Group 3

Tammy Your playing and singing sound great! This prelude is so much more beautiful when the melody stands out like this.

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. 

Tammy Sounds great, Tammy!

Tammy Sounding good Tammy!

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."

Jarred Dunn Thanks! I will definitely check out more on Google.

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.

Vidhya Bashyam Very good work, Vidhya! 

Vidhya Bashyam well co-ordinated playing and singing! Nice choice of mazurka too, I like this one.

Vidhya Bashyam Such a beautiful piece! Listening to the singing really shapes it doesn’t it?

Gail Starr great work so far - and nice reaching up for the high D-C in m. 2 and capturing the marcato articulation. Do you find the breathing helps you pace the melody? I hear good changes in your pacing already - bass beats 2 and 3 sound like a Kujawiak lilt. Keep going!

Gail Starr What a brave singer you are, Gail! Love it!

Jarred Dunn Thank you for listening.  This was very much out of my comfort zone, but it is a remarkably useful exercise.  
 

Trying to sing is helping me express the kujawiak phrasing and accents  I heard in my head, but haven’t yet translated into playing the piano.

In fact, I can see that singing in general can help with “breathing” some of the articulations I’ve been struggling with in other composers.

Juan Carlos Olite This was SCARY, but I think it will help me in the long run.

Gail Starr lovely singing, and glad that you picked a mazurka too!

Gail Starr This is wonderful, Gail! I actually enjoyed listening to your “joyful noise” so much that I listened twice! This type of exercise is probably one of my favorite things I’ve done with my teacher this year - and I’m kind of sad I can’t join in on the singing with all my piano buddies. 

Michelle R Joyful noise!  I love your creative "re-branding".  And please join in and sing whatever you like.  We love hearing you, no matter what you are working on.  

On a more serious note, I can now see how valuable trying to sing is.  I just tried singing the theme of the Bach Fugue I'm working on (since my husband was out for a fun).   

I think singing is helping me get a better feel for what Bach wants to do with each of the voices.

Gail Starr it’s sounds great! I love the way you use different sounds for different articulation.