I recently ordered the book of Brahms 51 exercises. It's clear he put a great deal of thought and creativity into the project. Topic change, but I saw a new side of Brahms when I learned he had co-edited the Couperin keyboard works. I have also purchased that historic edition. Thanks for your vids!
I really like how you play these! Thanks for the tips! I hope to sound like you soon. I just discovered these gems. At 8:45 you end your favorite exercise with a chord that’s not written (right hand you included a G but I prefer what’s written with simply C, E, and the high C) but whatever. Very Bach ish sound! My favorite is definitely the first one. Sometimes (as a fun challenge) I like to play with various fingering, in different keys, and with alternate notes (harmonic and melodic minor). I have no idea how I’ll be able to get 4 against 5 or 5/6, 6/7 but I’ll soon try….
Hi Ugnius! I really like the videos on your RU-vid channel! Regarding piano technique, I'm studying Czerny, Bela Bartok, Bach and also Beringer. But I started to study Brahms too. Please record other videos with Brahms exercises.
I have done Hanon and Dohnyani and some of I. Philip too. I remember commenting about these on one of your old videos. I did download these Brahms' exercises 5 years ago but didn't do these as I was unable to maintain a steady tempo and these were terrifying. Lol! Recently, while focusing more on piano and organ music practice, I have found that these exercises are good for dexterity and technique but the real exercises which makes the fingers even, stronger and allow us humans to play anything on the piano or organ at any age or level are the 5 finger suspension exercises (as I call them). This is where we suspend each finger and thumb, one after the other while we play all the other 4 starting from slow tempo to as fast as we can, plus the wrist rotations etc. Then add to these high speed accurate sales and arpeggios with rapid succession of blocked chords and that is enough, at least for me. We should remember that there were great musicians before Hanon, Czerny (his tempo markings are impossible to play), and Brahms who succeeded only by doing 5 finger drills and trills on full keyboard. Secondly, the piano has become progressively bigger, heavier and louder than the times of these great composers and some of their exercises which were easily possible then are now difficult to perform. Thirdly, no matter how much we practice these exercises, some music pieces will have their own 1-2 technical difficulties and we will need to solve it accordingly there and then, practice won't come handy at that point. We'll need to invent a way to overcome that difficulty (fingering, jump or passing motion etc.) and then practice it to perform that peace smoothly and perfectly. These are just my opinions, you are very highly skilled and experienced and know better. Anyway, thanks for your insight on these exercises and making this wonderful video. 😊👍👍
Thank you Vikram for sharing your technical regime. Ugnius is a virtuoso concert pianist and can play the Impossible Brahms. I’ve tried and failed and stick to similar exercises that you do. Have you noticed how huge his hands are. I can only dream!
merci Beaucoup Ugnius pour les exemples de travail des excercices de Brahms, qui sont claire et efficace. Peux tu me proposer des solutions pour l'excercie numéro 3 travail des tierces. Bien à toi
With most of these I can't help but wonder how relevant they are to actual music one performs. Of course they are awkward and very challenging, but to what practical end?
Hey, I can see where you ae coming from :) Sometimes I do question the practicality too but at the same time I use some of these to stretch the fingers before rehearsal or a concert :)
They may _seem_ "terrifying"-but as my dad would've said, "You can play anything if you play slowly enough." The idea behind these exercises isn't to "master" them; it's to patiently develop an unconscious knowledge of them so you DON'T have to think about them to play them. Eventually you shouldn't need to think about the notes at all. If you learn them the right way, you should be able to play them by watching your hands and arms move around the keyboard, as if you're just witnessing and hearing the music rather than trying to "control" it. ("Control" is an illusion anyway-do you even know how _many_ muscles are in your arms and hands? How can you "control" what you're not even aware of?) That's what Brahms, in his clever way, was going for (as was Chopin, with his Etudes): Overwhelm the ego with complexity, and it'll wander off and do something else, allowing you to play music without getting in your own way. ;?)
My 2 favorites are: 1) Brahms Paganini Variations opus 35( both books 28 total) & 2) Brahms Handel Variations ( 25) ( & Fugue) opus 24. Every pianistic complication is resolved in a phenomenally beautiful musical environment. ( exercises? Hilarious 😂) I played both in concert. Currently, I play these 4 to cover ALL pyrotechnical landscapes: 1) Stravinsky's Petroushka 2) Balikeriev's Islamey( OrientalsFantasy) )3 Liaponov's Lesginka ( Transcendental Etude) & 4) Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit-(Ondine,le Gibet& fiendishly difficult Scarbo. Honestly,exercises aren't at all necessary & promotes robotics not expression! Playing each & every book you showed here----NONE will help you arrive @ profound Petroushka performance. Further you'll be 100% u able to even play it! Technique taken OUT of musical context is as ridiculous as trying to separate systemically integrated body functions OUT of the holistic structure. NOT POSSIBLE.
Fair points :) I guess every person playing piano have their own point of view :) In part i do agree with you but...don't forget - not everyone has the time to be learning Petrushka or the Gaspard de la nuit simply because of vicissitudes in life. Also, how about a person starting to learn piano in their 30s? You will not ask them to learn the Brahms-Paganini, will you? There is a huge number of people to whom these exercises might provide solutions and help to improve their technique. I would not say 'exercises are hilarious', I would say they are useful ! :)
@@UgniusPianist -let's be honest. How many pianists can even dream of playing let alone actually PLAY Petroushka or Gaspard? It's not a question of having time----It's a question of whether you've attained super-virtuoso status & are mega -talented enough. Have you ,& are you?
@Ted Allison Hey Ted, Not sure what defines the 'mega virtuoso status' in your mind but I can proudly tell you that I have put the time, hours and dedication in learning those huge pieces and more than that. I have also put the time and dedication to this channel and the videos on which you seems to be missing the point. And again, not everyone watching this channel will be going ahead to learn the Petroushka but they may use the time to implement the Brahms or the Hanon exercises into their daily practice routines.
No7 We have arranged it so that it is easy to practice. Brahms 51-7 Brahms 51 Exercises for Piano 07 01 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8u_WJAA8GgE.html Brahms 51 Exercises for Piano 07 02 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8AvFl2ki6oU.html Brahms 51 Exercises for Piano 07 03 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-X-QuMKByJX0.html Brahms 51 Exercises for Piano 07 04 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fVXiyOqxJ1g.html Brahms 51 Exercises for Piano 07 05 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kBvYlMxh0RU.html Brahms 51 Exercises for Piano 07 06 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gdpAFik_Jug.html Brahms 51 Exercises for Piano 07 07 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VG5E3_Wysk8.html Brahms 51 Exercises for Piano 07 08 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-sosjUm9tx5M.html Brahms 51 Exercises for Piano 07 09 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IA3Tl-KvOz0.html Brahms 51 Exercises for Piano 07 10 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vDR8RIU_5QA.html Brahms 51 Exercises for Piano 07 11 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kZbQr2macdc.html Brahms 51 Exercises for Piano 07 12 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3SFFOQwo84M.html Brahms 51 Exercises for Piano 07 13 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7nAJf0VqIo4.html
Another famous youtuber pianist commented that Brahms exercises are a specialization for the romantic repertoire and probably not useful for most people except already very fluent pianists who want to get an incremental improvment of their technique to dive deeper in that repertoire. It will lead pianists astray if they don't already have a solid even advanced classical technique. More traditional studies like Czerny provide more return for the effort invested in them. I have no personal opinion since i have not tried them, but that is the impression i got from others.
@@UgniusPianist Yes, worse than that they can lead astray aspiring intermediate pianists. I believe piano technique is like architecture it must be built bottom up. Without solid foundation it will cave in, tilt and the complex structure cannot stand.
43a, 43b, 46b with almost silent supportfinger are good the understanding den Bogen zu Fuehren. The touch is a staccatojump where you go fast to the next position BUT your wrists was never supposed to move upwards. The wrist should be staying internally open all the time not to jam nerves and make hard sound. To make a jump on the piano one must control full relaxation in elbows and shoulders while maintaining a light tension in the wrest. When you can carry your fingers without loosing shape with full free weight you can by mind thinking the weight away so you arm are carried with minimum effort only from fingertips and next you are ready to make lateral jump - one pianist Arthur Schnabel said immer zu dem Klavierdeckel hinein und leicht aufwaerts - when you make the staccatojump the top of underarm and top of hand moves lateral and a little upward but flex in handwrest when doing. Next is which muscels to use when going from side to side - going up right arm elongate the inside of your arm the thumbside and going down use the little fingerside( this is what an Alexanderteacher can teach you because its a very misunderstood subject but Brahms already showed us these exercises den Bogen zu Fuehren in a healthy way. Actually the thumb is not short but long. The first joint of it is in the wrest far away from the first joints of rest of fingers. Let the thumb hang freely outside the table and slap the oher fingers against the table then the fully relaxed should make a circle if its relaxed. Many pianoplayers make a falsh tension in the thumb to compensate for the weak fingers. The mentioned exercises makes a circular movement like a laying down number 8. I call these exercises breath of pianotechnique
