HOW TO PLAY FAST STACCATO OCTAVES AND SCALES ON THE PIANO // Schumann Piano Quintet Scherzo Tutorial

Hi, this is Danae, and today's video is going to be all about the third movement from Schumann's Piano Quintet in E-flat major. This is a very famous movement, it is the Scherzo, and it has quite a famous introduction for the piano, which is kind of technically demanding with octaves and with many non-legato quick passages. So I thought that today I would show you how I practice it and how I play it and what I look out for whenever I go to this piece. So before I start practicing it with exercises and dividing it into passages, I always play through this whole first section slowly. So now once I've done that, I start looking out for things that can help me mentally when I play this at the end tempo, because the end tempo is pretty fast, the score says molto vivace, so this means very fast, and the key thing for me is to have sort of checkpoints where I know that I feel safe and that I feel secure. So for this entrance, my checkpoints are the chords. So I will practice it in a way that I play the scale and stop at the chord and play the chord much longer than I would actually play it in concert, just to reinforce in my brain this is the moment to take some time and to feel secure before continuing with the next scale, and to avoid this type of rushing feeling. Because what can happen very easily is that you start rushing because you're stressed, you start playing scale after scale, and then in the end you'll kind of get lost in it. So I try to keep these chords as secure as possible and as metrical as possible by practicing them much longer than they actually are. When I play these chords, I literally try to feel them in my hands, I really picture my hands kind of sticking to them, I really create this mental image of I am in there, I am not going to keep on playing the scale before I take my hands out of the secure place and continue playing. I think the hardest passage is probably the octave passage, which is this one right here, and then also below this one. And as always, I practice these extra demanding passages in many different ways. So first I practice the left hand separately, then I practice the right thumb of the octave separately, and then I practice the upper voice of the octave separately. I find that when playing octaves, it is so helpful to separate the voices and practice them separately. One of my main tips when playing octaves is to focus on the thumb, to look at the thumb, don't look at the upper finger, because it is closer to your eyes and it is simpler to watch and to lead everything with the thumb, because your hand will know where the octave is, what your hand doesn't know automatically is where the thumb needs to go. So whenever playing octaves, always focus on the thumb. So this is also why I practice the thumb separately right here. Then I practice the upper voice as well, just to make sure that I really know, also independently with my upper fingers, where to go. And then I actually practice different combinations. So I take my left hand and combine it with the thumb only first, and then I take my left hand and combine it with the upper voice of the octaves only. So I feel like in this way I have practiced every possible scenario of combination of voices, and when I then actually put the octave as it is together and play it with my left hand as well, I feel like this is actually easier than just playing the left hand with the upper voice or only with a thumb. This is another general thing that I do whenever I have a technically hard passage. I try to practice it at home in an even harder way, for example with one missing voice that kind of feels uncomfortable, so that when I play the actual thing it feels very natural to me. Now the next thing that I do is I divide the scales into little sections of three, because we always have three quavers that belong to one group, and I reinforce those groups by playing these sections separately. Another general tip for this introduction from me would be to make sure that you really mentally think of every quaver. You have these E-flat major scales going up, which by themselves are not too complicated, you probably know how to play an E-flat major scale, probably also at a fairly fast tempo, but what happens when you play this, especially after the slow movement, you might be a bit stressed, then you have these chords in between and have to jump, and this is what's going to create the uncomfortable feeling, so I really try to be incredibly metrical, to really feel the pulse inside of me, and to mentally think each quaver. I don't think one bar, for example, I don't think ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta, but I really think every quaver, ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta. In my head I really try to separate every note, because I feel like this gives me an extra amount of security. Now going on to the second section, if you can call it that, of this introduction of the scherzo, the difficulty here are the little trills. They come up in forte and they also come up in piano. In the forte I really try to focus and mentally concentrate on the melody. This is why I practice the melody by itself, without adding the trills. That way when I add the trills, I feel like I really know where to go metrically, I really know where there is a heavy beat, where there is a light beat, and I don't get confused by the fact that the trill is there, but I really just kind of put it into the melody in a natural way. Also when I play these forte trills, I actually try to not think trill, so not really three notes, but I try to just think of one impulse, the first note, the C in this case, and then I just kind of add the second note in a super unimportant way, almost as if I would play the C and then only play the note once, and then let go of it and not play the C again. Of course that's not true, I do press the C again, but mentally I try to think of the first note as the impulse, so that it's a very fast trill with the first note being at the center. Because when you play through it in the fast tempo, these trills have to be incredibly on point, I really try to minimize the effort that it takes to play them. This is why I really focus on the impulse, on the first note, and let the rest kind of happen automatically. Now when you're entering the piano section of this part, there are also trills involved, and here I find it a little bit harder to use the method that I do for the forte, this first impulse, and then just let it happen, because in the piano I can't really create this type of accent because it wouldn't sound very musical and very natural in the context. Here I really try to play the trill a tiny bit slower than in the forte, and more as if it were part of the melodic line. So I really think one, two, three, instead of one note, and then just the rest happens. Within the piano section, the left hand has a very uncomfortable accompaniment. It has chord repetitions, four voice chords, this one, and then this one, and they have to be pianissimo, because the right hand has the melody plus the whole section is piano. So I really try to practice and find the point where the key goes up and the sound goes away, and where I can repress the notes successfully. So I try to really create minimal movement and not put my hand up here, but really stay inside the keys, somehow like that. And I try to find that sweet spot where the key goes up and the sound is gone, but I'm still not all the way up, so that I can quickly press it again because we're at such a fast tempo. When I play through, it's a very good chance that one of these chords is not going to be 100% there and 100% clear, and that's okay. It's not at all the end of the world. I just want to mention that because whenever I practice it, of course I try to get it perfectly, but when playing through, I find it more important that you are in this character and in the atmosphere, and you make it sound piano and delicate, than every voice, each of these four voices in each chord, being there super clearly. If one voice is not there in one chord, it doesn't really matter. And then the final bars of this piano introduction that we are talking about today have slurs in the right hand because the quaver comes before the first beat, and I find it important that you really feel that first beat where it's supposed to be, so that it doesn't sound like this is the first beat, because then you will get confused, but that you really know that this is the first beat. This is an upbeat, the chord. So it has a sforzando, but it is a slur, and this is still the heavy beat. Same with this bar over here. So again, this is more of a mental thing, but a very helpful thing to really securely know and feel where the first beat is, and which accent is an upbeat and an accent, but still only an upbeat, and not the heavy beat. So this was my way that I practice the introduction of the Scherzo, the third movement of Schumann's Piano Quintet. Let me know what you think of it, let me know if you have played this piece, and if you agree with the way that I practice it, or if you have different methods that have helped you out. I think this is such a famous piece, probably a lot of you have played it and know it quite well, and I think it's interesting to exchange practicing techniques when it comes to this type of playing and this type of technical difficulty. In general, virtuoso octaves come up in so many pieces, and quick non-legato staccato passages also, so I think it is helpful to talk about it in general, even if it's not only in connection with this piece. So thank you so much for watching, don't forget to like and subscribe, and I'll see you again next week. Bye!