Here’s another set of excerpt exercises- this time for Mendelssohn Scherzo. This is one of my favorite excerpts, thanks to this “movable fermata” technique I learned from Cathy. I also feel that breath control is one of my strengths, and it’s an excerpt that comes out more reliably for me than many others!

Movable fermata is an excellent technique to apply to excerpts with lots of even notes, like Voliere, or the opening of Daphnis. I also use it a lot to woodshed short technical passages. Once you’ve played all the variations, you’ve spent a fair amount of time working on it and you can move on. If you try to play the whole passage after practicing this way, it will be so much smoother and easier to control. Also, it can be surprising how tricky or awkward certain measures are when you isolate individual finger movements this way!

Download the (free) pdf here: