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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  • 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..

    Like 3
    • Dagmar
    • always curious
    • Dagmar
    • 5 mths ago
    • Reported - view

    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 ;)

    Like 6
      • Lc
      • lc_piano
      • 5 mths ago
      • Reported - view

      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.

      Like 2
      • Gail Starr
      • Retired MBA
      • Gail_Starr
      • 5 mths ago
      • Reported - view

      Dagmar Great job!

      Like 1
    • Dagmar Lovely!

      Like 1
    • Dagmar Great singing, Dagmar! Quite a big range in this one! Yes, Chopin has very big lungs :P  

      Like 1
    • Dagmar great singing!  

      Like 1
      • Juan Carlos Olite
      • Philosophy teacher and piano lover
      • Juan_Carlos
      • 4 mths ago
      • Reported - view

      Dagmar Great job, Dagmar! And it's very very dificult to sing!

      Like 1
    • Lc
    • lc_piano
    • 5 mths ago
    • Reported - view

    A really late submission here.  

    I haven't sing in decades -  so  this is particularly hard!   Few things i learn 1) It's so different singing out loud vs singing in my head/humming.  2) Even reviewing my own singing, i realize i chopped so many long phrases.   3) need to conserve breath for longer phrases, and need more time to take a deeper before Louder sections.

    Very helpful assignments! 

    Reviewing my own singing, i realize i tend to “die too soon” (eg. decrecendo too early before the real end of the phrase).  Something to improve on.

     

    I had sung it in the original octave, but the A4 was just too high for me.  Singing it an octave lower gives a very different feel due to the color.  Which makes me realize depending on the color of the voice (and the where it lands within the range of the singer), the phrasing might change to suits the singer. 

     

    not sure why the link says private-- it was viewable a few hours ago. Maybe this link might work? https://youtu.be/rc9HodhZ3s8

    Like 9
      • Gail Starr
      • Retired MBA
      • Gail_Starr
      • 5 mths ago
      • Reported - view

      Lc I know exactly what you mean when you say singing out loud is quite different than how we hear it in our head!  This was a very interesting experiment with me.  But, you totally nail the dynamic range and phrasing that you are aiming for when you sing!

      Like 1
    • Lc That was really beautiful! Love how you maintain your dynamics in the singing and left hand.

      Like 2
      • Dagmar
      • always curious
      • Dagmar
      • 5 mths ago
      • Reported - view

      Lc oh lovely :)

      Like 2
    • Lc So nice to hear you sing! And very fun that we are doing the same piece :) Looking forward to hear your progress threw the ballade.  

      Like 2
    • Lc wonderful that both singing and playing are so expressive!

      Like 2
      • Lc
      • lc_piano
      • 4 mths ago
      • Reported - view

      Sindre Skarelven Thanks! I learnt so much from listening to yours.  Good luck with the next assignment on  singing the bass. I'm tripping left and right.

      Like 1
    • Lc good work on Op. 52 so far - this is a very tough piece to capture in the voice and takes a lot of practice. A few details about the 16ths in theme 1: (1) they need to be significantly lighter in tone (think of feathers floating in breezes of varying speeds), (2) rubato at 1:12 is nice - do this kind of thing at least once more, (3) 16ths timing needs to change each time they are played to keep them fresh/different. You have a good sense of the LH chords, in the second phrase (repeat of theme 1, 0:59), you start exactly right in the colour and softness, but then you soon grow into louder and more espressivo sound: good! Just keep the espressivo to a subtler level so this phrase sounds loftier and upward in its relationship to the first. Could you post a video of the first 7 bars? 

      Like 1
      • Lc
      • lc_piano
      • 4 mths ago
      • Reported - view

      Jarred Dunn thank you for crystal clear feedback. I'll try singing again with those in mind.

      Here's the first 7 bars.

      Like 3
      • Juan Carlos Olite
      • Philosophy teacher and piano lover
      • Juan_Carlos
      • 4 mths ago
      • Reported - view

      Lc Beautiful singing and phrasing! 

      Like 1
  • Here a practice video. I hope I got the right  idea. This is not so easy 😅

    Like 8
      • Dagmar
      • always curious
      • Dagmar
      • 5 mths ago
      • Reported - view

      Andrea Buckland lovely playing and very secure singing! And a good idea to play the bass note, I will try that, too. Because I can't find the pitch only with my voice, that's too overwhelming ☹️

      Like 2
    • Dagmar danke, liebe Dagmar! 

      Like 1
    • Andrea Buckland Sounds so beautiful! 

      Like 2
    • Andrea Buckland I love how you sing this!

      Like 2
      • Gail Starr
      • Retired MBA
      • Gail_Starr
      • 4 mths ago
      • Reported - view

      Andrea Buckland Thank you so much for showing me how to do this!

      Like 2
      • Tammy
      • TT2022
      • 4 mths ago
      • Reported - view

      Andrea Buckland You have a lovely singing voice. And, this is an impressive job at a very difficult task!

      Like 1
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