Beethoven  "Fur Elise". Common mistakes to avoid - Как играть "К Элизе" без обычных ошибок? 2
Channel: Wannie Sing
Date: 2019-02-26

The next issue is Timing = (Rhythm and Tempo).

About the Rhythm:
Here the error in the rhythm seems impossible as well, since the whole piece consists of a smooth flow of the same sixteenth note. However, there is often an illegal stop at the point, where the right hand "takes the baton" from the left.

Another mistake: the slow triplet is played usually instead of the fast thirty second notes  in section "B".

About  the Tempo:

Every literate musician knows that stability, inviolability of tempo are mandatory in classical music. However, almost all pianists, including the most famous ones, rock the pace like a boat on the water, even inside each bar, not to mention every phrase.
And they do it not because of their intention to look stupid and illiterate, but because they can not afford a slow and steady pace:

Bad music is a torture both for listeners and for the musician himself. Short torture is undoubtedly better than a long torture. Therefore, all those who can not play slowly and beautifully substitute the beauty of music with the maximum speed of performance. They simply have to play extremely fast and with an absurd tempo rocking to distract the listeners and themselves from insuperable problems for them in the melody.
Too slow performance still does not kill the music. But too fast turns it into a caricature, cartoon, parody.

(Listen to this part of my Video)


Lovers of the Italian opera, one of which was Beethoven, immediately recognize the typical declaration of love in the style of "bel canto" with the first notes of section "B" and up to cruel laughter in response to this confession. Everyone understands that it is impossible to admit love in a hurried patter. No one will believe a confession of love made at the pace of a gallop.

However, most pianists play the entire piece, including its section "B" very fast, even clearly faster than they are able to play the chords of the transition from section "A" to "section B." Therefore, they play these chords twice as slow as if they say: "Excuse me, guys! I can not play these difficult chords any faster."  And immediately after these chords, they again switch to the previous gallop instead of a declaration of love. This sounds ugly and ridiculous.


Nobody will like the look of a house made of bricks of different sizes instead of one strictly defined. No one will like the wobbly, unstable rhythm and tempo even in the music of Beethoven.
(Listen to this part of my Video)
The biggest and most difficult problem in this play is the Intensity of the notes. Usually pianists do not know which of any two notes they need to play louder, and which is quieter. And this is the same catastrophe for the musical language, as ignorance of the correct stresses in the words of any other human language.


No amount of emotion, passion and expressiveness will save you if you are not able to pronounce words with the correct stress. People will be disgusted if you will speak all the way "tomorr-O-w" instead of "tom-O-rrow", "even-I-ng" instead of "E-vening", etc.  Unfortunately, classically trained musician do not want to know the correct, natural pronunciation of musical words. Instead, they apply everywhere their false, totalitarian "universal rule" of stresses in musical words: they always stress the note on count  "ONE".
The problem is that at the same time  the correct, natural  pronunciation of musical words is known to EVERYONE in the world, except for "classically educated" musicians who have been brainwashed on this subject. Unlike all other musicians and listeners in the world, they believe that every note on count “ONE” should be louder and every note on count “two” should be quieter.
They simply took this rule from military bands that perform all their soldiers' marches this way.
 However  this "universal rule" does not work absolutely for music written not for the feet and legs but for the heart, mind  and soul.

I have already published many articles and videos on this topic with specific rules for pronunciation of the most common words of music. These rules save you  the ocean of time when working on a new piece and amaze everyone with your “musicality” when you sight-read.
However, there is good news here. Any of us, even after brainwashing, can easily restore our original ability to correct, natural stresses in musical words. Even if you do not know any rules or forgot them, you can always find out which of any two consecutive notes (your choice) needs to be played louder and which one is quieter? 


All that is required of you for this test is to play the melody you need slowly and in the low octave. Because the ability of our ears and brain to distinguish and analyze Intensity in a low register and a slow pace is tens times better than in a high register and fast.

(Listen to my tests of this kind on my Videos).