Group 5
Welcome to the latest TWO WEEK INTENSIVE on tonebase!
For the next two weeks either start learning OR take a Chopin mazurka in your repertoire to the next level through guidance and assignments from Jarred Dunn! Learn about stylistic advice, aspects of the dance and more!
Pianists of all levels are welcome.
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Assignment #1: Seeing the Mazurka
1) Watch Mazurka Dance Lessons 1, 2, and 3:
http://www.tance.edu.pl/en/lessons/show/dance/720
-Pay close attention to Lesson 3: the lesson builds rhythms from what we hear as a Waltz into a clear accent on 2nd beat, 3rd beat, and both 2nd/3rd beats
2) Learn one Mazurka
Choose one from the following suggested opuses for the whole TWI.
Week 1: Practice the LH:
-Op. 6 nr. 1, nr. 2
-Op. 7 nr. 1, nr. 2
-Op. 24 nr. 1 or 2
-Op. 30 nr. 1 or 2
-Op. 67 any
- or a different mazurka
Practice Activities:
a) Identify/mark all articulation in LH parts.
b) Clap the rhythm, emphasize accents and count aloud (speak louder for accented beats, eg. "one, Two, THREE" or "one, TWO, Three" etc.)
c) Identify/mark any unknown harmonic shifts or chords.
d) Find all cadences and notice unfamiliar accents (beat 2).
e) Voice tops of chords in LH or find a moving line (could be the middle notes of a chord that change).
f) Use RH for chords and LH for bass lines.
g) Circle any rests/pauses - they need to be heard.
Upload videos of your LH practicing/playing.
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ASSIGNMENT 2
Second Assignment: Continue your new Mazurka
Week 2: Practice the RH:
Listen to instruments, timbres, and moods in the following:
Kujawiak: https://youtu.be/RjV1bpxi0bc
Mazurek Dąbrowskiego: https://youtu.be/mTx45S-dQmQ?t=4
Chopin Mazurkas/Folk Mazurkas: https://youtu.be/n8OyddwnVbE
Look For/Listen For:
a) Learn the soprano part (melody), always sing/scream with it when you play. Think of dancers in this video: https://youtu.be/p6svoYBEWCs?t=10
b) Add ornaments after you learned the rhythms of the melody.
c) Dotted rhythms and triplets must sound distinctly different (no slackened dotted-eighth/sixteenths).
d) Accents on beats two and three can be subtle: try different levels of pressure/weight on the keys, to create at least four different accent types: sudden accent, leaning/swaying accent, light accent, heavy accent.
e) Remember that recording yourself is the best way to find out if you're actually doing what you intend. Record your melodic playing/singing/screaming whenever you practice.
Upload videos of your RH practicing/playing.
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- Sign-Up : starting July 14
- Course Period: July 17-31
- Class Size: ALL are welcome!
- Optional check-In via Zoom: July 27th 9am PT
CHECK IN VIDEO!
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Miłej niedzieli, drodzy przyjaciele fortepianu! (Happy Sunday, dear Piano friends!).
I had to take a break from piano for a week due to travel and tendonitis in my LH (which is much better thanks to some Advil). I was worried that my progress would be too slow to participate, but my lovely friends encouraged me to try anyway. Here's my first attempt at hand separately.
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Gail Starr Wonderful playing, Gail! You show a personal and attractive freedom with the tempo; I like how it flows, even with hand separated it has a dancing feeling.
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Gail dziś ćwiczyłem ten utwór (= today I was just practicing this)! The mazurka is much more effortless in attack, you can slow down your approach and allow your hands to breathe more. You play with 200% enthusiasm at all times, but the swiftness of leaping off the keys so often is making accents fly around and main pulses are impossible to catch. This is a Kujawiak style mazurek, with tremendous variety of colours and poetic moods, yet incredible simplicity at the outset of each phrase/section. One solid thing you already have is an intentional feeling for soft playing, which is key to Chopin style. Nevertheless, from a basic point of view, this piece calls upon your LH to feel comfortable with handling chords as melodic voices. I would say first step is erasure of constantly lifting the fingers off the keys and replacing that habit with allowing the key to push you up gently (same applies to RH). The mazurka style you're aiming at will only clarify itself to you when your hands aren't so giddy with every new beat upcoming. To nie jest dziki koń kopiacy (it isn't a wild kicking horse), raciej delikatne kołysanie (rather a delicate swaying). Do robota!
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Jarred Dunn Thank you so much for the valuable feedback!
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And, in anticipation of Dominic's live stream on August 4, I tried. to mark up my score a bit. First time trying this, so I have no idea if this is what we are supposed to do, though.
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Drodzy przyjaciele I miłośnicy mazurków,
Here is my post of 67/4 for week 2. Just a practice video (did not record the repeats either). Much work left (those trills!) but hopefully some progress. Thoroughly enjoying the process of getting to know the Mazurkas better (and am now addicted to hearing all of Shebanova’s Chopin recordings!) This has been a great two week intensive!
Bardzo ci dziekuje Jarred!-
Vidhya Bashyam Excellent playing, Vidhya! I like the beautiful arcs that the melodies draw in your interpretation, cantabile Chopin.
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Vidhya Bashyam very nice Vidhya! You really show the beauty of this piece!
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Vidhya Bashyam tak szybko się zmieniłaś! W twoje graniu jest nostalgia i wrażliwość. Brawo! Nów work on your attacks for the first and last notes of each phrase. The starting points in Chopin are not in alignment with his predecessors even the ones he most admired (Bach, Mozart, Clementi) but rather in the roots of Polish song and Italian aria. Opera was all the rage for Chopin, had you known him and wished to spend social time together, an opera subscription would be a basic necessity. Work at your hand and finger as a cooperative group, breathing together to create contrasting initial touches for new phrases and gentle lifts off the keys at the ends of phrases. Avoid any rowdy first tone that distracts our ears from the length of the note and its potential for development in time (1:00-1:10). Good ideas for rubato in the eighth notes 1:30-33, but this shouldn't sound like eighths turning into other rhythmic values. Good timing of the eighths at 1:38-40. For eighth notes, 1:48-50 was much better Don't rush the ending - it sounded too keen to finish. Brawo!
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Jarred Dunn Thank you so much for the feedback! Looking forward to working more on this mazurka and hopefully many more.
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Andrea Buckland Juan Carlos Olite Thank you! It has been so fun learning Mazurkas with you!
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Vidhya Bashyam likewise
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Vidhya Bashyam love how you swirl out beautiful long lines of melody for this mazurka! Very nice work, Vidhya!
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Natalie Peh Thank you! Hope to hear your take on this Mazurka too!
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Vidhya Bashyam Nice work with this one! The latter part of the A major section sure gets tricky...when I get there I need to tell myself to stop holding my breath.
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