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.

Summer Arts Activities for Kids

These are some exciting arts-related summer programs for kids in the Calgary area:

• TADA! Summer Musical Theatre Program - presented by Youth Singers of Calgary

• Decidedly Jazz Danceworks Summer Camps

• RCM Virtual Music - New computer-based music education program allows students who enjoy computers to express themselves musically and gain real musical knowledge and insight brought to you by the Royal Conservatory of Music and TELUS.

• Pumphouse Theatre's Summer Drama Day Camp

• QuickKids Summer Animation Camp

• Mount Royal Conservatory Summer Programs

• Leighton Art Centre - Summer Art and Nature Camp

• Alberta Ballet's Junior & Senior Summer School programs

• Calgary Arts Summer School

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

Why We Should Practice Scales, Chords and Arpeggios

A few of my students detest their technical exercises. In fact, I have a few students who really need to pull up their socks in this area if they're going to pass their piano exam next month. I hated them too. With a passion. That hatred was reflected in my poor technical skills mark on piano exams.

Since then, I've learned to like them. Elinor Lawson, my piano instructor at university, assigned me some songs from Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm by Béla Bartok. In it, I found several passages where chords progressed up in a scale (e.g. B chord, C chord, D chord, etc.). I started looking at music harmonically - from the chord progressions to how a melody would be stated in one key and then reappear in a closely related key. I learned that looking for patterns like this made memorizing easier.

In Chopin's Nocturne in e minor, op. 72 no. 1, which I'm currently working on, there are virtuosic scale passages that I've spent many an hour on.

As a listener at a concert, I've heard jazz and classical musicians play scale passages that move in parallel, contrary and zigzag motion.

As a teacher, I see chords, arpeggios and scales in my students' songs.

Scales, chords and arpeggios are often called the building blocks of music as I've illustrated above. They also are exercises in motor dexterity and strength. Those tricky passages in the Nocturne demand technical precision. The dramatic effect is lost if I stumble my way to the top.

It comes down to this: it doesn't matter how expressive a musician is, if he or she is weak technically, he or she can't convey the music convincingly. It's like trying to read an essay or a resume that's riddled with grammatical and typographical errors.

Here are a few more articles on the importance of practicing technique:

• Why Practice Scales?

• Using Scales to Improve All Your Music (primarily for guitarists)

• Scales, who needs them?Why and What For, Anyway?!

• Scales Practice

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

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.

Music Festival Time

The APTA Festival begins tomorrow. Visit their APTA Festival website for information and the performance program. The High River & District Lions Music Festival kicked off earlier this week. Information can be found at the Town of High River website.

Audience members are welcome.

Here's an article on a talented pianist, Kandace Deacon. She's one I can say, "I knew her when she was this high." She was a little sprite when her sisters, my brother and I competed at the High River Festival. Now look at her - 18 and picking up awards left, right and centre. Story is here.

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