How To Teach Mendelssohn Venetian Boat Song Op.19, No.6

Editions that I recommended in the video:

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0:00 Introduction
2:21 Key signature and accidentals
2:54 Texture
4:09 Practicing the left hand
6:15 Practicing the right hand
8:17 Shaping the phrases
9:50 Balance, voicing, and final comments

[JannaWilliamson]

Do you have other pieces in the intermediate repertoire that you'd like me to cover in a future video? Leave a comment here!

[edieamusic]

Thanks for the tips! I love the idea of encouraging the student to play the LH chords in both hands, and the RH thirds/sixths in both hands, so they can hear what the parts sound like harmonically without worrying about the technical stuff. There’s lots of other pieces that idea could be used for.

[seasidefoto]

I like this song. So romantic and poetic.
Felix Mendelssohn, I immensely respect him.

[ag]

Would love to see a tutorial about using the pedal for this piece

[RobertMonroePlays]

Fantastic resource. Lovely to cover this! Just taught this piece earlier today.

[dannysaiz]

I'm a little late to this party, I think. I've just taken up the piano again (after years away) and have fallen in love with pieces I never would have in my youth. This piece scratches every itch for me. I'm now 62. I'm about 80% there on this piece. I can play the entire piece with maybe a couple of hitches. I just need to be even more familiar with the piece than I am. Getting up to tempo is the main challenge for me right now. My question for you, would be how best to play the right hand melody in measures 26-30? There's no legato sign. I sound awfully choppy. I try not to over rely on the pedal. I guess I'm just looking for some insight. Thanks for the link to the Alfred book. I've ordered it.

[heatherknezevichpiano]

I love this piece! Thank you! Have you taught other pieces from the Songs without words? Just curious which ones are your favorites. I have the Masterworks edition and am working on playing through it.

A suggestion for a piece to do... Golliwog's Cakewalk by Debussy. I'm considering teaching it soon.

[ChrisBroc]

Thank you for this video! I'm a self-taught piano student at the early intermediate level and had no idea which hand should play which notes. I thought everything in the bass clef should be played by the left hand (which was proving difficult). Watching how you split the notes between hands was very instructive and makes the piece much easier to learn.

A general question is, how would I have known to split the hands this way as traditionally the left hand plays the bass clef and the right hand plays the treble clef? Although much more difficult, would it be unacceptable to play without splitting the notes between hands as you have shown in your video? Just wondering how I would figure this out for other pieces when such a helpful video is unavailable. Thanks!

[matthias]

hi, very helpful video! i would suggest poudre d‘or by Erik Satie, i really like this piece

[mariannegarcia]

Can you show us the differences in the fingering pattern for the right hand between editions?