Group 3
Welcome to the NEW TWO WEEK INTENSIVE on tonebase!
Improving your Lyricism (feat Chopin)
Post your progress with videos and written commentary on how things are going for you!
- Course Period: June 26 - July 10th
- Class Size: ALL are welcome!
- Optional check-In via Zoom: July 2nd at 11am PT
- ZOOM MEETING LINK:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/5557629304?pwd=F1jnbTtCaEZxci7lDSSss66kvLtCVT.1
Assignment #1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQpw6fZBOlE
- Pick a short piece (Mazurka, Nocturne, Prelude) or excerpt of a longer piece (Ballade, Polonaise, Scherzo, Sonata, Concerto). Focus on lyrical/slow sections.
- Learn bass carefully, labelling all chords and cadences.
- SING melodic line. Practice singing until your voice can identify the melody instantly.
- Submit a video: playing the Bass while singing the Soprano.
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Assignment #2
https://youtu.be/ri2UD1z8sKE?si=w36XWzqb_rao3RAu
-Label all breathing points with an apostrophe between phrase markings. Practice deep breaths between significant points or use a regular breath for phrase changes.
-Sing Bass notes of all chords while playing Soprano melody.
-Submit a video: playing hands together (performance).
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Here is my first attempt on the beginning of the Nocturne in F#-minor op. 48 no 2
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Juan Carlos Olite thanks
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Andrea Buckland Love it Andrea! Can’t get it out of my head after hearing your beautiful singing!
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Vidhya Bashyam it’s a very haunting melody, isn’t it? I can’t get it out of my head either - very bad news for Schumann and Bach
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Andrea Buckland Ha! Chopin does that! I need to learn this piece too sometime!
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Andrea Buckland Your voice shows how well you understand the dynamics and phrasing! Lovely job.
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Andrea Buckland Beautiful singing in both the videos! You've got a lovely voice and it brings out the nocturne wonderfully!
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Andrea Buckland Wow! That was so beautiful and touching! You really brought out the melody line with so much care to dynamics, vocal nuances and phrasing.
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Andrea Buckland That is really lovely Andrea, so moving…
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Andrea Buckland oh wow. That's beautiful.
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Andrea Buckland beautifully done! I am also working this Nocturne. I’m obsessed with it. Your phrasing is gorgeous.
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Bryan Sable I can fully understand your obsession! Such a beauty! Difficult to stop humming it (day and night).
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Sindre Skarelven
Angela Fogg Natalie Peh Gail Starr Dagmar
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https://youtu.be/JHz9B_ZKLJQ?si=KzI0sGJcrmmQS0RB
And like Andrea, here’s my video. The entire melodic line is played by the thumb, so I used it as my vocal backup track, so to speak!
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Tammy Your playing and singing sound great! This prelude is so much more beautiful when the melody stands out like this.
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Tammy Good work: breathing and singing are good so far. Next step: sing the melody without playing it except if your ear/tone memory are lost - use your ears and bass line to help you place the melody notes. This will give your melody more lift and shape. Your melodic timing is on point: just needs to happen more naturally without the grounding of the RH offering a reference point (= melody will truly soar when needed). To make this lyrical we need to hear the melody is free of any sense of keyboard playing or pulsing - totally open to wherever the voice wants to go.
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Tammy Sounds great, Tammy!
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Tammy Sounding good Tammy!
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Here is my attempt at analyzing Mazurka Op 24/1. Questions highlighted in pink.
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Vidhya Bashyam good work - per your questions, m. 25-26, m. 29-30 are quartal chords (chords in 4ths) but their function is to create dissonances in the middle voice of each chord (B-flat and A-natural alternating). At m. 30 there is a V7 with G as the top voice (beat 3) - this is V7 +9, which also functions like the quartal chords - the line G-F-E-Eflat creates a short melody. M. 37-39 is E-flat pedal point with the upper two notes of each chord operating as members of the harmony found in soprano and alto (same at mm. 45-48). Most of your questions concern augmented triads or seventh chords, which we can discuss on your next lesson or you can Google "augmented triad" and "types of seventh chords."
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Jarred Dunn Thanks! I will definitely check out more on Google.
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Here is my video “singing” the first section of Mazurka 24/1.
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Vidhya Bashyam Good work singing long tones and accents, sounds like a mazurek in rhythm and feel. In practicing your singing, I think you can take more time on the F-sharps and C-sharps - they really add colour to the melody and will help your ear become more acutely aware of harmonic and melodic direction. LH can make more difference between specific chord tones that form melodies: experiment with volume/levels to craft a colourful accompaniment.
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Vidhya Bashyam Very good work, Vidhya!
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Vidhya Bashyam well co-ordinated playing and singing! Nice choice of mazurka too, I like this one.
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Vidhya Bashyam Such a beautiful piece! Listening to the singing really shapes it doesn’t it?
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