Jump Ahead or Fake It

For the past couple of weeks, my students have heard me tell them to "jump ahead" or "fake it" (i.e., "make it up) when they do a run-through of their festival songs for me. Those are really a musician's two options on stage when we have a memory lapse. Asking for the book and running off the stage aren't acceptable options. And now, here we are. It's Music Festival Week. Basically, this is a warm-up for my students gearing up for piano exams in June - a chance to air out their repertoire, get valuable feedback and see where the kinks lie.

Things are at the stage where we have to stop psyching ourselves out at weak spots by making them stronger. As Irina Ginzburg, my former piano teacher, said to me many a time, "You have to get it right eleven times out of ten at home to get it right ten times out of ten on stage."

I should add that since perfection on stage is fleeting, delivering a convincing performance becomes more important. A friend of mine told me once that she "faked" the middle of one of her jury songs at university one semester. She knew the beginning and the end. Unfortunately, she caught the chicken pox shortly before her piano jury and was unable to properly learn the middle.She kept in the style of the song and lucked out by having an obscure piece that none of the jury members were familiar with. She delivered such a convincing performance that she garnered a "B".

Back to my students and I. We've been practicing (some harder than others) on our trouble spots and our memory by using the following techniques:

• hands separately

• analysing the chords and patterns

• "eyes closed" practice

• "eyes open but looking away from the piano" practice

• playing with distractions

• drilling beginnings and endings

• drilling problem spots

• coming to the piano in between other tasks and starting up partway through one of our songs

• practicing at "nervous" tempo (for most, it's faster than normal)

• practice performing

• practice "faking it" at weak points

Hopefully our hard work will pay off over the next week-and-a-half.

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

Musing about Music Improvisation

Earlier this month, one of my junior intermediate students attended the Young Composers' Workshop. The clinician, Robert Rosen, was wonderful with the students. He took them on a "soundwalk" and asked them to describe several sounds using music, such as an alarm bell, a water fountain and a door slamming. They did remarkably well. There's a close relationship between composing and improvising. Mr. Rosen said that the first step to composing is improvisation, while one student described composing as "improvising with an eraser".

I eagerly employed some of the activities used at the workshop. I told my students two things: "do not be afraid to use more than one note at a time" and "do not be afraid to use different parts of the piano". This week, I have been treated to some witty improvisations about puppies playing, kittens fighting over a toy, someone rollerblading down a hill, a creepy walk through a haunted house, a lazy summer day, a child snoring and dramatic thunderstorms.

Here are some interesting articles about improvising:

• Free Improvisation

• Piano Improvisation Tips - Enjoy the Process First!

• Music Improvisation Tips

Happy exploring! (c) 2006 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Improvising at the Piano

Two blog entries in one night? I may be sniffly and sneezy with the cold/flu, but my brain is still coming up with stuff to write... Another interesting project I’ve had my students work on for the past couple of weeks is to play around with the following chord progression:

|: DA | Bminf#min | GD| GA:|D ||

They get about halfway through before exclaiming, “Hey! I know this! Isn’t this Pachelbel’s Canon?”

I’ve asked some my students to play through the chord progression as solid chords, then as broken chords. Then, I give them free rein to experiment with it (otherwise known as improvising). They’ve now all heard about the wedding I played at in which the bride wasn’t at the altar by the time I reached the last page of the Canon. I wound up improvising on the repetitive chord pattern until she reached the front of the church.

Some students have taken to this project like Maestro has taken to stickers

(my dog is obsessed with stickers), while some require encouragement on every single note. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them wind up improvising on this at a party or family reunion. After all, it’s a recognizable tune, the chords repeat (translation: easy to memorize) and everyone who hears them improvise will be impressed that they’re simply winging it.

All right. I'm out of blog ideas for the night. Time for me to practice chiburi. Iaido, is like piano, full of technical details that need to be just so to flow smoothly.

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

Friday Fun Link #6

I stumbled upon A Passion for Jazz when I was searching for a good “How to use a Fake Book” resourse. There is a concise history of jazz as well as handy “cheat sheets”. The chord chart is extremely helpful!

Adventures in Teaching and Playing

My students and I are starting to get used to our school-year routine (a couple of students who forgot about their lessons the week before). Even Maestro is learning to be the model teaching assistant. With the weather cooling down, I thought it was apropos when a student played "Jingle Bells" at today's lesson. This week, I asked several students to try chording (or faking) a pop song they are currently working on. For the non-music folk, it means that instead of playing what's written on the page, they will play chords in the left hand. Most pop folios write the chord symbols on top of the music. Chording accomplishes three things (at least that I can think of): it helps students learn their songs more quickly, it gives them the freedom to embellish their own accompaniment and it helps them better understand the song's form and structure.

I'm chording more these days. For the wedding that I'm playing at this weekend, I have no idea whether I will be asked to play the music for the parts of the Mass. I have a version of "Glory to God" but last night, I just realized that it's not the one we usually sing at church. Thankfully, I borrowed a hymnal from church a few weeks ago. I found the version that we usually sing. However, the hymnal only has the vocal melody. No chords. Nor chord symbols. Nada. I had to fiddle around with it and figure out the chords. It's not perfect, but it's definitely passable. After all this effort, I bet Murphy's Law will kick in and that the congregation at the wedding will just say the parts of the Mass that are often sung. Then I'll be off the hook. I should be prepared though - just in case.

(c) 2005 by Musespeak(tm). All rights reserved.