Piano playalong - Beethoven Moonlight 2

 14th June 2025

Ideas for getting to grips with RH;

Play each group of right hand notes as a chord, to get the feel of the shape. 

Everyone (including me!) grinds to a halt at the beginning of the 4th bar! 

'Urk!', says my brain. Too hard!'. 

I talk to my fingers as though they are scared little kittens or puppies. (Sad, but true). 

Rest your hand on the last chord of bar 3; A, D natural, F sharp. Nothing scary there.

Now talk to your thumb gently, and explain carefully about just shifting up and back to G#. There, that's easy, isn't it. Clever thumb.

Have a little chat with your fingers, and show how 3rd finger in D becomes second finger on C. Yes, yes, I know Beethoven wrote B#, but just 'point and shoot' at the C. You did it!

As for you, 5th finger, you needn't do anything at all.

Practice that move from the old chord to the new chord a few times until you can feel your fingers are comfortable with the idea. Repeat the instructions to the fingers each time until you can 'hear' them saying 'yeah, yeah, we know all that'.

Great! Now approach the next chord in the same careful, gentle, kind, relaxed way. Finger by finger. Working out the individual moves.

 Can you remember the moves without looking at the music? I bet you can! Could you do several triplets one after another without 'falling over'? Without looking at the music? 

Now STOP before your brain overflows! It is vital to STOP adding more stuff into your brain before it gets too full and gets mental indigestion. Come back to it later, an maybe hour, or several hours, later. Don't leave it too long or your learning will seem to have evaporated!

If you can't remember it straight away, well, no problem. Just gently repeat the process and it will come back. Each time you return to a section it will become easier to remember. 

I firmly believe that it is important to avoid introducing aggravation, irritation, and any  tension or fear. Avoid telling yourself off! Don't call yourself an idiot! 

Set the bar low and celebrate every little success, so the learning is deeply infused with happiness 😊 

Left hand;

I find it interesting to notice how satisfying the sequence of notes in the Lh is. 

C#.... B.... A.. F#.. G#.. G#.. C#....

The final note is completely inevitable... if you are interested in such details, the last three notes form a  completely standard IV V I perfect cadence... in time you will probably be able to play that sequence without looking at the music, even without looking at your hands, even while thinking of something completely different like a shopping list or listening out for the kettle to boil...

Have fun!