Last week I was practicing the last movement of Prokofiev's 7th sonata. The two last pages are famously difficult. My basic approach consisted of finding out exactly where all the difficult jumps occur. The chords or notes that were just before a difficult leap are what I call "trampoline notes". These notes need to send the hand to the next note automatically. It should feel like when someone hits you below the knee to trigger a reflex to kick with the leg. Playing the note should become a trigger to send the hand where it needs to go without thinking about it. This was helpful and here is a step-by-step outline.

1. Analyze each hand separately, and circle the "trampoline notes". Red circles for the right hand and blue for the left hand. (for ease of reading)

2. Practice each hand separately in the following steps:

A) Play slowly, and right before a trampoline note, stop.

B) Know where the hand should leap before playing the trampoline note.

C) Play the trampoline note but focus all your attention on the landing place. Since your hand should already be in place to play the trampoline note there is no need to look at that chord.

3. The second step is complete when each trampoline note serves as a trigger of sorts that sends the hand right where it needs to go without thinking about it.

4. Then do the same process with both hands. Keep stopping before the trampoline notes but now there will be more stops since you have to stop before every note in each hand.

Here is a picture of my score. If you want a copy just send me a request by responding to this mail.

Some things to note:

• The right hand is easier because the jumps happen for a quarter note. The left hand is slightly more difficult because the jumps need to happen in an eighth note.

This measure is as tricky as it gets. Reminds me of once when I played Prokofiev's 6th sonata in a masterclass with the Russian pianist Alexander Ghindin. On the last page of the first movement, this happens.

Those left-hand leaps are tricky, I asked him about them (he was practicing it when I played it for him). His comment was something like "What can I say, that is f*cking difficult"

Anyway, in the passage from the 7th sonata what is good to think about it is that the right hand on its own is not that difficult. Really the most annoying part is the three first eighth notes in the left hand. So give them extra attention.

Here is a great recording of this music by the late Maurizio Pollini:

Hope this helps if someone out there is fighting this beast!