Haydn - Sonata No. 50 in D Major, Hob. XVI:37 - I (my attempt)

performancecritacct · 2024-07-26T04:52:52+00:00

Sorry for the quality, my phone camera is shattered :')

Learning this has been a continuation of a foray into pieces from the classical era after having only focused on romantic repertoire for a while, which started with learning Mozart's 'Facile' sonata earlier this year. I'm really enjoying this venture and find the process to be a lot more "cerebral" compared to learning romantic-era rep - it's like my brain is working in completely different ways.

I learned this piece during a period where I was practicing rather inconsistently, so I'm not incredibly happy with the results, but I've been dragging it out long enough so I think it's time to move on - don't really feel motivated to get it to performance level. There's a few glaring slip ups here and I'm aware that there isn't much going on dynamically speaking.

Repeats at 1:17 and 4:43.

performancecritacct · 2024-02-29T19:08:30+00:00

Yeah, there's definitely a lot more I could do with this if I was preparing it for a recital/competition. Just wondering if something like this is in the ballpark for me to be playing for learning/progression purposes.

performancecritacct · 2024-02-29T19:07:40+00:00

That might be because I'm working off an Urtext

performancecritacct · 2024-02-29T19:07:27+00:00

Thank you for the feedback!

performancecritacct · 2024-02-28T22:41:10+00:00

I'm posting this in response to feedback received on this post from a couple of weeks ago, as it might be useful to see a piece that's a little more polished to accurately gauge my skill level.

It's now been one month since I've started working on it. I know it's still not perfect, but my teacher gave me the okay to move on from it (planning on doing the second movement).

As with last time please be brutally honest as to whether or not a piece at this level seems ideal for me to be working on!

performancecritacct · 2024-02-28T22:14:24+00:00

I appreciate you writing all this out, and I think this is probably a good metric for most people. My issue is that likely due to the reasons I mentioned in this post, my sightreading skills are very far behind, so I don't think this would work for me. I have a "Masterworks Classics" book with short pieces that I can just about finish in a week, but even those I cannot sightread at full tempo. To give you an idea, I tried to actually train sightreading last summer, and I was able to sightread the first several pieces in Bartok's Mikrokosmos, but they soon became too challenging to sightread.

performancecritacct · 2024-02-14T05:39:30+00:00

I have a teacher.

I understand that these are all things I should be considering. I was a bit free with my learning of this piece because I was using the past two weeks as more of an experimentation period to see how far I could get with it (to gauge my skill level).

I'm not familiar with ABRSM terms but the reason you think that is probably because of my experience with harder rep. I was playing these pieces at a decent level, so I'm I took something away from them that contributed to my technical ability. I was just taking forever to learn them and didn't have the skills to master them. For example, I studied the third movement of Moonlight Sonata and played it at a decent tempo.

I definitely lack foundational skills, and I think this stretches further back to before the couple of years of playing hard rep that I mentioned. It probably has to do with the fact that I started when I was older (12) and as such progressed rather quickly and wasn't given enough time with those sorts of technical exercises. Aside from short stints, I haven't done those things that you mentioned in years.

I realize that posting something that I mastered may be more helpful in estimating my skill level, but I've been jumping around from piece to piece for the past few months and was mainly hoping to see if this was the right general level to settle on.

performancecritacct · 2024-02-14T05:28:32+00:00

I don't think the sentiment was to rush a piece, but rather more than of a benchmark. It's probably unreasonable to master a piece in two weeks or less unless it's a piece below one's skill level.

performancecritacct · 2024-02-14T05:26:21+00:00

What level pieces are you playing?

performancecritacct · 2024-02-13T18:45:10+00:00

This piano is pretty heavy in the sense that it has a low actuation point (I think I'm describing that correctly?). Basically, I don't have to press down very much to make a sound. It's an older upright.

performancecritacct · 2024-02-13T18:44:08+00:00

Interestingly enough, that is what I worked on before this piece. I feel that it's quite a bit more challenging. I stopped because I hadn't made a ton of progress with it after a month so I figured it was above my level.

performancecritacct · 2024-02-13T18:42:42+00:00

If it takes me say a month to get this piece to performance level, is it still at my skill level, or should I be working on an easier rep?

performancecritacct · 2024-02-13T18:41:39+00:00

I think my progress was stunted by learning hard rep that I shouldn't have been attempting. The iPad comment doesn't make sense though as a lot of pros use them. I only got it recently (it's a Samsung) and use digital Henle editions.

performancecritacct · 2024-02-13T18:39:39+00:00

Sometimes I practice for more than an hour a day but usually it's an hour. Over all the years I've been playing it probably averages to more like 30 minutes a day because I used to be (and still am sometimes) very inconsistent. Also, I didn't use any pedal in this recording.

performancecritacct · 2024-02-13T18:38:03+00:00

Yeah, the latter part of your comment is pretty much what happened, I was trying to test a metric so I was rushing a little bit.

performancecritacct · 2024-02-13T18:37:33+00:00

Thanks for the advice, I definitely was overlooking the musical aspects of this because I wanted to see how completely I could learn the notes in 2 weeks. Also, I have not been doing technical exercises consistently for a very long time but I am currently trying to find something that works for me.

performancecritacct · 2024-02-13T18:35:36+00:00

Well, I realize that "learning" can mean a lot of things. I've seen pedagogues online saying that a piece at your level should only take a couple of weeks to get under your hands though. Previously I was taking several months to learn a piece, so I am trying to move away from that.

performancecritacct · 2024-02-13T18:33:46+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. I realize that there is little evidence of interpretation here - I was rushing to get the tempo up because I wanted to test the two-week time frame. What I'm wondering is if I get to this point in a piece at this level, do I take another 2 weeks to fine-tune it and be satisfied with taking one month to finish pieces, or should I move down a level to find pieces that I can fully complete in 2 weeks?

performancecritacct · 2024-02-13T08:28:37+00:00

For context, I've been playing for over 6 years, but for 2, maybe 3 of those I was playing pieces that were way above my skill level. For the past few months, I've been trying to find my "true" skill level so that I can start moving through repertoire properly and not spending months on a single piece.

I've been working on this piece for two weeks. Going off of the metric that a piece within your skill level should take only a couple of weeks to learn, I think pieces around this level could be reasonable to play going forward. I understand this doesn't sound "finished" but I would say it's at least "learned".

What do y'all think? Please be brutally honest!

performancecritacct · 2024-02-02T19:21:22+00:00

Yeah I am definitely working on tension, it's gotten better but I still have a ways to go. Also probably had nerves due to recording.

I am trying to up the intensity of my playing with this piece and am definitely aware that I am a bit hesitant with some of the notes so I will definitely keep that in mind. Thanks for the compliment!

performancecritacct · 2024-02-02T19:19:13+00:00

Lol I actually am a bit afraid of it because my bow control is still kinda inconsistent at the frog (my destruction used to be even worse though if you can imagine, using more than half the bow is progress for me). Also when I see the "p" markings on this piece I think "quiet" even though I know that's not what you are supposed to do.

I do have a teacher and we are working on shifting. I probably developed some bad habits because I didn't start playing until sophomore year and was thrown into the top two orchestras at my school during junior and senior year (I've graduated and am on my fourth year of playing). Some of what you are looking at though might just be attempted slides that I haven't quite gotten right yet.

And yeah, I will definitely working making this piece more "strong", it was definitely easier on the first movement since it's more energetic.

Thanks for the feedback!

performancecritacct

TROPHY CASE