La prueba biológica: ADN

We now play it very slowly, both hands on our knees. Normally, you play it slowly enough not to get stuck. If you do get stuck, again, feel free to check the score, but, you know that it is very important to not play it yet on the piano until that line is mastered totally on your knees, with eyes closed.

For the second four-measure phrase, I let you get your magnifying glass and your Sherlock Holmes hat and hunt for the differences with the first four measures! Well, I’ll help you this time—I’m like that! Measure 5 the base starts one 8’ higher. In measure 7, the second G7 chord swaps the B for D and the last note of the right hand is now B, leading tone to C!

The third four-measure phrase is exactly the same as the first one. The next phrase starts this time on C, with the same melodic pattern. Measure 15 is also different with kind of appoggiatura around G, dominant of the little modulation. You see, you have almost memorized the first part in no time!

We should memorize only two or four measures a day, but I just want to show you here that—with a good analysis and knowledge of chord progressions—when we understand the system, it’s piece of cake. The little part beginning measure 17 is just as easy. We want to look harmonically and see a chord pattern; Chopin swaps E7 to Am all throughout, resolving on Am. For the right hand, measure 17, a little “scale motif” is followed by” little turns” around the chord with restless notes not of the chords and those which belong, pausing on the root at the last beat for measures: 18, 19, and 20. In measure 21, an arpeggio this time followed by the same “little turns” around the chord until the end of that part. We just memorized half of Chopin’s “Valse” in no time! Now that you know how to work, I’ll let you continue on your own. But, we are not going to finish this lesson without talking about some very important points in the next chapter.

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First, when we pull out our magnifying glass and start our little analysis, in order to help us make a precise aural description of what we are studying and therefore have it set in our conscious mind, we look as we saw in the previous examples, for some specific points. Here are some general guidelines:

Key signature and modulations Scale degrees

Are there:

• Any repeating patterns? • Melodic, scale or chord patterns? • Similarities, differences? • Inversions?

• Parallels? • Repeating notes (tonic, dominant?) What direction is the music going—up or down?

Does it goes stepwise or does it skip?

How many voices are there? Mark the entry of a new one. Observe the vertical relationships.

Analytical memory is very important for some pedagogues—it is said to be the most reliable. As a pilot, I often stay overnight in hotels. If they give me room 623 to remember, I could either repeat “623” five hundred times and maybe still forget or just think once that six equals two times three, to have it in my mind forever! (The next night, in a different city and a different hotel, I will still go to room 623; normally the staff at the front desk help me out.)

The more you can talk about the piece, the better—the more you practice a piece, the more little discoveries you are going to look for and are going to make. Some people mark them down on the score. Since you are going to repeat them orally every day, there will be a point where you will know the piece like you know your name. A lot of professional pianists use a “little script” in their head which they repeat while playing. The little script is the aural description or analysis supplemented by our “little discovered associations and patterns”—as previously showed in the examples, plus some strategic considerations: “here comes the sixth the jump to A—this is the first scale down—the thumb is on the C, the second one it’s on the B, so on and so forth. Of course, while we play, this should be done in the background, while your inner voice is singing loud in the foreground!

Be very careful not to neglect small details in the “easy parts” as they don’t produce a big effect on your mind. Those are the ones the most likely, if lack of the “oral description” which are going to give you memory lapses. You might be nervous to perform because you know that a passage is insecure. It could be something as small as one beat, which could “derail the entire train.” Don’t procrastinate and let that happen! Just take your magnifying glass and do a thorough aural description—look for the neglected information. Sing it to remove any ambiguity and play it on your knees, with eyes closed, over and over, while thinking about the note or the neglected information until you have mastered it totally!