Piano Practice Tips

Music Christmas Crafts

2011-11-19T14:21:00.001-08:00

Christmas is approaching so here are a couple of crafts I made for my studio.

1. Music Candle Holder - I photocopied music onto some tracing paper, wraped the paper around a glass tumbler and taped the seam. I then placed a small battery operated led light ornament inside to illuminate the music!

2. Magazine Christmas Tree - These Christmas trees were made out of old magazines. The white one was made out of Hal Leonard Level 5 Classical Themes book. I had a spare copy. Only three folds per page. Takes about 1 hour to complete each tree. I should have sprayed each tree with glue and sprinkled glitter but I think they look fine as is.

iPad App: ShowMe (Interactive Whiteboard)

2011-08-25T16:01:00.000-07:00

This is a personal interactive whiteboard ideal for any teacher!

ShowMe allows the teacher to record voice-over whiteboard tutorials and share them online. It’s extremely easy to use.

As soon as you open the app you can begin recording, there is no need to navigate complicated menus.

Images can be dropped from the photo library to write over or around.

It's easy to switch between drawing and erasing (as well as pausing and playing.)

You can make your tutorials as long or as short as you like, and record as many tutorials as you want.

Once you’re finished recording, you can upload your tutorial to share with the community or keep it private.

A VARIETY OF USES FOR THE MUSIC TEACHER
* Easily explain a range of music theory topics.
* Add tutorials to blogs and websites
* Email tutorials to students

* Use during private and group lessons

FEATURES
- Voice-record
- Multiple brush colors
- Pause and erase
- Import images
- Unlimited lesson length
- Easy embedding for sharing anywhere

BEST THING IS IT'S FREE!

Exercise Book Alternative

2011-08-22T16:23:00.000-07:00

Over the last 15 years of teaching piano, I have been writing down assignments on students' notebooks. Last week I decided to change this habit and use email instead.
I have been emailing assignments to students from my iPad and it saves a lot of lesson time.

I use two iPad apps during lessons for this purpose:

1. Teacher Pal (I could write a whole post just on this app)

2. Email

I created 6 classrooms on TeacherPal. One for each day of the week I teach.

Next, I created an account for each student in each classroom. I took a photo of each student.

I then, individualized each students' account. This took ages to do but once it's all set up, only minor changes are needed week to week.

At the end of the lesson, I send a copy of my comments, suggestions and assignments to the student.

The great thing about email is that I can attach audio files to student emails. Last night, I video recorded a section of music (with iPad) that the student was playing incorrectly and attached it to his email. General knowledge information such as composer biographies can be copied and pasted straight from the internet.
This is something I would not be able to do in an exercise book!

How Mozart K448 can increase your IQ

2011-07-26T17:03:00.000-07:00

Does listening to Mozart make you smarter? According to a landmark neuroscience research study out of the University of California, Mozart’s sonata for two pianos K448 can increase your spatial-temporal IQ scores by 9 points. While the duration of the effect on your brain is only about 10-15 minutes, the findings are nonetheless fascinating.

Spatial-temporal intelligence allows you to perform 3-D type manipulations on a mental image. It’s thought to be important for problems that arise in areas such as “mathematics, engineering, architecture, science, art, games (e.g. chess) and everyday life”.

This original study, published by Rauscher in the journal Nature, has given birth to what is now known as ‘The Mozart Effect‘. While many people have used the research to peddle exaggerated claims and products (like Mozart music tapes for parents to play in their child’s nursery), I think there is clearly something noteworthy going on with this type of music and the brain.

For example, further research shows that K448:
Significantly increases the speed & ability of rats navigating through mazes Strikingly diminishes the number of seizures in patients with epilepsy

What is so special about K448? How might it power up your brain? According to one Mozart authority, K448 is “one of the most profound and most mature of all Mozart’s compositions”.

A more scientific explanation, however, may have been uncovered by the work of Neurology Professor John Hughes. As he comments in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine:…we have found a long-lasting periodicity in the power of Mozart’s music, seen also with JS Bach and his son JC Bach. Furthermore we have just analyzed the melodic line and find that Mozart repeats his melodic line far more frequently than other well-known composers, but often in an ingenious manner reversing the notes. We feel that periodicity is the key or secret here and characterizes many brain and bodily functions.

In other words, Mozart’s K448 is characterized by a high degree of long-term periodicity. The music cycles, with elements recurring at regular intervals.

While I do think that certain types of music can have interesting and significant effects on brain function, I do not believe merely listening to Mozart can drive long term gains in brain power. (And if you look at the findings of the original ‘Mozart Effect’ research paper, the authors never claimed such).

Click here to listen to Mozart K448.

iPad App: Music Cubes and Music Tones

2011-07-25T05:34:00.000-07:00

This morning I found a couple of free apps (Music Cubes and Music Tones) for my iPad.

Music Cubes is a music memory game where you have to memorize pitch patterns.
Music Tones is where you identify notes on the treble and bass staves.

I'm going to use Music Cubes with my 7th grade piano students to help them prepare for the memorization test in the aural section of the exam.

Music Tones will be great for students just learning to identify notes on the treble and bass staves.

I plan to have a lot of fun with these two apps with my students.

Teaching Rhythm

2011-07-06T06:06:00.000-07:00

I was in Bunnings hardware store and found a useful way of using paint sample cards to teach rhythm. These sample cards are free so I asked if I could take 5-6 of each color. It took nearly an hour just to get the cards.

I bought some sparkly colored number stickers ($1.50 per pack) and stuck the numbers on the paint cards to form various time signatures. I taped the cards together to form a cube.

There are two other cubes made in the same way:
1. BEAT: crotchet, quaver, dotted crotchet, minim
2. PULSES: quaver and semiquaver

Then, I made number cards (1-12) to represent quaver pulses. I just stuck the number stickers directly onto smaller sized paint cards and numbers 1-4 on some clear cream bottle tops I found in my cupboard. These represent the beats.

Here are some pictures of the finished product and how to use:

Crayola Dry Erase Activity Centre - My New Toy!

2011-07-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

I was in K-Mart yesterday and found the most amazing new teaching toy for my studio. I was so excited that people around me thought I was a bit weird. Anyway, it's called 'Crayola Dry Erase Activity Centre'.

The Dry Erase Activity Centre has a pocket on the side that allows the teacher to slip a worksheet inside and then use a dry erase marker on the top surface.
I will certainly be using this in my private studio and in the primary school I teach at.

Cost: $18.00 AUD

General Knowledge Worksheets (AMEB Theory Grade 4)

2011-06-23T05:31:00.000-07:00

There are 5 worksheets in this collection:
1. Vocal Ranges (Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass)
2. String Tunings (Violin, Viola, Cello and Double Bass)
3. Baroque Ornaments
4. Baroque Suite (Speed and Time)
5. Baroque Suite (Characteristics)

Print on stiff white paper and place in clear plastic pockets or you may wish to laminate it. Students can use dry erase markers to fill-in the worksheets.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Intervals Worksheet (AMEB Theory of Music - Grade 1)

2011-06-22T21:15:00.000-07:00

This worksheet (DOWNLOAD HERE) can be used by teachers to revise over intervals.

Students and teachers should note that only 3 keys (C,G and F major) will be examined in this grade (AMEB Theory of Music First Grade).

The most common mistake in writing intervals above given notes in this grade is forgetting to place a sharp in front of F above G and a flat before B above F.
C major causes no problems.

Matters of the Heart

2011-06-22T18:39:00.000-07:00

It's so nice and comforting to know that students and parents appreciate all the things a teacher does.

Last night, I was presented with some home-made chocolate biscuits which were so beautifully presented. My heart just melted.

It's thoughts and actions like these that really encourages me to to do the very best for my students.

I feel so lucky that I have the opportunity to work with such amazing families and students.

The cookies were delicious!

24.6.11
Just cleaning out my sticker draw and found this. This lovely sticker set was given to me by Kloe. Kloe was my last student tonight and we (Kloe, Kloe's mum and I) had such a great time playing Interval Towers.

Triads Worksheet (Theory of Music - AMEB Grade 3)

2011-06-22T17:33:00.000-07:00

This worksheet was created for my (Australian Music Examinations Board) Grade 3 Theory of Music Class.

A lot of my students forget to raise the leading note in minor dominant triads (root position and first inversion) so this worksheet was a result of this common error.

I use this worksheet to revise over triads during lesson time so it's easier to make copies and laminate it. Students use a dry erase marker to complete the worksheet. I re-use these with other students and classes.

Feel free to use this worksheet. Click here to download.

Organized Music Collection

2011-06-19T02:24:00.000-07:00

Having an organized studio helps save valuable lesson time. My books/CD's are all in order so it's easy to find during lessons and no time is wasted searching.

I have loaded all my CD's on my laptop which sits on top of the piano. It's now very simple to play a recording for a student. No more going to the CD library, inserting the CD etc...

I store all my flash cards in a door shoe rack. It's so easy to find as one pocket stores one set of flash cards. I have yet to put labels on the front of each pocket.

Brahms Rhapsody in B minor Op.79 No.1

2011-06-18T18:41:00.000-07:00

I am currently learning this piece for fun and what a challenge it has turned out to be! It is expected to be finished by the end of next month (July 2011). I'm rewarding myself with an Ipad 2 once completed.

Classical Connect - Free classical music online

General Knowledge and Technical Work

2011-06-18T17:44:00.001-07:00

General Knowledge: I printed out on yellow paper the most common questions asked by AMEB examiners on piano examination day. I cut them in the shape of stars. When it's time for general knowledge during a lesson, I ask the student to select a star and answer the question printed on the star. Depending on time, the aim is to answer all 18 questions correctly. I also place transparency paper over the top of the students sheet music and ask student to mark the form and all modulations using whiteboard markers (Crayola Dry Erase is the best!!).

Technical Work: I divided all the exam technical work (AMEB) for each grade into groups (A, B, C, D etc...) and printed them out on colored paper and laminated it. Each week I choose a group to check. For example, this week was group B, next week will be group C etc... Over a period of 1 month, all technical work is checked. I make a note of which technical work a student is having trouble with and check that one each week until it's fixed. I set many challenges with these problem scales such as:

1. Play the scale from memory once correctly.
2. Be able to play the scale in contrary motion
3. Play a four octave version of this scale.
4. Play the scale that covers the entire keyboard.
5. Play the scale three times in a row without error.
6. Play the scale 10 times in a row without error,
7. Play the scale 25 times correctly within a 3 minute time limit.
8. Play the scale for 3 minutes continuously without a single mistake.
9. Play the scale in front of a total of six different people.
10. Start the lesson with this scale , no mistakes, first attempt.
11. Play the scale super-slow with no mistakes at 60bpm, 4 beats per note.
12. Commentate the scale by describing the notes and fingering of the entire scale without actually playing it.
13. Play the scale in splat cluster.
14. Play the scale with eyes closed.
15. Play the scale on a tabletop.
16. To play a piece in the key of the scale in question.
17. Collect 250 octaves of this scale.

I have plenty more such as playing scales in various rhythms, articulations, dynamics, ratio, balance, interval, contrary and cacophony of other twists.

Whole-Step and Half-Step Sprint

2011-06-18T17:37:00.000-07:00

Students having a bit of fun towards the end of a theory class playing Whole-Step and Half-Step Sprint. What a fun way to learn all about tones and semitones!

DOWNLOAD GAME

Interval Tower Game

2011-06-18T17:13:00.000-07:00

I was so excited when I found this game online and could not wait to try it out with my students.

Each student had to draw an interval card, identify the interval and then add the number of blocks to his or her tower. The next person does the same.

They played back and forth until all of the blocks were used or one of the students tower topples.

If all the blocks were used, the student with the highest tower at the end wins.

The interval cards are available here DOWNLOAD.

Aural Entasis - Simple Triple Time

2008-09-21T18:49:00.000-07:00

Simple triple time (3 crotchet beats in a bar) is usually not played with strict regularity.

In this time signature, the second beat will come generally infinitesimally before the metronome.

The third beat ever so slightly behind it. This is called aural entasis.

Entasis is a technique where straight lines were imperceptibly bent into convex curves to make them appear even straighter and more perfectly proportioned. (The builders of the Parethenon used this technique).

We as musicians can give our music a speaking quality by applying this technique in any time signature but the waltz time affords us the best chance to grasp the essence of this idea. It is very important to remember that the three beats of a waltz are by nature unequal.

There is a reason why each beat in a measure of waltz time is unique and dissimilar.

There must always be a slight pause between beat two and three., because the dancers need a moment of suspension to help them slide through beat three, then swoop still further on down through beat one and on up to the next moment of poise.

The worst thing you can do is to play all three beats equally spaced out. The listener will not be able to hear properly. Both the player and the listener must be able to feel the sense of dancers lifting and whirling around the floor. Beat three must always lead into and through beat one.

Try this exercise:
Try pushing someone, literally placing your hands on their shoulders or back or chest and giving them a gentle push but firm shove on each downbeat (downbeat is the first beat of the bar). This is the movement the music is generating.
Now play, lending this feeling of push to each downbeat. This can be done in any time signature, not only in waltz time. You will notice that the feeling of push can be drastically improved through a slight waiting before each beat. This is what makes it a push rather than a hit- there is a sense of control in it.

Beat three must be delayed to help you move into beat one, but beat one must be delayed in order that we feel that push! Yes, it is possible to achieve both!

The same push that you will sense is what the dancers actually feel. They feely buoyed by that impulse.

Do You Make Embarrassing Mistakes in English?

2008-09-20T20:38:00.000-07:00

If you'd like your written and spoken communication as a music teacher to command instant respect and credibility (rather than ridicule and contempt)...

If you'd like your students and parents to stand up and listen when you talk (rather than ignore or even mock your ideas)...

If you'd like to be perceived as an intelligent and articulate teacher (rather than dull and slow on the uptake)...

Then this can help: CONFIDENT GRAMMAR

Allow me to explain:

Every time you speak to a student, parent or colleague

...every time you write an email to parents, student or associate...
...every time you write a report, assignment or presentation...
...every time you write written comments on your students work...

People use your language and grammar to instantly "tip them off" about how educated, competent, and successful you are.

Right or wrong, your students and parents will judge you based on your communication skills, even if you are competent and creative teacher.

Bad English grammar is like a beautiful piece of music played with wrong notes, timing and stylistically incorrect. The audience just won't hear the beauty of the piece because it's obscured by wrong notes and timing etc...

The sad part is that many people who would otherwise be successful are being held back by their bad grammar. And why? Most people subscribe to the myth that it's just too difficult to acquire the communication skills that they know deep down will bring them all they have ever dreamed of.

As music teachers, we need to acquire good English grammar and communication skills and it does not require arduous repetition of boring rules.

The Confident Grammar system I have found claims that you can have near-perfect English grammar quickly and easily by learning a few basic rules and learning how to avoid a handful of common mistakes! I have purchased the ebooks and audio and it is fantastic. I have now started to teach English to some of my private piano students as well with great success - the extra income is also nice. My teaching now consists of 80% piano and 20% English tutoring. It is so much fun! I digress...

Most mistakes in everyday language boil down to less than a dozen common errors in English grammar. With this method you will learn to recognize these quickly and easily - dramatically improving your communication almost instantly.

Confident Grammar System is an excellent product. Being able to use English correctly and confidently is important for me in my day-to-day life and business. I highly recommend this to other teachers or anyone wishing to improve their English.

CONFIDENT GRAMMAR comes with 2 E-Books and 8 tutorials all for under $10.00 US!! What a bargain.

Piano Is Fun

2008-09-20T02:46:00.000-07:00

PIANO IS FUN PURCHASE INFO

As a piano teacher I have long searched for a note learning software that will supplement my teaching on how to learn to recognize treble and bass clef notes on the piano. The only programs I found were boring drills where a note appears and one just clicks on the note name. They were dull and boring!!

What I really needed was a program that would:
· Introduce the notes gradually
· Teach both the note names and where to find the notes on the piano keyboard
· Clearly explain the difference between the Treble and Bass clef notes
· Allow me to select which notes to practice
· Use bright and colorful animation
· Be fun

Finally, all my searching efforts paid off and I found what I was looking for.
The software program is called, “Piano Is Fun.”

Piano Is Fun is a software program that helps students learn to recognize treble and bass clef notes on the piano. It makes learning to read music easy and enjoyable. The features of the software program include:

· Fun characters: Piano Is Fun "stars" a cast of eight friendly and positive characters. These characters take it in turns to present the lessons

· 20 Step-by-step lessons: The 20 step-by-step lessons introduce students to the notes and keyboard positions of the piano gradually so that they never feel intimidated or overwhelmed. Students will eventually learn to recognize treble and bass clef notes on the piano successfully. PIANO IS FUN PURCHASE INFO.

· Interactive exercises: Students learn to recognize treble and bass clef notes on the piano through interactive exercises and games that ensure that they develop true note recognition skills instead of memorizing silly rhymes.

· Practice Games that teach. The worst thing about most tutorial programs is that they don't teach students anything! Instead, they just test what students already know using repetitive drills. Each lesson of Piano Is Fun includes a Practice Game which shows students the answers when the note reaches the halfway point. This allows students to learn the note names and keyboard positions from scratch - At their own pace. Without getting frustrated.

· Helps develop a musical ear: Each time a student correctly identifies a note name or locates the correct key on the piano, they hear the actual sound of the note through the computer. This helps them to develop their sense of pitch.

· Collectable rewards to provide motivation: When they complete a lesson, students receive a special reward on their personal progress page. These rewards allow you to monitor their progress and also act as form of motivation. (It's incredible to see how motivated students become when it comes to collecting their rewards!)

· The Bronze, Silver and Gold Medallion Challenges: these bring everything together on the Grand Staff. The challenges include the note names and keyboard positions of the Bass and Treble clefs. This helps students make the jump to reading music in the real world.

· Printable Certificates When a student completes a medallion challenge, they are rewarded with a triumphant fanfare and are presented with a Certificate of Achievement. These certificates are a valuable form of positive reinforcement (And look great in a black frame next to their piano!) PIANO IS FUN PURCHASE INFO.

· Custom Lessons: If a student is having problems with particular notes, Piano Is Fun allows you to create a customized lesson to address their specific problem. Just go to the 'Custom Lesson' screen and select any number of notes from the treble and bass clefs and Piano Is Fun will then create a custom lesson to help.

· Keep track of up to 50 students: Piano Is Fun tracks the progress of up to 50 individual students. You can check a student's progress page at any time to find out how they are going. This allows you to quickly determine which students are struggling so that you can take the appropriate action.

· As a bonus gift for purchasing Piano Is Fun, you'll also receive 16 fun musical puzzles.
PIANO IS FUN PURCHASE INFO.

Boot Camp

2008-07-05T07:22:00.000-07:00

Boot camp is a practice technique where you'll take passages that have been giving you a hard time, and go and give them a hard time.

This means you must stop all other practice temporarily, while you focus all your energies on this one problem. Throw at it every practice technique you know.

Some practice techniques you can try are:
1. With the metronome
2. Without the metronome
3. At half speed
4. At full speed
5. Seven times in a row with no mistakes
6. With the music
7. Without the music
8. With eyes closed
9. Recording the section
10. Write out the section
11. With dynamics
12 With accents on every 2nd note

Anyway, you get the idea. If you need more practice techniques, I suggest reading Practiceopedia by Phillip Johnston. It is a massive 376 page illustrated encyclopedia of practice techniques, trick, tips and traps that every music student should know.

Click on the title for more information on this book.

With all this attention, it's going to be almost impossible for the trouble section not to improve.

Once the section is behaving itself better, you can reintroduce it to the rest of the piece, and resume your regular practice.

Please note that Boot Camp practice technique is only designed to rectify lack of attention given to the problem section. It is not designed to fix deeper flaws.

Music Appreciation - Theme from Jaws by John Williams

2008-06-29T18:00:00.000-07:00

This music is from the terrifying film Jaws. It is about a giant and ferocious shark. Each time the shark attacks its victims, low notes are heard which is enough to send shivers down our spines. This is because the composer has chosen the sound qualities cleverly.

Silence also contributes to the frightening mood in this piece. The silences or rests build tension and makes one expect a disaster to happen. This music is sounds organized with silence.

When listening to this piece, you can hear the lurking presence of the shark suggested by two low short “growly” notes of different pitch followed by silence.

The mood is uneasy and threatening which grows in tension as more and more notes are added. After the last silence, the two notes are played repeatedly one after the other which raises the tension as the shark gets closer and closer.

You know the worst has happened when we hear the loud, sharp and biting sound of the tuba. The music builds up dramatically to create the feeling of sudden panic. The volume increases, the pitch rises;, the timbre becomes brighter and more and more instruments are added.

Soon after the short notes change to sustained low notes over a very high melody. The brass notes add to the dramatic mood and one can feel the emotional distress of the victim.

The short, repeated notes return but with the woodwinds playing the melody. The music builds up again for another attack. This is followed by a tuba melody and eventually the volume fades away as the shark swims away.

(Click on the title to hear the music. Page will re-direct to YouTube).

Music Appreciation - Fantasia on Greensleeves by Vaughan Williams

2008-06-29T17:55:00.000-07:00

Each country of the world has many traditional songs and dances that have been handed down from generation to generation. This type of music is called folk music.

One thing most common with most folk music is that we don’t know who wrote them and they were passed down to us by word of mouth.

Folk music has the following characteristics:
1. They are simple to sing and easy to remember.
2. Most folk songs evolve and change over time.
3. Folk songs were often used for important functions such as ceremonies.
4. Folk songs are simple to perform.
5. Folk songs tell stories, describe events, celebrate different times of the year etc…

Folk songs are grouped according to subject matter or location:
1. Rural folk songs – songs about country life
2. Urban folk songs – songs about city life
3. Regional folk songs – songs about a particular part of a country
4. Sea Shanties – songs of sailors and the sea
5. Carols – Christmas songs
6. Spirituals – religious songs

See if you can think of folk songs according to the following subject matter:

1. Rural
2. Sea Shanties
3. Carols

MUSIC APPRECIATION – Fantasia on Greensleeves by Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams was born in 1872 and died in 1958. He was an English composer who had great interest in English folk music.

Fantasia on Greensleeves was written I 1929. Fantasia is a piece of music which appeals to the imagination, making us think of other worlds and other times.

In this piece the composer means to take us back to the peaceful English countryside of centuries past.

The old-English atmosphere of the music is achieved not only by the use of ancient folk melodies, but also by the particular instruments used. The composer does not use brass and percussion instruments as this would spoil the peaceful mood.

The flutes give a dreamy “rustic” effect like shepherds piping in the fields and the harp gives a light, floating feeling.

(Click on the title to hear the music)

Music Appreciation - In the Hall of the Mountain King by Greig

2008-06-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

In the Hall of the Mountain King

This piece of music is from the Peer Gynt Suite written by the Norwegian composer Edvard Greig. He was born in 1843 and died in 1907.

A suite is a large instrumental work made up of several pieces of music grouped together.

The play tells the story of a vain and rather untruthful young man, Peer Gynt, who lives life for fun. He goes in search of his fortune and in doing so enjoys many wild adventures involving him in several lucky escapes. In this section of the suite, Peer wanders high into the mountains of Norway. There he discovers the cave that is home of the Mountain King, the king of the trolls.

Trolls are ugly creatures in Scandinavian folklore who live in mountain caves.

Peer pretends to be a prince, and the king’s daughter, who is very ugly, falls in love with him. She dances for him, and when he laughs at her dance and refuses to marry her, the trolls become angry. Peer has to run for his life, perused by the trolls who yell, “Slay him! Slay him!” He escapes from the cave just as it collapses on the pursuing trolls.

Listen to the music and listen to how the composer depicts the following ideas:
1. The chase
2. An ever increasing number of trolls
3. The collapse of the cave.

The opening melody in this piece is repeated all the way through the music. Notice that this repetition is not boring because the composer varies certain aspects of the music including pitch,
volume, timbre, texture and tempo.

(Click on the title to hear the music)

The Importance Of Bananas

2007-10-24T18:51:00.000-07:00

Bananas are a great food for all round health benefits, for the average person, dieter or even athletes bananas may provide greater benefits than most fruits. The combination of carbohydrates and B vitamins present in a banana helps provide an energy boost which makes them great to eat 30 minutes before a workout, or even at breakfast to help boost energy at the start of every day.

They’re also handy to carry thanks to their thick skin and easy to eat without getting it all over your shirt. They’re also a pretty silent snack.

Bananas will boost you into a fantastic performance in an exam or concert, so make it part of your pre-concert and exam routine.

Three cheers to bananas!

MUSICAL EMPHASIS IV - EXTREMES

2007-10-21T20:19:00.000-07:00

Extremes are another powerful means of emphasis: A moment of silence stresses the solemnity of a memorial service; blaring sirens alert us to the dangers of a fire. A solitary figure on the street highlights the late hour; a standing-room only crowd draws attention to a show’s success.

Musical extremes include fastest and slowest, longest and shortest, highest and lowest, loudest and softest, densest and most spare.

Example 12
Beethoven’s Violin Concerto begins with the following melody.

Musical Example: Ludwig van Beethoven, Violin Concerto, I, melody

Later, the soloist emphasizes the melody by playing it in an extremely high register.

Musical Example: Ludwig van Beethoven, Violin Concerto, I, emphasis of the melody

Example 13
Gyorgy Ligeti’s Desordre presents a melody in the upper register, echoed in the low.

Musical Example: Gyorgy Ligeti, Désordre from Etudes, Book I, melody

The melody is particularly emphasized when both of the pianist’s hands play in a very high register.

Musical Example: Gyorgy Ligeti, Désordre from Etudes, Book I, emphasis of the melody.
The longer an extreme is maintained, the more emphatic it is.

MUSICAL EMPHASIS III - CHANGE

2007-10-21T20:17:00.000-07:00

Change is a second way of creating emphasis. We change into our pajamas to indicate we’re ready to go to sleep. We all notice when the weather changes. If the lights go out, it will catch your attention. If the crowd noise suddenly rises at a sporting match, you will want to know what happened. Likewise, in music, a change—of register, texture, density, speed, dynamic, etc.—will create an emphasis.

Example 7
In the Berlioz: Requiem, the text “Hosanna in excelsis ” is first sung by high voices and instruments. When low voices and instruments enter, the change in register creates an emphasis.

Musical Example: Hector Berlioz, “Agnus Dei” from Requiem

Example 8
Similarly, in Kristof Penderecki’s Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, each string entrance is emphasized by a change in register.

Musical Example: Kryzsztof Penderecki, Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima

Example 9
The greater the change, the greater the emphasis. In the Finale of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2, the change in density is sudden and dramatic.

Musical Example: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 2, IV

Example 10
In “Danse de la fureur” from Olivier Messaien’s Quartet for the End of Time, a sudden change in dynamics creates a strong emphasis.

Musical Example: Olivier Messiaen, “Danse de la fureur” from Quartet for the End of Time

The longer a particular state has been maintained, the greater the emphasis of the change.

Example 11
The opening of Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto Grosso No. 1 begins with spare sounds played on the prepared piano (a piano with objects inserted inside the instrument to make its pitch more undefined). The solo violins enter quietly. But after such a long introduction, a well-marked emphasis is created by the change of instrumentation.

Musical Example: Alfred Schnittke, Concerto Grosso No. 1

MUSICAL EMPHASIS II - DURATION

2007-10-21T20:15:00.000-07:00

Music is a time-art: Therefore, if you want to emphasize something in a piece of music, make it last. The longer something is before the listeners’ ears, the greater the importance it assumes.

Example 1
The ends of phrases in this Bach Chorale are emphasized through duration.

Musical Example: J.S. Bach, Chorale: “Das Wort sie sollen lassen stahn” from Cantata: Ein feste Burg ist under Gott

Example 2
Duration is used to emphasize the words “Rote fürßtliche Rubine” in this movement from Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire.

Musical Example: Arnold Schoenberg, “Raub” from Pierrot Lunaire

Example 3
Repetition creates a durational emphasis. As in the Bach Chorale above, the ends of phrases are emphasized in Chopin’s Prelude in A-Major, only this time the chords are repeated rather than held.

Musical Example: Frederic Chopin, Prelude in A-Major

Example 4
Repetition is used to create two powerful durational emphases in this excerpt from Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.

Musical Example: Igor Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring

Through repetition and other means of prolongation, durational emphasis can span a whole section of even an entire composition. Marriage is a form of durational emphasis: A favored relationship outlasts passing acquaintances. Similarly, in a piece of music, that which endures has a priority over that which is fleeting. A melodic idea, a rhythmic pattern, a particular texture all may be sustained throughout an entire work.

Example 5
A rhythmic pattern is prolonged throughout Frederic Chopin’s Piano Prelude in c-minor.

Musical Example: Frederic Chopin, Piano Prelude in c-minor

Example 6
In the third of Elliott Carter’s Eight Etudes and a Fantasy, a single chord is held throughout the entire piece. The instruments constantly shift so that the chord is never voiced the same way twice. Nevertheless, throughout the subtle surface motions, one sound is clearly emphasized by duration.

Musical Example: Elliott Carter, Eight Etudes and a Fantasy, III

When listening to music, concentrate on what is most persistent. That which lasts longest is most essential; everything else is supporting. In a non-verbal, time-dependent art form, duration is the composer’s primary means of emphasis.

MUSICAL EMPHASIS I

2007-10-21T19:00:00.000-07:00

Emphasis is very important in communication: It helps to establish what is of primary importance, versus what may be supporting or of secondary relevance.

Verbal communication contains a variety of strategies for creating emphasis. For instance, you’re instructing your children on pool safety: Don’t run next to the pool, no splashing in other people’s faces, etc. But most important of all: No children allowed in the water without a grown-up. How would you emphasize this statement’s import? You might repeat it several times; you might raise your voice; you might grab your child’s hand and look him or her in the eye; you might sit the child, down, pause, and then speak.

How is emphasis created in a piece of music? Being able to recognize and interpret such emphases is essential to active listening. When a composer is communicating with you through music, it is very helpful to know what he or she considers to be of primary importance.

Musical emphasis may be created by duration, change and extremes. When emphases are coordinated to help illuminate musical structure, rhetorical reinforcement is created.

Music History - The Romantic Period (1825-1900)

2007-09-24T06:09:00.001-07:00

"Romanticism" was brought about by the social and political stresses following the French Revolution, and the resulting nationalistic trends. It was a period of dramatic thought and action, also involving contradictions between capitalism and socialism, freedom and oppression, logic and emotion, science and faith. This resulted in a change in the thinking of people, especially creative artists. There was a general impatience with the rules and restraints of Classicism, and music "revolted" against the practices of Mozart and Haydn. The goal was to be different and individualistic. The ideal for the Romantic composer was to reflect his own feelings and emotions in his compositions in order to instill in the listener certain preconceived moods. The expression of emotion and the "sparking" of the imagination were a primary goal.

The center of musical activity shifted from Vienna to Paris, and musicians were no longer attached to patrons. However, while composers during this time did not write for the lower classes, their music was addressed to the masses to a far greater degree than before in the history of music. Music became more and more disassociated from real life, while expressing the splendor and pride of the human spirit. In the effort to capture audiences, a dynamic and colorful personality became an important asset. Such examples can be found in such individuals as Liszt, Berlioz and Wagner. The concert manager, or "impresario" as he was often called, was also an important figure in the business of music. Another important person behind the scenes of music was the music critic.

Function of Music: Romanticism still served a sophisticated and aristocratic society, as had been the case with Classical music. Aristocratic patronage was smaller, but the intimacy of the exclusive salon was still the ideal setting for performances. Performance, however, was no longer by mere amateurs, for Romantic music was usually too technically demanding for unskilled performers. Standing outside the circle of the exclusive salon was a large, but unorganized and unsophisticated, concert-going public, which loved music. Romantic composers were constantly striving to gain recognition of this large audience and, in an effort to win acceptance, they were very sensitive to the likes and dislikes of these music-lovers. Performers, as well as composers, had the urge to be acceptable and to dazzle audiences. Composers were often fine performers as well, such as Liszt and Chopin, who wrote a large number of virtuoso pieces to thrill the public with technical display. The Romantic composer expressed his own feelings and convictions, writing music to express himself in personal "documents of art". The church was no longer considered a patron of music, with very little music written for liturgical purposes. The teaching of music, however, became an established profession. Many fine conservatories and schools of music were founded for the education of the performing and creative musician. Research in music history and theory was introduced into programs of many universities by the end of the 1800's. Many prominent composers and performers such as Liszt, Mendelssohn, Brahms and Schumann achieved wide recognition as teachers. Thus, to meet pressing needs for pedagogical (instructional) material, such composers wrote etudes (studies) and other short pieces for teaching.

Historical Events: Louisiana Purchase, Monroe Doctrine, McCormick invents the reaper, Morse telegraph, Daguerre takes first photographs, California gold rush, Darwin writes Origin of Species, Civil War in the United States, Germany united under Bismarck, Edison invents electric light and phonograph, Roentgen discovers the x-ray, Spanish-American war.

Visual Arts: Goya, Gericault, Corot, Turner, Delacroix, Millet, Daumier.

Literature: Buron, Austen, Shelley, Keats, Pushkin, Heine, Cooper, Balzac, Hugo, Stendhal, Sand Lytton, Dickens, Poe, Dumas, Thackeray, Longfellow, Hawthorne, Melville, Stowe, Whitman, Tennyson, Eliot, Tolstoy, Dostoevski, Browning, Twain, Ibsen, Stevenson, Wilde, H. James, Maeterlinck, Zola, Kipling.

Philosophy: Hegel, Mill, Comte, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Marx, Engels, Thoreau, Spencer, Huxley, Emerson, Haeckel, Hietzsche, Berson.

Prominent Composers: Beethoven (late period), Paganini, von Weber, Rossini, Schubert, Donizetti, Bellini, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Verdi, Wagner, Gounod, Franck, Smetana, Bruckner, Borodin, Brahms, Bizet, Mussorgsky, Tchaikowsky, Dvorak, Grieg, Rimsky-Korsakov, Faure, Puccini, Wolf, Mahler, Strauss, Sibelius, Czerny, Field, Elgar, Offenbach, Saint-Saens, Massenet, Rubinstein, Rachmaninov, Scrabin (early), Albeniz, Gottschalk, MacDowell.

Practice and Performance: Dynamics were more explicit than those of Classicism. Smaller changes of color and gradations of loudness were indicated by more definite terms. Tempi were more accurately designated by the use of metronome markings. Even the conductor became a performer whose instrument was gigantic and capable of every Romantic expression. This was an era of massive festival performances. The middle-class love for music making led to the establishment of the choral society. Improvisation was generally discarded in the practice of Romantic music, due largely to the complexity of its composition and the complete directions for performance. A few individuals like Chopin and Liszt, continued to make brilliant use of it however.

Prominent Musical Characteristics: There were Romantic idealists and Romantic realists. The idealists insisted music must exist for its own sake without extramusical devices. The realists were the champions of program music, believing that music could (and should) tell a story, imitate sounds of nature or express a visual scene. Some Romantic composers excelled in spectacular virtuosity, which was expressed by brilliant technical performances. Other composers emphasized the intimacy of miniature forms and delicate textures to express their personal feelings. There were composers whose aim was to extol national characteristics and evoke patriotic feelings using folklore, folk songs and dances. There were also Romanticists who avoided nationalistic devices in the search for a universal musical language. But there was one concept that all Romanticists had in common, giving their music a sense of unity: their music was aimed at the evocation of emotion as its primary function. All Romantic music concerns itself with the problem of creating musical tension to achieve a corresponding intensification of emotional response.

Forms are not as precise and clear as in Classicism, but are often overlapping, vague and often without strong cadences. Sections of larger works often "melt" into one another. It was also a common practice to use some of the same thematic material in each movement as a means of maintaining a constant expressive character (this is sometimes called "cyclic" form). Folk melodies were also used a great deal in Romantic music. Melodies are characterized by an intensity of personal feelings, sometimes extremely long with dramatic and dynamic climaxes. Rhythmically, music became more interesting. There are often changes in the number of beats in a measure, cross-rhythms, syncopations, etc. Tempo in Romantic music is not always constant, but may fluctuate in order to achieve emotional effect (rubato). The rich harmony makes great use of chromaticism, nonharmonic tones, altered chords and larger chords (such as ninths and thirteenths). Timbre, or texture, was heavy and thick. Basically, there are six chief musical characteristics in Romanticism:
· Subjectivity: Music was not objective (outside of human emotions) as in the Classical period, but had to be joined with extramusical ideas. In this respect, some of Beethoven's later music was held to be the model to be emulated. Because music could not convey pictures or ideas, some composers resorted to "objective" devices which imitated natural sounds. Much of the music during the nineteenth century has a sentimental quality.
· Emotionalism: All music has some degree of emotionalism. However, the Romantic composer sought to intensify this aspect of his music. By the use of chromaticism (progression by half steps) in melodies and chords, and modulations (changing keys) and by exploiting tension in the music (by not resolving dissonances immediately), the composer was to keep the listener in a state of suspense for long periods of time.
· Nationalism: Composers were greatly influenced by the intense nationalistic feelings that developed after the Napoleonic wars. Some composers were political outcasts (Chopin and Wagner), while others promoted a love for their country (Russian Five). The main areas of nationalistic music during the nineteenth century were Germany, Italy, France, Central Europe and Russia.
· Programmatic Compositions: The development and use of descriptive music became an important part of the Romantic movement. The trend from the subjectivity of the composer to the emotionalism in the listener was natural. As mentioned previously, composers resorted to "objective" devices in their music. The devices included descriptive titles, melodic formulas, harmonic cliches and instrumental effects.
· Thick Timbre: The availability of improved musical instruments allowed composers to experiment with novel orchestral effects. The timbre and texture of the orchestral color became more evocative as the nineteenth century progressed. The use of chromaticism and dissonance led to a very complex orchestral timbre by the end of the century:
1. At the beginning of the century, the woodwind parts often doubled those of the strings. Brass instruments were mainly used to "fill in" louder passages.
2. About the middle of the century, the woodwinds were combined with the strings in all registers. The brass instruments were generally used to double other parts and to play for louder passages.
3. In the second half of the century, complete instrumentation was employed in each section of the orchestra. Each section tended to be treated on a more equal footing.
· Chromaticism: The harmonic system established by Rameau in 1722 began breaking down during the Classical period. The Romantic composers exploited the use of altered chords and modulation to such a degree that the feeling for a central tonality often became obscure. This is especially true of music written after about 1850. The increased use of dissonance and half step movements in all the voices, and the avoidance of a "too-well-defined" tonality, paved the way for the Impressionistic and Expressionistic movements of the twentieth century.
Instrumentation: During the Romantic period, the piano (pianoforte) became the most popular single instrument. It became a musical symbol of Romanticism, and was enlarged to give it a wider range and more tonal power. The piano reached such heights of popularity that it became the favorite household instrument with every family that could afford it. The orchestra grew to be the favorite large instrument of the century. Added were the English horn, the clarinet, more brass and percussion. Opera was also a major medium of expression.

Vocal Compositions: Lied, choral music (sacred and secular), Te Deums, Requiems, Beatitudes, Opera (Italian, French, German Nationalistic), Oratorios.

New Large Forms: Symphonic Poem, Sonata, Symphony, Concerto, Ballet, Ballade, Impromptu.

New Small Forms: Waltz, Nocturne, Etude

Music History - Medieval Music(1600-1750)

2007-09-24T06:08:00.001-07:00

The Middle Ages in music is an immense period stretching from the first years of the Christian era to the early years of the 15th century. The most highly developed theoretical discussions from ancient times were those of the Greeks. Scholars such as Boethius passed these on to the Middle Ages in the 6th century. In the practical sphere, however, only a few pieces of Greek music have survived, and none by the Romans. The earliest plainsong in notated form dates only from the 9th to 10th centuries. Ancient Jewish music undoubtedly formed the basis of the recitation tones used for the psalms, and hymnody dates back to the time of St. Ambrose in the 4th century. But many of the antiphons and responds, as well as the ornate melodies of the Mass ordinary (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus), were products of the later Middle Ages, from the 11th century on.

At first there were many differing but related repertories of plainsong: the most important were the Old Roman, the Ambrosian in Milan, the Gallican in France, and the Mozarabic in Spain. Their unification and crystallization in Gregorian chant took place through the efforts of the Frankish kings and the Papal court in Rome, apparently starting in the 8th century. Few traces of the Gallican chant exist today, whereas the Ambrosian repertory is still used in Milan. Mozarabic chant was superceded in the 11th century.

The impact of the church on all other music of the Middle Ages cannot be overestimated. Manuscripts were usually written by clerics, and therefore little secular music was preserved apart from a few songs in Latin. The first important secular music in the vernacular was the troubadour song in the Provencial language. From its beginnings in the 11th century, troubadour song influenced many other countries for some 200 years, especially northern France, where trouveres contributed a large repertory of music. Only about 300 pieces are preserved with music by the troubadours, but about 1,700 by the trouveres. The height of troubadour skill was reached about 1200 with Bernart de Ventadorn, Guirat de Bornelh, and Folquet de Marseille. Bernart is famous for his texts dealing with unrequited love. Some of the verse forms anticipate the 14th century ballade with its 3 stanzas of 7 or 8 lines. Others have texts dealing with the Crusades, or with a dispute about some amorous trifle. The pastourelle, found in both troubadour and trouvere literature, tells a conventional story in several stanzas about a knight and shepherdess. Dance songs like the rondeau and virelai are also found in these repertories. All this monophonic music may have been accompanied at times by a fiddle or a wind instrument. It was not until the 14th century that secular song became regularly polyphonic.

Sacred music is found written in two to four parts from the 9th century; at first it consisted mainly of doubling a melody (usually plainsong) at the fourth, fifth or octave. The first important collection of this so-called "organum" was the Winchester Troper of the early 11th century, containing nearly 200 two-part settings of solo chants. In the St. Martial repertoire of the 12th century can be seen the origins of the classic Notre Dame style. Two-part writing is still the rule, but in the more expansive Notre Dame style, three (and even four) parts are not uncommon. The leading composer were Leonin and Perotin, who wrote the big four-part organa, as well as some in three parts. In the composition of motets, St. Martial composers led the way, followed by those of Notre Dame. Motets in both Latin and French became the most important polyphonic form of the 13th century.

In other countries, French models were imitated, In Spain, manuscripts from Burgos and Toledo testify to the importance of the Notre Dame repertory. The monophonic cantigas reveal a more individual trend in 13th-century songcraft - although, like the Italian laude, they are addressed to the Virgin Mary. English composers followed the lead of the French in important centers like the abbey of Bury St. Edmunds and the cathedral of St. Paul in London. The technique of canon was used in the famous four-part canon, "Sumer is icumen" in over two harmonically organized bass parts.

In the 14th century, often called the period of Ars Nova (in contrast to the 13th-century Ars Antigua), polyphony flourished in vernacular song. The leading composer was the Frenchman Guillaume e Machaut, who produced a large body of mainly three-part ballades and rondeaux, occasionally venturing into two and four parts. This virelais and lais are mainly monophonic. A major achievement of the Ars Nova was a move from primarily triple time to the modern variety of measures, mainly 3/4, 6/8 , 2/4 and 9/8. In Italy, the 14th century began with the cultivation of the two-part madrigal. Instruments such as the fiddle, portative organ, shawm and small harp were widely used. French influence became stronger as the century progressed, and virelai-like ballata was predominant in the work of Francesco Landini, the most prolific Italian composer of the Ars Nova. In both France and Italy, the music at the end of the century was marked by increased rhythmic complexity, helped by the development of notation and the use of syncopation.

In England, polyphony continued to be mainly sacred, borrowing from France the technique of the isorhythmic motet and the chanson. During the first half of the 15th century, however, French domination was challenged for the first time by the novel harmonies and smooth melodic lines of John Dunstable and his contemporaries. Their influence on the continent and the great works of Guillaume Dufay led to a new art culminating in the classic choral polyophony of Josquin des Prez.

Music History - The Impressionistic Period (1870-1920)

2007-09-24T05:59:00.001-07:00

As the nineteenth century drew to a close, the fine arts entered a new era: called "Impressionism", it lasted only a few decades into the twentieth century. French artists such as Monet, Manet, Renoir and Degas first applied the term, "Impressionism", to paintings. Around 1870, a group of young artists abandoned the accepted school of realism in favor of a new movement in painting, which was dedicated to ideals considered revolutionary by their contemporaries. These artists maintained that for their purposes, realism played now part in achieving an artistic result. They concentrated on the "manner" in which a picture was painted, and were completely unconcerned with subject matter. Their chief aim was to reproduce the general "impression" of the moment made by the subject on the artist. They tended to look at nature with an "innocent eye", seeing the world in a continual state of change with its outlines melting into haze. They would contrast bits of pure color on the canvas, leaving it to the eye of the beholder to do the mixing. Impressionist painters were repelled by the heroic themes of the Romantic painters. The hero of the Impressionist was not man, but light. They chose as subjects dancing girls (ballerinas), picnics, boating, cafe scenes and nature. Their art is the reflection and impression of a magical city: Paris.

In literature (especially poetry), Impressionism was translated into a movement called "Symbolism". The Symbolists wished to free-verse techniques to achieve fluidity. Poetry's new function was to suggest or evoke, but not to describe. Rejecting realism, these poets chose to express their immediate reactions to a subject by means of symbolic words, which were arranged for their emotional values.

The basic theories of the Impressionists were most wonderfully expressed in the sonorous art of music. Since music is essentially an abstract art, it was ideal in projecting Impressionism's vague images. The Impressionist composers had two favorite mediums: the orchestra (because of its variety of color) and the piano (because its damper pedal permitted vibrating harmonies to "suspend in mid-air"). The Impressionist painters, as we have seen, tried to capture the movement of color and light. Music is predominantly the art of abstract movement. For this reason, the favorite images of the Impressionist painting -- the play of light on water, clouds, gardens in he rain, sunlight through the leaves -- lent themselves readily to musical expression. Such descriptive titles as "Reflections on the Water", "The Snow is Dancing", "Sounds and perfumes Swirl in the Evening Air", reveal composers as poets and painters in addition to being musicians.

Visual Arts: Manet, Degas, Renoir, Pissaro, Monet, Rodin, Seurat, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Gaugin, Homer.

Literature: Baudelaire, Mallarme, Verlaine, Rimbaud.

Prominent Composers: Debussy, Ravel, Delius, Griffes, Respighi, Szymanowski, Satie, Faure.

Prominent Musical Characteristics:
· Modal Influences: The medieval modes were attractive to composers who sought to escape the "tyranny" of the major/minor sound. Emphasized were primary intervals -- octaves, fourths, and fifths -- in parallel motion. This resembled a medieval procedure known as "organum", where a melody was harmonized by another which ran parallel to it at a distance of a fourth or fifth.
· Whole-Tone Scale: Claude Debussy heard the musicians of the Far East (Java, Bali, and Indo-China). He was fascinated by the music of the native orchestra, the gamelan, with percussive rhythms and bewitching instrumental colors. The music of the Far East makes use of certain scales, which divide the octave into equal major/minor system and leads to obscured fluidity.
· Pentatonic Scale: The pentatonic (five-note) scale is sounded when the black yes of the piano are struck (or also C, D, F, G and A). This scale is popularly associated with Chinese music, but is even more familiar to us through Scottish, Irish and English folk tunes ("Auld Lang Syne" and "Comin' Through the Rye").
· Impressionist Harmony: Impressionist composers regarded the chord as an entity by itself, a "thrill" that hit the ear with a style all its own. Impressionism released the chord from its function as harmony to movement within the melody.
· Parallel Motion: In Classicism, tension was produced by moving voices in a contrary fashion. Impressionism, on the other hand, vied chords as melodic entities. This, it was "proper to move voices in a parallel fashion (this was "forbidden" in the Classical era).
· Escaped Chords: These were harmonies which gave the impression of having "escaped" to another tonality. Such chords are neither prepared for, nor are they resolved in any traditional sense. They simply "evaporate".
Other Musical Characteristics: There was little room in Impressionism for the "heaven-storming" climaxes of Romanticism. Instead, there is a veiling of sonority and delicate texture. Impressionism is "opalescent" and "transparent", shimmering from time to time with showers of sound. Within the orchestra, flutes and clarinets are used in their dark lower registers. Violins reach for upper sonorities while trumpets and horns are muted. There is much use of the harp, celeste, triangle, glockenspiel and cymbal (usually brushed with a drumstick). Phrases tend to be fragmentary and speckled with color. Rhythm tends to be vague and free, with cadences being not so clearly defined. Also, phrases tend to overlap and are fluid in character.

Music History - The Classical Period (1750-1825)

2007-09-24T05:58:00.005-07:00

The term, "Classical", refers to the reason and restraint found in the life of the ancient Athenians. It has been used by historians to describe all the arts that are concerned mainly with problems of form, logic, balance and restrained expression--and that were also based on models of Greek and Roman art. The term, as applied to music, refers to the works of those eighteenth-century composers whose music gives the impression of clarity, balance, lyricism and restraint of emotional expression.

A primary idea was that the process of reason could realize truth; thus, the utmost emphasis must be placed upon learning and intellectual pursuits. The universe was thought to be a "machine", governed by inflexible laws that man could not override. Another view was that "whatever is true is true throughout the world--it is universal". Emotional restraint was the result of the notion that man's emotions as a guide to truth are false. His rational intellect should control his behavior.

Austria and Germany became the center of very vital musical activity. These countries had a large number of courts, each able to maintain its independence. Each court had by this time given up much of their political and economic independence but maintained their artistic and social status. There was even great rivalry among them in artistic and social matters. There was a long tradition of instrumental music, an abundance of talent, a natural love of music, great artistic ambition and much wealth.

Composers depended upon the patronage of a court or aristocratic society that was very discriminating in its tastes. This society was not only sophisticated and elegant, but also disclaimed emotional displays. It was an "Age of Reason", looking upon feelings with suspicion.

The concert hall and opera house became established institutions, making it possible for all classes to enjoy creative activity--aristocratic or not. Publishing houses also were well established, making performances of musical works widespread. They even favored certain composers (often at the expense of others), which exerted a strong influence on composers and the public. The church, however, became less influential as far as musical patronage was concerned. There was no suitable climate in the church for the continuous growth of religious music, especially because the aristocracy did little to maintain the religious music at the level of the Baroque.

Function of Music: Music during this period served a highly sophisticated and aristocratic society. Its most common function was to provide entertainment for guests in exclusive saloons. Discriminating audiences patronized public concerts of orchestral music, and the elegant spectacle of the opera. In the home, it was possible for the amateur musicians to learn to play compositions. In fact, many serious composers were called upon to write chamber music, as well as vocal solos and ensembles, for amateur performances. Music for dancing was in popular demand for a society that enjoyed lively entertainment. In the church, composers were called upon to write sacred music for its services--but it tended to give way to a "secular" spirit.

Historical Events: The factory system begins, American Revolution, French Revolution, Napoleon becomes dictator of France.

Visual Arts: David, Ingres.

Literature: Burns, Goethe, Schiller, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Scott.

Philosophy: Rosseau, Kant.

Prominent Composers: Sammartini, Gluck, C.P.E. Bach, J.C. Bach, Stamitz, Haydn, Dittersodorf, Boccherini, Mozart, Clementi, Cheubini, Beethoven, Kuhlau, Diabelli.

Practice and Performance: During the Classical Period, dynamics became commonplace. This was indeed another was of achieving contrast, employing crescendo and diminuendo, as well as sudden changes from "ff" to "pp". Composers give explicit directions in dynamics, tempi, phrasing form and other interpretive matters--leaving little the performer's imagination. While ornaments were not always written out, there was a precise formula for the execution of each figure. Music was performed with a sense of balance, polish, order, neatness, planning and good taste. There was still some improvisation buy generally applied to the cadenza of a concerto (even so, most cadenzas were written out!).

Prominent Musical Characteristics: Again, the sense of "polish" and "neatness" was the norm. During this time, the pianoforte gradually replaced the harpsichord. Music forms are now precise and clear, with sections being clearly marked off by cadences. Classical music is characterized by symmetry of form, with balanced musical periods (usually in units of four-measure phrases). Folk music even became gradually introduced into serious music. Melodies were lyrical with smooth contours. Ornaments were often written out, but became a lyric part of the melody itself (no longer being merely decorative). Also, melodies were often built out of short melodic "fragments", contrasted homophonically with a second melody. (In effect this led to the ABA formula). Chordal structures also became melodic when broken; and in faster tempos, ascending upwards, they were referred to as "rocket figures". Rhythm was essentially simple and constant, clearly punctuated by rhythmic cadences. An important device of rhythm was the "Alberti bass", which is the breaking-up of a triad into broken-chord figures with a repeated rhythmic pattern. Even silence became part of the element of rhythm. Strong cadences are sometimes followed by a measure of silence in order to heighten the effect of the cadence itself. The tempo of a movement, or section, is always constant from beginning to end. Harmony is tonal, simple, and rarely uses anything beyond primary chords. There is a formal key relationship between themes and movements of forms. This key relationship provides contrast and interest without introducing new material (Sonata-allegro form is a good example of this). Key relations between movements are not so varied. In general, all movements are in the same key (except sometimes for the second movement).

Instrumentation: The most popular means of musical expression during the Classical Period was instrumental--the orchestra, chamber music and solo instruments. The Classical orchestra usually consisted of two of each of the following instruments: flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets and tympani--and a host of strings numbering around twenty-five. This orchestra was divided into four major groups: strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion. Each group became a type of "choir" in itself. The harpsichord gradually gave way to the pianoforte. Instrumental chamber music became very popular, as did the opera. There were a large number of operas composed during the Classical Period--but vocal music apart from the opera was of minor importance.

Vocal Compositions: Recitative, aria, chorus, ensembles, lied, oratorio, mass.

New Large Forms: Symphony, sonata, solo concerto, chamber music (duets, trios, quartets, quintets, sextets), serenade, divertimenti, cassations, notturni.

New Small Forms: Sonata-allegro, rondo, theme and variations minuet and trio, scherzo, tenary (ABA), bagatelle, overture

Music History - The Baroque Period

2007-09-24T05:58:00.003-07:00

The term, "Baroque" was probably derived from the Portuguese meaning "an irregularly shaped pearl". Baroque art is considered excessively decorative, dramatic, flamboyant and emotional. Architecture, painting, sculpture and music all display these traits as well.

The rise of monarchies played an important part in the creation of national styles, since the monarchs and princes were among the most patrons of a lavish musical life.

There was a great deal of scholarly inquiry at this time: physiology, astronomy, mathemantics and physics all influenced musicians to apply methods of science to problems of music, leading to a systematic development of the techniques of musicl art.

Function of Music: An increasing amount of religious music was also used for nor-liturgical purposes; preludes, postludes, etc. Much music written toward the end of the Baroque period was written for amateur performers in the households of the aristocracy and wealthy class. Most of this music was instrumental, but vocal music was often included. In the households of the aristocracy, small bands of musicians provided compositions and performances of dinner music, dances and ensemble concerts. Instruction in performance and composition was restricted to the aspiring musician and to the household of the aristocracy and wealthy householders. There was no institutional organization for teaching musical arts, so students (mostly male) were taught by their own musical fathers or relatives who were attached to the household of a composer/performer.

Historical Events: King James version of the Bible, Pilgrims land in America, Newton writes about physical laws, Encyclopaedia published, Watts invents the steam engine.

Visual Arts: Bernini, Rubens, El Greco, Rembrandt, Velasquez Van Dyck, Poussin, Watteau, Hogarth, Fragonard, Gainsborough, da Vinci, Michaelangelo.

Literature: Cervantes, Pepys, Milton, Pope, Swift, Defoe, Gray, Goldsmith, Fielding.

Philosophy: F. Bacon, Deascartes, Grotius, Hobbs, Spinoza, Locke, Voltaire, Hume.

Prominent Composers: Caccini, Peri, Sweelinck, Monterverdi, Praetorius, Frescobaldi, Schutz, Schein, Scheidt, Cavalli, Chambonnieres, Carissimi, Froberger, Cesti, Angelbert, Lully, Charpentier, Buxtehude, Pachelbel, Corelli, Purcell, Kuhnau, A. Scarlatti, Couperin, Vivaldi, Telemann, Rameau, J.S. Bach, D. Scarlatti, Handel, Pergolesi.

Practice and Performance: The Baroque period was one in which the art of improvisation was a necessity of every performer. Both vocal and instrumental composers often only "outlined" the melodic line with the full expectation of having the performer add not only ornamentation, but passing tones, scalar passages, and even melodic fragments to the notated melody. In the later Baroque, brilliant and rapid ornamentation of a virtuoso type was known as "coloratura". In both vocal and instrumental compositions, performers were expected to extend cadences, especially climactic cadences near the end of a movement or work, with elaborate improvisation. Such improvisation came to be known as "cadenzas", where performers would exhibit their skills of improvisation and technique. Tempered systems of tuning were universally used. Meantone temperament was the most consistently used, but by the end of the period the tendency toward a system of equal temperament was favored because of an increasing modulatory practice of composers.

Prominent Musical Characteristics: "Tremolo" and "pizzicato" for string instruments; terraced dynamics although dynamics such as "p", "f", "cresc." and "dim." were introduced and used sparingly; rhythm was generally simple, but metrically strict; tempo markings such as "allegro", "andante" and "grave" were introduced' emphasis on solo singing' homophony introduced and existing along with polyphony; designation of ornamentation by the use of abbreviations and signs was used a great deal -- composers used these signs to indicate their own personal wishes in ornamentation, but performers were at liberty to improvise their own ornamentation as well; virtuoso and "bel canto" (beautiful singing) with florid technique; change to major/minor system of tonality; systemized harmony; chromaticism and dissonances used for exressiveness; improvisational style, with rapid scalar passages, decorations, free fantasy -- like displays of technique; variation principle; clear-cut phrases; consistent mood throughout sections of music.

Instrumentation: Most modern instruments of today were in use in the Baroque period; the violin family was perfected; idiomatic writing for specific instruments; a popular chamber music grouping was the "Trio-Sonata" (four instruments -- two treble, one bass, and a keyboard for harmony); another chamber groups was the "Solo-Sonata" (three instruments -- one melodic, one bass, and a keyboard for harmony); the Baroque orchestra, which consisted mainly of strings with a number of woodwinds; the Baroque organ; the "clavier", which referred to all types of keyboard instruments -- particularly the harpsichord and the clavichord; voices -- soprano, alto, tenor and bass.

Vocal Compositions: Recitative, aria, arioso, chorus, motet, spiritual concerto, anthem, solo song.

Instrumental Compositions: Prelude, fugue, toccata, ricercar, fantasia, overture, suite, keyboard sonata, chamber sonata, passacaglia, theme and variations, chorale variation, chorale prelude, chaconne, church sonata, concerto.

New Large Forms: Opera, oratorio, passion music, cantata, sonata, concerto grosso, mass.

STRUCTURED APPROACH TO PRACTICE

2007-09-24T05:54:00.000-07:00

I see it all the time in students in general. I will work with them on a piece/passage using a very structured approach. This means that we follow a number of steps in a specific order, so one leads to the next, and you acquire skills in a gradual manner. In short the practice is not random. However, when left to their own devices, or many times with me watching, students will not follow the master plan, but rather practise in a quasi-random fashion. I truly cannot understand this, since these methods should appeal to the lazy: they take less time, less effort and you do not even need to think (that is, my students do not need to think because they get it all in writing – all they have to do is to follow the steps). Yet they persist in doing it their way.

Chang actually mentions this phenomenon in his book, he calls it the “appeal of the intuitive method” or something like that. And right he is!

A good example is the repeated note-groups routine. I will do it with them, and they will completely master the passage in 20 minutes. However, they seem unable to – on their own volition – to transfer the method to another piece they may be learning by themselves (I try to get them independent as soon as possible). Sometimes I will let them struggle with a simple passage for a couple of months, and then in a single ten minute session with them achieve the results they could not achieve in two months. I point it out to them that for lazy people they like to work a lot, but to no avail.

Basically everyone wants to play the piece form beginning to end on automatic pilot and from memory. Common patterns:

1. Instead of reading the music when getting a passage wrong, the student prefers to “guess” what the note is by pressing randomly several notes until s/he gets the one that “sounds right” (but is still usually wrong). Everyone tries to avoid reading/sight-reading.

2. No one likes repeated note-groups even though it is the most powerful method in the bag.

3. Everyone wants to go hands together straight away.

4. No one likes to overlap sections – in fact no one likes to do small sections.

5. Everyone hates repeating sections and are usually dismayed when I suggest that they must repeat something seven times. To them seven times is the most absurd request they ever faced. The usual pattern is to repeat a section the minimum number of times to get a passable rendition of it, and then resent any suggestion that now is the moment to start repeating. “But I got it right!” (after 10000 wrong ones).

6. Once they get something learned, revolution is in the horizon the moment I suggest that we should go through all the steps we did the day before.

Yes, this is an excellent idea. I call it a practice journal. You should detail in it the way you are learning the piece in great detail. I make several copies of the score and cut the sections I am working on and the way I join them and the tricks I am using. I also write my feelings about it: how hard/impossible it is, or how easy it is, or where I think the difficulty lies. Our memory is notoriously unreliable. If you spend a month learning a piece it is quite enlightening to go back and read your comments. You may be very surprised that you actually felt that way.

Another thing I do is I always put the time I start and the time a finish a session, and I write what I should do the next day. Again, the next day we tend to forget what we noticed needed more working on. So a “what to do next” section is very important. At the same time you should be economical with words or you may end up using all your practice time doing the journal. As with everything, the more experience you get the better you get at it.

Yes, it is perfectly acceptable. However you must always have accomplished something at the end of a practice session. If you cannot accomplish anything (for instance by trying to tackle a piece you don’t know form beginning to end) then that practice time was completely wasted. Even if all you can master is a single bar HS, this is all right, because you are getting there step by step. But it is perfectly possible to practice 5 or 6 hours and not get anything done.

So it is important that you are not overambitious. With experience you will soon be able to figure out what is feasible and what is not. But always strive to have mastered something at the end of a session.

HT is a big problem. The three most powerful ways to deal with it are small section work, repeated note-groups and dropping notes. Another way to do it (particularly useful in counterpoint) is to have your teacher playing the RH while you play the LH (and vice versa) because this gets your ear used to it without you having to worry about HT If you have a digital piano with a recording facility, you can record one hand and play it back while you play the other hand.

Yes, it all depends. As I said work towards achieving something. If you achieve something, fine. If you do not than you need to make it easier by either tackling a smaller section, doing HS, outlining, etc.

The size of the passage HT again depends on what you can get away with. For myself, I usually make a difference between baroque music (counterpoint) and everything else.

With everything else, I join hands straight away. Let us say I am working on a Chopin waltz and I have just done half a bar HS. I will immediately join hands. I will not acquire a sizeable section hands separate. Rather I will join hands straightaway after mastering HT on the small section, and join section HT straightaway. That is, I will not do bars 1- 2 HS then HT, bars 2 – 3 HS then HT, then bars 1 – 3HS then HT. I will do bars 1-3 HT without further ado. Of course if it all falls apart, then I may have do go back to HS. But this is rarely the case. In fact usually if there is this sort of problem working some more on Bars 1 – 2 and Bars 2 – 3 HS and HT has better results than working Bars 1 – 3 HS. I believe this is because – for me personally – the LH does not make much sense by itself, it is just a chord progression.

Counterpoint on the other hand is a completely different matter. With counterpoint I will learn and memorise each voice separately, and I will be constantly paling the voices separately even after the piece has been mastered to keep each voice fresh in my mind.

Then there are also pieces that may not be advisable to play HS. For instance, Grieg’s Arietta, Schumann’s Strange lands and people and Mendelssohn’s Song without words op. 19 no. 1 all have a similar structure and form: they have a melody on the top voice, a bass voice and an arpeggiated middle voice that is shared between the hands. I will practise the top voice and the bass voice by themselves, but the arpeggiated middle voice has to be played HT straightaway, since HS will be not only very difficult as it will destroy the flow of the music. In such a case you may simplify it by doing separate voices, but HS may not be feasible. Another piece that comes to mind is the first part of Rach prelude op. 23 no. 5. The best approach there is to outline (that is to get rid of all unnecessary notes) but still keep HT. The second part on the other hand should be done HS. So it depends. The general rule is always: If what you are doing is not working, do something else.

Yes, that is correct. If you cannot do it the next day – perhaps not straight away but after 4 – 5 repeats – then you must repeat the procedure that lead you to mastery the days before. The procedure got you there once, it will get you there again. So don’t waste time trying to save time by skipping steps. It does not work. The fastest way is simply to repeat the procedure (whatever it was – as I said it will depend on the piece and on the person). Especially because you will get there in a fraction of the time it took you first time round. Again do not believe me. Try it out with two pieces of similar difficulty. This is truly the only way to decide if some great idea will work or if it is just some great idea.

As I said above, it will depend. With counterpoint, I take whatever time is necessary to truly master the whole piece before I even think of joining hands, so yes, HT will be a session in itself and should really come only after the whole piece is mastered hands/voices separate.

But with most repertory, I aim to have the section HT at the end of a session. If that is not possible, then yes, just do another session in the day for HT (provided HS has been mastered – you should never move to HT if you are still struggling with HS).

Also there are pieces that you will be able to do HT straightaway. I tend to do Mozart sonatas HT straightaway for most of the sonata – and only do HS if truly necessary. Also beginner pieces I usually do HT straightaway. And there are pieces I am able to just memorise after sight reading through them. Some styles/patterns come very easily to me, others are a real nightmare. Haydn sonatas somehow never presented a problem. But Bach and Scarlatti require a lot of work – mostly figuring out fingering. Then there are many modern pieces that are very easy to play – but deciphering the score takes a huge amount of time.

Again it is all very personal, and you must apply the general principles to your particular case.

Yes, this is correct. Patience always pays off. A lot of people move too fast to larger sections, while the smaller sections are still full of problems. You cannot fix the small section if it is inserted in the large section. All you will be doing is practising mistakes. This is really like fixing an engine. You must switch off the engine remove the part that is giving you problems, and fix it, and then put it back into the engine and spend some time adjusting it. Trying to fix a piece with the engine running is a very bad idea.

The bare minimum is three sessions per week. Any less than that and there will be no progress, so you may as well not waste your time.

The more sessions you can manage, the faster you will learn and the more repertory you will accumulate. Now the problem I see with the schedule you described, is that you may end up neglecting pieces. If so the time you invested on the pieces you neglected will have been wasted.

Consider this: On Saturday you have time for 10 sessions. So in each you tackle a different piece. However on Monday you can only manage 6. So 4 pieces will be neglected and the time you wasted on them could have been better used mastering other sections of the other 6 pieces. Does that make sense? So plan your work by referring to the minimum of practice sessions you can do. Let us say it is four. So aim to work on four pieces. On the particular day you can only do four sessions you dedicate one session per piece. You will progress slowly because the section you will be able to tackle will be relatively small. But the day you can do 12 sessions, devote three sessions per piece. On these days you will be able to advance rapidly and cover far more ground. You can also use the 4 session day to play larger sections already mastered and work on musicality, and the other days for the nitty gritty time consuming work.

METHOD OF PRACTISING SCALES

2007-09-24T05:53:00.000-07:00

The worst way is to ripple through them over and over again (hands together) while you think about your holidays in the Caribbean.

The best way is to have a very clear aim when practising scales and use a variety of approachs to achieve that aim.

Also use the water-boiling approach. If you are going to boil water, you must keep it on the fire until it boils. If you turn the fire off before it boils it doesn’t. Ever. So if you have a lot of water to boil is far more efficient to distribute it in small pans on several fires. So plan your practice (of everything, not only scales) so that you achieve your goals within a practice session of, say, 10 minutes. You will not learn all 24 scales (or a piece) in such a short session, but you will master an aspect of the scale, (or a bar of the piece). Then you make sure to have a master plan so that the small goals add up to the big goal. This requires very good planning, lots of discipline and day-to-day consistency. One month of this disciplined approach will bring awesome results.

So for scales, I do not believe in scales as technical exercises, but you must know them. So here are some variations, in the order I do them and teach them (they add up to greater things in due time):

Start with the 12 major scales:

1. One finger only, one octave, hands separate. Play the scale and say the notes you are playing aloud. Then do it again this time say the interval between notes aloud (e.g. major scales: Tone – Tone – semitone - Tone – Tone – Tone – semitone or major 2nd – major2nd – minor 2nd – major 2nd – major 2nd – major 2nd – minor 2nd). Goal: to know the notes of the scales. To name black keys and white keys as sharps/flats (e.g, in Gb major, the white key we usually think of as B is in fact a Cb), to get familiarised with counting semitones (an important skill that will come in handy when you are studying the different intervals in theory) and to spot straightaway the difference between major and minor seconds.

In the beginning, do one single scale per day (or even per week). Do not move to the next scale until you have completely saturated yourself with the one you are working on. It should take only a couple of minutes. Soon you will become master of one scale (consistent repetition is a sure fire way - but no one wants to do it. Everyone expects to learn by magic). Then move on to the next scale. You should know all the 12 major scales (as far as notes are concerned) in 2 – 3 weeks (at the most – some people can do it all in one day). Once you know all the 12 major scales, you should be able to go through them in 2 – 3 minutes.

If you are in a hurry, do all the 12 major scales in one day in 12 different sessions of 2 – 3 minutes. Once you finish your 2 – 3 minutes on one scale, forget about it completely until the next day. Do not try to make relationships between the several scales (yet). It will slow down the learning process. Concentrate on one and only one scale per practise session. Trust that it will add up and in the end you will be able to establish all relationships you always dreamed of.

Once you are confident you really know all 12 major scales over one octave (as far as notes and intervals are concerned), move on to play the scales with all fingers over two octaves, hands separate. Again, stay at this level for as long as needed to completely master it. Now you do not need to do the previous practice since this one will incorporate it.

2. All fingers, two octaves, hands separate: again just one scale per practice session (which should not last more than 2 – 3 minutes). Goal: to learn and ingrain the fingering, to keep reinforcing the notes (but by now you should know them back to front). To master a specific movement, namely, the movement that allows you to play scales slow/medium speed legato. Pass the thumb under. The best scale to start is B major, since in this scale the finger position is the most natural. At this stage play the scales in this sequence: B major, Db major, Gb major (fingering and scales are the same, you only need to change the white notes), then follow the circle of fifths in both directions (G – F / D – Bb / A – Eb / E – Ab). As before, do one scale per practice session, but soon you will be proficient enough to go through all of them in one single practice session of 2 – 3 minutes.

3. Next you are going to master a way/movement to play scales at fast speed. Now you must pass the thumb over (or displace the hand laterally). We are still working on separate hands (far more important than hands together for several reasons). This time play the notes of the scales in clusters (or chords), playing together (as a chord) fingers 123 and then displacing laterally the hand to play (as a chord) fingers 1234. Do this over one octave, then over two octaves, then over three and finally over four octaves. This will really improve your visual appraisal of the scale pattern of black/white keys over the entire keyboard. It will also explain the difficulty of playing scales fast: fingers 123 and 1234 can play fast no problem (what could be fast than together?) It is going from 3 to 1 and from 4 to 1 that will slow you down. So isolate this displacement movement and work on it separately. The main problem is to be fast and accurate, but you will never be as fast here as in fingers 123 or 1234. So this is the only limit to the speed you will play any scale. Later on you will need to slow down 123 and 1234 to the fastest you can play 3-1 and 4-1 in order to make the scale sound even. But for the moment, your goals at this stage are visual patterning of the keyboard for each scale, investigation of the displacement movement and getting used to the arm moving and accurately positioning the hand/fingers. This is very different form the previous stage, where the passing under of the thumb leads one naturally to use the fingers rather than the arms for placement and position.

You must keep working at both steps 2 and steps 3.

4. Now you are going to do no. 3 again, but this time you will “separate” the thumb. That is you play: 1 (alone) 23 (as a chord) 1 (alone) 234 (as a chord). You can do this in two ways (and you must do both): displacing the hand laterally (passing the thumb over) and passing the thumb under. Observer carefully the movement patterns you must do in order to accomplish each of these movements. You will see/hear/feel quite clearly why it is impossible to play fast scales with the thumb under. You will also se/feel/hear why playing with the thumb under is necessary for slow legato playing of scales.

5. Now that you have informed yourself of notes, fingerings, movements and pattern recognition for all the 12 major scales, you go back to play them normally (still hands separate) over four octaves. Play them slowly and legato with the appropriate movements and fast, again with the appropriate movements. From time to time remind yourself of the movements by going over again items 3 and 4. Playing all the 12 major scales in less than 2 – 3 minutes should be easy. If not, have that as your goal. Do not rush, it is more important to fully master one single scale than to rush through and be sloppy in all of them. Also remember that you can split your task throughout the day in 2 – 3 minutes sessions. It is not a good idea to spend a continuous hour on scales, It is far better to have twenty 3 minutes sessions throughout the day (e.g. every time there is an advert on TV go to the piano and do a session).

6. Now you should start doing variations. Over four octaves (hands separate) play the scales with rhythm variations (fast-slow and slow-fast), accent variations (accent every other note, accent every three notes, starting with note 1, then note 2 then note 3, then accent every fourth note) articulation variations (staccato, legato, detached), dynamic variations, and perhaps the most interesting, cantabile variations: create a melodic line within the scale by accenting certain notes. You should be able to clearly bring out the melody with the rest of the scale notes in the background.

7. Still with hands separate, play each major scale starting on a different note (but keeping the same fingering – e.g., play C major, but start on D with finger 2. Then start on E with finger 3 and so on). This is really playing the seven modes.

8. Finally, (still with separate hands), play through all the 12 major scales in the order of the cycle of fifths, and also in a chromatic order. You should also be able to play any of the 12 major scales chosen in a random order. You are now ready to join hands.

9. Joining hands will be a nightmare because of the co-ordination. The fastest way to overcome this is by playing the scale hands together in groups of notes, overlapping the groups. This is a long practice session (it will take anything from 20 minutes to one hour), so brace yourself. The good news is that you only need to do this once (or maybe twice) for each scale. Then you will know your scale hands together forever (even if you do not practise it ever again). This is how you do it (I will show over one octave, but you have to do it over two octaves).C Major:

a) Play, hands together, correct fingers the notes CD hundreds of times (since it is only two notes, you can do several hundred times in 1 – 2 minutes). Until it becomes easy and automatic. Move on to DE. Then EF (difficult for the RH hand, easy for the LH – so you will probably need to spend more time on these two notes). Then FG. Then GA (difficult for LH, easy for RH), AB and finally BC.
b) Now do three notes, spending more time on the difficult sequences: CDE – DEF – EFG – GAB – ABC
c) Four notes: CDEF – DEFG – EFGA – FGAB – GABC
d) Five notes: CDEFG – DEFGA – EFGAB – FGABC
e) Six notes: CDEFGA – DEFGAB – EFGABC
f) And last but not least seven notes: CDEFGAB – DEFGABC
g) You should now be able to play the scale perfectly hands together over one octave. Extend the system for two octaves. You don’t need to do it for more than two octaves, since the other octaves will take care of themselves.

10. Now, just like you did with separate hands you must do all sorts of variations. Do all the ones you did for separate hands, and add these ones:

a) Play the scale in contrary movement.

b) Play the scale in counterpoint: One hand plays two octaves, the other hand one octave at half the speed. Alternate hands

c) Play one scale (e.g. G major) with the right hand and a different scale (e.g. B major) with the left hand. This will really show you how ironclad your fingering is.

d) Play the scale with the hands a third apart, a sixth apart, a tenth apart (and since you are at it, why not do all the other intervals as well?)

e) Play the scale with crossed hands (RH plays the bass, LH plays the treble). Experiment with one hand on the top of the other and then reverse.

f) Other.

11. Now you must start making a connection between the scales and the pieces you are playing. Identify the key of your piece and any modulation. Practise together with your piece the scales of the keys you identified in your piece.

12. If your piece has a characteristic rhythm, practice your scales in that rhythm pattern.

13. If your piece has a defined accompaniment in the left hand (e.g a waltz), play the appropriate scales on the RH instead of the original melody of the piece. This will allow you not only to practise both the scale and the LH of your piece as it will be an eyes (ear?) opener on how Western tonal music is all organised around scales. It will also show you straight away if got the harmonic progressions correct (if you have not the scale will not fit.)

14. Improvise by having a standard chord progression on the LH (e.g. C – A – F – G – C) and doing scales in different rhythm patterns on the RH. You are allowed to repeat notes, but you must follow the scale order (no skips and no missing notes). Start by having a set rhythm pattern. As your facility progress you will be able to freely improvise the rhythm.

15. Now you must do the same for the 12 minor scales.

16. In parallel with this work at the piano, spend some time (again no more than a few minutes) writing down the scales and key signatures on music paper. (This will also improve your sight reading).

17. Always start to learn a new piece away from the piano by identifying the scales and keys in it.

Are you tired yet? Remember you are not supposed to do all that in one evening but in the course of two – three years. To complete this plan is your long term goal. Now organise in small chunks on your daily practise and make sure it will all add up in a couple of years time. Consistency is the key.

Finally: Treat arpeggios the same way.

Then try other scales (pentatonic, whole tone, chromatic, blues, etc.)

Sight-Reading Ten Amazing Free Tips.

2007-09-24T05:52:00.003-07:00

1 Develop Your “Relative” Sense of Touch.

Acquire the skill of playing so that you don’t need to look down at your hands. Without looking at the keyboard, glide your hands so you feel the two and three black keys (like Braille.) When you need a C, D, or E, feel for the “2s.” When you need an F, G, A, or B, feel for the “3s.” Most good sight-readers don’t need to look at their hands while they play and this drill teaches you how to find any note without looking at your hands. Then you will be able to keep your eyes on the music and look ahead and this will greatly speed up your sight-reading.

2 Develop Your “Absolute” Sense of Touch.
Always sit in the same place. Middle “D” is recommended because it creates a symmetrical pattern in both directions. Sometimes you may need to make a page turn or your hand will jump from a high position to a low position on the keyboard. It is handy to not have to look down to find the correct position in these cases. By always sitting the same place at the piano, you will develop a physiological memory of all 88 keys on the piano!

3 Practice Finger Technique Without Looking at Your Hands.
A creative way to do this is to play your scales and arpeggios in the dark. This will add confidence to your sense of touch. This exercise is to further enhance tactile awareness that is developed in steps 1 and 2.

4 Learn the Four Groups of the Lines and Spaces:
Lines in the Treble “E G B D F”
Lines in the Bass “G B D F A”
Spaces in the Treble “F A C E”
Spaces in the Bass “A C E G”
Try to just learn these without the typical slogans: “Every Good Boy Does Fine,” or similar phrases. Each time you attempt to read a note using these slogans, you have to go through a 2-step process which seriously slows-down your speed. Just memorize the groups as fast a possible by saying them out loud frequently.

5 Practice Only the Rhythmic Information.
In a composition you are working on, ignore the correct pitches. Just play the rhythmic infomation of the piece on any notes. Your brain will enjoy the ability to work on just one thing.

6 Practice Only the Pitch and Fingering Information.
In a composition you are working on, ignore the correct rhythm. Just play the correct pitches along with the correct fingering. Don’t try to play in time here. This way, you can focus on just the right notes with the right fingers. your brain will enjoy the ability narrow its focus. Eventually, you will be able to play the right notes with the right fingering and with the right rhythm all at the same time!

7 Play Easy Pieces up to Tempo.
Force yourself to keep going no matter what. Don’t worry about mistakes. This helps you to look ahead.

8 Play Difficult Pieces Super Slowly.
Don’t dare make even one mistake. This helps to develop accuracy.

9 Look For Patterns in Music.
Don’t be afraid to look way ahead for a second just so you can anticipate what will be easy or difficult. Patterns make it easy. If you detect a pattern then you can devote your concentration to other things.

10 Study Music Theory.
Professional sight-readers never read every note! They get a sense of the overall chord and “fill-in” the blanks. With a solid knowledge of music theory, this becomes natural and immediate.

SECRET ON HOW TO PRACTICE

2007-09-24T05:52:00.001-07:00

SECRET ON HOW TO PRACTICE

In piano playing you must repeat something many times. But you must have a night’s sleep between repeats so that the unconscious brain can work it out. When you start dreaming with your piece you know you are starting to learn it. Dreaming is the proof that the unconscious brain is working.

In order to learn anything in the most quickest and easiest way, work on a section with full concentration for 15 – 20 minutes and then forget about it until the next day.

The next day repeat the same procedure for the same amount of time and again forget it until the next day. Repeat this as many days as necessary to be able to play the section in such a way that you cannot get it wrong even if you try. I am 100% sure you that you will get to this point in a maximum of seven days or less. This will require incredible discipline and consistency. But it works like magic.

Now consider this example. You decide to practice 5 hours every day. These five hours can be divided in 12 practice sessions of 20 minutes each.

The worst thing you can do is this: “Today I am going to practice bars 12- 24 of piece x”. Then you do that in each of the 12 practice sessions for 5 hours. It does not work. It is a waste of time.

The brilliant thing you can do is to use each of these 12 practice sessions to practice something completely different in each.

It does not matter if you work on a section for 20 minutes or for five hours. Whatever you accomplished in 20 minutes is all you are going to accomplish that day. You need a night’s sleep in between. It is far better to work twelve days for 20 minutes everyday in a passage than to work on that passage for 12 sessions all in one single day. Instead use the other eleven daily sessions to learn eleven new things. At the end of a week you will be amazed at the fantastic amount that you have learned. Try it out if you don’t believe me!

To practice like this you must have a plan. You must make sure that everything that you are practicing in these sessions adds up to something at the end of a week. This is the simple secret of all those pianists who were able to learn massive repertories in no time at all.

The good news is that you do not need to practice 10 –12 hours a day. 20 minutes is plenty. But the amount you will be able to learn in 20 minutes will be one twelfth of what you could learn in 5 hours. Do not think in terms of hours of practice per day, but in terms of number of 20-minute sessions per day and stick to whatever you are doing for seven days (or until you master it - usually less than seven days).

Now let me say a few more words about 15 - 20 minutes, so that it is perfectly clear what I mean.

The important thing to understand is that you should have a section perfect at the end of 15 – 20 minutes.

If it is taking more than that, then the passage you chose to work on is too big.

Cut it in half.

Most people select sections that are bigger than they can chew. This leads to practicing for hours on end with no noticeable improvements. Eventually you become tired, fingers get sore, and you become discouraged and end up hating practice.

Here is another way to practice and you can be combining it with the 15-20 minutes practice.

It takes 7 repetitions for the human brain to learn anything. So, choose a section and repeat it seven times. If after seven times you have not learnt it, it is because the section or chunk is too large of information.

So instead of doing what most people do, namely keep repeating endlessly the passage hundreds of times, do the clever thing and make the section smaller.

Try again seven times. If you still have not got it, make it smaller again. Certain passages will require that you cut it down to only two notes. I assure you that anyone can learn two notes after repeating them seven times. Then you go to the next bit (make sure you overlap to avoid stuttering).

So you must organize your 15 –20 minutes so that the section is small enough that it will fit in the 15 – 20 minute session.

In the beginning this will all be a bit too much for you, but as you keep at it, very soon you will be able to look at a piece of music and quickly work out how long it will take you to learn it. You will know exactly the size of passage you can manage and how to break it down.

There are three basic stages in learning and practicing a new piece.

1. The first stage is exploratory.
· Sight-read through the piece to identify the difficult sections
· Analyze the piece.
· Listen to CDs of the piece
· Break it all down in manageable sections to practice.
· Figure out for each section the best fingering.
· Plan how you are going to tackle the piece; how many passages, how long the passages are going to be, how you are going to join the passages.

Most of this stage is done away from the piano. The end result of this stage is to have a thorough knowledge of the piece (theoretically) and to have a plan typed up to master the piece in as little time as possible.

2. The second stage is mostly technical.

· Go to the piano to teach your fingers to play the several passages in which you organized the learning/practicing of your piece. The main aim here is to ingrain the correct movements and fingerings in your subconscious, and to smooth the movements so that they become automatic.
This is the stage where you work with separate hands in small bits, then join hands, and use all sorts of practice tricks. The end result of this stage is to have the piece learned as far as playing the correct notes at the correct time is concerned. You want to get to that magical moment where your fingers just know where to go, without you having to think about it.

3. Finally on the third stage, you will be dealing mostly with interpretation and performance issues.

· The piece is learned and memorized at this stage, but you still need to work things like phrasing and dynamics

These three stages are not separate.
One stage informs the other. It may well happen that in the second stage, when you actually start practicing the piece on the piano, you find out that the fingerings and movements you decided on the first stage actually do not work. So you may have to go back and change them. Also, although the second stage is mostly technical, you should not leave interpretation completely out of it until you get to the third stage.

Two important principles on the 15 – 20 minute method:

1. The human brain learns by “chunks”, and then by joining these chunks into larger chunks. Anything that can be learned by repetition will be learned after seven repetitions. If after seven repetitions you have not learned the “chunk”, it means that the chunk was too large for the brain to handle. You must break it down into smaller chunks.

Let us say that you want to learn a poem with 200 verses. If you read the full 200 verses seven times, chances are that after seven times you will not have learned it. Most people who are not aware of what I am about to say, will just keep repeating the whole poem in the hope that by increasing the number of repeats they will eventually master it. Let us say that it takes 30 minutes to repeat aloud 200 verses. Repeating the poem seven times will take 3.5 hours, and at the end of it you will not have learned it. So you repeat another seven times. You still will not have learned it. So you do another seven times with the same dismal and pathetic result. Now you have been reading this poem for 10.5 hours. Do that for a whole month. I bet that at the end of the month, practicing 10.5 hours a day (21 repetitions) you still will not have learnt the poem. This is partly because you cannot fit enough repetitions in a day (the poem is simply too large), but also because if you have not learned after seven repetitions increasing the number of repetitions will not make any difference.

So what should you do? You must decrease the size of the chunk of information that you are trying to learn. How much should you decrease it? Well, start by cutting the poem in half: 100 verses. Now this takes only 15 minutes to read through. After seven repeats, did you learn it? If you did, this is the chunk size you can cope with. If not, the chunk size is still too large. So cut it in half again: 50 verses, which you can now read in 7.5 minutes. Now let us say that by cutting it in half and trying to learn the chunk in seven repetitions you finally got to 1 verse. That can be read in 9 seconds. This is the exploratory stage of your practice: when you find out what is the larges chunk you can learn by repeating it seven times. With experience you will get this size fairly immediately. But in the beginning expect to spend sometime learning about yourself and your learning capacity.

So you figured out that one verse is (for you) learnable after seven repeats. After seven repetitions you just know it. So it is going to take you (9x7) = 63 seconds to master one line of the poem. To master the 200 verses will take you exactly 3. 5 hours, the same amount of time it took you to read through the whole poem 7 times without making any progress whatsoever. The conclusion is obvious: Breaking your learning tasks into chunks that can be learned after seven repeats will save an amazing amount of time, as compared to the alternative of reading the whole thing seven times.

2. The second principle is: You learn nothing until it is processed by the unconscious. Dreaming is one of the symptoms of this, so you need at least one night sleep in between learning sessions before you actually learn what you have been practicing. Usually you need several nights sleep depending on the complexity of your task. This is the 20-minute principle.

Going back to the 200-line poem. It took you 63 seconds to repeat and learn the first line. That’s it! You do not need to do any more work on this line today. You can do, if you want, but it will not make any difference whatsoever.

If you do your seven repeats (63 seconds), stop and go to bed, next day when you wake up you will find that you pretty much forgot the line. So you must start again, and repeat the line seven times (63 seconds again). But you will discover that although you felt as ignorant as in the first day, this time it took you only 5 repeats to get to the stage you were in yesterday after 7 repeats. So you re-learnt the line in 45 seconds, instead of the 63 seconds. Never mind that, do your seven repeats again (even though you have mastered it by the fifth). On the third day, you wake up and to your dismay you realize you cannot remember a thing. However, this time by the second repeat it is all back in your mind. This time it took you only 18 seconds to get to the stage that in the first day took you 63 seconds and in the second day 45 seconds. Again, even though you mastered the line by the second repeat, you do the full seven repetitions. On the fourth day, chances are that you will not need to do any repeat. You simply know the line. I have never met anyone who needed more than seven days to get to this stage. Usually by the third/fourth day they have learned their chunk of information (provided that the size of the chunk could be learned after seven repeats).

The important information here is this. If you repeat your verse 700 times (instead of 7), It will make no difference whatsoever to the speed with which you will learn it. It will still take four days. You do not need to believe me. Just try it. Get two passages of a piece. Size them so that they can be learnt after seven repeats. Do only seven repeats on the first one, and 700 repeats on the second. See which one is thoroughly learnt first. My prediction is that they will both take exactly the same amount of time to be learnt

In the case of a passage of music, you will probably do more things then just repeat it. After repeating seven times, I would work on hands separate and hands together. Depending on the passage I might use rhythmic variations, or play it in chords, or other practice variations. So it may take 15 – 20 minutes to go through all these routines, maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less. Then that is it for the day! Only go through that passage again next day. If you want to devote 5 hours a day to piano practice, use the remaining time to practice other passages, or even passages from other pieces.

So use the 7-repeat principle to define the section you are going to practice. Then practice it only for the time necessary to master it (usually less then 15 – 20 minutes, but rarely a bit more). Then leave it until the next day. Repeat the same process again until you finally know it (should take 3 – 4 days).

The 20-minute sessions are an average figure. Learn it in less time if you can. The idea here is to set a limit that should show you when effort is being wasted. For instance: if you practice a passage for 20 minutes and you have not mastered it, you have chosen a too large chunk; practicing it for a further 5 hours is not going to do any good. So, don't. Instead break it down into smaller chunks that you can master in 20 minutes. This will be quicker and more efficient in the long run. By the same token, if you have mastered a section in 20minutes, there is no reason to keep at it for 5 hours (although most pianist can display this sort of compulsive behavior).

No one can tell you the size of section that you will be able to master in 20 minutes: it depends on the section and ultimately on your own ability. You have to discover that by yourself. Here is the method: repeat the section 7 times. Have you learned it? (Learned is different from mastered). Yes? Then move on. No? Cut it in half. Try again. Learned it? No? Cut it in half again and so on and so forth. Eventually you will be able to get a chunk that you can learn in 7 times (sometimes, this can be as little as two notes). Now you can practice this chunk until you master it (but for no more than 20 minutes - if you are dealing with just two notes, this will probably require only a couple of minutes; if you are dealing with a one minute section of a sonata, this will take you 20 minutes). If you are practicing a whole sonata that lasts for 18 minutes for your performance, then of course the directions above do not apply. The directions above are for learning a piece from scratch, not for polishing a piece you already mastered.

Come the next day, you may be shocked to realize that you have completely forgotten the section you worked on for 20 minutes and thought you had mastered the day before. So you see, there is the difference between mastered and learned. You learned the passage - and possibly to a high degree of facility - but you have not really mastered it - as shown by the fact that the next day you don't know even how to begin. If this is the case, you must treat the passage as a completely new passage and follow all the steps you did the previous day. Don't cut corners and don't skip steps. To your surprise, you will learn it again much faster. If it took you 20 minutes the first time around, now it may take you only 5 minutes. Next day, try again. Either you cannot remember it, and in which case you should repeat it all again - and it will take now perhaps 1 minute to remember it all, or you simply know the passage. If you got to the point where you can simply go to the piano and play the passage perfectly straight away, you have mastered it. You don't need to practice it anymore. So these are two very different stages: Learned and mastered. You must keep "practicing" (which is a very specific process) a section even if you feel you have already learned it. And you must keep "practicing" until you master it. After you master it, all you have to do is keep "playing it".

There is a third stage. After you master a passage, neglect it completely for one month. Then go to the piano and try it again. Most likely you will have forgotten it. If so, relearn it from scratch as if it was a new section. Don't skip any steps, and don't cut any corners. Even so you will relearn it again in a fraction of the time you did the first time round. If you do this neglect-relearn process three or four times, you will get to a new stage all together, that is beyond mastery: you will never forget your piece, even if you don't play it for 30 years. You will always be able to play it. This is the piano equivalent of riding a bicycle: Once you learn it you never forget it. The problem is, since piano playing is more complex than riding a bicycle - which by the way has the same stages of learning/mastering/never forgetting - most people neglect their pieces far too soon, either at the learning or at the mastering stage, so they never experience the "never forget" stage.

STEP BY STEP METHOD ON HOW TO LEARN A NEW SCALE

2007-09-24T05:51:00.005-07:00

GOAL IS TO KNOW THE NOTES OF THE SCALE
SPEND AS MUCH TIME AS YOU NEED ON THE FIRST TWO STEPS

1. One finger only, one octave, hands separate. Play the scale and say the notes you are playing aloud. (3 minutes)

2. Do the same but this time say aloud the interval you see between the notes. (3 minutes)

GOAL IS TO LEARN AND INGRAIN THE FINGERING, TO KEEP REINFORCING THE NOTES AND TO MASTER THUMB UNDER MOVEMENT

3. All fingers, two octaves, hands separate. (3 minutes)

GOAL IS TO MASTER A MOVEMENT TO PLAY SCALES AT FAST SPEED BY DISPLACING THE HAND LATERALLY

4. Play the notes of the scale in clusters (or chords), playing together as a chord fingers 123 and moving the hand laterally to play as a chord finger 1234. Do this over one, two, three and four octaves.

5. Now do step four again but this time you will “separate” the thumb. That is you play: 1 (alone) 23 (as a chord) 1 (alone) 234 (as a chord). This must be done two ways:

· pass thumb over by moving hand laterally for fast playing
· pass thumb under for slow legato playing

GOAL IS TO PLAY SCALES AT SLOW AND FAST TEMPO USING APPROPRIATE MOVEMENTS

6. Now play the scale normal hands separately over four octaves. Play slowly with thumb under method.

7. Now play the scale normal hands separately over four octaves. Play faster with the thumb over method. Carefully observe the movement patterns and you will eventually see/hear/feel why it is possible to play fast scales by passing thumb over.

8. Now you should start doing variations. Over four octaves hands separate only.
· play scale in dotted rhythms
· play scale fast-slow or slow-fast
· accent on every 2nd, 3rd or 4th note
· play scale legato, staccato and mezzo staccato
· play scale loud, soft, crescendo-diminuendo
· create a melodic line within the scale by accenting certain notes. You should be able to bring out the melody with the rest of the scale notes played in the background. (This is fun!)

9. Now play the scale hands separately, but play the scale starting on different notes but keep the same fingering.

10. Now play the chromatic scale of the chosen key four octaves up and down.

11. Now finally you can play the scale hands together but co-ordination can be a nightmare. I am now going to show you a way to overcome this by playing the scale hands together in groups of notes, overlapping the groups. This is a long practice session (20 minutes-1 hour) The good news is you will only have to do this once or twice for each scale and never practice this step again.

EXAMPLE C MAJOR HANDS TOGETHER (STEPS)

· play HT, correct fingers the notes C D hundreds of times (1-2 minutes you can fit in several hundred repetitions)
· move to D E HT (1-2 minutes)
· move to E F HT (1-2 minutes)
· move to F G HT (1-2 minutes)
· move to G A HT (1-2 minutes)
· move to A B HT (1-2 minutes)
· and finally move to B C HT (1-2 minutes)

· now do THREE notes, spending more time on difficult sequences: CDE – DEF – EFG – GAB – ABC

· now do FOUR notes: CDEF – DEFG – EFGA – FGAB – GABC

· Now do FIVE notes: CDEFG – DEFGA – EFGAB – FGABC

· Now do SIX notes: CDEFGA – DEFGAB – EFGABC

· Now do SEVEN notes: CDEFGAB – DEFGABC

You should now be able to play the scale perfectly hands together over one octave. Extend the system over two octaves. You do not have to do it for more than two octaves, since the other octaves will take care of themselves.

12. Now you should start doing variations. Over four octaves hands together.
· play scale in dotted rhythms
· play scale fast-slow or slow-fast
· accent on every 2nd, 3rd or 4th note
· play scale legato, staccato and mezzo staccato
· play scale loud, soft, crescendo-diminuendo
· create a melodic line within the scale by accenting certain notes. You should be able to bring out the melody with the rest of the scale notes played in the background. (This is fun!)

13. Play the scale in contrary motion

14. Play the scale in counterpoint: play one hand two octaves, the other hand one octave at half the speed. Alternate hands.

15. Play different scale in each hand

16. Play the scale with hands a 3rd and 6th apart

1. Speed of hands together will always be slower than speed with hands separate. If you want to increase speed of hands together, work on speed of hands separate first, and hands together will increase speed automatically. Work on the 70% rule: hands together speed is always 70% of hands separate. So set a speed for hands together, say 154. You will only be able to achieve that speed when you can play hands separate 220. Once you can do HS 220, you will find – perhaps to your amazement that HT are automatically playing at 154.

2. You must use a movement/set of movements that will allow you to play fast. You cannot play scales fast passing the thumb under. You must pass the thumb over. This issue has been already discussed at length in several threads of this forum. Try this one:

In fact all this talk of thumb over thumb under is misleading. Your arm should move your hand and fingers in place. If you are reaching for the keys with your fingers, they will be doing a monumental effort in pulling the arms. It must be the other way around. The fingers are responsible only for the vertical movement, the horizontal movement is done by the arm (think glissando).

3. Also remember that although you want the scale to sound even, for this to happen the movements must be uneven: you must slow down the 123 1234 fingers and speed up the 31 and 41 fingers. Ultimately the speed of your scales will be limited by how fast you can do 31 and 41. Doing 123 and 1234 fast is never a problem.

4. You must use a fingering that will allow you to play fast. The 3rd and 4th fingers of both hands should always play a black key (except of course in C major). Orthodox fingering follows this principle in the right hand, but rarely on the left hand where the 4th finger usually plays a white note. So you must change the fingering of the left hand. If you are using orthodox fingering, this is probably one of the main reasons why you cannot speed up your scales: the left hand is holding back the right hand.

5. Here is an example: G major over two octaves

Orthodox fingering:
RH 123 1234 123 12345 (4th finger goes on the black key)
LH – 54321 321 4321 321 (2nd finger goes on the black key, 4th finger on a white key)

More efficient fingering:

RH: 123 1234 123 12345 (as before)
LH: 321 321 4321 321 43 (now the 4th finger goes on the black key)

Practise this fingering well with separate hands until it is thoroughly ingrained. Then join hands and you will be amazed at how much comfortable it is.

You will easily figure out the fingering for all scales if you always follow this principle (there is only one possible fingering if you prioritize the 4th finger on a black key and then the 3rd.)

6. You must use practice strategies that aim at speed: playing the scale in chord clusters, playing the scale with rhythm variations (e.g. slow-fast and then fast slow), etc.
7. Perhaps most important of all, you should be able to do the scale fast mentally. If you hear it in your mind correctly, the fingers will comply.

More efficient fingerings: MAJOR SCALES
C
Rh: 123 1234 123 12345
Lh: 54321 321 4321 321

G
Rh: 123 1234 123 12345
Lh: 321 321 4321 321 43

F
Rh: 1234 123 1234 1234
Lh: 321 4321 321 4321 3

D
Rh: 123 1234 123 12345
Lh: 21 4321 321 4321 32

Bb
Rh: 4 123 1234 123 1234
Lh: 321 4321 321 4321 3

A
Rh: 123 1234 123 12345
Lh: 21 321 4321 321 432

Eb
Rh: 3 1234 123 1234 123
Lh: 321 4321 321 4321 3

E
Rh: 123 1234 123 12345
Lh: 54321 321 4321 321

Ab
Rh: 34 123 1234 123 123
Lh: 321 4321 321 4321 3

B
Rh: 123 1234 123 1234 1
Lh: 1 321 4321 321 4321

Db
Rh: 23 1234 123 1234 12
Lh: 321 4321 321 4321 3

Gb(F#)
Rh: 234 123 1234 123 12
Lh: 4321 321 4321 321 42

Minor scales (harmonic):

Am
Rh: 123 1234 123 12345
Lh: 321 321 4321 321 43

Em
Rh: 123 1234 123 12345
Lh: 54321 321 4321 321

Dm
Rh: 123 1234 123 12345
Lh: 54321 321 4321 321

Bm
Rh: 123 1234 123 12345
Lh: 1 321 4321 321 4321

Gm
Rh: 123 1234 123 12345
Lh: 21 321 4321 321 432

F#m
Rh: 34 123 1234 123 123
Lh: 4321 321 4321 321 4

Cm
Rh: 234 123 1234 123 12
Lh: 21 321 4321 321 432

C#m
Rh: 34 123 1234 123 123
Lh: 321 4321 321 4321 3

Fm
Rh: 1234 123 1234 123 1
Lh: 21 321 4321 321 432

G#m
Rh: 34 123 1234 123 123
Lh: 321 4321 321 4321 3

Bbm
Rh: 4 123 1234 123 1234
Lh: 21 321 4321 321 432

D#m
Rh: 3 1234 123 1234 123
Lh: 21 4321 321 4321 32

REMEMBER THAT THE ABOVE STEPS MUST BE DONE FOR EACH AND EVERY SCALE BUT YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO DO ALL THAT IN ONE EVENING. THIS WILL TAKE 2-3 YEARS. THIS IS YOUR LONG TERM GOAL. YOUR JOB IS TO ORGANIZE THE ABOVE PLAN INTO SMALL CHUNKS IN YOUR DAILY PRACTISE AND MAKE SURE IT WILL ADD UP IN A COUPLE OF YEARS TIME. CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY.

ARPEGGIOS MUST BE TREATED IN THE SAME WAY.

REPEATED NOTE GROUP PRACTICE METHOD

2007-09-24T05:51:00.003-07:00

REPEATED NOTE GROUP PRACTICE METHOD

1. When working in small sections the most important consideration that overrides everything else is overlapping (this is another thing that for some weird reason people seem not to want to do). So rather than bars 1- 4 bars 5 – 8 and bars 9-12, one should do bars 1 – 4, bars 4 –8 and bars 8 – 12 (say).

2. Unless this was counterpoint, I would try to complete bars 1-4 HS and HT in the same session. 2nd session bars 4 – 8 HS and HT, 3rd session bars 1 – 8 HT (no HS – it should not be necessary) 4th session bars 8 – 12 HS and 5th session bars 1 – 12 HT. My aim is actually to play the piece as written as soon as possible and do all the minutiae only on the very basic, shortest sections. As soon as I get to larger sections (like the 3rd and 5th session above) the “technical” aspects (things like fingering, speed, movement) should have been mastered and I will then concentrate on the more musical aspects (which really consist of only dynamics and agogics – in the piano there is nothing else you can do).

3. However you seem to have grasped the general ideas, and now you are worried about the minutiae of the process. These I cannot specify much more. Even If I knew the piece, you may be able to learn it in a slightly different way from me. I might be able to get away with certain shortcuts you may not and vice versa. So the best way – as I said many times – to settle the matter once and for all is to work on two pieces of similar difficulty using both alternative ways of practising. Keep a journal (pretty much like a scientist would) and compare results after a couple of weeks. The results may show that it makes a huge difference or that it does not make that much difference. It may also be that at the level you are comparing now that one person may have excellent results while another has poor results with the same approach. But who really cares how the approach works for other people? It is you who has to play the piano, so only your results matter.

4. 12 bars may be a small section – it depends on the piece. For instance even a complete beginner should be able to learn the first 12 bars of Satie’s gymnopedie in one session (15 – 20 minutes). Then again, 4 bars may be impossibly large – for instance the prelude of Bach’s partita no. 1 I would start with half a bar per session. Then it also depends on the level of the person. Someone who has mastered the basic advanced repertory (Chopin Etudes, Beethoven sonatas, Bach WTC) should be able to learn the whole of Satie’s Gymnopedie in 10 minutes probably without any practice tricks whatsoever, just by reading the piece from beginning to end. In fact I would expect such a person to sit down away from the piano, read the score, and memorise the whole piece from the score, and then go to the piano and play the whole thing from memory, and the whole process should not take more then 15 – 20 minutes. S/he may or may not be able to pull the same trick with a Bach fugue though…

If I number the notes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

You can do these groups:

1 2
2 3
3 4
4 5
5 6
6 7
7 8
8 9
9 10
10 11
11 12
13 14
14 15

1 2 3
2 3 4
4 5 6
6 7 8
7 8 9
8 9 10
9 10 11
10 11 12
11 12 13
12 13 14
13 14 15

1 2 3 4
2 3 4 5
3 4 5 6
4 5 6 7
5 6 7 8
6 7 8 9
7 8 9 10
8 9 10 11
9 10 11 12
10 11 12 13
11 12 13 14
12 13 14 15

1 2 3 4 5
2 3 4 5 6
3 4 5 6 7
4 5 6 7 8
5 6 7 8 9
6 7 8 9 10
7 8 9 10 11
8 9 10 11 12
9 10 11 12 13
10 11 12 13 14
11 12 13 14 15

1 2 3 4 5 6
2 3 4 5 6 7
3 4 5 6 7 8
4 5 6 7 8 9
5 6 7 8 9 10
6 7 8 9 10 11
7 8 9 10 11 12
8 9 10 11 12 13
9 10 11 12 13 14
10 11 12 13 14 15

see how that breaks down? Then, for each group (that is, each line above) you use the various techniques to play through them, repeating the number of times necessary to master it.

So you can see how it could take so long to get through the entire "set" of groups, so make sure you have time before you start, because you have to make it through the entire set in one sitting. (Be sure to alternate hands and use any possible time savers for your particular passage)

SETTING GOALS cont..

2007-09-24T05:50:00.001-07:00

What I aim to learn on a day to day basis are these passages – organised in time from the most difficult to the easiest, and always adding up so that at the end of a month (say) I will have either the whole piece mastered or a substantial chunk of it.

Here is an example using three pieces:

1. C.P.E. Bach Fantasia in D minor (Wq 117/12)

Here is my suggested plan to learn this piece in 8 practice sessions:

Session 1: Bars 5 – 6 (these are the most difficult bars)
Session 2: Bars 1 – 2
Session 3: Bars 2 – 5
Session 4: Bars 1 - 6
Session 5: Bars 6 – 9
Session 6: Bars 1- 9
Session 7: Bars 10 – 14
Session 8: Bars 1 - 14

Each of these sessions should take 20 minutes at the most to learn (if not you will need to break them further). But assume it does.

So on day 1, you start practice session 1: bars 5 – 6. At the end of the session you should be playing these two bars like a pro. (How do you do that? It is not simply repeating the 2 bars for 20 minutes, you know. There are all sorts of approaches and tricks – but it just will take to long to go through all that). Anyway, during these 20 minutes you will do a number of things that will result in you totally learning these two bars.

On day 2, you are going to tackle session 2: bars 1 – 2. But before you even think about doing that, you should start by going over bars 5 – 6 again. Three things may happen:

a. you can play it perfectly straight away. If so, play it 3 or 4 times and move on to bars 1 – 2.

b. You cannot play it perfectly at all. Wrong fingerings get on the way, you sort of know it, but not at all at the level you achieved yesterday. If so, forget about bars 1 – 2 and again dedicate this practice session to bars 5 – 6. Relearn them without skipping any steps and without cutting any corners by going through the same activities you went through the previous day and that led you to mastery (this is the bit that no one wants to do). To your surprise, what took yesterday 20 minutes, may take only 4 – 5 minutes today to accomplish. If so, you still have 15 minutes left over: use them to learn and master bars 1 – 2.

c. You completely and totally forgot it. In this case, just repeat practice session 1. I assure you that the next day you will be on [b] above, and by the third day you may well be on [a].

Assuming case [a] above, when the 3rd day arrives, you start by going through bars 5 – 6 and bars 1 – 2. This should take no more than a couple of minutes (unless you are on [b] or [c]) but I will assume [a] to keep this short. So use the rest of the practice session to tackle bars 2 – 5.

When the fourth day arrives, use the practice session to join everything together: Bars 1 – 6. Now you will not need to repeat the previous practice sessions everyday, just repeat this session since it encompasses every single session so far.

Keep going like that until you reach day 8. By then the piece should be perfect.

So if everything goes right, in 8 days you should have mastered this piece. Don’t stop practising it! keep reserving a 20 minutes session until the end of the month to polish and do any further work that needs to be done on it. At the end of the month this piece will be a part of your repertory. If you did everything right (no one can do that), then you should never forget this piece, even if you stop playing it for 10 years. If you do forget it from neglect, just repeat the process.

2. John Blow : Sarabande in C.

Session 1: bars 1 – 4
Session 2: bars 5 – 8
Session 3: bars 1 – 8
Session 4: bars 9- 12
Session 5: bars 13 – 16
Session 6: bars 1 – 16

Everything I said above applies here. The difficulty of each section is more or less the same, so you may as well learn the piece from beginning to end (all bars are equally difficult or equally easy).

3. Chopin: Cantabile.

Session 1: bars 3 – 4 (add first beat of bar 5 – bar 3 is the most difficult bar)
Session 2: bars 1 – 2 (add first beat of bar 3)
Session 3: bars 1 – 5
Session 4: bars 5 – 8 (add first beat of bar 9)
Session 5: bars 1 – 8 (add first beat of bar 9)
Session 6: bars 9 – 14
Session 7: bars 1 – 14 (the whole piece)

I have chosen three short easy pieces. And I am assuming a total beginner with no technique. The point is simple: any piece of any difficulty can be learned this way. But some advanced pieces when broken down to allow a beginner to learn them may turn up to have 200 or more practice sessions, and many of these sessions will have to be repeated for 5 – 6 days before one can move on to the next practice session. So it is not really a matter of difficulty, but of time. So it is far better to work on pieces that allow quick progress, so that when one does get to advanced pieces, the sections tackled in the practice sessions can be much larger, and you can master a pieces after a number of days/weeks, rather than months/years. Just make sure that whatever piece you are learning is a worthwhile addition to your repertory (the 3 pieces above are).

This example is completely hypothetical. Different people at different levels may need to break down the sections even further. Other people may be able to tackle even bigger chunks. This is just to explain the procedure.

You must always finish a section on your 20 minute session. If you cannot, the section you chose to practise was too large. Cut it in half. If you still cannot finish it, cut it in half again. Eventually you will get the right size. If you apply these principles consistently over a few months on a number of different pieces, soon you will develop enough experience to know straightaway how much work, and how much time it will take you to learn any piece.
Now let us organise the 3 pieces above in a table over ten days (the numbers refer to the specific practice sessions):

This table summarises around one hour of practice (give or take 10 minutes), split in three practice sessions of around 20 minutes.

The bulk of the practice session (15 – 18 minutes) is always devoted to a new practice session. At the start of the session, 2 or 3 minutes are devoted to review the previous day’s work. Because the sessions are so small, you do not need more than that amount of practice. But consistency is the key. Do it everyday and at the end of the week you have three new pieces in your repertory. Of course none of these piece is very difficult (Sarabande: grade 3; Cantabile: grade 4; Fantasia: grade 3). But they are all superior pieces of music.

Now the table above, shows us the plan. But we know that things rarely go according to plan. So a table that shows the actual progress of the student might look like this:

(a) It took the whole of the section to remaster the difficult session 1.

(b) Session 1 still not good, and session 3 also nothing to talk home about, so instead of moving on, the student repeated the same work of the previous day.

(c) Although session 4 in general was holding together well (session 4 includes all of the previous passages), there were lots of problems on the difficult passage of session 1, so this was again repeated this day.

(d) Again, the passage in session 1 was still sort of falling apart, so the student continue to work on it. (So as you can see, the most difficult passage gets practised the most naturally due to it being tackled first of all).

(e) Even though session 3 includes session1, the student is insecure enough about the passage to spend some of the practise session working on it by itself.

(f) Session 1 is a real pregnant dog, so the student keeps at it, while using the bulk of the session to tackle a new passage. S/he may even break down session 1 further to concentrate only on the problem area – which sometimes may be as little as 2 notes.

(g) The light at the end of the tunnel: Session 1 is truly mastered and seamlessly incorporated into session 5.

(h) This piece went according to plan. At this point one may replace it with a new piece altogether. So that the table at any month shows a variety of pieces at different stages of completion: some have just started, some have been going on for a couple of months, and some are about to be completed.

Remember that for reasons of brevity I have made the table with only 10 days, and three pieces; it should really cover a whole month. And it is always a good idea to keep working on the piece everyday – even if you have mastered it – until the month ends. After that, all you need to do is to play the piece as often as you like. So the best way to practice pieces you have mastered is to perform them. Keep a list of pieces to perform with you and rotate them, so that you are not always performing the same pieces, and so that you rotate your repertory pieces in a way that all get performed equally.

Believe me, if you follow this approach, in no time at all you will find yourself with 10 – 15 hours of repertory.

One last thing: Nothing of this is written in stone. You will have to adapt and experiment with it until you find what works best to you.

SETTING GOALS

2007-09-24T05:49:00.006-07:00

1. Consider three completely different levels of practising/learning: short term (what you do day-to-day), middle term (monthly), long term (1- 5 years).

2. Start with the long term: Which pieces would you like to be playing in one year’s time? In five year’s time? Do not worry about being over ambitious. At the end of the year you can review your goals. Sit down and make a list of them. For the purposes of illustration, say that your list of desirable pieces at the end of 5 years is 100 pieces.

3. Plan your monthly work. Using the 1-5 year list, distribute these pieces over twelve months. Again do not worry too much about being able to do it, as you go along you can reevaluate your goals. However try to work on at least 5 pieces a month, but no more than 30 pieces. For the purposes of illustration, say that you are going to work on 10 pieces a month. Now make table with these ten pieces ocuppying the first column and 30 columns (or 31 depending on the month). Everyday you are going to work on these ten pieces, and tick in the corresponding column if you did it or not.

4. Plan your daily work. You are going to work 10 – 15 mins daily on each of your 10 pieces. After you finish your 10 –15 minutes, forget about it until the next day. Move on and do another 10-15 minutes on the next piece. These 10 15 minutes do not need to be consecutive. They can be any 10-15 minutes anytime of the day. This is the beauty of this system, you do not need a block of 2hs 30mins (you can do it if you want though), but you can spread it in ten blocks of 15 minutes.

5. The most important requirement for this method to work is consistency. You must do it every day.

6. The second most important requirement is that you have a specific goal that can be achieved in 15 minutes. So if you are learning a new piece, this may mean that you will be working on the first two bars. If you cannot master two bars in 15 minutes, next day do just one bar. Next day do the next bar, and so on.

7. Do not work on scales /arpeggios separately. Practise the scale of your piece, and do it as part of the 15 minutes. Imagine your piece is in A minor. That is the scale you will practise. First day, just play the notes, one octave only: your aim is to learn the notes, not to play the scale. This should take only a couple of minutes. Then move on to the piece an do a single bar, or two bars hands separate.

8. Next day, do the scale again. Do you know the notes now? Then work on it hands separate two octaves, your aim is to master the fingering. Do your piece’s two bars. Have they been mastered? If not repeat the previous day work, if yes, move on to learn it hands together.

9. Next day practise the scale in hands separate, but in clusters of notes. Then your piece.

10. Keep a music journal where you write briefly where you are at, and what your next steps are, so the next day you know what to do.

11. Since you are doing ten pieces, chances are that you will be covering a lot of scales everyday this way. You may choose your pieces so that they cover certain specific scales.

12. At the end of the month you will have learned certain pieces, and others you will be still learning. The learned pieces are replaced by new pieces. The others go on to the next month. You must wait until the end of the month to replace pieces, even if you have learned them in the first week.

13. If you choose your pieces so that they cover different techniques, you will not need to do technical exercises (drop Hanon – waste of time – if you want to do Czerny, just treat it as a piece. But why not do Scarlatti instead? It will give you exactly the same benefits of Czerny, but it will be a beautiful addition to your repertory). Scales and arpeggios however are very necessary (not as technical exercises, but as foundation to musical understanding).

14. After 2 or 3 months you will be able to review your goals and adjust them. You will also be able to plan better your middle and short term work.

15. This practise does not involve only work at the piano. You may spend your 15 minutes listening to CDs of the piece you intend to learn, analysing the score in order to decide how to break it down in 15 minute sections, memorising the piece from the score, etc. (in short, mental practice).

16. The key word here is discipline. Never practise by sitting at the piano to play whatever you feel like. It is perfectly all right to do so, but it does not count as your 15 minutes practice. And if you do it, make sure you share it with someone else, this way you will be practising performance.

This is the tip of the iceberg, but it should get you started.

What I aim to learn on a day to day basis are these passages – organised in time from the most difficult to the easiest, and always adding up so that at the end of a month (say) I will have either the whole piece mastered or a substantial chunk of it.

Here is an example using three pieces:

1. C.P.E. Bach Fantasia in D minor (Wq 117/12)

Here is my suggested plan to learn this piece in 8 practice sessions:

Session 1: Bars 5 – 6 (these are the most difficult bars)
Session 2: Bars 1 – 2
Session 3: Bars 2 – 5
Session 4: Bars 1 - 6
Session 5: Bars 6 – 9
Session 6: Bars 1- 9
Session 7: Bars 10 – 14
Session 8: Bars 1 - 14

Each of these sessions should take 20 minutes at the most to learn (if not you will need to break them further). But assume it does.

So on day 1, you start practice session 1: bars 5 – 6. At the end of the session you should be playing these two bars like a pro. (How do you do that? It is not simply repeating the 2 bars for 20 minutes, you know. There are all sorts of approaches and tricks – but it just will take to long to go through all that). Anyway, during these 20 minutes you will do a number of things that will result in you totally learning these two bars.

On day 2, you are going to tackle session 2: bars 1 – 2. But before you even think about doing that, you should start by going over bars 5 – 6 again. Three things may happen:

a. you can play it perfectly straight away. If so, play it 3 or 4 times and move on to bars 1 – 2.

b. You cannot play it perfectly at all. Wrong fingerings get on the way, you sort of know it, but not at all at the level you achieved yesterday. If so, forget about bars 1 – 2 and again dedicate this practice session to bars 5 – 6. Relearn them without skipping any steps and without cutting any corners by going through the same activities you went through the previous day and that led you to mastery (this is the bit that no one wants to do). To your surprise, what took yesterday 20 minutes, may take only 4 – 5 minutes today to accomplish. If so, you still have 15 minutes left over: use them to learn and master bars 1 – 2.

c. You completely and totally forgot it. In this case, just repeat practice session 1. I assure you that the next day you will be on [b] above, and by the third day you may well be on [a].

Assuming case [a] above, when the 3rd day arrives, you start by going through bars 5 – 6 and bars 1 – 2. This should take no more than a couple of minutes (unless you are on [b] or [c]) but I will assume [a] to keep this short. So use the rest of the practice session to tackle bars 2 – 5.

When the fourth day arrives, use the practice session to join everything together: Bars 1 – 6. Now you will not need to repeat the previous practice sessions everyday, just repeat this session since it encompasses every single session so far.

Keep going like that until you reach day 8. By then the piece should be perfect.

So if everything goes right, in 8 days you should have mastered this piece. Don’t stop practising it! keep reserving a 20 minutes session until the end of the month to polish and do any further work that needs to be done on it. At the end of the month this piece will be a part of your repertory. If you did everything right (no one can do that), then you should never forget this piece, even if you stop playing it for 10 years. If you do forget it from neglect, just repeat the process.

2. John Blow : Sarabande in C.

Session 1: bars 1 – 4
Session 2: bars 5 – 8
Session 3: bars 1 – 8
Session 4: bars 9- 12
Session 5: bars 13 – 16
Session 6: bars 1 – 16

Everything I said above applies here. The difficulty of each section is more or less the same, so you may as well learn the piece from beginning to end (all bars are equally difficult or equally easy).

3. Chopin: Cantabile.

Session 1: bars 3 – 4 (add first beat of bar 5 – bar 3 is the most difficult bar)
Session 2: bars 1 – 2 (add first beat of bar 3)
Session 3: bars 1 – 5
Session 4: bars 5 – 8 (add first beat of bar 9)
Session 5: bars 1 – 8 (add first beat of bar 9)
Session 6: bars 9 – 14
Session 7: bars 1 – 14 (the whole piece)

I have chosen three short easy pieces. And I am assuming a total beginner with no technique. The point is simple: any piece of any difficulty can be learned this way. But some advanced pieces when broken down to allow a beginner to learn them may turn up to have 200 or more practice sessions, and many of these sessions will have to be repeated for 5 – 6 days before one can move on to the next practice session. So it is not really a matter of difficulty, but of time. So it is far better to work on pieces that allow quick progress, so that when one does get to advanced pieces, the sections tackled in the practice sessions can be much larger, and you can master a pieces after a number of days/weeks, rather than months/years. Just make sure that whatever piece you are learning is a worthwhile addition to your repertory (the 3 pieces above are).

This example is completely hypothetical. Different people at different levels may need to break down the sections even further. Other people may be able to tackle even bigger chunks. This is just to explain the procedure.

You must always finish a section on your 20 minute session. If you cannot, the section you chose to practise was too large. Cut it in half. If you still cannot finish it, cut it in half again. Eventually you will get the right size. If you apply these principles consistently over a few months on a number of different pieces, soon you will develop enough experience to know straightaway how much work, and how much time it will take you to learn any piece.
Now let us organise the 3 pieces above in a table over ten days (the numbers refer to the specific practice sessions):

This table summarises around one hour of practice (give or take 10 minutes), split in three practice sessions of around 20 minutes.

The bulk of the practice session (15 – 18 minutes) is always devoted to a new practice session. At the start of the session, 2 or 3 minutes are devoted to review the previous day’s work. Because the sessions are so small, you do not need more than that amount of practice. But consistency is the key. Do it everyday and at the end of the week you have three new pieces in your repertory. Of course none of these piece is very difficult (Sarabande: grade 3; Cantabile: grade 4; Fantasia: grade 3). But they are all superior pieces of music.

Now the table above, shows us the plan. But we know that things rarely go according to plan. So a table that shows the actual progress of the student might look like this:

(a) It took the whole of the section to remaster the difficult session 1.

(b) Session 1 still not good, and session 3 also nothing to talk home about, so instead of moving on, the student repeated the same work of the previous day.

(c) Although session 4 in general was holding together well (session 4 includes all of the previous passages), there were lots of problems on the difficult passage of session 1, so this was again repeated this day.

(d) Again, the passage in session 1 was still sort of falling apart, so the student continue to work on it. (So as you can see, the most difficult passage gets practised the most naturally due to it being tackled first of all).

(e) Even though session 3 includes session1, the student is insecure enough about the passage to spend some of the practise session working on it by itself.

(f) Session 1 is a real pregnant dog, so the student keeps at it, while using the bulk of the session to tackle a new passage. S/he may even break down session 1 further to concentrate only on the problem area – which sometimes may be as little as 2 notes.

(g) The light at the end of the tunnel: Session 1 is truly mastered and seamlessly incorporated into session 5.

(h) This piece went according to plan. At this point one may replace it with a new piece altogether. So that the table at any month shows a variety of pieces at different stages of completion: some have just started, some have been going on for a couple of months, and some are about to be completed.

Remember that for reasons of brevity I have made the table with only 10 days, and three pieces; it should really cover a whole month. And it is always a good idea to keep working on the piece everyday – even if you have mastered it – until the month ends. After that, all you need to do is to play the piece as often as you like. So the best way to practice pieces you have mastered is to perform them. Keep a list of pieces to perform with you and rotate them, so that you are not always performing the same pieces, and so that you rotate your repertory pieces in a way that all get performed equally.

Believe me, if you follow this approach, in no time at all you will find yourself with 10 – 15 hours of repertory.

One last thing: Nothing of this is written in stone. You will have to adapt and experiment with it until you find what works best to you.

POST PRACTICE IMPROVEMENT

2007-09-24T05:49:00.005-07:00

1. There are several levels to PPI. Piano playing at its most basic is movement and co-ordination. It is not intellectual work. So people above (and Chang) concentrate a lot on the “brain” – and by that we immediately assume it is the intellectual brain. But remember that we have several “brains”.

For instance, when you eat, one of your brains (who definitely has a degree in biochemistry) regulates to the minutest amount how much acid must go in your stomach; how how much of which hormones must go into your blood at any given moment. It determines how your heart will beat. How much your pupils will dilate in accordance to the amount of environmental light. And so on and so forth.

Don’t you think this is an amazing “brain”? Even though our “intellectual brain” may have no knowledge of biochemistry, physics or maths, somehow our “instinctive brain” (that is what I have decided to call it) knows about all those subjects. In fact it knows far more that what all our scientists have discovered so far, since all the time we surprise scientists by doing things that according to science at a given moment should be impossible (acupuncture comes to mind – until the 60s was considered superstition at best and charlatanism at worst. Now it is more or less accepted and still not understood). However, for piano playing the “instinctive brain” is of little concern (unless it is not working properly, in which case you die ).

2. Level 1: purely physical. Now I am talking about the sensations and movements. Yes, there is a “brain” that deals with this. And it is not the “brain” in your head. I call it the “motion brain”. It makes sure we move correctly. That we perceive sensorial data through the sense organs and that we act on these sensations. Many animals have only instinctive and motion brains. And they function perfectly well within these limitations. This is the brain that controls typing, driving a car, physical exercise and of course piano playing.

Many people get confused with the instinctive and the motion brain. There is no need. They may seem similar on the surface , but there is a huge difference: The instinctive brain learns nothing. It is born knowing everything it needs to know (think about it: If you had to learn how to make your heart beat you would be dead before the lesson even started). The motion brain on the other hand must learn everything from scratch. It knows nothing. This may surprise some of you, but we have to learn how to see, how to hear, how to taste, how to smell and so on. But because we learned this stuff at a very very young age we get deluded into thinking that this stuff is instinctive, that we were born knowing it. [Here is a side thought: This means that prodigies are not born. They have to learn the stuff]. The motion brain also has a specific way of learning, it will not learn in any other way. It learns only by imitation. Did you hear this piano teachers? It is pretty useless as far as learning to play the piano goes, to have deep intellectual discussions about the meaning of music, or to endlessly analyse the harmony of a piece. This is certainly fun and will add to your understanding of the piece and it certainly must be done, but it will not further your progress in playing one single micron. For a student to learn to play the piano, s/he must have a model to imitate.

But I am digressing.

Back to PPI.

Physically PPI works in a very straight forward manner. Consider bodybuilding. You will not build muscles while exercising. You will build muscle when you are resting. The reason for this is simple. When you are lifting weights, you are not simply exercising the muscles. You are ripping them apart (just look at the faces of the guys). It is painful. However, the muscle gets rebuild in time (it takes 36 hours), and when it gets rebuilt, it gets bigger and hence stronger. So a basic principle to grow muscle is “no pain, no gain”. No pain means that you are not ripping the muscle. And if you are not ripping the muscle, you will not rebuild it.

If you look at pictures of Mr Universe in the 50s they are skinny fellows compared to today’ guys. Part of the reason for this increase in size is the use of anabolic steroids. But part of the reason is that in the 50s sports physiology was not at all well understood. So people were going to the gym every day and they would exercise the same muscles everyday. They were ripping the muscles all right, but they were not giving time for the healing and rebuilding process to happen. They would get injured.

Then it was discovered that this process took 36 hours. So now, a body builder still trains everyday, but he has a rigid rota of muscles to be exercised, so that there is always a 36 hour period between sessions devoted to specific groups of muscles. So he might do legs on Monday morning, but then he will rest the leg muscles until Tuesday afternoon. Meanwhile he will do arms on Monday afternoon, and only go back to arms again on Wednesday morning. Once body builders started to do that in the early 60s, the results were astounding.

So, from a muscle point of view, PPI simply means that you do not get strong while you are exercising, but while you are resting, since it is when you rest that the muscles get rebuilt (=stronger and bigger).

There is always a smart alec who concludes from the above that in order to get big muscles you should therefore rest and never exercise. No, the exercise is very important, because if your muscles do not get ripped, there is no reason for them to get rebuilt, duh!

But this also shows how important it is to have the correct procedure. Without this information (muscle must be ripped to grow – it takes 36 hours to repair ripped muscle), you will never stand a chance of progress.

So it is with piano practice. The guys who are progressing (both in body building or in piano) either know this stuff, or are following the correct procedure by pure chance (which might be a much better explanation why there are so few good pianists – instead of the usual one that you must be a prodigy).

Now, piano is done with muscles. But most of the movements in piano playing are not movements that we normally do in daily life. Muscle that is not used atrophies. Most adults who start playing the piano from scratch have atrophied muscles (for the necessary movements). Hence the beginner’s clumsiness. As with any physical exercise, muscle will grow with repeated use. So in the beginning repetition of the basic, important movements is essential.

It takes 3 – 6 months for muscle to grow. So this is the worst period. A teacher can be really helpful at this period if s/he knows which movements should be repeated, and if s/he can ensure that daily repetition of the correct movements is enforced. On the other hand a teacher who does not know about this stuff can add years to a student learning and ensure that the student will never be able to progress. So this is the muscle story: PPI is simply the rest period in between training sessions when muscle ripped by the exercise is allowed to repair itself and grow (36 hours).

Now do not get the wrong idea here. Although I have used bodybuilding as an example (because it is extreme), muscle building in piano playing is not this extreme ever. Think of a baby. Why does it take a baby one year to start walking? A good percentage of this time is simply growing the leg muscles (and other) that will allow the baby to stand up. Even if the baby “knew” how to walk, it would still take 6 months for the necessary muscles to grow. You can see that in people who have been in bed for a prolonged period of time (e.g. coma patients that wake up after 4 – 5 years). They know how to walk, but they cannot, because their muscles have wasted away from lack of use. However they will recover quickly, since they know how to walk and their attempts to do so will rebuild the muscles much faster than a baby who does not know how to walk and therefore wastes many movements “experimenting”.

Likewise in piano playing, we need first to build up the necessary muscles – not to the point of a body builder, but to the point that will allow a baby to walk. And just like walking is all the exercise a baby needs to develop the necessary muscles for walking, playing the piano is all the exercise one needs to play the piano.

But to start with you will not have the muscles, so it will take 3 – 6 months. During this stage the main PPI at work is the 36 hour period for ripped muscle to repair itself.

The practical consequence: beginners must have a 36 hour period in between practising the same movement. Please understand this clearly: It does not mean that you should space your practise 36 hours. You must still practise everyday (just like a body builder) but you must have a rota: B major scale on Monday morning. Repeat only on Tuesday afternoon. Chord practice on Monday afternoon. Repeat only on Wednesday morning. Practise piece on Tuesday morning, repeat again only on Wednesday afternoon. You get the idea. The student does not have a clue about all this, and I strongly suggest that the teacher should not spend too much time explaining it. What the teacher must do is to spend as much time as needed to create a schedule for the student and make sure they stick to it. This is the greatest advantage of having a parent who is a piano teacher (assuming they know this stuff): they will ensure that their child sticks to this sort of program, and if they do, in five years time you have a “prodigy”.

Once muscle is built, it will only increase and get stronger if you keep ripping it. Otherwise it will stay at its level for as long as you keep it to the same physical demands. This means that after 3 – 6 months, you do not need to worry about the 36 hour period anymore. The muscle is now adequate for the work required of it.
Now comes the second stage (these things do not happen one after the other – they are all happening at the same time, but I have to write about them this way). Now we will be dealing with nerves and nerve control.

This is the really crucial step in piano playing, not the muscle stage. Everything will hinge on this, and yet few people have any awareness of this level. It is all unconscious and taken for granted. This is really important, so listen carefully.

A lot of piano problems (including injury) results from trying to deal with technical problems with muscle, rather than with nerves. There is something called nerve inhibition that is often confused with muscle tension .

You often see that in beginners. They are clumsy, and one aspect of such clumsiness is sympathetic movement. You ask them to put their five fingers (RH) on the keyboard over CDEFG and keep the LH on their lap. Then you ask them to keep all fingers on the keys and lift only finger 2 several times. Typically all the fingers will move in sympathy. In fact, if look at their LH on their laps, they are moving too. One of my students would even wiggle her toes when trying to move finger 2 in isolation. When you point this to them, they try to stop sympathetic movement by tensing the muscles involved, and it will work. The problem is, if they are allowed to go on, soon they start tensing as a matter of habit, and this can now get in their way for years to come.

So they must learn to stop sympathetic movement by nerve inhibition. Since for a muscle to move a message must be sent via the nerves, one must learn to inhibit the nerve carrying this message. If the message is not delivered, the muscle will not move. And there will be no tension involved.

How do you teach that? I cannot tell you. All I can say is that we all already know exactly how to do it. If I tell you: lift your arm, how do you do it? It is a huge mystery! No one knows how volition actually works. But we all do it. We all can do it. Remember, the motion brain learns by imitation. So imitate what the student is doing, and then do it yourself by nerve inhibition and let the student imitate you.

This is a completely new level. To start with, we had to build muscle. But now that the muscles have been built, the whole task of piano playing becomes the task of ingraining specific sequences of nerve inhibition. This is a completely different sort of PPI. Like with muscle building, it requires repetition, and I must qualify this term: correct repetition. And I must qualify it again: correct conscious repetition.

The student must repeat, and he must be fully aware that what s/he is repeating is a sequence of nerve inhibitions that result in a sequence of movements. This is the stage at which very slow practise over two or three finger movements will pay dividends. This means slowly lifting and lowering the five fingers over CDEFG in order to observe nerve inhibition versus muscle tension as a way to control sympathetic movement. And once you figure it out you never need to do slow practice ever again.

I hear of people talking about doing extreme slow practice on advanced repertory and I have to laugh. This people do not have a clue. The learning of nerve inhibition should not take long. In fact it starts passing to subconscious control almost instantly. So the teacher must be watching like a hawk for any signs that the student is using muscle tensing rather than nerve inhibiton to control sympathetic movement so that only the correct thing gets ingrained in the subconscious. From this point on, PPI is a night’s sleep.

Once muscle building and nerve inhibition have been achieved the next step is co-ordination. This involves two steps. First co-ordination of the whole playing apparatus (shoulder girdle – arm – forearm – hand – fingers), so that the motion starts at the shoulder girdle and transmits to the fingers (and not the other way around), and finally co-ordination of the two sides of the body.

Externally this is achieved by working on the pieces/exercises, first with HS and then with HT and there are several ways to go about it (which I have discussed at length in other threads). Internally the whole process is guided by sound (remember, when I said that the motion brain controls not only movements but sense perceptions as well?). This means that the student must have an aural image of what he is trying to accomplish with his/her movements. If the hearing is detailed enough, the fingers will comply and produce the desired sound. Most people forget this and get increasingly obsessed with the minutiae of movement. It is not necessary. Hearing should always take precedence over movement obsession.

So now we are having increasingly complex sets of co-ordinated muscle actions and nerve inhibitions, for which many times there is only one or two sequences that will work optimally for a given passage in music. A great part of practice has to be devoted simply in figuring out what these sequences might be, and then ingraining them in the subconscious.

Fortunately patterns in music are fairly limited, and with an appropriately designed program, the student should have mastered pretty much all the patterns in a couple of years (by the way this never happens because no one seems to be able to follow a program to the letter).

Such complex co-ordinations of muscle actions and nerve inhibitions cannot possibly be done by the conscious mind, so the task must be performed by the subconscious mind. Like muscle needs 36 hours in between exercise in order to repair itself and grow, the subconscious mind needs a night sleep between conscious practice of complex sequences of muscle actions and nerve inhibitions in order to incorporate those. So again PPI at this level is one night sleep.

PLAYING BACH (BAROQUE MUSIC)

2007-09-24T05:49:00.003-07:00

PLAYING BACH (BAROQUE MUSIC)

Rather than a “correct way” there is a range of principles that should be followed when playing Baroque music.
Baroque music – contrary to Romantic music, for instance - is not a living tradition. It died a long time ago, so we can only make educated guesses as to what it should be like. It is a bit like being able to read and write a dead language, but having no idea how it was actually pronounced.

At the same time, even though there is a range of "correct" interpretations, there is also much that has just been shown to be incorrect.

Now, for the way to advance music, you create a new style! The way to advance music is not to play music of the past in a way that is fundamentally incorrect, but to compose new music. That has always been the case, even in Baroque times. J.S. Bach’s sons were not over impressed by their father’s style, so they invented the classical style. Beethoven was not happy with the classical style, so he invented romanticism. Even Liszt got tired of romantic music after a while and invented modern music.
This is perhaps the most important difference between Baroque music and the music that came afterwards. The purpose of music is not to please the ear or to entertain the audience – although in many cases it will display these side effects.

Music that has at its core the sole purpose of entertaining and pleasing the ear will have very little quality and last very little. Pop music is a good example of this, but there is nothing wrong with that except one should realize what music’s true function and true potential is.

Music is a language (or if prefer to be accurate, language is a music). As such its true purpose is to model the world in order to make it understandable to oneself and in order to communicate this model of the world to others. And this particular model goes beyond what ordinary language can model. So music is for speaking of things that cannot be spoken, to enlarge the limits of communication, to talk to oneself about that which cannot be talked about.

The Baroque musicians understood this very deeply, but such understanding has all but been lost. Music is no more a speech.

Or to put it in another way, imagine that you speak no Russian, but you overhear a conversation in Russian. You may find the sounds very beautiful and pleasing to the ear. And there is nothing wrong with that. But you will be missing the essence of Russian if you start believing that the whole purpose of that conversation is to please the ear. There is a meaning to the sounds, but it can only be conveyed to those who know the language.

Unfortunately, as I said, the tradition has been lost. At great pains researchers have been trying to recover it. Some of it has indeed been recovered, but much remains unknown, and sadly may never be known. There is no problem in playing Baroque music in whatever instrument, once you understand its essence, once you master its grammar, once you understand its speech. You will then be able to “speak” and convey its message. Unfortunately this is not what some famous pianists did. On the other hand there are a handful of pianists out there who understand the proper playing of Bach’s music.

I disagree that Baroque music should be played metronomically. The metronome had not even been invented! Baroque had many interesting similarities with Romantic period. They both thrived on excess (The Classic period – and what could be more symptomatic – brought us the metronome, and was a reaction against baroque excesses). I find impossible to believe that Scarlatti would play his lyric sonatas (e.g. K 213, K69, K208, K27) with a rigid, mechanical pulse. There is no evidence to suggest it, and the most compelling argument is the music itself. Play any of these sonatas metronomically and the music will sound dead, if there is any music in it at all. Moreover Scarlatti was an accomplished keyboard improviser, which again goes against the idea of a rigid pulse. In fact, since – on the harpsichord – you cannot accent notes dynamically, rhythmic accents must have been the current practice, right after embellishment. Unfortunately we have no recordings of the period, so at the end of the day it is all speculation.

"We all know how a foreign language is learned. By analogy, Baroque music is for us a foreign language, since we obviously do not live in the Baroque period. Therefore, as in the case of a foreign language, we must learn vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation—musical articulation, the theory of harmony, the theory of phrasing and accentuation. The simple application of these theories to the performance of music by no means implies that we are making music; this is simply spelling in tones. Even if the spelling is well and correctly done, we can only create music when we no longer need to think of grammar and vocabulary, when we no longer translate, but simply speak, in short, when it becomes our own natural speech. This is our goal. We must, therefore, learn the 'grammar' of old music. Unfortunately, uninformed musicians often undertake this task, for we constantly hear musicians who have only mastered the grammar of music, but, like linguistics professors with dust in their veins, simply translate music. However, we cannot blame the rules for this unhappy outcome, since we cannot do without them."

Bach’s music is abstract music: it can be played in any instrument (one would think that by now this argument should have been settled…). Bach himself transferred his pieces freely from one medium to another, plagarising himself countless times.

Most of his keyboard music was most likely not composed for the harpsichord, but for the clavichord, his favourite keyboard instrument after the organ. The clavichord like the piano, has a most definite response to touch, which the harpsichord lacks (you must use the registers in the harpsichord, rather than different touches). The reason Bach’s keyboard music was mostly performed in the harpsichord during his life time (and immediately after his death) is very simple. All you have to do is to play a clavichord. You will notice two things immediately: it is a very, very soft instrument. If you are standing 2 or 3 metres away from it, you will not hear anything! Second: it goes out of tune all the time. On the other hand, not only it allows dynamics controlled by touch (its range is probably from pp to pppp), as you can do all sorts of tricks, like bending notes and finger vibrato, which of course you cannot do with either a harpsichord or a piano.

Now why would anyone play Bach on the piano without dynamics? I do not recall anyone playing his instrumental (other than keyboard) music, or orchestral music, or choral music without dynamics… So why should one assume that he intended all of his music to be played with dynamics, except for his keyboard music?

Bach (and his contemporaries) did not indicate dynamic directions in their scores because it was the convention of the time to leave such matters to the performer.

So if you are playing Bach on the piano (or on the marimbas, for that matter – it sounds great!) you should and you must use all the resources of the instrument. If you want to play Bach on the piano and make the piano sound like a harpsichord, get yourself a harpsichord!

PLAYED CORRECTLY AT HOME BUT “STUFFED UP” IN PIANO LESSON

2007-09-24T05:48:00.001-07:00

Does your playing become worse the more you practice?
This happens with a lot of students.

You start a new piece, and practice it until you get it right. Then you stop. Is this true?

What you fail to realize is (especially if you are beginner) that practice can be divided in two stages. In the first stage you are basically figuring out the notes, the rhythm, the fingerings, the movement patterns and so on. If you are working on a few bars (as you should) this probably means a few hundred repeats where everything is more or less wrong. Then suddenly everything falls into place (or sometimes gradually everything falls into place), and you get it right.

At this point you stop and move to something else. In fact, it is when you get everything right that is when the real practice should start (or the second stage of practice).

Both stages are important. The first one is investigation and study and the second is getting the right thing into your subconscious.

If you stop when you get the section right, it means that in your subconscious there will be stored hundreds of defective renditions of the passage against only one correct rendition. Comes next piano lesson, guess which rendition you will play? Yes, the wrong one!

The solution is to practice not to get it right, but to never get it wrong!

When you practice, write down after each repeat of a passage if it was perfect or imperfect. Stop practising only when the number of perfect repeats exceeds by far the number of imperfect ones.

Here is another important principle. Always stop practising with a perfect rendition of your passage. It is this last rendition that will be stored in your subconscious. If you keep practising, you will start making mistakes out of sheer tiredness. Then you give up in despair “I will try again tomorrow”, and it will be this imperfect rendition that will be in your subconscious waiting for you next time you come to practice.

So you must experiment and decide how many perfect renditions you can accomplish before stopping practice. It has to be a number large enough to counter the wrong repeats, and yet not as large as to induce new wrong repeats caused by fatigue.

PLANNING YOUR DAILY PRACTICE

2007-09-24T05:47:00.004-07:00

Plan your daily work. You are going to work 20 mins daily on each of your pieces. After you finish your 20 minutes, forget about it until the next day. Move on and do another 20 minutes on the next piece. These 20 minutes do not need to be consecutive. They can be any 20 minutes anytime of the day. This is the beauty of this system, you do not need a block of 2hs 30mins (you can do it if you want though), but you can spread it in lots of blocks of 20 minutes.

The most important requirement for this method to work is consistency. You must do it every day.

The second most important requirement is that you have a specific goal that can be achieved in 20 minutes. So if you are learning a new piece, this may mean that you will be working on the first two bars. If you cannot master two bars in 20 minutes, next day do just one bar. Next day do the next bar, and so on.

Keep a music journal where you write briefly where you are at, and what your next steps are, so the next day you know what to do

The key word here is discipline. Never practise by sitting at the piano to play whatever you feel like. It is perfectly all right to do so, but it does not count as your 20 minutes practice. And if you do it, make sure you share it with someone else, this way you will be practising performance

Here is an example:

1. C.P.E. Bach Fantasia in D minor (Wq 117/12)

Here is my suggested plan to learn this piece in 8 practice sessions:

Session 1: Bars 5 – 6 (these are the most difficult bars)
Session 2: Bars 1 – 2
Session 3: Bars 2 – 5
Session 4: Bars 1 - 6
Session 5: Bars 6 – 9
Session 6: Bars 1- 9
Session 7: Bars 10 – 14
Session 8: Bars 1 - 14

Each of these sessions should take 20 minutes at the most to learn (if not you will need to break them further). But assume it does.

So on day 1, you start practice session 1: bars 5 – 6. At the end of the session you should be playing these two bars like a pro. (How do you do that? It is not simply repeating the 2 bars for 20 minutes, you know. There are all sorts of approaches and tricks – but it just will take to long to go through all that). Anyway, during these 20 minutes you will do a number of things that will result in you totally learning these two bars.

On day 2, you are going to tackle session 2: bars 1 – 2. But before you even think about doing that, you should start by going over bars 5 – 6 again. Three things may happen:

a. you can play it perfectly straight away. If so, play it 3 or 4 times and move on to bars 1 – 2.

b. You cannot play it perfectly at all. Wrong fingerings get on the way, you sort of know it, but not at all at the level you achieved yesterday. If so, forget about bars 1 – 2 and again dedicate this practice session to bars 5 – 6. Relearn them without skipping any steps and without cutting any corners by going through the same activities you went through the previous day and that led you to mastery (this is the bit that no one wants to do). To your surprise, what took yesterday 20 minutes, may take only 4 – 5 minutes today to accomplish. If so, you still have 15 minutes left over: use them to learn and master bars 1 – 2.

c. You completely and totally forgot it. In this case, just repeat practice session 1. I assure you that the next day you will be on [b] above, and by the third day you may well be on [a].

Assuming case [a] above, when the 3rd day arrives, you start by going through bars 5 – 6 and bars 1 – 2. This should take no more than a couple of minutes (unless you are on [b] or [c]) but I will assume [a] to keep this short. So use the rest of the practice session to tackle bars 2 – 5.

When the fourth day arrives, use the practice session to join everything together: Bars 1 – 6. Now you will not need to repeat the previous practice sessions everyday, just repeat this session since it encompasses every single session so far.

Keep going like that until you reach day 8. By then the piece should be perfect.

So if everything goes right, in 8 days you should have mastered this piece. Don’t stop practising it! keep reserving a 20 minutes session until the end of the month to polish and do any further work that needs to be done on it. At the end of the month this piece will be a part of your repertory. If you did everything right (no one can do that), then you should never forget this piece, even if you stop playing it for 10 years. If you do forget it from neglect, just repeat the process

MENTAL PRACTICE

2007-09-24T05:47:00.003-07:00

Mental practice means to practice in your mind, rather than in the real world.

The main advantages of mental practice are:

1. You can do it anywhere.
2. You don’t need anything to do it.
3. Because you are imagining it all, you will not make any mistakes. In order words, you can imagine yourself playing perfectly.

The main disadvantage is that it is very difficult to do, since it involves controlling the mind to a certain extent, and the untrained mind is very rebellious. Also, for some reason, people who are very industrious physically – they may be prepared to spend ten hours doing finger exercises - are extremely lazy mentally (and of course physically lazy people, are even more lazy mentally).

Since mental practice is nothing more than practice done in your mind, there will be several kinds: you can practice sight reading, you can practice aural training, you can even practice finger dexterity and movement patterns in your mind. However each one of these aims must be carefully thought out (this is also mental practice) not only in terms of how you are going to go about it, but also in terms of what aims are you hoping to achieve.

Mental practice (I)
Regard the score as a map of the piano (it is: every line and space correspond to a key in the piano: the notes show you graphically which key to press and in which key to put your fingers – if fingering is supplied.

Now imagine you are in a strange town with a map of its streets. You must spend sometime mentally orientating yourself. You must interpret the information on the map in terms of the reality of the town (the map has deletions, distortions and generalizations that you must undo before you can find your bearings).

Likewise, look at the score and see it as a map of the piano. Mentally translate the diagram information on the score into the reality of the piano geography. The more proficient you get at this, the more your sight-reading (amongst other skills) will improve.

Do not worry about “hearing” the music at this stage. Your aim is purely visual information. You want to be able to look at the score and “see” (in your mind) the appropriate keys being depressed.

Once you can do that, try (mentally) putting your fingers in those keys.

This is difficult though, and mentally extremely tiring. So just like you would do with real practice, do it in small sections (just a couple of bars) and for a limited amount of time (10 minutes).

Be systematic: do not move to the next section until you mastered the one you are in. Plan the learning sequence so you know which bars you will be doing next. Choose an easy (very easy) piece (e.g. Burgmuller’s Op. 100) to learn the methodology. Don’t go to the piano until you have finished the piece in your mind.
Yes, if you need to actually touch the piano to figure out the fingering, then do so. Write the fingering in and then do it mentally with the fingering you sorted out at the piano.

However, unless you start doing the fingering in your mind, you will never be able to do it. It does not matter if the fingering you do in your mind does not work at the piano. This in itself will be a learning experience. Ask yourself why it worked in your mind, but not in real life. It points to a failure in your mental process. Use the experience to correct and fine-tune the mental process. As your experience increases your mistakes will decrease.

Also you must have guidelines to decide on fingering. Here are a few criteria for a start:

1. Use the fingering that will allow most comfort.
2. Use strong fingers on accented notes, weak fingers on notes that do not need so much emphasis.
3. Whenever possible, thumbs and little finger on white notes, 2-3-4 on black notes (although the thumb can be quite effective on black notes in certain positions).
4. Use fingerings that allow your forearm bones to be aligned with your fingers 3-4 or 5 (adjust the angle of the arm accordingly).
5. Look forward and backwards in the score before using a finger. An uncomfortable fingering at the present note may make your life much easier on a later note or in previous notes.
This method seems to help me a bit, and it prepares me for the next practice session.

It will get more easy and natural with experience. But there will always be pieces that you will have to work out the fingering in advance and keep changing it until you get it right (for you). The best example is J.S. Bach’s fugues.

The way to do it is to learn and master one step at a time. Once you have all the steps, something will happen and everything will gel, and you will find yourself being able to do it.

Think about reading. If you ask people how long it took them to learn how to read they usually answer “one year”, or some absurd answer like that. In fact anyone learns to read instantly. No one can learn how to read gradually. Either you can read, or you cannot. So what was that whole year at school for then? It was for mastering the isolated steps that make up the complex skill we call reading. You had to memorize the shape of the letters. You had to learn to join them in syllables. You had to associate the letters and syllables with sounds. Then as it usually happens, the four year old is having his/her breakfast and s/he says, “I can read!” The father stops reading the newspaper and says, “all right, read this headline then” and the child does! A moment before, s/he could not read, and then in an instant s/he can.

So keep working on the different components of mental practice and at some indeterminate point it will all come together.

Mental practice (II)
Open the score. Look at it. As you do so, “hear” the notated music in your mind.

This presupposes that you can actually decode musical notation into sounds. If you cannot, then you will have to work on it first of all.

This is the single most important skill in sight-reading, so it is worthy cultivating.

Consider two very different strategies:

1. Some pianists decode notation as position information in the piano: as they look at the score they “see” which keys to press. I described this in mental practice (I) and suggested it was a desirable skill to acquire.

2. Some pianists decode notation as sound, and then they play by ear what they are hearing as they scan the score. This is what I am describing here and I am suggesting that this is also a very desirable skill to acquire.

It is not a question of which strategy is best. Both are equally desirable. And if you work on both, then at some point they will gel into an integrated skill that will allow you to look at a score and immediately hear the sounds and know the keys.

However you cannot work on the integrated skill, you must work on its components separately and patiently wait until your unconscious mind integrates them.

So how do you go about acquiring this skill?

1. The main problem you will encounter is that the mind tend to fast forward, to slow down and to skip whole sections of the music. So you must make sure that as you go through the score the mental sound you hear are in real tempo, that is it should take you exactly the same amount of time to read the score as it would take you to play it. I know of only one way to ensure real tempo: use a metronome.

2. If you cannot hear anything as you look at the score, then you must train yourself to do so by listening to a CD of the piece as you read the score. There is an even better strategy though. If you have notation software that pays back the music to you, and that you can change the tempo, set the tempo to very slow and listen to it as you go through the score. The main advantage of slow listening is that it will allow you to hear all the details. This is your ultimate aim: to hear everything, all the minutiae of the score. Untrained people when they listen to music hear almost nothing. Most of the details bypass them. A fully trained musician should be able to write what he heard.

3. Start with simple pieces and increase in complexity as the simple pieces become easy. And I mean simple. My favorite to start this sort of work is Edna Mae Burnham’s A Dozen a Day.

4. Try also dictation: as you listen to a simple piece, write what you hear. Then compare what you wrote with the original score. Again notation software that can play back the music to you at a slower tempo will be an invaluable aid.

The beauty of this is that you can do it anywhere (a CD walkman, music paper, pen and the original score is all you need).

This skill is also deeply linked to memorizing music. So by doing this mental practice, you will be getting three bonus results: ear training, memory enhancement and sight-reading skills.

Here's an exercise you can try if you like (away from the piano of course) I'm also assuming you haven't done sight singing before.

1. Start with C major scale. It's easy. On manuscript using treble clef, write CDEFG. For now, don't worry about note values. Just work on pitch first, add values later. So, use semibreves to write your notes.
2. Now, sing or hum the notes, keeping your eye on the note as you sing them.
3. With this combination of notes, and using steps only - this is really important when you're first training your brain (which is what you're doing, so it can send the correct signal to the muscles so they know how to tighten your vocal folds) write on your manuscript - eg, CDEFEFGFEDCDEDEFEFGFGFD. In other words, steps going up and down, but always connected. (Add thirds, fourths etc later)
4. Sing your notes.
5. When you've had enough of this, now add values. In essence you are writing your own melodies. You can write in simple quadruple, compound duple, simple triple - anything. In fact, the more varied exercises you write for yourself, the more practice you're giving your brain, the easier it will be. It will also be easier for you to 'hear' music like what Bernhard is talking about. Just remember to keep these melodies in steps to begin with.
6. Now add the rest of the scale i.e. ABC. Repeat a similar process.

Give yourself at least two weeks every day practicing this easy level before you add larger intervals. Start with thirds. Be patient. Add fourths, etc.

This will keep you well and truly busy away from the piano, and will also benefit your musicality, and will help your sight reading skills for the piano.
I suggested treble, but you can do the exact same with bass.

Oh, it also doesn't matter that your singing 'C' is not concert pitch. It's the interval patterns that matter.

Mental practice (III)
Analysis.

The idea here is to delay piano practice as much as possible. So get the score and take several photocopies of it (you will be doing cut and paste later on).

1. Check out the score for repeated patterns. For instance, how many different rhythm patterns can you identify? For instance, Chopin’s Prelude Op. 28 no. 7 has only one rhythm pattern that is repeated 8 times. Get some music paper and write down all the rhythm patterns (don’t worry about the actual notes or chords, just the rhythm). Then practice these rhythms on a tabletop or in your mind. Use a metronome to start with, and once you feel confident try for a more natural pulse. Then join the several patterns and go through the whole piece rhythm alone.

2. Now check the score for melody patterns. Again isolate the melody and hear it on your mind (or sing it, hum it or whistle it).

3. Next look for harmonic patterns. Identify and name all the chords used. See if you can hear the chords in your mind. It is far more difficult to identify harmonies by ear then melodies, but it is definitely a learnable skill. If you do learn it you will experience great facility in improvising.

4. If the piece is counterpoint, isolate (rewrite) each voice and look for patterns in each voice separately. Think of this as getting to know intimately each piece of a puzzle before putting it together.

5. Once you know each pattern back to front, get familiarized with the parts of the piece that do not seem to fit any pattern.

6. Now put it all together. Look how repetitive these patterns are. Sometimes you will not have an exact repetition, but a passage that is exactly like another passage but written a third higher. Notice and familiarize yourself not only with the similarities, but also with the differences.

7. Now look at the question of strong and weak beats. As you go through the score, notice accents (and remember that you may accent a note not only by playing it louder, but by playing it slower.) Watch out for melodic accents as well as harmonic accents.

8. Mark cadences and repeated chord progressions. Notice dissonances and their resolutions.

9. Mark the key of each passage in the score, so that you can see straight away where the modulations are happening (now you know why you have to work on all those scales).

10. Examine the dynamic markings. Notice in congruencies amongst different accents (harmonic, melodic, dynamic, metric, rhythmic), since it is in these in congruencies that you will find the most dramatic moments in the piece.

11. Consider this: Which story does this music tell? Although some pieces are clearly programmatic, and the composer supplied already the story, many pieces are not. However it will be very helpful if you can come up with your own story for the piece. It will supply meaning for the piece, and learning something meaningful is always easier than learning something meaningless.
You can do all sorts of things.

1. You can cut just the bit you intend to practice to avoid the temptation to do more that you set out to do in a particular practice session.

2. You can use for memory work, for instance, but cutting out all the even numbered bars (which you play from memory) and living only the odd numbered bars (which you read). Later you reverse (cut out the odd bars and leave the even bars). Progress by going in threes, than in fours, and so on.

3. You can use it as a toll for analysis, by cutting out all the repeated sections, so you are left with only a few bars of the original piece to actually study, since the others will be repeats.

4. You can do games, like cutting all the bars, shuffling them and then try to put them in order (this will train your memory, but will also teach you a lot about the piece's structure and how the composer mind worked)

MEMORIZING TECHNIQUES

2007-09-24T05:46:00.005-07:00

Memory is based on association. Therefore in order to remember something you must make a strong association with something you can already remember. Strongest associations are usually visual but you should try to involve other sense as well to make the associations even stronger. (E.g., if you want to remember to buy toilet paper you can picture a giant toilet roll rolling out of the supermarket door. Then it shouts: "buy me!” Then it rolls over you. There you have visual-aural-touch. Add smell if you wish. So when you next pass in front of the supermarket, that absurd image – because of its absurdity – will flash in your mind and remind you that you need to buy toilet paper). Most good memorizers do these things unconsciously, so if you ask them how they can remember, they usually will not be able to explain. They will just say, “I just do”. Or they will come up with some far-fetched explanation that has little to do with what they actually do.

You can also regard memory as food in the refrigerator. You can only retrieve the food you put there in the first place. People many times complain that they cannot recall things, when the problem is that they never remembered (put it in memory) in the first place. In order to place something in your mind (so that you can recall it later) you must use full consciousness and awareness. Absentmindedness will simply not do.

Keeping these two principles in mind, memorizing music has five different aspects that most people integrate, but if you are having difficulty you will have to treat them separately for the time being.

1. Aural memory. This means remembering how the music sounds, how the tune goes. Repeated careful listening of the piece (and your playing and practicing of it) should take care of this. You can also try to hum it (or sing or whistle) the piece trying not to miss a single note. People with good aural memory and a good ear will “remember” a piece basically by playing it by ear.

2. Visual memory. This means having a photographic memory of the score. For good sight-reading this is essential, since the process of sight-reading is basically memorizing a few bars while you play the previous ones. It is not necessary to be able to retain this memory forever, but you should be able to do it for a few moments if you are going to be a good sight-reader. This also means looking at the keyboard and having a visual image of the sequence of black/white keys needed to play the piece.

3. Touch memory. This means remembering the sequence of touch sensations needed to play a piece. The way to develop it is to play with closed eyes, or in the dark. You must use the black keys to guide you. (This is also essential for sight- reading, since when you sight-read your eyes should be glued to the score, and you should find the keys by touch).

4. Hand memory. This is when your fingers “know” the music. You may even be amazed that you can play the piece and not “know” it. This is a very necessary kind of memory (you cannot play fast passages without it), but it is very unreliable. Because it is based on sequence of events, any mistake and you will have to go straight to the beginning. If you have only hand memory, there is a good chance you will have a blackout in performance. Hand memory is acquired through endless repetitions hands together. And that is why that you must always repeat the correct thing, otherwise you will end up with wrong notes/rhythms/etc. inbuilt in your hand memory.

5. Music memory. This means remembering how the music is built up, how it is structured. This is usually the aspect people pay the least attention to, since it involves knowledge of musical theory and harmony. Take care of this aspect by writing out the harmonic progressions, examining how the melody is built (ascending/descending scales, jumps, etc.). You can also try copying the music (several times) until you can write it from memory. If you don't "understand" the music it will be difficult to memorize, since it will be (to you) just a random sequence of notes.

After you work on each of these aspects separately, you must now integrate all these in what people call “memory”.

Try this method. Put your music book with the piece you are trying to memorize on a desk near your piano (but far enough so that you cannot see it). Now you can look at the score as much as you want, but you cannot take it to the piano with you. Go to the piano and see how far can you play from memory. When you get stuck, go back to the desk, and figure out from looking at the score where you got stuck and why. Then go back to the piano and try again. If you keep at it, and observe the principles above, you should have your piece memorized in no time at all. However this is a mentally intensive process. Mentally lazy people hate it.

The first time you try all this, it will be overwhelming. But if you keep working at it in a systematic, disciplined way, each subsequent piece becomes easier. Then it will be so natural for you to memorize that you will be doing it without even noticing!
This is just the tip of the iceberg.

MASTERING A PIECE

2007-09-24T05:46:00.003-07:00

It is important not to confuse “mechanical” with “automatic”.

Of course piano playing has to be done automatically. Consciousness is simply too small to accommodate all of the necessary components.

Which of the components you are going to keep in consciousness is up to you: You may let all of the emotional stuff happen intuitively (which is another word for unconscious behavior) and concentrate your awareness on getting the correct fingering on that difficult passage. Or you can let the unconscious take care of the fingering and so on and direct your awareness towards expressing the piece. You may even let the unconscious do all the work and go in a trance state, and at the end of the concert you will not even remember what happened.

What you will not be able to do is to be conscious of everything at the same time. You can only keep 7±2 items in consciousness at any given time.

Now there is the other important distinction. And that is between learning and performing. In order to do anything automatically, in “automatic pilot” so to speak, you must first program the automatic pilot, or in other words, the unconscious. You cannot play “intuitively” unless you have the “intuition” in the first place.

So you must break down the complex task of piano playing in all of its myriad components and consistently program each single one and each combination in the unconscious through careful repetition. This must be done in full consciousness to avoid sloppy actions getting ingrained in the unconscious. And because you can only have a limited amount of information in consciousness at any given time, you have to make a hierarchy of aims. So, obviously, technique must come before expressing the piece as far as the direction you are turning your attention to be concerned.

But although you can break down piano playing in isolated bits as far as your attention is concerned, you cannot do so as far as your actual playing is concerned. So, as you start playing, you are already playing expressively even though all your attention is on the fingering. It is just that the expression is crap. You are not paying attention to it, and your unconscious does not have a clue about how to go about it. But you will not be able to pay attention to it until you sort out the fingering. With the fingering sorted out, you now can direct your attention to expression. But of course you will have to fight against all the bad expressive habits you acquired while practicing the fingering. There is no way out of this predicament. You must accept that this is how things work. What you can do is minimize its effects. And that means never overworking any aspect of piano playing If you spend ten hours on fingering, you are setting yourself for failure, for two simple reasons:

1. It is not necessary. Most aspects of piano playing can be made automatic in a couple of minutes if you choose a short enough section.

2. Even if you reap enormous benefits in fingering by working on it for ten hours, you will have ten hours of sloppy “unconscious” practice on all of the other numerous aspects of piano playing, and by the end of ten hours, there will be so many bad habits ingrained that your performance will always be mediocre in those areas.

So, the secret is to change the focus of your attention as often as possible: Work two minutes on fingering, then two minutes on movement, then two minutes on sound/touch, then two minutes on articulation, etc. You see, the moment you are playing the piano you are already working simultaneously on all that. It is just that one component will be on consciousness and all the others will be unconscious. So you must make sure to give the necessary resources to the unconscious (by consciously paying attention to what you are doing) as soon as possible, and not wait too much.

The worst way to work on a piece is to learn the whole piece paying attention only to fingering – an let us say this takes 1 week. Then once fingering is ingrained you dedicate your practice to articulation. Another week. But in the first week, you were doing some form of articulation – just it was a completely inappropriate one, since it was being done mostly unconsciously and at that stage your unconscious did not have the resources to do it properly – So now, as you try to add articulation to your piece, you are constantly fighting unconscious inappropriate patterns acquiring during the first week where you concentrated on fingering only. So after a week, you are nowhere near the proper articulation, so you give up temporarily, and move on to put the dynamics on. Now you have already been working on dynamics, since the first moment you touched the piano – but it is completely inappropriate since you were not paying any attention to it, so your unconscious just added any dynamics it pleased. And by now you have been doing it for two weeks. So you start another uphill struggle, but this time against the ingrained inappropriate dynamics. Meanwhile your articulation – now that you stopped paying attention to it – goes back to the inappropriate patterns first ingrained and get even more ingrained. Meanwhile your teacher has pointed out that your movement is not appropriate and shows you a completely different way of moving. But by now you have been doing the wrong movement for three weeks. Guess what, even your fingering starts to slip now. The whole piece is a complete mess.

Have you ever seen in the circus that act where a (usually Chinese) guy has several plates spinning on sticks? That is how piano practice must be: you start spinning a plate. The moment it is spinning with a certain speed and stability you start the second plate, and then the third. By now the first plate is loosing it, so you must quickly go back to it and give it some attention – but it requires far less time and effort than when you started form scratch. Do the second and the third plate, and you have time to spin a fourth and a fifth plate before going back to the first plate. Eventually you will 20/30 plates spinning and you just give each a tiny bit of your attention.

So work in small chunks, and change the focus of your attention to all of the aspects of playing necessary for that chunk (usually the chunk cannot be too small – a phrase is really the minimum size for you to start paying attention to all aspects).

MAINTAINING YOUR REPERTOIRE

2007-09-24T05:45:00.003-07:00

Here are some options:

1. Perform your repertory at every opportunity. Not only official performances. This means that you have to be organized. List your full repertory. Now create a number of programs with these pieces. If you have only 5 pieces in your repertory, that is it. But if you have one hundred, you may have to create 20 programs to cover them all. Now go and play for everyone: friends, family, charity, and of course official performances. Make sure you start with program no. 1 and only play it again once you played program no. 20 (assuming you have 20 programs). This will not only allow you to cover all your repertory on a regular basis, as it will give the impression that you have a huge repertory, since no one ever hear the same piece twice, unless they attended your last 20 performances. As you perform these pieces be on the lookout for the ones that may need some polishing, and polish them as needed.

2. This is a great learning strategy. It applies only to pieces you have just learned. After you learned your piece, drop it for a couple of months. If you forget it, it is even better. Now go back to it, and learn it again from scratch. Pretend it is a complete new piece. There is a huge temptation to cut corners, since you already know the piece. Don’t. Really relearn it as if it was the first time ever. The learning will be faster, but you may notice that certain passages are actually as difficult as the first time around. Concentrate on these passages. Once you have re-learnt the piece, drop it again for a couple of months. Then relearn it again. By the third or fourth time you do this, you will not be able to forget it anymore. It will be yours forever. And if you paid attention to the passages that are problematic, by the third or fourth time they will be as easy as the rest. The problem with this strategy is psychological: No one wants to do it. But it is definitely worth it.

3. Make a note of your repertory pieces so that you work through them intensively every couple of months (or weeks). Dino Lipatti used this approach. He knew exactly what he would practice or learn each month five years in advance. I personally don’t like this approach very much, because as your repertory grows, it takes more and more time you could be learning new repertory.

4. If you teach (this is my favorite) assign the pieces you want to polish to your students. This way as you teach you will be practicing (during the lessons, not for the lessons). Which is one of the reasons I never have to practice scales: I practice them by teaching them.

5. Finally, sometimes it is good to drop a piece much played for a couple of years. When you go back to it, you may see if with very different eyes. And sometimes it is just good to drop a piece (I don’t think I will ever play the Fantasy Impromptu ever again – or Fur Elise he he).

Be warned. You may not like what is written below.

After mastering a piece to your satisfaction, abandon it completely for 6 months or even one year. Your aim is to actually forget the piece.

Once the piece has been totally wrecked from sheer negligence, relearn it from scratch . And I mean from scratch. Treat it as a completely new piece. Since this is a piece you once knew, the temptation to cut corners when relearning it will be overwhelming. Resist this temptation. Go through all of the phases of the process of learning a new piece pretending you have never seen this piece before.

Even if you do that you will still learn the piece on a fraction of the time it took you to learn it the first time.

After you completely mastered it a second time, play it for a while, and then neglect it again, repeating the same process all over. You will see that the third time around you will relearn it even quicker.

Eventually by the 4th or 5th time, you will simply know the piece so well, that no amount of neglect will result in you “loosing” it ever.

Trust me, once you get to this level of mastery of a piece, piano playing becomes like riding a bicycle: you will never forget a piece.

The secret is now in planning. You must plan your long term goals (5 years) in such a way that you are always relearning some old piece from scratch.

KEYBOARD TOPOGRAPHY

2007-09-24T05:44:00.000-07:00

1. Train yourself visually to find the white keys by reference to the black keys. (e.g., do not look for D as being the white key that comes after the white key C, but rather as the white key that is in between the two black keys).

2. Once you start to automatically look at the groups of two and three black keys in order to locate any of the white keys, proceed to the next step. You must be consistent and systematic here, or you will never do that automatically.

3. Close your eyes (or turn the lights off) and learn how to identify the groups of two and three black notes by touch. Flatten your fingers and use the whole of the hand (using the tips of the fingers only is unreliable) to feel for the groups of black keys. Once you are sure that you have a group of two black keys (or a group of three black keys) under your fingers/hand, have your fingers into playing position and press them (both hands together, one octave apart). Use fingers 2-3 for the two black notes and fingers 2-3-4 for the three black notes.

4. In the beginning this will be very slow. But with consistent (everyday – 2 – 3 minutes practice) you will be surprised how good you get at it (one week – one month).

5. Once you mastered the above, move on to play the black notes not as chords, but separately (still using finger 2-3 and 2-3-4).

6. Now add thumbs and play the B major scale (closed eyes). Find the white keys (played by they thumbs) by touching the black keys to the left of the white keys (B and E). In other words, use the thumbs to help locate your fingers in relation to the groups of two and three back notes. This will require that you play the thumbs well into the black key area.

7. Do the same for Db major (this time the white notes F-C will be to the right of the black notes). The whole point is that you are using the black keys to locate by touch the relevant white keys, and at the same time you are using the thumbs on the white keys to help locate the black keys.

8. Move on to play all scales with closed eyes following the same principle: locate the white keys by first feeling the black keys. This means playing well into the black key area. Remember that your aim here is not scale practice, but touch recognition practice. When you are practicing scales you will not be using this hand position. This is just for the moment.

9. With consistent practice, (2-3 minutes daily), you will start to feel the black notes automatically and with a much more subtle movement – you will not need to go so much into the black key area.

10. Then start applying the same principle to arpeggios, exercises and your pieces.

HOW TO PRACTICE

2007-09-24T05:42:00.000-07:00

In piano playing you must repeat something several hundred times. But you must also alternate repetition with time for the unconscious to work it out. This means ultimately a night’s sleep. It is when you start dreaming with your piece that you know you are starting to learn it. Dreaming is a consequence of this integrative work of the unconscious.

This has the following awesome practical consequence: In order to learn anything in the most efficient way, work on it with full concentration for a period of time (15 – 20 minutes is more then enough) and then forget about it until the next day. The next day repeat the same procedure for the same amount of time and again forget it until the next day. Repeat this as many days as necessary to be able to play the passage in question is such a way that you cannot get it wrong even if you try. I assure you that you will get to this point in a maximum of seven days, usually much less. This demands incredible discipline and consistency. But it works like magic.

Now consider this extreme example. You decide to practice 5 hours every day. These five hours can be divided in 12 practice sessions of 20 minutes each plus 5 minutes break in between each practice session.

The worst thing you can do is this: “Today I am going to practice bars 12- 24 of piece x.”. Then you do that in each of the 12 practice sessions. For 5 hours solid. It does not work. It is a waste of time.

The brilliant thing you can do is to use each of these 12 practice sessions to practice something completely different in each.

You see, it does not matter if you work on a passage for 20 minutes or for five hours. Whatever you accomplished in 20 minutes is all you are going to accomplish that day. You need a night’s sleep in between. It is far better to work twelve days for 20 minutes everyday in a passage than to work on that passage for 12 consecutive sessions in a day. (You do not need to believe me. Just try it out!). Instead use the other eleven daily sessions to learn eleven new things. At the end of a week you will be amazed at the fantastic amount that you have learned.

But you must have a plan. You must make sure that everything that you are practicing in these sessions add up to something at the end of a week. This is the simple secret of all those pianists who were able to learn massive repertories in no time at all.

This also means that you do not need to practice 10 –12 hours a day. 20 minutes is plenty. But the amount you will be able to learn in 20 minutes will be 1/12 of what you could learn in 5 hours. Do you understand what I am getting at? Do not think in terms of hours of practice per day, but in terms of number of 20 minute sessions per day and stick to whatever you are doing for seven days (or until you master it - usually less than seven days).

Now let me say a few more words about 15 - 20 minutes, so that it is perfectly clear what I mean.

The important aspect is that you should have a passage perfect at the end of 15 – 20 minutes.

If it is taking more than that, then the passage you chose to work on is too big.

Cut it in half.

Most people select bits that are bigger than they can chew. This leads to practicing for hours on end without visible improvement, which leads to fatigue, discouragement and actually burn out in relation to the passage/piece in question.

Here is another approach to be combined with the 15-20 minutes one. I probably already said that in one of the threads, but I cannot remember where.

It takes 7 repetitions for the human brain to learn anything. So, choose a passage and repeat it seven times. If after seven times you have not learnt it, it is because it is too large a chunk of information.

So instead of doing what everyone who does not know this piece of information do, namely keep repeating endlessly the passage hundreds of times, do the clever thing and make the passage smaller.

Try again seven times. If you still have not got it, make it smaller again. Certain passages will require that you par it down to only two notes. But I assure you that anyone can learn two notes after repeating them seven times. Then you go to the next bit (make sure you overlap to avoid stuttering on the links later on).

So you must organize your 15 –20 minutes in seven time repetition blocks that add up to the passage you have to master in that session. Or make the passage smaller so that it will fit in the 15 – 20 minute session.

In the beginning this will be sort of overwhelming, but as you keep at it, very soon you will be able to look at a score and immediately know how long it will take you to learn it. You will know exactly how to break it down and the size of passage you can manage.

I. There are three basic stages in learning/practicing a new piece.

i. The first stage is exploratory. You sight read through the piece to identify the difficult bits, the motifs, the voices, you do analysis, you listen to CDs of the piece, you break it all down in manageable chunks to practice. You also figure out for each chunk the best fingering for the sound you aim to produce, the most economical and efficient movements. You spend time trying different movements, and fingerings. You also plan how you are going to tackle the piece; how many passages, how long the passages are going to be, how you are going to join the passages. A good part of this stage is done away from the piano. The end result of this stage is to have a thorough knowledge of the piece (theoretically) and to have a working plan to master it in as little time as possible.

ii. In the second stage, which is mostly technical, you have most of the parameters defined, and you go to the piano to teach your body (fingers, arms, etc.) to actually play the several passages in which you organized the learning/practicing of your piece. The main aim here is to ingrain the correct movements fingerings in your subconscious, and to smooth the movements so that they become not only automatic but also efficient and economical (and as a consequence elegant) This is the stage where you work with separate hands in small bits, ten join hands, and use all sorts of practice tricks (practicing with different rhythms, practice in chords, use repeated notes and repeated note groups, etc.). You will also develop hand memory at this stage. The end result of this stage is to have the piece learned as far as playing the correct notes at the correct time is concerned. You want to get to that magical moment where your fingers just know where to go, without you having to think about it.

iii. Finally on the third stage, you will be dealing mostly with interpretation and performance issues. The piece is learned and memorized at this stage, but you still need to work things like phrasing and dynamics, rubato and liberties you may take with tempo and rhythm, bringing out (or not) melodic strands in different voices. If you know where you will be performing the piece, you may need to adjust your playing to the piano and to the acoustics of the hall. If you are playing with an orchestra you may need to comply with the conductor’s suggestions.

These three stages are not separate as the descriptions above may imply. One stage informs the other. It may well happen that in the second stage, when you actually start practicing the piece on the piano, you find out that the fingerings and movements you decided on the first stage actually do not work. So you may have to go back and change them. Also, although the second stage is mostly technical, you should not leave interpretation completely out of it until you get to the third stage. So there is a great degree of interpretations and overlap on these three stages. They are not at all self contained.

II. Having said that, the 15 – 20 minutes practice idea refer to the second stage. What is this idea? In fact it is not an idea. It is a principle . in fact two principles.

i. The human brain learns by “chunks”, and then by clustering these chunks into larger chunks. Anything that can be learned by repetition will be learned after seven repetitions. If after seven repetitions you have not learned the “chunk”, it means that the chunk was to large for the brain to handle. You must break it down into smaller chunks. Let us say that you want to learn a poem with 200 verses. If you read the full 200 verses seven times, chances are that after seven times you will not have learned it. Most people who are not aware of what I am about to say, will just keep repeating the whole poem in the hope that by increasing the number of repeats they will eventually master it. Let us say that it takes 30 minutes to repeat aloud 200 verses. Repeating the poem seven times will take 3.5 hours, at the end of it you will not have learned it. So you repeat another seven times. You still will not have learned it. So you do another seven times with the same dismal result. Now you have been reading this poem for 10.5 hours. Do that for a whole month. I bet that at the end of the month, practicing 10.5 hours a day (21 repetitions) you still will not have learnt the poem. This is partly because you cannot fit enough repetitions in a day (the poem is simply too large), but also because if you have not learned after seven repetitions increasing the number of repetitions will not make any difference.

ii. So what should you do? You must decrease the size of the chunk of information that you are trying to learn. How much should you decrease it? Well, start by cutting the poem in half: 100 verses. Now this takes only 15 minutes to read through. After seven repeats, did you learn it? If you did, this is the chunk size you can cope with. If not, the chunk size is still too large. So cut it in half again: 50 verses, which you can now read in 7.5 minutes. Now let us say that by cutting it in half and trying to learn the chunk in seven repetitions you finally got to 1 verse. That can be read in 9 seconds. This is the exploratory stage of your practice: when you find out what is the larges chunk you can learn by repeating it seven times. With experience you will get this size fairly immediately. But in the beginning expect to spend sometime learning about yourself and your learning capacity.

iii. So you figured out that one verse is (for you) learnable after seven repeats. After seven repetitions you just know it. So it is going to take you (9x7) = 63 seconds to master one line of the poem. To master the 200 verses will take you exactly 3. 5 hours, the same amount of time it took you to read through the whole poem 7 times without making any progress whatsoever. The conclusion is obvious: Breaking your learning tasks into chunks that can be learned after seven repeats will save an amazing amount of time, as compared to the alternative of reading the whole thing seven times.

III. The second principle is this: You learn nothing until it is processed by the unconscious. Dreaming is one of the symptoms of this, so you need at least one night sleep in between learning sessions before you actually learn what you have been practicing. Usually you will need several nights sleep depending on the complexity of your task. This is the 20 minute principle.

Going back to the 200 line poem. It took you 63 seconds to repeat and learn the first line. That’s it! You do not need to do any more work on this line today. You can do, if you want, but it will not make any difference whatsoever.

If you do your seven repeats (63 seconds), stop and go to bed, next day when you wake up you will find that you pretty much forgot the line. So you must start again, and repeat the line seven times (63 seconds again). But you will discover that although you felt as ignorant as in the first day, this time it took you only 5 repeats to get to the stage you were in yesterday after 7 repeats. So you re-learnt the line in 45 seconds, instead of the 63 seconds. Never mind that, do your seven repeats again (even though you have mastered it by the fifth). On the third day, you wake up and to your dismay you realize you cannot remember a thing. However, this time by the second repeat it is all back in your mind. This time it took you only 18 seconds to get to the stage that in the first day took you 63 seconds. And in the second day 45 seconds. Again, even though you mastered the line by the second repeat , you do the full seven repetitions. On the fourth day. Chances are that you will not need to do any repeat. you simply know the line. I have never met anyone who needed more than seven days to get to this stage. Usually by the third/fourth day they have learned their chunk of information (provided that the size of the chunk could be learned after seven repeats).

The important fact here is this. If you repeat your verse 700 times (instead of 7), It will make no difference whatsoever to the speed with which you will learn it. It will still take four days. You do not need to believe me. Just try it. Get two passages of a piece. Size them so that they can be learnt after seven repeats. Do only seven repeats on the first one, and 700 repeats on the second. See which one is thoroughly learnt first. My prediction is that they will both take exactly the same amount of time to be learnt

In the case of a passage of music, you will probably do more things then just repeat it. Possibly (I would do that) after repeating seven times, I would work on hands separate and hands together. Depending on the passage I might use rhythmic variations, or play it in chords, or other practice variations. So it may take 15 – 20 minutes to go through all these routines, maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less. Then that is it for the day! Only go through that passage again next day. If you want to devote 5 hours a day to piano practice, use the remaining time to practice other passages, or even passage from other pieces.

So use the 7 repeat principle to define the passage you are going to practice. Then practice it only for the time necessary to master it (usually less then 15 – 20 minutes, but rarely a bit more). Then leave it until the next day. Repeat the same process again until you finally know it (should take 3 – 4 days).

HOW TO PLAY SCALES FAST

2007-09-24T05:38:00.000-07:00

There are many special techniques to deal with playing fast scales:

1.Play the scale in chords.

2.Always increase speed by increasing the speed hands separate. It is the HS speed that will limit your HT speed.

3.Use a thumb over movement.

4.Decrease movement range. And make movement as efficient and economical as possible.

5.Do not practice slow (practicing slow is not for speed is for other purposes), although it is all right to practice in slow motion.

6.Do not play thumb under.

7.Do not start the movement from the fingers.

8.Do not use exaggerated inefficient movements.

9.Do not use a different finger for right and left hand: the left hand will slow you down.

10.Do not try to increase speed by practicing hands together.

11.Do not practice mechanically.

HOW TO MEMORIZE BACH

2007-09-24T05:37:00.002-07:00

HOW TO MEMORIZE BACH
Allemande from French Suite No.1

First of all, most students consider Bach notoriously difficult to memorize.

One of the reasons is that most people memorize without a system. That is, they think “memorizing” is something they were born with. It is “intuitive” (meaning that the whole process happens unconsciously; most people have no idea how they actually go about memorizing something. They just do it), As a consequence most people memorize in a very inefficient manner. It will take me to long to write about efficient memorization, and even longer for you to train yourself to do it. You probably will not have the time to do it and memorize the piece as well.

The other reason is that Bach’s music is composed according to different principles to the ones we grow accustomed to. It is not about a tune and an accompaniment. It is about a motif (a fragment of melody) that is repeated varied and developed in countless ways during the course of the piece. And this is all done by different “voices”. This makes it very difficult to follow by ear: it is done on purpose so that the music, no matter how many times you listen to it, always sound fresh.

Most people when memorizing music, what they are actually doing is memorizing the “sound” of it, and then playing by ear. Another number of people repeat the movements so many times that they develop “hand memory”, that is, their bodies know exactly what to do, and the player has the uncanny experience of seeing his finger hit all the correct notes, while he himself has no idea of what he is playing. A few rare individuals can create a photographic image of the score in their minds and follow it. Finally, you can create a memory for the structure of the music, its architecture, the way it was built. Almost no one bothers with this “architectural” memory unless they are musicologists teaching classes on it. None of these memories are mutually exclusive, and I strongly suggest you work on all of them. The most important is hand memory. It is also the most dangerous, because if you make one single mistake you will have a huge black out and you will need to start all over again form the very beginning hoping that this time around the fingers will comply. At the same time it is the most necessary: without hand memory you simply will not be able to play in any fluent way (even with the score in front of you). So you must back up hand memory with one of the other kinds, preferably with all of them.

So, here is how you go about it:

1. Since you have little time you will need to work intensively on it. This is bad, since memory needs time to settle. You must be extremely organized and completely systematic. You cannot afford to jump all over the place or to plunge head on repeat after repeat hoping for the best.

2. Start by working on structure and architecture. This allemande is built on 4 voices. Your very first step is to rewrite the whole score using 4 staves so that the four voices are clearly visible. You will not play the complete piece from this score, but you will analyze and understand the piece from it. You will also practice each voice separately from it. (And this act of rewriting the score will also help with the memorization process – use a notation software, rather than handwriting).

3. Now you must write the appropriate fingering on every note of this four voice score, and you must practice each voice separately using the correct finger. Adhere to whatever fingering you decide to use. Ingrain this fingering on your subconscious mind by repeating each passage in each voice endless times. By the time you come to work on joining the voices, the correct fingers should automatically go to the appropriate keys. This fingering will be the basis of your hand memory; so do not confuse your unconscious by changing fingers every time you play the same passage. If you have little time to memorize this piece, you cannot afford not to spend whatever time it takes to ingrain the fingering from the start. Take your time over this step. Decide before starting to practice this piece which hand and which finger is going to play each note on each voice.

4. Now start learning each voice separately. You must work with a metronome so that you hold each note for the appropriate length of time. When you join voices later on, some fingers will need to hold a note, while other fingers are playing other notes. This is one of the chief difficulties in counterpoint playing (which this ultimately is). This is what is really difficult to remember once the score is not in front of you anymore, so you must take your time to ingrain this both in your fingers and in your aural memory (that is, you must memorize the sound of it as well as the physical feeling of it). This will take countless repetitions. The most efficient way to do it is to do the following routine for each voice separately:

a. Start with the first seven bars. Repeat bars 1-2 countless times, until you cannot get them wrong, even if you wanted. Because it is only two bars, and you are working on a single voice, this should take you only 2 – 3 minutes.
b. Now do bars 2-3, then 3 – 4, then 4-5, then 5- 6, then 6 – 7. Have a break of five minutes.
c. Start again but this time repeat bars1-2-3, then 2-3-4, then 3-4-5, 4-5-6 and finally 5-6-7. Have another 5 minute break.
d. Now do bars 1234, 3456, 4567. Notice how much overlap is going on. Also notice that every time you start from a different point. This will avoid the problem many people experience of always having to go back to the beginning of the piece if they make a mistake and have a blank. Another 5 minute break.
e. Next bars 12345,23456 and 34567. Another 5 minute break.
f. Finally bars 123456 and 234567.
g. You should now be able to do the whole passage perfectly, and you may find that is already memorized. Remember you are working on each voice separately at this stage.

As you are going through this routine, do not just play mechanically, but engage your mind in looking for patterns. See how each of the four voices has quite different contributions (for instance, the tenor voice almost is not there, disappearing completely in some bars; notice how the bass voice uses a lot of augmentations as a way to vary the motifs; observe how in the alto voice and in the soprano there are quasi canonic sequences, and how the motifs are inverted and modulated. Finally figure out what makes this piece an allemande that is a dance.)

Memory is based in associations, so at every phrase you must create a strong association and keep reinforcing it.

Working in these first seven bars in this fashion may take you any time between 45 minutes and 2 hours. So after you went through it, leave it. Do not repeat it until next day. But you must repeat exactly the same procedure the next day, no matter how confident you are that you have learned it.
5. Now, since you are pressed for time, I suggest that you go through another
practice session just like the one you just did for bars 1 – 7 (by the way, I am counting the anacrusis bars at the start of the first and second part as well, so for the purposes of this explanation this piece has 26 bars, not 24). But instead of doing bars 1 – 7 (remember, you must have a night’s sleep before you tackle it again), now do bars 20 – 26. That will be another 45 minutes – 2 hours.
6. If you still feel like another practice session, do it all over again, but his time on bars 7 – 13 (notice: 7 – 13, and not 8 – 14. By starting on bar 7 you will have an overlap with the first session). Or you can do this session in a couple of days once the previous two sections are well under your belt.
7. Finally repeat the same routine with bars 13 – 20.

8. Now, comes the next day, you must repeat all the above again. When you start in the morning you will feel as if you have never seen the piece before. You cannot remember anything! It will be as if all that practice time yesterday was wasted. This is the trap most inexperienced students with this way of practice fall into. Instead develop a “so what?” attitude. You cannot remember anything? So what? Start again from scratch. To your amazement, you will se that it all comes back to you very, very fast. If yesterday each practice session took 2 hours to complete, now it may take only 15 – 20 minutes. But do not be lured into a false sense of confidence, and assume you learned the piece and move on to the next step. Instead wait until tomorrow. See what happens then.

9. Comes tomorrow and you will experience exactly the same frustration that you experienced before: it is as if the whole piece has vanished without trace from your mind. Fear not! It is there. Start from scratch again. It is really important that you do not cut corners here. I am not joking when I say you must start form scratch. You will be pleasantly surprised that you can now do what took you some 6 – 8 hours in the first day in less than 30 minutes. If so, add another practice session where you start joining these big chunks, e.g., join bars 1- 7 and 7 – 13 and play the complete first part. Join the other bars and play the whole of the second part. Finally join it all together and play the full piece. You are still working on separate voices. And remember: you must make this a different practice session.

10. Next day, one of two things will happen: you will feel like you have never seen the piece before, in which case you will have to start from scratch again (but it will come back to you with surprising ease) or you will simply remember and play the whole thing perfectly first time in the day. If this happens, then you are ready to move on. While this does not happen you will have to keep at it. In my experience no one has ever needed more than seven days to achieve this state – provided that they follow the instructions above to the letter. Most students are ready to move on by the 3rd, 4th day.

11. If so, you are now going to join the voices, but you are still going to keep playing hands separate. In this piece the right hand gets most of the work, since it will be playing two voices most of the time (and occasionally 3), while the left hand plays just one voice and occasionally 2. So repeat exactly the same procedure you did for separate voices with separate hands. Again after 3 or 4 days it should be under your belt.

12. Then move on to join hands. Again repeat the same procedure. If you did a through work on separate voices and separate hands, you should by now have a pretty good memory of the piece. So this should take another 3 – 4 days.

13. This is the basic procedure. Now there are lots of details you can add. For instance, once you are confident you can play the sections by looking at the score (even though you are looking at the score, you are actually playing from memory. It is just that your associations are linked to the score), try playing the section by looking at the keys. This will throw you off at the beginning, so do not wait until you can play the whole piece to do this: start at the level when you are working on just two-bars/one voice. Alternate between looking at the score, and looking at the keys. And throw eyes closed in as well. This way you will have memories associations with the score, with the visual pattern of the keys and with the “feeling” pattern of the movements. And of course, meanwhile you are also developing aural memory.

14. Once you are confident in your ability to play from memory, try this: Leave the score on a desk nearby (but out of sight). Start playing. When you get stuck, go to the desk and look at the score. See where you went wrong and make an effort to memorize it. Then go back to the piano and try again. You can look at the score, as many times as you need, but you must not bring it to the piano. You have to leave it at the desk and go there to look at the bit you forgot. Keep doing that until you do not need to look at the score anymore.

15. Hear the music in your mind. From what you are hearing, try to write down the score. Then compare with the real score and see where you went wrong. Now there is a correct way to do that, and a way that is just a waste of time. The correct way is to writhe the score form what you are hearing in your mind. The incorrect way is to memorize the score and remember what it looks like (photographic memory) and simply copy what you are “seeing”. Do you understand the difference, and why it matters?

16. Listen to a CD of this piece as many times as it takes for you to be able to recall what it sounds like in real time. The more accurate this aural memory is, the more reliable your general memory of the piece will be. Also, memorize what each voice sounds like on its own when you are practicing separate voices.

17. Once you have done all the above, find a sympathetic friend who is willing to go through that and give him a lecture about this piece. Talk about its structures, its motifs, how each voice sounds, how they go together. Do all that at the piano illustrating each one of your statements with your playing of the relevant fragments. End your lecture by playing the whole piece. Include in your lecture everything you believe to be important to remember. Repeat this lecture as many times as you can. If are able to do it say, ten times, you can use notes and even the score the first three or four times. But as soon as you feel confident try to do your lecture from memory. Teaching is an amazing memory trainer. This whole article was typed from memory without me even bothering to look at the score. Does that mean that I have a super memory? Not really, it just means that I repeat this everyday to my students, and I have taught this piece countless times over the years.

Although all of the above may seem like a lot of work, it is not really. You are already doing it every time you practice. As you sit at the piano to repeat one more time to play a passage for the nth time, you are hearing it, you are looking at the score, you are feeling the sensations in your body as you move and touch the keys, you are following the music structures, and so and so forth. But most people do that unconsciously. They turn on the automatic pilot, and as they practice fill their minds with their last holiday on the Caribbean.

All I am really suggesting you do is that each time you play a repeat, you direct your attention to one of these aspects (you will not be able to keep all of them in consciousness all the time because the conscious mind is very small – most of them will drop to the unconscious) systematically.

Most people are very energetic and when it comes to physical effort: they can sit at the piano and practice for hours on end (physically). But they are also mentally lazy. They cannot concentrate their minds for more than a few seconds. And for memory work your mind must be there if you want fast and effective results.
Quote
I remember that name now, Tureck! I saw a short clip of her playing a fugue and whatnot on the Classic Arts Showcase that is broadcasted free without commericials 24 hours a day on whatever station decides to carry it. She wasn't playing on a piano but on a harpsichord. I can't recall exactly what I thought of it at the time but the tempo seemed to be correct - this is all I can recall.

But she played on a harpsichord. Perhaps this is the reason you like her interpretations, Bernhard? I mean the way she played since the lack of dynamics is different than on a piano. Perhaps we should all start playing on a harpsichord because it would teach us how to phrase passages et al and work with limited range since dynamics can be used to conceal lack of expression - play the bass really loudly to cover up lousy melody playing.

He he he , Faulty, Now you really made me laugh. Rosalyn must be turning on her grave!

She is the one who originally advocated playing Bach on the piano using the full range of sonorities of the instrument. She abhorred Gould’s playing which she thought was too limited (Gould actually had his piano “doctored” so that it would sound like a harpsichord).

You see, in the 30s/40s the greatest keyboard exponent of Bach was the Polish harpsichordist Wanda Landowska, a very dogmatic woman, who was one of the great forces behind the “authentic” early music revival. She was adamant that Bach could only be played on a harpsichord. In fact she was so successful in her campaign of playing Bach solely on historical instruments that Claudio Arrau gave up playing Bach on the piano (even though he had given a cycle of recitals in which he played all of Bach keyboard works). Arrau was later to regret this decision very much and went back to Bach in his 80s.

Needless to say, a young (in her 20s) upcoming Tureck clashed head on with well established in her 60s celebrated Landowska. They had a conversation about it all, and it started well enough, but soon they were at each other throats. From that conversation came the often quoted phrase (usually quoted wrong or missing the names of the people invoved):

Tureck to Landowska (admitting that they would have to agree to disagree):

“Well, you play Bach your way, I will play Bach his way!”

You see, Tureck besides being an accomplished virtuoso was also a formidable scholar who would investigate all possible sources of Bach’s manuscripts. Her wirtings on the shortcomings and contradictions of the early music movement are worth reading.

Yes, she played Bach on the harpsichord, but only as a pedagogical device. You see, she would play exactly the same piece on the harpsichord, and then on the piano using the full range of sonorities and in so doing demonstrate her main point to the audience: that not only Bach did sound better on the piano, as Bach’s music was instrument independent. She also played the Theremin (a precursor fo the modern synthesisers) to show that Bach would sound good even on an electronic instrument. The clip you saw probably was followed by a performance of the same piece either on this piano or on the theremin, but they just showed the harpsichord part.
Rosalyn Tureck single handedly brought Bach back to the piano and was the most important influence on Glenn Gould (but she was critical of him, and Gould did not want to give her too much credit for his own playing - although he did give her some credit). She believed in pedalling, in using dynamics, and she hated when people suggested that Bach should be played machine-like. Here are some instances of her wisdom that I collected over a number of her master classes I attended (as a member of the audience):

PLAYING BACH’S MUSIC ON THE PIANO

Legato touch:
Legato means to make a connection, to bridge a gap. A bridge must touch the two sides of the abyss it crosses. If it touches only one side, it cannot function as a bridge. If one lifts the finger before playing the next note there will be a gap, even if it is just for a split second.

There are infinite detached touches, but only one legato touch.

Repeated notes:
It demands great technique to do repeated notes legato. But it is rare that such legato is required. Usually repeated notes should be played detached, and this detachment will be part of the strength of the musical statement. In Bach particularly, repeated notes have a specific symbolism, which we can see from his choral work. This is the symbolism of words and ideas, specifically the phrase I believe in God.

Chromaticism:
Bach uses chromaticism whenever the mood is meditative or contemplative.

Counterpoint:
Much emphasis is played on melodic counterpoint. But there is rhythmic counterpoint as well, which is at least as important.

Rhythmic motives are as important as melodic ones: they give shape to the structure.

Virtuosity:
Some people believe I play fast. In fact, I do not play that fast, but I take time to make sure that every note is heard. It will sound faster and more virtuosistic if you kep the structure even at a slow tempo - people will have more to hear within a given unity of time.

Beats:
Stressing the correct beats brings out the harmonic structure of the motif.

The combination of downbeat with harmony is a clear indication of Bach’s intentions.

Everything is right on the page, but people don’t pay attention.

Difficulty:
Difficulty is not a premise on which to build an interpretation.

Artistry:
Be an artist, not a perfomer.

Pedal:
May one use the pedal when playing Bach?

The basic function of the pedal is to sustain sound. The harmonic idiom uses chords, resolutions and so on. But in counterpoint one does not need to sustain for there are multilevels that fit together.

So the question becomes: What is there to be sustained? Answer this question and you answer the pedal question. In general vertical music is more likely to require pedal than horizontal music.

Embellishments:
There is only one kind of trill in 19th century music. But in the 16th and 17th centuries trills could be played in many different ways. Embellishments on dotted notes in the French style have their own specific meaning.

Many pieces that are thought to be melodic (e.g. variation 13 of the Goldberg variations, Sarabande on partita 1) are in fact built upon embellishments. Bach has simply written out the embellishments so as not to leave any room for confusion or ambiguity.

DIFFICULTY ORDER OF THE 48 PRELUDES AND FUGUES
1. no. 15 in G (Book II)
2. no. 6 in Dm
3. no. 21 in Bb
4. no. 10 in Em
5. no. 20 in Am (Book II)
6. no. 11 in F
7. no. 2 in Cm
8. no. 9 in E
9. no. 13 in F#
10. no. 21 in Bb (Book II)
11. no. 6 in Dm (Book II)
12. no. 19 in A (Book II)
13. no. 11 in F (Book II)
14. no. 19 in A
15. no. 14 in F#m
16. no. 18 in G#m
17 no. 2 in Cm (Book II)
18. no. 5 in D
19. no. 7 in Eb
20. no. 14 in F#m (Book II)
21. no. 7 in Eb (Book II)
22. no. 1 in C
23. no. 17 in Ab
24. no. 13 in F# (Book II)
25. no. 15 in G
26. no. 12 in Fm (Book II)
27. no. 1 in C (Book II)
28. no. 24 in Bm (Book II)
29. no. 10 in Em (Book II)
30. no. 16 in Gm
31. no. 5 in D (Book II)
32. no. 18 in G#m (Book II)
33. no. 24 in Bm
34. no. 9 in E (Book II)
35. no. 4 in C#m (Book II)
36. no. 23 in B
37. no. 3 in C# (Book II)
38. no. 12 in Fm
39. no. 3 in C#
40. no. 8 in D#m (Book II)
41. no. 22 in Bbm
42. no. 17 in Ab (Book II)
43. no 4 in C#m
44. no. 8 in D#m
45. no. 20 in Am
46. no. 22 in Bbm (Book II)
47. no. 16 in Gm (Book II)
48. no. 23 in B (Book II)

HOW TO CONCERNTRATE

2007-09-24T05:37:00.001-07:00

HOW TO CONCERNTRATE

Why was the blonde looking so intently at the orange juice carton? Because it said, “concentrate”

Concentration problems stem from not understanding what concentration actually is.

First you must accept that concentrating by sheer force of will is impossible. The fact is, the human mind likes to wander, and although you may start with the best of intentions of concentrating on your piece, very soon you will be thinking about what happened on the TV soap yesterday. So, rather than fight this tendency of the human mind – a fight you will eventually loose – use it for your own ends. Let your mind wander, but keep its wanderings within the work you are doing at the moment

I will give you a simple example. Look at you right hand. Try to keep your thoughts concentrated in your hand. You will probably find that after a few seconds, your mind starts to think of something else, quite unrelated. You may even completely forget that you were supposed to be concentrating on your hand.

Now try again looking at your hand and focusing your thoughts on it. But this time let your mind wander around your hand: think of its shape. Examine the size of your nails (do they need cutting? Pianist have short nails!). Consider how your thumb opposes the other fingers, and how this allows you to grasp objects. See that the fingers have different sizes and different strengths. Look at the shape of your hand and fingers. Is it squarish? Or roundish? Or pointed?

By letting your mind wander around your hand like that you will be able to keep your thoughts focused in your hand for quite long periods of time. And your mind is nowhere as interesting as your piano scales! Or as your new piece!

Don't wait for your mind to wander on it's own accord. From the very beginning encourage your mind to wander, but control its meanderings by keeping it around your subject. And of course you can apply this little trick to anything, including that boring lesson at school!

If you keep using this strategy consistently, very soon you will discover that it becomes a subconscious habit: you will be concentrating without effort and without thinking about it, and everyone will be amazed at your powers of focus and concentration.

Then you can try two meditation techniques. One is to observe your breath (sit on a chair with a straight back, closed eyes, and put your awareness on the several breathing sensations, how it warms up as it gets in, how the air cools down as it goes out, where can you feel the air – nose, trachea – lungs, etc. this is really a variation of the “let your mind wander but control its meanderings). This should improve your concentration. Then you can try a more advanced one: Think of nothing. In fact, you will not be able to do it (no one can do it). Thoughts will arise. Your job is to observe the thoughts without following them. Think of thoughts as clouds in the sky. You want to keep your sights on the blue sky. If a cloud passes by, notice it, but do not let your sight follow it. These are long term disciplines that will work wonders not only for concentration as for performance nerves and stress.

Working on concentration is hard mental work. If you are not used to it, start by doing as little as ten minutes a day, and slowly increase the time. Over the months one should be able to see one's capacity for concentration increase from a few minutes to a few hours.

FOUR AGAINST THREE RHYTHM

2007-09-24T05:36:00.003-07:00

The rhythm for each beat:

1--1--1--1--,2...
1---1---1---,2...

can be counted "One, before and after, Two, before and after," etc, with the accents being for the LH triplets and the "be", "and" & "ter" showing that the RH comes before, in the middle of, and after these LH notes.

Think of the "before" as a crushed note in the RH before the main note in the LH and "after" as the reverse. It works because the words "before" and "after" not only describe the placing of the RH notes relative to the main triplet rhythm, but also give the correct rhythmic sound.

Do this for slow 4 against 3. Make sure the beginnings of each beat coincide.
For fast playing, just concentrate on the beats coinciding.

For 3 against 4, (LH 4 being the main rhythm), you can count "One, after, and, before; ...".

For 3 against 2, say "One, the middle; two the middle; ..."

For 2 against 3, say "One, in between; two in between; ..."

Czerny study op. 740 no.2

2007-09-24T05:35:00.002-07:00

Tempo: Czerny’s own tempo is dotted minim = 60, which works out at 180 /four semiquavers. Scary!

Czerny subtitles this study “The passing under of the thumb”. So we are already starting with the wrong idea. I challenge any pianist to play this study at this speed passing the thumb under (they may tell you they are passing the thumb under, they may even believe that they are doing it. But any slow motion video of their hand movement will show this not to be the case). No, no, no, you must pass the thumb over. In fact you must not pass the thumb at all, you must displace your hand laterally. The best way to do that is to break the arpeggios into chord patterns, and play the whole thing like that.

Bars 37-40, left hand F# arpeggio. This is how to go about it. The arpeggio goes:

F#-A#-C#-F#-A#-C#-F# [and then descending] C#-A#-F#-C#-A#-F# (I am adding the F# from the next bar for purposes of overlapping).

So here is how you acquire the technique to play this arpeggio.

1. Have an aim. In this case the general aim is speed plus complete accuracy.

2. Play each note in isolation. Take your time. Your aim is to get the appropriate finger used to pressing the appropriate black note. So start by playing several times the first F# with the fifth finger. The black key is narrower than the white keys, it is easy to miss it/slip out of it. So try different finger conformations. As a general rule, black notes respond well to flatter fingers. However this is personal. At this stage you are simply investigating what seems to work best for you.

Then proceed to the A# with the third finger. Pay special attention that you “firm” the finger only at the point of contact of the key. Use this first item to investigate the ecapement level (it changes slightly from piano to piano). Remember that after you reach the escapement level you cannot control the hammers any more so you might as well relax. Therefore fingers tighten only for a fraction of a second. Also investigate arm usage at this stage when you are doing a single note at a time. There will be myriads of possible movements. Later on as you add more notes the range of possible movements will be severely restricted.

3. Now move on and play two consecutive notes: F#-A# with fingers 5-3. Start by playing them as chords (it is the fastest you can play any two notes: together).

Try different ways of pressing these keys (from the fingers, from the arms, etc.) Your aim is total accuracy with ease. You will have to control and fine tune the distance between fingers 3 and 5 as well as the degree of curling (as I said you may find that the flatter the fingers the easier it is to press black notes). Aim at the very centre of the key. Also investigate the difference between doing it more to the edge of the key, or more towards the wood.

This looks like a lot of detail, but actually since you are dealing with only two notes, it should take less than a minute to fully investigate everything. Then break the chord and play the two notes slower but still at an unbelievable speed. (It will be slower, since nothing can be faster than together!). Use the arms/forearms to move the fingers. This needs to be demonstrated, but I think you will get it. Then start slowing down so that you can observe more closely this movement: you are now playing in slow motion, you are not playing slowly. As you slow down, make the movement larger, as you speed up, make the movement smaller, but it is still the same movement. This is the most important step: figuring out the movement/sequence of movements that will allow you the sound you want.

Again this takes no time at all, since we are dealing with only two notes. Now move to the next two notes – but not C# and F#, but A# and C# with fingers 3-2. This will create an overlap that as you will see in a moment is crucial for this to work.

Repeat everything you did for F#A#: start as a chord, then break the chord and investigate the movement. You will find this to be easier than the previous one, since fingers 3-2 are fitter than fingers 5-3. Proceed to do the same for C#-F# with fingers 2-1. This will probably the easiest of all movements.

As you can see, by using this procedure you will be automatically practising more the more difficult fingers/positions. Now the next two notes are completely different: F#-A# with finger 1-3. Here you cannot play these notes as a chord, since it is the point at which you must displace the hand laterally. You must use your arm to move the hand and position the fingers from playing F# with finger 1 to playing A# with finger 3.

This is the movement that will ultimately limit your arpeggio speed. All the movements you have done so far can be played at infinite speed (as chords), but this movement cannot be played at infinite speed, since you cannot play it as a chord. So in an even fast arpeggio you will actually have to slow down all the other movements to the fastest speed you can manage for this pair of notes. Therefore, ultimately this is the pair of notes you will really need to work on. After you mastered the basic movement on the other notes, concentrate on these two. Anything else will be a waste of time. Keep working like that until you have covered the full bar (adding the first note of the next bar).

4. Now you are going to start it all over again, but this time instead of working on two notes, you will be working on three notes: F#-A#-C# (easy); A#-C#-F# (easy); C#-F#-A# (difficult on account of the hand displacement); F#-A#-C# (difficult) – A#-C#-F# (easy).

Do each group of three notes both ascending and descending. The easy ones start from a chord position and slow down. The difficult ones are difficult exactly because you cannot play them as chords. Your main aim is the investigation of movement patterns that will allow you top speed and consistent accuracy.

5. Move on to four notes: F#-A#-C#-F#, then A#-C#-F#-A#, then C#-F#-A#-C# and finally F#-A#-C#-F#. You truly worked on the smaller groups, the larger groups should be much easier, since you already drilled the basic movements thousands of times. Again because you are working on such small sections, it should not take more than a couple of minutes on each step (probably less time).

6. Now groups of five notes: F#-A#-C#-F#-A#, then A#-C#-F#-A#-C# and finally C#-F#-A#-C#-F#. by now your fingers should be really flying.

7. Finally the last two groups: F#-A#-C#-F#-A#-C#, and A#-C#-F#-A#-C#-F#.

8. Now you should be able to play the full arpeggio with ease and speed plus total accuracy. The final step is to play the arpeggio several times non stop.

9. The whole process should take something like 30-40 minutes. After that you will know the arpeggio forever, if you do one last thing: repeat exactly the same routine for the next seven days (it will take less time on each succeeding day).

This is the most efficient and powerful method to acquire technique. But no one wants to do it. There is some powerful mental block to it. You have been warned.

CO-ORDINATION PROBLEMS – TAPPING HEAD AND RUBBING TUMMY

2007-09-24T05:35:00.001-07:00

This is a common problem for even advanced players. Unfortunately playing with hands together is 37 times more difficult than with hands separate. This is not a technical problem. It is a co-ordination problem. Although some people may say that co-ordination is a technical problem, it is useful to treat it separately. So work on technique with hands separate. Once you have mastered the technique (that is, you can play hands separate perfectly and subconsciously) you will be ready to tackle the co-ordination between hands.

The problem here is the same as when you try to rub your tummy in a circular movement and tap your head at the same time. Try it!

You will see that one hand’s movement keeps interfering with the other hand movement. They both want to move in sympathy. How do you deal with this?

First understand the natural sequence of events: mind (brain) – nerves – muscles. The mind orders, the nerves transmit the orders, the muscles obey. To deal with sympathetic movements you must have a clear mental image of what is it that you are trying to do. Then you must inhibit the sympathy at the level of the nerves. Most people try to deal with this at the muscle level and as a result get more and more tense. It has to be done at the nervous level. How do you do it. I cannot tell you. I don’t know how to tell you. But it doesn’t matter, because you already know how to do it. You are already accomplished in the most amazing feats of co-ordination. Like walking.

Ok. Now for some practical advice. Start rubbing your tummy. Now you are going to pat your head. But don’t start patting like crazy. Do one single pat and stop. Meanwhile keep rubbing your tummy. Your aim is to not let that single pat disturb your tummy rubbing which should be even and regular. Investigate how you can achieve this. Remember that it is not by working on the muscles – so if you are tensing or loosing the evenness of the rubbing movement you are using the (wrong) muscle approach. So try that for a while: rub the tummy and “drop” single pats on your head. When you feel confident start doing two pats. Then three, until you can pat your head and rub the tummy at the same time. Then reverse it. Tap your head evenly and regularly. Then do one single circle in your tummy. Again the aim is to not let that single circular movement interfere with the tapping. Remember, we are talking nerve inhibition here, not muscle tensing.

Have you got it?

Playing with hands together follows exactly the same principle but it is more complex because you have more moving parts to co-ordinate (fingers, hands, wrists, forearms, arms, shoulders).

So – exercises in which both hands do the same thing will be almost useless here. (Sorry, Ilovemusic) These exercises foster sympathetic movement and hand dependence. They are like tapping your tummy and tapping your head. You want independent movement and hand co-ordination. So make sure you really mastered each hand’s movement before trying to join them. Then put one hand – say, the right hand - doing the complete movement – the whole sequence of notes – and “drop” one single note of the left hand. Repeat as many times as needed to get the knack to drop the left hand note without interfering with the right hand movement. Then add the second note. Then the third. Until you can play the whole passage. Then reverse by playing the left hand and dropping the right hand notes. And always remember that you are targetting the nerves, not the muscles.

Try it and tell us how you are coming along.

CONCERNTRATION AND FOCUSSING

2007-09-24T05:34:00.001-07:00

In order to understand the role of concentration in practice, it is necessary to understand two points:

1. Piano playing is not complicated or difficult, but it is incredibly complex. This means that it consists of a large number of tasks, each isolated task in itself pretty simple and easy. It is the sheer number of tasks and the order in which they must be performed that makes piano playing complex – and apparently difficult, but the difficulty is mostly an illusion. In order to play the piano effortlessly and with great ease all you need to do is thoroughly master each and all of the simple, easy tasks, and then put them together in the correct order. The main reason why most people seem to get stuck is because they have not fully mastered the simple tasks and are trying to go to the next level of complexity straight away, or because they have not assembled the simple components in the correct order. Sometimes both.

2. It is not possible to keep more than 7± 2 chunks of information in your consciousness. The moment you add an extra chunk, some chunk presently in your conscious mind must drop to the unconscious to make space.

From 1 and 2, it follows that you cannot possibly play the piano and be conscious of each and all individual simple component that make up the complex act of playing the piano: Piano playing must be done in large part by the unconscious mind.

But that is absolutely fine: The unconscious is perfectly fit for the job. In fact, consciousness is not needed at all except for the very important task of programming the unconscious

I like to compare the conscious and unconscious mind to a person living in a huge underground bunker. All facilities are available there: living space, kitchen, swimming pool, a huge library with every book ever written, CDs, CD players, you get the idea.

However, there is no light in this underground bunker. It is pitch black. The only source of light is a little torchlight this person in the bunker carries with him. This little torchlight can only illuminate a tiny portion of the bunker. But, if the person is systematic about it, he can explore the whole bunker and benefit from all that is in there by carefully directing the torch light to the different parts of the bunker and examining each room in turn. In fact, if he does this job well, he may even be able to comfortably go around the bunker with no light at all.

Now the bunker is the unconscious mind: huge, vast and full of untold treasures and knowledge. But it is all in the dark. Pitch black (it is not called the unconscious for nothing). The light from the torch is consciousness: it throws light and brings to visual perception tiny aspects of the vast bunker. It cannot illuminate more than a few items at a time. For it to illuminate some new item, some previous item will have to drop back into darkness. Finally the act of directing the torch here and there is the faculty of attention.

You can see how it is possible for someone who is systematic and disciplined to actually explore the whole bunker. You can also see how easy it is to actually waste a lot of time getting nowhere fast. For instance by not turning the torch on, Or by turning the torch on but keeping it fixed in a single point in the wall. Or by moving the torch wildly in all directions so that you can never get any good view of anything.

Keeping the torch fixated on a single object is of course important: that is concentration. But never moving the torch is absurd: that is obsession.

Now we can go back to the importance of concentration in piano practice.

People may say: practice without concentration is a waste of time. That is true, but it s also trivial. One must go deeper. One must first answer the question: concentrate on what? Since you can only concentrate (keep in consciousness immobile) on a few items, this is the most important question to be answered. It defines the aim of your practice. You may decide that you are going to concentrate on the correct fingering. That is your aim for the moment. So you put all your attention into getting the right finger on the right note. And why should you do it? Because, as you repeat, whatever you repeat is going to be ingrained in your unconscious, so you better make sure you are ingraining the correct thing. Once the correct fingering has been ingrained in your unconscious, you do not need to pay attention to it any more. You do not need to concentrate on it anymore. You will do the correct fingering automatically (which is very different from mechanically). If you do not consciously pay attention and concentrate on the fingering you cannot be sure of what is there, programmed into your unconscious mind. But your ultimate purpose is not to forever be conscious of fingering. Quite the opposite: you want the correct fingering to become unconscious and automatic as soon as possible. And the way to do it is – paradoxically - to be utterly conscious of it to begin with.

As soon as the fingering is correctly programmed in the unconscious, let your automatic pilot deal with it, and put your conscious attention on another component, say, the correct notes at the correct time. And so on and so forth. So practice becomes a careful programming of a myriad number of simple components into your unconscious. But in order to optimize this programming you must be totally conscious of each component. That is where concentration is needed. Eventually you will not need it at all. Once the piece is ready, you will probably play 99% of the components automatically and be conscious only of the final sound. You may even let the sound be taken care of by the automatic pilot (provided you programmed it well), and just enjoy the music you are making. Since most or all of it is being done by the unconscious, you can devote all of your consciousness to fully enjoy the music.

So concentration (in the sense of conscious focus) is indispensable for practice, but may be a hindrance and ultimately unnecessary for performance.

COMMON MISTAKES MADE BY STUDENTS

2007-09-24T05:31:00.000-07:00

1.Wrong notes.

2.Wrong rhythm (rhythm taken in its most basic definition as relative time values of notes)

3.Wrong accents.

4.Wrong movements.

5.Playing at the edge of the keys

6.Reaching for the notes with the fingers, rather than let the arms move the fingers into position.

7.Using unnecessary muscles movements.

8.Thinking that relaxation is the key, when actually it has nothing to do with relaxation (relax completely and you will fall to the floor).

9.Long nails.

10.Misaligned joints.

11.Bad posture.

12.Wrong dynamics.

13.Wrong pedaling.

14.Wrong practice.

15.Being too impatient and trying pieces you are not ready for.

16.Being too shy and sticking to only easy pieces you know you can play.

17.Not following a teacher’s advice (at least to see if what he says is true or not).

18.Forgetting to breathe – and most times wrong breathing.

19.Grimacing unnecessarily, and thinking that this adds “emotion” to your playing.

20.Curling fingers too much.

21.Flattening fingers too much.

22.Wrong fingering.

23.Changeable fingering (that is using a different fingering every time you play the same passage).

24.Not tuning the piano frequently.

25.Not using a metronome in the appropriate circumstances.

26.Using the metronome in inappropriate circumstances.

27.Not taking care of your overall physical fitness.

28.Wrong diet.

29.Wrong lifestyle.

30.Hanging around with the wrong crowd.

31.Believing you will be able to get by without a teacher just by reading/listening to CD'S/watching videos and surfing the net.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE!!

2007-09-24T05:30:00.000-07:00

1.Wrong attitude: To practice to get it right.
Why is it wrong to practice to get it right? Because the moment you get it right you loose your motivation to keep practice. A lot of students will fight with a piece for ages and then finally get it right and immediately stop practicing it. The consequence is that their unconscious will have accumulated all the numerous wrong repeats against the one single correct event. At pressure guess which version is going to spring from the unconscious? You can bet it will be the wrong one.

Correct alternative attitude: To practice to never ever get it wrong.

2.Wrong attitude: To consider a piece “difficult.”
Some students are fascinated and deeply impressed by pieces they consider “difficult”. They want to play those pieces, and they want to be seen playing a “difficult piece”. As a consequence, they expect the “difficult” piece to be “difficult” to play, and therefore they feel somehow cheated if it turns out that the piece was actually quite easy to play after all. The idea of “effort” gets built up in the practice. The result: the piece sounds labored, and looks like a lot of effort is involved in plying it.

Correct alternative attitude: No piece is difficult. A piece is either impossible or easy, and the difference is correct practice.

As a consequence of this correct attitude, the aim of practice becomes to make the piece easy. Difficulty does not enter the equation any more. Either you can play it with ease, or you can’t play it at all. No piece is ready until it has become easy. But it will not become easy by itself. You have to figure out what to do, which movements to use, etc. so that it becomes indeed easy.

3.Wrong attitude: To believe one has exhausted all practice approaches to a piece.
Lots of student sight read through a piece and come up with a reasonable (but far from acceptable) rendition. They are then lured into a false sense of confidence: “This is easy”. So they never bother in doing all the work they would do with a piece that they would regard as impossible. As a consequence they are forever sight –reading the piece and producing a less than acceptable performance. Repeating the same mistakes and in-building bad habits. I knew a guy once who had been playing (badly) Bach’s 2 voice invention no.8 for some 5 – 6 years. He just could not be bothered to work on it properly. And he kept moaning how he could not master this piece even after 6 years of practicing it. When I pointed out that he actually had never really practiced it he was deeply offended.

Correct attitude: Approach every piece with the same degree of seriousness. Leave no leaf unturned. Go the whole way.

Ultimately these bad attitudes ultimately refer to aim. Whatever is it that you want, you must aim at it. If you do not aim at your piece being completely without mistakes; if you don’t aim at making it easy to play, if don’t aim at perfection, is it that surprising that you don’t get it?

CAUSES OF HESITATION

2007-09-24T05:28:00.000-07:00

One of the causes of hesitation is when practicing a section students don’t overlap sections and a result of this they hesitate when going from one section to another.

It is very important that when practicing you overlap sections. Sometimes a single note added at the end of a bar is not enough. Use a whole bar as overlap (or even a whole phrase). This means adding the first bar (or first phrase) of section 2 at the end of section 1, and adding the last bar (or last phrase) of section1 at the start of section 2. Once you can do these two (enlarged) sections without problems, you should have no hesitation when joining them.

Hesitation typically occurs for two other main reasons:

1. You do not know the music well enough, so you do not know where to go next. This is particularly the case with fast passages. The way out is to memorize the music (and by this I do not mean being able to play without the score – you can use the score as a reference even though you have memorized the music).

2. A far more common reason however, has to do with too many options. This is a technical problem. As you repeat a passage, if you keep changing the fingering, or if you use a different movement every repetition, your brain will be undecided about which option to use when it gets to the passage in question. Therefore you hesitate. So when doing repeats of the offending section, make sure they are indeed repeats, that is, you must repeat exactly the same movements and use exactly the same fingerings. Fingerings and movements are not written in stone. Spend time investigating the best movements/fingerings for your physicality and for the musical result you are after. However once you reach a decision, stick by it and use your focus and concentration to make sure that you are indeed repeating these movements and fingerings. In other words, hesitation may be simply the result of sloppy practicing.

BAD HABITS

2007-09-24T05:25:00.002-07:00

1.To keep practicing what one already knows.

2.To play a piece from beginning to end several times (with mistakes) instead of stopping and dealing with the mistakes once and forever.

3.To work without a short/medium/long term plan. Or in other words: to jump form piece to piece without ever perfecting any. Working in such a way that the daily work does not add to anything at the end of a week/month/year.

4.To practice without a clear and specific aim for every practice session.

5.To practice mechanically (which often means unintelligently), that is, no thought is given to the possibility that the practice strategy being used may be unsuitable for the problem.

6.To practice by time rather than for results.

7.To constantly rush through pieces at top speed.

8.To try to tackle pieces that are too difficult. To try to tackle sections of a piece that are too large for a practice session. To try to learn a whole piece in ten minutes.

9.To stop practicing the moment you get it right. (it is when you get it right that you should start practicing!)

10.To practice mechanically without focus, concentration or mindfulness.

11.To keep changing fingerings.

12.Always starting to learn a piece from the beginning, and then never finishing it.

13.Avoiding the difficult bits of a piece and leaving them to learn/practice last.

14.Practicing a piece in section but not overlapping them, so that when the time comes to join the bits, there is an inbuilt hesitation at the seams.

15.Playing only by memory.

16.Playing only by reading the music.

17.Playing only by ear.

18.Procrastinating practice.

19.Bad posture.

20.Angling the hand to help the thumb reach the keys (this puts pressure on the carpal tunnel on the outside of the wrist, and may eventually cause carpal tunnel syndrome).

21.Misaligning the joints from the shoulder girdle down to the nail joint.

22.Breaking the nail joint (either way)

23.Using the heels of the hands to support the weight of the body on the piano (this is usually caused by having the feet tucked under the bench – another very bad habit)

BACH 2-PART INVENTION NO.1 PRACTICE PLAN

2007-09-24T05:25:00.001-07:00

It takes between 20 – 40 daily 20 minutes practice sessions for someone who has never seen this kind of piece to master it. Here is the scheme I use:

10 practice sessions (15 – 20 minutes each) to master the motif score:
Session 1: bars 1- 2.
Session 2: bars 3 – 4.
Session 3: bars 11 – 12.
Session 4: bars 1 – 4 & 11 – 12.
Session 5: bars 5 & 7 – 10.
Session 6: bars 1 – 12.
Session 7: bars 13 & 15 – 18.
Session 8: bars 1 – 18.
Session 9: bars 19 – 21.
Session 10: bars 1 – 21 (the whole piece).

14 practice sessions to master the piece with separate hands.
Session 11 - bars 1 – 2 (Add first beat of bar 3.)
Session 12 - bars 3 – 4 (Add first beat of bar 5.)
Session 13 - bars 5 – 6 (Add first beat of bar 7.)
Session 14 - bars 1 – 6 (Add first beat of bar 7.)
Session 15 - bars 7 – 10 ( Add first beat of bar 11.)
Session 16 - bars 1 – 10 (Add first beat of bar 11.)
Session 17 - bars 11 – 12 (Add first eat of bar 13.)
Session 18 - bars 1 – 12 (Add first eat of bar 13.)
Session 19 – bars 13 – 14 (Add first beat of bar 15)
Session 20 – bars 1 –14 (Add first eat of bar 15.)
Session 21 – bars 15 – 18 (Add first eat of bar 19.)
Session 22 – bars 1- 18 (Add first eat of bar 19.)
Session 23 – bars 19 – 22
Session 24 - bars 1 – 22 (the whole piece)

15 practice sessions to master the piece with hands together:
Session 25 - bars 19 – 22.
Session 26 - bars 15 – 18 (Add first beat of bar 19.)
Session 27 - bars 15 – 22.
Session 28 - bars 13 – 14 (Add first beat of bar 15.)
Session 29 - bars 13 – 22.
Session 30 - bars 11 – 12 (Add first beat of bar 13.)
Session 31 - bars 11 – 22.
Session 32 - bars 7 – 10 (Add first beat of bar 11.)
Session 33 – bars 7 – 22.
Session 34 – bars 5 –6 (Add first beat of bar 7.)
Session 35 – bars 6 – 22.
Session 36 – bars 3- 4 (Add first beat of bar 5.)
Session 37 - bars 3 – 22
Session 38 – bars 1- 2 (Add first beat of bar 3.)
Session 39 - bars 1 – 22 (the whole piece)

18 day plan
Day 1: session 1 – session 2 – session 3 (3 practice sessions/day)
Day 2: [session 4] – session 5 (2 practice sessions/day)
Day 3: [session 6] – session 7
Day 4: [session 8] – session 9
Day 5: [session 10] Session 10 – session 11 – session 12 – session 13 (4 practice sessions/day)
Day 6: [Session 10 – session 14] - session 15 (2 practice sessions /day)
Day 7: [Session 10 – session 16] – session 17 (2 practice sessions/day)

Day 8: [Session 10 – session 18] – session 19
Day 9: [Session 10 – session 20] – session 21
Day 10: [Session 10 – session 22 – session 23
Day 11: [Session 10 – session 24] – session 25 - session 26
Day 12: [Session 10 – session 24 – session 27] – session 28 (2 practice sessions)
Day 13: [Session 10 – session 24 - session 29] – session 30

Day 14: [session 10 – session 24 - session 31] - session 32
Day 15: [session 10 – session 24 – session 33] - session 34
Day 16: [session 10 – session 24 – session 35] - session 36
Day 17: [session 10 – session 24 – session 37] – session 38
Day 18: [session 10 – session 24 – session 39]

ANALYSING PIECES

2007-09-24T05:23:00.000-07:00

Also, my interest in analysis is not "academic" or "theoretical", but completely pragmatic.

The main problem facing students of any subject, is that as they are introduced to their subject of study, they are being given a solution, but for most of the time, the problem it solves is not at all clear. “Why am I learning this?” “Why do I have to do this?” are usual voicings of this dissatisfaction, which is mostly experienced as a lack of direction, a lack of meaning.

Although there are other problems that are solved by analysis, my interest in it is purely pragmatic: I do it – and suggest that my students do it – solely in order to better perform a piece. So the analysis that we do on pieces is neither complete nor necessarily correct from an academic point of view. I suggest my students to use it for the problems it aims to solve, and if their interest runs deeper, that they use it as a starting point in their theoretical interests (for instance, Schenkerian Analysis is mostly useless for the pragmatical aim of performing a piece - even though it is a very interesting theoretical tool - so I rarely use it). In short, I expect the students to delve deeper and complement and correct the analysis we go through initially as their musical knowledge increases.

A parallel I often draw is with Mathematics. When, as a child, you are first taught to count and add and subtract, you are told that you cannot subtract a larger number form a smaller number. 3 – 5 makes no sense. However, on the next year, you are told that such an operation is indeed possible, and that it creates a whole new set of numbers: the relative numbers. You are then shown how to operate in this new field. Later you will learn that square roots of negative numbers are impossible, just to be told that they are in fact possible and that a whole new set of numbers – complex numbers – is needed to operate on square roots of negative numbers.

It is not that your first teacher “lied” to you, or that he taught you wrong. Rather, he limited your field of learning, so that you would ingrain the basic rules. These basic rules are still valid as subsequent teachers expanded the field. The rules of subtraction and addition still hold with relative numbers.

Likewise, students are given a limited view of the field of analysis. They may come across statements that may prove to be limited and limiting (and even false) when they get more knowledge (“you cannot subtract a larger number form a small number” when in fact you can). The reason the subject in imparted in this way, is that otherwise, one may get the impression, both in music as in mathematics, that “anything goes”, when the very opposite is true. Both music and mathematics are highly organised fields that are constantly expanding and yet keeping the basic rules.

Different pieces will respond better to certain kinds of analysis than others. As the variety in your repertory increases, so should the analytical tools at your disposal.

Just to give you an example of the "problem/solution" approach, consider harmonic analysis. If I do a harmonic analysis of a piece, this analysis should be/provide a solution for a set of problems. These are the problems I set ou to solve with my harmonic analysis:

i. Name and recognize all chords in the piece, as well as their inversions. (Why? because it is a great way to learn about chords in general. It also furthers sight-reading through pattern recognition. And finally, being able to name is the first step to knowing what you are naming).

ii. Recognize recurring chord progressions. (Why? Because it shows that any piece is highly repetitive and patterned. Soon you will recognize that particular chord progression in other pieces and this will accelerate learning. The same chord progression can now be used in free improvisation and composing, and both activities are going to give you the greatest insight possible into the mind of a composer).

iii. Identify the underlying keys (scales) in the piece. (Why? Because in tonal music the notion of key is fundamental. Besides, it also shows which scales one should practice in tandem with the piece so that everything ties up: learning the piece, the practice of scales and the understanding that notes in a piece are not the fancy of the composer, but rather come form a hierarchically organized set of sounds: the scale).

iv. Identify the scale degrees from where the melodic notes and chords are derived and by so doing make explicit the degree hierarchy at work in the piece. (As above. Notice that atonal music poses a different set of problems, and trying to find out about underlying keys is going to be the inappropriate approach - a different sort of analysis is needed)

v. Identify modulations, the place where they occur and the means by which the composer made the transition from one key to the next, keeping in mind that in most cases composers intentionally aim to hide and disguise such transitions. (Modulation is the major compositional tool employed since equal temperament became available and all keys became equally usable by the composer. Identifying the places where modulation occurs has direct import on interpretation - are you going to call the attention of your audience to those points, or are you going to hide them? Often composers change keys in a subtle way. They hide the harmonic structure of their pieces, so to speak. This kind of analysis makes such structure visible. You are now in the position of using this knowledge to make informed choices - the alternative is to have an "intuitive"intepretation where you play in a certain way guided by your "emotions", and you do not have a clue why your emotions are taking you in that particular direction).

vi. Identify cadences – since they signal the phrase structure of the piece – a major consideration for interpretation. (as above)

Now I suggest that you start making a similar list of problems for other kinds of analysis (e.g. modal analysis, motif analysis, counterpoint analysis, fugue analysis, etc.). Further I suggest that you restrict such problems to the ones that will have a direct import on the performance of the piece (at least that is my interest). A musicologist will come up with a very different set of problems, and therefore his analysis is bound to answer those problems, which most likely will not be a performer’s problems. Hence however "useful" the analysis maybe from a musicological point of view, most likely it will have no relevance for a performer trying to tackle the performer´s , main problems:

i. learning the piece;
ii. memorizing the piece;
iii. acquiring the technique to play the piece;
iv. making interpretative decisions in relation to the piece.

Any analysis that helps with these problems should be actively pursued. Likewise, any analysis - however interesting from other points of view - that does not, should be ignored. It is simply an issue of time and efficiency. If your goal is to acquire repertory on the most efficient and rapid way, analysis should be a tool to that end.

ACQUIRING TECHNIQUE

2007-09-24T05:22:00.000-07:00

It is simple. The fastest way to acquire technique is to identify the most difficult bars of a piece and work on them first of all. Any experienced pianist /teacher knows (or should know) that. Most inexperienced pianists/students ignore this (even if they have been told many times).

So, imagine for a moment Professor Czerny trying to teach his young and headstrong pupil, 10 year old Franz Liszt to play a Beethoven sonata. Franz is impatient. He wants to start at the beginning and go to the end of the piece (he can already sight read well). He does not want to spend time repeating over an over that single bar with arpeggios in the left hand. What is more, Professor Czerny is never happy. Not only he wants to Franz to repeat the arpeggio endless times, as he now wants him to do it with different rhythms, different accents, transposing in all keys. And this is just one bar, for crying out loud!

Professor Czerny is not indifferent to young Franz predicament. He remembers his own lessons with Herr Beethoven, the famous musicus. No exercises. Just a piece thrown onto his lap and the direction: Bring it ready next week. Not much discussion of technique at all, but oh! What interpretation insights! Yet he was grateful for his previous teacher to have told him many of the little practice tricks he now tries to impart to his own students and that allowed him to master the difficult pieces Herr Beethoven assigned to him. Has it to be like this? Dry technical tricks on one side, and beautiful interpretation on the other with no middle ground in between?

That is when he has an epiphany: The left hand has to endless repeat that arpeggio, so why not add a simple melody on the right hand to make things a bit more fun? Yes, why not write a little piece that will incorporate all the repetitions, all the rhythm variations, all the accent variations and so on? Yes, little Liszt will be so excited when I show him this!

And so professor Czerny sets to work. He believes Herr Beethoven’s 32 sonatas to be the pinnacle of piano music. So he sets out to identify and isolate every single difficulty he can find in these sonatas. And around each difficulty he builds up a little pleasant tune so that the task of learning these monumental works of music will be nothing but fun!

And he proceeds to compose over 50 000 of those fun pieces. For generations of students to come to have fun in the process of learning the piano.

Unfortunately for Professor Czerny (and all music pedagogues that came up with the same ideas) there are a lot of problems with this approach:

1. No one finds Czerny (or technical exercises) fun. Granted, they may be more fun than the alternative approach (work on the difficult bars without musical context), but this is more or less like saying that going to dentist is fun since he has all those nice magazines on the waiting room.

2. A Czerny study is completely specific to the Beethoven sonata difficult passage it was meant to conquer. Just playing any exercise – or set of them – will not help technique in general, because there is no such thing as technique in general. Technique is always specific to the piece you are working on. True, octaves, trills, scales and the like are common enough in most pieces, but even then they may have to be played differently according to context.

3. Czerny left no instructions on how to use such exercises. This is of course part of a tradition of secrecy amongst guilds of musicians/teachers in past centuries. You may buy the scores, but you still need the teacher to make it work. So once you have played all the 32 Beethoven sonatas perfectly and acquired all the technique, if you go back to Czerny it will be pretty obvious which exercises are taken from which sonatas. But then you will not need them anymore anyway! So if you are to benefit from them you need a knowledgeable teacher. But this is almost impossible to find since the knowledge was passed from Czerny to his pupils, and as the emphasis on teaching went from technique to interpretation at the start of the 20th century, the tradition was lost. Leschetizky may have been the last one who really knew this stuff, but since he never took on beginners, and since he rarely taught technique (Although Paderevsky was put on a regimen of Czerny for a couple of years) it all died with him.

4. Therefore, most likely your teacher will be giving you a Czerny exercise that has no connection whatsoever with any difficult passage of specific pieces. Go on, ask your teacher: Why am I doing this study? If the answer is: because your assigned piece this summer is the Moonlight sonata, and this particular exercise will get you through bars 1 – 4 of the third movement, the teacher knows what s/he is talking about. If the answer is on the lines of: “It is good for you, it will develop your technique” s/he knows nothing. (S/he can still be a good teacher, but you will waste a lot of time doing things for no purpose whatsoever). What if the teacher reply is: “This study is good to develop your facility with double thirds”. That is better than the previous answer, but then you must ask (most of all yourself): “Does any of my pieces requires double thirds?” If you have no piece currently on your repertory that requires double thirds, why should you be doing this exercise? This may uncover the teacher’s hidden philosophy that one should spend time acquiring all kinds of irrelevant (for the moment) techniques to be (or not to be) used at a later date. And this is really bad philosophy.

5. Although Czerny is better than Hanon (which in my opinion is not only useless but also completely misguided – don’t get me started on that one!) the sad truth is that as music, Czerny studies are crap. Would you perform them for friends and family? Would you like to share them with anyone? Actually there are a couple of them that I actually like, but I never played them for their “study” value, but simply because I like the music. Compare with Chopin etudes. Yes, they are studies, but they are also superb pieces on their own right (and in fact you probably need easier studies to acquire the technique to play them). And if you want easier studies, then go for Burgmuller, Heller and Eggeling which are actually musically satisfying.

6. But now not only you have to learn your assigned pieces, as you have to learn studies that may or may not have any relevance at all to the technique you need in your pieces (more often than not they will be irrelevant).

So what is the alternative?

1. Find a piece you desperately want to be able to play. This is your job . It is not your teacher’s job. Your teacher cannot divine your tastes. If you are assigned pieces you don’t like it is your own fault. Notice that a piece you want desperately to be able to play may or may not be a piece you like. But want to play it you must. Simply because without such compelling inner need you will not be bothered to learn and practise it.

2. Identify the most difficult passage in the piece: all the technique you will ever need to acquire to play the whole piece will be in that passage. It is usually short, and it does not occur too often in the piece (this is true even for advanced pieces). This is your teacher’s job . This is what you pay him/her for. S/he must be able to point out to you straight away the difficult passages. S/he must be able to show and teach you all sorts of practice tricks that will assist you in mastering the difficult passage as quickly and painlessly as possible. S/he must be able to provide you with a choice of movement patterns that will get the job done. S/he must be able to observe your playing and tell you exactly what you are doing – if it is right or wrong – and to assist you in correcting the wrong stuff. With such an approach technical exercises may not be needed at all. The technical exercise will actually consist on the several ways you are working on the difficult passage. If a technical exercise is assigned (and in some circumstances they are helpful) it must have a direct bearing on the difficulty you are trying to master.

3. It is your job (no one else can do it for you) to follow your teacher’s instructions in [2] above to the letter.

4. Therefore you must trust your teacher completely. You must admire him/her. You must worship him/her. I expect nothing else from my students (not that I get it though ). And the reason for this is simple: you will not follow instructions from someone you do not regard as a master.

We are talking of course of beginners or intermediate students.

The difference between beginner/intermediate and advanced level is not on the difficulty of the pieces one can play, but on the ability of the student to do all the above work without the close supervision of a teacher.

If your teacher still needs to tell you where the difficult passages are and how to work on them you are still a beginner and not ready for advanced classes. On the other hand there is something very wrong with a teacher that treats you as an advanced student (by dropping a piece in your lap and telling you to bring it ready for the next lesson) when you are not one

A STORY ABOUT TIME

2007-09-24T05:21:00.000-07:00

A physics professor arrived at his lesson one day carrying a large cylindrical glass bowl and three cloth bags. This immediately aroused the curiosity of the students.

The professor then announced to the class:

“Today we will be examining space and time.”

He put the cylindrical bowl on his desk, and proceeded to fill it with large rocks from one of the cloth bags. When it was filled to the brim, he turned to the class and asked:

“Is the bowl totally full?”

The class agreed that the bowl had been filled to the brim.

The professor then reached for the second cloth back and emptied its contents on the rock-full bowl. It was gravel, which slipped through the spaces in between the rocks and filled it all.

“Is the bowl full now?” He again enquired from the class. Most agreed it was, although a few were not so sure anymore, after all there was still a cloth bag the professor had not used. And right they were, for the professor reached for the third cloth bag, which was full of sand and emptied into the bowl. And again, the dry sand easily slipped in between the rocks and gravel to fill every available space.

“What about now?”

This time – and considering that there were no more bags left, the whole class unanimously agreed the bowl must be full.

The professor then, reached for his briefcase and produced six bottles of beer, which (to some of the students horror) he proceeded to empty on the glass bowl. And of course the beer easily accommodated itself in the spaces amongst the rocks, the gravel, and the sand.

The professor then turned to the class and concluded:

“As you can see, no matter how full your life might be, there is always space for some beer.”

“Ah! Yes, one more thing. Our time in this life is limited, as is the space in this bowl. So make sure you put the rocks first.”

I have four big rocks in my life, and music is one of them. Finally consider this thought:

By taking piano lessons for the first time we are registering within ourselves a desire to make progress. We must always take responsibility for that progress, for that which we seek lies not in the music school. Nor can it be found in Vienna or Julliard. Your teachers do not own it, nor can they give it to you. You cannot buy it or take it from someone else. What we are searching for when we sit at the piano in the heat of the summer or the frost of the winter is within us all the time. What is missing for most is the ability to appreciate it

3 IMPORTANT PRACTICE TIPS

2007-09-24T05:18:00.000-07:00

I have, over the years made many dramatic changes to the ways I was taught to practice. In most occasions the changes came about due to external circumstances that had nothing to do with the piano, and which forced me to practice in a different way.

In a few cases they came about because I heard about them (either from other pianists or from reading), I tried them out, found out that they worked better and adopted them.

If I had to select the three most important in terms of their staggering consequences, these would be the ones I would choose:

1. Practice in small segments, sometimes as short as 10 – 15 minutes. I used to practice for hours on end. Yet my playing was completely mediocre in spite of the heavy investment in time. Then, due to some unforeseen events, I was not able to practice for more than a few minutes uninterrupted. So instead of practicing for three-four hours solid, now I was forced to do several 10 –15 minute sessions a day. In the beginning I panicked and fretted. And yet, as the weeks passed, something remarkable happened: not only such small sessions were not having any of the devastating effects I believed they would, as my playing started to improve perceptibly. This was many, many years ago. Since then I have never put more than 30 – 40 minutes of practice (at the piano) in one single session. My playing – rather than suffering – improved enormously. And there are days in which I do not play at all, without any perceivable consequences.

2. Practice the music, not the playing. The obsession with speed, bravura feats of piano athleticism and so on are well known within the forum. However if you let your technique be dictated by the musical requirements of the piece, you will find out (like I did) that the playing improves astonishingly.

3. Do not skip steps, do not look for shortcuts. I really got to grips with this one as a result of teaching. Teaching forces you to go step-by-step over the same piece repeatedly with each student. I started noticing that the pieces I taught were the ones I really excelled at. An honest comparison between these pieces and the ones I was working on by myself showed that I was skipping a lot of steps and cutting a lot of corners on my pieces, while with the ones I was teaching, the teaching situation basically forced me into the proper discipline. Since this realization (many years ago), I have incorporated this into my practice routine, which basically means that after learning a piece, I learn it again from scratch step by step. By the third-fourth learning, the piece is so thoroughly ingrained that even if I stop playing it for a couple of years I can still play it perfectly.