How do I learn to play complex polyrhythms on piano (eg chopin's fantasie impromptu)?

I've had to do this before, and yes, it is hard. 2 notes against three is easy, you just count "1 2 and 3" with the "and" as the eighth note; takes a little getting used to but it's not hard. As far as I know, though, there's no special trick for doing four against three.

All I can advise you is this: First you have to totally master each hand alone, obviously. Do this kind of drill- about two or three measures of the right hand, then two or three measures of the left, back and forth like this with a metronome. (Obviosuly you have to set the metronome to only playing the first beat, it's the only time the notes match up!) This will get you very good at shifting between the rhythms instantly, which you have to master before you can even begin to put them together.

When you actually put the hands together, then, you will have each part so solid that it will just work. Like I said, there's just no way to "fit" them together- you will just get so good at each half that you'll be able to play them at the same time. When you put hands together start off with a *very* small segment (like a measure); do a measure of right hand alone, then a measure of left hand alone, then hands together. You'll probably have to do a measure at a time to get used to it. It's just drilling, I'm afraid, but it works!

Fantasie-Impromptu does have that rhythm, but it's still not as hard as you'd expect (because the left hand pulses so much, you have a very clear sense of each measure beginning). The first piece where I had to learn polyrhythm was Debussy's "Passepied" from Suite Bergamesque (the same suite that has "Clair de Lune.") OMG it was so hard, I thought I'd never get it! But I did, and then after that other polyrhythmic pieces were much easier...

Good luck!

You can almost never play something perfectly. There's always room for improvement no matter how good you are already. Having said that, I'm going to give an answer that differs from the rest. If you're talking technical stuff, the Chopin is harder. If you're talking in terms of the level of musicality and subtle nuances required, Mozart is one of the composers who is the hardest to play well. Almost anybody can sit down and plonk out a Mozart sonata, but very few have the ability to play them so well that it leaves you open-mouthed and amazed instead of half-asleep by the end of it. The ornaments and trills are hardly the major concerns. Firstly it's the fact that we're playing Mozart on a modern instrument instead of the fortepiano (which his pieces were written for) - that already makes it a little harder. Then there's the sheer amount of control required, the elegance and the transparent texture that makes any mistake immediately obvious. For the Chopin Fantasie-Impromptu, nobody will notice if you miss a few notes here and there in the fast sections as long as you don't break down. Ever wondered why so few pianists can make a career playing mostly Mozart, whereas there are so many who play Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Chopin and the like? Not saying that these composers are any less good than Mozart, it's just the way they write their music. Every single detail has to be given full attention to for Mozart.

Maybe I'm looking at the wrong piece of sheet music, but it doesn't look like there are a lot of intervals or chords in this piece.

Practicing scales might be a good idea. At first glance, this piece doesn't look that complicated.

Your left hand will need to work faster as the treble clef is full of 16th notes and the bass clef is mostly 8th notes.

If you think of your hands as a working team, and the notes on the treble and the bass clefs as connected...think of the 8th notes as 16th notes with rests.

You should probably practice your scales -- note with this piece there are a lot of accidentals.

But don't think of your hands working independantly, each hand has a job to do, and they are a team.

You could always practice them by yourself in scales, like the first answerer said; there really aren't any alternatives. However, the Fantaisie Impromptu isn't as hard as you probably think it is - practice the hands separately until you can play them decently, then play them together with a metronome. It helps to accentuate the first note of each beat so you know your hands are together.

confirm

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