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Gretchen Saathoff

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

Monthly Archives: January 2016

Adventures in not pedaling

30 Saturday Jan 2016

Posted by GretchensPianos in acoustics, career, chorus, collaboration, concert, expression, extremes, goals, integrity, listening, music, new approach, new experience, new insights, outside the box, pedal, perception, performing, piano, priorities, responsibility, rhythm, serving music, singing, something new, the unexpected, tools, video, work

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Cupola. Source: Pixabay. Public Domain

Cupola. Source: Pixabay. Public Domain

 

When is the last time you performed something without using the pedal?  That’s right, no pedal at all.  

As it happens, I did exactly that on Sunday night.  I was thinking about that while driving home, trying to remember the last time I’d omitted all pedal. There was one occasion several years ago.

Christ & Saint Stephen’s in midtown Manhattan features a dome above the altar area.  A baritone I played for had included “Why do the nations rage” from Messiah on his recital program.  The piano reduction, 16th note tremelos, sounded like what you might call a bloody mess!  The singer’s girlfriend, a professional cellist, attended the dress rehearsal, for which I shall always be grateful.  She suggested that I play 8th notes at first, but even that sounded too muddy for audience consumption.  Then she suggested playing quarter note chords, no tremolo at all, without any pedal.  Amazingly enough, that worked.

Prior to that experience, the only time I played without pedal was probably in college, when playing Baroque music.  At the time, I was a die-hard original sound freak, or preferred to come as close as possible given that I was playing a piano rather than a harpsichord.  That certainly meant that the pedal was not to be used at all.

Since college, I have discovered that using the pedal on every note of a continuo bass line (i.e. quarter notes) enhances the sound without blurring it. But it must be used judiciously!  Just tap it.  The idea is to allow the strings to vibrate without making the sound last longer.  You will hear the sound become rounder, closer to cello pizzicato.

Sunday night’s concert venue was a large church with high, valuted ceilings. The reverberation time was at least 4 seconds.  We performed Copland’s “The Promise of Living” with a large group of combined choruses.  The version on our program featured a piano four-hands accompaniment.

Both of us arrived at the piano, sat down and looked at each other.  Whose score would we use?  After we solved that question, my fellow pianist said, “Do you want to pedal?”  I said, “Go for it!”  He was playing the secondo part. The pedal would be easier for him to reach.  In addition, he would be playing the part with the harmonic rhythm.

Soon after, we heard how live the acoustics were in the space.  The piano was some distance away from the singers.  We decided not to use the pedal at all, in order to provide as much clarity as possible.

I’m happy to say it worked!  A professional singer, who sang an aria during the program, was sitting in the audience during the Copland.  She and I were talking afterwards, when she said she heard clarity, and it sounded as if we had pedaled.

Have you ever performed with no pedal?

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Guest post: 3 Important Factors for Effective Improvising

14 Thursday Jan 2016

Posted by GretchensPianos in improvisation, piano, teaching

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Source: Pixabay

Source: Pixabay

 

3 Important Factors for Effective Improvising

Improvising is a wonderful opportunity for piano students to learn more about what makes music effective . . . or not so effective. Here are three important principles that pianists should consider in order to improve the quality of their improvisations.

Phrasing

One of the most important aspects of successful improvising is phrasing. A musical phrase is like a sentence or short paragraph in spoken English. Just as we don’t keep talking without brief pauses between sentences and paragraphs (at least most of us don’t!), a good improviser will create musical phrases with space (rests) between them.

The average phrase will typically consist of smaller intervals (unisons, seconds, thirds and fourths) with larger intervals appearing less frequently.

In written English it’s important to vary the length of one’s sentences in order to keep the reader interested. The same is true when improvising music. Varying the lengths of improvised phrases helps keep listeners’ attention.

Another aspect of phrasing is contour. The contour of a phrase may rise, or fall, or rise then fall, or any of a number of combinations.

Both the length and contour of phrases can help to create or release musical tension (see below).

The following G-flat pentatonic scale (black keys only) improvisation for RH employs phrases of various lengths and different contours. Each phrase consists of intervals of a third or less.

Unity vs. Contrast

Another important factor for successful improvising is striking a balance between musical unity and musical contrast.

Unity is important because it provides consistency, which the human brain usually prefers. Without consistency, an improvisation may sound like a jumble of disconnected notes.

Contrast keeps listeners awake and interested. Without contrast, music can become monotonous or even boring.

Unity is created through repetition. An improviser might repeat notes, a phrase, a motif, a rhythm, or a harmonic progression, etc.

Contrast is created through change. An improviser might change the length or contour of phrases, change the rhythms used for different phrases, change the range (playing higher or lower), change the dynamics, change the tempo, etc.

An easy way for beginning improvisers to make sure they’re providing both unity and contrast is to improvise with an ostinato or simple harmonic progression in the LH (which establishes unity) while playing a varied improvised line in the RH (which creates contrast).

Tension & Release

A third important factor in effective improvising is building and releasing tension. Just like a good film creates and releases dramatic tension, a good improvisation creates and releases musical tension.

A few ways to increase musical tension include:

  • Playing higher and higher
  • Playing louder
  • Playing longer and/or more complex phrases
  • Playing faster

Some ways to release musical tension include:

  • Playing lower and lower
  • Playing softer
  • Playing shorter and/or less complex phrases
  • Including more space (silence) between phrases

Pianists who pay conscious attention to phrasing, unity/contrast and tension/release will create more interesting and effective improvisations and are bound to increase their overall confidence as improvisers.

Doug Hanvey teaches improvising to aspiring creative pianists in Portland, Oregon. His Piano Lab Blog features fresh ideas, tips and inspiration for piano teachers and students.

Thanks so much, Doug!

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