In this video we will learn the prelude by Chopin, from Opus 28 no. 20, in C-Minor. The prelude that Rachmaninov also chose for his Chopin Variations.
It's a nice piece to work at to learn chords — how to play chords, how to use arm weight and arm pressure, and the combination of the two. And how to make the melody sound legato, a nice line in the melody all in the 5th finger, in the upper notes.
Chopin writes Largo — broad, slow, very slow tempo. It starts with fortissimo. But we don't make this fortissimo just with the arm weight. We want to have some intensity in it, which we cannot create with weight alone. So we use a combination of weight and pressure from the lower arm. The fingers need to be strong, not too round.
A good way of working on chords is to first start soft. To hear all the notes and feel the fingers. Feel it, and repeat a few times the chord until you feel: this sounds good, nice equal, nice balance. Okay, it feels like that. And then increase the strength, with a pressure from the lower arm. Listen and feel! Feel in your arms and your muscles, and listen to what you get back. Search for the right sound until you have it in your system.
The rhythm has to be counted exactly. The 16th notes perhaps come a fraction too late. But never too early. Your starting point with any rubato — stealing of the time — should always start from exact counting, otherwise it will sound amateurish.
In the second line the color changes. Piano Chopin writes. A little bit more round tone. In the last line, it's like a repetition of the second line, but pianissimo — a more desolate tone. And still the melodic line in the upper notes in the 5th finger needs to be audible.
Chopin's Prelude Op. 28 No. 20 is twelve bars long. Rachmaninov chose it as the theme for his Chopin Variations. In those twelve bars, Chopin compresses every essential challenge of chord playing: voicing the top line, preparing each transition, balancing inner voices, and controlling a three-stage dynamic arc from fortissimo to piano to pianissimo.
The notes are not the difficulty. The difficulty is the sound.
Getting Every Note to Sound
Before any other concern, every note in every chord must sound. Not some notes, not "mostly the top line" — every inner voice must be present.
A good way of working on this: play each chord softly first, without any dynamic ambition. Just listen. Hear each note. Feel the fingers.
Adjust until the balance is even and every voice is audible. Once you can feel what "right" feels like in the hand — a slight weight toward the right to bring out the fifth finger melody, the inner voices present but subordinate — then you have something to scale up. Increase the strength from there with pressure from the lower arm, not from sudden force.
This sequence — soft exploration first, then dynamic increase — is the process I describe: feel it, listen to what you get back, search for the right sound until you have it in your system. That is how chords get into the hand. Not by playing them loud and hoping for the best.
The Fortissimo First Line: Weight Plus Pressure
Chopin marks the opening fortissimo. But fortissimo at this tempo, in these chords, is not achieved with arm weight alone. It requires a combination: the weight of the arm settling into the keys, plus pressure from the lower arm — an active, engaged touch.
The fingers need to be strong but not too round. A slightly flatter finger position for these chords allows more of the finger surface to contact the key, which gives a fuller, more connected sound than a very curved fingertip would produce. The arm weight goes slightly to the right — concentrating the fifth finger — so the melodic line in the upper voice sings above everything else.
Between the notes describes the preparation that makes this kind of chord-to-chord legato possible: the finger that is about to play is already prepared before the previous chord releases.
The Melodic Line in the Fifth Finger
The melody lives in the fifth finger throughout the first line. It is the top note of every chord. It must be audible as a continuous melodic line — not just individual notes that happen to be the highest, but a phrase that pulls the listener forward.
Lean the arm weight slightly to the right. The fifth finger concentrates. Work on the melodic line separately before adding the inner voices: just play the top notes, make sure the phrase sings, make sure each note connects to the next. Then add the inner voices back, holding onto that sense of the line.
In the second line, the middle voice becomes important. Bring it out alongside the top line — weight to the right and the second finger slightly more vertical for the middle voice. This is not easy. In the pianissimo third line, it becomes even more essential: the desolate, concentrated tone of the third line depends on hearing those inner voices clearly. Voicing a melody above accompaniment in the same hand covers this balance in detail.
The 16th Note: Preparation and Connection
Each bar contains a 16th note figure that leads into the main chord beat. This 16th note must be connected to the quarter note that follows it — not separated, not early, not late.
The pedal connects them. But before the pedal, the preparation of the hand matters: prepare the chord behind the 16th note. The hand is already in position for the landing chord before the 16th note sounds. This way, the connection is physical as well as harmonic — the hand arrives, and then the chord follows naturally.
The rhythm should be counted exactly first. Any rubato — any stealing of time — must begin from a basis of exact counting. Rubato that has never been grounded in exact rhythm will sound amateurish. Rubato that comes from exact rhythm feels like expressive freedom. That is the distinction.
The Three-Line Dynamic Arc
The piece has three distinct color changes:
First line — Fortissimo. Broad, slow, intense. Full arm weight plus lower-arm pressure. Strong 5th finger. Every inner voice present.
Second line — Piano. A slightly more round tone. Less weight, more touch. The character changes — more introspective, less declaration. The middle voice starts to become audible as a counterline.
Third line — Pianissimo. Desolate. The arm position rises slightly — a lighter, more concentrated touch from a higher position. The middle voice must come out now more than ever. The 5th finger still carries the top line, but the whole texture is reduced and focused.
The ritenuto that ends the second line continues into the third — so the third line begins in a slightly slower tempo than the second, and ends slower still. And the final crescendo and ritenuto of the third line: work on rhythm and sound simultaneously. Make the middle voice your guide — let it emerge while the phrase builds.
Fingering and Pedaling
Download the score with my fingerings before learning the piece. The fingerings are written specifically to enable legato in the chord transitions — choosing the right fingering is not a secondary concern here, it is how the legato is built. Incorrect fingering for chord passages means constant hand-position compromises.
Pedaling is per quarter note throughout, except in the final two chords, which share a single pedal. The left-hand bass notes define the harmonic changes and therefore the pedal changes.
The large chord in measure 3 includes a ninth (thumb on D-flat and E-flat simultaneously). Work this chord separately: place the thumb, feel both keys, ensure both notes sound. Then practice the 16th note — prepare — land. Prepare! The preparation of that transition is what makes it audible as a connection rather than an interruption.
The secret thread of legato is the broader principle this piece illustrates: the legato connection between chords is made by preparation and weight transfer, not by holding notes that cannot be held. And for the scale passages that appear throughout Chopin's other 28 preludes, how to practice piano scales gives the technique foundation that makes those passages controllable.
