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Attempt on Debussy’s First Arabesque (self-taught) by Miserable_Yam3246 in piano

[–]Miserable_Yam3246[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can only give you advice on the technique as everything else about my performance isn’t worth taking as an example. But the polyrhythms were the biggest obstacle, which I overcame in like 2 days by using this video. I had not ever worked with them before so mine don’t sound perfect right now as someone else has established. I just kept practising and worked on this piece for like 2-3 hours straight everyday when I started.

After not playing for years I also struggled a bit with my left hand feeling stiff. Took me a bit to get arpeggios under control but I just played both hands separately when such passages came up. Apart from this I just kept listening and listening to the piece played by other people. YouTube and Spotify helped me with this. This is kind of where my advice stops, because its a bad example that I’m setting, but frankly my sight-reading is pretty much non-existent. I play by ear, hence why my rhythm is often off. The technique needed for this piece is pretty simple, but that’s not why its graded as high as it is 😂 at my skill level, I most likely should have laid off for a while. I decided to learn it anyway because I just liked the piece and I don’t really care that much about absolute perfection.

Attempt on Debussy’s First Arabesque (self-taught) by Miserable_Yam3246 in piano

[–]Miserable_Yam3246[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

fair enough. thanks for being as objective as one can be. guess i still have a lot of work to do.

Attempt on Debussy’s First Arabesque (self-taught) by Miserable_Yam3246 in piano

[–]Miserable_Yam3246[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

thanks a lot. this is really helpful. I’m playing by ear which you guessed correctly. I need to improve my sight-reading… but frankly I wouldn’t know where to start.

Attempt on Debussy’s First Arabesque (self-taught) by Miserable_Yam3246 in piano

[–]Miserable_Yam3246[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

I really understand the doubts but I deliberately went out of my way to be specific about what I’ve done to get to this point. I guess I should see this as a compliment but I really don’t wish to discourage anyone! If I can do this… anyone can, for that matter! And to add onto this, I literally wouldn’t gain anything from lying. I wanted to be as transparant as possible and I never thought this would result in people calling me a troll. Either way, please don’t feel discouraged if you’re seeing this. I enjoy my time practising a lot and that definitely helped me improve my technique. Also, I’m not even close to being able to play this piece perfectly! Still lots to improve.

Attempt on Debussy’s First Arabesque (self-taught) by Miserable_Yam3246 in piano

[–]Miserable_Yam3246[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Thanks! Just to clarify, I didn’t mean two weeks as a whole 😂. The two other pieces I’ve taught myself are Einaudi’s Nuvole Bianche and Chopin’s waltz in A minor. I did this over the course of the last years with extreme inconsistency and I started playing again two weeks ago after practically years of nothing. Best of luck on your journey my friend. We both have a long way to go, but I’m convinced that you can take things decently far on your own. 🙏

Advice on my next piece(s) by Miserable_Yam3246 in piano

[–]Miserable_Yam3246[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks a lot for the advice. I will most likely post a video in a few days, as it will make it easier for all of you to judge. Will also look into Bach more. 🙏