How to improve your Chopin Ballade No. 2 Op. 38 (A tutorial on practice efficiently) Part 2

Please send a 30-60 seconds clip of your performance or practice session to me at [e-mail] if you are interested in my comments.
As the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung Heidelberger described, “Shijun Wang is a fascinating, serious and sensitive musician” As a solo pianist and orchestral soloist, Shijun Wang has performed in California, New York, Oklahoma, Florida, Georgia, Utah, Connecticut, New Jersey, Indiana, Idaho, as well as Germany, Spain, France, Norway, China, Mexico, and Japan. Under one of the most prestigious artists management, 100 arte, he plays concerts in most of the major cities in China each summer, and he also gave masterclasses, lectures, and recitals in more than half of the major Chinese conservatories include Shenyang Conservatory, Xi’an Conservatory, Harbin Conservatory, Sichuan Conservatory and Jilin College of Arts. He was appointed as the youngest ever visiting professor of Xi’an Conservatory where he would give concerts and masterclasses for two months each summer. He serves as piano faculty in the East/West International Piano Festival in South Korea and piano faculty at The Puigcerda Music Festival in Spain each summer.
Dr. Wang currently teaches as an Assistant Professor of Piano at Weber State University. He received the Bachelor of Music and Masters of Music degrees at The Juilliard School studied with Oxana Yablonskaya and Joseph Kalichstein and a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree at Eastman school of music studied with Nelita True. His mentors have included Thomas Schumacher, Dan-Wen Wei, Alfred Brendel, Emanuel Ax, and Richard Goode.

[@matthewmccarthy9293]

Thank you for this series, you did a great job and it was a big help!

[@ShijunWangPianoChannel]

thank you Matthew. I now need a break from learning pieces and making videos

[@andrecastro2609]

Bravo professor! Thank you very much for the series! I wish you a good rest!

[@ShijunWangPianoChannel]

thank you! I will be back in September:)

[@Ezekiel_Pianist]

I have been waiting for this thank you so much

[@pengyigu7164]

谢谢老师，这些建议太好了

[@SGlwg]

Very helpful! Thanks!

[@RolandHuettmann]

Thank You for you dedication and helpful advice. I think the teaching will travel to students over a long period of time. And we will study repeatedly. Wishing you a wonderful break until we see you again. Big applause...👏👏👏 😊

[@ShijunWangPianoChannel]

thank you! The break won’t be too long:)

[@TorrasqueLi]

Good series and thank you Dr Wang, may I suggest Chopin 's Fantaisies Op.49 and Barcarolle? They should be the final pieces for Chopin Competition preliminary round repertoire.

[@ShijunWangPianoChannel]

Possible, but I need a break from Chopin for now:)

[@malbamope]

I like your perspective about Ballade #2 being a "portrait" of Schumann. Perhaps also an unflattering deliberate imitation of Schumann's harmonic vocabulary, heavy on the dim. 7th chords? Question: the LH octaves that open the Coda are marked staccato. How much pedaling do you do there? I've heard rather dry performances from older Russian school pianists that are very interesting.

[@ShijunWangPianoChannel]

Thanks. I wouldn’t pedal all the way to the bottom. Half pedal at the most. However, the recordings of the older Russian school’s pedaling might be because of the recording quality as well.

[@anish7672]

Can you do one on rachs etude op 39 no 6? Great vid btw

[@SCRIABINIST]

What pieces do you plan on doing next after the ballades?

[@Unknown-bf1vj]

Hello Dr.Wang, thank you for making this wonderful series. I am currently working his Ballades and your videos helped me tremendously. For the second Ballade I have a question about the the section right before the Coda where the right hand plays a trill-like 4 note pattern. The cadence would suggest that it be split into 2 groups of 6 in one measure, but I found that I had a lot easier time treating it like 3 groups of 4 instead, although that would go against the cadence. Do you have any tips on that section? Thank you so much!

[@ShijunWangPianoChannel]

Good question, I would mentally separate the technical phrasing ( your 3 note grouping) with the musical grouping.