Play the difficult passages slowly, until all the notes are learned. The first hurdle is obvious: the passagework. It's better to take the "win" of playing the original and playing it well.īut for the student who hits the wall and then wants to climb it, I do have some ideas. If that "new level" is not happening at this juncture for a student, then it can happen later.
That said, I do see the musical argument for using Vivaldi's original - and it's a good alternative for students who are not ready for the big push of Nachez. Of course, this doesn't happen if the student bumbles through and leaves the piece after simply "getting the notes." And frankly, the challenge of the Nachez version is all part of it - it's a lot harder than Vivaldi's original, which has easier passagework. So when mastered well and played up to tempo, Vivaldi's Concerto in A minor can be a "gateway piece" that pushes a student's technique to a new level. Aunt Rhody's goose clearly has left the barnyard! It's pretty exciting - a student can find recordings of Itzhak Perlman playing this piece, or the wild-fast Baroque masters of Tafelmusik.
It's one of those early "real pieces" - something that the pros play. Generally, the student is going from being a beginner to being more of a solidly intermediate student. A little bit about this piece: when studied as part of a progression, whether as part of the Suzuki method or a traditional method, the piece occurs at an interesting juncture for students.