Music through the Ages Exploration Engages Students

This year, my students are exploring a different genre of music every month. Sometimes, it's a quick study. Sometimes it's just a case of listening to a CD or watching youtube and then discussing the music afterward. My student Namitha calls our exploration, "Music through the Ages". Last month, we explored the Classical period. Their comments on the music were colourful, ranging from "it sounds like someone's being chased" during Beethoven's 5th Symphony to "it sounds happy yet sad" for Mozart's Rondo alla Turk. The intermediate students have started to notice patterns that are similar to their pieces (sonata allegro form, anyone?).

This month, I've fast forwarded the timeline to the present for them to explore pop, rock and country. One student classified Carrie Underwood as "country", while the next day, one classified her as "pop". We listened to a couple of her songs and I asked them to tell me what madeJust a Dream more country than Cowboy Cassanova. A similar scenario happened with Taylor Swift.

(FYI: my students said it was the instrumentation and drum groove used that differentiated the styles).

After listening to The Beatles, I asked my student Tess what she thought of song and the style. "What am I supposed to say?" she asked me.

"The truth," I replied. "Did you like it? Love it? Hate it? Doesn't make you feel anything?"

She discovered that it doesn't make her feel anything and that it's a style she'll probably stay away from.

A few days later, I learned that young Gabe loves the 80s band Journey ("They're just cool!").

That's what it's all about for me, showing them what's out there. I hope by the end of the year, they will have a better idea of just how wide and diverse music is and along the way, find out what they would like to explore further (or avoid like the plague). If their active listening skills improve along the way as we discuss melody, timbre, rhythm, form and texture - all the better!

(c) 2009 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Yawn, Puke, Sing - My First Singing Lesson

I had the pleasure of working with Sherry Kennedy at the Jazz Connection Workshop this summer. It was only a couple of sessions, but enough to make me realize that if I'm ever going to play and sing at a gig and give some intelligent pointers to my students who are trying the "playing and singing" thing, I need to have a solid foundation in my voice. Today, I had my first singing lesson today after many years. We spent a good chunk of it working on breathing and relaxation exercises. The singing stance reminded me of our "ready" stance in Iaido - feet shoulder width apart, no unnecessary tension. Try to relax and hit that state of zanshin.

Ha! I think I'll have to do practice more sword cuts.

I digress. Sherry had me visualize the air coming from the ground, through my feet and up to my boobs as I breathed in. The only way I could make it work was to imagine a white mist flowing upwards. At one point, I think it was blue but I don't think it really matters.

Then, she had me lay on the floor so I could feel my diaphragm expanding into the floor, WHILE concentrating on keeping my shoulders and chin level, WHILE focusing on the airflow going from my toes to my boobs, WHILE dropping my jaw and letting the lower jaw jut forwards (completely slack), WHILE keeping my tongue flat and soft palette open, WHILE imagining I had a straw in my mouth and that I was trying to make an imaginary leaf fly off the table and dance in the air.

Then, Sherry asked, "Are you relaxed yet?"

That's a joke, right?

I know with practice it will all become second nature. Just as I know that getting my muscles to relax will help my piano as much as my singing. It will help in overall posture and health too.

In the meantime, I know I'll be practicing puking and yawning motions in front of the mirror to get my tongue flat and lightly holding my jaw to check that it's slack and forward enough. So if you see someone doing this in the car at a red light, that's probably me.

Now I can't stop yawning.

(c) 2009 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Recreating Great Performances with Technology

There is something special about listening to a live performance. There's the energy in the room, the element of unpredictability and the uniqueness of the performance conditions - time, place, humidity, environment, audience and performer - that can never be replicated. Now with technology, it is possible to replicate at least one aspect of a performance - how it was performed. John Walker from Sony demonstrates, using a Yamaha Disklavier, how they took performances by Glenn Gould and Art Tatum, converted the recording into raw data that can be played back. In this clip, you get to see the piano play part of Bach's Goldberg Variations as Gould did in one of his recording sessions.

They even show photos of the recording process, enabling you to listen to the music as if you were the one sitting on the piano bench, as opposed to 20 or so feet away in the audience. Believe me, it is a different experience.

Although you can never replicate all aspects of a performance, it's still pretty interesting to watch the piano show you how Gould and Tatum touched the keys, the pedal.

(c) 2009 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Deaf Percussionist Talks About "How" to Listen

Deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie gives an impressive demonstration-talk on how to listen. She clearly shows viewers how to listen by using your entire body as a resonator. Evelyn also highlights how our experience of a sound can differ, depending on our location and our role (creator, audience). This piece of advice resonates in other aspects of life: Relax, open yourself up and you can listen better. You can become one with your instrument/car/cooking/studying/[insert activity here]. Here's the video:

There's a humorous moment in the middle when she asks the audience if they heard what she just did. And another when she tries to get the audience to clap "snow".

(c) 2000 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Choir Music Musings

This semester, I'm filling in for the pianist of Okotoks Alliance Church Choir. They are busy preparing for the Christmas concerts. Yes, I know, we're not even past Thanksgiving yet but these things take time to prepare!I haven't sung in a choir since university and it's been a few years since I've "accompanied" (or shall I say, worked as a "collaborative pianist") in this capacity.

I forgot how much fun it was.

There is such a rush when you hear all the voices blending in and filling the room. It's somewhat similar to the rush I got playing in the jazz combos at jazz camp this summer, especialy when we fed off each other's energy and ideas.

I find myself itching to practice Michael W. Smith's setting of Gloria/Lux Venit, because if some of the youtube videos are any indication, the build-up in Gloria is going to give one huge rush to performers and listeners alike.

[Note to those who've heard this - yes, I'm drilling that transition from Lux Venit to Gloria like crazy!]

This is serving as a reminder of how important it is for pianists - who play mostly solo repertoire - to engage in group music activities.

It provides balance, works on our teamwork skills but most of all - it's just plain fun to do.

Addendum

Here's our performance of Gloria with Lux Venit:

(c) 2009 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.