Group 4

Tina Ellul Glad to know you are finding this useful! I was recently reminded of how useful fluency in chord structures and syntax can be--I'm accompanying a long violin studio recital at CIM Preparatory and several of the students are doing concerti that will need cuts in order to work and not make the recital ridiculously long. In a couple cases, students aren't doing the cadenzas (the extended virtuosic improvisations at the end of a Classical concerto) or they are playing movements that flow seamlessly into the next movement, but we have to create a plausible single-movement ending, or they don't need to hear 2-3 pages of me approximating an orchestral introduction on the piano. In all cases, knowing how chords tend to organize themselves within a key and spotting/creating cadences helps create cuts that sound musically plausible.

Nicole Hi Nicole, yes exactly, it’s so important to learn keyboard harmony/analysis as part of your piano journey.  I learnt piano as a child and all the way up to  a music degree.  Although as a child we had something called music theory and I excelled in it, it was out of context and I never learnt how to incorporate it into my piano playing and it was not encouraged. They were like two very separate things. After 30 years of not playing the piano I’ve gone back to lessons and I see how much I have to learn! What is especially lacking is this understanding of how the music flows through different keys to finally resolve in a cadence. This effects my ability to memorize.  I really admire your work and the way you are able to change and adapt compositions to suit those you are collaborating with. Besides your knowledge, you must be extremely talented! Anyway it’s something I’m very interested in but I need lots of time and that I don’t have. Ben and your teaching on this subject has got me really motivated and interested to learn more, so at least it’s a step in the right direction. Im also using your chord progression patterns when I practise my scales. There’s so much more to say on the subject. Thanks again Nicole and of course Ben! 

Ben Laude  Thank You Ben, Merci ! I read a lot about theory since that challenge. It will help me a lot in my playing. I also read the comments you did on other post, It's really interesting and it's help to understand better. I have a question : After this challenge will it  be possible to  send you some harmonic analysis ? 

Ben Laude Hello, I primarily decided to take this two week intensive because I am lazy. Some years ago I spent time reading "five analyses(Schenker)" and "Musical Analysis(Bent)" but I never made one. It's interesting the relationship between analysis and performance that you talked about. I am a music hobbyst, and I am opened to every suggestion about this topic. Thank you in advance.

Aline Valade Maybe we can start a thread where folks continue to help each other out with their harmonic analyses after this week. You can tag me and I'll try to help, but I can't be as responsive as the past 2 weeks, just because I have so much going on and it takes a lot of time to give feedback. I think a new thread would be nice, because then other members of the community could respond and potentially help you, or at least spark a discussion! 

Ben Laude YES! That is a good suggestion, start a thread to continue to help each other. I am so grateful to participated in this two weeks challenge, thank you Ben, this was wonderfull. 

Juan Carlos Olite Really really beautiful! I love your tone and sense of style. It's very effective for this music. I wouldn't change a thing, but - since we've been doing an analysis exercises - I thought I'd leave a few ideas below, in case you find any of them interesting.

• Bar 4 is preparing for a momentary cadence on i. Can you bring out the descending soprano line, Db--C-Bb-Ab-G-A-b. If you sing this out, it will also help you bring the first phrase to a close on the downbeat of bar 5, so you could potentially start a new color in that bar to set up those beautiful right hand triplet figures over the moving left hand line.
• Bar 6, and similar bars: Speaking of those triplet figures, in case you weren't doing this intentionally (I do like how your rhythm sounds), I want to make sure you know that the second half of the figure - the part that occurs on the downbeat - is also a triplet. You play it like straight 8th notes, 2 to a beat. 
• Bar 11: The arrival on your new dominant in C minor should sound more eventful. It doesn't need much, but just some change in your sound, or slight hesitation after you reach that downbeat on the V7.
• Bar 21: I love how sensitive you are on the diminished chord. It's subtle, but noticable and very expressive. You should find more opportune places to do similar things!
• Bars 31-32: I love your expressive delay here. It helps signal a moment of structural significance in the upcoming cadence to end the A section.
• Bar 45-47: You use the echo effect here, but you should also experiment with keeping the energy level up through these bars, in order to maintain the tension before reaching the B-flat minor chord.

Again, really beautiful. Just some ideas that occurred to me while listening. Thank you for posting!

Ben Laude Here also thank you so much for your ideas. Of course, I will take them into account. In reference to bar 6 and similar bars it is my mistake, I wasn't aware about the way I played it was not a perfect triplet... Well, thank you so much, Ben, for your kind words.

Ben Laude Thank You for this!