Weissenborn Wednesday Etude #6

I had a lot of fun working on this etude. There is a ton of potential within this piece to really dig in and work on fluidity of phrasing and decide how you want to make this your own. 

Approaching the opening section I wanted the figure itself to give it all the lift that it would need rather than actively creating a slurred staccato. It would be very easy to make these staccatos too short, so by not trying to do them, I got the effect I wanted without working too hard. 

The B section is my favorite! I wouldn't want my younger students to follow the same approach I did until I knew they had solid rhythm and could play it straight with a metronome and without before making any changes (I'm pretty sure I did that a few times at least in the first few days of practice). I decided that in this section my goal would be the fourth bar of each phrase. I could play with time a little bit as long as I always found my anchor in that measure and didn't deposit or withdraw too much from the bank on any given phrase. 

This etude does provide some interesting teaching moments in the B section as well as you do the slurred dances over the brake. This is another favorite etude of mine (I know, totally dorky thing to say) and I hope whether you are just listening or you are playing, it becomes a favorite of yours as well.

Weissenborn Wednesday Etude #5

I spent a fair amount of my practice time for this etude deciding if I should find some middle ground between the super short accents and the normal accents. I think that one of the challenges this etude presents is the variety of articulation presented and it is our job to really dig in and perform them with the differences notated. I may have gone a little overboard listening back to the performance, but one of the things that I want to emphasize to any younger musician out there is that accents are not short by default or nature. Were I to go back and record this again, I may find a little more middle ground to account for the furioso marking to give the performance a little more edge, but I would still be very vigilant in making certain that I do not play the super short notes and the accents in the same style. 

Weissenborn Wednesday Etude #4

Of the many etudes in this collection, #4 is one of my favorites and subsequently one of the most difficult for me to record. Over the years this is one of the etudes that I consistently come back to at seeming random points as a bit of a musical checkup. I never felt that I got this etude quite right while recording, in spite of breaking my goal of 3 attempts and publish (I believe I made 6 attempts at this one in search of the ever elusive perfect recording). I am the first to admit that in the world of easy edits and perfect recordings, it makes me nervous putting something out here like this that is by the nature of the agreement, flawed. I suppose it will only get more difficult, but I believe that my preference for this etude above many others made it especially difficult this week. 

The singing nature of this etude is an incredible opportunity for musical performance and teaching. This is one of the few early etudes in which Weissenborn provides more than just a basic dynamic outline which in some cases can be limiting if you disagree with his dynamics (although in a different setting, I might have chosen to change some of them) allows the student musician to get a feel for creating longer phrase concepts through the use of dynamic interpretation.

The fundamental revelation for me in this etude occurred in the third line, measure 4 of 1:15 in the video. The slur from E down to G is rough. I love reading through this etude, but what I spent a majority of my practice on in preparation for this etude was that individual slur. 

Weissenborn Wednesday Etude #3

The older I have gotten the more I love playing continuo. I admit that as a bassoonist who spent a large amount of time in my younger years doubling Tuba parts in band, I wasn't very high on the idea of playing continuo. At first it seemed like it wasn't really important, just something done for the sake of tradition, something that only the period music lovers really enjoyed. I sadly carried this prejudice throughout my undergraduate education which was also the last time that I used these etudes for any amount of personal study and practice. I admit that even when I taught private lessons this etude was treated less as a teaching moment for older students than it was for a good etude to work on articulation in a comfortable register for younger students. 

Now I see continuo as a dance between individual performers; yes, continuo is still a supportive role but there is an intimacy with the lead performer that is unmatched in other styles. While I view this etude within the context of preparing for a continuo role, I also realize that it is not a continuo line and therefore I did take certain freedoms in the performance that I wouldn't have been able to do were I staying in the supportive role. 

As a younger musician (and I am speaking relatively as I still have much to learn) I was always so focused on getting to the "real" music, the hard music, that I failed to see how wonderfully fulfilling and challenging these "easy" lines are. I truly hope that I never discount music in any form again.

Weissenborn Wednesday Etude #2

What to say about this etude? For me the biggest issue that has to be decided is once again, tempo. There are plenty of instructions on the tempo for this piece, but when I see music in 3/8 boy do I just want to go fast. Even though it is marked allegretto and further marked to play resolutely. As I listen back I can hear moments when my resolution weakens a bit, but on the whole I wanted to create a steady pacing with a few alterations of pace for musical emphasis. 

The other difficult thing to focus on and something I notice particularly at the end of the second line in my final run through is that I played some of the secondary chords out of tune in relation to the chord they supported. I should have done a quick chord analysis to make sure I knew where I should be placing every note, but I allowed myself to fall into the trap of "easy" music once again only to be reminded on the playback that technically easy music reveals every lapse in concentration and preparation.