Group 1
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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This was a lot more challenging than I expected!
I must admit, I am humbled for a number of reasons; chiefly, I am a high school choir director! I sing and play at the same time ALL day, often triaging at the drop of a hat, switching between singing all four parts in the same phrase to reinforce parts with my kids!
This was a completely different challenge, but I’m excited to see where this nocturne goes. I was shocked at how flummoxed I was by having to switch octaves melodically, and how it distracted my left hand enough to mess up an eighth note here or there.
I also have not flexed my harmonic analysis muscles since undergrad. I’m sure that I missed some chord functions here and there, but given the creative harmonies that Chopin employed in the chromaticism of phrases, I think I got most of the point across…maybe?
I hope I embedded the video correctly!
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Bryan Sable Singing a Chopin nocturne is a tall order! You make more time for high points and lilts - very Chopinian. ?$%#!!! moment made me laugh. Good continuity in spite of that. Next step can be showing different rubato moments in the repeated main themes and attuning your voice to Chopin's specific chromaticisms and playing bass as chords while singing along in a poetic way - you've got most of the notes in your system quickly enough to start thinking about poetic singing. Since you're experienced with choir directing, try listening to it on a recording (Pires, Rubinstein) and conducting it as if choir parts were entering / overlapping / finishing, etc.
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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...
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Hello group 1, I am currently working on section 3 of the Waltz in C sharp minor op 64 no. 2. I am pretty hopeless at harmonic analysis despite watching all previous tutorials. Will save everyone's ears and not sing out my melody! However I am quite surprised as to how close most of my one syllables are to the melody line when playing the bass line !
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https://youtu.be/S736lLbS8YM?si=xBQsUvZUYV0Ff9TD
mazurka opus 30, no 2….apologies for my voice….
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Cliff Pleatman Great job! You picked a really tricky piece to sing.
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Gail Starr
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Thx Gail-but you must have something better to do than hear me sing...had to keep flipping register......
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Cliff Pleatman I admit....I was also folding laundry, LOL!
BUT, I did notice that you flipped the register and I am having to do that as I am TRYING to learn how to do assignment #2.
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Gail Starr
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Gail Starr
You're off the hook. In my Mazurka am I supposed to sing 3 beats/bar or just the first note? Are you connected to TB or just an avid enthusiast?
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Cliff Pleatman Not connected, just enjoying the TWI.
That is a great question: in the assignment video it seems like we're encouraged to play the base note of each chord in the measure, so I guess that would mean all 3 beats. (That's what I'm attempting to do as I practice.) -
Cliff Pleatman do both - just the first note to hear the roots of each bar and then all three bass notes to hear different moving lines (in Op. 30 nr. 2 there are many slight changes on beats 2 and 3). It's especially interesting to pick out the middle voice of a three-voice chord and find internal polymelody
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Cliff Pleatman Listened to your video - your colour changes on couplets are natural and well-suited to the first phrase. Listen to triplets in your voice, they're all currently accenting first note, whereas it can be more effective to vary the emphasis to the second or third note of the triplet (mazurka pattern strikes again) - this can have profound impact on the melody and direction. The kujawiak in A major is a coo-coo bird (kukueczka - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op1HmPUnrUQ), think of this when you play it.
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Jarred Dunn
Singing those chromatic inner lines on the 2nd and 3rd beats in the left hand is tricky along with voice range issues. I may practice that in the privacy of my home but upload the final result minus my singing later.
. Thx! And planning to upload portions of Debussy Reflections in the other course….. -
Gail Starr
yep. Jarred clarified…..thx!
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Hello!!
I'm still super pumped about this intensive with Jarred Dunn :D
I got a little behind. I just recorded the 1 task of this intensive so...
I'll upload the video and...
During these couple of days I'll record the video for the 2nd task.
Sorry for the delay
I'm practicing the recapitulation of the theme of the Nocturne op.48 no.1
My apologies for the voice... You can barely hear it but I promise I'm singing (not so good but I am
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I'll leave the link:
https://youtu.be/2gGrWuPJcOw
Thank you so much!-
Adriana López Hi Adriana! I clicked on your link and it says "private". Maybe you can post it again? I'd love to hear you.
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Adriana López welcome - happy to have you! Your video is set to private and I can't view it! Could you change the link setting to "unlisted" or "public"?
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Gail Starr thank you for telling me, didn't notice it before.
Jarred Dunn thank you for the welcoming! :D My video can be seen now. My apologies.
Thank you!
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Hello All!
Here's my assignment two for the TWI. This was a great exercise in keeping the motion of the melody line moving forward for me. I hope to record a progress video today. I am admittedly struggling with my interpretation of the B section of the nocturne, which feels a little more like a Polonaise to me. I am attempting to keep it in character, but with enough contrast so that it sparks real interest without becoming too march-like. Maybe I am way off base. At any rate, here's this morning's video.-
Bryan Sable Hey Bryan, you clearly have the vocal expertise to shine here. Thank you for such a lovely video!
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Gail Starr you are incredibly kind! I have tried to get a decent take of the nocturne three times today. There’s just some thing about recording that makes my head stop mid-phrase and I always end up making silly little mistakes. What’s the quote from Horowitz-something about if I hit 80% of the notes in a recital, it’s been a success? Am I just making that up?
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Bryan Sable Great singing! Your soulful bass really complements the melody.
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Vidhya Bashyam between you and Gail, I feel like I have a built-in cheering section. So kind of you, thank you!
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