Uploaded January 2014 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Perhaps the hardest question you can ask a pianist, just after (s)he finished studying a piece is: "could you play it half a tone higher?". Playing things half a tone higher changes everything. Easy pieces can become much harder, and hard pieces can become easier. Muscle memory remembers all the wrong positions and key configurations, causing all kinds of trouble. Reason enough to practice a bit. After studying this piece I also find it easier to play arpeggios that go down the keyboard (for some reason those are more difficult for me than the ones going up).
The background image is reused from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Van_Gogh_Starry_Night_Drawing.jpg
Perhaps the hardest question you can ask a pianist, just after (s)he finished studying a piece is: "could you play it half a tone higher?". Playing things half a tone higher changes everything. Easy pieces can become much harder, and hard pieces can become easier. Muscle memory remembers all the wrong positions and key configurations, causing all kinds of trouble. Reason enough to practice a bit. After studying this piece I also find it easier to play arpeggios that go down the keyboard (for some reason those are more difficult for me than the ones going up).
The background image is reused from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Van_Gogh_Starry_Night_Drawing.jpg
