Am currently learning Mussorgskey's Old Castle and am feeling a little daunted at the level of detail my teacher is expecting/requesting in my playing, more or less every note has to have some special kind of feel, touch and timing. I feel I'm battling the piano a bit to get the right sound except it's not the piano because he can do it
There seem to be infinitesimal differences between correct and incorrect timing of the ornaments, use of pedal and so on. I'm sure to him that the differences are huge. I "get" things in isolation but when I put everything back together it's gone.

This week we start on a Beethoven sonata (!!) and while I'm thrilled that he thinks I'm ready for one of the easier ones (No 5), I've looked a bit into what's involved in playing Beethoven well, and it seems every group of notes requires precision technique and artistry while at the same time sounding wild and free.

I'm trying to tell myself it's a compliment that he thinks I can do it but I'm really wondering am I up to breaking through this barrier concerning the sheer level of detail

any suggestions gratefully received

Ah-ha!! Welcome to the land of advanced piano! It's a tough land, full of rocky ways and mountains but when you make your way through, the vista is wonderful.
(I seem to spend a lot of time scrambling up crumbling slopes, one step forward, two back ..)

It's an endlessly challenging and exciting journey. Trust your teacher, he obviously thinks you're ready. Does he demonstrate? Watch closely what he does in terms of movement when he wants a particular sound, try to emulate those movements and find if they work for you. Have patience and don't try to put too much together at once. My teacher too can make the cronky old music school piano sigh or rage, but when he demonstrates how he works it's in a very detached, objective way, trying out many different kinds of movements, sometimes more fingery, sometimes more body weight, fingers sometimes flatter, sometimes curled and close, arms sometimes still, sometimes circling ... He exaggerates so I can clearly see what he's doing. Working in this exploratory way is very interesting and helps to keep frustration at bay, (well, somewhat!)

Also, I find when I'm working on a challenging piece it helps to have a simpler piece on the go, or to ressurrect an old piece. You may find that you then want to work on it in this deeper way and all sorts of hidden delights emerge!

Firstly, don't be daunted. Imagine how you felt a while back when your tutor placed some sheet music in front of you and said 'Let's have a go at this.....'. With good practice you will gain your new skills required to play the piece.

For instance, two months ago my tutor placed Einaudi's Le Onde in front of me. While this may not seem demanding for some I was preparing for my Grade 3 piano exam and was doing this as a diversion so I didn't peak too soon on my pieces for the exam. Needless to say this was by far the longest piece I had ever studied - nearly 5 minutes, when my exam pieces were all below a minute - and to have to play a melody with my 3rd/4th/5th fingers while keeping a separated accompanying part was ridiculous! It's only now I can do this but.... I'm thankful my tutor knows me and what I am capable of a lot better than I do.

And I'm now doing a simplified version of Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag and am wondering (yet again) how I will ever be able to play it fast enough and put it all together.

I just tell myself that I have done it with hard work and good practice before and that if I put the effort in the reward will be there at the end of it.

I find I get most dis-hearted when I break my practice rules and try to play a piece in its entirity rather than learning smaller sections and playing them well to the point I play them naturally before I can combine them at length. I also make sure I highlight 'problem' areas and write in bold on the sheet music where I need to exaggerate the difference in tone or separation of notes etc so when I do play and am just looking at the music for direction I get reminders to keep up the concentration and where the up and coming difficulties are.

Rich.

Well I won't repeat what dorfmouse and mashton had to say, but add my 2p worth. Of course faithfullness to the details of the score is a starting point, and getting all the detail right is one of the differences between a great performance and ... a not-so-great one. I remember being knocked out when I first heard Arrau play the last movement of Beethoven Op 14 No. 1 with meticulous attention to which notes were staccato, which weren't, graded dynamics, precise crescendos and diminuendos, real sforzandos - the piece was transformed from how I (tried to) play it (or anyone else I have heard for that matter!)

There are three things that I find especially useful:

1. Listening to a recording that I admire. Not just once or twice but over and over until I know every detail of the sound intimately

2. Imagining that sound as I play and aiming for it. Working on short sections, trying out different techniques and fingerings until I can produce the sounds I am after.

3. Recording myself to compare reality with desire!


Naturally this produces a very second-rate derivative performance - in my case a cardboard-cutout Claudio Arrau (Beethoven), Michelangeli (Scarlatti, Chopin, Debussy) or Glenn Gould (everything else) with added wrong notes and unintentional tempo variations. But I see it as a step on the way to delivering more authentic interpretations some day - like an artist training by making copies of existing masterpieces

Thank you dorfmouse, Rich and Mad Tom

I've now had my first lesson on the Beethoven and it went OK!!! I'm working on getting the first 30 bar section to first base. I've also got Maurizio Pollini playing it ...and it sounds so, well, so *Beethoven*, I just love it.

I've decided that the detailed effort is worth it, that I can commit to it, take my time and enjoy it, because the reward is so high. But yes, easier pieces to prevent frustration is a good idea, as is recording myself. I've asked my husband to organise it (he is the computer savvy one)

My teacher and I had a talk about goals. I'm a bit reluctant to do an exam at the grade my current pieces are, because the sightreading is not good. So I might do one a grade lower so I can blow that section if necessary.
Obviously I will work hard at getting it up to standard but I really struggle with it. But it might be an idea to consolidate before starting to attack serious pieces in serious depth.

My teacher said to me that I had the joy of practice and that he wished his undergraduates had it. At first I thought he meant that as an amateur that was all that was available for me to enjoy, but what he actually meant was that I clearly enjoyed just simply playing, which is true. When I'm ready to "perform", if ever, I'll know.