Hello. I plan to take G7 exam this year, and I choose Octobre from section B. But I feel difficult to play acciacatura in bar 23-24 and 27-28 (left hand). My fingers can't reach the note. Any suggestion to play this piece? I really love this piece.

Hi Pat. It's a beautiful piece, isn't it? I'm taking G7 with it this term. Those acciacaturas are my personal nightmare at the moment. Having learned the piece playing them with the little finger of my left hand (jump down and back up), I then realised that there is a rest in the right hand on the first beat of those bars. So now I use the right hand to cross over and play the acciacatura before returning quickly in time to play the high G (bar 23), F (bar 24).

Listening to the cd, I think they just take their time and use left hand + pedal, though. There is definitely a slight pause as you would expect when jumping from the low accaicatura up to the higher chord. You can make it work either way by using the pedal carefully to bridge any gaps. One thing to bear in mind is this is a very showy dramatic piece, and the cd uses a lot of tempo rubato. So you can get away with some little pauses as long as you are consistent and they sound like they're *meant* to be there. Try different fingerings and see what works best for you.

Good luck! What other pieces are you doing? I've chosen A1 Giga by Loeillet and C5 The Little Shepherd by Debussy.

Oh, I see. I choose A1 Giga and C3 Willie Wagglestick's Walkabout