I'm having great difficulty in getting this piece up to speed - does anybody have any ideas?

The notes themselves aren't necessarily that bad... my right hand seems to suffer from some sort of delayed reaction though when speeded up. I cannot get the four semiquavers to sound even. There is a small gap where it feels like my right hand is waiting to hear the result of playing the left hand semiquaver successfully before it feels permitted to play its own notes.

Advice? DO not TRY to speed up. Concentrate instead on understanding the music better. Learn each voice independently. Find out how are the various themes and motifs related? Make a formal analysis of subject, counter-subject, and so on. Which voice is most important at any given moment? Exactly how should each phrase be articulated for best effect. What feeling or feelings does it evoke? Can you attach a story or words to the notes? What harmonies are created by the separate voices? What transpositions does it go through? How are discordant notes used to good effect. Where and how is tension created and released.

And just live with the piece for a few months, playing it several times daily with accuracy and musicality, at a speed that is not a struggle.

When you have done all that, the speed should come naturally, without effort.

I completely agree. And also learn the fugue slowly. It worked for my daughter when she did Grade 8 some years ago.

P.S. There was another recent thread on No 21, but I cant locate it by search right now.

You may want to try practicing just the first two notes of each beat to work on the transition between hands. Once you can get that smooth and even at a fast tempo, add the third note, then once that's sufficiently good add the fourth. You can also try different groupings, i.e. 5 notes at a time, one measure at a time, etc. In general, I've found isolating groups of notes at a time is a useful way to practice evenness in this kind of passagework. Good luck!

I have never played this piece but I have this exact problem (hands out of sync especially when speeded up). My teacher gave me the following advice. It may not be helpful because the causes of your unevenness may be different from mine, but perhaps it will give you some ideas.

- Sometimes unevenness is caused by not releasing fast enough
- It can also caused by some fingers being weaker than others and the remedy for this is to practise scales with accents on every 3rd or 4th note (depending on how many octaves) to make sure that each finger gets exercised
- It can also be caused by too much movement in the wrist especially of the up and down sort.