Update to previous post

Tags

Claude Debussy, music education, pedagogy

La Cathédrale Engloutie (Photo credit: Pierre Metivier)

Wow. My student, who was nearly comatose last week (you know, end of semester…) played SO WELL today! She learned how to reliably produce the substantial variety of sounds required to play Debussy’s “Sunken Cathedral” ~ in ONE WEEK!

What does your music say?

Tags

music education, pedagogy, teaching

Bananaquits, locally common in wetter areas. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At the end of each semester, my students play as if they are in a coma. This semester is no exception.

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?

Lessons

The effect of fatigue on one’s playing often means that there is no music there. Who wants to hear only notes?

• We have a harder time hearing what we are doing.
• Feeling how much weight we are directing into the keyboard is more difficult, too.
• Every composition sounds the same.
• Every page sounds the same.
• No melody.
• No dynamics.
• The solo and the orchestral interludes sound just alike.
• In fact, there is no differentiation between sounds at all.

All of us should be so bored with that, we have to find a way to make music!

Taking a closer look

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.

A new approach

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:

• Slow down.
• Speak out loud while you are playing a phrase, like this:
  creeeeee-sceeeeeen-DOOOOOOO…

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.

• Speaking could also include fingering, note names, counting, text to a song or aria, harmonic changes, etc.

• Rather than playing a piece from beginning to end, isolate sections with similar dynamics. Does your sound fit with the dynamics indicated? By doing these sections back to back, you can feel the dynamic level in your fingers/hands/arms/shoulders/back, and will be adept at finding that level when you put the piece back together.
• Practice hands alone, or separate parts in a contrapuntal piece.
• Practice melody and bass, everything except melody, etc.
• Exaggerate! When tired, we tend to retreat because we have less energy. Scaling back later is easier than making everything louder, so go ahead. Play out!
• Take breaks. A short walk outside will energize your playing a lot more than spending your break time in the practice room.

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.

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

E-books

“Goal-oriented Practice: How to Avoid Traps and Become a Confident Performer” gives every musician a fresh perspective!

My book frees up time to learn more music, memorize, or do something else entirely!

“Goal-oriented Practice” is also available in print!

Goal-oriented Practice

sold in 8 countries!

Review by pianist Robert W. Oliver

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How to survive juries

Tags

arts, music education, music juries, pedagogy

Bechstein Firmenschriftzug (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What’s your plan?

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!

The music

• Once you know the music well, start practicing in a different place each time.  You will become familiar with certain checkpoints throughout the piece.

• Find the metronome marking for each movement. Write it in your music. Then practice finding the tempos while you’re walking around campus.

• When “running” the piece, there may be some mistakes. With survival and a good performance in mind, you don’t have to be perfect. What will happen if you make a mistake? NOTHING!

• Once you know the music, stopping to correct mistakes will not help your performance.  You can return to trouble spots later.

Create obstacles

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:

• Play your pieces for your friends, more than once.
• Play your pieces in different rooms.
• Find a fixed-height piano bench and practice with that.
• Create “bad” lighting. Sometimes the lights will glare, sometimes they will make shadows on the keyboard.
• Open the windows and play in a breeze.
• Ask someone to play the trumpet next door to your practice room.

Keep routines in place

Doing things completely differently because of nerves is NOT a good idea.

During the week of your jury, and on the day of:

• Eat regular meals, even if you don’t feel hungry.
• Get some sleep (but don’t wait until the night before to start).
• Exercise (but take the day off on jury day).

The countdown

• Arrive a little early (10-15 min. early is plenty).
• Have a sheet of positive feedback you’ve received about your performances with you. Put it at the front of your music folder.
• Don’t compare yourself to anyone else, even when you are standing next to the door and someone else is performing.
• Don’t talk your nerves out. You need to focus instead. One way to do that is to read your feedback notes (see above).
• Use breathing exercises while you’re waiting. That way, you’ll know you’re still alive, and you won’t feel so much like you’re about to pass out when you walk into the room.
• If you are playing for other people’s juries, rely on what you’ve rehearsed together unless that truly falls apart. Don’t listen to the soloist beforehand! (Just smile and nod.)  Nerves take over that person, too, and the tempo will most likely be way too fast. You can rely on your own instincts.

Anecdotes from juries past

• One time my jury was held in my teacher’s rather small studio. The 3 piano faculty members were seated where I could see them (couldn’t ignore them, actually). One professor wore a bright red jacket that day. Another crossed his legs and swung his foot, not in time to the music. (I don’t think that was intentional…) My music included a 13-page fugue. A memorable experience, I suppose….
• Another time, the piano was along a soundproof wall. I had no idea how to adjust to that. In retrospect, one probably shouldn’t try to do anything differently unless experienced with playing in widely varying acoustics.
• One year, in addition to 18 or 20 juries I had already committed to accompanying, the trumpet professor convinced me to play for his 13 students. I had said “no” several times, but he was desperate. He got a “yes” when he offered to have all his students play either the Haydn or the Hummel Trumpet Concerto. He said, “You’ve played one E-flat scale, you’ve played them all.”

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.

Conclusion

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.

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

E-books

“Goal-oriented Practice: How to Avoid Traps and Become a Confident Performer” gives every musician a fresh perspective!

My book frees up time to learn more music, memorize, or do something else entirely!

“Goal-oriented Practice” is also available in print!

Goal-oriented Practice

sold in 8 countries!

Review by pianist Robert W. Oliver

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Which one is the student?

Tags

music education, pedagogy

Searching for God Knows What (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of my students taught me a lesson last week.

The lesson

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.

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.

I need to figure this out

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.

What happened

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 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th 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 3^rd 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.

Conclusion

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.

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

E-books

“Goal-oriented Practice: How to Avoid Traps and Become a Confident Performer” gives every musician a fresh perspective!

My book frees up time to learn more music, memorize, or do something else entirely!

“Goal-oriented Practice” is also available in print!

Goal-oriented Practice

sold in 8 countries!

Review by pianist Robert W. Oliver

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Don’t drown out the organist!

Tags

Church service, Congregation, Organist, Prelude

Der Organist, Öl auf Hartfaser. 56 x 48 cm (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This, for me, is right up there with “Don’t shoot the piano player!”

Background

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.

The situation

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!

Another scenario with similarities

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.

What can be done?

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!

Saint Niclas parish church in Møgeltønder ( Denmark ). Renaissance frescos: Angel as organist. Deutsch: Pfarrkirche St. Nikolaus in Møgeltønder ( Dänemark ). Renaissancefresken: Engel als Organist. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

E-books

“Goal-oriented Practice: How to Avoid Traps and Become a Confident Performer” gives every musician a fresh perspective!

My book frees up time to learn more music, memorize, or do something else entirely!

“Goal-oriented Practice” is also available in print!

Goal-oriented Practice

sold in 8 countries!

Review by pianist Robert W. Oliver

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Why are you asking?

Tags

Glenn Gould, music education

Author Chris Thomas of http://www.miltoncontact.com I prepared this file as an animation exercise and would now like to make it freely available as a demonstration of insect locomotion. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On a pianists’ discussion site, someone recently asked how s/he should warm up.

The details of the question included 2 choices:

1. Hanon exercises.
2. Soaking the hands in hot water à la Glenn Gould.

Does that make you feel curious?  Why would someone ask that question?  Why would anyone need to?

Several thoughts came to mind:

• Does this person know when s/he feels warmed up?
• Does s/he want someone else to offer the perfect solution?

• How would it work for someone else to tell you?  Every pianist is different.

• Finding several different ways to warm up would be a good idea.  By polling other pianists, someone might find what works best for them.  However, the question was not asked in that way.

• Reality check:  I would be reluctant to rely on the hot water idea as my only warm up.  There are so many churches, schools, and other venues where only cold water is available.  You would have to travel with a device to heat your own water!  Another option would be to ask your concert presenter, audition checkin person, stage manager, etc. to heat water for you.  Does anyone think that would be a good idea?

Having a variety of ways to warm up is something we can count on when Plan A doesn’t work out.

• Sometimes gigs are early in the day. Warming up before leaving would wake up the neighbors.
• Sometimes transportation arrives late. Warming up in the car or on the train is sometimes the only option.
• Sometimes the stage hands will be making repairs, setting up on stage, etc., making a warmup on the concert instrument impossible. We won’t know until we arrive at the venue.
• Sometimes the keyboard setup crew is inexperienced. Adjusting the height of the keyboard and bench could take much longer than expected, encroaching upon warmup time.
• Sometimes other musicians need to talk to you, warm up themselves, run over their solos, etc. No keyboard warmup time is available when that happens.

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.

Now it’s your turn!

How do you warm up?

How did you find the warmup you use now?

Do you have more than one way to warm up?

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

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Will post soon

Tags

Alice in Wonderland, Easter, White Rabbit

"Ideas Creativas" (Photo credit: *r.s* Photography *)

There is a new post coming soon!

I apologize for the delay… my brain was operating in Easter service mode all last week.

Thanks so much for your patience.

I feel a little like the White Rabbit.

Screenshot of the White Rabbit from the trailer for the film Alice in Wonderland. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

~ Gretchen

Happy Birthday, 3-year old!

Tags

arts, blogging, Happy Birthday!, New York Times, writing

Happy Birthday to You! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My blog is 3 years old today!

The stats

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)

What’s next?

My intention is to continue to share things that catch my interest, elaborate about my thought process, and communicate with readers.

Thank you!

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.

Link to a book review

There are fascinating thoughts about creativity in this review from last Sunday’s New York Times (4/1/12).

Thanks so much for your interest.

Your suggestions are always welcome!

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

E-books

“Goal-oriented Practice: How to Avoid Traps and Become a Confident Performer” gives every musician a fresh perspective!

My book frees up time to learn more music, memorize, or do something else entirely!

“Goal-oriented Practice” is also available in print!

Goal-oriented Practice

sold in 8 countries!

Review by pianist Robert W. Oliver

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An effective processional

Tags

choir, Palm Sunday, Processional hymn

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Yesterday was Palm Sunday!

Our service began with the Proclamation of the Entrance into Jerusalem, delivered outdoors by the minister, followed by a spoken congregational response, also outdoors.

The route

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.

Preparation

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.

The pastor’s ideas

• A copy of the hymn was included in the bulletin.  Without a heavy hymnal in their hands, the congregation was free to focus on singing.

• 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!

Finding a tempo

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 8^th 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’s leadership role

• 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 wonderful result

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.

Have you played or conducted a large processional? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comment section below!

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