I Need Help About Music...

Smg2daisy

Smg2daisy

Star Spirit
MarioWiki
Smg2daisy
I thought I don't need help, but I tried too much times and failed...
So, I am currently practicing this and there are a lot of problems tat I am facing.
First, my left hand is almost always louder than my right hand. Then, is it a must to follow those rubato (Irregular tempo)? I know it sound better with it, but it seems to be hard for me. Next, I cannot play when the music comes to 4:09, the notes of the right hand is too way much compared to the left hand, and I always ended up finish playing the left hand part first.

I want to finish this piece to enjoy my ears and my satisfaction, if anyone have ideas to help, advice is appreciated. Thanks!
 
rubato basically means to adjust the tempo as you see fit; do whatever sounds right to you

i usually practice music without paying attention to tempo and dynamics at first, then once i have the mechanics down i go back and add those in. it's easier when you give yourself smaller goals at a time instead of one giant goal
 
Do you have sheet music, and can you read it? They can really help you keep track of what you're doing, but of course you need to be able to read to use it.

I suggest playing the piece at a slower tempo until you get the coordination right. The sheet music will help here as well because you can see what you have to do regardless of tempo, whereas if you're playing by ear you might be tempted to make the same sound as what's in the recording.

Also, if you're having troubles with a particular part, then practice that one part again and again without starting the whole song from the beginning (I dunno, it's a thing some people do for some reason).

As for the actual playing, to build your coordination, practice each hand by themselves (the simplest one first, which is probably the left). When you get that down pat, your brain will kinda remember how to do it without you really thinking it about. That's when you can bring in your other hand. That way you only need to think about what's happening with your right hand and your left just plays what is now second nature.

As for finishing the left and right at different times, I guess practice playing each bar of them together so you get used to how they're meant to go together. Sheet music will also help because you can see what your hands are meant to do.

As for your left hand being too loud, all I can suggest is practice playing just the left hand softer and softer.

Just remember, practice makes perfect! You'll get it, it will just take some time. Best of luck. :)


Edit: wow this post ended up longer than I was expecting. Have fun reading lol
 
wait you're trying to play this without sheet music

only really skilled musicians can memorize complex pieces, and even though this one isn't too complicated you'd still want to at least practice it first
 
Javelin said:
all i ever played was clarinet and bass clarinet
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holy shit I play the clarinet too

But yeah, the only advice I have for you is to take it nice and slow. I already told you this.
 
Oh sheet that's complicated, I'm glad I didn't pick Music now.

Anyway, if bar 73 kills you, why not (if you haven't already, that is) continuously work on that section of it until you get used to it?
 
For things like that all I can't really day is do it over and over until you can do it without even thinking.

Or just take some notes out. Sheet music is merely a guideline of what you should play imo. Just simplfy it
 
New Super Mario said:
For things like that all I can't really day is do it over and over until you can do it without even thinking.

Or just take some notes out. Sheet music is merely a guideline of what you should play imo. Just simplfy it
Click to expand...

NSM, this is not jazz improv here. Taking out a few notes can alter the chordal structure (because if you took out an F in a F-A-C-Eb chord, it would sound like A diminished instead of an F Major-Minor 7th chord (lol, sorry; took a theory test today and that chord was one of the ones we had to resolve in voice leading)). Unless of course you're just talking about the non-harmonics, which then I guess but you should still play them because they hold value in the piece still and often add direction. You can still have style and individuality with the piece when you play it, because every time you play it anyone plays it it's different and unique and you can add your own meaning to the piece to give it the life you want it to be.

I am only in my third semester of functional Piano (basically beginning-intermediate piano studies that all music majors at my university have to take unless they test out of it), and I know that writing in finger numbers on the pieces does help if you're having some glitch with the transitions when you move your hands. Taking things really slowly often helps, though if you take it too slow and slowly go up, it'll take you forever to learn the piece, so work on the spots that are really causing you trouble slowly and work on that.

Since you finish your left hand first, I would suggest using vertical lines on the beats through your music to help you line up spots of the music (we do it for flute music all the time when we aren't lining up notes on the beat). If you have the knowledge, you can do some analysis of the chords so you know how they are supposed to sound, so that you can make sure you're lining everything up, but I would do it on a separate sheet of paper so your music doesn't get unreadable from all the markings in it.

For the balance issue, the thumbs usually strike the piano harder than the other keys, so be weary of that. All I can suggest is to try to be aware of - while playing - keeping your left hand a bit lighter and your right hand a bit heavier. It'll take some practice of course, but I'm sure you know that already. For measure 73, I really don't know what too say other than just to really take that apart slowly and work on just separating the hands first. Heck, play the piece with one hand each just to make sure you have the notes for each hand before trying to put them together.

I mean, I have a few piano major friends at my school that I can talk to for better advice, especially since I'm sure some of them have played this piece before. It sounds like a fun piece once you get it under your fingers. I just know that I need like another 3 years of piano training before I'm at that level. I'm trying to learn a piece that the faster note in it is an eighth note and at a very slow tempo. :/
 
Javelin said:
yo bmb

i get the feeling that you're saying way more than needed to be said
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I dunno; it's weird when talking about learning music with non-music friends (even though Smg2daisy is a music friend) with, because we're always just like giving each other advice on how to survive being a music major (god, my recital is in three weeks and I need to play my duet, solo, flute choir piece and I have lessons every thursdays and got I have a scales test on extended range and thirds week and by god did I memorize EJ 4 a minor and please let my etude on the offbeat slurs go good (the usual)) and how we all know that it's going to be a hard life as a music major getting jobs and stuff but we do it because we just love music and it literally is my life.

So yeah, I saw music in the thread title and I got excited.
 
Ah, that explains why your left hand is louder. Well, if you want your right hand to get stronger, you could try doing everyday things with your right hand instead of your left to get some ambidexterity happening. I had to do a similar thing with my left hand back in the days when I was music-ing (because I'm right-handed). Also, just play your left hand softer and that will make them sound closer as well.
 
Claus said:
New Super Mario said:
For things like that all I can't really day is do it over and over until you can do it without even thinking.

Or just take some notes out. Sheet music is merely a guideline of what you should play imo. Just simplfy it
Click to expand...

NSM, this is not jazz improv here. Taking out a few notes can alter the chordal structure (because if you took out an F in a F-A-C-Eb chord, it would sound like A diminished instead of an F Major-Minor 7th chord (lol, sorry; took a theory test today and that chord was one of the ones we had to resolve in voice leading)). Unless of course you're just talking about the non-harmonics, which then I guess but you should still play them because they hold value in the piece still and often add direction. You can still have style and individuality with the piece when you play it, because every time you play it anyone plays it it's different and unique and you can add your own meaning to the piece to give it the life you want it to be
Click to expand...
You aren't changing the notes, you're just not playing all of them. It should still sound fine if you do it right. You're obviously not going to take out the bottom of a chord. It's just an idea if you don't want to play all of it.
 
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