Bloody fingers (a piano thread)

[Alinestra Covelia]

So, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, 3rd mvt.

This is still kicking my ass, like the motherwhumping, fits-tucking, pass-umping bun-on-a-stitch that it is. Beethoven was generally agreed by most musical theorists to be an unprecedented badass who wrote his music while drinking the blood of the vanquished masses so I'll give him a by on this, but god DAMN he's murder on the fingers.

I finished up practicing yesterday and I kid you not, there was blood on the keyboard. Had to sponge it off with warm water before my landlord got home.

So the measures that are STILL kicking my ass after TEN SODDING YEARS are:

• 9 - 13. The Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music commentary says we should take the higher notes of the left hand into the right hand. WTF?! It's less of a stretch I grant you that, but at high speeds you're now trying to coordinate three keys in right against one key in left. Bollocks, says I.
• 30 and 32 have complicated trills between RH4 and RH5 fingers that somehow require you to still hold down an octave lower on RH1. Further bollocks! says I
• 33 - 35 I can play at slow speed, but I can't ever get it as fast as the preceding Alberti bass bits. I can get the off-beat chords in 39 - 40 okay even at high speeds, but the thing that really kills me is the ascending scale in 40 (and earlier to a lesser extent in 35, the swine). Return of bollocks!
• Oddly, the staccato chords from 43 -56 aren't that hard. But maybe it's because I've never attempted to play them at full speed. Absence of bollocks. :l
• There's a really cool bit in 71 - 87 where the Alberti bass inverts and goes into the right hand. (So... technically would that be "Alberti treble"? ) The problem is I can't keep the correct rhythm in the left hand. Which is really weird because this is much simpler than the usual flurry of notes in LH. The dotted eighth note (dotted crotchet? in UK terms, I'm not sure) to sixteenth note always gets me. I find my hand slipping into a series of four eighth notes, evenly spread, and closer to the lower register the notes get so blurry that I have to really rein in the RH otherwise you can't hear the melody in LH. Faint to moderate presence of bollocks.
• 92 - 93. There is no way in hell my fingers are fast enough to do the proper RH chords at that speed. I can fudge it by trailing the top notes in RH5 and occasionally hammering the other two in RH 1&2/1&3 but I may have to sic Pekka on this to DESTROY ITS FACE. Prognosis: bollocks on forehead.
• Things actually get pretty good after that for a decent stretch.
• Then the staccato chords come back. This time they're in a different key, and it's harder especially on the saraband (repeat?). It's not too bad for me as it's just an issue of getting the speed up, but this is easily the first part to deteriorate after a long absence like I've had so far. Deservant of only one bollock, for displaying some redeeming features.
• 163 - 166 I can do with no problems at full speed, which surprises me. I will give a rare Triumphal Smiley for this: .
• 167 -170 has the same LH melody problems I had before. Here the tendency to make all the quick notes evenly spaced is even stronger than above. It was around here that my middle finger LH started bleeding and I needed a sponge.
• 185 - 186 has a chromatic, which is the spunk of Satan.
• 196 - 198 is flat out impossible. I can't do the arpeggios with both hands simultaneous unless it's meaninglessly slow. (And by meaninglessly slow I mean you could verbally count faster than I play, which just shouldn't happen. Especially because I'll bet you my fingers are faster than your lips.)
• Wiglaf is still on ignore, so Beethoven at least hasn't screwed up that law of the Universe.

If nothing else this post should highlight that Poly needs to diversify its smilies to include testicles.

[Alinestra Covelia]

I'm also playing a fair bit of Chopin, and I've managed to get his Nocturne Op.9, No.1 down pat so that technically there are no errors even without sheet music. So that's good.

But Beethoven

[Imran Siddiqui]

Thankfully you included the parens in the title, as it could have easily have lent other thoughts to mind.

[Grandpa Troll]

I never played the piano, but love me some other music to play solo by:

AC~DC



Lil ZZ TOP



Not sure if anyone else has this appreciation for music or not

Tell me, AC, did your put some salve on those bloody fingers/

Me, Im a tasteless troll, I just lick the blood up, but thats me, hope you didnt injur anything else sis!

[Alinestra Covelia]

I DRINK THE BLOOD OF INNOCENTS!

...

So, um, I didn't drink my own blood. Just band-aided it. :/

[Imran Siddiqui]

Besides, who is innocent these days?

[Grandpa Troll]

So, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, 3rd mvt.

This is still kicking my ass, like the motherwhumping, fits-tucking, pass-umping bun-on-a-stitch that it is. Beethoven was generally agreed by most musical theorists to be an unprecedented badass who wrote his music while drinking the blood of the vanquished masses so I'll give him a by on this, but god DAMN he's murder on the fingers.

I finished up practicing yesterday and I kid you not, there was blood on the keyboard. Had to sponge it off with warm water before my landlord got home.

So the measures that are STILL kicking my ass after TEN SODDING YEARS are:

• 9 - 13. The Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music commentary says we should take the higher notes of the left hand into the right hand. WTF?! It's less of a stretch I grant you that, but at high speeds you're now trying to coordinate three keys in right against one key in left. Bollocks, says I.
• 30 and 32 have complicated trills between RH4 and RH5 fingers that somehow require you to still hold down an octave lower on RH1. Further bollocks! says I
• 33 - 35 I can play at slow speed, but I can't ever get it as fast as the preceding Alberti bass bits. I can get the off-beat chords in 39 - 40 okay even at high speeds, but the thing that really kills me is the ascending scale in 40 (and earlier to a lesser extent in 35, the swine). Return of bollocks!
• Oddly, the staccato chords from 43 -56 aren't that hard. But maybe it's because I've never attempted to play them at full speed. Absence of bollocks. :l
• There's a really cool bit in 71 - 87 where the Alberti bass inverts and goes into the right hand. (So... technically would that be "Alberti treble"? ) The problem is I can't keep the correct rhythm in the left hand. Which is really weird because this is much simpler than the usual flurry of notes in LH. The dotted eighth note (dotted crotchet? in UK terms, I'm not sure) to sixteenth note always gets me. I find my hand slipping into a series of four eighth notes, evenly spread, and closer to the lower register the notes get so blurry that I have to really rein in the RH otherwise you can't hear the melody in LH. Faint to moderate presence of bollocks.
• 92 - 93. There is no way in hell my fingers are fast enough to do the proper RH chords at that speed. I can fudge it by trailing the top notes in RH5 and occasionally hammering the other two in RH 1&2/1&3 but I may have to sic Pekka on this to DESTROY ITS FACE. Prognosis: bollocks on forehead.
• Things actually get pretty good after that for a decent stretch.
• Then the staccato chords come back. This time they're in a different key, and it's harder especially on the saraband (repeat?). It's not too bad for me as it's just an issue of getting the speed up, but this is easily the first part to deteriorate after a long absence like I've had so far. Deservant of only one bollock, for displaying some redeeming features.
• 163 - 166 I can do with no problems at full speed, which surprises me. I will give a rare Triumphal Smiley for this: .
• 167 -170 has the same LH melody problems I had before. Here the tendency to make all the quick notes evenly spaced is even stronger than above. It was around here that my middle finger LH started bleeding and I needed a sponge.
• 185 - 186 has a chromatic, which is the spunk of Satan.
• 196 - 198 is flat out impossible. I can't do the arpeggios with both hands simultaneous unless it's meaninglessly slow. (And by meaninglessly slow I mean you could verbally count faster than I play, which just shouldn't happen. Especially because I'll bet you my fingers are faster than your lips.)
• Wiglaf is still on ignore, so Beethoven at least hasn't screwed up that law of the Universe.

If nothing else this post should highlight that Poly needs to diversify its smilies to include testicles.

Sorry AC, Icall Bull$h!t, Im really sorry to call you on this, but I would wager $ 50.00 I have quicker lips, faster tongue and thicker meatier fingers that can slowly strum or drum heavily, all day and all night.

Apparently, your fingers need more practice, either get with it or I dun know what else to suggest, you need to get more into your practice, may I suggest some earphones, relax, be at one with yourself, feel the music pulsate through every member, my gawd, I can see you making progress right now, go gurl, go get it, smash them bottles, break through to the other side

Now, go practice hard for me, I know you have it in you!!!

[Jon Miller]

I need to play piano more, all my songs are ****.

JM

[DaShi]

Beethoven is known for writing pieces that are devilishly difficult for pianists. I could only play a few of the slow movements of his sonatas (Moonlight and the funeral march). Try the 3 movement of the Waldstein, where the main melody is played with the left hand higher than the right. Beautiful piece, but hella confusing and uncomfortable.

[Lorizael]

I can play Für Elise like nobody's business. Or at least, I could in my high school piano class. Or at least, I think I was able to not **** that piece up entirely.

[Alinestra Covelia]

I gave Für Elise a romp in the hay yesterday. It was pretty good. It emerged from the stables with its sheet music in a mess and straw stuck all through its binding, while blushing furiously.

The only hard part about that for me now is exactly how many "diddle-diddle-diddle"s to do on the reprise bits after the octave jumps. I think it's an odd number - five or so.

Another song that is really hard for me is Chopin's Fantaisie in D minor. It's a very odd case of a song which I can play pretty well at high speed, but once I slow it down, it all goes bunty-coobie on me. :faintly chagrined:

The middle bit is really easy though and is a lot of fun. Very expansive, mellow, and strangely narcotic - in a bosoming, blossoming all-inclusive celebration of kindness that is infinitely forgiving.

Then it gets back to the fast bit and all hell breaks loose from its sphincter again.



I like Chopin as well.

[Xorbon]

IMO, for those impossible parts that ask you to stretch your hand further than you can possibly ever do, "cheat" and use different fingering, or even drop/alter some notes as long as the song still sounds okay. Or you can use your tongue as an eleventh finger.

I finished up practicing yesterday and I kid you not, there was blood on the keyboard.

I've never heard of bloody fingers after playing a piano before. It reminds me of the famous quote:

"I've got blisters on my fingers!" - John Lennon

So, you're in good company.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Liszt's Liebestraum is also hard. The first bits aren't too bad but when he has a key change with a buttload of incidentals, accidentals, transcendentals, and occidentals (orientals?) my hands stop working.

Bastard.

[rah]

Liszt was always one of my favorites. His music was often used in Warner brother Cartoons and old movie serials.
It was alwasy more fun to play music that you were familiar with and liked.

And if you look around you can usually find some simplified sheet music versions for those pieces that were very difficult.

[Asher]

I can play Greensleeves and Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting to this day. I played the **** out of them as a kid.