How to improve your Chopin Ballade No. 4 Op. 52 (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.

[@Haycar2000]

Thank you so much for this video!! I am currently working on this ballade for my recital next spring, and these tips are amazing. I would love to send you a recording!

[@matthewmccarthy9293]

Really great video!

[@ottohadinata1978]

Very beautiful sound ❤❤❤❤

[@davidwang531]

I’m planning to start working on this piece in a few days. This gets me even more excited for the piece.

[@bboyo8307]

Whats ur progress

[@davidwang531]

@@bboyo8307 I finished half the piece. Now working on the third recapitulation of the first theme

[@bboyo8307]

@@davidwang531 its a very strong progress. How much piano experience do you have?

[@davidwang531]

@@bboyo8307 I’d say around 8years. I stopped playing for a few years and picked back up. Played the first ballade before and multiple Chopin etudes, which were a big help

[@bboyo8307]

@@davidwang531 U are very talented and very smart. Keep going bro

[@chualinho]

hi, appreciate the good content. unsure if you realised your voice as it is soft . but if I crank up my volume when u play the piano it will be way too loud. so it makes it very difficult to consume the video. just thought you'd like to know. appreciate your time on this and I love this piece :)

[@Rochedude]

I love your videos ! I jumped on the notification, it always gives me motivation to sit back at the piano and train. Any of the ballades is far from me difficulty wise, but i'm slowly getting better, currently working on the etude op.10 no. 4, and your video on it helps a lot Can't wait to see your next videos Cheers from France, pardon my English ahah

[@ShijunWangPianoChannel]

Thank you! You can make request on what’s next? I realized that these pieces I teach are a bit too hard for mass majority

[@Rochedude]

@@ShijunWangPianoChannel the difficulty of these pieces is absolutely no problem for me ! It's part of the pleasure. I'm super interested in them, and even if my technical level doesn't reach that high yet, i'm happy to have your insight, it gives me kind of a preparation :) If i could have some requests, i would be super interested in seeing you teach some rachmaninov/ravel/debussy pieces, there's something about the harmonies here haha

[@leolou6632]

@@ShijunWangPianoChannel my teacher (who's a professor teaching in a very good conservatory) said usually Chopin ballades are for very advanced students, for instance ballade 4 would be for Master students. Since I'm not doing piano performance professionally I do try to stay away from pieces like ballade 4. May I recommend Schumann, Schubert or Beethoven next? Since you have already done a lot of Chopin, some Mozart / Haydn. Schubert impromptus are nice pieces that aren't too technical but at the same time hard to play well. Personally I am about to start Schumann Op.12 Fantasiestucke, and I am kind of wishing (selfishly) you could teach that. Great content as always, thanks!

[@RolandHuettmann]

@@leolou6632 I understand that. My teacher, a concert pianist, also recommends this Ballade for very advanced players. But that gave me the kick to start it nevertheless. There is a very fast tempo in the later parts, but I do not think that notes are too difficult. It is all playable. I started even with the coda working my way back to the beginning. Such piece matures over time if there is no pressure to perform it in public. Even give it a year or two. For example the "choral" could be a starting point. And to start playing all in a very slow tempo is not a sin. It lays a foundation. )

[@leolou6632]

@@RolandHuettmann imo for some pieces it's doable but I wouldn't pick the ballades. My teacher gave me Etude 10,4 when I was starting with her and she didn't care how slow my tempo was at all. (probably was like 130 max.) It exercised my finger and gave the fingers some much needed independence.