It's Beginning to Look a Lot Busy Season

As merchandisers will tell you, there are only 32 shopping days left before Christmas.

Any musician will tell you that right after Halloween, we have mere weeks before we are up to our eyeballs with Christmas concerts and party gigs. I'm currently working my Christmas gig repertoire back under my fingers, along with some of the songs from Conservatory Canada's Contemporary Idioms syllabus. Well, I'm finding that it's one thing to stay a couple of pages ahead of my students. It's a complete other story getting their songs up to performance standard.

In the end, some of the new songs won't make the cut this season. They'll be replaced with old standbys with a twist. For instance, I've discovered that God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen sounds very nice with a Latin pattern or a Boogie Woogie pattern and that Blue Christmas sounds neat with a Honky Tonk bass.

Be brave. Next time you practice your holiday music, add some zip to your songs by changing it a bit. You'll find it entertaining and quite enjoyable.

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

Note Reading Geography Help

Some of my students are having trouble associating a note written on the staff with its corresponding note on the keyboard, regardless of how many times I say, "The farther it is from middle C on the staff a note is, the farther away it is from middle C on the keyboard."

For example, they do identify the note correctly on the staff as a "B" but when I ask them to play the corresponding note, they pick any "B" on the keyboard. Well, Middle B is written on a different part of the staff from Treble B, which is nowhere near "Really Low B" or "Really Really High B". See what I mean?

The Piano Player is a game is for them and for all music students struggling with this.

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

On Injuries and Piano Practice

One of my students showed up with a swollen finger last week. C injured it during a non-musical activity and after several days, the swelling was increasing. I demanded that she go see a doctor to get that finger checked out. C injured the middle finger of her left hand, which has presented us with the challenge of how to structure practices and lessons. It will take some time for her hand to heal but she can't take time off from practicing if she is to take her exam in the spring.

I have decided to zoom in on her weak spots. On Monday, I attended a workshop by the Royal Conservatory of Music, unveiling their new technical requirements. Some ideas were new while some I needed the refresher on.

C, like the rest of my students will be drilling their scales, chords and arpeggios at least five times per practice; playing them differently each time. Here are some of the variations:

• play legato

• play staccato

• play portato

• vary the dynamics

• add a crescendo while ascending and diminuendo when descending

• vary the rhythm (straight eighths, jazz triplets, even triplets, dotted half note followed by a quarter note)

• vary the accents (accent beat one the first time, beat two the second, etc.)

• play a repeated note scale (C-C-C D-D-D E-E-E)

• play one octave as quarter notes, two octaves as eighth notes, three octaves as triplets and four octaves as sixteenth notes

• play chords up the scale

In C's case, she'll have to just practice her right hand and rest her left. With these exercises, it's imperative to use proper fingering.

Tonight, we focused on phrase shaping, continuation notes and right hand rhythms. Next week, we'll tap practice the left hand rhythms.

C is using this opportunity to work harder on her ear training and theory.

The following are informative articles/discussions on dealing with piano-related injuries:

• Cold Hands, Illness, Hand Injury, Ear Damage

• Piano Society Forum

• Stress in Piano Playing

Please feel free to share your tips on injury prevention or dealing with injuries.

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

A New Twist to Ear Training

If you're looking for a way to spice up your ear and rhythm training, try music transcription. Several weeks ago, my student K, a seven-year old beginner, walked in with a CD to share with me. On it are three Indi pop songs he would really like to learn. They are quite catchy. He asked if I would be able to transcribe the notes for him as no sheet music is available.

The thing with these catchy foreign pop songs is that the rhythms and harmonies are rather complex. Polyrhythms are quite common. The harmonies aren't your standard I-IV-V-I progression. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Remember S? He's my talented 12-year-old student who fell out of music last month? He's doing all right now. I assigned him a quick study several grades below his current level. Last week, I also paired him up with the student who comes after him so he can coach her on a song.

Back to K's catchy tunes. To my surprise, I have discovered that S has near to perfect pitch. The discovery inspired me to enlist S to help me transcribe K's Hindi pop songs. Today, I tried the same exercise with G, another talented 10 year-old intermediate student. He enjoyed the project immensely. I have since decided to ask all my intermediate and senior students to "assist" transcribing K's songs.

I doubt any of my students realize that I'm asking them to do rhythmic and melodic dictation, two activities associated with transcription. I didn't learn these until university so I want my students to start while they're young. For the time being, they just know that it's a cool application of ear training, that they are learning about the music of a different culture and helping a junior student.

Someone will definitely have to perform one of these songs at an upcoming recital.

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

Terrific Tuesday Link #2

This week, I'm asking my students to check out Flashmusicgames.com . There is a good mix of programs there, for students working on ear training to games for young students. Happy exploring!

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