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 Recording!
- https://youtu.be/Fl-ExGT9aZY
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 a practice video. I hope I got the right idea. This is not so easy
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Tammy Gail Starr Natalie Peh Vidhya Bashyam Thank you, my dear friends! After this TWI we can form a virtual choir here on Tonebase! :)
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Andrea Buckland Well done, Andrea! I will forever think of your beautiful singing when listening to this nocturne.
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Andrea Buckland Yes this is the right idea and it is also not so easy! But your singing sounds exactly as I hoped in lyrical sense - we need more focus and breath support to sustain the same bass tone when playing a melody because the changing tones pull on our focus. But when playing "normally" our ears remain attuned to the bass line developing along with the melody, at times we feel crescendo even when the piano cannot make one and this intensifies our relationship to lyricism and colour. Your melody playing is much better and more natural when singing bass. Next video - could you try adding more colour and lyricism to your bass notes?
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Jarred Dunn next try on bass singing. The other day I tried singing the bass with my first upload (RH singing) which was an enlightening experience :). Thank you, Jarred, for making me work on that. Finding out that the piece gets slightly faster with every upload. Not sure if this is a good thing?
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Andrea Buckland yes the change of colour at 0:10 is exactly what I hoped you'd do. Do this more! First two F-sharps of bass line need a similar approach: don't repeat two tones the same way. You use lots of breath and tone at the very beginning of most lines - avoid this, use a lighter colour to start phrases unless Chopin writes otherwise and the melody needs bass support. The way you start 1:15 and build the bass G-sharp is right. Next steps: (1) listen for repetitions and make sure they are colourful and malleable; (2) find the right colour of sound for pedal points by playing bass and sing the major third or minor third of the chord, seventh, or vice-versa; (3) find opportunities for melody diminuendo but bass sustaining its own intensity - you'll think the balance will be wrong but in all likelihood it won't be.
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Andrea Buckland What a great work the two videos, Andrea! Bravo!
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Phew, I feel like this course really is a little too advanced for me as a grade 5, but I really learn a lot and find myself work on the piece with huge intensity on aspects I've never so much thought of before. This is really fun, I enjoy it a lot!
Singing the bass today however was a complete fail. I wasn't even close to pitch, and I've never sung harmony before. I will try to isolate the bass notes now and see if I at least can sing their melody acapella, and also try to play soprano and bass only without singing, to at least get part of the feeling that is intended with this exercise.
While working on the music more to find the breathingspots, cadences, rubato spots, and digging deeper into analysis, I wondered about a part, that seemes special to me. Maybe a more advanced player could tell me if my thoughts on it are right?
The key is Eb, in Bar 12 we have Eb7 followed by Ab.
I'd interpret the Eb7 as a secondary dominant? So the tonic chord altered (coloured) to a (non diatonic) dominant seventh and resolved to a new tonic (not really established as a new key, so not really a full modulation, just a short "hello there"), then the Ab colored again and made minor (which wasn't necessary for finding the way back, but a nice color change again), and the Eb in bar 14 being both ab's dominant and the old tonic, which is then established as tonic by a full cadence.
I wondered if this also tells me something about interpretation? Because there is something special happening there. Does that mean that the true climax of this first part is with the Eb7/Ab? And not the arpeggio in bar 14 with the highest note? Or is this short key change unimportant for interpretation?
Because my first intention was to play towards the high G in bar 14, highest note, lots of tempo... but I wondered if a different interpretation could have bar 12/13 more intense instead, also really present the Cb note because it is so special and sticks nicely out, and take the following arpeggio very light and almost shy, fading away towards the end.
Well... at least that's my thoughts in my brain/theory. My playing skills are't sufficient to do express it in one week, but I'd love to work on this piece for some more weeks!
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Here's some bassnote singing from the 4. ballade
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Sindre Skarelven Wow! This is super difficult. Great job!
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Sindre Skarelven it sounds very nice and soothing like this! Well done, Sindre!
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Sindre Skarelven Wow! Great job with this difficult exercise. It does sound so meditative!
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Sindre Skarelven that's beautiful and very soothing to listen to as well! Lovely singing!
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Sindre Skarelven good ear, all bass notes are in tune. Listen more to repeated notes - sing them with a dynamic direction and phrase shape. In A-flat major give your voice a new colour. Since these will be easy for you, next steps to improve lyrical qualities even further: (1) play bass note, sing upper note of chords in between bass notes; (2) play everything hands together and sing upper note of chords; (3) sing melody 16ths with different colour/inflection each time; (4) identify and practice one place to build toward using one long singing line; (5) return to melody singing with whole bass/chord accompaniment, see how things have changed.
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Gail Starr Andrea Buckland Vidhya Bashyam Natalie Peh Thanks for your nice comments, my friends!
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Jarred Dunn Thanks for all the detailed assignments! Will work on them!
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Sindre Skarelven Excellent, Sindre! Perfect tuning!
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Juan Carlos Olite Thanks, Juan Carlos!
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Sindre Skarelven WOW~!! Nice singing. I'm so envious how well you could keep the pitch perfectly in tune! Your beautiful voice of the bass sounds like a calming fog-horn to me. So great to hear it! You're giving me some interpretation idea to make the barely-moving bass line to be a strong support beneath the tenor. Thank you!
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Lc Thanks so much!
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I'm a bit late to post, but here's the video for the week 1 assignment.
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Natalie Peh beautiful singing, Natalie!
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Natalie Peh Nice job! That’s a wide range of notes to sing!
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Natalie Peh beautiful singing, Natalie! I love that calm “breathiness” in your voice.
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Natalie Peh Wow! These are such difficult intervals. Great job!
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Andrea Buckland Vidhya Bashyam Sindre Skarelven Gail Starr thanks very much! You're all so inspiring to do this TWI with!
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