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's some singing from ballade 4
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Sindre Skarelven Wow, Sindre! You are singing this so beautifully!
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Sindre Skarelven That was great Sindre! I love that opening so much.
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Sindre Skarelven Sounds beautiful, Sindre! You are a great singer!
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Sindre Skarelven good work showing different rubato and colour. Second phrase good ear for most chromatic 16ths - really work out the last notes of each group (intonation, breathing, support). Tempo choice works for the voice. One thing to watch out for in singing is how your voice falls at the end of a phrase - save some tone for the last few notes and make them fade gently but clearly - you have the right tapering but it should be with colour rather than dynamics.
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Sindre Skarelven You are such a Pro! I'm impressed that you can nail tricky intervals with your voice. I'm getting so much from hearing you.
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Sindre Skarelven wow. Beautiful singing and your playing looks so easy.
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Sindre Skarelven Very nice!! What beautiful singing. You really nail all those tricky pitches.
Very encouraged and inspired by your ballade 4 since i'm attempting the same section.
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Sindre Skarelven beautifully done! I need to start this ballade. I’m currently trying to nail down all the nocturnes this summer before returning to school. This might be a project for fall!
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After several attempts in the right tessitura, as I seemed like some kind of strange bird under torture, I decided to sing in a low octave to get out of the trouble (more or less
). In any case, I think my wife is thinking seriously about divorce...
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Juan Carlos Olite great solfège and natural timing on roulades. Think about breathing between phrases - I hear longer breaths between short ideas in a phrase and shorter breaths between whole phrases. Chopin's long phrases are often impossible to sing in one breath so we need short breaths to sustain them, but where slurs change we can take a bit more time because the ideas are so long. I suggest finding ways to use vary the main theme whenever it repeats.
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Juan Carlos Olite Loren is DEFINITELY going to ask to move in with Maria Jesus for the duration of this exercise. But, seriously, you sound great...and I love that you know solfege.
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Juan Carlos Olite well done, Juan Carlos! This is quite charming on the ladies, I’m sure!
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Gail Starr
Thank you, Gail. A big hug for Loren! -
Sindre Skarelven Thank you, Sindre. I hope so...
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Jarred Dunn Thank you very much, Jarred. I'll do it.
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Juan Carlos Olite This was great! I love the solfège!
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Juan Carlos Olite This sounds lovely. And, I especially love your natural transitions between do-re-mi and la-di-di-di-dah-di-dah!
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Juan Carlos Olite watching you it loooks like it's so easy. I am looking forward to the day I can play and solfegesing like that as well
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Zoom Check-in: Tuesday July 2nd at 11am PT. Bring any questions you have so far or important lessons/skills you're learning. Hope to see you there! Keep singing..
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Ok, things I already learned:
- Solfege needs time. I tried and wrote it underneath, but to read it, sing in right pitch AND play the bass was too much. But I enjoyed trying it
- Really had a hard time to get the pitch of the arpeggio plus descending 5th in the last run. singing is really difficult
- Chopin has bigger lungs than I do.... whoaaaah, some phrases are looooong
- After 20 minutes my voice develops from dying turkey to improv theatre opera singer
Nice experience haha
And I'd like to "breathe" already on the deep sol-note befor the theme repetition (3 notes earlier). Also practiced that, but did wrong in the recording. But my breath mark is there ;)-
Dagmar i love your beautiful and powerful voice. What a range you got! Nice idea to do a warmup! Hard to hit those high notes otherwise. I moved everything down by a whole octave down, but then it feels different.
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Dagmar Great job!
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Dagmar Lovely!
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Dagmar Great singing, Dagmar! Quite a big range in this one! Yes, Chopin has very big lungs :P
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