Hello all,

I'm currently preparing for my Grade 8 Piano exam out of the 2007-2008 syllabus [the fetching turqoise book] and have reached a bit of a pickle on my List C piece.

I'm playing the "Movement de menuet" [Second Movement from Sonatine] by Ravel (C:4) and was wondering if any other pianists playing this beautiful piece could shed any light on how to play one pesky bar on the first page.

The bit i'm having problems with is the first chord in Bar 8 in the right hand - The octave quaver Gs with that pesky Ab in the middle. What fingering are you using to play this?

I've attempted stretching it but its not really working, and I thought I had a good hand span! I also tried using a thumb to play both the Ab and the lower G, but doing this means I am relying on the pedal to hold down the Ab rather than finger-holding it, which i'd prefer not to do.

Is this a case of simply practising the stretch? Or is there any other fingering anybody has been using?

All feedback much appreciated.x

Please excuse me butting in on your forum but when I read your question I rushed away to try out your bar 8 and came up with an idea - or rather a different approach. (A disclaimer first I have only ever sight-read this piece I haven't officially mastered it).

My suggestion is put fingering aside for a minute and consider the sonorities of the bar 7 leading into bar 8. Notice that the G natural ends bar 7 and begins bar 8 (changing 'voice'). With a bit of clever pedalling you can fool the listener's ear by allowing the G natural to sing on through without re-striking it. Find and listen hard to the inner melody created by the G to the A flat (its beautiful as you say). Back to the fingering - put the RH thumb on the no longer annoying A flat and of course the 5 on the top G natural (another reason for not having to deliberately re-strike the lower G).

Have you ever listened to gamelan sonorities which is said to have influenced Ravel for this piece? It is quite hard to distinguish one note from another so hopefully no-one will notice if you miss hitting the G - the sound will be there.


Please someone correct me if I am off track here. However, I am hoping to get more experience of teaching music at this level so I might as well start practising now.

Good luck - I will be interested to know if this works out. Thanks.

Hi Kees,
I learned this recently as it's also on the Dip Syllabus (as part of the Sonatine as a whole) and my teacher suggested using rh thumb to hook around the bottom two notes of this chord as you mentioned in your post. He explained it was how he has covered this himself, and the sounds comes across fine as long as all 3 notes are depressed at exactly the same time. I wouldn't get too hung up about finger holding....we all have to work with the handspan we have and the pedal to make the best sound possible!
Good luck for G8, and enjoy the Menuet...it really is a lovely piece of music.

When I did grade 8 a few weeks ago, (I didn't actually play the Ravel but i learnt it too long before and got to almost performance level 6months before my exam so decided to tackle another piece). Ravel was always knowin for having very long and manouverable thumbs, stretching 2-5 from Ab to the higher G is almost imposible, with my hand span anyway. I would recomend using thumb for both notes, if you practice you can get them to sound at the same time and it gives a very lovely soft tone to it. Although if your really having to much trouble with this then BusyBee's idea is a very good one for getting by, although my personal opinion is that any great composer puts every note in a piece for a reason and it might be worth having a good think about why he put the G and Ab next to each other at the same time.

By the way I might be playing the full sonatine for my diploma so any advice or ideas you come up with would be well appreciated on my part.

Hello, Im preparing for my grade eight and I too am playing this piece. I have a small - ish span, so my teacher and I decided to miss out the G as you can't possibly miss out the Ab. It still sounds as good as. Hope you do well!

I also miss out the G, despite having big hands. The examiner will never notice !

Thanks for all your advice guys, it's really appreciated

I've been looking at it closely, and after a lot of practice i've managed to stretch it! Because the Ab is held, it makes the transition between the difficult G, Ab, G chord to the next a lot easier for me, and I just take the two chords as an octave and my super long second finger getting to join in the fun! But i've also been using the crushed Ab/G way too, and it does sound equally lovely.

I guess it all depends on my mood on the day!