I can sight-read. Why bother with fingering?

Tags

damper pedal, music education, pedagogy, pianistic fingering, piano reductions

Source: Pixabay

This is a question I encounter so often!  

Short answer:  Because if sight-reading is all you ever do, then that’s the best you will ever play.

Today, while learning a Mozart piano reduction (violin concerto), I had to stop myself from switching between fingers on a single key several times.

We have two options:  sight-reading and improving.  (One is more fun than the other!) The pic above accurately represents the way I feel when I have to write fingerings in my music.

The problem, for me, stems from three sources:

1.  Sight-reading (both music I need to learn and music that’s put in front of me in work situations);
2.  Organ playing; and
3.  Playing for chorus/opera/dance/musical rehearsals.

To elaborate:

1.  Sight-reading is a great skill to have!  Without it, there would be far fewer work opportunities.  The problem is that when one relies only on sight-reading, fingerings are random and so is the resulting sound.  The playing will be slower and have considerably less finesse.  In addition, when sight-reading is the only game in town, the music benefits from very little thought.

2.  Organs and pianos both have keyboards, but they are completely different mechanically.  To sustain a pitch on the organ, the key must be depressed. On piano, the damper pedal is available.  Organists are trained to play a key with one finger, then switch to another while still depressing the same key.  That’s how they navigate around the keyboard while playing legato.  Playing the piano in that manner, however, is not helpful except in cases where the fingering cannot be solved in other ways.

3.  When playing piano reductions (chorus, opera, and concertos where the pianist acts as the orchestra), pianistic fingering is not possible.  There are too many notes included in a piano reduction to fit under the hand. (Reductions are not “pianistic.”)  So “bad” fingering often results.  The object is to get to the next location on the keyboard however you can, ahead of time.

So, what is “good” fingering?

• Good fingering is pianistic (comfortable);
• Good fingering enhances the flow of the music;
• Good fingering makes use of different parts of the hand for intended results.
  • The thumb is heavy;
  • The pinkie gets a bright sound;
  • The 3rd finger can imitate French horn;
  • The 4th finger is guaranteed to be softer; and
  • 2 and 5 are great for flute solos.

Try playing Mozart.  Unintended accents will be immediately disruptive. Making good fingering decisions is the shortest route to playing appropriately.

Schumann, Verdi, and Prokofiev sound distinct from each other when played by good orchestras.  Why not play them with different sounds on the piano, too?

Why spend valuable practice time eliminating accents produced by the thumb when you could find a better fingering?  Practicing for hours attempting to produce an accented downbeat with the 4th finger is similarly a waste of time.

What do you think?  Is fingering important to you?  How many practice sessions do you spend playing the same music before writing in fingerings?

How do you get around the keyboard?

Source: Pixabay

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David’s First Organ Lesson!

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First lesson, Music, organ, pipe organ

David plays chimes with his feet!

David, age 6-1/2, came to church the Sunday before Easter with Joyce, his grandmother, who sings in the choir.  He was curious about everything.  During the sermon, he was sitting on his knees on the floor, near the choir.

Just before the final hymn, he appeared to my left, eyes on the pedals!  Although he didn’t make a sound, he was watching every move.

After the postlude, he was hanging around, so I asked him if he liked the organ.  He started talking, so I asked him if he would like to play it.  His eyes lit up.  He came over and stood next to the console.

I encouraged him to play different keys while I changed stops, so he could hear a lot of different sounds (high, low, loud, soft, flute, bigger-sounding oboe, etc.)  Then he tried the pedals.  I put on the oboe stop and sent it to the pedal, where he played a bass note.  His immediate reaction was, “Wow!  That sounds like a fog horn!”  Right on, David!

After that, he moved over to the high end of the keyboard.  I showed him how the chimes work.  The snapshot Joyce took with her phone shows his priceless facial expression when he played the “bells” with his feet.He’s very smart, and knows a lot about the organ already.  He knew what to call the instrument, that the sound comes from the pipes in back and not from the keyboards, that wind blows through the pipes to make the sound, and what pipes look like.

 

Come back soon, David!

English: Drawings of four types of pipe organ pipes: a, An open diapason; b, a stopped diapason; c, an oboe; and d, a trumpet — c and d being forms of reed-pipes. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Humility, self-centeredness, and a discovery

Tags

Frank Bruni, John Boda, Maine Maritime Museum, New York Times

Shipwrights from Francisco de Orellana’s expedition building a small brigantine, the San Pedro. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On Tuesday evening, I had the pleasure of watching this television show about Bath and Camden, Maine.  

Dave Garrison, of maritimeme.org, provided the above link to the entire video on YouTube.  Length:  00:28:22.  Thanks so much, Dave!

The environs are truly gorgeous.  Building a replica of Maine’s First Ship appears to involve an entire town.  The seafood looks wonderful.  The Maine Maritime Museum looks intriguing!  Lighthouses are everywhere!

My interest in nautical subjects must be related to my Friesian ancestry.  I am an excellent swimmer, former lifeguard and Red Cross swimming instructor for children with cerebral palsy.  In addition, I worked at a maritime law firm in New York for two years.  Especially compared to corporate law, it was quite interesting.

A discovery

Last Sunday, a chance discovery started me thinking about how to write this blog post.  In choosing music for the service, there seemed to be less to go on than usual.  How to proceed?  I decided to look for a prelude and postlude to coordinate with the hymns.

The postlude I found was “He Who Would Valiant Be” by John Boda, based on a hymn with the same text.  (There is more than one musical setting.)  In order to ensure that there was a connection with my line of thinking concerning the service, I had to search for the hymn, which was unfamiliar to me.

Two versions are included in the “Lutheran Service Book and Hymnal,” 1958.

Two friends tell me they grew up singing the second version.

The conclusion I reached from the text is this:  no matter where you are in life, you did not arrive there solely under your own power.  Even if you think you had  little help, the obstacles standing in your way provided challenges to overcome.  You have never existed in a vacuum.

So why would you promote your own agenda in isolation?

Two essays in The New York Times caught my attention.  They focus on similar themes.  Both are by Frank Bruni:

• Ted Cruz’s Flinty Path   9/24/13
• The Pope’s Radical Whisper   9/22/13

How do these themes relate to each other?

My train of thought here is centered around the antithesis of egotism.  This does not mean denying one’s own talent or self-worth.  But if egotism is all there is, collaboration is impossible.

Can one be very self-confident and have humility?  I would cite two examples that say “yes.”

• Rafael Nadal certainly knows how talented he is.  If he constantly denied that, how many titles would he win?
• The ship building project in Bath provides a wonderful opportunity to observe collaboration on display.
  • The master shipbuilder who is leading the project is a volunteer.
  • When a huge beam needed to be placed, taking up the length of the ship, a large number of men worked together, making sure it was straight.  When they had finished, each pair of men shook hands, reaching over the beam.
  • The project features a training program, starting with children as young as middle school.  12-year-olds were shown working on the ship, completely focused on their tasks and doing exemplary work.

We have all encountered situations where collaboration would have been helpful.  From time to time, someone’s ego will get in the way, making the surrounding atmosphere uncomfortable for everyone involved.

My plan is to remain aware of how my own ego might interfere when working with others.  This has been an ongoing focus of mine for over a year.  I’m happy to say I’m improving!

What do you think?  Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

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Q&A: One-handed lessons

Tags

Broken arm, Creative teaching, Education, Sight reading, student, teacher

US Congressman Donald Manzullo signs a short arm cast. (Photo: Wikipedia)

A reader asks:

One of my piano students broke her right arm.  Do you know of any method books to help improve her left hand during the 6 weeks she’ll be in a cast?

Response:

I understand your reasons for using this as an opportunity to address a common problem. However, you may want to put yourself in your student’s place for a moment first.

• Everyone’s left hand is 2 weeks behind the right.
• The left hand often learns by imitating the right.
• Someone who is forced to use only one hand is at risk of overuse and injury.  The uninjured hand is being used all day for everything.  That is tiring!  Have you ever tried it?

If this were my student, I would go with the situation instead.  There is so much variety to be found!  You and your student will both have fun, and your student will learn more than you imagine in the process.

A few suggestions:

• Duets
  • use music for 2 hands, with student playing one part and teacher playing the other.  Then switch parts.  (Your student will be playing the treble part with her left hand!  How unusual is that?)
  • play duets written for 4 hands, leaving 1 part out.  (You have 3 hands between you.)
• Chorus music or hymns
  • student can play all 4 parts, one at a time.  This is wonderful sight-reading practice.
• Teacher plays
  • student pedals
  • student walks around the room in rhythm, counts out loud, sings names of notes, plays triangle or drum with 1 hand
• Listen to a recording and talk about it
• Make up a piece

OK, now that I’ve gotten you started, it’s your turn!  I’m sure you will have more ideas.  Just go with it!  You can make up a lesson as you go along. Your student will have plenty of ideas, too.

Good luck, and have fun!

Have you taught a student who broke his/her arm?  What did you do?  Please share your thoughts in the Comment Section below!

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Crucial stretches for every keyboard user

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articles, links, related posts, staying healthy, stretching

This post is for musicians and computer users.

“Keyboard user” is a conscious decision for inclusion in the title (rather than “keyboard player”) because  computer operators need to stretch.  So do organists, harpsichordists, pianists, electronic keyboardists, and others who use the small structures of their hands and arms in repetitive fashion.

Keyboard users move their hands and arms (and backs and shoulders and necks and heads) primarily in one direction, often for long periods of time.  Work, music, and play can become mesmerizing.  We forget to take breaks, or postpone them to do “one more page.”  And then, an hour later, we’re still at it.

We have all seen athletes stretch.  That makes sense, right?  We are also athletes.  We use smaller structures that are not built for the amount of stress we put on them.  Stretching helps address the problem.

New discussion

A discussion of stretches recently came up on Facebook.  This link takes you to a new article on the subject.

I am delighted to see ongoing interest in stretching.  Everyone benefits by having the topic back at the top of their “to do” lists and reading about others’ experiences.

My friend Michael Meltzer and I continued the discussion.  Michael said:

My last teacher was the late Louise Curcio in New Jersey, who began every lesson with about ten minutes of stretches. She explained, “We are creatures of habit. When you are not properly stretched, you’ll begin your practice in slightly incorrect or imprecise arm & finger positions and configurations. Your brain will remember those incorrect lineups and unconsciously seek to recreate them, interfering with learning and mastering your pieces.”

… looking at it carefully, I think the exact words SHE would have used would have been “arm and finger postures” instead of finger positions & configurations (my words).

Used by permission. Thank you, Michael!

Why stretch?

When playing or using a computer, our muscles and tendons adjust to accommodate our repetitive, uni-directional motions.  The muscles and tendons on the top of the forearm and hand lengthen, while on the underside, they shorten.

This results in an imbalance which can result in injury.

The stretches we need to do help things return to normal.  We need to stretch in the opposite direction from the way we have been moving while playing an instrument or using a computer.

The following comes from a previous post about ergonomics as applied to keyboard use.  As school revs up and we all become busier, combating stress and tension are even more important.

We can maintain our ability to play an instrument or use a computer for decades by being aware and looking for variety as we proceed.

Awareness of warning signs is important to avoid injury.  Once someone incurs an injury, s/he becomes more vulnerable to further injury in the future.  So even if you think it could never happen to you, please read on.

Be aware

• If you feel numbness, tingling, or pain, you need to take a break.
• If anything hurts, even a stiff neck, you need to look at that.
• Practicing mindlessly for hours on end without a break is never a good idea.

Incorporate variety

What’s your plan?  How do you practice?

Going at something as fast and loudly as possible will get you injured in no time.

Here are a few ideas about staying safe.

You can practice:

• hands alone
• slower than performance tempo
• loud/soft
• changing range on the keyboard
• alternating difficult passages with less stressful ones
• mixing up a stint of staccato practicing with legato (use your body in different ways)
• for leaps and glissandi, measuring distances and calculating timing by faking it (above the keyboard ~ no need to play all that often)
• feeling chord shapes in your hands, also above the keyboard
• more carefully when you’re tired

You can:

• alternate practicing and gripping activities with passive activities, such as reading or taking a walk, talking on the speakerphone.  For example, lifting weights and practicing are both stressing your body, thus making you more vulnerable to injury.  Your body needs a break in between.
• play with your hands and arms in a natural position (you don’t have to be exactly lined up with the keys!)
• look at your practice setup ~ lighting, chair height, your distance from the keyboard (do you have room to navigate?)
• always use healthy body alignment (feet on the floor, supporting your body ~ no slumping forward, no legs wrapped around chair legs, no feet on chair rungs, no head on hand on elbow resting on the piano)
• look at the music away from the piano
• conduct, sing, walk the rhythm, clap, speak the text in rhythm, try dynamic changes out with your voice
• take a 10-min. break every hour
• practice in more than one chunk of time during the day
• eat 3 healthy meals every day (don’t skip a meal in order to practice!)
• exercise!
• stretch your body and warm up your hands before practicing (5 min.)
• stretch your arms, shoulders, and back after practicing (5 more min.)

Computer use

The same awareness is important here.  Look at your setup, use good body alignment (don’t lie on your bed, resting on your elbows).  Take breaks.  Move your arms, shoulders, and back when you type, like you would on an old manual typewriter with tiered keys.  Stretch before and after computer work.

Computers probably demand more fast work without breaks than practicing an instrument.  No one talks about good body alignment in workplaces.  Deadlines are much more important.  (Fed-Ex leaves in 5 minutes!  Are you done yet?)  And, unless you’re self-employed, you’re likely to have someone who wants you to produce more, faster than you need to be going.  Pressure means vulnerability to injury.

Why not take a look at your usual approach to the computer during your time off, at home?  Try looking at yourself in the mirror, or ask a friend to help.

At work, you can set your phone alarm to alert you once an hour.  Stand up, walk around, stretch, breathe, and something relaxing.  Take a break!  The up side of leaving your work where it is for a few minutes is, you won’t turn into a pretzel!

What do you think?  What is your approach to practice and computer use?  Do you have certain ways of going about it that work particularly well for you?  Do you take breaks?

Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comment section below!

You can read more articles on this blog about ergonomics here.

Also, while you’re here, please take a look at my E-book!

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Thoughts on music for Sunday, August 11th

Tags

choosing music, Church service, coordinating organ music with hymns, Gerhard Krapf, Paul Manz

Last week’s post about choosing music that could do well either outdoors or in generated lots of traffic.  So I thought I’d post the music and thoughts about the process of choosing it for this week, too!

This week our service will be held indoors.

My goal is always to enhance the service.  So I look for the “givens,” i.e. the scripture readings, hymns and prayers that are already in place.  The music should be compelling, add variety, and help shape the service into an integrated whole. While looking at this week’s parameters, I found some organ music directly related to the hymns.  That made an excellent starting point.

Prelude

How Firm a Foundation     Early American tune (1787), arr. Mark Thewes (b. 1954)

This is an alternate harmonization of our first hymn for today.

Mr. Thewes is Organist and Director of Music at Westbrook Park United Methodist Church in Ohio.

Offertory

Pastoral     Paul Manz (1919-2009)

I was introduced to the music of Paul Manz by Gerhard Krapf (1924-2008) at the University of Iowa during high school.  Manz’s music is both contemporary and accessible to listeners.  His writing feels like a breath of fresh air.

This link chronicles Mr. Krapf’s military service in Germany, his years of hard labor in a Russian camp, and his education.  As a teenager, I had not heard about his life, and he never talked about it.  Instead, he poured his energies into playing, teaching, and composition.

Closing Hymn

Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise     Traditional Welsh Melody (1839)

I will introduce this hymn with excerpts from an alternative version arranged by Rebecca K. Owens.  When using hymn introductions from outside the hymnal, I always alert the choir first.  This Sunday, the heads-up will go to individual choir members who will be sitting among the congregation.  (The choir has the summer off.)

Clicking on the link above will take you to comments by Erik Routley (1917-1982), who was Chaplain of Westminster Choir College for several years, including my time there.

Ms. Owens is the Senior Organist at the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Bethlehem, PA.

Postlude

Let Me Be Thine Forever     Chorale (1532)

This version of the tune changes energetically between 6/4 and 3/2 meters.  If someone is hearing the piece for the first time, the rhythm may come as a surprise.

How do you choose music for services?  Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

 

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Choosing music for an outdoor service… or not

Tags

Anticipating various scenarios, Clavinova, Mother Nature, Outdoor church service, Planning ahead, Sunday

(Image source: Wikipedia)

Our plan is to move the church service outdoors this Sunday.

When choosing music earlier in the week, the first thing I did was to look at the weather forecast.  As it turns out, we have deferred to Mother Nature twice already this summer.

For August 4th, AccuWeather.com predicts that it will be “partly sunny with a t-storm.”  With that in mind, I chose music that can move easily from a Clavinova outdoors to an acoustic piano inside if necessary.  (I’ll play piano this time so as to eliminate the possibility of last-minute pedal and registration changes.)

The music

The Clavinova has only one sound.  The volume can be raised or lowered with a toggle wheel, but there are no alternative sounds available (such as harpsichord, flute, etc.).  So the music needs to being written for one manual, and the ability to employ voicing to differentiate various parts (melody/accompaniment; fugue lines) will be quite limited.

I prefer playing sacred music for services, not piano preludes by Chopin and
Debussy,

The music needs to have an organ pedal part that can be played along with the manual parts (i.e. close to the left hand in range).  Another possibility would be to choose music with no organ pedal part at all.

Pieces that are 2 pages in length would eliminate page turns.  That way, when clothes pins are keeping the printed music steady, they can stay there for the entire piece.  (It’s safer!  Picture removing clothespins, turning the page, and re-clipping the clothespins, while playing the entire time.)

What else?

Although I have played services outdoors under the roof of a picnic shelter, the setting on Sunday will be completely in the open.  I will need hair clips and sunglasses.  

West Nile Virus has come to the area, so bug spray is a necessity.

And may I please borrow your dog to fetch the things I drop?

Thanks!

Repertoire for August 4th

Prelude
Come, Thou Almighty King     Martin Stellhorn
The organ pedal part can be played an octave higher.  This will allow the piece to move without arpeggiating the bass and tenor lines (to accommodate reaches wider than the span of the left hand).

Offertory
Praise God the Lord, Ye Sons of Men     Johann Gottfried Walther
This piece is contrapuntal, but is not a fugue.  The tune is clearly in the top voice, so it will be easily heard when played on a Clavinova.

Communion
I Come, O Savior, to Thy Table     Paul Kretzschmar
The embellished tune is a right-hand solo.  Played on the organ, a solo stop on a separate manual would be the way to go for clarity.  With the embellishments, the tune stands out from the slower left-hand rhythm, so I think it will be OK played on a Clavinova.

Postlude
Now Thank We All Our God     Georg Friedrich Kaufmann
This is a toccata with the tune in the top voice.

As it happened

This is a follow-up, added on Monday.

We had a beautiful day!  During the outdoor service, the breeze kicked up 2 or 3 times, but I was reduced to holding the music with one hand and playing with the other only once.  That was during a hymn.  With the congregation singing at the time, it was fine.

The Clavinova has more variety available in volume by touch than I had recalled from a year ago.  That was a welcome surprise.

In the offertory, the editor indicates in the score that the melody is to be played an octave higher when all parts are heard on the same manual.  I actually forgot during the service until the B section.  When moving up an octave, though, the sound was unsatisfactory for a melody.  So I went back to playing the score as notated.

Around 11:30 a.m., we had a few raindrops.  I was in Amherst by then.

Later on, we had light rain.  But the “t-storm” forecast never materialized.

Score!

Have I forgotten anything?

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

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Score reading and eye choreography, a repost with link

Tags

eye movement, Music, musical theater piano, playing from open score, score reading

Erik Joseph Campano has taken this post and added musical theater pianist skills at his excellent blog, The Orchestra Pit — Musical Theater Piano Central.

Please reread my post, then follow the link at the end for Erik’s astute additions!

English: The Oberek from Lowicz – The Lublin Polish Song and Dance Ensemble, choreography by Staś Kmieć – Mr. Kmiec’s ensemble: author Stas’ Kmiec’ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When you read a score at the piano, what are your eyes doing?

I’ve never attempted to put this into words before!

Piano scores

While teaching a piano lesson recently, my student was having problems negotiating the syncopation between the hands in “The Entertainer” by Scott Joplin.  It isn’t that easy, especially if you’re new to these requirements.

She would begin the piece well.  But when playing the tune the 2nd time, she made it through 1/2 a bar, omitted a bass note, and skipped a note in the right hand. 

As I was analyzing what happened in order to help her, I found myself needing to play the phrase in question.  I was sure my student was missing the bass note because she hadn’t seen it, and I needed to figure out what to tell her.  When would she need to move her eyes down the page?

This is what I discovered:

• Taking in all the notes may be impossible unless you move your eyes around the page.
• Merely looking ahead is not enough.  In that case, your eyes remain on the same level.  (For example, you will be taking in everything at, say, 2 inches from the top of the page, but not at 2-1/2 inches as well.)
• Looking from right hand to left hand notation vertically (directly up and down the page) will get you stuck.
• I found that my eyes were moving in a zig-zag pattern, more or less, like this:  \/\/\/\/\/.  When you have a long note or an easy passage in one hand, you need to be looking at the music for the other hand; then as soon as you’ve seen that music, look at the music for the opposite hand.

Piano/vocal or instrumental scores

When collaborating with a singer or instrumentalist, we should be looking at the solo part.  Glancing at the piano part is all that is necessary if we have practiced enough.

Chorus

Choral music may or may not have a piano reduction.  When it doesn’t, your eyes will be busy!  In a rehearsal today, I looked ahead for entrances in a 6-part piece.  When we rehearsed a faster piece later, I listened for parts that needed help and played those.  Solid chords on strong beats are helpful, especially during harmonic transitions between key levels.

If the parts are really spread out on the page, it is usually important to keep the bass line going.  The soprano part, which is easiest to hear, probably doesn’t need much help.  Inner parts are more difficult for the singers to hear, so concentrate on playing those.

The more parts there are, the more your eyes need to be actively scanning the page.  Once you’ve seen the notes, you can play them.  It takes a little time and some work to arrive at that point, but it is possible.

Don’t feel like you have to play all the notes.  If you can, great.  If not, focus on what matters most.  More notes will fall into place if you have a plan.

Playing what is needed is much more important to the success of a rehearsal than playing everything:

• Entrances for each part.
• Difficult intervals.
• Changes of key.
• Tempo changes.
• Instrumental interludes.
• Pitches in advance following solo passages, compositional sections, etc.
• More percussive, slightly louder playing when a part needs help getting back on track.

When there are instrumental parts added (as an obbligato, for instance), play those parts plus the bass line (of the piano part, if there is one; of the chorus otherwise) once the singers are fairly secure.

Every piece is different.  Every rehearsal is different.  What you play will change, too.  Stay alert, listen, and scan the page all the time.  Looking through a score quickly before you play anything can save you at page turns, repeats, key and tempo changes.

Good luck!

(Did I leave anything out?)

Erik has responded to my question here:  How to Move Your Eyes When Accompanying Musical Theater

How do you read scores?  Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

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Turning on a dime

Tags

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!

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Piano Glasses

Tags

Bifocals, Eyeglass prescription, Ophthalmology, Trifocal lenses

Eyeglass prescription (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

No, not glasses with pictures of pianos on them…
Also applies to cello glasses, trumpet glasses…

Does your vision correction allow you to see what you need to when you practice and perform? If you are over 40, perhaps not.

When bifocals become part of your correction, some things may be harder to see clearly.

Do we have to compromise?

Short answer:  no! Instead, we need to find an ophthamologist who understands the potential problems and can handle our request.

What do we need?

What each musician needs to see will vary depending his or her on instrument, whether s/he needs to see other players or a conductor, and other factors that only each person can know. I’m sure you have your own list.

Speaking for myself, I need to see all of the following clearly:

• printed music on an upright piano’s music rack
• the same on a grand piano’s music rack (different height and distance)
• the same on an organ’s music rack
• my collaborators, regardless of whether they are near the piano or across the room
• clarity, not blurriness, when moving my eyes quickly from the music to the keyboard and back

How can we find what we need?

When you go for an eye exam, discuss what you need with your doctor. If you get an evasive attitude, find another doctor.

During one eye appointment, I was ushered into the office of my opthamologist’s husband, who was an optician. (My doctor was out on an emergency call.)  When I told him my concerns, he excused himself to see another patient for 5 minutes. Upon his return, he said, “The prescription for what you need doesn’t exist.” Hmmm… so what does that mean, I have to stop playing?

After that, he strongly recommended trifocals. That won’t work for me because the center prescription area (middle distance) is so small.

There is an organist I’ve seen play in a local church who must be wearing bifocals. She is short in stature, making the music rack too high for her. (Music racks on organs are typically not adjustable.) Her solution: to tip her head back so she can see the music with the reading prescription at the bottom of her bifocals. And that’s fine if it works for her, but I don’t want to look like my neck is out of whack.

After my “it doesn’t exist” and trifocal experience, I quickly changed doctors.

At my first appointment with my new (and, happily, present) opthamologist, I explained what I needed. The doctor listened, then turned to his desk, took out a sheet of violin music, and rigged it up in front of the machine with the reading prescription he had in mind. “How’s that?”

I couldn’t believe it. He plays violin in his spare time! So he had heard everything I’d said before.

A cellist friend, on the other hand, explained what she needed to a different doctor. The doctor indicated that he understood and gave her a prescription. She picked up her new glasses a few days later, then went home to try them out during a practice session. The prescription was inadequate.

So she packed up her cello, music, stool, and stand, drove to the doctor’s office, walked in, set up, and showed him. Problem solved.

My solution for as long as possible

For the past few years, I have been wearing graduated bifocals. The reading prescription goes to the middle of the lens, higher than usual. I’ve been told that musicians often request this.

My opthamologist has suggested a separate pair of glasses with the reading prescription only to use for practicing and performing. When I need to go there, I will.

What is your solution? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Summer Concerts

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“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

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Review by pianist Robert W. Oliver

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