Update to previous post
26 Thursday Apr 2012
Posted directed practice, expression, learning, music, piano, progress, teaching
in26 Thursday Apr 2012
Posted directed practice, expression, learning, music, piano, progress, teaching
in23 Monday Apr 2012
Posted directed practice, expression, fatigue, focus, goals, learning, listening, motivation, music, new approach, positive playing, practice, practicing basics, preparation, process, progress, slow practice, tools
inTags
I was the same way when I was in college.
Don’t you think there must be a way to make music even when we are tired?
The effect of fatigue on one’s playing often means that there is no music there. Who wants to hear only notes?
All of us should be so bored with that, we have to find a way to make music!
Stop! Don’t go into a practice room with the tired goal (if there is a goal) of slogging through the notes. What’s the point? What are we improving on/listening to? Why are we there?
Yes, it is possible to practice when tired and make music/make progress during that time.
If this is the first time you have been asked to look past the fatigue and find a way to be in the room during your practice sessions, that’s OK. I hope you will read to the end of this post.
Choose an option or two:
Hearing your own voice will result in the crescendo happening in the music, not just in your imagination. Why? Speaking activates one more “track” in your brain.
After you’ve had some rest, that is the time to play at tempo and check out how your slow work fits together.
I can attest to the fact that this works. During graduate school, I found myself preparing a difficult recital program on weekday evenings. Like everyone who works in the daytime, I was tired later on. So I had to slow down, talk myself through phrases, and learn the music that way. The only time there was energy available to “perform” the music was on weekends. Yes, that took lots of patience, but it was so worth it! (Having a performance date was an excellent incentive.)
The first step is to recognize that fatigue happens. Of course it affects our playing! But it doesn’t have to impede our progress.
20 Friday Apr 2012
Posted collaboration, distractions, focus, metronome, music, piano, preparation, tempo, tools
inTags
Having a plan gives you something besides nerves to focus on. So if nerves tend to get in the way, this post is for you!
Since you probably will not be granted practice time in the jury room, you may as well set up a few scenarios that challenge your concentration:
Doing things completely differently because of nerves is NOT a good idea.
During the week of your jury, and on the day of:
So there I was, running all over campus (the music department was located in several different buildings (6, I think), no 2 of which were together).
The last jury I played that day was for a singer. When I arrived, my brain was no longer operating. I asked for a tempo just before we performed. He gave me a very fast tempo, and I thought nothing of it.
We performed the first piece in that fast tempo. We made it, and were together the entire time.
At the end, his teacher said, “A bit of a zippy tempo, wasn’t it?”
I was so tired by then, I burst into tears and ran out of the room. Another voice teacher followed me out to ask what was wrong.
Now that I am no longer involved with juries, I can calmly say that they are not that big a deal. People make mistakes, faculty members become fatigued, and people say things they may not mean. In any case, you don’t have to take every comment to heart.
Now go to a movie.
16 Monday Apr 2012
Posted directed practice, learning, music, new insights, perception, piano, teaching
inTags
We had finished a piece by Kabalevsky, moving on to a waltz by Shostakovich. This was my student’s first lesson on the new piece.
Page 1 has no accidentals. But it does have tricky spots. I thought circling those places in the music would make it easier for my student to see the differences and learn the piece better right away (rather than undoing learned mistakes).
The waltz has 2 partial scales at first, then changes to a whole step plus a third. I had circled notes 2 and 3 (the third) when introducing the piece.
Page 2 has accidentals. They looked navigable to me, since they were spaced out among white keys.
There is one spot in particular that requires a hand position change and playing an accidental. I am not looking at the score, but it’s something like A, B, C in the right hand played with 3, 4, 5. The next phrase begins on the E-flat above with 2, continuing with F and G (3, 4).
During the introductory lesson, my student played E-flat, E-natural (not F) often enough that I circled the E-flat and F.
My circles didn’t work out. Instead of helping my student focus, they caused brain freeze. I need to find a positive way to help her.
The E-flat to F on page 2 was the biggest problem, or at least the one that taught me something.
My student has become a lot better at finishing a phrase, then lifting her hand to move to a new place on the keyboard. (Until recently, she would switch fingers while holding the last note of a phrase. That way, she could end on the finger nearest to the new spot and feel “safe,” never leaving the keyboard.)
Almost every time this phrase came along, my student played E-flat followed by E-natural.
After a few tries, I initiated a discussion about how she thought about the phrase, moving her hand, etc. It was an attempt on my part to find out what was going on.
During our discussion, I tried the change between the two phrases myself. My intention was not to demonstrate how to play, but to see how we approached the switch differently.
My student said, along the way, “I’m trying not to play E-natural!”
That got my attention. Red flag. She was trying not to do something. That left way too many choices for where to go next.
I discovered that I have thought of changes in range on the keyboard as changes in hand position for several years now. When I moved to the E-flat, my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th fingers were already in the new position.
After my brief experiment on the keyboard, I asked her to play the passage again. She finished the first phrase, picked up her hand, and made it to the E-flat. No problem. But her 3rd finger was searching around! E-natural? No, not that one…
Now she understands how to find a new hand position! I had assumed that she knew. It turns out that she needed a separate step explained to her.
If you want to find out what is really going on with another person, the door must remain open. If we hadn’t talked about that passage, I wouldn’t have noticed and she wouldn’t have made the progress she did.
13 Friday Apr 2012
Often when people get together for a church service, they are seeing each other for the first time in at least a week. It’s only natural that they want to greet each other and catch up.
At the church where I work, the pastor has a theory about the way layout of the building contributes to the volume of the talking before services. The outer door is near the entrance to the sanctuary, with no large area in between. He thinks that people continue to talk as if they are outdoors because of that.
In other churches I have attended, and some in which I have worked, congregants enter the sanctuary quietly. If there is conversation, it is muted and brief, as participants are already preparing to worship.
On my first Sunday at my present church, the talking was so loud during the Prelude that I couldn’t hear what I was playing! So I’m thinking that no one else could hear it, either.
The acoustics in the sanctuary are quite live. There is a carpet (flat fibers, no nap), but no curtains, wall hangings, or pew cushions to absorb sound.
On Easter Sunday, of course, there were visitors from out of town, including family members who had a lot to catch up on with their relatives. The Prelude was not completely drowned out, but the congregants were far from quiet. The last 8 measures, however, were heard because of the sforzando stop!
Following a pre-Easter concert at St. Thomas Church in New York, the audience did not applaud at first. When they turned around and saw the choir in the back of the church, applause broke out… drowning out a portion of the organist’s Postlude.
The issue of applause in church, then, is not a settled question, although I had thought it was. And in this case, applause had the same effect on the organ music as talking does where I work.
The critic in the review (click on link above) also includes his insights about reviewing service music, something I had not realized.
When someone has spent time preparing for the service, s/he would like the music to be heard. For me, it’s a matter of feeling that I have contributed to worship. If the music is not heard, then why include it? Why not just sight-read? Why show up?
The pastor and I are trying a variety of things on Sundays. During Lent we dispensed with the Prelude. The services began with a Greeting by the pastor, followed by a Voluntary. People were seated, and were invited to prepare for worship.
Easter was a special service, so I’m taking that off the radar.
Next Sunday, the service will begin with a Prelude, then the Greeting, and then a Voluntary. The plan is to include either a Voluntary or an Introit. So we’ll see how that goes. Are both a Prelude and a Voluntary necessary? Useful? How are they different from each other?
Something we may institute is having the choir in place at the front of the sanctuary 10 minutes before the service, alerting the congregation to enter the sanctuary quietly.
Drowning out the Prelude is something that I hope can be changed. There are so many variables, who knows? There may be future blog posts on this topic!
10 Tuesday Apr 2012
Posted career, distractions, gigs, music, on the road, piano, tools, warm up
inThe details of the question included 2 choices:
Does that make you feel curious? Why would someone ask that question? Why would anyone need to?
Several thoughts came to mind:
Having a variety of ways to warm up is something we can count on when Plan A doesn’t work out.
There are many other possible scenarios. You get the idea.
Each person is unique! Each of us needs to know what we require. If someone else warms up differently, that doesn’t need to affect our confidence in what we do.
09 Monday Apr 2012
Posted Sorry for the delay!
inI apologize for the delay… my brain was operating in Easter service mode all last week.
I feel a little like the White Rabbit.
~ Gretchen
05 Thursday Apr 2012
Posted music, Thank you!
inTags
GretchensPianos has scored some nice stats along the way:
481 posts
1,709 comments
readers from 84 countries since 2/25/12 (as far back as the stats go)
My intention is to continue to share things that catch my interest, elaborate about my thought process, and communicate with readers.
Thank you to everyone who has commented, made suggestions, and taken the time to read my posts and the links I have included along the way.
There are fascinating thoughts about creativity in this review from last Sunday’s New York Times (4/1/12).
02 Monday Apr 2012
Posted career, collaboration, music, new experience, organ, outdoors, outside the box, preparation, rehearsal, serving music, tempo
inOur service began with the Proclamation of the Entrance into Jerusalem, delivered outdoors by the minister, followed by a spoken congregational response, also outdoors.
And then everyone, including the choir, the congregation, and the pastor, processed into the sanctuary and down the aisle to the front, placing palm branches at the altar as they sang All Glory, Laud, and Honor. The choir proceeded to their seats in front, and the congregation to their pews.
Playing for a procession involving so many people was something completely new to me! So there were many things to keep in mind while practicing:
The organ had to be heard outdoors.
8′, 4′, and 2′ stops were needed for clarity at that distance.
Everyone needed to sing together if possible.
Finding a comfortable walking tempo was crucial.
Any variations in tempo could cause a breakdown.
When was the best time for the choir to start singing in parts rather than unison?
I have to say, I practiced the first hymn a lot, more than anything else in the service.
At first, he had toyed with moving the digital piano outdoors so everyone could hear me. But then I would have been stuck outside for the entire hymn!
Plan B was to mic the organ and have speakers outdoors.
Plan C was to leave it alone. I happened to be practicing the processional when the pastor arrived on Sunday morning. He could hear me outdoors just fine.
So we opened all the doors and went for it!
While practicing on my own, my main concern was finding the most appropriate tempo. Even though no one was asked to walk in rhythm, that meant:
Ensuring that there was always forward motion in the music.
Giving people time to breathe so they could sing well.
Feeling the walking tempo in my body.
Listening to the 8th notes. I was a little too fast at first. Everything needed to be clear.
Perhaps choosing a slightly slower tempo than if there had been no processional.
The choir would enter the sanctuary first.
I demonstrated how to feel the hymn in 2/2 rather than 4/4, especially since people would be walking in 2, not marching in 4.
We agreed that the choir would lead the congregation most effectively by singing in unison at least until they reached the choir pews. At that point, they would be facing the congregation, so hearing them would be easier.
I relied on the choir to make the decision about when to sing in parts. They based their decision on listening to the congregation. If the congregation was singing well and together, then parts could work.
I made sure that the choir would listen to the organ and stay with me. If the congregation had started dragging and the choir went with them, the whole thing could have fallen apart.
The processional went very well! Not only was everyone together at all times, 5 verses provided exactly enough music! It could not have gone better or been any more exciting even if we had rehearsed with the entire congregation.