if the right hand can play the D sharp. So I would definitely recommend using those two fingering suggestions. And then probably my most important tip is to think of an umbrella. Now you might ask yourself, what does this umbrella mean? And I just want to show you that in my score, I've also marked it. You can see this right here. This is supposed to be a tiny umbrella. And I use this umbrella as a metaphor and as a picture, as a visual cue for me. I think of the umbrella as a sound umbrella. And I think of the umbrella as the F in my bass. So the fifth finger of my left hand kind of is the base of the umbrella. And then the whole arpeggio, the whole passage coming after that, goes under the umbrella. So I kind of imagine a sound unfolding like a visual umbrella, and then all the other little, very fast notes going underneath that umbrella until the final chord, well, actually interval, which is in my right hand, the D sharp and the B. And I find this extremely helpful because this passage, as I mentioned in the beginning, is played at such a fast tempo that it is almost impossible for you to think of every note separately. You can't think ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta because it's just bass brum-pa. And this brum motion, for lack of a better word, is what I like to think of as an umbrella, and it helps me to get it to that fast speed. Also, it kind of divides, in my mind, the notes into important notes and, let's say, unimportant notes. Obviously, every note is important, but if you have so many notes in such a little amount of time, it is important for you to know which ones you have to really get securely out there to your audience and to your listeners, and which ones you can just kind of muffle up within the umbrella. Also, of course, you have the pedal going throughout this entire bar, which helps with this umbrella sound, and I find the umbrella metaphor makes it technically easier as well. Now, I played this concerto for the first time, I don't remember exactly, but I think it must have been about 10 years ago, and I remember practicing this bar so much, and I was very nervous about it, because that third movement opens, and then you have this very uncomfortable passage to play. And I remember this umbrella trick helping me a lot. I practiced it a lot first, trying to just play it incredibly accurately and think of each note, like I would usually also suggest when you have a fast passage, but then I tried to rethink it and use the umbrella trick, and it really, really helped me and made me play it in concert in a comfortable way. So, in the end, what I would recommend for this very first bar is focus mentally on the bass, play that in a very grand forte manner with your fifth finger, then rethink, have an arpeggio under the umbrella, if you will, and then the last interval in the right hand has to be very clear and brilliant again. Once you've mastered this first bar, it continues being quite demanding, because you have four chords that jump on the keyboard, and then you have another fast passage. Now, the good thing about the next passage coming up is that it is a simple harmonic A minor scale, so if you have been practicing your scales, this shouldn't be too hard, or at least not unfamiliar for you. Of course, this kind of is more in your fingers, but again, of course, I practice this slowly first, and then I practice this in a way that I play each note staccato, just to make sure, again, that my fingers know exactly where they have to go. And then I also play one note and then repeat the following note twice, then hold that note, and then again repeat the following note twice. Do these exercises to ensure that my brain knows exactly how to play this accurately, because I just want to make clear that when I talk about this umbrella, I don't mean that you should not play it in a clear way. You have to first be able to play it in a clear way, but the umbrella is there to help you play it even faster and make it sound like one big whoosh passage, when in reality you have to play every note. The umbrella is just the next step after you are able to mentally separate each note and play each note individually very clearly. Now, also for the second passage, I would like to point out a couple of things. As you can see in the score, there are extremely many notes, 27 to be exact, that you have to fit into this bar. And I'm just going to go ahead and say that this is almost impossible. And you can check recordings on YouTube of pianists, how they divide this bar. There are many different solutions. My personal solution is to make this chord go together with this G sharp. So basically, what I do is I start this passage a tiny bit earlier, fit instead of seven notes, I fit the whole passage until that G sharp into this bar, then have this chord match up with this G sharp and only, so to speak, have this passage to play until the first beat. Now, why am I even talking about this? Because you have the orchestra behind you or the second piano. If you're playing this with a second pianist, you have to match up with the beats. You cannot just take as much time as you want because it's going to be almost impossible for your accompanist or for your conductor to be together with you and to follow you. So somehow you have to get the downbeat of the bars together. So either you're going to be able to play 27 notes in that bar in this extremely fast tempo, or you can do what I suggested here, and play some more notes in the bar before, still get the first beat on time, but then have slightly less notes to play in that bar and be on the A on the first beat on time again. Again, I have heard pianists also just simply take their time and play that, and of course there are amazing conductors there that can catch you, but this is extremely difficult, and if you want to make the life of the conductor a little bit easier, it would be great if you can find a way to get these two bars within the beat that they're actually supposed to be played. So this is why I would suggest to play it like this. And now finally, the end of the opening of the third movement, again, is an extremely fast passage. I'll show you in the score. It is this passage. This time we only have 22 notes, but still very many notes, and also this time they are in both hands, which makes it slightly harder. Now before I get into my tips and tricks for this bar, of course I want to mention that, again, first I practice this slowly. And then I do the same things like I did before. I practice it staccato so that each note is secured. And then I also practice it in the way that I always press the next note two times, and then hold it, then press the next note twice, and so on. So once I have all of this secured, I also practice the left hand separately quite a lot, because personally for me, my left hand is my weaker hand, so I want to make sure that my left hand is just as strong and I can play just as fast as my right hand in this bar. Once I've done all that, I get into the tricks for this passage, and here you will often hear two methods of mastering this bar. Again, I would encourage you to check out many recordings that you're going to find on YouTube of pianists playing this concerto. What many pianists do is they simply use up three beats instead of two to play this bar. So as you can tell, this movement is a 2-4 beat, so we actually only have two beats to play this. But again, because it is so difficult for the conductor or accompanist to catch you just when you land on that A, if you're not exactly in those two beats but just slightly slower, some pianists say, okay, we're just going to take three clean beats, divide it into three beats, and then it's much more playable, and then we're going to end up together. This is completely fine. Many people do it, and for me, actually, before every time that I play this concerto, it kind of is a decision according to how safe I feel with this passage, whether I tell myself, okay, I'm just going to go ahead and tell the conductor three beats from the start, and then he's just going to do one, two, three, and we're going to end up together, or, and that's the second method, basically just try to play it in two beats. And playing it in two beats really is extremely fast, but I would again suggest the umbrella method. So try to think of the bass and then the big umbrella, and all the little notes fall under the umbrella, and then you end up on the A in two beats, if you can manage that. Personally, I'm playing this concerto in a couple of weeks. I still haven't decided which method I'm going to do in this concert. I'm going to insert a clip of me playing it in three beats, and then a clip of me playing it in two beats, so maybe you could tell me which one you think I should do, which one you think sounds better. Should I play it in my concert in a couple of weeks in three beats, or should I risk it and play it in two beats? So these were my personal tips and tricks for the very fast passages of the opening of the third movement of Grieg's Piano Concerto. Let me know what you thought of it, whether you found it helpful. The umbrella trick, as I like to call it, is something that I really use quite often when I am confronted with very fast passages. Let me know if you knew about it, or whether you are already using it, or what you usually do when you have to play such very fast passages. Thanks so much for watching! Please like and subscribe, that would help me a lot, and I will see you again in my next video next week. Bye!