# practicing rachmaninoff's prelude in c-sharp minor. Op.3 No. 2



## alonbi

hello. my name is alon and im 15 years old.
I've been learning this piece since the beginning of the year and tomorrow i have a preformance with this piece.I'm searching for the best way to practice the middle part (agitato), where the up-stemmed melody notes should stand out against the bass line while the second and third notes of the triplet are softer. i found a suggestion to practice it by blocking the chords, playing all the notes on one beat at the same time.. does someone have a better suggestion?


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## Novelette

Alonbi, I see that my response is far too late to be of use to you. But, just in case you still want some guidance for the middle section...

The top note should indeed be emphasized while the other two parts of the triplets are to be relatively soft. The first two measures of the middle section will be repeated a few times in slightly arranged form, while the "development" is really just the triplet-breaking of the quick, syncopated chords that rapidly descend in transition to the final, larger restatement of the primary theme. By mastering those later chords, you have the notes in mind, now you need only break them into the appointed triplets--keeping this in mind will not only give you a clearer orientation of what is to come next, precisely, but will also help you recall the notes that are to come later/earlier. 

I took up this piece a few days ago, and now I'm finished with it. In practicing the middle section, I simply played each measure at least twenty times in succession, then I would play two measures together twenty times in succession, then three, then four... With an hour of practicing and correct finger-placement, I was finished with the agitato. 

I hope your performance went well!

By the way, consolidating broken chords into the whole chords themselves and then practicing only the progression is always a good idea if you find it useful. Some sections that seem unintelligible often seem to come together quite clearly with such a method, you can see that the chord progression of the middle part is fairly simple, and more importantly, easy to remember.


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