NOTATIO

Thanks for the tips.

This explains why my arms hurt so much after just half an hour of practice. The tenths, which appear three times in this piece, are going to be a challenge with only hand movements. Still, I might get it by Christmas!

I can only find one "too large" interval, at the start of bar 6, and the top note of the lower staff is easily played with the right hand.

Organists have the advantage of the pedalboard to take the bass voice, freeing both hands to more easily secure legato within S-A-T alone.

In your given example, even with my small hands and no pedalboard, all the seemingly difficult intervals are easily played by taking the tenor voice in the RH. It would become even easier on a piano where the damper pedal can be used for legato rather than only connecting with the fingers (as organists must). That said, learning how to navigate a passage like this with fingering alone will be very beneficial for you - you can think of it like rock climbing.

DavidYoung wrote: ↑25 Mar 2025, 18:18 Thanks for the tips.

This explains why my arms hurt so much after just half an hour of practice. The tenths, which appear three times in this piece, are going to be a challenge with only hand movements. Still, I might get it by Christmas!

Lest you misunderstand. I wrote that the fingers should be used to depress the keys. I wrote nothing about hand movements (that is, motions of the hand from the wrist). When one has to play an interval like a tenth that might be beyond a comfortable stretch of one hand, one must move the entire arm quickly from the most comfortable position to play the first note to the most comfortable position to play the second. The finger must press the key in both cases, not the arm or hand.

In doing this, one must take care that the arm motion itself does depress the key, or you will lose control and play unwanted accents on the notes.

The ability to do this is one of the hallmarks of fine piano playing,

To know exactly what you are doing: whether you are using your fingers, your hands, or your arms to depress the keys is often the key to solving technical problems. This ability is only gained through careful observation and experiment. The use of the hands or arms to depress the keys is one of the main causes of arm pain, because of unwanted tension that builds up in the fingers, hands and arms. And arm pain is never a good thing and can lead to injury.

The motion of the fingers should be a simple tapping motion from their origin at the hand (knuckles). There should be no scratching or extending motions of the fingers as you are actually depressing the keys. This means that there will be no change in the shape of the finger as it depresses the key. (Of course, the shapes of the fingers must change between the individual acts of depressing the keys to fit all the different chordal shapes and situations.)

This way of playing makes use of the muscles in your hands that move the fingers, which are agile and independent, rather than the muscles in your arms that move the fingers, which are used more for activities that require great strength and tend to stiffen the fingers and arms. Move your fingers up and down like a baby waving "bye-bye". Or simply tap lightly on a surface. That is the correct motion and coordination to use at the keyboard.