Ear Training and Sight Reading Help

My weakest areas as a piano student were the aural and sight reading tests. One year when I was in high school, I “forgot” my Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests book for two months’ worth of lessons. Elizabeth Mahaffy, my teacher at the time, got so fed up that one day, she sent me home to get the book.

My students don’t get away with that since I’ve kept all my Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. I bring them out for the forgetful students or sometimes, I have them pick out a song by ear and add the chords.

There are a multitude of online resources for students who need extra work in this area. Here are a few of them:

• http://www.musicstudy.com/

• http://www.musictheory.net/

• http://www.practicespot.com/

• http://pianoeducation.org/pnokids.html

If you would like to purchase the Four Star book series, check out my affiliate links below:

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Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Preparatory A Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S0A. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S0A).

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Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Preparatory B Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S0B. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S0B).

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Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Level 1 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S01. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S01).

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Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Level 2 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S02. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S02).

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Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Level 3 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S03. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S03).

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Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Level 4 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S04. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S04).

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Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Level 5 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S05. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S05).

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Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Level 6 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S06. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S06).

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Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Level 7 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S07. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S07).

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Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Level 8 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S08. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S08).

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Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Level 9 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S09. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S09).

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Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests Level 10 Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Composed by Boris Berlin and Andrew Markow. Edited by Laura Beauchamp-Williamson. This edition: 2015 edition. Sight Reading. Four Star Sight Reading and Ear Tests. Book. The Frederick Harris Music Company #4S010. Published by The Frederick Harris Music Company (FH.4S010).

Happy practicing!

© 2006, Musespeak™, 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.

On Meetings & Creative Practicing Ideas

We had our Annual General Meeting for Calgary ARMTA yesterday morning. It’s official: I am the Second Vice President for the 2006/07 Executive. Barring any unforeseen life changing circumstance, I will become the President in two years. But for now, it simply means that I get to add a few more projects onto my plate, such as the Honours Recital, which showcases students who performed superbly on their music exams and implementing some of the new membership benefits and programs we plan to offer. After I complete my advertising drive for our branch’s newsletter, my next order of business will be to find and train my successor. I’ll still be involved with maintaining our branch’s website.

Kudos to Barbara Robertson, our Past President, who did her best to keep the rest of us on track (somedays that was a challenge!). Beth Olver, this year’s President, brings a lot of board member experience and progressive ideas. I’m looking forward to the upcoming year.

We also had a guest speaker prior to the AGM. Calgary piano teacher/clinician/pianist Colleen Athparia presented a talk on creative ways to practice – to keep things fresh. Some ideas were new, while others were a good reminder of what has worked in the past and should be tried again.

In the spirit of “keeping things fresh”, I deliberately changed the order to today’s lessons. I’ve fallen into the habit of starting with technical exercises, followed by repertoire, then theory and aural/sight reading/rhythm exercises. Some students started with theory and ear training today, while others were asked to play arpeggios instead of scales first. One student took great delight in playing Oh Canada backwards. Another got a kick out of crossing her hands and then playing Aloha Oe, while another thought it strange that I asked her to play the f# melodic minor scale as slowly as she possibly could (I wanted her to listen to the sound decay of each note). All in all, it made for an interesting afternoon and evening. I wonder how I can shake up the rest of the week?

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

Excuses and Commitments

I have noticed that the excuses for not practicing increase around this time of year:   

• “We were at my grandparents’ all weekend and they don’t have a piano.” 

• “My parents are renovating and the piano is all covered up.” 

• “The batteries on my keyboard are dead.” 

• “We went skiing.” 

• “I had a lot of tests this week.” 

• “I had a ton of homework!”

• “I had a sports tournament.”

• “I had a dance competition/exam.”

• “I just wasn’t in the mood.”

• “I was busy…playing with my X-Box/Nintendo/Playstation/Internet.” 

Don’t get me wrong, I do sympathize with today’s kids. It seems like they get more homework than my generation did. I also do know what it’s like to be busy at their age, having been involved in several extracurricular activities.

 Teachers get grumpy when they hear the same excuses from the same students on a weekly basis. Somehow, my brother and I made it work - good grades, extracurricular activities and piano. We didn’t practice as much as we should have but our parents made sure we practiced enough (try 6:30 AM AND 11 PM practices!).

 One student recently used the last two excuses on the list. I told her that if there is something else she’d rather be doing, then do it and quit piano. However, if she does want to stay in piano, then she has to make a commitment.

Regardless of the activity, be it hockey, karate, soccer, drama, dance or piano – there is a level of commitment students must exhibit to make it worthwhile for the themselves, parents and teachers. For each of these, commitment equals practice time.

I'm jealous of my students, to tell you the truth. I wish I had their schedules. To just concentrate on piano, school and Iaido (the latter replaces the yearbook committee and basketball scorekeeping activities of my youth), would be heavenly.

Instead, Iaido practice is squished in before my morning administrative tasks and errands (if I’m not in an ARMTA meeting or workshop), while piano gets tacked on well after 10 pm, when I’ve wrapped up teaching for the evening and planning for the next day (my room-mate can attest to the “well after 10” part). Neither winds up happening daily but I do strive for five days a week for both. Some weeks are better than others. I need to make room for more writing, but that’s a dilemma for another day.

I really wish I could supervise my students’ practicing in their homes and limit their distractions and/or extracurriculars; but I lack Santa's ability to be in over 40 places simultaneously.

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

“Romantic Music” Musings

I bet you thought I was going to muse about sappy love songs. Nope. Not here. The Romantic Period (circa 1825 – 1900) saw an increase in nationalism and exoticism in the arts, as well as the themes of unrestrained passion, unrequited love, redemption and flights of fancy.

I’ve always enjoyed listening to and playing Romantic music. It is so easy to get caught up in the swelling melody that gathers speed and volume until it reaches its climax. I love the strurm und drang and rubato, which exemplify turbulent emotions. After the storm, there’s always a moment (or several), in which we are teased. We think we’re at the end of the song, but the composer sends us off into another direction. Then, there’s the penultimate chord. Musicians are taught to push to it and then savour the dissonance. Make the audience crave the resolution.

Frederic Chopin captured the nationalistic flair of his native Poland along with tender and searing melodies. Franz Lizst gave us fiery and brilliant passages that amazed audiences. Johannes Brahms showed us the angst-ridden and frustrated side of romance. You can learn about the music of these Romantic composers and many more at these sites:

• Classical Net

• Essentials of Music

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