So, I was already interested in playing “The Moon, My Heart” before meeting Ax, but after meeting him I decided I definitely wanted to add it to my repertoire.

But wow, the music is a lot harder than it sounds! (at least for me anyway)

I think it’s because I can’t put the left hand on autopilot. I can sightread (read-play) either hand separately pretty much at tempo, but hands together and the tempo drops to about 1/4 of what it should be.

So, Ax, do you have any advice? Is there a pattern in the left hand I’m missing that might make it easier if I recognized it?

Glad you like the music.

Perhaps consider simplifying the lefthand. Compare the two versions below:




They play exactly the same chords, but the second one is simpler because it reduced the amount of movement in the lefthand. Even that can be further simplified into C-E-G-E-G-E-G-E, E-G-B-G-B-G-B-G ... very simple Alberti bass.

Perhaps do one round of harmonic analysis to figure out the basic chords played by the lefthand in each measure, then just play the notes in those basic chords in anyway/pattern that is comfortable for you. (If you find one or two notes in each measure where the notes from the basic chords "don't fit," just skip those notes in the lefthand.)

Ax, thanks for the info and suggestions!!! That's super helpful.

I think I will try the easier version you suggest and see how it sounds. If I like your original version better, I will just figure out how to fight through and learn it.

I think I may have better luck if I just focus on playing the LH on its own (as written in your original arrangement)and sort of force myself to recognize it as a chord (rather than feeling like I'm just dancing up the keyboard hunting for each note!)

I give a progress update soon!

I had forgotten about this thread, but meant to say: Thanks, Ax, for a reminder on how to make things simpler! I used to do this for myself, back when I was still playing. And now this thread is making me think that I should go back to a wonderful piece with an arpeggiated LH that I just couldn’t get to move fast enough when both hands were playing together. I’d at least have the essence of it.

SK, how’s it going?

Adagio, I was just thinking about posting an update!

So, I decided to work on playing it as Ax originally wrote it. Here’s was my reasoning: The chord changes he suggested would make the left hand more like other music I play, and definitely easier. So I could probably easily switch to that later if I really can’t get it into my fingers or can’t get the tempo up. But once I switch to those chords, it would be really hard for me to go back to the original. Plus it’s been a while since I worked on a new piece that challenged me, so I figured I should give it a shot.

It’s funny how hard this is for me. Just as an example, for a fairly long time now I’ve been in the habit of learning a new piece from the score on paper and once I have it mostly down, I switch to playing it from a pdf on my iPad. So when I transition from paper to pdf, I either make a new pdf of the paper score (so I can keep all my notes) or if there aren’t that many notes, I just rewrite them onto the pdf.

Yesterday I transitioned one of the pieces I’m working on in said manner. It’s five pages, and as I looked at it, there were very few fingerings written in, maybe one or two per page for the first half, and the last two pages had no notes or fingerings at all, so I just rewrote the few notes/fingerings directly onto the pdf.

As a comparison, for Ax’s piece, right now I’m only working on the first page and the first half of the second page. And *every* measure has some fingerings or notes written on it.