Keeping Ensembles in Sync

This year, my students are working on duets and trios. For most, it's their first experience in the collaborative arts. Some groups are finding it relatively easy to find the ensemble's pulse. These players have a fairly good internal pulse and have caught on to giving and receiving cues. Or in the case of those who aren't usually steady, they become steady because they are listening to their partners and to how everything fits together. And - they get along (always a bonus).

Then, there's the other extreme. One trio is comprised of a boy whose tempi vary widely (although he vehemently denies this), one girl who stops every time she plays a note that's not on the page and one girl who just doesn't care about getting the notes right, much less the tempo. I can only hope that the next trio class will go more smoothly. In another group, my "Giggle Trio" - two players were distracting each other, which drove the third partner crazy because she just wanted to get through the entire song.

Here are a few articles on ensemble playing:

The Ensemble that Plays Together - another great post from Chris Foley

Why Being a Great Ensemble Player May Require More than Just Our Ears

September 3, 2020: Updated some of the dead links.

Fun with Ensemble Music

While my students are enjoying their summer off from lessons, I'm practicing madly for an intense one-week piano camp, offered by the Calgary Arts Summer School.One of the songs that I'm working on is a two piano, eight hand arrangement of "Stars and Stripes Forever". I'm learning the Piano II - Primo part.

Now, I can't vouch for whether my quartet members and I will be able to play this sucker at this speed after only one week of practice together, but this performance is pretty exciting:

I haven't played in a piano quartet since my university days. For an April Fools' Day recital, my classmates and I performed the Blue Danube for one piano, four noses!

At any rate, ensemble playing can be really fun - once you get over the hurdle of everyone counting beats together.

Want to learn this arrangement? Check it out here:

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The Stars and Stripes Forever Composed by Mack Wilberg (1955-). Intermediate Level piece for the Piano Quartet Event-Two Pianos, Eight Hands with the National Federation of Music Clubs (NFMC) Festivals Bulletin 2008-2009-2010. Patriotic. Music book. Neil A. Kjos Music Company #WP181. Published by Neil A. Kjos Music Company (KJ.WP181).

The Collaborative Piano Blog

The blog's tagline reads, "The piano in ensemble. The piano in real life."

Piano study can be pretty solitary, unless your schedule (or your family's schedule) allows you to do some collaborative work. Having done accompanying and duets, I have to say that collaborative work makes music more enjoyable.

And now, here's The Collaborative Piano Blog, by a fellow RCM alumni and fellow teacher that covers this topic. There are other useful articles too, including one on memorization.

Happy exploring!

(c) 2007 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

On Group Classes & Boomwhackers

On the weekend, Maestro and I held two intermediate group classes for the piano kids. Although I'm sure we all would have loved to sleep in on Saturday, it seemed like everyone was having a good time.There were seven junior intermediate students in the morning class. They introduced themselves by setting their names to a rhythm and joining in one person at a time. The polyrhythms meshed together nicely.

The kids then played a song they are currently working on - a kind of "show and tell". The student in the audience, armed with markers, wrote down words or sketched something to describe what they were hearing. Two students played their songs twice - once according to the original score and a second time with their version; a shy pixie who played The Mouse in the Coal Bin by Charles Peerson and one of my hardest working students played The Prowling Pussy Cat by William Gillock. They succeeded in their performances as the others described them as "sneaky", "sly" and "mysterious."

The afternoon class was comprised of four of my senior intermediate students. They enjoyed playing with the Boomwhackers (far more than they enjoyed playing for each other). I jotted down the letter names of the notes to a famous tune on the whiteboard, such as Aloha, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Mary Had a Little Lamb. Each student was in charge of two notes. Without speaking, they had to sightread the notes and come in at the right time. We had to repeat the songs a few times before they became recognizable, but it was a fun process.

Maestro was in seventh heaven. He managed to steal the bongo drums a couple of times in class and play them with his paws. He has this "scratch, scratch, pat, pat, arf arf, flip the drums over"rhythm that he likes. He snagged the tambourine once as well. Yes, Maestro is a bit of a show off.

I wish my piano teachers held group classes when I was younger. The social interaction and the music games really get the kids going. At the end of the last class, I overheard one of my students asking the rest of the students for their e-mail addresses so they could keep in touch.

Now that's a great idea.

Boomwhackers and Resources:

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Boom 'n' Tunes: Just for Fun Composed by Linda Forrest. Novelty. Accompaniment CD, reproducible. Heritage Music Press #30/1946H. Published by Heritage Music Press (LO.30-1946H).

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Boom 'n' Tunes: Easy Folk Tunes Composed by Linda Forrest. Accompaniment CD, reproducible. Heritage Music Press #30/1947H. Published by Heritage Music Press (LO.30-1947H).

Eastertide Music

Easter is my favourite time of year. The church music is especially wonderful. Our church choir did a splendid job at the Good Friday Mass. Two songs brought tears to my eyes (and I’m sure that I wasn’t the only one tearing up). I can’t remember much of the details (composer and title) but I remember the lyrics were about the sacrifice of Jesus dying on the cross. I’ll find out the info and post it at a later date. The soloists captured the intense emotions so effectively – their timbre reached deep into my soul and pulled. Hard. The harmonies were highly chromatic, which leads to the emotional angst. One song was sung by an alto. Her performance was especially moving. [04/26/06 note: Songs title are "The Seven Last Words from the Cross" and "The Pieta"."]

 Easter Vigil presents a different tone. When the lights are turned on and the candles blown out, the choir broke into a jubilant Gloria, while some of the children rang bells.

Easter Sunday. The joyous tone carried through. The choir at the church I attended last Sunday sang a capella. It made me realize how much I rely on the piano or guitar for my chords. I know that I should be able to hear where the chord progressions are going with four-part harmony, but alas, I haven’t mastered that yet.

Easter Break has been creatively productive and relaxing on all other fronts. I finally managed to arrange Above All for piano duet in a form that I am happy with. How apropos as it also has to deal with Easter. Now all I have to do is transcribe my scribbles into fancy looking sheet music, using Finale Notepad. But first, I need to do an arrangement of A Whole New World for another student. I’m simplifying it a bit, so that hasn’t been too hard.

Now if only I could solve my site feed issue (see the link on the right), I’d be laughing. It just stopped working one day and my research and Blogger support have come up with zilch. But that’s a challenge for another day.

© 2006, Musespeak™, Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.