Let the music flourish!

Tags

Chopin, Music, piano, student, teaching

photo credit: Daniel Barkley

This post was inspired by one of my wonderful students.

Background

She is a 1st-year college student.  Her past involvement in music includes piano lessons in 2nd grade (which she hated) and choral singing.  She is also singing in chorus this year.

Aptitude

A good ear, easy ability to feel chords in hands, immediate recognition of interval spacing as it translates to the keyboard, naturally clear pedaling.  She may have perfect pitch.

Motivation

She possesses a great deal of self-motivation and curiosity.

Lessons

In September, we started with an adult beginner’s book and a book of exercises.

That soon changed to pieces chosen by my student in place of the beginner’s book.  In this case, it was the right choice.  We are working our way through the exercises a page or two at a time at the beginning of each lesson.

About 2 weeks ago, my student mentioned a piece she had on her iPod.  She couldn’t quite sing it, but I thought I recognized part of it.  So I played the beginning of the melody.

She became quite animated and said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah!”  Her iPod listed the title.  It was Chopin‘s Prelude in E minor.

As soon as we confirmed that we had the same piece in mind, she said, “Teach me!  Teach me!”  So we did some of the melody by ear.  At the next lesson, we had the printed music.

Then something amazing happened.  My student sight-read the entire piece, hands together!   Sure, it was under tempo.  Of course she needed to eyeball the chords.  But she’s a beginner, and she sight-read it!  She didn’t give up, didn’t give in to frustration, and never doubted herself.

She was so excited!  She couldn’t believe she could do that.

After working on fingering and chord progressions for a few minutes, I asked her what kind of piece she thought it was.  She was immediately able to supply descriptive words, which made me very happy.

Then I showed her about harmonic rhythm and how to make the left hand more subtle while sustaining the melody.

And even without having technique that is advanced enough to do that, she did it!  All of a sudden, she was producing beautiful music.

So this is what I think:

Perception begets technique;

Motivation lets the music bud, flower, and then flourish;

And we all need to stop trying so hard and get out of the way!  We all have music in our hearts and souls ~ otherwise we wouldn’t be doing this in the first place.

What do you think?  Do you sometimes get in your own way?  Do you experience a better outcome when you stay out of the way of the music?

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

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‘Tude

Is this truly necessary?

Nicolas Almagro at the Barcelona Open 2011 ~ screen shot from ESPN3.com video

Background

Nicolas Almagro played well all week in the Barcelona Open, reaching the semifinals.  The commentators mentioned that he likes to put on a good show.  However, he was outclassed by David Ferrer.  After a terrific start, his concentration lapsed, at which point he let his emotions take over by making large gestures and talking out loud to himself.  His ‘tude went downhill from there.

In this screen shot, Ferrer had just placed a drop shot that stayed near the ground.  Shortly after Almagro smashed his racquet, he picked up the ball and talked to it!  My guess is that it didn’t bounce high enough.  Watch the video.  The meltdown happens in the 2nd set.

3 types of ‘tude

Everyone has attitude.  It’s which kind that’s important.

Positive ‘tude

where you can let things go and continue to do well.

Negative ‘tude

where you smash your racquet, get mad at yourself, talk to the ball, and maybe take out an umpire or two.  While this is going on, you are not thinking about your game.

Regular ‘tude

as on the street.  Good for survival and possibly intimidation.

What’s your ‘tude?

Can you forget about the things that don’t matter, like Rafael Nadal does so well?

Or do you get mad and let it affect your performance?

By the way, Ferrer won the match.

What does this have to do with me?

Glad you asked!

Everything related to rehearsals and performance.

Are you consistent?

Do you project a bad attitude when asked to play 2nd stand or you don’t have a solo?

What about performing music you don’t like?

Attitude is everything.  Other people will notice, and either hire you again or not.  Everyone in the room knows someone you don’t.  Word gets around!

What do you think?  Have you gotten mad at times and lost your focus? Could you improve your ‘tude?

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

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Happy Easter!

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Easter

Image by m@®©ãǿ►ðȅtǭǹȁðǿr◄© via Flickr

To My Readers ~

I sincerely hope your Easter is everything you want it to be.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Gretchen

 

Working with an opposite personality

Tags

concert, conductor, Music, piano reduction, rehearsal, tempo

Image via Wikipedia

There is an occasional performance situation in which I feel consistently thrown off my game.  Does the same thing happen to you?

It’s about major changes in tempo or interpretation at the last minute.

Background

I was trained never to sightread in public.  And I never do in a concert situation.  Sight-reading is often required in rehearsals, though.

During the Art Song Festival at Westminster Choir College one summer, I heard a recital presented by a famous singer and an equally famous collaborative pianist (not my teacher).  It was wonderful.

The audience clearly wanted an encore.  What happened next is something I will always remember.  And it isn’t positive.

The singer walked onto the stage, followed by the pianist.  The pianist had his face in the music as he was walking ~ not a good sign.  Apparently the singer had surprised him with the music backstage.

And then the pianist started the song, played a few bars, and stopped.  He started over in a different key!  I don’t want anyone to remember my playing for that reason.

​Scenario #1

A talented cellist with whom I worked rehearsed one way and performed another.  The timing of the rubato would change drastically in performances with no warning, making good ensemble impossible.

Other pianists must have encountered the same problem, as the cellist changed pianists every six months.

Scenario #2

There is a conductor who works in the opposite way to my approach.  I was trained to prepare very well in advance.  So I am accustomed to having a handle on what is likely to happen during a performance.  When I feel secure in that way, the unexpected just goes with the territory, no problem.  Major changes the day before, though, throw me.  The conductor, on the other hand, is quite comfortable with this.

While practicing for a concert, I found myself editing a piano reduction because my part was unplayable.  This took a significant amount of time, after which it was necessary to practice the edited version for several days.

Rehearsals went well, and I reached performance level a week before the concert.

In the dress rehearsal the evening before the concert, the conductor decided on a drastically faster tempo.  It was so much faster, my revised version of the piano reduction was impossible to play, particularly in the interludes.  How were the soloists to get their cues?  Marked allegro, we were racing along at presto, at least.

When I mentioned my discomfort to the conductor, the response was, “I like it fast!”  There was no further discussion.  The sound was exciting, but I felt that there was no way I could catch up.

On the day of the concert, I practiced in the new tempo, deciding to omit most of the inner parts in order to preserve the melody and bass.

When I arrived at the concert venue 15 minutes before call, a student was just beginning to set up the electronic keyboard for the performance.  I had planned on having a few minutes to acclimate myself to the keyboard, but that didn’t work out.

In the concert, the conductor reverted to the previous, slower tempo.  I wasn’t ready for that, and wasn’t happy with my playing.

How could this be handled in the future?  Do accompanists have a say?

I could have called the conductor to confirm the tempo before practicing.

I could have practiced both the slower and the faster tempi.

Arranging for a few minutes to play the keyboard may have helped.  Playing on different pianos, even without warmup time on the instrument, is something I am used to.  And playing a keyboard is no problem, but the action, sound, pedal, and sustain time are all different from the piano.  The absence of warmup time for this concert was likely a contributing factor to my heightened sense of unease.

What would you do?  Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comment section below!

E-books

Goal-oriented Practice
Review by pianist and conductor Andrei Strizek

When You Buy a Piano

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“Bravo, Muti!”

Tags

Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Giuseppe Verdi, libretto, New York Times, Otello, Riccardo Muti

The Russian tenor Arnold Azrikan in Verdi's "Otello" ~ Image via Wikipedia

Riccardo Muti, music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, recently provided his orchestra members with the libretto to Verdi’s “Otello.”

What a great idea!  How many orchestral players are given the same opportunity to look closely at the text?

In rehearsals, Muti took the time to interpret the meaning of the text.  As everyone knows, a single word can have several distinct meanings.  Not only that, but the same word in a single definition can be uttered in many ways:  sincerely, sarcastically, sadly, excitedly, humorously….

With this depth of insight, the orchestra was able to play in a new way.  Normally, orchestral musicians would react to the conductor’s motions and the notations in the instrumental parts.  Add the words and all the emotions that come with them, and you have a whole new range of instrumental expression available.

The New York Times review of the concert, while expressing a reservation or two, recognizes the level reached by Muti’s approach, crediting him for being “immersed in the Verdi style like few conductors before the public…”

The Chicago Symphony received high praise.  They are already incredible, and the influence of the words took this performance to an entirely new level.

​​How wonderful it would be if every instrumentalist knew as much about the words as the Chicago Symphony did in this concert!

What do you think?  Should instrumentalists be concerned with text?  Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

E-books

Goal-oriented Practice
Review by pianist and conductor Andrei Strizek

When You Buy a Piano

How to Maintain Your Piano

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Send it through your music channel!

Tags

Music, performance

Image via Wikipedia

Why do you perform?

Is it because:

• It’s a school requirement
• My teacher is having a studio recital
• I got a gig

or

• I love the music
• I want people to love the music as much as I do
• I want the audience to have a profound experience

What do you put into it?

Just the basics:

• I always pay close attention to the notes and dynamics on the page
• I make sure to use good technique
• I feel I’ve failed when I miss a note

or

• I breathe with the music and play like a singer
• I know my part so well that I can listen to the other instruments and interact with them
• My nerves go away because I am the music
• The music reaches the audience through me
• My entire being becomes the music ~ body, soul, breathing, the way I play ~ everything

Music is not what’s on the page

A moving performance takes all you’ve got!

• preparation
• attention to detail
• good technique
• not only focus, but channeling through you to the back row of the balcony

Are you there yet?  Do you have what it takes?

I visualize my music channel as a closed conduit, like a pipeline.  The diameter is large enough to handle everything required, but not so large as to dissipate the energy there.  Everything I’ve got is channeled through the pipeline, all the way to the back row of the balcony.

How do you visualize your performances?  Where does your energy go?  Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Related article

• Overcoming stage fright (gretchenspianos.wordpress.com)

E-books

Goal-oriented Practice
Review by pianist and conductor Andrei Strizek

When You Buy a Piano

How to Maintain Your Piano

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Concert: In Memoriam Philipp Otto Naegele

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Marlboro, Philipp Naegele, Smith College

Concert: In Memoriam Philipp Otto Naegele

Sunday | April 24 | 3:00 pm

Sweeney Concert Hall, Sage Hall

Smith College, Northampton, MA

admission free and open to the public

Related articles

• Philipp (gretchenspianos.wordpress.com)
• In Memory of Philipp Naegele (gretchenspianos.wordpress.com)
• Updated: In Memory of Philipp Naegele (gretchenspianos.wordpress.com)
• A Tribute to Emanuel Vardi and Philipp Naegele (gretchenspianos.wordpress.com)
• For Philipp Naegele (therestisnoise.com)

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Overcoming stage fright

Tags

how to overcome, Inderal, stage fright, Walter Willett

Marlene Dietrich in Alfred Hitchcocks "Stage Fright" ~ Image via Wikipedia

Most people who perform, whether it be in sports, public speaking, or music, are familiar with what it feels like to be nervous.  Performers in general believe that without any nerves at all, the results are boring.

I have certainly been there.  In sixth grade, standing in front of the class to give a book report, I blacked out and became very dizzy.  I told the teacher, who said I could sit down.

During sophomore year in college, I sang a voice jury.  The first song was called “Old Woman Rain.”  I forgot every word after the title!

And when I began commuting from Amherst to New York to study with Martin Katz, my hands shook during lessons for an entire year.

Increased many fold, nerves become debilitating.  In that case, they turn into stage fright.  A performer can be so affected by stage fright that s/he grows dizzy, forgets everything, loses focus, and feels completely out of control.

There are many things one can do to overcome stage fright.

These are all things that have worked for me:

Learn the music very well.

Control your breathing ~ count 4 in, 4 out.  The counts should be slow enough to allow for a complete breath.

Repeat a mantra.

Eat before you perform ~ healthy food, no sugar, not much caffeine.  (In other words, don’t skip breakfast or lunch, and at least have a snack before an evening performance.)

Wake up and go to sleep on a regular schedule.

Exercise.  You don’t have to be super human ~ take an energetic walk!

Running works extremely well.  I began running six months before playing a Messiaen recital, solely for the purpose of improving my concentration.

Make a list of positive things people have said about your performing.  Tape it inside the front cover of your music, then read it just before going on.

Choose a place to look ~ if you’re a singer, talk to your teacher about this.

Look like you mean it ~ head up!  (Don’t look at the floor!)

Project confidence.

Walk with purpose.

Take your time before starting ~ be grounded first.

Focus on communicating with the audience.

Play for friends.

Then invite some people you don’t know to join the group.

Practice with a variety of distractions.

Perform as often as possible.  Extended care facilities, schools, and churches all provide valuable experience.  I’m sure you can think of more.

Wear clothing that breathes, and realize that stage lights are hot.

Practice your entire program in your concert clothes, shoes included, hairdo, everything.  If that slip doesn’t work or your hair falls, you don’t want to find out during the concert.

Practice your entrance, bows before and after, and exit.  If you will be standing between groups to bow, practice how you’re going to do that.

Will you be speaking to the audience?  Practice that!  Will you be using a microphone?  Check it out.  Will someone hand it to you?  Do you need to remove it from a stand?  What happens to it when you’re done?

Ask a friend or two to sit in the front, middle, and back of the hall.

Focus backstage on channeling your energy into the music.  Don’t dissipate it by talking.

Accept that no one is perfect.  This is not your whole life.

Make plans for after ~ go to a movie!

OK, I’ve tried that.  Now what?

Additional things you can do:

Group therapy with stage fright as the focus.

Individual therapy with a therapist who works with performers.

Meditation.

Yoga.

Tai Chi.

Kickboxing.

Hypnosis ~ a friend of mine who had finished his coursework at Columbia was having trouble going to the library to write his dissertation.  After many attempts at self-discipline didn’t work, he saw a hypnotist.  He is now a happy PhD!  And his mother has stopped asking him every week whether his dissertation is finished yet.

Biofeedback ~ participants learn to control their anxiety.

Role playing.

Write out the worst scenarios you can come up with about performing.  Then rewrite them as success stories.  Draw illustrations for both.

Taking care to maintain your metabolism without allowing it to spike and then rapidly decline goes a long way toward eliminating triggers leading to nervousness.  Eating regular meals, avoiding sugar, and taking any medications at the same time every day are all factors.  More information about maintaining a healthy metabolism can be found in an excellent book written by Walter Willett.  Links on his Wikipedia page include a PBS interview.

Some musicians take Inderal just before performances and auditions.  Inderal is a beta blocker prescribed to reduce stage fright.  This New York Times article presents a balanced assessment.  In addition, I have read of skeptical musicians who tried Inderal and played for their friends the first few times.  Their friends preferred the performances with the musicians using the beta blocker.

Note: I do not take Inderal, and am not recommending it one way or the other.  Speak to your doctor.

How do you deal with nerves?  Stage fright?  How do you help your students in those situations?  Please share your ideas in the comment section below!

Related articles

• Stage Fright (psychologytoday.com)  About public speaking, applies to music as well.  Includes links to other relevant articles.

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Playing for juries? This post is for you!

Tags

Music, nervousness, piano

Image via Wikipedia

​Every semester during college and grad school, I found myself playing so many juries.  I learned a lot in the process.

One semester’s experience especially comes to mind.  The music department was located in four places on campus, all a significant distance from each other.  The juries were not organized by location, so I had a lot of travelling to do, most of it in a hurry.

Eventually, the last jury arrived.  The singer and I were talking in the hallway.  He wanted to change the tempo of his first aria drastically.  Being rather nervous that day myself, I “bought it” and played the introduction much faster than we had rehearsed.

After he sang, his teacher said, “A bit of a zippy tempo, wasn’t it?”  Well, yes, it was.  But I’d had it.  That was my 15th jury of the day, at least.  I burst into tears.  Another voice teacher followed me out into the hall to see if I was OK.

After the fact, I realized that the singer was nervous and not able to identify a reasonable tempo just then.

You can almost predict what may happen if “your” student is nervous.

How to tell if your soloist is nervous

Take a minute or two to observe your soloist.  You can get a lot of information even without asking how s/he is doing!

Telltale signs:

• talking considerably faster or louder than usual
• fiddling with the music, instrument, clothing, makeup, etc.  repeatedly
• pacing the floor, tapping a foot
• asking you to make several changes just before the actual jury (i.e. outside the door)
• insisting that the piece has to be much faster or slower
• giving you a list of excuses (voice isn’t working, bad reed, didn’t get much sleep, forgot…, etc.)

How to handle your soloist’s angst

• Realize that this has nothing to do with you
• Don’t get into a discussion about specifics
• Stay calm, be reassuring, and smile

And then ignore everything your soloist said!

You are not going to make last-minute changes that you have never rehearsed.  Your soloist, by verbalizing a list, is telling you that s/he is nervous.  That’s it!  You don’t need to tell them you’re not going to follow their suggestions… their perception is all about nerves, and what they suggested will be soon forgotten.

As accompanists, our responsibility in the case is to support the soloist, not to change everything on a whim.

What happens 99.9% of the time with less experienced soloists

Most of the time when someone without a lot of performing experience gets nervous, s/he will perform the music the way they first learned it. Nothing off the wall here, it’s almost predictable.

The same thing happens in practicing ~ the last thing you’ve learned is the least secure.

So it helps more than you may realize to remember that first rehearsal. You can save yourself a lot of guess work.  If things start to sound a little shaky during someone’s jury, you will have a good idea what to expect and where.

Has this happened to you?  Or did things go differently?  How did you handle it?  Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

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Adult beginner sees the light!

Tags

Music, pedagogy, piano, student, teaching

Source: Wikimedia Commons

My mother was afraid of the water.  She took swimming lessons for the first time in her late forties.  She must have been very scared.

One of my students, an adult beginner, is similarly afraid of the piano.  But she had an “aha” moment this week!  I was so happy for her!

Background

My student, in her 50’s, enrolled in my piano class a few years ago.  She returned every semester until the class moved to a different day.  Then she had a schedule conflict, so decided to try playing on her own.  Six months later, we started private lessons every other week.

She comes from a strict background, which shows up during lessons as an extended litany of why whatever we’re working on will fail.  In addition, she has played flute for several years.  She reads treble clef well, but continues to have problems with bass clef.

Her sight-reading in lessons is often better than her playing of the music she has practiced.

​Two weeks ago

We were working on a right-hand exercise from A Dozen a Day.  After one or two minor fixes, it went well and seemed to make sense.

Next, we looked at the left-hand version of the same exercise.  Big problems cropped up, so I was trying to understand why.

The left-hand exercise begins with the thumb on Middle C, a whole note.  The 5th finger continues on beat 2 with an F for 3 staccato quarters.  Then the thumb repeats Middle C, with the 5th finger playing 3 E’s in the same manner.  (You can go on from there.)

My student would play Middle C, and then the trouble started.  She had a glitch in finding the first note for the 5th finger.

I realized that she hadn’t looked ahead, even as far as the 2nd note.  When I reminded her, there was no improvement.  What was going on?

I asked her to say aloud the name of each beginning 5th finger note, i.e. “F,” “E,” “D,” “C.”

What do you think happened?

She was unable to do that right away.  I was surprised, but then, I’m not an adult beginner.  There was a ton of interference going on about the perceived difficulty of blocking everything else out and focusing on one note.

This seemed to go all the way back to the way things were in piano class.  The question, “Which note is next?” triggered consideration of all 88 keys.  Anything was fair game.

In her lesson this time, she was able to calm down and name the notes, but it took at least 5 minutes of cutting through the static.

And then something extraordinary happened.

This week

We started the lesson with the left-hand exercise.  She aced it!

I wanted to know why.  Wouldn’t you?

In thinking about how to investigate, I decided to ask how she had practiced the exercise.

She said, “I knew I started on F.”  There was no angst.  It was an immediate, clear answer.

YES!  She was grounded before starting to play.  I’m quite sure this is the very first time she has been able to play without being petrified.

Needless to say, I was ecstatic.  This is a huge step.

Have you experienced similar moments with your students, or in your own lessons?  Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

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