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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Here are my videos for Mazurka 67/4. First one is LH alone. Second one is both hands practice. Thanks again for your feedback!
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Vidhya Bashyam I love what you have done. Your rendition has a consistently meditative quality that is a joy to listen to!
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Vidhya Bashyam świetne pytanie. Your fingering is right, just the hand motion is too big and you are rushing into the second note such that your hand has no chance to spell out the trill melodically. I’d suggest a softer palm and smaller arm movement inward - the movement you’re doing is fine, but closer to the keyboard and less wrist raising will be more precise.
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Vidhya Bashyam I don’t have a favourite of this one, but I think Janusz Olejniczak is great on the 1849 Erard NIFC recording.
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Jarred Dunn Found the recording- thanks!
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Vidhya Bashyam Ashkenazy and Shebanowa are also great, both on modern pianos.
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Vidhya Bashyam Wonderful playing, Vidhya! You play this mazurka with great beauty and lyricism.
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Monika Tusnady Juan Carlos Olite Thank you dear friends! Much work to do but very enjoyable to be immersed in Mazurkas with you!
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Vidhya Bashyam Beautiful playing and a great foundation of this amazing mazurka, Vidhya! I’m enjoying the tips from Jarred as well ;)
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Sindre Skarelven Thanks! Yes, great feedback from Jarred we can both use! Looking forward to hearing you play this one too and compare notes
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Vidhya Bashyam sounds beautifully melancholic, Vidhya!
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Hi Jarred, a bit late, but here my first video of op 63 nº 3:
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Juan Carlos Olite Bravo! So enjoyable to hear one of my favorite Mazurkas played so beautifully!
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Juan Carlos Olite Bravo, Juan Carlos! Lively and charming playing!
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Juan Carlos Olite bravo, Juan Carlos! That's beautiful!
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Juan Carlos Olite I loved everything in your playing!
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Juan Carlos Olite sylaby jak w polskich pieśni ludowych (=syllables as in Polish folk songs)! The first three notes are a diminuendo hinting at a lyrical, melancholic tune with an active upbeat and a calm downbeat (THREE-one). If you listen to Polish folk music you’ll hear syllable inflections that Chopin used to build op63 into a poignantly bitter narrative. Make downbeats much less powerful - you aim at the right kind of lingering when beat 2 has a long note, but when you play the refrain “8th-8th-quarter” it is too loud, it pulls focus from the main lift of the melody. Let the LH chords have an independent melodic focus at cadences - sometimes Chopin writes soprano and bass slurring in counterpoint. At 1:13-1:15 wait much longer over the augmented chords, they tear our ears out of the inviting mazurek into the kujawiak. The return has to be much more disappointing and very softly played. Your inflection at 1:23-1:27 using second beats and lilting them is the correct timing. Again make sure the refrain of two descending eighths and quarter is very quiet. Good work putting together the canon in the last phrase. Brawo! Dalej graj!
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Juan Carlos Olite Fantastic, Juan Carlos! You bring this Mazurka to life with so much spirit! Really looking forward to hear how you will incorporate Jarred’s comments. Also congratulations on a beautiful paint job! Must be nice to bring out the Schimmel again!
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Jarred Dunn Thank you so much, Jarred! Your indications are fantastic, very specific and clear and help a lot to put them into practice. I will work very hard on this!
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Vidhya Bashyam Andrea Buckland Natalie Peh Paula Alizo Sindre Skarelven Thank you so much, piano friends! I am very happy to return to my Schimmel after two crazy weeks with the house in chaos. We have a week to work on Jarred's comments yet. What a wonderful intensive
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Juan Carlos Olite Bravo! That’s a robust interpretation with a lot of forward drive.
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Lovely!
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Mazurka Op 7 No 2
First 2 sections with no repeats - trying to lighten up the left hand so it's not so heavy. Not sure if I succeeded or not... Maybe the 2nd section could be even lighter. It's a challenge to be light and soft, and yet still sound enough to support the right hand. Does the left hand need to be lighter still?
Still working on the A major section - which feels as if it should go faster than the first 2 sections, even though there is no marking as such. I was going to aim for approx 116-120 in the first section, and perhaps 126-132 in the second... My technical skills are probably not up to much more than that!
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Gillian słuchalem (I listened)... Kujawiak (opening section) is a bit more optimistic now, but LH is still a bit heavy, plodding, you can work on the third beat chords - lighter more often will help. At 0:27-28, slightly slower to allow the phrase to taper more elegantly - soften and slow down the fingertips and control each key such that a fainting sound results and you can easily imagine tapering it into thin air. At the cadence, check the eighth-sixteenth rhythm and don't play it like a triplet, make a sharper more rhythmically accurate sixteenth! At 0:32, the music becomes less hopeful and more pleading: starting softer and think of standing in one spot pondering "Does it have to be like this?" and "Why does it have to be like this?" or "Life is one misery after another, why is it like this?" This feeling of existential misery extends to 0:40-0:46, which needs in general to be a diminuendo through the diminished chords. Do roboty jeszcze ras!
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Jarred Dunn Awesome feedback, thanks Jarred!
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First take on the Op 67 nr 3. First left hand only, then both.
