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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Thank you!

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Q&A: Can the prelude to a church service be sung?

Tags

arts, church music, Church service, order of worship, Prelude

Light Singers – 61 (Photo credit: pixiduc)

Short answer:  there is nothing that says “no” to this in all cases.

You would need to check out each situation.

A more detailed answer:

In my experience, the congregation is in “music on the side” mode before the service begins.

There are also some situations where singing could work:

A pre-service concert series

One church where I’ve performed concerts designates one Sunday per month as their concert Sunday.  The musician(s) play a half-hour program which is followed immediately by the service.  The congregation arrives 1/2 hour before the usual service time expecting to listen to the music.

A sung pre-service concert would be wonderful!

Congregation expects to listen

At The Riverside Church in New York, the prelude occasionally consisted of Mozart sonatas for piano and violin.  William Sloan Coffin, who was trained as a concert pianist, enjoyed teaming up with an accomplished violinist from the congregation.  However, at Riverside, the congregation is accustomed to hearing great music played by organists at the top of their field.  People come early, find a seat, remain quiet, and listen.

A singer would be comfortable in this situation.

Most of the time

My suggestion would be to include a singer after the service has begun. When the minister is at the front of the sanctuary and the call to worship or opening prayer has been spoken, people are more settled.

Why planning matters

Choir members at a nearby church (not mine) told me that when they sang an anthem as the prelude, nobody listened.

The text of a song or anthem is much more important than background music.   We need to keep that in mind when deciding where to place sung music in the service.

People who write advice columns about party/dinner planning say that instrumental music works best when guests are talking.  The prelude can be seen in the same way.  The congregation is just arriving, and they want to greet one another.  When they are talking, the text of a song is lost.

Please comment!  What have you experienced with sung preludes?

 

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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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Q&A: “Can a non-coloratura sing ‘Rejoice Greatly?'”

Tags

"Rejoice Greatly", arts, Coloratura soprano, Haendel, Messiah, Soprano

questions & answers (photo credit: flickr)

Someone did a search for this question on my blog.

Short answer:  Yes!

“Rejoice Greatly” is written for soprano, not specifically coloratura soprano.  When a “non-coloratura” sings the aria, a slower tempo would be indicated.  The voice needs more time to navigate the melismas.  (Scroll down after you click on the link for the best visual example of melismas.)

Listening to, say, 3 different singers gives us a better idea of matching the tempo to the voice.

In addition to the individual singer’s voice, acoustics must also be considered to ensure clarity.

Hope this helps!

Clara Clairbert, Belgian soprano (1890-1969)

(source: Historical Opera Singers)
(photo credit: flickr)

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

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Q&A: Neck pain and the piano

Tags

health, neck pain, pain management

A Pain That I’m Used To (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Any type of pain associated with playing an instrument needs to be addressed.

Let’s talk about neck pain in this post, though, to keep things manageable for readers.

Onset

When and how did your neck pain start? What were you doing at the time?

What do you do when not playing the piano? For example, do you drive long distances? Work at a desk? Use a computer for long periods of time?

Possible causes

Your work setup, car seat, steering wheel angle, different mattress, different pillow, bicycle handlebars, even not wearing sunglasses outdoors can all be factors.

Look at your practice setup.

• Bench too high or too low?
• Enough light?
• Music at a comfortable height?
• Have you had your eyes checked recently?
• Body alignment
• Drafty room
• Cold room
• A glare on the music
• Recent changes in technique
• Practicing too long without a break
• Learning a lot of notes all at the same time
• Sight-reading for hours

A look at some other factors

• Not getting enough sleep.
• Not eating regular meals.
• Being under the weather.

• Anemia
• Virus
• Having a cold
• Coming down with something
• Dental issues
  

Possible solutions

• Ask a friend to watch you play
• Videotape yourself playing
• Make small changes as indicated above
• Stretch before and after practice
• See a doctor who treats musicians
• Get a massage
• See a chiropractor
• Work with a physical therapist or sports trainer to strengthen back and shoulder muscles

Letting pain continue while proceeding as usual is not a solution, but will exacerbate the problem. Even if you are busy, have several performances coming up, or can think of a list of reasons not to address the pain, you must. Your longevity as a musician depends on it.

Have you experienced neck pain from playing the piano? What did you do about it?

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Summer Concerts

See complete details about Rocky Hill Concerts. 4 Sunday afternoons in July in air-conditioned comfort!

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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Q&A, talking during organ prelude (cont.), this & that

Cover art for Potpourri by the artist P-Model ~ image via Wikipedia

Welcome to my potpourri!

Q&A

1.  How does one memorize bass lines?

This is a foolproof way to memorize inner parts as well.

• Practice the bass line separately, musically, as you would a melody.
• Write in good fingerings.
• Can you sing the bass line away from the piano?

2.  How can one avoid being nervous before a jury?

This also applies to other performances, of course.

• You are going to be nervous. Don’t deny it. That just makes it worse.
• Focus on what you are going to do.
• Don’t talk to people. That dissipates your energy.
• Practice slow breathing.
• Channel your nervous energy into the performance. This becomes easier the more you perform.

Talking during the organ prelude in church (cont.)

Florence, an organist and blogger, commented on my April 13th post, Don’t drown out the organist!, then followed up with a post on the Pedal Points

blog on the same topic. You will find some interesting comments there, as well as some terrific prior posts.

This and that

Now that it’s almost summer and the colleges are out, I am readjusting my focus. During the past several weeks I have usually felt like there wasn’t enough time. Have you ever felt like you were always in the wrong place and needed to be somewhere else in 5 minutes?

Those circumstances are not conducive to detailed practicing. I was throwing in a lot of last-minute fingerings, keeping one step ahead of sight-reading but not much more (at least that’s the way I felt).

Yes, I can do that. But I don’t enjoy doing only that.

Today I practiced solo piano music (a Bach Prelude and Fugue and 2 movements of Debussy’s Children’s Corner) in a concentrated way for the first time in weeks! It’s so nice to be able to take the time to truly listen and sink into the keys. Since I have a solo recital on July 22nd, this needs to happen now.

I also practiced organ music on the piano for the Sunday service.

And I am taking my time(!) to learn Patience by Gilbert & Sullivan. Having time (a month before the run-through!) means being able to find ideal fingerings and really learn the piece. That way, when I’m more stressed in the Fall (rehearsals will be in September and October), I won’t be so concerned if a practice session is shorter than I’d like.

Does your focus change depending on what you’re playing? What about the time of year? 

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Summer Concerts

 

See complete details about Rocky Hill Concerts.  4 Sunday afternoons in July in air-conditioned comfort!

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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Q&A: How do you get your congregation to sing?

Tags

church choir, Church service, Congregation

Although I can’t take credit for the singing of “my” congregation, which was already singing well when I took the job, maybe a few suggestions will help.

• Play an introduction:  2 phrases or the refrain usually work well.

• If the hymn is new to the congregation, play an entire verse as the introduction.

• No ritard at the end.  You want the congregation to sing in tempo.

• Add time (silence, to let the congregation know when to breathe) before the 1^st verse, and between verses (at least a one-beat  rest).

• Use 8′ and 4′ stops so the congregation can hear you.
• If you are playing the organ, introduce more silence in hymn-playing than in other music you play.
• If you are playing the piano, your playing needs to be assertive and more percussive in hymns, with less pedal.

• Have the choir face the congregation during hymns.

• Rehearse hymns in advance with the choir (important words, phrasing, tempo).

• Ask the choir to sing the 1^st verse in unison.

• Play the 1^st verse as written (no added notes, no rubato).

• You could have a mini-workshop during the service to introduce an unfamiliar hymn.

• Include notes in the bulletin:  something interesting about the tune, composer, or poet.  Or speak briefly during the service once in a while.

• Ensure that your hymn-playing is very clear, with silence for breaths, good rhythm, and enthusiasm.  Are you playing too slow?  (If everyone keeps running out of breath, it’s too slow.)  Too fast?  (If people don’t have time to get the words out, it’s too fast.)  If the hymn is new to you, ask the choir to help you find the tempo.

• Sing every hymn several times during the week before the service. Singing gives you the tempo, and you will breathe with the congregation.  Keep in mind that you may have more vocal training than those in the congregation.  Untrained singers need more time to breathe, find the next verse, etc.
• Change stops between verses.
• Find other ways to add variety.
• If you want to change key between verses, play an interlude of at least 2 bars so people can tell what’s going on!  (One chord will only confuse them.)
• Listen to what’s going on during the hymn in the service.  You might come up with something on the spur of the moment.

• Attend services at other churches to hear what they do with the hymns.  (I learned a great deal that way!)  Many churches have more than one service on Sundays, or mid-week.  Experiencing the singing in different denominations is fascinating.

• Find a hymn workshop. Whether it be singing or playing, there is a lot to learn.
• Organize a hymn sing.
• If having the choir lead the hymns by facing the congregation still doesn’t result in progress, disperse the choir members throughout the congregation.
• And above all, don’t be boring!

Good luck!

How do you get your congregation to sing?

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Related post

• Creative hymn playing (gretchenspianos.wordpress.com)

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!

August 2011 review by pianist Robert W. Oliver

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Q&A: What is a Voice Teacher?

Tags

arts, Music, vocal coach, voice teacher

Leontyne Price ~ Image by cliff1066™ via Flickr

Readers frequently search this blog to find the difference between a vocal coach and a voice teacher.

This is a very important question, and it’s crucial to know the difference.

One of my previous posts talks about vocal coaching.

Teachers and coaches are indeed different.  Since I am a coach but not a voice teacher, I would like to recommend the blogs of 2 excellent voice teachers:

Susan Eichhorn-Young is the author of “Once More with Feeling.”  Her post entitled “Armchair pedagogues and egotists” would be a great place to begin reading.

Rachel Day Velarde’s blog also clarifies the difference.  I recommend “My Job as a Voice Teacher Is…” as a first stop.  It’s great to see Rachel using slightly different words to further answer this question!

Happy reading!

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

E-books

Goal-oriented Practice
Review by pianist and conductor Andrei Strizek

When You Buy a Piano

How to Maintain Your Piano

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Q&A: sight-reading in chorus rehearsals

Tags

chorus, Music, piano, rehearsal, Sight reading

Image via Wikipedia

Sight-reading in chorus rehearsals is different from sight-reading on our own.

If you’re thinking that you’ll always have the music ahead of time, it isn’t going to happen.  From time to time you will be sight-reading in rehearsal.

Sight-reading choral music has its own requirements

It’s about the rehearsal, not the piano part.

Any choral score has more staves than most piano music.

Singers need to hear their parts clearly.

Singers need to hear anything else that helps them sing their part.

We can omit whatever is going well in the chorus.  (When the soprano part is the melody, that can most likely be omitted.  It is the easiest to hear, and the singers will “get it” the most quickly.)

We don’t need to expect to play everything.   Ornaments and arpeggiated chords, for example, can confuse people on first hearing.

The rehearsal is better served when we know what comes next.  Singers benefit from hearing any changes.

Bass lines are good to play.  They give singers something to build their harmonies on.

What we need to know before we play

Use the time the conductor takes to introduce the piece to the chorus.  Look through the entire piece for repeats and key, meter and tempo changes.

If you must play immediately, look ahead while holding long notes.  You can turn pages long enough to check something out quickly.

While playing, look for entrances, difficult vocal leaps, changes in meter, key, tempo, 2nds between parts, lines that switch parts, syncopation ~ anything unusual.  Then be sure to play everything you found.

Adjustments we must make

Sight-reading with a conductor requires that we forget about ourselves.  Believe it or not, this is conducive to playing a good rehearsal.

Fingering, possible mistakes, even our own comfortable tempo must be of no concern.  We should be fine with all that by now, knowing that its place is in our practice sessions.  In rehearsal, it is crucial ​to let go and not get in our own way.

Our focus is on the conductor as well as the entire room and the sound of the group.

Piano reductions

A piano reduction in an unaccompanied choral piece (where the piano part is marked “for rehearsal only”) is the singers’ parts.  Right now you’re saying, “Whew!  I’ll play from that!”  Right?

Not so fast!

We cannot rely on reductions exclusively.

Read the parts too, as you’re playing.  Repeated notes in vocal parts may be tied in a reduction.  Singers need to hear their parts accurately.  That may involve syncopation.  A voice part may have important notes playing off other parts rhythmically.

Open score

There may be a piano reduction that someone made for you.  Is it accurate?

During graduate school, I played rehearsals for The Philadelphia Singers.   The group was preparing Poulenc’s “Figure Humaine.”  The piece is scored for 16-part double chorus with no piano reduction.  Although the assistant conductor had written out a piano reduction for me (after the 2nd or 3rd rehearsal), it was full of errors.  (Poulenc isn’t so easy!)  I already knew the score and had been playing from that.  So, after playing a few bars with mistakes from the reduction, I switched back to the original.

When the conductor, Michael Korn, wanted to make a starting place clear at one point during the rehearsal, he assumed I had been playing from the reduction.  Since the layout was different between the reduction and the score, he came over to the piano to point out where he wanted to begin.  He  was astounded that I had been playing 16 parts from open score.  I felt it would have been a waste of rehearsal time not to.

Our job is to facilitate rehearsal.  Other concerns such as fingering or “performing” the music (with all the notes) should not be part of sight-reading in a chorus rehearsal.

How do you approach sight-reading in chorus rehearsals?  Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Many thanks to the person who searched for this topic.

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Q&A: Playing organ pedals in stocking feet

Tags

Music, organ, pedals

Image via Wikipedia

One word:  don’t!

Here’s why…

• you’ll slip off the pedals
• or, you’ll waste concentration and energy making sure you don’t slip
• you’ll stretch the back of your heel too far
• playing a third will be impossible (C and E, say, with toe and heel at the same time ~ your instep will play the D in between the notes you want ~ you need a shoe with a heel)

Organ shoes rock!  If you use them only to play the organ (i.e. don’t even wear them outside), they will last for years.  You’ll be glad you took the plunge.

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