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Gretchen Saathoff

~ Collaborative Pianist/Vocal Coach ~ forging partnerships, making memorable music together

Monthly Archives: October 2012

Hampshire College foliage, post-Sandy

31 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by GretchensPianos in feeding my soul, observations, variety

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Hampshire College, Hurricane Sandy, New England foliage

I am staying up late to share these phone pics from this afternoon at about 3:45.

Our foliage is lasting so long this season, and I’m loving every minute of it.  The color combinations and variety are fascinating!  And to have foliage as evidenced in these pics even after Hurricane Sandy?  That seems incredible. 

Have a look.

October 31, 2012, at Hampshire College

And this is a pic of the biggest tree on campus.  It’s located at the top of the main entrance, with the hills in the distance.  This is the wonderful view I get to enjoy every time I go to the college.  The bus usually arrives about 20 minutes before chorus rehearsal, so I can just soak it up.

Hampshire College, October 31, 2012


Tomorrow, I may take on my own back yard.

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Does your practice time get results? If you are spinning your wheels, this book is for you.

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

Goal-oriented Practice

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Review by pianist Robert W. Oliver

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Wednesday’s foliage

17 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by GretchensPianos in observations

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Hampshire College, New England foliage

At Hampshire College. I like the gold and brown leaves sunlit from the back.

Did you ever see a chartreuse tree?  I did today.  I was on a moving bus, though, so was unable to take a picture.

There are more leaves still on trees than I thought!  Although this is probably what is referred to as “lingering foliage,” today’s bus ride to Hampshire College was beautiful, with the sun backlighting a myriad of colors.

Yellow, gold, orange, the dark red Japanese maples, and burning bush are out there.  The view of the hills in the distance is the best yet.  Red maples have lost their leaves.

Many trees are about 1/2 bare.  The interesting thing is that the way in which that has happened varies.  One contributing factor is the way in which the wind hits the trees.

Some trees have leaves only on one side.  Others have leaves only near the ground.  Still others have a bare V shape down the middle, starting at the top.

At Hampshire College. There are so many trees this year displaying an array of colors. In other years, I have seen a tree with yellow leaves next to one with gold, maybe a red one next, and an orange one next to that.

Related article
  • Leaves all over! (gretchenspianos.wordpress.com)

E-book

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

Does your practice time get results? If you are spinning your wheels, this book is for you.

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

Goal-oriented Practice

sold in 9 countries!

Review by pianist Robert W. Oliver

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Turning on a dime

16 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by GretchensPianos in career, collaboration, distractions, extremes, gigs, music, organ, piano, sightreading, tempo, the unexpected, work

≈ 4 Comments

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chorus concert, chorus rehearsal, Church service, vocal coaching

Look MA! 4 Hands ~ Image via Flickr

Please don’t try this at home!

Last weekend, every musical situation in which I found myself required instant changes.  I felt like I was on hyper-alert like an E.R. doc the whole time.

Coaching a singer

Due to the singer’s work schedule and my warmup and concert, we decided to carve out what time we could by using a practice room.  We ended up with 20 minutes in a small, soundproof room.

Singers enjoy larger spaces, and soundproofing is the worst.

We used the time well, making sure not to push.  The phrasing in one Brahms song will need to be revisited when we add time next weekend in our usual larger space.  The end of every phrase sounded chopped off, but we knew the room had a lot to do with that.

With less experience, we might have tried to fix the phrasing problems.  But that would have been pointless.

Chorus warmup and concert

The Hampshire College Chorus is too large for everyone to perform, with audience, in its rehearsal space.  So… we moved to a lecture hall.  No stage, no piano, no stage lighting.

When I walked into the hall 5 minutes after the coaching session, the keyboard was set up.  So I tried it out.  WAY too high.

The student who set it up was hanging around, so I asked him to lower it one notch.  I based my guess on a different keyboard I had played in another rehearsal.  He took it down a notch… no more time to make further adjustments, as the chorus needed rehearsal time.  The keyboard was still too high.

The light was awful… generally OK, but nothing special aimed toward the music.  There was just as much light on the audience as everywhere else.

There was a big black orchestra music stand for me to use, which was too far back.  I guess the keyboard’s music rack was either lost or no one knows it exists.

The pedal, tethered to the keyboard and nothing else, was also in the wrong place.  Because of the big base on the music stand, it was impossible to get the pedal into a comfortable spot.

During rehearsal, the conductor took a much faster tempo in a Mozart piece than we had rehearsed.  The piano reduction appears to be easy, but definitely is not.  Both hands are required to change range with no time to do so, and continue playing subtly.  That is completely different from jumping fast to land on a big chord at full volume.  I did not play the Mozart well in rehearsal.

After that, the conductor said that when the soloist was singing alone, the keyboard was too loud.  Could I turn it down and then turn it up when the chorus came in?  Well, no… both hands were busy.  Leaving something out would have meant leaving a hole in the music.  The volume dial was a ways away, forward and to the left.  The dial had to be turned.  You couldn’t just hit it quickly and go back to playing.

So a chorus alto came over, wedge herself into a very small space while being careful not to trip over cables, and operate the volume dial.  Immediately after the volume change, she sprinted over to the opposite side of the keyboard to turn pages!

The concert, fortunately, went very well.

Church service

During the church service on Sunday there were lots of last-minute changes.

A member of the congregation had sent me 3 hymns she wanted to add to the opening of the service.  I alerted the choir to the plan.

The choir insisted on singing through at least one verse of each hymn.  I understand where they’re coming from… they are in front of the congregation, so the perception is that they are leading the hymns.

It turned out that looking at all the hymns was necessary.

  • One hymn had a descant, which required a decision about whether to add it or not.
  • Another had 2 possible paths from beginning to end.  One involved a brief modulation in the keyboard part.  It’s important to know that some of the singers know what to do in that case.
  • The third hymn was easily navigated until the last line, an “optional choral ending.”  With no rehearsal, the singers would arrive at that point and not know whether to try it or not.

The choir had other music to rehearse as well:

  • 3 hymns for the main portion of the service; and
  • 4 anthems (for that day and the next 3 weeks).

So we had to rehearse 10 pieces of music in 30 min.  I think this needs further discussion!

After that, the service proceeded smoothly… until just after the sermon.  As I was sprinting from the front pew back to the organ to play the last hymn, the minister decided to switch to a different hymn.  Why would that be a problem?

Well, I’m glad it was something I knew.  I don’t sight-read pedal parts.

In order to facilitate turning pages and changing locations (organ, piano, front pew), I take the hymns for the day out of the unwieldy binders (the ones with the accompaniment, which are different from the congregational hymnals).  A small binder is much easier to handle.  Turning pages is easy, and carrying a small binder from place to place is so much better than hefting two oversized ones.

I leave the large binders on the floor, which is raised, just behind the organ bench.  Ministers change their minds.  I’m used to it.

Since the pages in the large binders are so difficult to turn, they have to be handled a few at a time.  Turning 40 pages at once, say, doesn’t work.  So finding a page quickly takes a little time.

The minister waited a few seconds, then asked the congregation to begin singing with him, no organ.

The hymn was several verses long, so I made the decision to join in at the beginning of the refrain.  Wrong key, of course.  I don’t have perfect pitch.

Had I been playing the piano at that point, it would have been easy to find the key by testing notes softly.  Not so easy on the organ!

Oh well, stuff happens.  Hopefully next weekend will be more normal.

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

E-book

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

Does your practice time get results? If you are spinning your wheels, this book is for you.

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

Goal-oriented Practice

sold in 9 countries!

Review by pianist Robert W. Oliver

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It rained yellow leaves today!

13 Saturday Oct 2012

Posted by GretchensPianos in observations

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falling leaves, New England foliage

English: Fall maple leaves on a tree.

English: Fall maple leaves on a tree. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

While waiting for the bus shortly after noon today, I looked around to see what the foliage was doing after last night’s hard frost.

A maple tree next to the bus stop was raining leaves!  There was little or no breeze, so I wondered what caused all that activity.

The leaves just kept falling.  My estimate would be about 500 leaves per minute.  Isn’t that amazing?

See how the air changes color when you look at the pic?  That’s what it’s like when you stand under a red or yellow tree.

E-book

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

Does your practice time get results? If you are spinning your wheels, this book is for you.

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

Goal-oriented Practice

sold in 9 countries!

Review by pianist Robert W. Oliver

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Leaves all over!

12 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by GretchensPianos in observations

≈ 3 Comments

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New England foliage

Autumn leaves of a red-foliage cultivar of Nor...

Autumn leaves of a red-foliage cultivar of Norway Maple (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 Yesterday was very windy and sunny.  I went out on a short errand, but left my cell phone (and camera) at home.

This is what I saw!

Leaves were falling fast.  Many were carried off the trees by the wind; others had already dropped, landing on branches as a first stop.  All you had to do for leaves to land on your head was go outside.

The foliage is beautiful, but sparser than last week.  The colors appear shimmery in the sun, no longer dense.

One tree, situated in just the right spot, was noticeable because all its branches were blowing horizontally, every leaf at the same angle.  It almost looked like a graphic design with the leaves’ sharp edges.

Large white mushrooms are growing in many lawns.  Their normally flat tops are curved upward at the edges.  Now they look like bowls on pedestals.

A Fall display inside a business included a big white pumpkin!

Following my errand, I came home to practice in the sun, windows and back door open wide.  It’s cooler today, but I could still practice the same way.

“Leaves all over” has a second meaning here.  Tonight the low will be in the 20’s, so that’s it for the foliage.  I don’t remember October being this cold.  Most years, I make it until the week before Thanksgiving without a winter coat.

E-book

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

Does your practice time get results? If you are spinning your wheels, this book is for you.

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

Goal-oriented Practice

sold in 9 countries!

Review by pianist Robert W. Oliver

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Amherst foliage 2012 on a rainy day

10 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by GretchensPianos in Uncategorized

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Amherst MA, New England foliage

OK, it rained again.  I took these pics anyway, to see how they would come out.

Hampshire College sourwood tree with raindrops

… and this one, taken at night and made brighter w/a photo editing program.

“Burning bush” in Amherst Center

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Amherst foliage 2012

09 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by GretchensPianos in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

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Amherst MA, Fall foliage, pictures

Red maple in front yard.

We have had so much rain!  On one sunny day last week, I took these pics with my phone.

Foliage at night in Amherst Center.

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Adult student sees the mountaintop!

04 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by GretchensPianos in determination, directed practice, fingering, focus, goals, learning, music, new experience, piano, process, progress, teaching, the unexpected

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Borodin, Kismet, Lessons and Instruction, music education, student

MAROON LAKE CAMPSITE, 12 MILES NORTH OF ASPEN....

MAROON LAKE CAMPSITE, 12 MILES NORTH OF ASPEN. SNOW COVERED PEAKS IN BACKGROUND ARE THE 14,000 FOOT MAROON BELLS – NARA – 545714 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My Saturday morning student, an adult beginner, went all the way last week!  What a wonderful experience.  The usual enormous amount of interference was completely replaced by fluid playing.

Background

This student started out in my piano class.  When the class schedule changed, she could no longer attend.  She decided to try it on her own.  That worked for a while, and then I received a phone call about 6 months later.

She has a lot of anxiety going on and regularly constructs roadblocks.  The ever-present analysis about everything that could go wrong impedes progress in a major way.

More recently

Some of the problems have disappeared in the past few months, allowing for more understanding, looking ahead, using good fingering, and gracefully negotiating a phrase here and there.  This all happened gradually.

Last week’s lesson

Something incredible happened!  There was no angst about the difference between the student’s keyboard and my acoustic piano.  No disastrous scenarios were offered before playing a note.  For the first time ever, the student just played!

The piece for the day was a “Polovetzian Dance” by Borodin, arr. by Bastien.  The theme is also heard in the musical Kismet, where it is known by the title “Stranger in Paradise.”

Source:  Wikipedia

The Bastien arrangement is simplified.

Requirements of the piece

Immediately following the lesson, I made a list of the problems presented in this piece:

  • Sustaining the low note of the left hand chord, then adding chords above it to form triads.
  • Crossing over the thumb in 2 different ways:
    • moving hand after thumb plays, as in playing a scale.
    • leaving hand in the new, contracted position after thumb plays in order to facilitate a fingering 2 notes later.
  • Play a phrase smoothly that extends from one staff to the next, negotiating the cross over the thumb on the 2nd staff.
  • Play the melody clearly when it moves between hands.
  • Do the same when the melody changes hands with no rest between phrases.
  • Finish the left hand’s accompanying phrase while beginning a new phrase in the right hand’s melody.

Success!

This piece has quite a few difficulties!

My student nailed it!!!  I have to say that I was taken completely by surprise.

We have worked together for about 12 years, and this was a first at a whole new level.  Individual challenges had seen some progress.  But this is the first time sp many things worked together.

This did not happen because of mindless hours of practice.  My student has been very busy at work, pushing to finish a project on deadline.  She probably practiced 2 or 3 times last week.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  It’s not the amount of time you spend at the keyboard.  It’s how you use the time you have.

So, determination and patience do pay off.  It was time for everything to come together.

Have you experienced long-delayed success with a student?  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!

Does your practice time get results?  If you are spinning your wheels, this book is for you.

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

Goal-oriented Practice

sold in 9 countries!

Review by pianist Robert W. Oliver

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