Group 1
Welcome to the latest TWO WEEK INTENSIVE on tonebase!
For the next two weeks either start learning OR take a Chopin mazurka in your repertoire to the next level through guidance and assignments from Jarred Dunn! Learn about stylistic advice, aspects of the dance and more!
Pianists of all levels are welcome.
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Assignment #1: Seeing the Mazurka
1) Watch Mazurka Dance Lessons 1, 2, and 3:
http://www.tance.edu.pl/en/lessons/show/dance/720
-Pay close attention to Lesson 3: the lesson builds rhythms from what we hear as a Waltz into a clear accent on 2nd beat, 3rd beat, and both 2nd/3rd beats
2) Learn one Mazurka
Choose one from the following suggested opuses for the whole TWI.
Week 1: Practice the LH:
-Op. 6 nr. 1, nr. 2
-Op. 7 nr. 1, nr. 2
-Op. 24 nr. 1 or 2
-Op. 30 nr. 1 or 2
-Op. 67 any
- or a different mazurka
Practice Activities:
a) Identify/mark all articulation in LH parts.
b) Clap the rhythm, emphasize accents and count aloud (speak louder for accented beats, eg. "one, Two, THREE" or "one, TWO, Three" etc.)
c) Identify/mark any unknown harmonic shifts or chords.
d) Find all cadences and notice unfamiliar accents (beat 2).
e) Voice tops of chords in LH or find a moving line (could be the middle notes of a chord that change).
f) Use RH for chords and LH for bass lines.
g) Circle any rests/pauses - they need to be heard.
Upload videos of your LH practicing/playing.
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ASSIGNMENT 2
Second Assignment: Continue your new Mazurka
Week 2: Practice the RH:
Listen to instruments, timbres, and moods in the following:
Kujawiak: https://youtu.be/RjV1bpxi0bc
Mazurek Dąbrowskiego: https://youtu.be/mTx45S-dQmQ?t=4
Chopin Mazurkas/Folk Mazurkas: https://youtu.be/n8OyddwnVbE
Look For/Listen For:
a) Learn the soprano part (melody), always sing/scream with it when you play. Think of dancers in this video: https://youtu.be/p6svoYBEWCs?t=10
b) Add ornaments after you learned the rhythms of the melody.
c) Dotted rhythms and triplets must sound distinctly different (no slackened dotted-eighth/sixteenths).
d) Accents on beats two and three can be subtle: try different levels of pressure/weight on the keys, to create at least four different accent types: sudden accent, leaning/swaying accent, light accent, heavy accent.
e) Remember that recording yourself is the best way to find out if you're actually doing what you intend. Record your melodic playing/singing/screaming whenever you practice.
Upload videos of your RH practicing/playing.
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- Sign-Up : starting July 14
- Course Period: July 17-31
- Class Size: ALL are welcome!
- Optional check-In via Zoom: July 27th 9am PT
CHECK IN VIDEO!
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Hello! I didn’t get any feedback on my video of the LH practice but I read the comments several other fellows got and tried to improve based on that. Hopefully, I will get recommendations on how to improve! Sometimes I feel the accents are a little harsh and there’s a section in the section B I am not really sure what to do, I will really appreciate your comments.
I have also recorded both hands playing since it is almost over this intensive.
Thank you in advance for everything!
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Jarred Dunn thank you very much, I will work on it!
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Paula Alizo Beautiful playing, Paula! I love how you breath in the music, creating organic singing lines of all those gorgeous melodies.
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Sindre Skarelven thank you for your comment <3
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Paula Alizo Beautifully played, Paula! I love this mazurka, it's very special. You play it with great detail and sensitivity.
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Juan Carlos Olite I had always wanted to learn it, it was one of my beloved teacher’s favorite <3 thank you for your comment!
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Here another section of op 56 No 3. Although it will take a lot more time putting all of this together and to learn the remaining 25 bars, I’m very happy to have at least broken the eyes with this piece. I love it more and more and am looking forward to keep working on it. Thank you very much for helping me with that!
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Andrea Buckland good that RH is helping LH with larger chords - it’ll make them sound like more controlled strumming and you’ll be able to do it softer and softer the more you get used to the piece. The mazur here is rather vigorous yet tender, with the rhythmic accentuations delicately placed between dotted rhythms and second beat chords. It’ll come with time. Good work, Inspirujący!
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Andrea Buckland accents Herę are more leaning (oprzeć) than emphasizing with more sound. I’d suggest the kind of breathable sound at 0:33 more often, this was a good colour change. Less hand throwing directly onto the key will soften the attack on octaves considerably, feel your arm descending with gravity but let your fingers be more tender at the keyboard itself. Lovely dim. to long F at 1:21, this was good Chopin sound. Don’t accelerate or make any obvious accents from 1:30-1:40, this is better placidly played. At 2:03 good sound again. Next step: having chords sound a bit softer (miękkiej) in tone and accents leaning on the time rather than a noticeably larger sound at the attack itself. W kierunku subtelnością!
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Jarred Dunn Many thanks, Jarred, for this truly intensive TWI! I will gain from this for a very long time!
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Andrea Buckland lovely playing, Andrea! That's a very complex mazurka that you are working on. Hope you play hands together for us sometime!
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Natalie Peh thanks, Natalie!
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Andrea Buckland What a wonderful mazurka you have chosen, Andrea!. It has a lot of work to do of course, but you are practicing step by step very beautifully and I wish you can play it for us very soon.
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Hi Everyone! As we come to the end of our Mazurkas TWI, I want to say dziekuję bardzo to everyone who joined and made this a positive, enriching experience. I have enjoyed seeing your playing, replying to your questions, and sharing my love of this repertoire with you. Feel free to send me a message if you have further questions!
Pozdrawiam i wszystkiego najlepszego!
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This will most certainly be my last post for this TWI. Thank you, Jarred, for your support and excellent teaching throughout!
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Monika Tusnady So beautiful and elegant playing! Love the kind of sudden heartbreaking ending. You could be playing this in a Parisian salon during Chopin’s time
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Vidhya Bashyam thank you!!! How I wish for that Time Machine that could take me there! Perhaps I would dress in men’s clothes like George Sand, too!
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Monika Tusnady Monika, this would be a pity! I love your dress!
And your playing! -
Monika Tusnady I have to agre with Vidhya! Very elegant playing! Love it that you are nicely dressed too.
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Monika Tusnady beautifully played!I
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Monika Tusnady What a beautiful interpretation, Monika! Deeply emotional. It's one of may favorites mazurkas. Love it!
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Monika Tusnady whenever you play I can hear your love of piano and Chopin. This mazurka is a good choice for you. Its core mood, żal (regret) is immediately felt by the indecision of the lines (for a few beats falling and in a moment jumping up, etc), but this quality is veiled under a 144 tempo marking (which you reached every once in a while). My remarks below technical because the sense of your playing is that you know exactly what mood Chopin was expressing and your mazurka antenna is improved (you have several new qualities, like rubato, accentuation (akcenty), variety of sound (różnorodność dzwięku), and melodic flow (tok melodyczny). First, relax your shoulders a bit more and giving your elbows more work. Second, use wrists to help the hands breathe/move more elegantly. Third, as much as possible keep your neck and head still, allowing the listening to guide you rather than monitoring the hands. Finally, allow your fingers to touch keys without curling them tightly to gain speed (eg. triplets, leggiero passages) so that the sound is an extension of your body rather than an execution of the fingertip alone. The finger pads can help transmit a natural sense of whole body unity better than pointing them like we're holding a pencil tightly. Powodzenia i brawo!
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