I have never been terribly keen on Rachmaninov, and apart from a half-hearted attempt at the G Minor Prelude at one time I have never really played his music with any intention of perfecting. However I have a pupil (Grade 8 standard now) who is very keen on Rachmaninov's music, and I would like to do my best for her. So any chance of a few of your thoughts on what is peculiar to Rachmaninov's style, what techniques he uses in his writing, and what specific terchniques are required to play his music well?

Opportunities to teach Rachmaninov do not come around often - most of what he composed is too flipping difficult for anybody pre grade 8, so enjoy yourself.

Amongst all the notes there is usually a melody somewhere, so bring this to the fore with a rich tone. Look for counter-melodies that can feature as well.

A useful trick when trying to make a snatch of counter-melody sing with its own voice, is to split them by a fraction of a second. This way the cm has the chance to be heard; once heard it registers with the listener and is then heard more easily when you stop splitting.

This trick is especially useful when a melody in one hand ends simultaneously with the start of one in the other hand. Finish the first melody on time, but delay the start of the second slightly. I hope all this makes sense, as it is hard to explain.

The sheer number of notes Rach tended to write can be frightening, so don't be afraid of leaving some out - this still leaves a heck of a lot to play. .

Indulge yourself with rubato, especially in the more difficult passages. Thinking purely musically, the phrases need time to breathe and the tempo requires lots of give and take to avoid sounding mechanical.

Here are a couple of repertoire suggestions for you. If your pupil wants Rach that sounds like 'real' Rach try the popular C# minor prelude. This is nothing like as difficult as it sounds. The last page takes some reading and learning, but once learned is not hard to play. An ability with harmony helps here, but I have taught this piece to people with little or no knowledge of it.

If you fancy something more gentle, the Op 32 no 5 G major prelude is perfect - lovely lyrical melody that melts the heart of anybody hearing it.

Thank you!
That's pretty useful advice about the melody and counter-melodies, and I wouldn't have thought of that. I have to confess to having previously thought of Rachmaninov's music as being just too clustered so I obviously need educating in how not to make it sound like that!

When melody notes are parts of big chords, do you have any particular advice as to how to bring out the melody? Getting pupils to pick out particular notes in chordal music often results in an overall increase in volume that we don't always want - not to mention harsh tone. Maintaining a clear musical line that rises and falls in the correct way within a whole lot of other notes ain't easy, and it's achieving this type of subtlety that I suspect might be hard to teach.

I also appreciate that advice PianoDoodler has given. I can just about manage th C#minor, and have struggled through th G Minor 'Alla Marcia' one. I too will now look at the G Major.

Are there any no-no's with regard to interpretation? I've noticed on Youtube that performers have hugely differing ideas about tempo; is this usually just a matter of personal taste? Also, in the way that a light touch is necessary for Mozart, is there a particular approach to adopt here? When I'm trying to bring out a melody myself I tend to use my ears, and my fingers will remember what to do the next time when I get it right for the first time, but I find this difficult to pass on to pupils. Is 'firm but not harsh' a fair starting point?

Tempo is a matter of taste and technique. Played quickly by a real virtuoso, R's music is often scintillatingly brilliant to listen to, but details get lost. Played more slowly and with attention to inner detail, a listener gets a sense of the scale and power of R's music.



For sure, it is. Approaching R's piano music, it is well worth while remembering why he composed it. He fled Russia to escape the Revolution and forged a brilliant performing career in the US. He composed his piano music for his own use. His techniques was unbelievable, his hands collossal; he wrote for performance on a full-sized concert grand piano.

The secret is to think 'big' sound - as big as the piano you are playing is capable of making. Imagine projecting the melodies all around the Albert Hall. Imagine the power of a top-class soprano with a professional orchestra in a performance of Wagner's Ring cycle; R's music is the piano equivalent to this in terms of scale and power.

I am with you in the matter of how to produce the sound. Once you get into the realms of do-this, do-that, all you tend to get is a confused pupil. By the time a player gets to the stage that she can attempt R, she should be able to respond to the, "This is the sound we want. Now you produce it as well." approach.

The only no-no I can think of is this: don't thrash the instrument to within an inch of its life in the search for volume. Just because R wrote ffff on a score, doesn't mean we can produce it. Thinking 'big' rather than 'loud' usually leads to the right approach.

I hope all this helps and that I am not coming across as being dogmatic - just offering my 2 pennies worth.

Thanks PianoDoodler. You've given me a really good feel for how to launch off on my first main attempt at teaching Rachmaninov. The pupil in question did play R for TG Grade 7 and fared very well with it, but I felt that she was overly dramamatic with it, not perhaps doing full justice to the subtleties. So I don't think the 'thinking big' will be a problem, and I'm glad you said that, before I start getting too fussy about toning done the volume! I'll take a look at The G Major too - myself, that is, as well as for her.

Thanks again.

My pleasure, Dulciana.

There are some CDs of Rachmaninoff playing his own compositions (and a lot of the tracks have been posted on You Tube). He creates an amazing trumpety sound much of the time and it is fun to experiment with exactly how much staccato and force is needed to reproduce it.

His tempo is more wide ranging than most modern players. Many of his compositions he plays slower than modern pianists, but then surprises you by taking one at a speed that you would not believe possible.

Finally, he takes little notice of a lot of his own dynamic markings, sometimes playing f or ff where p or pp is written in the score ... but it sounds marvellous anyway.