Week 2 Assignment
Assignment 2: Let the Fun Begin!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gspnP5Vqo5o
Now itâs time to explore! Look for all the expressive markings in the score. What do they make you feel? How do you express that with your playing? What tools do you have?
- Sound â Can you create a dark, bright, rounded, flat, sparkling, rough, or smooth sound?
- Time â How do you shape timingârubato, phrasing, stretching or tightening the pulse? How can you play with the listenerâs perception of time?
- Voicing â What happens when you bring out different voices in a chord or phrase? How does that shift the emotional quality of the music?
Experiment!
- Try different touches: finger legato vs. arm weight, various ways of releasing the key.
- Play with pedalingâhow does half-pedaling or catching resonance change the atmosphere?
- Imagine: Can you make your instrument sing? Growl? Whisper? Shimmer?
- Play the same passage in three completely different ways. What changes?
Now itâs time to listen!
Since you already have your own opinions, you can engage with recordings in a more informed way. See what other players doâtake what you like, leave what you donât.
- Compare different interpretations. What choices stand out?
- Does anything surprise you?
- Try playing along with a recordingâdoes it shift your perception of time and phrasing?
Get Even More Inspired!
- Read about the composer. What influenced their writing? Any personal struggles, obsessions, or quirks?
- Make creative associations:
- If this piece were a landscape, what would it look like?
- What painting, poem, or film scene does it remind you of?
- Describe the piece in three non-musical words.
- Maybe the composer is aliveâcheck out their Instagram! (Or even message them!)
Play! (Metaphorically and literally.)
The more musical âresearchâ you do at the instrument, the more possibilities you create in your brain. And the more possibilities in your brain, the more improvisatory you can be. What makes your interpretation unique is its spontaneityâwhen you have choices, you can live in the moment with the music.
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Hi everyone!
So proud of all the work youâve done last week â great job! Now Iâd love for you to dive deeper. Take notes as you explore and feel free to share them here to inspire each other. Iâll be keeping an eye out for your recordings, artworks, and other inspirations :)
One more thing I forgot to mention: make sure to record yourself! Itâs one of the best ways to hear your interpretation more objectively and notice things you might miss in the moment.
Happy practicing!
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Such an interesting and inspiring topic Piotr. Thanks so much
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Janet Horsford Glad you like it! I think it applies to so many aspects of what we doâand even if some of the ideas may seem like truisms, itâs still worth reiterating :)
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Thank you so much Piotr KozĆowski your advice is easy to understand and very informative. Itâs just really hard though to achieve what I want to accomplish with piano đ«Ł
Listening back to my recording, Iâm not content but time is running out. So I like to post my progress, thank you.
TWI with Piotr (20.05.2025)
https://youtube.com/shorts/EIcDGdlW2DA?feature=share-
Sachi Beautiful playing, Sachi. Explore more legato in the right hand. Also, decide where you need more finger activity and where you can completely relaxâthe natural weight of the finger will be enough to produce sound. You can also engage your wrist a bit more to help shape the phrases :)
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Piotr KozĆowski Gratitude for your pinpointed feedback.
I wonât be able to record more for this TWI because of my work schedule. Thank you Piotr, youâre awesome
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Hi there,
Thank you for such inspiring questions. I have explored different touches as I have been continuing to learn my piece. It was fun to play a melodic passage with a dark tone or a dark passage brightly.
I have a question about sensing the audiences perception of time. Is recording oneself the best way to accomplish this?
Thank you for any thoughts you have on this.Karen Wood
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Karen Wood
Hi Karen, so yes and no, haha. In a way, recording yourself will help you perceive time more objectively; however, it wonât necessarily capture the full acoustic spectrum that influences how audiences experience time, pulse, rubato, etc.
For example, taking exaggerated time during live performances often worksâthereâs the space of a big hall, visual cues that help maintain the audienceâs attention. On the other hand, in a recording, we often need to temper it a bit (unless we have a genius sound engineer :P).
But usually, listening to a recording will never be quite the same. It ties into this sort of âtripolarâ concept Leon Fleisher talks about in one of his masterclasses
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Karen Wood
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Karen Wood Hi Piotr, thank you for your reply to my question. I will watch this masterclass soon. I have listened to recordings and have noticed some details that I have missed. I will not have time to submit a recording. A few details to note were the Alberti bass marked with a long slur near the end of the development compared to the unslurred Alberti bass in the Exposition. What would Beethoven be indicating? How does one know to play the unslurred Alberti bass differently?
I interpreted the ending as darker but finishing with the a hopeful shift to G + so I played a slight crescendo to the last chord. The recording artists ended with darker tension but a quiet ending. This leads me to my bigger question. After research and comparative listening how do you know or decide what the right approach is for the sections that are not marked specifically?
Thank you for all your time to make this a really applicable and interesting workshop.
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I did some playing/listening/experimenting and came up with this video (commentary added). I think it holds together better at this speed. Any feedback would be welcome!
As I searched for videos/recordings of the piece I found a kamancheh/piano duet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2fDmf3fT2Q
This video gave me some ideas for how to shape the melody and bring out the rhythms/contrasts of the dance. I found I needed to tighten up the ornaments quite a bit to imitate that middle eastern "quiver", and that took some practice.
