Mastering Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, anyone?? any idea??

Question

I have been learning piano for 5 years. one year ago, I quitted learning piano and I havent play piano for one year. two days ago, I heard the piece Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 and dam it I LOVE it so badly. I wanted to memorize and master this piece!!!

what should I do?? I didnt start with the first page of the piece. I started with "Friska" part and I found it challenging!!! because my hand is not "big"!!! The most I can go across is "Doh-reh(9-key)". and I heard a lot from ppl, saying Liszt's songs are hard to master since he has a big hand, as a result, all his songs "require " a big hand to play.

so is it true that I could not master this piece?? any advice please!!!!!

=(

what could I do to improve my skill for mastering this piece?

Answer 1

Honestly, unless you're great, if you've only been playing for 5 years the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 might be a bit too challenging. It's best to not choose something out of your technical limits to start with; you'll only get frustrated and discouraged. A good idea is to keep that piece in mind, yeah go ahead and work on it from time to time as inspiration, but really work on other pieces to build up your technique so that when you get to the Rhapsody, you'll have a good time learning it and fun playing it.

Regardless;

Slow and methodical practise can help you with the technical bits. A technique I'm fond of is to play a passage slowly with a metronome at a speed I am comfortable with until I can play it perfectly 5 times, then increase the speed by 3 notches and play it once perfectly. Then decrease by 2 notches (this is important) and play it perfectly 5 times, increase by 3, repeat repeat.

I have small hands too... if you can angle your hand to the right, often you can increase the span of your hands just a bit. Also, sometimes I am forced to drop notes, which you can do if the music allows for it (like if a note is doubled, as in, appears twice in the chord).

Anyway, best of luck.

Answer 2

Rhapsody No. 2 is hard to master because it's a fiendishly virtuoso piece, not because Liszt had big hands. :) With sufficient practice and technique, you can certainly master the piece regardless of the size of your hands - my piano teacher was a tiny lady with minuscule hands, but she could play Liszt with the best of them. There are various "cheating" techniques which your teacher can show you once you get to the point where starting on a Liszt rhapsody makes sense.

I second the suggestion of trying some other Liszt pieces, like the Consolations (number 4 is my favorite), to build up your technique.

Answer 3

Look at the young prodigies that play piano with their small hands. If they can do it, so can you. You may have to avoid certain pieces that you can't get your hand to stretch to. Or you could try train yourself to quickly move your hand to the keys you need to play rather than try to keep your hand in one place. You may also want to check to see if there are any pianos or keyboards that have narrower keys. Regarding the wrist pain, you may have what is known as Repetitive Motion Disorder (carpal tunnel syndrome is a form of RMD). It occurs when a part of your body goes through repetitive motions for a long period of time and it begins affecting the nerves and muscles that control that part of your body. For example, if you worked someplace where all you did was pull a lever all day, eventually you could get RMD in the arm you use to pull the lever. I recommend not practicing the same piece over and over for many hours. Practice the piece several times and then switch to something else, and make sure you take breaks whenever you can.

Answer 4

unless you are a virtuoso of the highest order, like Horowitz, or like LIZST himself, this piece is WAY beyond your scope. this is a VERY challenging piece of music that demands a masterful technique. you need to play delicate as walking on eggshells, then powerful as thunder, not to mention fast as lightening. you'll need to work up to this challenge very gradually, by developing the various techniques neccessary. once youve mastered all of Chopin's Etudes, you'll be off to a good start. take baby steps. five years is not nearly enough to grasp a piece of this complexity. the size of your hand need not stop you from eventually being able to perform this piece, many fantastic performers only have a span of an octave--you can learn techniques that will help you overcome this. you need a good teacher and a lot of free time to practice.if you want to do it bad enough, you'll be able to--after a few more years of hard work.dont give up, and encourage yourself by mastering some simpler pieces in the meantime. try Lizst's transcendental etudes and consolations and liebestraums--very beautiful and a much easier way to introduce yourself to his style. Hungarian rhapsodies are notorious for their difficulty--and i think the no.2 is by far the most difficult.(also the most beautiful) I think you should start with the piece by memorising that very tender and delicate little theme which comes just after the introductory material (starts at the bottom of page 1)