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16

Pursuant to Mark Lutton's excellent answer, I'd like to make the point that Chords don't give us feelings, we give chords feelings. The feeling you get after hearing a chord is not inherent in that chord--the only thing inherent in any chord is the physics of the harmonic series. (There is something to be said for consonance vs. dissonance within the ...


16

Context is important -- what else happens around the chord. Let's just take the C major chord for starters. Listen to these examples: The first two measures of Mozart's sonata "for beginners" in C major. A nice, pleasant chord. Happy music. The opening of Mozart's Jupiter Symphony. This has a much more energetic and heroic sound. The opening of the ...


15

Arco (which is not an abbreviation) means to return to bowing after pizzicato (abbreviated pizz.) or col legno. Pizzicato means you pluck the strings with your fingers instead of using the bow, col legno using the wooden backside of the bow instead of the hairs. Ten. is short for tenuto which means holding. In Beethoven it probably means you should hold the ...


8

In general, I feel that practicing with scales is a good way to learn technique like this, be it crescendoing through a passage, playing at different dynamics, playing with different rhythms, etc. For instance, play an octave of a scale with your right hand loudly. Then play an octave of the scale with your left hand, but softly. Then practice playing ...


7

The feelings and emotions associated with chords are completely subjective, influenced by a combination of nature and nurture. This is why I might go into raptures over a piece of music that leaves you cold, and vice versa. Absolute pitch In This is Spinal Tap, the character Nigel Tufnel says that for him D minor is "the saddest of all keys, I find". Most ...


7

First of all, you should become comfortable with both hands separately and together. Then play really, really slowly. Stare at the hand that should be louder and focus all of your mental attention on it. Play it as loudly as possible, while playing the other hand as softly as possible. If you have little to no experience in this, just get the feel of it ...


5

@Matthew Read gave some good suggestions, to which I'll add: Try rehearsing the problem sections at a wide variety of tempos, particularly ridiculously fast (once the choir knows the section reasonably well). Unwanted tempo changes become habitual. One way to break that habit is to go much faster (or slower, if the problem is acceleration) than desired, ...


4

I can't speak to the psychological reasons or addressing them, but there are a couple things you can try that basically apply to all types of music. 1) Have the weaker members listen to and follow the stronger ones. Ensure they can hear them, of course; don't put them on opposite sides of the stage. The mediocre members will probably do well enough if the ...


4

As you practice, you will find a point where, to get more volume, you stop feeding air through your vocal chords with the diaphragm, and start using the ribcage and other muscles in the chest to force air through your throat. The feeling of this, and the sound produced, may be described as feeling or sounding "overblown" compared to proper technique, similar ...


3

I suggest slowing it way down, so that you have enough time to focus on what your hands are doing. Practice playing the piece (it's simple enough that you probably don't need another exercise), with grossly exaggerated dynamic differences (try fortissimo right hand, and pianissimo left hand). As you get the hang of it, bring the right hand down to a more ...


3

Although singers may go louder on higher notes, as you've noticed, they don't have to - higher notes can be sung more quietly if using solid technique. I can't give you a figure, but it is possible for singers to create a VERY loud sound without harming themselves, and a good example of this are opera singers, who manipulate various aspects such as larynx ...


3

Victor Zuckerkandl, Sound And Symbol Sound and Symbol is part of Princeton's "Bollingen series". Bollingen is the name of the estate of Carl Jung; hence the whole series represents the "Jungian side" of the sciences. Sound and Symbol is a "symbolist" approach to musical philosophy. It draws from the Spanish symbolists (who split from the Cubists who split ...


2

After an hour or so of composing and trying different things, I found my solution: Right click any note head and click Select > All Similar Elements Right click any note and select Note Properties... Set velocity type to auto Click Ok


2

I found that the easiest way to gain independence of the hands in terms of dynamics is to do this: assuming that you know the notes, play only on top of the keys, without pressing the key with the hand that needs to play softly (like the accompaniement) and play regularly with the other hand. If you can't do it together just play separate first. I call this ...


2

There are several difficulties in this piece, but let's concentrate on what I consider the main one for the purpose of your question. The left hand has alternatively one and two keys to press. The first challenge is to produce an even volume on the left hand. Fortunately, the isolated note is situated almost always inside the interval of the two notes of ...


2

You could try playing something that's easy enough that you don't have to think about the notes (like an easy piece you learned when you were starting), play it slowly or with a metronome if necessary, and concentrate on making one hand louder than the other. Once you start getting the idea, you can work on transferring it to the piece that you are learning. ...



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