This is easily the best teaching video I've seen on this piece. It's very easy to understand and gives me complete confidence I can do this. I was never taught HOW to practice so this is wonderful beyond words. Thank You!
Thank you. The video is just a small part of the piece of course, sometimes self studying pianists just need a little nudge in the right direction to get started. I think I will be making the next part to this video. Please stay tuned!
I've been playing for decades + classically trained and this is one of my favorite breakdowns of it :) You remind me of my favorite teacher when I was in high school who was also a college instructor!
You are highly skilled and an excellent communicator. I appreciate the musicality of your own playing which is important. You prove your own approach works from a point of actual musicianship. While you talk about mechanics, it's directed at creating lyrical music in the end. When you demonstrated the melody by itself it was as it should be.
Thank you! I could have gone into the touch/sound/phrasing for the slow section and realized the video was filling up my hard drive! Thank you for your kind words💕
@@JeewonLeepiano Maybe you need a bigger HD. Are you familiar with George Kochevitsky's "The Art of Piano Playing: A Scientific Approach" You are following his approach, as best as I can tell. For those not familiar with the book, it is required reading for anyone seriously interested in learning the best approach to practice. Essentially you are training your brain, not your fingers.
@@JoeLinux2000wow I need to read this. I have always been interested in mind-body connection because ultimately, piano playing is a skill which we build using our body and mind. How I explain things on these videos are influenced by my interest in neuropsychology and yoga I think. I am looking it up now. Thank you!
@@JeewonLeepiano You are already doing much of what is in the book in terms of learning a specific piece of music. However just being able to play a piece reasonably well is not enough. You need to make your performance compelling to an audience. About the only way to do that is by performing as much as you can in front of a live audience. Making RU-vid videos is probably beneficial, but not the same as performing in front of a live audience where there is no going back in terms of editing, aand you have to deliver actual emotional impact. Music schools don't concentrate enough on the importance of costuming and staging productions. Yuja Wang knows what she's doing in spite of some very undeserved virtue signaling criticism by a few stuffed shirts. She is in fact a very remarkable pianist who understands that music is actually the art of entertainment. Jazz musicians are critical oi Kenny G, but he is one of the most financially successful musicians.
I am so glad I have found your website! The fantasy impromptu is one of my all-time favorites but I’ve had mental blocks against it for years and what you said has made perfect sense! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I look forward to more instructional videos from you.
Been a pianist for 7 years, found this piece about a year or two ago and have been wanting to learn it. Been putting it off til now, but I think I'm ready to go for it! Thank you for your insightful video!
Thank you so much for this valuable introduction to playing this piece. I've sight read through this piece many times and put it down as too difficult. Now with your guidance I understand how to work on this piece. Your left hand advice is particularly helpful. It prevents fatigue and allows smoother arpeggios. I've subscribed and look forward to more lessons.
@@JeewonLeepiano Chopin's Waltz in c# minor, Op 64 .#2 comes to mind.. It has a similar ABA harmonic structure to the Fantasie-Impromptu (c sharp minor, d flat major, c sharp minor) but is somewhat easier to learn having no polyrhythms. Still, it's very beautiful. Again, thanks for providing inspiration!
This Chopin piece is my all time favorite. I can play it really well ONLY in my dream. Watching your video and listening to your instructions, I have hope and the desire to make my dream into reality! Thank you very, very much. I will watch this video again & again. Thank you. Thank you.
Wonderful! I love your emphasis on the singing and not the mathematics. Also, you added a kind comment on the importance of understanding rubato. I have heard very famous pianists playing Chopin with excessive decelerondo and accelerando masquerading as rubato. I think of the Tommy Dorsey big band keeping the strict metronomic beat while Frank Sinatra is all over the place with the melody being in and out of the pulse. I am very impressed with your teaching style. Emphasis on the movement of the hand and the relaxation of the fingers. Piano playing should never get too far away from singing and dancing. And lastly a great approach to the practice of the Fantaisie that accurately describes it as achievable. Practice hands separate, feel the pulse, and then let go. Let your heart hear the beautiful singing. Piano playing in general and Chopin in particular is my life's second most favorite passion. I wish you were my teacher. Thank you. John Hertenstein
@@JeewonLeepiano Hi your 25 6 video really helped me! I hope you can make some videos of you playing pieces such as Chopin Barcarolle or Brahms: Intermezzo in A major op.118 no.2!
Do you want to post a new video of your performance on 118-2? If you’d like I give you comments on your performance and post it here on RU-vid. It will be an interesting video for other people. Or you can pick another piece you need help on. Let me know!
I actually learned this during covid. I'd done it as more of a test to see how much I could get through, but actually ended up finishing it. It's still one of my favorites and I never want to lose it.
You should fix the Camera on top of the Paino keys the your Position Fingring & Teaching easy to Understand Nicely visually.Hope you will be never mind of My suggestion to trying to teach you Becouse you are Expert Teacher of paino.Keep doning stay Blessed.🎉🙏
I was debating on this. I think top view is helpful when you are locating notes on the keys but side view actually allows you to see the movement. But I think I will include top - view next time. Let’s see if it helps! Thank you for your suggestion.
Thank you for this! Want to learn this so badly, but I’m very intimidated. I am an adult who returned to the piano during the pandemic ( studied for 8 years as a kid). I’d say I’m solid intermediate but can play about 3/4 of Chopins ballade no. 1 😂, and some other less demanding waltzes and nocturnes. Do you think I’m capable of this? wish I could study with you!
Hello! I think 8 years of piano will back you up! Even if you have been away from the piano for many years, what you did as a kid for so long comes back, albeit gradually. Most of the piece falls under your fingers (ballade 1 is more all over the place with lots of chords also) and just be sure not to get ahead of yourself. So much of it repeats too so work little by little as your time allows. I am in the process of making the second part to this video so please stay tuned!
She is playing the standard version published after Chopin's death. The version based on Chopin's actual autograph is more difficult and better. It is available in a Peters edition and was first recorded by Artur Rubinstein.
I ve heard about an other coda in the polonaise said "heroic" ... that Chopin did at first but the editors were not ready lol. Maybe you ve heard about this as you seems aware of that kind of preciouss and important informations ! Thanks in advance❤
I am playing the edition I played when I first learned it. 😀 But looking at the other edition Rubinstein played, it’s just different but does not look more difficult. Thank you for noticing and letting the viewers know about diff editions!
@@JeewonLeepiano The left hand part was simplified in the first published version, years after Chopin's death. This is the standard but not authentic version.
Throughout this lesson, you mention pulse and rhythm quite a bit, as someone who struggles with pulse in specific pieces, what would be your advice, to fix any pulse/rhythm issues NAMELY if you realise very late that you have a pulse/rhythm issue in specific parts! And how would you align this with the rest of your piece, which seems to not have such an issue. Does not have to be specifically to op.66, my personal issue with this has been worst with Haydn for example, especially between 'sections' A-B-A-B. Great video however!
Hm, the advice I would give depends on the type of pulse/rhythm issue you are having. But generally speaking we just have to be mindful of pulse. You have to pay attention to it like it is the most important thing. You can argue pulse is the most important element in music but students usually get distracted, understandably, by the technical facet of playing the piano. Try simplifying the music down to the beats (just the bass line, just the harmony for example) and practice the simplified version until you are one with the pulse.
@@JeewonLeepiano Greatly appreciate this, the past few days I have been practicing this way, saw quite good results, albeit perhaps a bit slower than I'd hope for, but my fault for losing sign of pulse/tempo :) thankyou!
Nice video. I heard some clipping, i.e. distortion. Probably, you need to turn your microphone down or place the recording device farther away. Other commentors may know more.
Yes, I heard that too. I didn’t know how to fix the mic not picking up the full speaking voice after I demonstrate on the piano. I will have to wait a few seconds next time i shoot in this format. Thank you for taking the time to point it out!
6 notes against 4 notes…has a combined rhythm in English similar to “The Golden Butter” or you could break this down to 2 sets of 3 notes against 2 notes as in “You Chatter Box-You-Chatter Box…” oh so my Organ teacher taught (he was a student of Widor, and Dupre). At the speed this is played at concert, and it comes out as Latter Day Saints Latter Day Saints (incorrect), which he warned against. 6 notes against 4 notes isn’t easy….some get the right hand disconnected from synchronization against the left in Chopin, others with difficulty, and more than the precious few who do simply give up as the emphasis in early stages of learning the piano this togetherness of both hands is taught defacto. As to the many of Chopin pieces with the tiny (and this includes the majority of concert artists) notes completely not in sync this is a lost art.
Thank you for explaining the mechanics of the fingers, wrist, and arm! This is a wonderful video! Your explanations are so clear and so helpful!! Please post more!!!
Chopin actually didnt like this impromptu very much. He didn't think it sufficiently captured the free improvisational quality that an impromptu entailed.
How do you know that Chopin didn‘t like this piece? That is your personal opinion which is not supported by any proof. The fact that Chopin did not want it to be published after his death is open to all kind of speculations.. One reason might be that the right hand passage was similar to a piece by another composer (Mocheles) already published.
Geez...am I ready for this kind of life? Beginner...with a Yamaha CLP-835 on the way. I'd be satisfied to play something like Sibelius op.76 no.2 after a year or so. Short, buoyant and "very" sweet. It's the piece that finally caused me to pull the trigger after two years of wondering...
I feel this video is exactly what I needed, as a self-learner. I have tried this piece many times without success, over the last decade. One problem is memorization. Your suggestion on using right thumb is brilliant to simplify and make it easier to memorize. My another problem is speed, for which you mentioned using gravity... Hopefully, I will succeed this time. Thanks a lot for the lesson. I will start practicing this piece again.
Sadly, like many FI tutorials, there is waaaay to much excess verbiage in the beginning. Then there is the obligatory performance of the FI-we’ve heard it a million times. Then there are hands separate- they all pull that one. Then there is the individual bar breakdowns. There is unnecessary verbiage like “sextuplet.” Anyone can play hands separately. I find none of these tutorials help combine the two hands in polyrhythms up to speed. Playing 4 against 3 is the challenge that defeats all but the most stubborn pianists. Anyone can play hands separate. Meanwhile minutes have gone by, and you’re not conquering the polyrhythms up to speed. Then there’s the obligatory “let go of tension” comment. Then there are useless instructions about elbows, and wrist movements. Anyone can play the B section. That is not what we need a tutorial on!!! I have yet to find a good tutorial in the big challenge of the piece: the A section polyrhythm up to speed. She means well, but it’s not helpful.
You will never play it, as a beginner, that way, because all what she is explaining makes sens only if you understand something else, that is a basically move, involved in playing scales : the rotating of the wrist over the scales, 3 + 5 : when the thumb is played the wrist goes down, anyway it's a natural move, with 2, 3, 4 the wrist goes up, an down on 5. Obviously before playing this you want to play scales, ie, Bach. Mozart only a little because his best compositions are not the sonatas, and then you skip Beethoven entirely : the passionata is recycling Mozart's nozze di Figaro.
I will work on this piece little by little. I am mainly focused on Mozart, Beethoven and Brshms now, but I always wanted to learn this one and the G minor Ballade. I find the Finale of the Brahms F minor sonata rather difficult, but I can play slowly through it with some stumbling. I suspect these Chopin piecies will not be so difficult as the Brahms op. 5 Finale.
Thank you for your very helpful instructions! This is one of my favorite pieces that i am challenging myself to learn. You have a very gentle and polished way of sharing the details. I so much appreciate the time and effort you out into this video! Also, you play it so beautifuly and effortlessly. Looking forward to learning this, finally.
It's a composition, not a song. Whatever your level her approach is on target. In my opinion you need to find well crafted compositions at your level. Some comparatively easier to play music can be very musical. William Gillock is a good place to look.
Quality instruction material that will save aspiring pianists the frustration I had to endure. I learned this piece in shortly over 2 weeks in late 2000 but took a brute force approach and had no guidance whatsoever because this was over the Christmas holidays when the music school I attended was closed. I wish I came across a tutorial like this, would have saved lots of junk volume in terms of practice. And been friendlier to my parents' and siblings' ears because they were literally sick of the piece half-way through my learning process. On a side note: this is the only work of Chopin, one of my favourite composers alongside Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert and Reger, I ever came to dislike. It's a frivolous salon piece which is basically a second rate knock off of the opening movement of Beethoven's 14th piano sonata but without the emotional depth and without any significant sort of development of the material. Especially the ending, it sort of just peters out. However, at the time it did serve its purpose: managed to dramatically improve both my technique in a relatively short while, and, as a psychologically immature teenager who just wanted to impress musically clueless passers-by (especially girls) when playing in public, it worked miracles. Play it in front of someone who's not into classical music and they'll think you're a super virtuoso.
Yes, to be fair though, Chopin titled it an impromptu. It does not have the depth of his B minor sonata but hey it is also easier on the fingers! I think this piece was once upon a time a favorite of every pianist and it is the piece that opens us up to enjoy so much more.
I hear it rolled more often. Think about the final two notes resolving (E# from the previous bar continues down to D# and C#) the notes below it make up a harmony to support the D#and C#. Considering it should be played PPP it would be easier to gently roll it than to place the whole chord together. Also it is a long time to fill that whole bar, i would go for a slow roll rather than play the chord and hold for the whole bar. Final reason to roll vs. block is that the movement of the 16th notes slowly coming to an end sounds more organic with a rolled chord rather than a sudden blocked chord. Hope this makes sense!
It has always been one of my favorite pieces, that I definitely can't play (just the first 15s or so of right hand and that's all). With your in-depth analysis, now I understand the complexity of this piece that makes its beauty and that makes it out of reach for many occasional players! Thanks for all your explanations, they're super useful and you managed to outline a number of small details about things we usually just hear and that are in fact important.
This is very inspirational for me to try play this difficult piece. I was at Grade 6, like 20 years ago, now try picking up Piano again for fun with my newly bought CN201.
I've never had someone give me pointers that train me how to sightread better/posturing; fixing up fundamentals was something i haven't considered yet! gamechanger!!!
With all due respect, um, No I cannot play this, even with guidance 😊😊 But - the video is great and even applying the “method” of learning is very insightful
Wow!I love your video. you really explained how to achieve the way how should it be played. Thanks to you, you enlightened some ways that I find it really effective. hahaha. i am so happy to have dodged on your video, you are a blessing!God bless you
Annyonghaseyo Seonsaengnim Ich finde ihre Videos sehr interessant und auch hilfreich Da ich immer wieder mal Probleme mit dem Rhythmus habe und öfters mal Schwierigkeiten von langsam auf schnell zu wechseln helfen mir ihre Videos sehr, Vielen herzlichen Dank für Ihren Geduld Gomawoyo seonsaengnim Annyongikeseyo 🙏🏻👍🏻🙆🏻♀️👏🏻🌸
Thank you so much for this video Jeewon. I was wondering if you could help me with what I have a problem with in this piece it is that I can set the metronome for mm = 88 bpm for a triplet in the left hand and play it perfectly hands together at that speed, counting 1 2 3 4 for each set of the four sixteenths of the right hand against the left hand triplet but I don't know how to get it up to the incredible beautiful speed that you perform it at that makes it sound so correct and perfect. Can you give me some ideas on how to get the right hand that much faster? Thank you so much. Keep up the wonderful videos. Brian King
Hello Brian, can you now try the whole sextuplet with the right hand? Also, start with mental practicing - if you can’t think it or hear it, you can’t play it. Be able to sing it in your head in the tempo and then work up to that tempo when you are actually playing it. I think I should make the next episode on this piece addressing speed. Thank you for your question. And please stay tuned.
@@JeewonLeepiano Thank you so much for your so wise help Jeewon, I really appreciate your suggestions and will work on hearing it correctly in my head now. Hearing the right hand guided by the left sextuplet will definitely move the tempo forward for the right hand! I don't feel confident on the up and down motions needed in the loose wrists in the going. I really look forward to your next episode addressing speed for sure. I will keep trying guided by your so wise suggestions. All the best, Brian
Always been able to play the notes, but with the same sort of phrasing in both hands. Already doing everything you said up to the halfway mark in the video Still unable to play semiquavers over 12/8 convincingly 😢 it's literally just the polyrhythm thing that is my wall 🧱 Oh I also struggled with the tumultuous part of the coda section for some reason and that's not even a polyrhythm. It might have been the jumps in the LH and RH. I can't remember fully since it's been a while since I actually tried. I did do a video on my channel but it was me just looking at the sheet music for 30 minutes at work and then trying to play it from memory so nowhere near a serious attempt 😅 I probably can't even play the RH as good as that now Awesome video btw
I’d have to hear you but usually….. if you have to think about every note, it won’t work. You should be comfortable playing the whole beat in each hand (at the least ) and the pulse puts the two hands together. If that makes sense….
@JeewonLeepiano the video is still up on my channel, but as I said I only looked at the music for 30 mins at work and tried to play it from memory when I got home. It has some mistakes in both hands where I just improvised. Never played it since. But you can clearly hear that the LH isn't really playing 12/8 and trying to just follow the RH It's also on a crappy electric piano, and I doubt I would even be able to play the RH like this anymore as not as active as I was then. Have a listen if you have time. Thanks for the reply
That's a great lesson! It looks like it's not impossible for me anymore. I play piano for 4 years now and i'm planning to learn this piece next year. Definitely going to watch this video several times. Thank you. Greetings from Brazil!
Hello, thank you!! I've been struggling with this one forever. This was the best motivational video ever, I think I'll be able to get it together now. I've also been trying to transpose the themes into different keys, play it as a tango in C-minor etc in order to understan how Chopin was thinking. Time to go back into the shed. :)
yes it's my big big wish to play this piece !!! wish me luck Pray !!! i get through this with your very valuable tutorial !!! thanks for the inspiration !!!
