Group 3
We’ve probably all been told, “Practice slowly!” or, “Don’t rush!” and almost certainly, “Use the metronome!” These statements can be valid, but how we treat time, rhythm, and meter in our playing, and what we do—that'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 á 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 repertoire—one 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 you’re playing, or next smallest (e.g., if you’re playing a passage that’s 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 “bum” or “ta.”
Record yourself doing two things:
1) Physically breathing, while you play, at the places you’ve 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 play—your 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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Hello Dominic,
i send you my passages which i work on this period. The one is from Czerny 6 from 40 exercises op. 299 and the other is Mozart_Rondo-Alla-Turca_Sonata-No.11.
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Stephanos Karaoulis Bravo, Stephanos--kudos to you for trying something new! Two suggestions: for Czerny, your walking pulse is great within the bar, and then stops and resets at the barline. Strive for a continuous string of pulses that extends across the barline. Shorter practice sections (i.e., 2 measures at a time) may help as well. Second, for Mozart, you might notice that your "bum" syllables fluctuate between different rhythmic values. I'd suggest practicing right hand alone, focusing on maintaining eighth-notes in your syllables. Keep it up!
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Johnandrew Slominski Hi Johnandrew! Thank you a lot for your advises. I know it needs further work, but your support gives us courage to do it.
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Well, if nothing else I'm at least laughing a lot through these strategies. The physical ones are easier for me - except I have short legs so the walking exercise is quite amusing!! I am unable, currently, to get the third strategy to work for me, so I guess I'm doing really well, right?!? I hope to have the videos for you by the end of the week, if I can stop laughing long enough to record.
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Michelle R Glad you're having fun--truly, that's important. Many, many people find these things that are so familiar (playing the piano, or interacting with gravity, or using the metronome) to be incredibly odd when consciously mixing them together. Just the act of experimentation can bring about a lot of self-knowledge and awareness, I think!
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Michelle R Thanks for being agreeable to the complexity and laughter! One of the things I like about all of these strategies is that they don't discriminate by level of repertoire--anyone at any level can use them. You're doing exactly the right thing by practicing in small chunks. Losing the pulse after a few measure is normal at first, and the more you do this, the longer the swaths of music will be that you'll be able to tackle. As an aside, doing bouncing or metronome for an entire piece is probably not necessary--unless you really, really want to. Passages or phrases are often enough to get the benefit, and then return to "normal" practice. One suggestion for the yoga ball: observe the top of the bounce as having a pulse, too, just like the bottom. Sure, it's not pronounced in the same way, but the top of the bounce is where we want to line up our off-beat eighth notes. I notice that while your beats and bounces are well aligned, the middles can sync up much closer with the top of the bounce. That's about feeling the upward side of the bounce. Join us for the live session this week if you can, and keep up the good work!
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Michelle R Really interesting question, and you hit on a common idea--that rubato is a nineteenth-century thing. I can assure you that rubato was very much alive and well in the 17th and 17th centuries as well. In short, it IS different, and that is a giant conversation, bigger than this forum post. For now, my friend and mentor (and brilliant musicologist and fortepianist) Malcolm Bilson also has a lot to say on the subject, and he summarizes it neatly here: https://youtu.be/hezIFs8q1js
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This is exactly what I need to take my rhythm/tempo expression to the next level. Thanks !!!
