Topic by TheodorN

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Topic: Learning a song with constant arpeggios

Hello everyone. I posted this same question on Piano World, but wanted to put it here, as some members here may not be on PW. You can answer here, or on PW, doesn't matter, I'll be keeping an eye on both forums.

I'm learning O Holy Night, as taught by Allysia on PianoTV (see links down below to the YouTube tutorial, and the sheet music PDF). The song has nonstop arpeggios in the left hand. I felt it was the most beautiful version I could found, and she says it's for an early intermediate student, which I thought I was.

Now I don't know, because I'm having huge problems with the song. I haven't been able to play it in time, even with Synthesia, I only get it up to about 50% speed. This left hand is very disobedient, always wants to stop, and doesn't know what messages my brain is sending to it.

I've probably tried a hundred times, which also means I'm getting pretty darn sick of it, even if it's a beautiful song, with the most important message to the world ever. So my question is, are songs with nonstop arpeggios more difficult to play than other songs?

I wanted to get a performance of this song ready before Christmas, but now it's pretty clear I won't get it out in time. It seems pointless to post a performance of it after Christmas Eve, so I'm beginning to think I will have to wait another year till I can post a decent performance of O Holy Night.

Should I concentrate on songs where the left hand is less active? Any suggestions as to how I can play this piece, with less going on in the left hand, but still make it sound great?


Last but not least, Merry Christmas to everyone!


The sheet music

https://www.pianotv.net/wp-content/uplo..._Night.pdf


The YouTube tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhkP1umkXoQ

Last edited by TheodorN (24-12-2022 15:02)

Reply by Sanderxpander

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Re: Learning a song with constant arpeggios

TheodorN wrote:

Hello everyone. I posted this same question on Piano World, but wanted to put it here, as some members here may not be on PW. You can answer here, or on PW, doesn't matter, I'll be keeping an eye on both forums.

I'm learning O Holy Night, as taught by Allysia on PianoTV (see links down below to the YouTube tutorial, and the sheet music PDF). The song has nonstop arpeggios in the left hand. I felt it was the most beautiful version I could found, and she says it's for an early intermediate student, which I thought I was.

Now I don't know, because I'm having huge problems with the song. I haven't been able to play it in time, even with Synthesia, I only get it up to about 50% speed. This left hand is very disobedient, always wants to stop, and doesn't know what messages my brain is sending to it.

I've probably tried a hundred times, which also means I'm getting pretty darn sick of it, even if it's a beautiful song, with the most important message to the world ever. So my question is, are songs with nonstop arpeggios more difficult to play than other songs?

I wanted to get a performance of this song ready before Christmas, but now it's pretty clear I won't get it out in time. It seems pointless to post a performance of it after Christmas Eve, so I'm beginning to think I will have to wait another year till I can post a decent performance of O Holy Night.

Should I concentrate on songs where the left hand is less active? Any suggestions as to how I can play this piece, with less going on in the left hand, but still make it sound great?


Last but not least, Merry Christmas to everyone!


The sheet music

https://www.pianotv.net/wp-content/uplo..._Night.pdf


The YouTube tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhkP1umkXoQ

I never taught much, but one approach can be to practice the hands separately and especially the left one in this case. If you can learn it well enough to "feel" the pulse when you play it by itself, it becomes a lot easier to connect it to the right hand.

Also, the song is mentally much simpler if you have learned chords. Rather than playing C E G C G E repeatedly with your left hand in the first few bars, you just arpeggiate a C major chord. There are only a few chords in the song and most of the time they're arpeggiated the same way. See if you can find the repeating patterns and make sure you can play each one individually comfortably.

Reply by dazric

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Re: Learning a song with constant arpeggios

That's pretty good advice about taking hands separately. If you can arpeggiate the chord (roll it upwards like a harp or guitar strum) it will be a good shortcut. Don't feel too badly about it - I'd say the coordination required here is quite challenging at early intermediate level. It's probably not the left hand itself so much, but trying to do both hands together, that's something else!

Reply by TheodorN

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Re: Learning a song with constant arpeggios

Thanks for replies. I did a bit of hands separate, but maybe I should have done more of it, I can't say those arpgeggios just flow out of my hand / brain. Yes dazric, the hands together part is the most challenging one, that's where most of my stumbles happened.

I will have to put this piece on ice, and start with something not Christmas related. I wanted to get this song as my Pianoteq contest entry, but it'll have to be something else. By the way, are there any rules about choice of songs, are Beatles, Billy Joel, or something like that fine? I didn't see anything about that in the rules as laid out by Modartt, and there are countless covers of Hey Jude, Imagine, and such songs on YouTube.

Last edited by TheodorN (24-12-2022 17:50)

Reply by dazric

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Re: Learning a song with constant arpeggios

I'm always wary of copyright covers on YouTube, and it's a very complex issue - but as you say, plenty of people do put them on. As far as I understand it, if your efforts are clearly non-commercial and purely for pleasure, there shouldn't be any problems. The worst that could happen is that you get an advert stuck on before your video plays, but you probably don't need to worry about that unless you're getting hundreds of views.

Reply by Sanderxpander

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Re: Learning a song with constant arpeggios

TheodorN wrote:

Thanks for replies. I did a bit of hands separate, but maybe I should have done more of it, I can't say those arpgeggios just flow out of my hand / brain. Yes dazric, the hands together part is the most challenging one, that's where most of my stumbles happened.

I will have to put this piece on ice, and start with something not Christmas related. I wanted to get this song as my Pianoteq contest entry, but it'll have to be something else. By the way, are there any rules about choice of songs, are Beatles, Billy Joel, or something like that fine? I didn't see anything about that in the rules as laid out by Modartt, and there are countless covers of Hey Jude, Imagine, and such songs on YouTube.

The last time I "had to" play a piece that really challenged my left/right coördination it was in school and it was this one:
https://youtu.be/R2qUJw1WjZM
I won't pretend I reached complete independence like Russell Ferrante seems to have (improv VS left hand), but I did an ok job and I got there by first making sure the left hand came almost automatically. Start slow but keep time, and slowly (like, over multiple practice sessions) increase the tempo, making sure you don't jump to a speed where you get sloppy. When you don't have to consciously think about "the tricky part" so much anymore, you'll find you have just a little brainpower left to focus on joining left and right together.

Good luck for next year!