World Music Exploration 2010/11 Week 7 - Alberto Ginastera

This week, my students and I are exploring one of my favorite composers, Alberto Ginastera. He lived from 1916 - 1983.His musical output is extremely diverse, from ballet (Panambí and Estancia) to concerti, and from opera (Don Rodrigo, Bomarzo) to solo piano works (Danzas Argentinas, Suite de danzas criollas). Ginastera's compositional style incorporates folk elements, serialism, polytonality and cross rhythms.

One interesting tidbit: His second opera Bomarzo premiered in Washington in 1967, but was banned in Buenos Aires for its content and was not staged until 1972.

The following clip is of a piece I performed for my ARCT in Piano Performance, Danzas Argentinas. It was fun but boy, was III - Danza de le gaucho matero ever a doozy to learn!

Danzas Argentinas, op. 2I - Danza del viejo boyero (“Dance of the Old Herdsman”)II - Danza de la moza donosa (“Dance of the Beautiful Maiden”)III - Danza del gaucho matrero (“Dance of the Arrogant Cowboy”)

The performer is Italian pianist Roberto Plano. Career highlights include: First Prize Winner of the 2001 Cleveland International Piano Competition, Finalist at the Twelfth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (2005),Laureate of the 2003 Honens International Piano Competition and the 2006 Axa Dublin International Piano Competition.(c) 2010 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

A New School Year to Try out New Ideas in the Music Studio

Summer flew by far more quickly than anticipated. All of my plans to learn new repertoire, reorganize my home and just relax were replaced with...busy-ness. Now, we're in the beginnings of another year of music teaching. Last week was intense as I was burning the midnight oil to make all sorts of cool handouts for my music students.

After having my students take the VARK Learning Preferences questionnaire last year, I discovered that my students fall under three general categories:

1. Visual (mostly in combination, Visual-Aural or Visual-Kinesthetic)

2. Aural-Kinesthetic

3. Read/Write

Most admitted on their registration forms for this year that music theory and piano technique were their least favorite music subjects. I bore that in mind with this year's handouts.

This year, I incorporated more charts and diagrams (V). I was respectful of white space (V) and included succinct examples (K) and explanations (R). These were followed up by visual demonstrations (V) with the student copying me. My aural students and I discussed various sounds, my kinesthetic students and I discussed how our arms and hands should feel.

Feedbackhas been extremely positive so far. "It's easier" is the most frequent comment.

The trick is that I need to teach music theory and piano technique differently from how I was taught. I was taught written theory first. My students need hands-on, keyboard theory first. It's more fun this way.

(c) 2010 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Useful Music Websites

A great big thank you to my teaching colleagues on LinkedIn for sharing their favorite music websites:

Children's Music Workshop: Music Education Online
Play Piano Today - a look at Pattern Play Piano
Music Learning Community
Susan Paradis' Piano Teaching Resources

Enjoy!

(c) 2010 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Singer in a Band Workshop Musings

There is a proverb that says, "To teach is to learn." To grow, music teachers must find ways to further their own music education.

 There are several professional development opportunities for music teachers. By exploring these options for continuing education, music educators can rejuvenate and develop their own musicianship.

As some of you know, I took singing lessons as my learning project for 2009/10. I've sung for years in choirs, but last spring was the first time I have ever sung a solo in public. It's a completely different ballgame. With piano, the performer faces his or her instrument. However, when singing, looking at the audience (or towards the audience) is critical to engaging them. If you cringe because of a missed note or lyrics, not only is it visible, but cringing affects tone.

My vocal coach, Sherry Kennedy, convinced me to take the Singer in a Band workshop she ran last week. Shortly after the singing workshop began, I thought, "What on earth was I thinking? Why did I pick two songs I don't know very well? Why did I pick a song in Spanish?"

Over three days, Sherry, along with my piano teacher Derek Stoll, worked with us eight adults taking the workshop. We had a such a diverse group, including two professional "shampoo bottle" singers and one singer who's had an up and down relationship with singing for several years. There were two piano teachers, myself and my friend and colleague Melodie Archer.

We went through breathing and stance ad nauseum. Many of us needed to "open up", so Sherry stuck foam rollers under our arms (those quickly became light sabers).

As a pianist, nay, as a VRK pianist, I found it especially challenging to have Derek play an intro and for me to just know how the correct notes should sound without me playing the note on the piano was difficult. Another challenge I faced was how to make each song my own so that I didn't sound like Consuelo Velasquez or Stevie Wonder.

Memorizing lyrics was a challenge for all of us however, we all pulled through. The nice thing about singing jazz is that if you forget the lyrics, you can simply scat your way out of a potential mess.

 All things considering, it was a wonderful night. All eight of us delivered our best performances. Our success can be attributed to several factors:

1. supportive and encouraging instructors

2. the fact that we were all tired from running around from 9:30 AM until 10:00 PM that we were too mellow to be nervous and

3. the fantastic and supportive energy backstage

We cheered whenever the person performing cleared a "trouble spot" as if we were in a hockey game. You can check out my performances on my website.

Many thanks to Sherry and Derek for their hard work and guidance. Hats off as well to Dave Marshall, our serious-looking drummer and Dave Hamilton, our guitarist who can play many a cool lick.

So what lessons did I take away from this experience? Singing lessons and this workshop reinforced the importance of singing and sight singing to develop one's inner ear. You can't beat the rush from performing in an ensemble and singers take artistry onto a whole new level.

Would I do it again? Most definitely.

(c) 2010 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, Alberta. All rights reserved.

Fun Music Recommendations for Summer

Hooray! It's the last week of lessons. My students and I are looking forward to some time off.This week, they've all heard me stress the importance of doing some music practice during the summer so they don't waste the time, effort and money that they, their parents and I as their teacher have invested throughout the year.

The following are some of the "fun music" suggestions I have given them to make their "Summer Learning Projects" as enjoyable as possible:

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Star Wars - A Musical Journey (Music from Episodes I - VI) Composed by John Williams. Arranged by Tom Gerou. Piano - Five Finger Collection; Piano Supplemental. Five Finger Piano Songbook. Movies. Softcover. 52 pages. Alfred Music #34451. Published by Alfred Music (HL.322311).

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Star Wars - A Musical Journey (Music from Episodes I - VI) Big-Note Piano. Composed by John Williams. Arranged by Tom Gerou. Piano - Big Note Collection; Piano Supplemental. Big Note Vocal Selections. Movies. Softcover. 48 pages. Alfred Music #34382. Published by Alfred Music (HL.322308).

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Star Wars - A Musical Journey (Music from Episodes I - VI) Composed by John Williams. Arranged by Dan Coates. Piano - Easy Piano Collection; Piano Supplemental. Easy Piano Songbook. Movies. Softcover. 56 pages. Alfred Music #28304. Published by Alfred Music (HL.322093).

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Star Wars: A Musical Journey Music from Episodes I - VI. Composed by John Williams. Shows & Movies. Piano Solo Songbook. Movies. Softcover. 86 pages. Alfred Music #28303. Published by Alfred Music (HL.322092).

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The Twilight Saga - New Moon: The Score Easy Piano Solo. Composed by Alexandre Desplat (1961-). Easy Piano Songbook. Movies. Softcover. 48 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.349015).

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The Twilight Saga - New Moon The Score: Music by Alexandre Desplat. Composed by Alexandre Desplat (1961-). Piano Solo Songbook. Movies. Softcover. 56 pages. Published by Hal Leonard (HL.313487).

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Harry Potter Magical Music From the First Five Years at Hogwarts (Five Finger Piano). Composed by John Williams, Patrick Doyle, and Nicholas Hooper. Arranged by Tom Gerou. This edition: Five Finger Piano. Piano - Five Finger Collection; Piano Supplemental. 5 Finger. Movie. Book. 60 pages. Alfred Music #00-32710. Published by Alfred Music (AP.32710).

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Harry Potter -- Sheet Music from the Complete Film Series Easy Piano. Composed by John Williams, Patrick Doyle, Alexandre Desplat (1961-), and Nicholas Hooper. Arranged by Dan Coates. This edition: Easy Piano. Piano - Easy Piano Collection; Piano Supplemental. Movie. Book. 140 pages. Alfred Music #00-39075. Published by Alfred Music (AP.39075).

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Harry Potter -- Sheet Music from the Complete Film Series Piano Solos. Composed by John Williams, Patrick Doyle, Alexandre Desplat (1961-), and Nicholas Hooper. This edition: Piano Solos. Piano Collection; Piano Supplemental. Movie. Book. 144 pages. Alfred Music #00-38970. Published by Alfred Music (AP.38970).

I also compiled a listing of websites in a recent article Where to Find Free Piano Music Online (new link to come). An honourable mention goes out to Piano Squall's website with loads of video game and anime theme songs. I wanted to put his site on the list but there are constraints on article length.

Students can also check out the RCM Popular Selection List and Conservatory Canada's Contemporary Idioms Syllabus online for suggestions of graded popular pieces.

(c) 2010 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada.