Group 4
Weâve probably all been told, âPractice slowly!â or, âDonât rush!â and almost certainly, âUse the metronome!â These statements can be valid, but how we treat time, rhythm, and meter in our playing, and what we doâthat's a much more nuanced thing. In this Two-Week Intensive, we explore unique practice techniques that impact how we use tempo, technique, rubato, and expression.
BYOP: Bring your own Piece! This challenge does not rely on specific repertoire, so feel free to pick any piece that best suits your current abilities.
Pianists of all levels are welcome. You may choose how much of the piece you would like to work on. It can be a phrase or a page.
More Detailed instructions coming soon!
- Sign-Up : Monday, February 13 - February 19
- Course Period: February 20 - March 6th
- Class Size: max. 4 Groups ĂĄ 10 Participants
- Optional check-In via Zoom: March 2nd from 11am-12pm
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81723841404?pwd=N0phNUxDVytMRUt2UGNFOUt5R3BxQT09Passcode: 837385
Assignment 1
Description:
Explore the pulse strategies introduced in the demonstration video. Choose 2 strategies (your favorites, or the ones you find most challenging/rewarding/interesting) and record yourself demonstrating two passages in your choice of repertoireâone passage per strategy. Please include a PDF of the score and the title of the piece.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMe8_QeNIV4
Assignment 2:
Description:
Choose a passage of a piece from the nineteenth-century repertoire. Practice singing the melody or leading line (yes, out loud), marking points where gestures or phrases end and where you choose (or need!) to breathe before the next musical idea. Next, sing or speak subdivisions at the smallest rhythmic level youâre playing, or next smallest (e.g., if youâre playing a passage thatâs all eighth-notes, your sung or spoken subdivisions will be no slower than eighths, and likely sixteenths). I suggest using a neutral syllable such as âbumâ or âta.â
Record yourself doing two things:
1) Physically breathing, while you play, at the places youâve identified as ending points, paying attention to the speed of your breath and the time it takes to accommodate a natural inhale; and separately,
2) Speaking subdivisions aloud on a neutral syllable as you playâyour goal is to use these subdivisions to drive rubato intentionally and expressively. Extra imaginary internet points if you sing with your subdivisions! Please include a PDF of the score and the title of the piece.
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Hi everyone! Very interesting. Normally I donât work with the metronome. Maybe I should. I am working on Beethoven Sonata
op. 31/2 so I choose this one. Yesterday I try ,the walking, on the 1. movement, but I didnât feel so good with it. I had the feeling to loose my ground, because the feet were not on it. So I choose the metronome on the 3. movement - one hit each bar- and that was very good. Find out that I rush sometimes. And with only one hit is not so fixed. On the 2. movement I choose the ,bum, or something like that. Really difficult to give the sixteenth and play. But there was a good feeling, that a rhythms goes through the whole piece. Learnt something.
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Kerstin Hi Kerstin, good to see you in here again. Sounds great. These are challenging and effective tools for practice.
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Gary Hamer Hi Gary! Thanks , I like it to learn some new things and to get new ideas. Are you in group 4 too? What are you practicing right now?
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Kerstin Gary Hamer I love these ideas and I don't use metronome in my practice either. I find it hard to practice the walking, as I get distracted from my notes. I need to practice more feeling the pulse through body movement. I'll post video this weekend when I feel more comfortable. JS Bach BWV999.
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Kerstin Well done, Kerstin! The one-pulse-per-bar in the Tempest is working really well. Similarly to my comment to Gary, once you're feeling fluent here, the next step is probably to give yourself the next bigger unit by a factor of 2, meaning one metronome pulse every bar. Let me know how it goes! Speaking subdivisions also looks right on target. Your pulse sounds consistent, strong, and intentional. If you feel so inclined (and I do, when I play this piece) places like the end of m. 57 (E-diminished-7, which is very dissonant) and m. 58 (the end of the phrase) are great places to stretch the tempo a little bit. You can exercise that freedom by letting your subdivisions breathe. Join us in the live session next week if you can!
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ALICE BWV 999 is a great idea--coincidentally I just assigned that piece to a new student this week, not coincidentally using some of these practice ideas. Depending on your level of comfort, eighth-note pulse in walking works well at first. If that becomes easy, move to quarter notes. Post whenever you're ready!
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Johnandrew Slominski Glad to hear you have a student similar to my level. Tonebase members are often at a much higher level than me. Honestly I felt very challenging/uncomfortable to walk and play at the same time. I'm not sure if I get the 8th-note and quarter-note right either. Should I start to use metronome to practice? I usually sing the melody when I practice a piece but I have yet to develop a habit of steady pulse using metronome or the methods you explained. For the off-beat metronome, I could it get it to work yet. I'll keep trying. I am attending live Zoom session!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lwxik5OhaN8
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Johnandrew Slominski Thanks for your answer. I have here a wonderful problem with Mozart. How would you say I should practice to get the rhythm in ? I try to work out , but to play itâs not easy. Do you have any advice?
LG Kerstin
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Kerstin Oh, yes! Those 8:3 rhythms and such are tricky (I'm guessing this is the challenge?). We could spend ages doing the math, which may or may not be helpful or practical. What I'd suggest for the first measure on p. 9, for instance, is to reduce the RH to what amounts to duplets against the LH triplets. This would mean that the bar in question is now B-A-G-C#-C-B |. Sounds weird, but we're composing backward, or reducing, so go with it for a moment. If you can do that, you're aligning the rhythmic framework up with 2:3. Once that becomes painfully simple through thoughtful repetition, add a second level of subdivisions: now in your RH in that measure, you'll play B-G#-A-F-G-E-C#-A-C-B |. You'll remain focused on the 2:3 framework from the previous step, now adding an "extra" note, or composing forward, or elaborating. The next step is adding in all the notes, and your "mileposts" to focus on there as you play in real time will be the alignment of that original 2:3 framework. Let me know how it goes!
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ALICE Thanks for sending the videos, and thanks for going out on a limb to try new and slightly unconventional things! To cut to the chase, it's fascinating to me that your subdivisions or walking sometimes align with your playing, and sometimes not. Hmm. You ask about the metronome, and the off-beat metronome: I'd steer you away from the off-beat metronome for a while, and my guess is that using the metronome in a conventional way may be useful.
To stick with walking for a moment would be a good idea. The real challenge, I think, is that the number of notes per "step" isn't always 2, and for now, this is going to be our goal! This is not really a "piano" issue because as you sing before playing (which is lovely and a very good idea, by the way--keep doing that!) your rhythm isn't lining up with your feet either. Have you walked with the metronome without playing? I'd do that--two clicks per step, and you can do this at the piano or really anywhere. Start around 128 bpm--a medium walking tempo. Practice feet and metronome alone for a bit, then add "ta" subdivisions that lock in with the metronome while your feet walk. After that is comfortable and really reliable, I'd also suggest playing a strong accent (just for practice--you'll take it out later) every time your foot hits the ground. It may also be helpful to make a little mark in your score--"R" for right foot, "L" for left foot, so you can see where you're aiming with your coordination.
Keep me posted, and I hope this is helpful. Again, Alice, I think this about something bigger than "Alice playing the piano" - it's a coordination goal of syncing your internal sense of time with your physical sense of time and pulse. Once those things align, you'll be much more successful at implementing at the piano. If you're taking lessons, I'd highly recommend asking your instructor to spend some time on rhythm work with you: if we were working together we'd be doing call and response echo patterns, takadimi or similar syllables, using conducting patterns, and putting beats and subdivisions in different parts of our bodies (feet, hands, and speaking). Just my two cents.
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Johnandrew Slominski This is super helpful! I'm starting the walking with metronome right away. I've been having difficulty with steady pulse since I started private piano lesson a bit over a year ago. When I sing I also have difficulty to stay in sync with accompanist because I couldn't figure out the steady pulse. I hope to improve this using the methods. Do you have more information on " call and response echo patterns, takadimi or similar syllables, using conducting patterns, and putting beats and subdivisions in different parts of our bodies (feet, hands, and speaking)"? links? videos that you think are helpful? I recently found a local private teacher (was taking online lessons with a remote teacher for a year) and I will certainly bring this up with her. Any resources you could share are greatly appreciated!
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Johnandrew Slominski Instead of walking, can I use one foot to tap the subdivision? I noticed I slowed down the walk as I get "tired(?)". Maybe not a "tired"issue still a rhythm issue. I'm not sure.
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ALICE Sure, you can tap one foot and see how it goes. Practicing in moderation is a good idea, too--if you're getting tired it's probably time for a break! I find that tapping a single foot isn't as effective (long story short: it doesn't have the same bilateral effect) but it might work for you.
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ALICE There's lots to say about philosophical and pedagogical approaches to learning and teaching rhythm. One of the first things I do with my early students (folks with <2 years or so) is rhythm practice that involves no notation, progressing eventually toward notation. In my experience it's not something that's effectively self taught (imagine learning, say, how to swim by reading a book). I can teach others, and teach others to teach, and with luck your instructor has some experience here. If they do, they'll likely know or recognize methods including Takadimi (or other rhythmic syllabification systems), Orff, Suzuki, Edwin Gordon, Grunow & Azzara, Dalcroze, or some combination of one or more of these. I'm particularly interested in evidence-based approaches, which some of these are (Gordon, Grunow). Your instructor may be wonderful, and if they draw a blank on all of these that may be something to consider. Your instructor may also have their own system, which could also be fine. I'd suggest inquiring with them to see what their thoughts are, and if they're familiar with the approaches I mentioned. (I'm trying to tread lightly here since I have no specific knowledge of your or your teacher's specific case. I'm also assuming that they're doing a lot of good for you!). Finally, I'd suggest taking a look at a book that's very good for practicing resources; keep in mind that in order to use these effectively you really do need effective instruction as well: Anne Carothers Hall, "Studying Rhythm". Keep me posted!
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Johnandrew Slominski Thanks!!! Getting better now. Still a little bit unnatural, but needs more practicing. https://youtube.com/shorts/EhDHG3kedRQ?feature=share
LG Kerstin -
Kerstin Very nice playing!
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Hi Everyone, this is Gary playing from Puerto Vallarta, MX.
I am working on Chopin's Ballad in g minor.
First exercise I did was walking, measures 150 to 154. So far I find it to be a very effective practice tool - playing it slowly felt a bit more challenging than fast, in the video I played on the eight note, and then immediately played on the quarter. The walking and playing felt like I was getting a bit more grounded in the notes, if that makes sense. A bit cumbersome at this point, with with some practice will become more refined.
The second video is using the metronome on the offbeat. Also using Chopins ballad, measures 228 to 242. As this section in the Presto con fuoco, I found this will really be helpful in this section to get the rhythmic impulse. I have a ways to go, but this will help a lot to get on track.
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Gary Hamer Hi Gary! Great to meet you here. This Ballade is quite challenging. Yes, these are interesting ideas to get a tempo feeling and a pulse.
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Gary Hamer Superb work, Gary! I appreciate what you said about feeling grounded and getting rhythmic impulse. You're 100% on the right track here, and that feeling of grounding (I like that term better than "control") is so impactful in these passages. A suggestion for now in mm. 150-154 is that once you feel you're 90-100% effective walking every eighth note, switch to quarter notes. It'll require a faster tempo (otherwise you'll likely feel physically a little off-balance) but moving to bigger rhythmic values is the next step. In the coda, with the off-beat metronome, this is also going super well. Again, it seems like you're doing this very effectively, so I'd suggest the next step is to turn the metronome toward a quarter-note beat (still on the off-beats). This will require you to exert more rhythmic stability in a positive way, generating more awareness of subdivisions to stay on track. Keep up the good work, and please join us in the live session next week!
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Hi Johnandrew, thank you very much for the feedback, it is really appreciated. I will apply your suggestions, and keep working on these passages.This helps me out a lot on moving forward. I look forward to the live session. Thank you very much leading this two week intensive.
