Group 4
Welcome to the latest TWO WEEK INTENSIVE on tonebase!
For the next two weeks either start learning OR take a Chopin mazurka in your repertoire to the next level through guidance and assignments from Jarred Dunn! Learn about stylistic advice, aspects of the dance and more!
Pianists of all levels are welcome.
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Assignment #1: Seeing the Mazurka
1) Watch Mazurka Dance Lessons 1, 2, and 3:
http://www.tance.edu.pl/en/lessons/show/dance/720
-Pay close attention to Lesson 3: the lesson builds rhythms from what we hear as a Waltz into a clear accent on 2nd beat, 3rd beat, and both 2nd/3rd beats
2) Learn one Mazurka
Choose one from the following suggested opuses for the whole TWI.
Week 1: Practice the LH:
-Op. 6 nr. 1, nr. 2
-Op. 7 nr. 1, nr. 2
-Op. 24 nr. 1 or 2
-Op. 30 nr. 1 or 2
-Op. 67 any
- or a different mazurka
Practice Activities:
a) Identify/mark all articulation in LH parts.
b) Clap the rhythm, emphasize accents and count aloud (speak louder for accented beats, eg. "one, Two, THREE" or "one, TWO, Three" etc.)
c) Identify/mark any unknown harmonic shifts or chords.
d) Find all cadences and notice unfamiliar accents (beat 2).
e) Voice tops of chords in LH or find a moving line (could be the middle notes of a chord that change).
f) Use RH for chords and LH for bass lines.
g) Circle any rests/pauses - they need to be heard.
Upload videos of your LH practicing/playing.
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ASSIGNMENT 2
Second Assignment: Continue your new Mazurka
Week 2: Practice the RH:
Listen to instruments, timbres, and moods in the following:
Kujawiak: https://youtu.be/RjV1bpxi0bc
Mazurek Dąbrowskiego: https://youtu.be/mTx45S-dQmQ?t=4
Chopin Mazurkas/Folk Mazurkas: https://youtu.be/n8OyddwnVbE
Look For/Listen For:
a) Learn the soprano part (melody), always sing/scream with it when you play. Think of dancers in this video: https://youtu.be/p6svoYBEWCs?t=10
b) Add ornaments after you learned the rhythms of the melody.
c) Dotted rhythms and triplets must sound distinctly different (no slackened dotted-eighth/sixteenths).
d) Accents on beats two and three can be subtle: try different levels of pressure/weight on the keys, to create at least four different accent types: sudden accent, leaning/swaying accent, light accent, heavy accent.
e) Remember that recording yourself is the best way to find out if you're actually doing what you intend. Record your melodic playing/singing/screaming whenever you practice.
Upload videos of your RH practicing/playing.
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- Sign-Up : starting July 14
- Course Period: July 17-31
- Class Size: ALL are welcome!
- Optional check-In via Zoom: July 27th 9am PT
CHECK IN VIDEO!
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Hello! I am so sorry! I will not be able to participate in this wonderful opportunity due to a fall a few weeks ago- injuring my elbow and shoulder. I didn't understand that I would be playing but rather sitting in. Hoping it's possible for me to watch the replay! Hope I didn't cause any extra work for filling your class. Best!
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My name is Alex; I am an amateur pianist from Columbus, Ohio, and am fairly new to tonebase. I am super excited to join my first ever Two Week Intensive! This course was such a great idea; obviously, a lot of people are playing Chopin's Mazurkas because they're relatively short, usually not too hard technically, and incredibly beautiful - but many of us don't get much specific guidance on them (I know I haven't). And yet, it's one of four categories to which there is a special award assigned in the Chopin Competition!
I have chosen to learn Op. 50 No. 3 in C sharp minor for this course. It's a complex piece - lots of polyphony; many small, alternating sections with different moods and colors, but suffused with a general sense of melancholy. The biggest challenge for me - and that's probably true for many of the more pensive and "sad" Mazurkas - will be to still make it sound like a dance and not let it become mushy and sentimental and have its structure fall apart under too slow a tempo and too much clumsy rubato. That's why I think it's perfect that we're starting out by learning something about the mazurka as a dance!
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Hi! I’m Nancy Brass. This, too, is my first 2 week intensive. I’m not a very good player, but I enjoy playing. I’m away from home and I’m Minneapolis for the summer, but a friend is lending me their electric keyboard and I also will have some access to his piano. I’ve also discovered that you can reserve time at a piano in the main library. I haven’t decided which mazurka to concentrate on.
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Hello All,
I just love the Mazurkas, what perfect miniatures they are. I think I will go for the Op.7s but it doesn't matter if someone else wants to do the same.
Peggy, I hope you are recovering well, take care of that elbow and shoulder.
Newbies, I shall look forward to meeting you virtually and Harriet, it will be lovely to see and hear you play again.
Off to watch the dance videos!