This article is part of my guide on how to practice piano effectively. In it I explore how my practice approach has evolved over the years.
This fabulous little waltz is more commonly called the Minute Waltz – almost always pronounced ‘minute’ as in hours, minutes and seconds but actually intended as ‘minute’ as in very small. Chopin’s inspiration was apparently watching a little dog chase its own tail.
This is the type of piece that I would never try to learn when I was ‘good’ (in my younger years before I gave up playing) as it was too fast and I always had a sort of speed wall. I can’t be sure whether this wall was mental (my brain wouldn’t work fast enough) or physical (my fingers wouldn’t work fast enough). This time round I decided to give it a go – given I thought I had actually found ways to get around speed.
Initial Approach
The actual tricky bit is only 32 bars, and of those 32, 10 or so are actually just the same phrase repeated (in the right hand at least). So all in all just 22 bars of tricky finger work to contend with. Surely can’t be that hard?
I had earlier done lots of research on playing faster. Overall, the advice was:
- Practice small phrases at speed (hands separately)
- Start the small sections on different notes
- Practice slowly (half speed or less) hands separately
These approaches seemed not to help very much however.
The small sections idea is not something I remember being taught. Possibly it was, as I had good teachers, so again maybe it was me ignoring good advice. However, working in small sections did seem helpful.
So after lots of slow Practice, hands separate coupled with playing small phrases at speed, back on 3rd October 2015 I embarked on tackling this little gem. I was quite disciplined – and I felt it started to work. However, even my small sections were not fantastically smooth. However, eventually I did realize that without thinking, I was just playing it through over and over and actually getting worse!
I’ve no idea how many hours I wasted but if I tell you I’m so far 37 hours into this, and a good way from mastering it still, it’s likely it was a good number.
Revised Approach
However, further research pointed to a couple of other tricks:
- Play in different rhythms
- Play one bar and one beat, rest the remainder of the second bar then start again from the beat on which you stopped
The 4/4 Waltz
The first trick I had already tried with remarkable success on the C# Minor Waltz (Op. 64 No. 2) which whilst still not perfectly smooth is really starting to shape up nicely. I applied the same method to this Waltz, – basically, instead of playing 3 beats a bar, I play 4 (in three variations). Hard to explain in words but basically I play the entire tricky 32 bars three times over as
- Minim:Crotchet:Crotchet
- Crotchet:Minim:Crotchet
- Crotchet:Crotchet:Minim
(A crotchet being one beat and a minim two)
Even playing at speed, it seems easier because you have this little breathing (or maybe thinking) space. Additionally, using the three variations, the pause in each repetition falls on a different beat – so every phrase gets exercised properly. It also seems to help with hand synchronisation (this was predominantly why I did it for the C# Minor Waltz at first but noticed it also helped the fluidity of the right hand).
Bar and a Beat
The second ‘bar and a beat’ trick is something I’m also trying. It has an interesting effect especially on runs where it feels counter intuitive to stop every few notes but oddly it also seems to work.
So, in summary, my current plan is to keep going with these two tracks until I can perfect them all before allowing myself to start playing it ‘normally’ (although I have to admit I can’t resist letting myself try every now and then).
I have even now started learning the middle, easier section which I’m taking as a subconscious sign I can see light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully it won’t take me another 37 hours!!
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