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!
- 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’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.
- 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)
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Follow this link for the second week's assignments with Jarred Dunn!
https://piano-community.tonebase.co/t/x2hww25/week-2-new-applications
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Hi Jared,
Thank you for the intro lesson on the ornaments. I find the lifting on the hand very helpful in producing a much clearer sound in playing the ornaments. I applied the same principles from op. 50 to op 48, no 1, where as before I tend to play the ornaments slower and blended them into the melody. I hadn't realise when I changed my expression of the ornaments, it felt like I was learning to play it for the first time, again! The new approach produced a more heightened emotional angst in the melodic line. Is this what Chopin had intended? or have I missed the mark completely? Could you please share your thoughts on this ? Thank you.
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Jeff
I notice your arm height on the grace notes, that adds a sense of motion to them. Go for a more gradual movement throughout when playing the grace notes. To me, Op. 48 nr. 1 is very grave and its ornaments heighten the emotional world indicated by the harmony (ie. fear, worry, anguish, false hope). I think your next step is to try ornaments in different speeds (not only fast grace notes): this can add to the harmonic colours found between bass and grace notes.
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Jeff beautiful playing, Jeff! It’s such incredible music! For me it’s the extra 16th in the bass that adds Angst, a kind of threat to the melody, like an extra heartbeat. It foreshadows the ‘disturbance during the choral later. Also the melodic line in the first part has many down falls, especially the dramatic one (falling two octaves within four bars ) right before the choral.
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Jarrer Dunn Thank you for the advice, I will try to incorporate all the various aspects mentioned into my practice.
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Andrea Buckland Thank you for pointing that out! I hadn't realised the relationship between the 16th note in the base to the disturbance in the chorale. In my Schirmer edition the the pedal marking is lifted on the first 16th note and then depressed on the downbeat, this never sounded right to my ear for some reason. I should probably check other editions to see what's going on there...
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Jeff Let me know how it goes and feel free to comment or message me with any questions!
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Jeff Sounds beautiful, Jeff! It is one of the most amazing nocturnes of Chopin. I like your tempo and general atmosphere you create.
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Any feedback will be highly appreciated.
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Andrea Buckland Nice playing, Andrea, as always! Nostalgic and beautiful Chopin.
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Juan Carlos Olite thanks! Will also upload just the exercises the next time…
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Andrea Buckland good wrist/arm movements on the grace notes. Use them at 0:34 (F-G-F graces). I recommend using more gradual motions as you play toward each long melody note, eg. 0:03 you move after you strike E-flat. Try moving as you strike it and feel the descent into that key. I'd suggest looking through you whole video for examples where you move as you play the key and do that more, especially long notes (sound quality is more beautiful).
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Jarrer Dunn many many thanks for your feedback, Jarred! I will practice this!
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Hello Jarred and fellows of Group 2! I am not sure how to do the video (it is my first intensive course). So, I have tried to do the two exercises and I have played, to put into practice them, a passage of the Waltz op. 70 nº 2 in F minor.
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Juan Carlos Olite looks and sounds really good to me, Juan Carlos! I love your waltz!
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Juan Carlos Olite such lovely playing. Really enjoyable listening to your waltz.
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Juan Carlos Olite At 0:25 your movement toward thumb is right! Grace notes also look good with the forward motion - I suggest doing this slower for a few practice sessions, making gradual motions for grace notes and the main text (the movements I showed in my first video can be done in a smaller size that fits the motion used for the main notes). Go for less finger-stretch preparations before playing graces notes, when fingers stretch out they appear tense.
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Jarrer Dunn Thank you so much, Jarred! I will try to put into practice your advice (first slower...)
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Andrea Buckland Thanks Andrea! It is one of my favorites and has all these typical ornaments...
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Jeff Thank you very much, Jeff!
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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!
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AJ very well done! I can’t believe that you’ve only been playing for two years! Bravo!
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AJ Very good job! By the way, I think that it is C sharp in the first exercise (left hand). I always enjoy this beautiful Waltz.
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AJ it's C-sharp in the first chord and D in the second (that'll bring the fingers a bit closer to each other). About your arm movements and trills/grace notes - they're too heavy because you are probably thinking they need to be faster than they really should be. These graces are part of the melody and sound best when you don't rush or make sudden movements just for the grace notes (it's the same in Op. 50 nr. 2, bar 11 and 12). With the movements from my first video, aim to make them smoother and naturally "glue them" into whatever motion/movement happens before.
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Andrea Buckland Thank you Andrea for you kind words!
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