Week 2: Amplifying your message!
Hello and welcome to the WEEK TWO Main Thread for this challenge! 
Alright everyone - this is the thread where we'll all be posting our daily updates.
Make sure you've read the rules before replying (<- click)
Twice a week between January 30 - February 6 I hope to be reading your daily updates in this very thread right here!
Here is this week's assignment!
1. Specify at least ONE aspect of the piece that you love most! (Ideally write this down here in the forum below!)
2. Ask yourself this question: "How do I AMPLIFY the experience of this moment for the audience?"
3. Consider your answer, write it down below, and then let us know how you are trying to implement this!
4. Submit your practice video below!
Example:
I love Debussy's piece "L'isle Joyeuse", especially the moment of the climax where the music transposes from A major and then briefly F major and then to B-flat major (measure 236). I need to focus on saving my reserves of energy for this passage, and have a fast speed of attack, plus a rich and explosive Left Hand pinky for that bass!!
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Shostakovich's Fugue in A Major (op87 no7) gives me an innocent childlike impression - may be a child wandering through a happy dreamworld. I love the soft, shimmering sound quality and the woven texture of the lines, then the burst of joy as the piece reaches fortissimo.
I would like to achieve that soft shimmering effect whilst still keeping the clarity of the voices. I try to listen carefully of each voice line as I work through the piece, and try not to over pedal.
I'm currently about 3/4 through the piece at slow tempo ... hope to post my progress update soon.
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Priya Viseskul Sounds very interesting. I look forward to seeing your video!
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My day 11 progress update, to about 3/4 of a way through the piece.
I should think more towards phrases to get smoother sound than the individual notes though don't feel secure with the notes quite yet. Hopefully I will get there along with the rest of the piece soon :)
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Priya Viseskul Priya - excellent work on this fugue! Your description is spot on "a child wandering through a happy dreamworld." You play with confidence and gracefulness! I'm glad you posted this. As you mentioned, more attention to the phrasing will make it sound even better. I can't wait to hear your next post of this fugue.
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Darrell Jenkins thanks for your encouragement :)
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Priya Viseskul thanks for sharing this! It sounds very good!
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Priya Viseskul you are shimmering! That was beautiful to listen to. You seem to glide effortlessly through this very complex music.
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Michael Thank you! I assure you it's much effort to make it all seems effortless
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Priya Viseskul believe me, I know that all too well.
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Priya Viseskul What lovely playing, Priya! I appreciated the lightness very much. I look forward to hearing your progress, as I am already enjoying it.
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Priya Viseskul Wow! Great playing. And thanks for that piece. I have never heard it before.
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Priya Viseskul Wonderful feeling you're getting. I admire how free your arms and wrists seem to be. You never seem to get stuck in the keyboard.
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Randall Wayne Thank you :) and your comment on my arms and wrists means a great deal as I have been rebuilding my technique in the past couple of years. Now I pay a lot more attention to the movement and tension as I play. I'm still on the journey and a lot to work on and learn still.
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Priya Viseskul Beautiful! Seems like a magical piece :)
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Priya Viseskul sounds lovely!
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Priya Viseskul This was awesome! I also wasn't familiar with this piece, but love it! Parts are really magical, I can't wait to hear it all.
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My Nin-Culmell tonada is short and basic, but in the middle section, there are two places of two measures each where I hope to create a sense of forward motion being slightly suspended — like a brief moment of wonder. I think this calls for a lighter touch and a slight slowing, though a ritard isn’t actually marked for those measures. Anyway, I’m working through this now. (Wish me luck!)
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Libby Craig I've never heard of Nin-Culmell until now. Thanks for introducing this composer and also for your detailed background story in the other forum. I look forward to hearing you play the No. 7 Tonada!
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I love the lyrical and sparkling nature of Czerny’s Variations on a Theme by Rode that makes it a cheerful and happy piece to learn and listen too. This is achieved through ornamentations, fluid melodic passages, mini-cadenzas, contrasts of legato and staccato, and I have to resist the temptation to run through it ‘mindlessly’, but take care not to gloss over the ornamentations, take micro-breathing spaces within the melodic lines, voice the melody and also highlight some inner voices. I’m not sure I can manage all of this, as it’s already a challenge to get all the notes under the fingers smoothly, but hopeful of getting there…Here is Variation Var #2.
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Ching Lee Goh You will make us all fall in love with Czerny, Ching Lee!
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Ching Lee Goh Great playing! Thanks for introducing us to this lovely piece!
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Ching Lee Goh You sing throughout, with ease and passion.
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Ching Lee Goh it sounds so joyous!
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Hello everyone! I love this Ballade Nr.4 because it has such a diversity of emotions - sometimes sad, sometimes angry, sometimes I have the idea he is reveling in good memories and so on. I choose bars 169-190 , a passionate flowing part. I still have to work on the melody and it could also be a little bit faster and bring out this little lines (I don’t know the English word) in the left hand. And I have to practice on the balance of all these voices. Really fantastic are bars 175 and 176. Here we have three notes (right hand) against two notes (left hand) and a little melody with right hand pinky - but this melody is the first note of four notes in this linie. Need some more practicing. Hope you enjoy.
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Kerstin I did enjoy, very much!
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Michael Thanks!
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