.
.
Making it Simple for Pianists
with Nicholas Walker
Pianists frequently find that they more or less conquer all the technical difficulties in a work except for a few passages. In this course Nicholas Walker will try to help you to identify what the problem is in those passages. Mostly it’s something simple, such as not listening properly, or not actually having a strong enough conception of the musical meaning, so the interpretation and technical realisation of that meaning suffers (as does the pianist!).
Sometimes it is just the connection of two chords, or a fingering that doesn’t suit the music over a few crucial notes. Often it’s because one has the wrong sound: the beautiful sound one imagines and hopes for never quite emerges, and this can just be because of pedalling or the way one’s hand and arm alight on, grasp or embrace the keyboard.
Another area that is a challenge, is that of ornamentation: maybe you would like to play, say, a particular Haydn sonata, or baroque keyboard piece, but the ornamentation proves to be a barrier? Nicholas will help you to overcome ornamentation problems, whether baroque or classical, even in the trickiest French baroque pieces, and without compromising stylistic integrity!
Feel free to bring absolutely anything to the course: it’s helpful if you can let the course director know in advance what you are planning to play so that the pieces can be shared with other participants, making the experience helpful to them too even if they don’t know the piece.
