Pathways in musicianship Online portfolio by

Lesson 1

torinjb2 — 2025-05-30 10:38:45 UTC

For my first lesson I had brought a multitude of pieces to potentially learn for the coming semester. Me and Margret had previously entertained last term the idea of me learning Nocturne in Bb minor so seemed the most fitting choice since it was the piece I was most enthused to learn - something I personally find important and beneficial when learning pieces to perform. Since I only knew the first couple of bars we went over discussing the tone that would be set through the intro, and how I needed to make the melody 'sing' more in the anacrusis.

Practise sessions 1

torinjb2 — 2025-05-30 10:47:53 UTC

Immediately into the piece are some rhythmically difficult runs in specific duplets but due to the nature of the piece the right hand isn't meant to fit 'straight' with the left hand making this part easier to overcome when learning the runs. Also having heard the piece a few times made this process feel much more organic and less confusing. The leaps in the left hand were also a surprisingly annoying step to overcome that would crop up again later in practising. While not too difficult to actually play, keeping the tone correct of every note under the melody and playing at a fairly decent pace proved the challenge. After practising consistency for a while, I had to listen back to myself and make sure the melody is what is being heard and listened too - not my left hand

Lesson 2

torinjb2 — 2025-05-30 11:01:29 UTC

At this point I had become very familiar with the first page and part into the second. My tone was generally good however for some of the run Margret considered me to have been too metronomic with some of the and thought they should be more 'loose' and almost individual from the left hand. This was tricky to implement since I had just been working on playing it correctly and consistently so going against that was unnatural, however the more familiar I became with the runs the more natural it became to alter and vary it melodically and with a deeper sense of expression and care for each note. The style of a trill I also was playing like 'Bach' and not as would be appropriate for Chopin, needing to be more melodic than strict.

Practice sessions 2

torinjb2 — 2025-05-30 11:22:04 UTC

In general the piece was coming along fine and had learnt, but not perfected, almost half the piece. Something I have struggled with before and to no surprise came up again is my difficulty differentiating between 6/4 time signature and 12/8. While objectively I completely understand whenever I am playing certain sections my right hand thinks it is playing in triplets against duplets or vice versa. This isn't something difficult to overcome since the actual way to play it is easier than I am making it and I understand why it is the way it is, there are just moments of the opposing rhythms wrongly sneaking in on intuition instead of my objective understanding of the piece. Something I needed to to stay conscious and aware of.

Lesson 3

torinjb2 — 2025-05-30 11:43:14 UTC

A couple weeks passed since the last lesson and due to the repetitive nature of the piece was now familiar with essentially the entire piece. For the forte section coming towards the final page of the piece, I interpreted as a moment of strictness with the piece and becoming very rhythmic and 'strong'. While I still stand by this Margret disagreed as becoming 'boring' and less emotive. So creating a balance of the two created a desirable compromise. Almost ironically however she also critiqued how much of a quiet player I am and that I play so softly which she expressed as a strength as long as I'm aware of it. This comes through with not expressing the melody of the right hand enough since I don't want the balance between the left and right hand to be too great but almost every section that wasn't forte Margret asked I played my right hand louder which I did and gave clarity to my playing.

Practice sessions 3

torinjb2 — 2025-05-30 12:05:13 UTC

The last page had one run that I struggled with the most out the whole piece. While the run itself was not the most difficult thing I have played it was extremely quick if played meteorically and to tempo, while also being rhythmically a tuplet of 20 in 3 beats. There were a multitude of difficulties I had to overcome this: the tuplets against duplets I struggled with much more than before so playing hands together felt un achievable; understanding how to slow it down for the three beats since playing it to speed didn't feel correct and lastly the leading into it from previously playing a series of triplets. All of this I overcame by practising right hand only with flicking the keys playing staccato at varying speeds and listening to a couple other performances in my head so I could musically understand what I am aiming for, not what was written down.

Josephine

torinjb2 — 2025-05-30 12:13:33 UTC

In between songs, Josephine would give a general description of her original work giving an overarching view of the artistic meaning and her own personal intentions behind the song. I believed this to have deeply emphasised the songs' emotive evocation since truly understanding the music and its reasoning brought in a whole new and deeper sense of attention to the song. During her set she alternated between playing with her band and soloing with a guitar and vocals. Her band brought a soft amplification to her song splaying bass guitar and padded drums to not be too loud. Additionally there were two backing singer who would embellish certain vocal melodic lines of the songs, which were used very effectively and in a novel manner that brought an original feeling to her songs.

Pavel Ralev

torinjb2 — 2025-05-30 12:14:09 UTC

Pavel at the start of his performance was reciting a variety of classical music, some being baroque and others being minimalism, modernism and even renaissance. All played without any speech between pieces. This changes later on his performances however when he's about to perform his own original work. He (similarly to Josephine) gives a description of what to expect and how he came to compose his work. Pavel utilised previously recorded guitar to play along side him in the live performance. This wall of sound that came to be with all this different yet similar sonority in sounds created something I believe to have not heard before and was incredibly different from anything I personally have heard previously.

Concerts I attended

torinjb2 — 2025-05-30 12:51:37 UTC

The first concert I attended was a professional lunchtime recital in PATS studio one on the 5th March by Iagoba Fanlo playing the cello duetting/ accompanied by Inja Stanović on the piano. This took place on the 5th of March playing two piano sonatas, one by Beethoven and the other by Brahms.

The second was Pavel Ralev playing the classical guitar on the 12th of march for a lunchtime recital in PATS studio one, he played a series of solo guitar pieces that he then finished off with an original composition where he recorded him accompanying himself.

Next was another lunchtime recital in PATS studio one on the 19th of March that consisted of different students playing a variety of different genres; consisting of a pop band, jazz pop band, Operatic solo with piano accompaniment to Classical guitar solo.

Second to last is May the 7th an indie folk/pop gig in a bar in London called folklore which is associated with queer pride. Performing was two indie folk artists, Pixie McCann who opened for 'Josephine'.

Finally is another indie gig on the 28th May in St Pancras Old Church, London. Performing was indie artist 'The Man The Myth The Meatslab'

Piano trio

torinjb2 — 2025-05-30 12:54:41 UTC

For the chamber music competition that took place on the 7th of May, I and Seth Nel and Freya Whitfield came together to learn a Schumann piano trio; Seth for Cello and Freya for Violin. We all learned our parts separately and then came together to arrange our performance and artistic intentions. I thought this to be the most efficient and successful manner of approaching this since I personally struggle with on demand playing/ sight-reading. When coming together for the first time we generally had a good sound/ expression for the piece and had a good grasp on tone etc. What we needed to work on was playing in time with one another and the balance of when certain instruments should be the primary focus. Similarly, how to make one sound when playing monophonically/ together oppose to three instruments playing the same thing.

In terms of timing issues with moments of rubato and change in tempo, this we sorted (when it was an incorrect rhythm issue) through listening and counting for one another individually. For the rubato we would agree when specifically to start slowing down before practising going into it while looking at each other to communicate with one another as to not fall out.