Group 1
Mastering the art of subtle timing flexibility is crucial for delivering performances that are as expressive and speech-like as possible, captivating your audience's attention. Have you ever marveled at how the fluid manipulation of timing by your favorite performers adds depth and expressiveness to their music? If you aspire to imbue your musical expressions with similar vitality, or if you aim to perfect and evolve your ability to produce seamless legato, this course is tailored for you. We will introduce techniques designed to equip you with the skills necessary for integrating these practices into your own rehearsal routines with pieces beyond the scope of this course.
Course Highlights:
Dynamic Timing Flexibility: Delve into the nuances of timing flexibility to achieve a more expressive and speech-like performance. Discover the secrets behind the captivating, ever-changing stretch of time that adds color and expression to music, drawing listeners into your sonic world.
Legato Mastery: Explore the techniques to perfect your legato playing, ensuring seamless transitions and a fluid, singing quality in your music. This segment focuses on cultivating the ability to convey your musical ideas with the same vitality and expressiveness as your favorite performers.
Technique Enhancement: Engage in specialized exercises designed to improve your timing flexibility and legato execution. These practices are crafted to help you integrate these skills into your personal practice routine, allowing for continual growth and refinement.
Customized Feedback: Benefit from personalized feedback tailored to your unique musical journey. This course offers the opportunity to receive direct guidance and strategies from an expert, enabling you to overcome challenges and achieve your musical goals.
Collaborative Learning Community: Join a network of like-minded musicians and enthusiasts. This course fosters a nurturing environment for sharing insights, experiences, and encouragement, building a community of learners dedicated to musical excellence.
Enroll now and unlock the potential of your guitar playing like never before!
Timeline:
- Sign-Up : NOW until March 17th
- Course Period: March 18th until March 28th
- Optional check-In via Zoom: March 23rd, 10 am PST
Assignments Week 1
Note:
- Try to experiment with different tempos (bigger, smaller, etc.).
- Always listen to yourself. If what you were playing was gradually becoming clear or audible, keep at it.
- For exercises 4-7, it is important that you emphasize the melody and make the accompaniment quieter.
- In exercises 6-7, you can use appoyando to bring out the melody.
- Please send me videos of exercises 1, 2, and 3, and choose only one from 4-5 and one from 6-7.
Videos
Exercise one: https://youtu.be/GDYyqiyhuws
Exercise two: https://youtu.be/hgux2nOkEaM
Exercise three: https://youtu.be/SFDvk4CHsaI
Exercise four: https://youtu.be/gbNV-ZEJv5c
Exercise five: https://youtu.be/h9Kfdnhmm54
Exercise six: https://youtu.be/-yHXgqAruYs
Exercise seven: https://youtu.be/OShYqOe6fyo
Scores
Improve_your_time_flexibility_and_legato
Assignments Week Two
First exercise: https://youtu.be/B53r9aRax44
Second exercise: https://youtu.be/CIWz9DZQFQ4
Third exercise: https://youtu.be/CGEyEbwx6UQ
Fourth exercise: https://youtu.be/XAdOVEPx5Lc
Fifth exercise: https://youtu.be/dm9dW9WTXLU
Scores
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What a great lesson, thank you Borbàla
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Giuseppe Gasparini Good to see you again Giuseppe!
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It's great to see to again Borbala! These concepts are so important for us to achieve a musical result with feeling, expression, and "soul". We need good technique to accomplish this along with careful listening. You expressed this beautifully in your lessons! This is not easy to achieve, but the great artists we know and remember all have this quality.
Thank you for sharing this we us!!
P.S. Does the word "appoggiando" have the same meaning as "appoyando"? ( I've never seen this word before...)
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Barney thank you i am glad to be here again too!
Yes I think these are very important issues, and we are practicing the guitar to achieve this musical joy!
I don't know appoggiando either, probably it's a mistake from the site. I wrote appoyando into the score.
I will let Martin know. Thank you!
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Hello Borbàla,
I am so happy that you are back with more lessons in tonebase. Your lessons last year helped me so much, and I know that this will also be good for me. I will be posting a video later this week and look forward to your comments.
Martha Kreipke
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Martha Kreipke Martha Kreipke hi Martha, I'm happy too to be able to be here with you again. I tried to prepare interesting musical exercises for you this time as well. I find them super important and I hope you will enjoy it.
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Thank you for the insight and lessons.
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Another great lesson, Borbála. I love how you show there's so much that can be done creatively with music at all levels, not just the masterpieces. I forget this sometimes and end up struggling with things over my head so it's nice to be reminded again.
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There as been a typo in the scores, here's the new version:
Improve_your_time_flexibility_and_legato -
Exercise 1: Rubato. Will try to differentiate more between my fastest accelerando and slowest ritardando.
Also need to resist the urge to always drive an accelerando to a crescendo and a ritardando to a decrescendo.
Nice challenge.
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Neil Macmillan dear Neil ,
Thank you for your videos.
Exercise 1
I find them nice and you are right that it's really difficult to hold yourself back to make with accelerando a crescendo, and with ritardando a decrescendo. It comes somehow always very natural. So don't hold yourself back from it.
To make your acc. and rit . even more clear and more gradual I would advice you to imagine it before the execution. And you could also exaggerate it a bit more that it can become audible even more clear. Also you could listen to yourself back, from outside we can always hear it better then during the playing.
Thank you
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Exercise 2: Legato using p. A little rough around the edges still. I'll commit to learning all of Op 60, No 6. This extract has aroused my interest in the piece, as well as the Carcassi Challenge, currently in progress.
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Neil Macmillan exercise 2
You're right these carcassi etudes are really nice and we can use them to practice many things. I find them musically really interesting too.
I find your video really nice, as you said it's still on progress. Just focus on your left hand and right hand fingers, that you don't touch the string earlier than its necessary. We have to prepare always our next finger for both hands but only in the air. Timing is crucial for synchronity. Listen to yourself always while you are playing. I would recommend to take only the bass line because then you can concentrate more on the melody the legato line, and you can go measure by measure. If you want to send it to me again, and you don't have so much time you can send me only couple of measures of it.
Thank you
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Borbála Seres Thank you for your helpful commentary. As you suggested, I took another look at Exercise 2; bass line only, and just lines 2 and 3. Metronome is at 63 (each eighth note).
Will work more on lingering on notes as long as possible within tempo.
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Neil Macmillan thank you Neil,
It was much better, I think it was a good idea to make this exercise a bit more simple, you can really focus on the legato, on the synchronity.
I think the metronome is not the best choice for this exercise because it makes another factor which you have to focus on it can become not helpful at all. Just try to feel the right movement of the perfect synchronity it's similar to playing the piano with both hands fingers with synchronic. But we will speak about this problem on zoom check in.
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Borbála Seres Thank you again. The metronome can indeed distract and can also force one into a "mechanical" kind of execution. Will continue to work on legato; probably for as long as I continue playing. You offer very good commentary to everyone.
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Exercise 1
I had to work on getting the thumb back in place quickly.
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
I need to work on lifting LH fingers to avoid string noise.
I am also beginning to work on Exercises 4 and 6. I might not be able to post a video of them this week as I am still learning them.
This is a very helpful challenge. (The updated scores were posted after I made these videos.)
Martha Kreipke
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Martha Kreipke Nice work on these three. Some of the fingering is intricate.
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Martha Kreipke hello Martha, thanks for the videos.
Your first exercise was really good, the first version the accelerando could be a bit more gradually and also the third version. I find the accelerando really difficult and therefore it could help you if you would imagine it in your head before start the execution. Ritardando was really great. I found your thumb good enough I didn't see any problem with it actually.
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Borbála Seres exercise 2
It was also nice. If you would like to make it a bit nicer then I would advise to take only the first four measure , and play only the bass line. Then you can concentrate even more on the legato, and on the synchronity of both hands. Sometimes you touch the strings earlier with your right hand fingers before the plucking and with the left hand fingers before putting them down. Try to wait for the very last moment and only then put the fingers at the exact timing of the rhythm. This is really difficult since we always have to prepare the fingers of left hand and also of right hand before the execution to not to miss the note, but it should happen only in the air and not on the strings. I hope you understand what I meant.
Thank you!
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Borbála Seres of course if you are not playing the upper voice for the second exercise, then you can choose of course a different fingering if it's not comfortable since I have made this fingerings only for the " two voice " version.
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Borbála Seres third exercise
I find your legato many times really very nice, and when sometimes it happened to be nonlegato it's because of your left hand. Sometimes you put your left hand fingers which has to come as follows a bit earlier. And if you put them a bit earlier down of course it will cut the resonance of the string. So if you would like to work on it a bit more then take a mirror and concentrate on your left hand. And work on it measure by measure with a very slow tempo.
Thank you
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Borbála Seres and dear Martha,
If two exercises from 4_7 seems too much for you please don't worry. And then let's focus only on one of them. This one week is really short if you haven't learned these etudes, and I don't want you to feel that you have to worry because I said so, so try to focus on one which you like the most and work on the small musical details more. And Later if you find time you can still send me another one, no problem.
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Borbála Seres Thank you for your care in viewing my videos and sharing your observations. In most of my previous coaching about legato the instructors have focused on the timing to release the left hand fingers, especially when notes are on different strings. Here we are focusing on synchronization when plucking. Could you please comment on the release of strings in either the ZOOM check-in or during the week 2 video? It would be most helpful.
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Martha Kreipke Martha Kreipke okay, then I will try to make a short video about this legato release and synchronity question. But we can discuss about it also during the zoom check in.
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End of the Year Challenge: Finish Strong!
