Group 3
Improve your Scales!
Scales are integral to your technique - all of music is built on them! They are singularly one of the most important things to master for piano playing!
Fellow Participants in Group 3:
Maya Martin
Rebecca Lam
Shaw-Jiun Wang
Kerstin
Tim
Gary Hamer
Angela
Amy
Claudio Carrani
Lin W.
Lorraine Nelson
Mia
Larry Johnson
Charlie Gesualdo
Michael Palmer
Some tonebase productions to get you started
"Creative Scale Practice" with Jarred Dunn
C Major Pattern Scales with Juliana Han
"Choreographing Scales" with Seymour Bernstein
"Scale Technique" with Penelope Roskell
How to get the most out of this course
- Start by watching the introduction video and practice the exercises given in the video.
- Write a post with your experiences with scales.
- Start Practicing Czerny Op.599 no.61, and 69!
- Share two videos per week and help your course partners through feedback on their submissions!
Zoom Check-In: Wednesday, June 29th at 11am PT!
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Here are my first two submissions. the Burgmuller Op. 100 no. 6, and the Czerny no. 61.
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Gary Hamer Hi Gary, you did a great job!
I’d try to let the scales be smoother: from time to time some notes are missing and scales are not always legato.keep working up man!
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Claudio Carrani Thank you Claudio, thank you for your comments. Forcing myself to slow down and listen carefully. I will repost and see if it comes together.
P.S. was just in Italy a few weeks ago, great time. Look forward going back.
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Gary Hamer hope u enjoyed Italy! Which places did u visit?
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Can anyone share their fingering for chopin bar 246-249? Thanks
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rebecca LAM
Here we are.
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Kerstin thanks so much
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rebecca LAM actually at the time I didn’t add much fingering to the bars, but changed some suggestions according better to my right hand
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Claudio Carrani thanks!
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Hi everyone, I'm Amy. I'm 39, live in Australia and started lessons again last year after 30 year hiatus. I recently passed AMEB Grade 5 with honours and now I'm working on grade 6. I'm looking for interesting way to practice scales and am glad to be here.
Our household has been unwell with influenza this week, so I've only learned the Czerny no. 61. I'll make a video sometime in the next few days. Happy practicing!
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Hi everyone! Today is Friday and since Monday I have spent 30min a day with this challange. Here are my next videos. I didn‘t practice the g minor scale, but I have practiced the chromatic scale I need for the piece I am working on and I have my piano lesson today.
A wonderful weekend. Hear you soon.
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Sorry I'm running behind on video submits, it's been a busy work week. But I have started on the exercises, and as soon as I can get someone to hold the phone for me I'm anxious to get one posted. I have already found a stuck point doing the grouping exercise and I would appreciate feedback. Video to follow ASAP
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Michael Palmer
Hi Michael! Nice to hear from you. Before I bought a tripod for my handy, I used a chair with books on it. Have a nice weekend.
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How do you upload video? I used my iPhone to record 49s video but it said the file is too big.
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rebecca LAM just lower the quality of the video. I had the same problem and solved it this way
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Claudio Carrani Thank you I was having some problems as well so I went through Vimeo, which was a bit cumbersome.
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Ok. I am going to try youtube.
My first ever video posted online. I have performance anxiety and I am working on it. Joining this group is forcing me to record myself which is very difficult for me. I think it took more than 30 takes to finally get something close. Not perfect but good enough.
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rebecca LAM Hi Rebecca, Sounds great. As far as recording nerves, it took me a few takes as well. Overall sounds good. Not used to critiquing others playing. What I hear is a little bit of tempo changes happening. what I would suggest is to slow the piece down, even it is ridiculously slow. This is what helps me to really get a feel for the piece. See if this helps. My own experience is if I go too fast too soon, then the tension creeps in too easily. Hope this helps
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rebecca LAM hi Rebecca! Just as Gary, I’m not used to critique or criticize other people, but I think we gotta consider each other as long-standing friends to enhance our performances and let our little group work better.
First thing first, the sound you produce is wonderful! :-)
Were I you, I’d set a slower tempo, in order to be more relaxed and take your time to develop your self-confidence.
Keep on playing Rebecca!
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Gary Hamer thanks for the feedback. I will work on steadying the tempo.
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Claudio Carrani I really appreciate you all taking your time to listen and give me feedback. As I mentioned before, I don't have a teacher and any feedback is super helpful. It helps me focus on what to work on. I found this music community to be very supportive of each other. I want to learn from everyone as much as I can. I wish we can expand beyond this intensive and perhaps exchange feedbacks on pieces we are working on.
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I think I'm doing this correctly, was able to get pretty fast after a few days (haven't tried anything like this before). Did hands separate at first ... left hand is still lagging so HT is not quite as fast.
Also working on Burgmuller No 6.
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Angela hi Angela, nice 2 meet u! It’s not easy to understand it from your recording point of view, but it seems like your left hand wrist is a little too low… this could make the passages 1-3, 1-4, 3-1 and 4-1 more difficult.
I would also try to play all the grouped notes at the same tempo: this way you’ll build your way up to play the whole scale with no hiccups!
Happy practising!
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Claudio Carrani Thanks! I noticed that too in a video I recorded with Alberti bass ... my left hand looked really awkward and low. Not sure if its always been like that, but I got a new bench recently, so I just adjusted it up some more today to see if that's an issue. And I tried a slower, more consistent tempo hands together with this scale exercise and it seemed much better!
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Hi all! I decided not to work on one of the pieces, but to work on C- harmonic scale with the groupings or rhythms. This is a 4-note grouping - one long note and 3 fast notes. I was practicing and then recorded the scale at quarter note = 150 BPM. Then I show how I practiced, by isolating each group. I note that my LH lags behind a bit.
At the end, my final scale doesn't seem as good as the beginning?
My goal is to play it at 160 BPM comfortably. I chose C- because I'm working on Chopin Etude 25/12 which is in C-.
- I need to practice
