Still deciding on what pieces to play for my grade 8 so I've had go at this. I'm liking it surprisingly much as I'm not really a Chopin fan as I find a lot of his music a bit florid for my tastes.

It's fairly straightforward apart from about 3 bars which have a sweeping upwards chromatic florish (bars 27, 60 and 123). I'm having trouble getting my fingers to move fast enough! Does anyone have tips on how to approach these bars? I've tried moving my hand position forwards up the black keys, backwards, moving my elbow out to the side but I keep skipping notes.

The other thing is pedal - some editions I've seen have lots of it, the ABRSM edition I'm using doesn't have much at all. There are some held left hand notes in the 2nd con anima section which I can only do if I use pedal but it's not marked and makes the sound a but smudgy. Any suggestions?

Ive played this for nigh on 50 of my 65 years ! Well first of all it's marked Lento. Often this waltz is played too fast , which does cause difficulty with those little chromatic runs. I dont find them particularly difficult at the correct tempo for the waltz. You can even introduce a little 'rubato' to accomodate them. As far as pedal goes there are lots of markings on my Peters edition, I couldnt begin to tell you where they all are. However my own playing of it doesn't really follow the suggested markings, I just pedal as I feel is right.
I agree its not a difficult piece for a Grade 8 entrant, compared with some other stuff in the syllabus.

Fix a sensible fingering.
Memorize the problem sections.
Practice slowly and intensely for a few days.
Put the piece away for a week or two (while continuig to work on other things) then come back to it.


Use the pedal to hold the bass notes that you cannot otherwise hold. Prevent the sound from becoming "smudgy" by quickly flipping the pedal up and down at strategic points. This will damp the higher frquencies, but will allow the bass notes to continue to sound. It is a standard technique called "Clearing the Treble"

My copy is marked crotchet = 138 which is not Lento in my book! It is manageable if you play it slower (which is what I will do!)



Absolutely agree with this and I wonder why they choose certain pieces - I've been having a go at the Hindemith Praeludium from Ludus tonalis and I find it much more challenging.



Good advice and I have memorised all the tricky parts already.



I do try to do this but it's a bit difficult as I have a digital Yamaha (albeit a good one) at home so I think the effects aren't quite the same as on acoustic. I do have the chance to practise on a Yamaha grand once a week so I'll give it try there and see how it sounds. I will have to twist my husband's arm so that I can get a silent acoustic to play on at home!