Clair de lune from Scratch #56, m. 41 & 42 Overview
Monday, 26 October 2009 10:10 | 
Written by Hugh Sung | 
We're just about to start one of the most difficult portions of the entire piece. I explain what makes this part so hard, between the twisting left hand runs and the challenging double-notes in the right hand, then give a preview of a creative solution to make it much easier to play (essentially, using the right hand to once again come to the "rescue" of the left hand). In the next lessons, I'll break down this creative fingering bit by bit, so don't worry - with a little patience and some careful practice, I think you'll be surprised at how well you'll be able to tackle this yourself!
Last Updated (Tuesday, 29 December 2009 22:37)
"Clair de lune from Scratch" Live Webinar today!Saturday, 24 October 2009 08:42 | Written by Hugh Sung |
Today at 1 pm EST (10 AM California time, 11 AM Colorado time, 6 PM London time), I'll be hosting the first live "Clair de lune from Scratch Webinar!" If you can watch YouTube videos, you can participate in the webinar, which will feature live, streaming video right from my piano studio at home. I'll be responding to questions via chat and twitter (http://twitter.com/pianoscratch) and answering others that have been posted on my YouTube channel and the PianoWorld.com forums. To participate in the live webinar, visit my Ustream.tv channel at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/clair-de-lune-from-scratch. You can see a pre-recorded "practice take" below to give you an idea of how the video portion will work (i'll be using a much better front camera and some studio lighting to improve the picture quality). See you at the webinar!! Last Updated (Monday, 26 October 2009 10:10) Clair de lune from Scratch ##55, Measure 40Wednesday, 21 October 2009 07:51 | Written by Hugh Sung |
(Woops...just realized that a bunch of these videos were missing the "Clair de lune" title at the beginning! Silly me...) Before I forget, I'd like to invite you to sign up for an upcoming live webinar class lesson at http://pianofromscratch.com/webinars - these webinars will give me a chance to go much more in depth with the music, and we'll be able to have live interaction via chat and shared webcams. In this lesson, I offer two sets of fingerings: a "traditional" one that is better for connecting the melody notes, and an unusual one that relies on the pedal to connect the notes, but might be easier to use for some folks who may have difficulties jumping around the keyboard. Last Updated (Tuesday, 29 December 2009 22:37) Clair de lune from Scratch #54, Measure 39Tuesday, 20 October 2009 08:07 | Written by Hugh Sung |
Options, options! I do some waffling and decide on a specific fingering for the left hand in the previous measure leading into measure 39, mainly because I don't like relying on a weak pinkie to move to multiple notes. In the right hand, we find that the ledger lines actually climb a bit higher, so we extend the mnemonics a bit higher to help find the higher notes more easily ("But Don't Fall"). I give another set of options to use fingerings to find higher notes, using the octave hand again as a "measuring stick" as one of the options. I also give an interesting option in the end of the measure to use the thumb to jump down more securely than jumping with the "traditional" pinkie.
Last Updated (Tuesday, 29 December 2009 22:37) Clair de lune from Scratch #53, Measure 38Thursday, 15 October 2009 10:21 | Written by Hugh Sung |
We've been running into an awful lot of notes with ledger lines, so I thought I'd make up a new set of mnemonics to make it easier to quickly identify those notes. By the way, in case I forgot to mention, the "regular" lines that contain the clefs and most of the notes are called "staff lines", and the ledger lines (or "ladder lines" as I sometimes call them) are notes that are written above the staff lines. Using our new mnemonics, we quickly map out the right hand notes, and in mapping the left hand notes we see how to play an E-sharp. I close by offering some alternate left hand fingerings and a suggested pedaling. If you can hold the right hand melody, that will help to distinguish it from the running accompaniment notes below. Last Updated (Tuesday, 29 December 2009 22:37) |
