I was messing around with Clair de Lune the other day. I love the piece and can manage most it except I find the 'rolling arpeggios' very hard. I am about to Grade 6. Is this piece beyond me or should I be able to do it? What grade would people say it is?

Rich

I don't think pieces like clair de lune can be classified into grades but I do feel that in order to play the piece perfectly you should be used to grade 7 standard atleast.
I love the piece too. Have you heard Debussy's Arabesque 1 ? You could try that for now.
Rupayan.

Hi Richiscoul,

I'm playing Clair de Lune at the moment and I'm finding that part difficult too.

I have just done GII and doing GIII June.
I'm not sure the grade of this piece.I'm guessing about GVI ?

I have found that if I just do this part slowly, your fingers will get used to where they should go eventually.(mine are still remembering!)
The only trouble is, it dosen't resemble the piece because it's still slow.

Just got to be patient until fingers catch up and speed up then it may just sound like it !

If it's any consolation, my friend is a GVII and played for a long time but she is struggling too on that part.

It would be interesting if anyone can help on this subject.

Fiona

I think you should be able to manage Clair de lune. As with anything hard, practice slowly and carefully at first so that your hand learns where its going without you having to look to closely at the notes. The whole Suite Bergemasque is wonderful by the way. I hope you enjoy the music.

I can help you out with this problem. I play at GVIII standard (My exam is actually this friday!) and I know this piece inside out. Where you mention the difficulty with rolling pieces, I assume that you mean the section that has the left hand going up and down in semi-quavers.
If it is, there is a solution. Make sure you use the fingering it suggests that you should use in the manuscript. If you can't, try playing the piece at a slower tempo and play one hand at a time so that the semi-quavers almost sound like quavers and slightly increase the tempo once your hands become comfortable and try to play both hands at different tempos and then try and go for it and play it at the suggested tempo. I used a fingering technique on those "rolling arpeggios".
With the left hand try playing the semi-quavers like this:
5 4/3 2 1 4/3 2 going up
&
1 2 3/4 1 2 4/3 going down

Try really hard on the Db Maj and C# min scales and and the arpeggios in legato once you have gotten really into that try and do some fingering exercises for the left hand that would mkae a firm even tone balance and a co-ordinated speed with the right hand.

I belive that thi is probably a GradeV piece and you should have no problem.

e-mail me back if you still having any trouble and I could help you Richiscoul

Thanks to everyone who replied. Patience seems to be the common thread to the advice. I think becasue I have quite small hands, the first arpeggio which has quite a big jump between the first two notes presents problems for me becasue it is a stretch from finger 5 - 3 rather than the notes falling naturally under the fingers. If you use 2, you have problems later in the arpeggio!!!! But I'll give it some time and report back on my progress. I think it's good to share these technical issues.

Richiscoul

I play pieces I shouldn't be playing all the time!!!! So don't worry. I think that if you are having problems with your fingers moving quickly enough you should try and play Theme and Variations out of the green mossy coloured pieces for pleasure book!!!!!! Me and loads of people at orchestra really like it!!!!!!!
Dizzzzzzzzzy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Clare de Lune ( orriginal version ) is actually a very difficult piece - grade 8+. To play it correctly at ( correct ) speed takes a lot of arpeggio practicing. It is certainly way above grade 5 standard as commented by a previous student.

I also found this piece difficult to learn- It was the first piano piece I learned to play (having done up to grade 8 keyboard beforehand).
I also found the middle section a nightmare to begin with, but it will get better!
Have you tried playing some of the higher notes of the runs with the RH?
It made it easier for me to play the first 3 runs for example like this:

(LH)5 2 1 2 (RH)1 2
(LH)5 2 1 (RH) 1 2 3
same as above.
The higher notes in the RH, i usually use 5 4 or 3.

'Menuet', the piece before this in Suite Bergamasque is also a very nice piece.

the rolling arps. should come naturally
just practise REALLLLLLLY slowly and evenly
and eventually speed up
ermm...clair de lune was grade 8 at some point
if memory serves
XD

David.x.

I played it first when i was between grades 6 and 7. I really enjoyed playing it but found the middle section quite hard. Now I'm doing grade 8 I can play it much better and enjoy it all the more! However, with a good deal of perseverance, I'd say you can do it
it's a great piece - hope you enjoy playing it!

It is a lovely piece, and the difficult bits will yield to lots of slow and precise practice. Just give it time. You might have to learn it, put it aside for a month or two, come back to it for more work, and repeat this process a few times before it gets really fluent and comfortable.

I learned this piece when I had only just passed grade 5 (a very very long time ago!) , and played it (respectably well I think) in a concert. It is definitely do-able if you like it enough to do the hard work that it will need.

Yes I'd say Clair de Lune Grade 7-8. The first arabesque has also been Grade 8. The first movement of Suite Bergamasque is a bit easier , say Grade 7, but the other two movemnets (2nd and 4th, for me are harder than Clair de Lune)