Chopin Raindrop Prelude

Chopin’s Raindrop Prelude Amplified

Chopin’s Raindrop Prelude Amplified

The repeated tenor notes, which patter underneath all but a few of the measures in the Chopin Raindrop Prelude—first A-flat, then G-sharp, then back to A-flat again, so evocative of raindrops—make the piece almost wholly unique in classical piano music.

How Martha Argerich uses Chopin and Tempo Rubato

How Martha Argerich uses Chopin and Tempo Rubato

When I returned to the piano after a 25-year hiatus, I struggled with tempo rubato. I could not conceive how to inject my music with these mysterious elongations and compressions in the tempo.

Body over Mind When Performing

Body over Mind When Performing

For over a year, while studying Chopin’s Raindrop Prelude in my adult piano lessons, I often stumbled into an A-flat trap. In the expansion of the dreamy, opening melody, I launched off a bass A-flat into nowhere, flummoxed on which notes I should strike next.