… by an inch and a smidge.
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Image: via Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra
I would have towered over Beethoven
Posted in Music Humour, Beethoven, Music History
Tagged Composers, Music Humour, Classical music
12 Comments
… and don’t blame the page-turner
“What is it to be musical? You will not be so, if your eyes are fixed on the notes with anxiety and you play your piece laboriously through; you will not be so if, supposing that someone should turn over two pages at once, you stop short and cannot proceed. But you will be so if you can almost foresee in a new piece what is to follow, or remember it in an old one—in a word, if you have music not only in your fingers, but also in your head and heart.”
~Robert Schumann, Advice to Young Musicians
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Quote: via The Leading Tone
Image: via Madame Scherzo
Posted in Practice Tips, Performance, Technic, Quotes, Music History
Tagged Piano Lessons, Piano teaching, music quotes, piano music, Schumann, classical piano
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10,000 Hours or 22,000 Days?
This week, I have been observing our students in a myriad of performance situations: playing recitals; performing year-end performance juries; taking final exams. The practice rooms and libraries are filled. The stress level is high. Everyone is pressed for time, trying to squeeze in one more precious hour.
Recent research and a popular book have theorized that it takes 10,000 hours for a human to become proficient and considered an expert at something.
When 10,000 hours are not enough ...
Posted in Uncategorized
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A Top 5 List
High Fidelity is a novel by Nick Hornby about a guy named Rob who works in a record store. It’s funny, poignant, heartbreaking, and hopeful. Rob has a penchant for making lists – of imagined conversations, ex-girlfriends, and pop music.
I read about the book at The Muser and was intrigued. A few comments back and forth with Mimis (the Muser) left me compiling lists of favourite pieces of music in my head. The pop version might be coming on Saturday. Or it might not be.
The classical version is much easier qualified as stuff I’ve like for a really long time. In chronological order:
1. Bach – Keyboard Concerto in D minor, first movement (Murray Perahia).
2. Mozart – Laudate Dominum (Kathleen Battle) or maybe I should make that the Lacrimosa from his Requiem
3. Schubert – Der Hirt auf dem Felsen (Elly Ameling)
4. Brahms – Trio for Piano, Clarinet and Cello (here: Leif Ove Andsnes, Clemens Hagen, Martin Fröst)
5. Mahler – Symphony No. 2 (Resurrection) , 4th and 5th movements, although I need to listen to the whole thing for maximum impact. Wavering slightly on this choice – tempting to consider the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony here …
So not quite as easy as I though it might be. Just like Rob. Read the book. Or just share your list if you’d like …
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Image: sing it like it is
Posted in Inspirational, Books about Music, Bach, Mozart, Music History, Music Videos
Tagged Mozart, Bach, Classical music, Kathleen Battle, Murray Perahia, Baroque Music, Leif Ove Andsnes, Nick Hornby, Martin Fröst, Elly Ameling, The Shepherd on the Rock, High Fidelity, Mahler, Schubert
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I’m as busy as I want to be
I saw a cute snack idea once. Get ice-cream cones (in the middle of December); mix up some cake batter; pour some of the mix into each cone and bake. Then decorate. In a Christmas theme, obviously.
Voila! Cute ice-cream cone cupcakes. Perfect for 30 or so pre-schoolers.
What was I thinking? Continue reading
Posted in Business of Teaching, General
Tagged balance, piano teachers, Piano teaching, priorities, Stephen Covey
3 Comments
Finally, colors dominate your sounds
“At a young age, when you are playing something in the early stages of your life, you are striving to be up toward the unattainable perfection, mainly based on the musical laws and regulations. Later on, you start being interested much more in construction or structure. Then you are more interested in emotional aspects of the music, and eventually colors dominate your thinking and sounds.”
~Janos Starker
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Quote: Cellist Janos Starker via musiqdragonfly
Image: Valley of the Peaks, Alberta, via: live-2-learn
Posted in Uncategorized, Inspirational, Performance, Quotes
Tagged music quotes, János Starker
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I’m in love. With an update :)
I’m in love. With 81-year-old French jazz pianist Michel Legrand. I can’t enough of his jazz piano stuff after having discovered him at Espace Musique’s jazz streaming site.
Legrand is well-known as a film composer – probably best known for The Windmills of Your Mind (which I can personally do without). But another tune from another French film – I Will Wait For You (from Les Parapluies de Cherbourg)- has been haunting me for a few weeks.
Here it is – Michel Legrand playing with a jazz combo (I also love his solo piano album) – in a rendition that starts all mellow and sappy but morphs through a number of different styles and ends up FUN.
My kind of music for a Saturday afternoon.
After posting this, my blogger friend at musiqdragonfly pointed me to this post, which includes an incredible version of Windmills, in French, sung by Frida Boccara. I have to say, I’ve changed my mind about the song!
Posted in Jazz, Music Videos, Performance
Tagged jazz, Piano, Espace Musique, Music, Michel Legrand, Windmills of Your Mind, Jazz piano, I Will Wait for You
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Those funky looking pianos
My long-time friend and now piano teacher Tim Spicer came across some wild-looking pianos. Here, in a guest post, are some of his favourites and his thoughts on the whole thing:
So the world is often changing. It is inevitable, and often welcome, but we also need to recognise that there is stability that comes with keeping some traditions, the tried, true and tested.
The piano has also come a long way since the first models were made. Aside from the electronic and digital pianos, even acoustic pianos have made significant changes over time. One of the more recent innovations has been the development of composite actions which claim improved stability and longevity over traditional wooden actions.
The exteriors of pianos have also seen changes. Traditionally pianos came in black, brown and white. Lately, we’ve seen red, clear lucite (plastic) and even bolder designs in custom models with bizarre shapes and vivid colours.
I’ve seen the single colour bright red in the Fazioli. At first, I was shocked, but I’ve come around a bit on that one – I’ve softened to that idea of bright red. Continue reading
Posted in Pianos
Tagged Bosendorfer, Digital piano, Fazioli, grand piano, lucite piano, Pianos, Tim Spicer
4 Comments
30 seconds of terror
Time to Sight-Read on the exam. And get an easy 10 marks. Or not.
You get about 30 seconds to look over the piece before starting. And once you start, you Just Don’t Stop. Forget about showing the examiner (or teacher) that you know you played a wrong note and you really do know what it should be instead.
The rhythm is most important. Like playing in the school band. Is the whole band going to stop because you played one wrong note?
So how to spend those 30 seconds? Continue reading
Posted in Piano pedagogy, Sight Reading, Uncategorized
Tagged Ledger line, Piano exams, piano teachers, Piano teaching, Sight Reading
6 Comments
It means just as much as living
Cellist Janos Starker died on Sunday, at the age of 88. He was renowned as a soloist, for his work with orchestras, and his commitment to teaching. Born in Budapest, his path to becoming an international star included surviving life in a Nazi labour camp.
“(Music) is part of our lives in a way that we cannot wake up in the morning and go through life without music and without having this essential aspect of it, that music means just as much as eating and drinking or living.”
I’ve spent the winter listening, repeatedly, to Pablo Casals playing the Bach Cello Suites. Played by Starker, this Prelude from the first suite is just as beautiful.
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Janos Starker quote: NPR
Image: el pasado no te define
Posted in Inspirational, Music History
Tagged Budapest, Cello Suites (Bach), János Starker, Pablo Casals
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Tweak … tweak … tweak
Record store owner and employees upon seeing a recording artist enter their store:
“What did you tell her about the shop for?” I ask the others.
“I didn’t know it was classified information,” says Barry. “I mean, I know we don’t have any customers, but I thought that was a bad thing, not, like, a business strategy.”
It’s registration time for September lessons – reminder e-mails to current students to register (with the fee) now before I give away those time slots to new students.
Minor tweaks in planning and strategies for next year:
*an adjustment of the way I calculate fees – from a per-month basis regardless of the number of weeks, to a set number of lessons over the year, divided into 10 monthly payments.
*collecting September’s payment now. Continue reading
