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.

On Tips and Reminders (My Personal APTA Festival Experience)

In my blog entry Sturm und Drang - Second Movement, I mentioned that I submitted my entry to the Teachers' Solo/Recital Class at the APTA Festival. My performance was this morning. Playing in the teacher's class was a unique festival experience. Gone was the churning stomach, hyperventilation and jello fingers from my competitive festival days.

The atmosphere this morning was fairly jovial. We were a little nervous but it felt more like playing at a master class at university with one's buddies. With the exception of one performer, I knew everyone else in the room - including the adjudicator, Helve Sastok.

We joked that it was far too early to perform. Musicians function better on stage anytime after 2:00 pm. We reminisced about how the 9:00 AM performance reminded us of early morning lessons and exams. We chatted before and between performances. A couple of us went in and out of the room to go upstairs to hear our own students perform upstairs. I went up to hear one of my students perform before returning to perform my songs.

Helve was wonderful as an adjudicator. She saluted us all for entering the class and praised our musicianship. Then, she got into the nitty gritty details, which is what we all wanted from her.

Teachers still succumb to the same challenges our students do onstage. Elements that were perfect during at-home practice were less secure onstage. Helve remarked that the heaviness of the bass on the piano we played on "wasn't the piano's fault". Touché - even teachers have voice balancing issues.

We even dish out the same excuses to the adjudicator that our students give us.

Helve gave us great tips on dealing with nerves while playing. If our hands and arms start to shake sit up straight and roll the shoulders back. If our leg starts to shake, shift your weight onto the buttock cheek of the shaking leg to force it to stop.

She reminded us that even though we knew everyone in the room, this was a formal performance setting. From the moment we rise from our chair to the moment we return to it after playing, we're performing. In short, no banter between songs and no critiquing your performance just after your bow.

One of my students and I played at the exact same time. We listened to her songs in between my pieces.

My Bartok Bagatelle came off stronger than I anticipated. I just need to readjust the balance between my voices in the middle and try a new practice tip for dealing with the technically challenging last three lines. I have three more weeks to tidy it up before my studio's year-end recital.

I thought my left hand wasn't loud enough in my Chopin Nocturne but overcompensated, drowning out my right hand melody. Helve had me drop my wrist in certain spots to give my thumb less leverage, make my left hand slither across the keys in the opening to keep it light, soft and smooth and take the ending much more broadly. Oh, I missed the ottava at the end of the third page. I never noticed it when I was learning it. Oops. So much for the big sparkly climax then. Once I fix those troublespots, it will certainly shine.

Onto my final song, Houki Boshi, which I partially improvised upon and embellished. Some of the themes that I had planned for ahead of time did come across as being more rehearsed than improvised however, she liked how I snuck in snippets of Pachelbel's Canon, Leaving on a Jet Plane and my Nocturne (the last done in a rumba style). Of course, she wouldn't have recognized another anime theme song I threw in. I got a few more good tips on improvisation and a reminder to provide dynamic contrast. I'll have to listen to more jazz to see how the musicians transition from the main theme to their improv.

All in all, a good experience. Sure, it was stressful making ourselves speed learn high level songs and memorize them in a short time span - on top of teaching, family, household and community commitments. Sure, our performances were not without glitches. However, there is no doubt that it was an extremely valuable experience for us, not only as teachers but as performers striving to improve. For to teach, we must continue to learn.

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

On Sturm und drang - Second Movement

Perhaps the spirit of my former piano teacher Irina Ginzburg was hovering as I was filling out my own registration form for the APTA Festival. She would want me to challenge myself. Before I could stop myself, I registered for the Teacher Recital class, which means three songs. It's not too scary, at least, I hope it isn't. It's just that I now have to add two senior level pieces to my practice list (on top of students' songs and gig repertoire...to practice in the wee hours in the night).

I'm pretty happy with my selections. I've been meaning to learn Chopin's Nocturne in e minor, op. 72 #1 for years; ever since I heard it in the Hallmark TV production of The Secret Garden. It's only four pages - however, the return of the A theme is a doozy! I've sightread Bartok's Bagatelle, op. 6 #5 before and find the rhythms catchy. Hey, if I can sightread it - then it's do-able. Both songs are Gr. 10 level, which provides a bit of a challenge without taking too much time. The final selection is Houki Boshi (Comet). It's one of the theme songs from the Japanese show Bleach. I plan on embellishing and improvising a bit, something which I already do with it.

The question is whether or not I will memorize all the songs. I'll play that by ear.

So all in all, not too bad. It's still added sturm und drang though. When to practice?

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

Midnight Musings

Being an entrepreneur means that you never completely stop working. It’s past midnight and I am trading e-mails with the president of the local branch of the Alberta Registered Music Teachers’ Association, while I am working on tonight’s blog entry. We have a general members’ meeting on Monday, which we are preparing for. The executive is trying to implement some changes to improve how we operate and what we offer to members, students and the general public. But change is hard and, well anyone who works with people knows that sometimes personalities clash. It’s a challenge for volunteer board to meet the needs of everyone. Quite simply, it’s impossible to satisfy everyone. I have two main gripes: people who complain but don’t take action and people who don't do their share of the workload. It’s always the same volunteers doing all the work. We could use a little more help.

Enough ranting. I didn’t mean to rant but with “freefall” writing, you just type/write what pops out of your head without thinking.

Speaking of writing, I recently started a creative writing class at the Alexandra Writers’ Centre Society. After years of doing corporate and technical writing, it is a refreshing change to write “fun stuff”. Strange how childhood memories flood the pages of my notebook, like my juice cup from kindergarten with letters, numbers and animals on it or the cat that scratched my arm when I tried to feed it weeds. I have even started writing haiku (it’s addictive).

On another note, some students and I are performing Sunday afternoon at a local nursing home. It was something I did when I was growing up. The residents appreciate the visit and the entertainment. It is also a great way to hone the students’ performance savvy.

Picture yourself at the piano, playing away, when a resident spills coffee all over the floor, another decides to belt out a different arrangement of your song, while another babbles incoherently - loudly. If you can maintain composure through that, then performing before a stern faced examiner or at a family reunion should be a little easier.

That’s enough musing for tonight. I still need to figure out what I am performing at the recital. Maybe the song titles will jump out at me in a dream.

© Musespeak, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. All rights reserved.