Group 3
Improve your Chopin Ornaments in Two Weeks with Jarred Dunn!
When playing Chopin, we face a tremendous challenge in using ornamentation to enhance musical expression. In this two-week intensive, we will learn how to make Chopin ornaments easier to play by targeting technical skills used in effortless trills, turns, grace notes, and arpeggiated chords. We will look at specific examples in Chopin's Mazurkas
Assignments
Your videos should show all three assignments!
- Learn over snap movement: practice for five mins per day on arpeggiated chords in Mazurka op.50 no.1
- Trills : the one I show is a preparatory step, because it鈥檚 a short trill. Try this movement of changing the key place with fingers 2-4-3 on many different locations/keys. Do this also for five mins per day.
- Grace notes: same as above, try grace notes on different keys, with forward arm movement.
Fellow Participants in Group 3:
Natalie Peh
springgrass
Hannahong
Tammy
Scott Nguy峄卬
Sarah Pirrotte
Gary Hamer
Leah Olson
Angela
Gillian
Some tonebase productions to get you started
Penelope Roskell on Developing Cantabile Playing
Course: Jarred Dunn on Crafting Scales
Wrist Movement: A Pianist's Secret Weapon with Norman Krieger
Arpeggios Regiment with Jeffrey Biegel
How to get the most out of this course
- Start by watching the introduction video and practice the passages given in the video.
- Write a post where you have been struggling with ornaments in Chopin's music!
- Share two videos per week and help your course partners through feedback on their submissions!
Zoom Check-In: Tuesday July 26 10:00 PST (13:00 EST/19:00 CEST)
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Hi Jarred, hi everyone,
I haven鈥檛 learnt or played any Chopin in a very very long time, so this is a really great challenge for me. I'm really glad I started learning to play Chopin's Mazurka Opus 50, No 2, though I don't think I will be able to get the whole of it to a reasonable level within the 2 week intensive. I will learn the rest of it and keep practising it as it is quite a beautiful piece.
For now, please do forgive my slip ups. It is still very much a work in progress, and I appreciate your comments:
Thanks very much
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Leah Olson thanks, Leah. I will try and learn this up, hope to post the mazurka again once I've learnt all of it and learnt it solidly
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HiJarrer Dunn ! Sorry I鈥檓 late to this; was traveling and just got back. Here is my video. I applied your principles to two non-Chopin pieces I happen to be learning now, hope that鈥檚 ok because what you鈥檙e teaching is extremely relevant to them! Here is my video. Thanks in advance for your feedback, and for this 2 week intensive!
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Tammy thanks for sending and for your insightful applications to Rachmaninoff and Grieg. Rachmaninoff Op. 32 nr. 12: bring your hand and thumb down together a bit more. It'll allow more naturally the arm to move between the hand positions needed to play the melody smoothly. Your thumb in general can be freer/more relaxed when it has finished playing, don't keep it extended away from the hand. Grieg cadenza: 3-1 is a better fingering here and using motion going inward and outward over the keys. It also helps this trill to focus on dynamic development rather than speed. Let me know if you have other questions!
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Tammy Thanks for showing how you're applying these tips to different pieces. That's always helpful. Let us know what you think of the 1-3 fingering for the long trill--I find long trills intimidating.
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Here is my video... Sorry, it is a little slow, and the damper pedal squeaks (will be fixed next week). https://youtu.be/UN_5ulThq3I
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Gillian thanks for sending and for playing slowly - makes it much easier to comment. Your hands move forward in a natural way in the chords of the opening. At 0:25 in your video, aim for a freer gesture on the trill - use more arm and hand motion than finger control. The same goes for trying the graces in the same place on the key - let your fingers move in and out of the keys so you don't land on the same spot when you play repeated notes (eg. F-G-F: the two F's at 0:53 need to land in two different places on the key - this motion will engage your arm and wrist more naturally and let your fingers play freely).
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Gillian Love it! I can hear people laughing and dancing while I listen to this.
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Hi everyone! Let's wrap up this course with a Zoom meeting - here's a link:
Final Meet - Chopin with Jarred DunnTime: Aug 1, 2022 02:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada: 11:00PT, 20:00 CEST)
Join Zoom Meeting
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During our final meeting some people asked about keeping in touch and you're more than welcome to send a message to me here on Tonebase or look me up and contact me via my website! Thanks everyone!
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Jarred Dunn Thanks so much for your generous sharing, it has been a wonderful learning experience.
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