Playing the organ again!

It's been a crazy year, and I have neglected this blog for some time. I'm still homeschooling and teaching piano in the evenings, and now I am also the organist/accompanist for my church. My last organist position was in college, and I've missed it. The piano is still my favorite, but I really love the organ- I love that big, serious sound! Now to dig out some serious Bach and get my pedal feet in shape. :)

The latest in the Kirk/Picard debate- the Picardy Third.

Why all the finger numbers?

One of the most frustrating things about early piano method books is the dependence on finger numbers to locate notes. (For the non-piano-geeks, this is where, instead of a student looking at sheet music, seeing which line or space a note is on, and correlating that to a piano key, is simply seeing a number written above the note which correlates to one of the 10 fingers, 1-5 for each hand, and playing that finger.) Almost all of the students who have come to me from other teachers have had issues reading music- I think that this is why. I use Faber and Faber, which is a great deal better than some, and which tries to take students on little mini-trips out of the static hand positions, but I'm still not satisfied. Even in Faber, the letter names for the complete lines and spaces are not introduced until the second book. (Level 1) Thus, students get through the first 2-6 months only knowing the notes in C position, if that, and being completely dependent on finger numbers to locate notes. Presumably the reasoning is that the reading will come with time, (that's just supposition) but I think it's better to avoid those bad habits in the first place. Students get so, so locked into the hand positions if they are fingering-dependent, and that's a hard habit to break, irrespective of the actual reading issues. Then, of course, you have the physical/technique issues that come from rigid hand placement...... Until I find a method series I'm completely satisfied with, (hint hint, publishers!!) my m.o. is:

• Students start learning the names of the lines and spaces, all of them, via backronyms, (except for FACE, which is more just letters) midway through the Primer, or as soon as they start playing on both staves.
• I consciously supplement with "extra" theory worksheets, whether by myself or others, specifically emphasizing note naming/writing.
• We sightread. This is a lesson staple, especially for those struggling with the note reading. Sometimes the sightreading in the Theory book is enough; sometimes it isn't. I'm loving my full Finale suite right now for both the worksheets and sightreading exercises. 
• As soon as students are able, I supplement with extra pieces (some original to me, some not) which specifically move the student out of the five finger position. We do this with sightreading, too- sometimes I'll hand them a sheet with random notes all over the staff and instruct them to forget about the fingering and just play the notes. 
• Sometimes, I instruct students to just forget the fingering until they have the note names, then add it back in. This is generally only necessary with older students who can play far better than they can read.

It is so, so important for us as piano teachers to refuse to let our students get by with shoddy reading skills. If they miss this skill early, it's much harder to gain, with the relearning they'll have to do. I think that learning to "speak" (read, sing, play, etc) the language of music is much more important than finishing songs quickly, or doing new songs every week. Students have a tendency to evaluate their progress based on number of songs passed- this can be rather unfortunate, because sometimes we have to go back and learn skills that they missed as a beginner or put advancing in general competency above advancing with a specific piece. I try to show them the value in basic skills (of course we are also always working on some sort of music that they can reasonably pass in a week- going for weeks without any shift in repertoire would be hard for the young ones) and point out all the ways that actually knowing your stuff really does make it much easier down the road. To me, continuing to pass pieces a student can't read is like taking lessons in a foreign language and, instead of learning vocabulary, grammar, etc , just memorizing poems in that language. I say- why memorize a specific equation when you could memorize the formula?

Piano Audition Warm-ups

This video was shared by a friend on facebook, and it really made me laugh- especially the frustrated fist bangs. :) the excerpt from the G minor Ballade, particularly, brings back some wonderful and terrifying memories of practice rooms, auditions, juries, and playing really familiar pieces for the heck of it.

Google Search Terms

Apparently the top google search keywords this week which led people here were "ecclesiocracy concepts" and "piano jokes." I laughed. I do sometimes wonder if I should be trying to fit the musical/technical and theological/philosophical/political sides of me into the one blog, but they're both such a huge part of me that I think I'd lose something if I ditched one.

Practicing

Cross-posted from my studio blog: (http://guesspianostudio.weebly.com/1/post/2013/06/practicing.html)



This was written by a violinist, but is very applicable to pianists. Deliberate, intentional, reasonable practice is so, so important to musical improvement! When I was in college, I practiced 8-10 hours a day during some periods, and I paid for it in unpleasant physical symptoms. Practicing too much is an issue, especially for more advanced students; as I tell my students, practice smart!

 This article is well worth the read.
 
http://www.bulletproofmusician.com/how-many-hours-a-day-should-you-practice/

Coffee Cantata (BMV 211)

Ei! wie schmeckt der Coffee süße,

Ah! how sweet coffee tastes!

Lieblicher als tausend Küsse,

Lovelier than a thousand kisses,

Milder als Muskatenwein.

smoother than muscatel wine.

Coffee, Coffee muss ich haben,

Coffee, I must have coffee,

Und wenn jemand mich will laben,

and if anyone wants to give me a treat,

Ach, so schenkt mir Coffee ein!

ah!, just give me some coffee!

These words are from the first aria of Bach's Coffee Cantata. I love his sense of humor, and I could sing these words with some serious conviction.

Half Notes

I was trying to instill the concept of a half note's getting two beats, (not one, nor three) into a student's comprehension during a lesson and I almost started in with "2 shall be the number of the counting, and the number of the counting shall be 2. Only 2 shall ye count. Ye shall not count three, nor shall ye count one, excepting that ye then proceed to two. Four shall ye not count, and five is right out."

Improvisation

From the facebook status of Mark O'Connor, one of my favorite violinists:

I have gotten a lot of messages in the inbox and I am going to share this one: 

"I am an adult, advanced cellist. I am a cello performance major at Cal. State U. Northridge, classically trained. I love what you do. My problem is that I have not "fiddled" around enough on my cello. I am wedded to the written page. I have been working at improvising, using my ear, trying to break out of my classical box for about three years already and am making slow progress. Can you help me?"

Let me say, you have a LOT of company. Firstly... the ear training that string players "thought" they got as a child, is not ear training. Suzuki promised this to the student, and even traditional training has adopted this belief over the last couple generations now because of Suzuki's influence. If you ever learned something by ear as a young student, and you were in the current classical system of the last 50 years, it wasn't learning by ear, it was simply visual mimicking of either your teacher's fingering through repetition, or following your teacher's hand signals, or written symbols marking what finger to use. This is not ear training, it is learning music by a visual stimulus. Secondly, memorization for children is problematic. That is one of the biggest problems in our last couple generations of students, is that they are memorizing to the test. Memorization, the kind that Suzuki uses and other studios were influenced by consequently, is not ear training. Memorization utilizes sequential information and is related to remembering fingerings, patterns and finger sequences. It is a different brain path. In my own playing, when I use my auditory skills as a creative musician for playing or memorization, I imagine melody, harmony and rhythm and whatever I am supposed to play at once -whether it is worked out or not. It is why I can play my written concerto, have a memory lapse and make up some new notes instantaneously because I already knew what the harmonic and rhythmic context of it was. It is thinking through a different pathway. These problems in classical music learning have been accentuated by such early starts on the instruments over the last 50 years to where this particular "wiring" has been introduced so early in the child's brain development, that it is nearly impossible for an accomplished string player (such as yourself it sounds like) to undo.

What to do. There is no teacher that is going to undo this for you at this point, you will need what I call a cultural intervention. That could include learning an entirely different instrument creatively. For you I would actually suggest the fiddle since you are a cellist! Or the guitar, or mandolin. The other thing I would do, is to either go to weekly jam sessions with welcoming amateur players or actually join a rock or pop band or acoustic jamming ensemble and just make up everything you play and let the guitar, bass and keyboard player give you tips gradually over time. That is the best bet for an advanced classical musician at this point. It can work. Academic lessons in jazz, altered scales or theory will just waste your time as an adult, advanced player because academically you will approach it just like your classical wiring will allow you, and it won't be applicable. It is better for you to find the culture through the things I have mentioned! And please visit me at one of my seminars or camps one day soon!
I really like this. Honestly, it's far, far easier to teach music reading than improv ability. You can learn a degree of basic improv through theory, chord recognition, memorized patterns that can be played over a variety of meters, etc. This is how I've always taught music-dependent adult pianists to ”jam.” This is accessible to anyone, regardless of innate musical ability, because it is at its core the memorization and implementation of patterns and mnemonics. With some students, we go a step further- they will learn to hear, not just a note, but other notes that harmonize with it, or hear a melody and harmonize it logically/creatively in their head. Those that "have the ear" will take things, put their creative spin on them, and make something beautifully their own. Others will become competent enough to, say, play for a worship band, but they are more implementing patterns and harmonic habits than creating something clever and delightful.

All of my students learn to read music, and all of them are required to "practice" improvisation regularly. We practice, teach, and learn, but I must say I don't think the sort of creative thinking that allows us to improvise notes in a concerto based on harmonic and rhythmic context is taught that way- I've always believed it was more innate than learned. Therefore, I find Mr. O'Connor's perspective very interesting. Is this ability innate, or are we simply teaching it incorrectly? I think my experience affirms the former, but I wonder sometimes. Nature, or nurture? Either way, I like it. Improvising/composing have been natural to me since I was very small, and I don't think anyone ever "taught" me how, so it's been a fun journey as a teacher learning how to teach those for whom it does not come as naturally to "speak" that musical dialect.

In my opinion, there are too few musicians who can operate from sheet music, a chord sheet, or their own head with equal fluency. My goal is to foster this fluency in all my students, but I must say, some adapt to/become fluent in all the above with much greater ease than others. That nature is at least somewhat the culprit is clear; but if there is a way to narrow the gap I'd very much like to find it. 

The theory of enharmonicity.

Piano Jokes!

From Joy of Color in My Piano:

http://colorinmypiano.com/2010/03/23/best-piano-jokes/

Why is an 11-foot concert grand better than a studio upright?  Because it makes a much bigger kaboom when dropped over a cliff.

Why are pianists’ fingers like lightning?  They rarely strike the same place twice.

Why was the piano invented?  So the pianist would have a place to put his coffee.

What’s the difference between a piano accompanist and a terrorist?  You can negotiate with a terrorist.

What do you get when you drop a piano down a mineshaft?  A flat minor.

What do you get when you drop a piano on an army base?  A flat major.

What’s the difference between a pianist and a large pizza? A large pizza can feed a family of four.

Two people are walking down the street. One is a pianist; the other didn’t have any money either.

How do you make a million dollars playing the piano?  Start with two million.

Definition of a piano tuner: A person employed to come into the home, rearrange the furniture, and annoy the cat. The tuner’s chief purpose is to ascertain the breaking point of the piano’s strings.

Piano Tuner: I’ve come to tune the piano.

Music Teacher: But we didn’t send for you.

Piano Tuner: No, but the people who live across the street did.

How do you get two piano players to play in perfect unison?  Shoot one.

Did you hear about the piano player who played in rhythm?  Neither did I.

What do you get when an army officer puts his nose to the grindstone?  A sharp major.

The audience at a piano recital was appalled when a telephone rang just off stage. Without missing a note the soloist glanced toward the wings and called, “If that’s my agent, tell him I’m working!”

The piano player went into a coffee shop but kept fidgeting so much that he could not enjoy his coffee. Finally the server asked him what was wrong. The piano player replied, “My keys, my keys! I can’t seem to find my keys!”

My dad bought my mom a piano for her birthday.  A few weeks later, I asked how she was doing with it.

“Oh,” said my dad, “I persuaded her to switch to a clarinet.”

“How come?” I asked.

“Well,” he answered, “because with a clarinet, she can’t sing….”

Mrs. Smith needed to have her piano tuned so she asked a friend for a recommendation.  She then made an appointment with the piano tuner, Mr. Oppernockity.  He arrived 2 days later, tuned the piano satisfactorily, and left.  Several days later Mrs. Smith noticed that the piano was terribly out of tune again.  She called the tuner to complain about the tuning and to ask for a return visit to solve the problem.  However, the tuner replied, “I’m sorry ma’am, but Oppernockity only tunes once!”

A pianist and singer are rehearsing “Autumn Leaves” for a concert and the pianist says:?”OK. We will start in G minor and then on the third bar, modulate to B major and go into 5/4. When you get to the bridge, modulate back down to F# minor and alternate a 4/4 bar with a 7/4 bar. On the last A section go into double time and slowly modulate back to G minor.”? The singer says: “Wow, I don’t think I can remember all of that.” The pianist says: “Well, that’s what you did last time.”

When Beethoven passed away, he was buried in a churchyard. A couple days later, the town drunk was walking through the cemetery and heard some strange noise coming from the area where Beethoven was buried. Terrified, the drunk ran and got the priest to come and listen to it. The priest bent close to the grave and heard some faint, unrecognizable music coming from the grave. Frightened, the priest ran and got the town magistrate. When the magistrate arrived, he bent his ear to the grave, listened for a moment, and said, “Ah, yes, that’s Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, being played backwards.” He listened a while longer, and said, “There’s the Eighth Symphony, and it’s backwards, too. Most puzzling.” So the magistrate kept listening; “There’s the Seventh… the Sixth… the Fifth…” Suddenly the realization of what was happening dawned on the magistrate; he stood up and announced to the crowd that had gathered in the cemetery, “My fellow citizens, there’s nothing to worry about. It’s just Beethoven decomposing.”

I love this. Rehearsal police, indeed....

If you are into classical music and you haven't seen this, it's worth a giggle.

http://www.schickele.com/

PDQ Bach is the Weird Al Yankovic of Classical Music. The alter ego of Peter Schickele, PDQ Bach is a fictional character who is used for spoofing Classical Music in a way that is intelligent, witty, and lots of fun.

Set Theory what? Awesome... =)

http://www.jaytomlin.com/music/settheory/

And also from JayTomlin.com....

75 Signs You Might be a Theory Geek

1. you whistle in style brisé.
2. your favorite pickup line is, "What's your favorite augmented sixth chord?"
3. your second favorite pickup line is, "Would you like to raise my leading tone?"
4. you have ever played the how-many-episodes-is-too-many-episodes fugue game.
5. you have a poster of Allen Forte in your room.
6. you know who Allen Forte is.
7. you dream in four parts.
8. your biological clock follows a non-retrogradable isorhythm.
9. you can improvise 16th-century counterpoint with no trouble, but you frequently forget how to tie your shoes.
10. you will look at a piece by Bach and say, "You know, I think he could have gotten a better effect this way . . ."
11. you expected something quite different out of The Matrix.
12. you can answer your phone with a tonal or a real answer.
13. you like to tease your friends and loved ones with deceptive cadences.
14. you know how large a major 23rd is without having to count.
15. you only drink fifths, and then you laugh at the pun.
16. you feel the need to end Tchaikovsky's Pathétique Symphony with a picardy third.
17. your favorite characteristic of Brahms's music is the subcutaneous motivic play.
18. instead of counting sheep, you count sequences.
19. you find free counterpoint too liberal.
20. Moussorgsky's "Hopak" gives you nightmares.
21. you wonder what a Danish sixth would sound like.
22. you long for the good old days of movable G-clefs.
23. the Corelli Clash gives you goosebumps. Every time.
24. you can hear an enharmonic modulation coming a mile away.
25. you can hear Berg's lover's dog coming a mile away.
26. you have had to be forced to stop labeling motives.
27. you confuse fishsticks with ground bass.
28. you found No. 27 funny.
29. you have ever quoted Walter Piston.
30. you like to march to the rhythm of L'histoire du soldat.
31. your license plate says: PNTONL.
32. you have ever defended yourself with, "But Gesualdo did it!"
33. you have ever tried to do a Schenkerian analysis on "Three Blind Mice."
34. you have ever tried to do a Schenkerian analysis on 4'33''.
35. you have ever had a gebrauchsmusik party.
36. you have ever tried to hop onto the omnibus.
37. you like to wake up to a Petrushkated version of "Reveille."
38. you lament the decline of serialism.
39. you know what the ninth overtone of the harmonic series is off the top of your head.
40. you keep the writings of Boethius on the coffee table.
41. you have ever dressed up as counterpoint for Halloween.
42. you have ever written a musical palindrome and given it a witty title.
43. you can name ten of Palestrina's contemporaries.
44. you have ever found a typographical error in a score by Ives, Nancarrow, or Babbitt.
45. you have ever heard a wrong note in a performance of a composition by Ives, Nancarrow, or Babbitt.
46. you already sensed that if this list had been written by Bartók, this would be the funniest item.
47. you enjoy the tang of a tritone whenever you can.
48. you've let the rule of the octave determine how you go from one event of the day to the next.
49. you have ever played through your music as if the fingering markings were figured bass symbols.
50. you suspiciously check all the music you play for dangling sevenths.
51. you have devised your own tuning method.
52. you keep a notebook of useful diminutions.
53. you have composed variations on a theme by Anton Webern.
54. you know the difference between a Courante and a Corrente.
55. you have trained your dog to jump through a flaming circle of fifths.
56. you have ever used the word fortspinnung in polite conversation.
57. you feel cheated by evaded cadences.
58. you organize phone numbers based on their prime form.
59. you find it amusing to refer to you ear-training course sections as your "pitch classes."
60. every now and again you like to kick back and play a tune in hypophrygian mode.
61. you wonder why there aren't more types of seventh chords.
62. you wish you had twelve fingers.
63. you like polytonal music because, hey, the more keys the merrier.
64. you abbreviate your shopping list using figured bass symbols.
65. you always make sure to invert your counterpoint, just in case.
66. you have ever told a joke with a punchline of: because it was polyphonic!
67. you have ever named a pet, instrument, boat, gun or child after Zarlino.
68. you have an <0 1 4> tattoo.
69. your lips may say, "perfect fourth," but in your heart it will always be "diatessaron."
70. you have ever said, "Yes, didn't Scriabin use that sonority in . . ."
71. you know dirty acronyms for the order of sharps.
72. you can name relatives of the "Grandmother Chord."
73. you're still wondering why I haven't included the "must-resolve-the- dominant-seventh-before-going-to-bed" indicator.
74. you can not only identify any one of Bach's 371 Harmonized Chorales by ear, but you also know what page it is on in the Riemenschneider edition and how many suspensions it has in the first four bars.
75. you got more than half of the jokes on this list.

by Jonathan Howard Katz, IU Class of 2001

I love Bach!

One of my favorite stress relievers is just sitting down, turning on the Mass in B Minor or one of my favorite keyboard works and just getting lost in the order and beauty of it. I love that, while remaining in such narrow parameters of style, Bach's music has such variety! I never tire of it. It calms my mind and nourishes my soul. =)