LentheLessons
StudioLenthe Prelude Barat Andante et Allegro David Konzertino Rimsky-Korsakov Concerto Guilmant Morceau Symphonique
Barat
Lesson 4
Allegro
Or click hereIn each of the previous Barat lessons, we explored a specific perspective in approaching this piece. In Lesson One - Beginning to Practice we worked on finding and extracting the the core musical building blocks in the form of scales and arpeggios, and then practicing these. Lesson Two - Technical Twists took us through a unique trombonistic technique, and its applications towards expanding our facility on the instrument. Lesson Three - Phrasing was a study in phrasing and interpretive delivery. I leave it to the student to apply these ideas to each phase of this study, and not just to the section which was used as an example.In this lesson I want to present a perspective that combines elements of phrasing, scope, poetry, and structural analysis. To begin, I am assuming that you are familiar with concept of subdividing, whereby - for example - one would think of the individual 8th note pulses while playing a dotted quarter/eighth note figure. Play Think This is an important concept, and is usually taught at an early musical age. I often say facetiously that we get our subdividers implanted in junior high school. Indeed, I rarely encounter an advanced student who does not totally command this. But ---What is the opposite of sub-dividing?By this, I mean recognizing and internalizing larger metrical units of a passage, in a sense striving to distinguish and delineate the big picture of the sections and of the piece as a whole. You should recognize the first bars of the allegro below: 1 2 3 4Observe the numbers I have assigned the individual bars, and think of them for a moment as a large bar. Now, we know from music theory that in most conventional music, the beats of a 4/4 bar don't all receive an equal emphasis. Beat 1 is the strongest, beat 2 is weaker, beat 3 is strong - but not as strong as beat 1, and beat 4 is again weak. This can be demonstrated using any simple song. or click hereFar beyond simple songs, you should hear this concept in much of music. The opening phrase of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus offers another example. The "Hal-" receives much more emphasis than the "le-". The "-lu-" gets more than "-le-", and so on. You will find countless examples as you become sensitized to this concept. It is as natural as our own speech patterns. Try applying this principle to our bar to the phrase above, giving differentiated emphasis to the individual bars. See if the phrase doesn't come alive for you this way. 1 2 3 4 Or click hereWhat is the opposite of subdividing? Not knowing the answer myself, I asked this of many people over the years, and received answers such as: "Super dividing", "Multiplying", "Joining Together", and more. But - I now know - there is indeed a word for this concept, and it is taught in some music theory courses:....Hyper-metering!Hyper-metering is laid out in simple but factual terms above, and I encourage you to explore this in your studies. Please know that much of this is subjective, and can be interpreted differently. There is no right or wrong, per se - unless not doing anything along these lines could be called wrong. Let us examine measures 60 - 85 of the Barat allegro in these terms for a moment. I hope this seems clear to you. It may even remind you of poetic meter, with each line having its own lilt, and the various lines building upon or contrasting to one another. Well - think about that! One line could be an attention-grabber, the next a subtle innuendo. A threesome such as the next-to-last last line offers a great chance to build intensity through repetition. The last line is then the winning point - where the rabbit comes out of the hat, if you like. Even without the use of words, a Johnny-One-Note should be able to inflect these rhythms and meters and make them communicate.Johnny-One-Note Or click here Even using just one pitch, there are many ways to make this music speak, and you could do it differently upon occasion, too. Try sorting your lines and sentences out on one note like this and then add the actual pitches. It should help make your message come alive. Technical twists and practice habitsThe technical twists in the allegro are typical for any fast moving piece, and it is important to practice slowly and exactly. Remember: speed is a result, not an end in itself. Anything - whether an athletic motion, a spoken text, a series of tool movements (mouse clicks!?), will become faster as a result of numerous repetitions. Make sure you are repeating perfection - you don't want to program slop!There are two specific issues I would draw your attention to in this allegro. One is of a rhythmical, inflective nature, and the other simply a technical nut that needs to be cracked.1) Unless you are artistically convinced that it should be otherwise, please strive to play the first bar of the allegro (measure 60) and all of its relatives with emphasis on the first beat. The half note on beat two will jump out all by itself, by virtue of being higher and longer, and you must exaggerate the emphasis on one to overcome that. Record yourself. You may be surprised to hear that you are not getting the emPHAsis on the proper sylLAble, as it were. 2) This particular figure, which comes a third higher a few bars later, usually needs some concentrated practice. Be sure that you get all the way down to the F in the second triplet! Here is a self-repeating practice pattern that I like to employ. Also - if I am going to spend five or six minutes on a specific figure like this, I will usually practiced it slurred as well as tongued.Triplet practice figure or click hereIn addition to the Self-repeating practice figure and the mixing of slur and tongue in repetitious practice, two practice habits I find important and want to point out to you in the audio sample above are the reference pitch (the drone of the F), and the manner of breathing.Reference pitch: Any pitch device will do, as long as it can give you any chromatic pitch. If you have a friend or teacher to hold long tones for you to tune to, consider yourself fortunate and return the favor! It is usually possible to pick a reference pitch that will provide a lot of unisons, fourths, fifths, and octaves to tune to. These intervals are well suited to this kind of work. Practice breaths: Listen to the audio sample above one more time, and notice that I do not breath every single time the figure starts over. In the 60 seconds of practice, I breathed 5 times. This is a way to train the wind power, hone the mental focus, and generally bring discipline and efficiency into your practice. How much can you get done in one breath? Consider also - if you took a new breath every time you misspoke a word or phrase, you would sound like a hyperventilating stutterer. So - at the end, a few practice thoughts and habits for you to take an work on. Each would be worth half a lesson by itself. This project is designed more to give you ideas to work on - hopefully with a qualified teacher by your side!Happy practicing!
In each of the previous Barat lessons, we explored a specific perspective in approaching this piece. In Lesson One - Beginning to Practice we worked on finding and extracting the the core musical building blocks in the form of scales and arpeggios, and then practicing these. Lesson Two - Technical Twists took us through a unique trombonistic technique, and its applications towards expanding our facility on the instrument. Lesson Three - Phrasing was a study in phrasing and interpretive delivery. I leave it to the student to apply these ideas to each phase of this study, and not just to the section which was used as an example.
In this lesson I want to present a perspective that combines elements of phrasing, scope, poetry, and structural analysis. To begin, I am assuming that you are familiar with concept of subdividing, whereby - for example - one would think of the individual 8th note pulses while playing a dotted quarter/eighth note figure.
Play Think
This is an important concept, and is usually taught at an early musical age. I often say facetiously that we get our subdividers implanted in junior high school. Indeed, I rarely encounter an advanced student who does not totally command this. But ---
What is the opposite of sub-dividing?
By this, I mean recognizing and internalizing larger metrical units of a passage, in a sense striving to distinguish and delineate the big picture of the sections and of the piece as a whole. You should recognize the first bars of the allegro below:
1 2 3 4
Observe the numbers I have assigned the individual bars, and think of them for a moment as a large bar. Now, we know from music theory that in most conventional music, the beats of a 4/4 bar don't all receive an equal emphasis. Beat 1 is the strongest, beat 2 is weaker, beat 3 is strong - but not as strong as beat 1, and beat 4 is again weak. This can be demonstrated using any simple song.
or click hereFar beyond simple songs, you should hear this concept in much of music. The opening phrase of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus offers another example. The "Hal-" receives much more emphasis than the "le-". The "-lu-" gets more than "-le-", and so on. You will find countless examples as you become sensitized to this concept. It is as natural as our own speech patterns. Try applying this principle to our bar to the phrase above, giving differentiated emphasis to the individual bars. See if the phrase doesn't come alive for you this way. 1 2 3 4 Or click hereWhat is the opposite of subdividing? Not knowing the answer myself, I asked this of many people over the years, and received answers such as: "Super dividing", "Multiplying", "Joining Together", and more. But - I now know - there is indeed a word for this concept, and it is taught in some music theory courses:....Hyper-metering!Hyper-metering is laid out in simple but factual terms above, and I encourage you to explore this in your studies. Please know that much of this is subjective, and can be interpreted differently. There is no right or wrong, per se - unless not doing anything along these lines could be called wrong. Let us examine measures 60 - 85 of the Barat allegro in these terms for a moment. I hope this seems clear to you. It may even remind you of poetic meter, with each line having its own lilt, and the various lines building upon or contrasting to one another. Well - think about that! One line could be an attention-grabber, the next a subtle innuendo. A threesome such as the next-to-last last line offers a great chance to build intensity through repetition. The last line is then the winning point - where the rabbit comes out of the hat, if you like. Even without the use of words, a Johnny-One-Note should be able to inflect these rhythms and meters and make them communicate.Johnny-One-Note Or click here Even using just one pitch, there are many ways to make this music speak, and you could do it differently upon occasion, too. Try sorting your lines and sentences out on one note like this and then add the actual pitches. It should help make your message come alive. Technical twists and practice habitsThe technical twists in the allegro are typical for any fast moving piece, and it is important to practice slowly and exactly. Remember: speed is a result, not an end in itself. Anything - whether an athletic motion, a spoken text, a series of tool movements (mouse clicks!?), will become faster as a result of numerous repetitions. Make sure you are repeating perfection - you don't want to program slop!There are two specific issues I would draw your attention to in this allegro. One is of a rhythmical, inflective nature, and the other simply a technical nut that needs to be cracked.1) Unless you are artistically convinced that it should be otherwise, please strive to play the first bar of the allegro (measure 60) and all of its relatives with emphasis on the first beat. The half note on beat two will jump out all by itself, by virtue of being higher and longer, and you must exaggerate the emphasis on one to overcome that. Record yourself. You may be surprised to hear that you are not getting the emPHAsis on the proper sylLAble, as it were. 2) This particular figure, which comes a third higher a few bars later, usually needs some concentrated practice. Be sure that you get all the way down to the F in the second triplet! Here is a self-repeating practice pattern that I like to employ. Also - if I am going to spend five or six minutes on a specific figure like this, I will usually practiced it slurred as well as tongued.Triplet practice figure or click hereIn addition to the Self-repeating practice figure and the mixing of slur and tongue in repetitious practice, two practice habits I find important and want to point out to you in the audio sample above are the reference pitch (the drone of the F), and the manner of breathing.Reference pitch: Any pitch device will do, as long as it can give you any chromatic pitch. If you have a friend or teacher to hold long tones for you to tune to, consider yourself fortunate and return the favor! It is usually possible to pick a reference pitch that will provide a lot of unisons, fourths, fifths, and octaves to tune to. These intervals are well suited to this kind of work. Practice breaths: Listen to the audio sample above one more time, and notice that I do not breath every single time the figure starts over. In the 60 seconds of practice, I breathed 5 times. This is a way to train the wind power, hone the mental focus, and generally bring discipline and efficiency into your practice. How much can you get done in one breath? Consider also - if you took a new breath every time you misspoke a word or phrase, you would sound like a hyperventilating stutterer. So - at the end, a few practice thoughts and habits for you to take an work on. Each would be worth half a lesson by itself. This project is designed more to give you ideas to work on - hopefully with a qualified teacher by your side!Happy practicing!
Far beyond simple songs, you should hear this concept in much of music. The opening phrase of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus offers another example. The "Hal-" receives much more emphasis than the "le-". The "-lu-" gets more than "-le-", and so on. You will find countless examples as you become sensitized to this concept. It is as natural as our own speech patterns. Try applying this principle to our bar to the phrase above, giving differentiated emphasis to the individual bars. See if the phrase doesn't come alive for you this way.
Or click hereWhat is the opposite of subdividing? Not knowing the answer myself, I asked this of many people over the years, and received answers such as: "Super dividing", "Multiplying", "Joining Together", and more. But - I now know - there is indeed a word for this concept, and it is taught in some music theory courses:....Hyper-metering!Hyper-metering is laid out in simple but factual terms above, and I encourage you to explore this in your studies. Please know that much of this is subjective, and can be interpreted differently. There is no right or wrong, per se - unless not doing anything along these lines could be called wrong. Let us examine measures 60 - 85 of the Barat allegro in these terms for a moment. I hope this seems clear to you. It may even remind you of poetic meter, with each line having its own lilt, and the various lines building upon or contrasting to one another. Well - think about that! One line could be an attention-grabber, the next a subtle innuendo. A threesome such as the next-to-last last line offers a great chance to build intensity through repetition. The last line is then the winning point - where the rabbit comes out of the hat, if you like. Even without the use of words, a Johnny-One-Note should be able to inflect these rhythms and meters and make them communicate.Johnny-One-Note Or click here Even using just one pitch, there are many ways to make this music speak, and you could do it differently upon occasion, too. Try sorting your lines and sentences out on one note like this and then add the actual pitches. It should help make your message come alive. Technical twists and practice habitsThe technical twists in the allegro are typical for any fast moving piece, and it is important to practice slowly and exactly. Remember: speed is a result, not an end in itself. Anything - whether an athletic motion, a spoken text, a series of tool movements (mouse clicks!?), will become faster as a result of numerous repetitions. Make sure you are repeating perfection - you don't want to program slop!There are two specific issues I would draw your attention to in this allegro. One is of a rhythmical, inflective nature, and the other simply a technical nut that needs to be cracked.1) Unless you are artistically convinced that it should be otherwise, please strive to play the first bar of the allegro (measure 60) and all of its relatives with emphasis on the first beat. The half note on beat two will jump out all by itself, by virtue of being higher and longer, and you must exaggerate the emphasis on one to overcome that. Record yourself. You may be surprised to hear that you are not getting the emPHAsis on the proper sylLAble, as it were. 2) This particular figure, which comes a third higher a few bars later, usually needs some concentrated practice. Be sure that you get all the way down to the F in the second triplet! Here is a self-repeating practice pattern that I like to employ. Also - if I am going to spend five or six minutes on a specific figure like this, I will usually practiced it slurred as well as tongued.Triplet practice figure or click hereIn addition to the Self-repeating practice figure and the mixing of slur and tongue in repetitious practice, two practice habits I find important and want to point out to you in the audio sample above are the reference pitch (the drone of the F), and the manner of breathing.Reference pitch: Any pitch device will do, as long as it can give you any chromatic pitch. If you have a friend or teacher to hold long tones for you to tune to, consider yourself fortunate and return the favor! It is usually possible to pick a reference pitch that will provide a lot of unisons, fourths, fifths, and octaves to tune to. These intervals are well suited to this kind of work. Practice breaths: Listen to the audio sample above one more time, and notice that I do not breath every single time the figure starts over. In the 60 seconds of practice, I breathed 5 times. This is a way to train the wind power, hone the mental focus, and generally bring discipline and efficiency into your practice. How much can you get done in one breath? Consider also - if you took a new breath every time you misspoke a word or phrase, you would sound like a hyperventilating stutterer. So - at the end, a few practice thoughts and habits for you to take an work on. Each would be worth half a lesson by itself. This project is designed more to give you ideas to work on - hopefully with a qualified teacher by your side!Happy practicing!
What is the opposite of subdividing? Not knowing the answer myself, I asked this of many people over the years, and received answers such as: "Super dividing", "Multiplying", "Joining Together", and more. But - I now know - there is indeed a word for this concept, and it is taught in some music theory courses:
....Hyper-metering!
Hyper-metering is laid out in simple but factual terms above, and I encourage you to explore this in your studies. Please know that much of this is subjective, and can be interpreted differently. There is no right or wrong, per se - unless not doing anything along these lines could be called wrong. Let us examine measures 60 - 85 of the Barat allegro in these terms for a moment.
I hope this seems clear to you. It may even remind you of poetic meter, with each line having its own lilt, and the various lines building upon or contrasting to one another. Well - think about that! One line could be an attention-grabber, the next a subtle innuendo. A threesome such as the next-to-last last line offers a great chance to build intensity through repetition. The last line is then the winning point - where the rabbit comes out of the hat, if you like. Even without the use of words, a Johnny-One-Note should be able to inflect these rhythms and meters and make them communicate.
Johnny-One-Note Or click here Even using just one pitch, there are many ways to make this music speak, and you could do it differently upon occasion, too. Try sorting your lines and sentences out on one note like this and then add the actual pitches. It should help make your message come alive. Technical twists and practice habitsThe technical twists in the allegro are typical for any fast moving piece, and it is important to practice slowly and exactly. Remember: speed is a result, not an end in itself. Anything - whether an athletic motion, a spoken text, a series of tool movements (mouse clicks!?), will become faster as a result of numerous repetitions. Make sure you are repeating perfection - you don't want to program slop!There are two specific issues I would draw your attention to in this allegro. One is of a rhythmical, inflective nature, and the other simply a technical nut that needs to be cracked.1) Unless you are artistically convinced that it should be otherwise, please strive to play the first bar of the allegro (measure 60) and all of its relatives with emphasis on the first beat. The half note on beat two will jump out all by itself, by virtue of being higher and longer, and you must exaggerate the emphasis on one to overcome that. Record yourself. You may be surprised to hear that you are not getting the emPHAsis on the proper sylLAble, as it were. 2) This particular figure, which comes a third higher a few bars later, usually needs some concentrated practice. Be sure that you get all the way down to the F in the second triplet! Here is a self-repeating practice pattern that I like to employ. Also - if I am going to spend five or six minutes on a specific figure like this, I will usually practiced it slurred as well as tongued.Triplet practice figure or click hereIn addition to the Self-repeating practice figure and the mixing of slur and tongue in repetitious practice, two practice habits I find important and want to point out to you in the audio sample above are the reference pitch (the drone of the F), and the manner of breathing.Reference pitch: Any pitch device will do, as long as it can give you any chromatic pitch. If you have a friend or teacher to hold long tones for you to tune to, consider yourself fortunate and return the favor! It is usually possible to pick a reference pitch that will provide a lot of unisons, fourths, fifths, and octaves to tune to. These intervals are well suited to this kind of work. Practice breaths: Listen to the audio sample above one more time, and notice that I do not breath every single time the figure starts over. In the 60 seconds of practice, I breathed 5 times. This is a way to train the wind power, hone the mental focus, and generally bring discipline and efficiency into your practice. How much can you get done in one breath? Consider also - if you took a new breath every time you misspoke a word or phrase, you would sound like a hyperventilating stutterer. So - at the end, a few practice thoughts and habits for you to take an work on. Each would be worth half a lesson by itself. This project is designed more to give you ideas to work on - hopefully with a qualified teacher by your side!Happy practicing!
Even using just one pitch, there are many ways to make this music speak, and you could do it differently upon occasion, too. Try sorting your lines and sentences out on one note like this and then add the actual pitches. It should help make your message come alive.
Technical twists and practice habits
The technical twists in the allegro are typical for any fast moving piece, and it is important to practice slowly and exactly. Remember: speed is a result, not an end in itself. Anything - whether an athletic motion, a spoken text, a series of tool movements (mouse clicks!?), will become faster as a result of numerous repetitions. Make sure you are repeating perfection - you don't want to program slop!
There are two specific issues I would draw your attention to in this allegro. One is of a rhythmical, inflective nature, and the other simply a technical nut that needs to be cracked.
1) Unless you are artistically convinced that it should be otherwise, please strive to play the first bar of the allegro (measure 60) and all of its relatives with emphasis on the first beat. The half note on beat two will jump out all by itself, by virtue of being higher and longer, and you must exaggerate the emphasis on one to overcome that. Record yourself. You may be surprised to hear that you are not getting the emPHAsis on the proper sylLAble, as it were.
2)
This particular figure, which comes a third higher a few bars later, usually needs some concentrated practice. Be sure that you get all the way down to the F in the second triplet! Here is a self-repeating practice pattern that I like to employ. Also - if I am going to spend five or six minutes on a specific figure like this, I will usually practiced it slurred as well as tongued.
Triplet practice figure or click hereIn addition to the Self-repeating practice figure and the mixing of slur and tongue in repetitious practice, two practice habits I find important and want to point out to you in the audio sample above are the reference pitch (the drone of the F), and the manner of breathing.Reference pitch: Any pitch device will do, as long as it can give you any chromatic pitch. If you have a friend or teacher to hold long tones for you to tune to, consider yourself fortunate and return the favor! It is usually possible to pick a reference pitch that will provide a lot of unisons, fourths, fifths, and octaves to tune to. These intervals are well suited to this kind of work. Practice breaths: Listen to the audio sample above one more time, and notice that I do not breath every single time the figure starts over. In the 60 seconds of practice, I breathed 5 times. This is a way to train the wind power, hone the mental focus, and generally bring discipline and efficiency into your practice. How much can you get done in one breath? Consider also - if you took a new breath every time you misspoke a word or phrase, you would sound like a hyperventilating stutterer. So - at the end, a few practice thoughts and habits for you to take an work on. Each would be worth half a lesson by itself. This project is designed more to give you ideas to work on - hopefully with a qualified teacher by your side!Happy practicing!
In addition to the Self-repeating practice figure and the mixing of slur and tongue in repetitious practice, two practice habits I find important and want to point out to you in the audio sample above are the reference pitch (the drone of the F), and the manner of breathing.
Reference pitch: Any pitch device will do, as long as it can give you any chromatic pitch. If you have a friend or teacher to hold long tones for you to tune to, consider yourself fortunate and return the favor! It is usually possible to pick a reference pitch that will provide a lot of unisons, fourths, fifths, and octaves to tune to. These intervals are well suited to this kind of work.
Practice breaths: Listen to the audio sample above one more time, and notice that I do not breath every single time the figure starts over. In the 60 seconds of practice, I breathed 5 times. This is a way to train the wind power, hone the mental focus, and generally bring discipline and efficiency into your practice. How much can you get done in one breath?
Consider also - if you took a new breath every time you misspoke a word or phrase, you would sound like a hyperventilating stutterer.
So - at the end, a few practice thoughts and habits for you to take an work on. Each would be worth half a lesson by itself. This project is designed more to give you ideas to work on - hopefully with a qualified teacher by your side!
Happy practicing!
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