Group 2

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!

  1.  Learn over snap movement: practice for five mins per day on arpeggiated chords in Mazurka op.50 no.1
  2. Trills : the one I show is a preparatory step, because it’s 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. 
  3. Grace notes: same as above, try grace notes on different keys, with forward arm movement. 

Fellow Participants in Group 2:

AJ

Juan Carlos Olite

Susan Rogers

Angela Fogg

Jeff

Patrick Wong

Carol Chua

Leanne

Harriet Kaplan

Andrea Buckland

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)

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85276295465
 

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    • AJ
    • aj_aj
    • 1 yr ago
    • Reported - view

    Hi Jarred,

     

    Thank you so much for explaining in such details. I'm a beginner with less than 2 years of learning. I'm currently working on my first Chopin piece - Waltz in A Minor, B.150 posthumous, and found the ornaments very challenging for me. So I'm hoping that I could improve with the 2-week intensive.

     

    Here is my video:

    0:00 - Arpeggiated chords in Mazurka op.50 no.1. Since my hands are pretty small, the C-A# still feels quite a stretch. It feels hard to stay relaxed when I do this.

     

    0:24 - Trills and grace notes. Looking at the video, I feel that I might be exaggerating the arm forward motion too much?

     

    0:43 - Ornaments from Waltz in A minor.  They just don't sound as light and fast as I'd like.

     

    Thank you for your time!

    Like 1
      • AJ
      • aj_aj
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Juan Carlos Olite Thank you Juan! I don't know how I could have missed that big # 😅

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      • AJ
      • aj_aj
      • 1 yr ago
      • Reported - view

      Jarrer Dunn Thank you so much for the suggestion! I'll practice making my movements smoother. I don't know how I got both arpeggiated chords wrong😅 Really need to work on my sight reading in addition to the ornaments...

      Like
  • Hey everybody, don't forget today's Zoom Call with Jarred!

    Zoom Check-In: Tuesday July 26 10:00 PST (13:00 EST/19:00 CEST)

    https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85276295465

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  • I've been learning Op. 9 No. 1 and trying to make it sound not clunky. I know the left hand isn't terribly steady here.

     

    https://youtu.be/EIdZlxkSo9E

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    • Harriet Kaplan with your "clunky" sound it's not as bad as you think, but what is happening here is a lot of the same dynamic - ornaments therefore sound a bit awkward at times. I would suggest less finger-oriented playing and more use of arm motion. When you play your 4th finger, try to let your arm move forward and slightly upward rather than downward and curling the finger toward the palm. The type of pulling motion you often use with your hand also coming down is making less space for your fingers to move into = restricted sensations.

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    • Jarrer Dunn thank you! I'll try working on that motion. But are you saying that the ornaments are too loud in relation to the "main" notes?

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  • Sorry I am a little late.  Better late than never. This is just a short clip of the exercise. I plan to make and post a video tomorrow applying the exercises to a piece I have worked on recently…

    update: here are two measures from Ballade 3 that use the rolled chord. Applying the technique for the first (measure 120)  the second one (measure 122) is a bigger interval requiring a jump. Anything I could do better on that one? 

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    • Susan Rogers good trill and grace note motions! Arpeggiated chords op47: let your thumb come downward more on C-flat of second chord, then arm will move you to the bass note from beneath the keyboard. Your motion between the end of the first chord and beginning of second can be more efficient: right now you’re leaning on your thumb to one side, let your arm and hand bring it downward and beneath the keys (your wrist is going to look much lower) so your 5th ends up starting from a flatter place when you play the second chord. Let me know if you have any questions and please post a demo of this gesture if you want confirmation you’re getting it right.

      Like 1
    • Jarred Dunn thank you Jarred. I will keep trying to end the movement lower. I was trying to get a little lower with each repetition on the video. I will keep working on it.

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  • Hi Jared,

    I’m also a little late to this topic but catching up hopefully. I just had a query about something you said when doing the trill, you mention about not staying on the same place on the keys. Is this to avoid the hand becoming tense because it’s having to move and a preliminary step to doing the trill in the same place on the keys? Or do you always recommend this approach? I have never really come across this idea before.

    Thank you!

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    • Angela Fogg Apologies for missing an ‘r’ in your name…

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    • Angela Fogg changing key spot helps to avoid finger curling: this technique is for slow and fast playing, but in fast tempo I the movements are so small they are almost invisible. Practicing this motion slowly develops arm and hand alignment/coordination. In fast speed, the alignment remains the same but allows smaller-sized movements to change fingertip placement on the key. Let me know if you have any questions about that! 

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    • Jarrer Dunn So…as I understand it, this would prevent tension that would be shown to be developing by the finger curling. This lack of finger curling would affect the sound positively and allow the ornament to flow.

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    • Angela Fogg precisely.

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    • Jarrer Dunn Thank you for clarifying!!

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  • Thank you very much for introducing me to this wonderful Mazurka, Jarred! Here my upload of the piece .I will be very thankful for any critique also regarding the Mazurka style. One question about Arpeggios in bar 9 or 15 of the con anima section: no way my hand can stretch that far in the left hand, and Arpeggios (bar 9) hurt the rhythm I think. Am I allowed to cheat? ;)

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    • Andrea Buckland for m9, you can take the upper note of the arpeggiated chord in your RH thumb. With stretches like these feel free to accommodate your hand, that’s not cheating as long as you don’t let the rhythm become so distorted the bar sounds in 4 beats rather than 3 (my personal opinion). Bars of eighth notes in the main theme can have more variable lengths of individual notes - not just scales, singing lines (listen to K. Popowa-Zydroń’s recording of Op50, she plays flexible eighth notes that don’t distort the main pulse, it’s poetic). 

      Like 1
    • Jarrer Dunn thanks, Jarred

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    • Jarrer Dunn Last night I listened to just about all Chopin recordings by K.Popowa-Zydron I could find on Spotify and cried my eyes out. Can’t believe I hadn’t  heard of her before. So here is another attempt of mine to play the main theme. I don’t feel secure enough with the piece yet to play completely free, but would be grateful if you could tell me if I understood you correctly,Many thanks, Jarred!

      Like 1
    • Andrea Buckland yes you’re exploring the right direction now - you have more rubato on the second beats, a more flexible approach to rhythm. Most of all in mazurkas what counts are nuance and detail, keep listening and finding more of it, Not surprised you cried while listening to KPZ, she’s a first rate poet (that’s why I went to study with her: love her sound and poetic conceptions).

      Like 1
    • Jarrer Dunn thank you, Jarred! I can completely understand why you went to study with her. I’m extremely grateful you introduced me to her recordings.

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    • Andrea Buckland thank you for listening! If you can make it to the zoom meeting I just posted (it’s in 30 mins) we can chat more about mazurka style!

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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 Dunn

    Time: Aug 1, 2022 02:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada: 11:00PT, 20:00 CEST)

    Join Zoom Meeting

    https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88212124464

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    • Jarred Dunn I'm sorry I missed the Zoom meeting! I didn't get a notification. 

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