i need help in playing fantasie impromptu on the piano?

Question

okay, i'm not a very good piano player, but i'm a determind piano player. i learn extreamly fast, but my parents cant afford a piano. i just got the piece fantaise impromptu and i played the first few mesures. then when the right hand came in, i got stuck. there were 5 beats in right hand but six in left. i've been working on it for DAYS but i couldnt find a way to play it. please help and answer in a way a nonadvance piano play could understand, cus i didnt learn all the piano "words". i've played things like entertainer, four peices of the little notebook, and sonta. all not very hard peice BUT i am determind to play this peice.

Answer 1

Well, first off, you have got it slightly wrong. There are the same number of beats in each hand, but you have run into a polyrhythm, in this case 4 against three (or 8 against 6).

So in other words the right hand plays 4 notes per beat while the left plays 3.

Using a metronome, the right hand can be counted "1-oh-and-oh, 2 oh-and-oh" etc.

The left can be counted "1-on-ly, 2-on-ly" etc. at the same tempo.

The only time that notes in each hand will be played simultaneousy will be on the beat.

Now, how to learn to play them together is the difficulty. Using the metronome again, play each part hands seperately until they become more or less automatic. Then when you finally put them together (after a long time!) you should have less of a problem.

Good luck!!

EDIT:

I could diagram how all the notes fit together, and have you convert avery beat into twelve-pulse sections -- etc. etc. but the ideas is to make the music flow naturally. If you practice slowly with both hands, making sure each note fits into its little metric groove, you will never get a natural flowing sound.

That is why I advocate playing one hand alone until it is automatic, and then the other -- before you EVER put them together. Once done, all other polyrhythms become that much easier.

Polyrhythms are not hard -- get that idea out of your head. They are simply something new for you to learn.

Answer 2

Playing polyrhythms is a very tricky thing to be able to do (especially four against three for some reason), and it's all very well to say play hands seperately - they're both easy on their own! You need to understand how the polyrhythm fits together, what it should sound like when you're playing it properly. Try recording one hand and playing the other and then swapping round (it helps if the recordings are the same volume as what you're playing as well). This way you will understand what it should sound like.

Now the tricky bit, making it sound like that. Once you can play each hand seperately start very, incredibly, torturously slowly playing it hands together. As slow as your metronome can go if you can take it (if you don't have a metronome BUY ONE - they're very valuable for practice). Play the first 2 bars of the piece at this speed several times. Try to aim for 3 times correctly played in a row, though don't be too harsh on yourself. Then speed your metronome up by two bpm and do it again. This takes a very very long time, but it works eventually. Learning by heart what each, or just one hand does also helps

Remember not to do this for too long - that's how you get RMS; if your wrists ache then take a break. It may well take weeks to get it up to speed, but don't rush it. If you try to go too fast you will get into bad habits and learn to play it wrongly, and once you do that it is VERY hard to find out what you're doing wrong and unlearn it.

If you really cannot get it then don't be too hard on yourself. It's very difficult and you may simply not have the technical ability to be able to play it at this stage.

Good luck