Hey, I am playing Mozarts Sonata in F at a music festival on Friday. The piece is nearly there and I have most of the notes under my fingers now. Of course when I am playing through it I make a few mistakes, more than I should but I am working on that. Anyway I started this topic because when I play the piece through my speed is all over the place. I learnt it in sections and learnt each section at a different speep, a speed that I was comfortable with. I am now struggling to get it all at the same speed. I have been working with the meternome at crotchet = 120 to get the speed in my head. But then when I come to play without the metronome my speed is all over the place again. The annoying thing is that I am not aware of the changes in speed I make until after I have played a section.

What can I do to get it all at the same speed?

Ben

Personally, I think that it is important to do both slow practice and fast practice right from day 1. I know that many teachers advocate playing slowly with the metronome and increasing the tempo only gradually. The disadvantage of this approach is that what works for the fingers at a slow tempo may not work at a fast tempo, and consequently, a student may encounter endless trouble in getting a piece up to tempo.

Regarding the tempo in the Mozart Sonata, I suggest that you do some mental practice: read the score, feel the pulse, and think about the rhythm--focus on the transitions between sections. Once you can feel the pulse, you can resume playing the actual notes.

Hi Ben, Ive played this sonata for about 47 years, and also for me its one of those where holding a steady tempo can be difficult. I think I always tend to speed up when it gets to the more animated part, especially in the development section where you get those nice octave leaps . You just have to be conscious when those parts occur, and not get too excited!
If you feel you have speeded up quite a bit , the natural place to get back to the original tempo is of course at the recapitulation, I try to make a subtle rallentando in the few bars just before the main subject comes in again.

Feeling the pulse is absolutely critical while you're playing. You have to create a sort of internal metronome, and feel not just when you've reached a beat but when you're going to reach the next one. (There must be a better way of putting this but I hope it gives an idea of what I mean.)

organ_dummy's suggestion is very interesting. I had never thought of feeling the pulse while reading, but not playing, the score - I imagine it could be very effective.

That is where I speed up aswell. I also do a rallentando on the thirds leading up to the recapitulation and manage to get back to the original tempo.

No point sitting on here talking about it. I had better go and practice it

Thanks for the advice everyone

Hmmm you appear to still be online...

It's cause I went to practice and took the laptop with me and then got innendated (sp?) with lots of IM's

And the practice isn't working


And are you actually going to offer any advice?

After all you have played this piece before

I didn't send you any PMs!
My advice is - practise it steadily with a metronome, do the best you can to get it in time, then write off any remaining speed changes as "interpretation"

Carol, you are one of many people that are desperate to talk to me

How do you work that one out?
Aren't you going to thank me for my brilliant advice?

Of course thanks for that 'advice'

It was sheer brilliance - no wonder I am a pro...

pro...blem?

only to you

You will be the downfall of me

I know...

And what am I supposed to say in reply to that! Pfftt, you have lost it lol

And stop hi-jacking my thread...its not nice

I apologise to carol for saying she has lost it and that she isn't hi-jacking my thread.

Carol, will you stop shouting at me now?

Ben, I know that Carol played this in a recital in January, so she ought to be able to give better advice than me ! Anyway good luck with it !

Even though you don't notice at the time, you do know where you speed up don't you? I'd guess so because it's where you learnt it in sections. So put on your metronome and play the last two bars of on section, followed by the first two bars of the following section (maybe a little longer chunk if it helps). Do that loads of times for each section and you'll get the transitions, and hence the speed joins, played far more times than you would just playing the whole thing through. Once the section starts at the right speed it should be easier to keep going at that speed .

If you can be mindful of the first-subject all the way through the first movement then you should stick at a steady tempo. When practising in sections, just play through the first eight bars and then practise the next section.

BTW I only tend to speed up towards the last bit of the development, and compensate with a nice rall. before the recapitulation.

The other thing that might help you is to listen to a recording (or a midi if you don't want your interpretation to be affected). Currently your ear expects the tempo to change, so that's what your brain and hands will want to do; if you get used to a 'correct' tempo version it might help . The key is how you expect the gaps between sections to sound, hence my suggestion of going between the sections, rather than just trying to play each individual one with respect to some fixed tempo.