Learn to Play Masterclass - Chopin Etude Op. 25, #1: Aeolian Harp - Charlie Albright, Pianist

[@MattiaHorciu]

I'm preparing this piece for a competition I'll have in November. Thanks a lot for this tips, they've really helped me.

[@CharlieAlbrightPianist]

Good luck!

[@cosmicdorito3282]

u ready bro?

[@anthonybamber4348]

Just the playing - it’s the most convincing of any I’ve heard. You make it breathe, maybe because of your rising and sinking dynamics and its excitedness! Faster than many which maybe carries over to us the rapt wonder of Chopin’s piece. (cf. the mannered version of Lang Lang!) Now I’ll go back to my "trudging through mud" version! Sad - but thanks for the vision!

[@CharlieAlbrightPianist]

Thanks for your support, @anthonybamber4348! You might like to check out some of my videos of me actually playing the piece as well. Thanks again! 😄

[@anthonybamber4348]

@@CharlieAlbrightPianist Last! thought. You said of Chopin’s Aeolian, “play it light”. Exactly so. Music is mysterious. Its notes “speak” meanings, though nobody agrees what! Take the example of poor Hummel who lived under the shadow of Beethoven. His music did all its exercises up and down very fluently but there wasn’t much meaning! Little of Beethoven’s consequence. I’ve been listening to some famous pianists on Etude opus 25. No. 1. Maybe professional pianists can be too “good” at the notes! You have to decide why Chopin decided on that tapestry of sound: what was the subliminal effect that Chopin intuited in that melody set among those other teeming notes. “Play it light” is what draws out the elegiac in the etude: its seeming to be an exclamation of ephemeral joy: that rises from and back into those swarming, hurrying notes. But then maybe that’s only because at 82, I can hear my notes running out! Simpatico - your merry modest ability!

[@pierrecohenmusic]

Thanks for sharing tips on interpretation. I would love more tips on the technical aspects of playig

[@CharlieAlbrightPianist]

Got lots of other vids on that in my Learn to Play (LTP) playlist…be sure to check em out! 😄

[@torschmidt2484]

Thank you! I am almost through memorizing it and these tips are of great help. Keep it up!

[@CharlieAlbrightPianist]

Thanks for commenting and for your support, @torschmidt2484

[@feline319]

Good lesson and beautiful playing.

[@CharlieAlbrightPianist]

Appreciate it, @feline319! Check out some of my performance vids of this piece if you're interested. Here's one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oaHanXSep9yrf8k

[@kiralighto2573]

Thanks man you a great teacher

[@CharlieAlbrightPianist]

Appreciate it! :)

[@fabiovinicius4766]

That's so nice, congratulations :))

[@CharlieAlbrightPianist]

Appreciate it!

[@brucewu1843]

Thank you so much sir! I love your interpretation and tips! It’s really helpful!

[@CharlieAlbrightPianist]

Hey thank you for your support and for commenting, Bruce! 😄

[@jean-samuelgagnon8588]

I really like this, thank you

[@CharlieAlbrightPianist]

Great to hear! :)

[@jjuntae0207]

THANKS FOR GOOD LESSON !!

[@CharlieAlbrightPianist]

Thanks for watching! Be sure you're subbed, and thanks for your support! 😄

[@finnaugensen6271]

Wonderful advice. I use the Cortot edition as well, it has many helpful pre exercises. Could you share your recording equipment and settings?

[@CharlieAlbrightPianist]

Thanks, @finnaugensen6271! I'm currently using a really old Zoom H4n microphone/recorder thing. For these Masterclass videos where I'm talking and playing, I'll throw on a limiter in Final Cut, but that's about it (don't usually change EQ or anything). Occasionally on videos, I'll add a bit of gain if it's too quiet. For more performance-y videos, I'll often tweak the EQ and add some reverb in Final Cut (and maybe add a limiter). Nothing fancy, but seems to work alright! :)

[@kiralighto2573]

How can you play so fast? Rotation and finger movement?

[@CharlieAlbrightPianist]

Staying loose is a big part of it! You might be interested in checking out my Learn to Play Piano with Charlie playlist, where I cover a lot of piano topics (including technique stuff) in-depth. Here's the link: kzbin.info/aero/PLzbZE1Ty4bjVz_mjqf8oXoH_IlcYwxOdH Happy New Year! 🥳

[@Hello-cy9er]

Seriously nuts

[@CharlieAlbrightPianist]

Thanks for the support and comments! :)

[@borisaxelrod7411]

9:49, 10:00 Tell me, please! In this place, how to play groups of notes, where is the polyrhythm 5\6, 5 left hand, 6 right, after 4\ 6? I have always played the left 2+3, where the 3 thumbs play together and then also together, it turns out that the left hand plays the first 2 notes slower, and the reverse 3 notes faster, so that each note coincides with the right hand. And many people play like that, they turn out to be. And the notes do not say together, 5 and 6 cannot play together, and the notes themselves stand between, and not under each note in the right hand. And that's exactly how you play! Because of the high speed, you can't see behind your head, but in these groups you can see that your thumbs are not playing together, but first the thumb of your left hand, then the right. That is, how to play this polyrhythm so quickly, Together, right-left, right-Left-Right, left-right, left-right, Together. Micro-division is to be executed. Because, slowly, the brain is still figuring out how to play if you drive this polyrhythm into KZbin. But it doesn't work out at the pace.. I understand what's going on! The fact is that I studied from the Paderewski edition. There are 3 notes standing together in these places. The left one is under the right one. And in another edition, by Oborin and Milstein, the left hand stands between the right. Probably both options are possible. But I want to work out the polyrhythm option! That's how you seem to play.

[@CharlieAlbrightPianist]

Thank you for your comment! This part can be tricky, but I think the most important thing is the overall feel and not technically where each of the inner notes are playing. If you make sure the downbeats are together in this part, maybe try just "smoothing out" the inner voices in between them, making sure to come back together again for the downbeats. The inner, middle notes can just fluidly blend together a bit before coming together again on the downbeats. Hope this is helpful!

[@borisaxelrod7411]

@@CharlieAlbrightPianist Thanks! I will try my best! As I noticed from the video, you have the edges together, and the middle voices, as well as the thumbs, play as if in turn, not together :) And it turns out as it is written in the original according to the general feeling. I was slowing down the video, but my head got in the way in some bars of these places 😂 I also noticed that when you ask professional pianists, about polyrhythm, how to play it, they can't show you slowly, and they say too, you play by rolling, by inertia, as it were, by feeling, and not calculating with mathematics :) But this point is important, considering the different editions and the Chopin manuscript itself. That some play 2+3/6, as I taught, and others, like you, 5/6 :)) I would make a mini tutorial on these bars in addition to this video. It's even interesting for myself how they play, Although, of course, at a fast pace, this is not an audible difference.

[@piano_senpai88]

Could you do etude op 25 no 5, pls?

[@CharlieAlbrightPianist]

Just recorded it...it's coming! Be sure you're subbed so you don't miss it, and thanks for your support! In the meantime, I did a 60 second piano lesson on it that you might like to check out! 😄

[@CharlieAlbrightPianist]

Coming out Monday! kzbin.info/www/bejne/hmHNZKpser6oncU 😄

[@vedantbaiswar750]

hey! really liked it!! I had a qn, apart from the main melody line, are the right and left hand given equal weightage, bcz I can't get it correctly.

[@CharlieAlbrightPianist]

You might try bringing out the top melody in the RH and the giving the bottom bass note in the LH (giving them similar weighting), have the rest of the broken chords in both hands quieter and similar, and make tweaks as needed from there. 😄

[@vedantbaiswar750]

@CharlieAlbrightPianist thnx a lot, will work on it

[@dannyhuynh-nguyen6911]

hey, @charie Albright at 9:02 for this section could you play higher on the keys? would this sacrifice any technique? because I found I had less tension being higher up on the keys

[@CharlieAlbrightPianist]

Less tension is usually a good thing…you don’t want to be tight, tense, etc. in your arms, wrists, hands, fingers, etc. What do you mean by higher on the keys? Wrists higher and/or closer to the back of the keys?

[@dannyhuynh-nguyen6911]

@@CharlieAlbrightPianist like your hands are in more on the piano

[@dannyhuynh-nguyen6911]

​@@CharlieAlbrightPianistyes closer back to the keys

[@CharlieAlbrightPianist]

@@dannyhuynh-nguyen6911 Maybe try what works for you. Just be sure you aren't tense, tight, and/or hurting anywhere! You want to stay loose and relaxed. :)

[@icsue02]

Can you do the Rach no 2 please ?

[@CharlieAlbrightPianist]

I've got 3 LTP Masterclass videos on the Rach 2 on the Learn to Play playlist you might be interested in! Be sure you're subbed so you don't miss anything! 😄 Movement 1: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bYKnqaRph8eBbMk Movement 2: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hWbKkHhjjb5pp9E Movement 3: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hWbKkHhjjb5pp9E

[@borisaxelrod7411]

11:10 I think that's exactly what it's called :) Chopin would have approved of this type of extraction. Maybe it's airy? The surface of the ocean was silvered under the rays of the sun.

[@CharlieAlbrightPianist]

😄

[@Pomagran1081]

Can you do the etude op 25 no 9?

[@CharlieAlbrightPianist]

Oh it’s coming! Be sure you’re subbed and thanks for the support! 😀