Dizzler Is Now Live on the CPB

For those of you with Flash-enabled browsers, scroll down to the bottom of the content on any page and take a look at the Dizzler search engine widget that I enabled on the site last night. You can now access several million musical works via audio or video, listen to internet radio, or search for games while on the site. Enjoy!

Speedlinking - 16 May 2008

Here are some interesting finds from around the blogosphere:

• Play a lot of gigs around town and you'll notice many of them falling into categories found in Skellie's 20 Types of Freelance Work Identified and Explained.
• If you're feeling the effects of the current economic downturn, you're not alone. Sarah Luebke on the Music Teacher's Helper Blog looks at Economic Woes Posing Challenges to Private Music Teachers.
• Ever notice that Waltz of the Flowers gives one a hankering for a Riesling? A recent BBC article looks at current research that correlates musical selection with wine taste (via Boing Boing).
• Ann-Carolyn Bird shares her list of current and projected operatic roles. All voices are works in progress--Ann-Carolyn's list shows both intelligence and foresight in her choice of roles that she can readily sing in her busy career, but with plenty of room for future vocal growth.
• Need to double your musical output as a performer? Ben Clapton has a great list of 7 Tips on Becoming a Prolific Musician.
• Finally, Kate Boyd examines the words most dreaded by those who frequent the piano in recital season: "Assisted by..."
  

Where Not To Put a Piano

Oops.

(Via Piano's Place in Public and Adamo W. Jr. II's photostream on Flickr)

More Growing Pains

My recent post about The Growing Pains of Collaborative Pianists has generated some interesting discussion, including this comment by JY, reprinted here in its entirety:

I love this post! It presents a foot in the grey areas of the careers of the collaborative pianists in their early stages. I think the lines of right and wrong are crossed by both the soloist and the collaborative pianist, at the same time. It is true, sometimes, that instrumentalists/ vocalists don't give their counterparts enough time with the music, thus creating a disconnect when time comes to put together. Oftentimes, certain things that are worked upon during rehearsals go out the window onstage (which, I find, happens with young performers quite often). I find these to be the significant moments where collaborative pianists find their reputation (and mental health) at risk, and feel that they are left to take the blame.

On the contrary, there are many young collaborative pianists who are at fault - ones who don't know how to coach, and feel that they are there just to "play the piano part" (which is counterproductive, as this deters from the musical learning experience, as well as doesn't give a proper frame of reference, other than the notes for the other musician), and also those who don't speak up for themselves when they aren't given enough time (rehearsal or prep) to invest upon the music.

The success of collaborative pianists are not warranted by whose career they hitchhike upon (in which here, I will say, I strongly disagree with the author of the last quote from PEToA). I think they produce an equally brilliant career by presenting themselves as artists who work together, sharing the limelight with other musicians (be it an instrumentalist, vocalist, or even artists or dancers), and producing an illustrious musical presentation.

It's ultimately a two-way street - no matter if it's success or failure. As we all fall back onto the true reason for being there in the first place - that is, the music making. The outcome will be the creation of a memorable collaboration, and a reputation built upon three important factors - as Dr. Foley reminds us - dignity, professionalism, and, most of all, the music.

Thanks for taking the time to write such a well thought-out response, JY. Only one thing I would take issue with: this is the casual atmosphere of the blogosphere and we're on a strictly first-name basis here--feel free to call me Chris.

Beethoven Action Figure

(Via sugarpacketchad's photostream on Flickr)

More composer action figures:

-Beethoven with a certain Viennese friend
-I never would have known
-At what appears to be a Liederabend of some sort
-I don't think these two get along!

15 Reasons Why Practicing Technique Can Improve Your Time at the Piano

"Do I hafta?"

That's the response from legions of pianists who are required to learn mountains of scales, chords, arpeggios. Like oatmeal, technique is supposed to be good for you, but many pianists think that daily doses of it are bland, uninteresting, and merely a preamble to the real business of being a pianist--playing repertoire.

Yet the study of technique is a discipline that can yield much from the fruits of its labor. Here are some of the ways that you can benefit from the regular practice of technique.


1. Learning the building blocks of music. Most Western music is based on a small number of scales and chords. Isolating these elements and making them a part of your daily routine can help you to better understand your repertoire, whether it be classical, pop, rock, jazz, broadway, or country music.

2. Fingering. Humans are equipped with two hands, each of which has a strong second and third fingers, a weak and interdependent fourth finger, a small but spry fifth finger, and an opposable thumb with a completely different manner of operation than the other fingers. Learning the ins and outs of knowing which fingers to use and how can help you tear up and down the keyboard in most spectacular fashion.

3. Sound. Do you actually listen to the sounds you make while practicing those scales and chords? Having a discerning ear for qualities of sound can make those hours become a workout for the ear as well as the fingers.

4. Memorization. The ability to play music from memory is an extremely valuable skill. And where better to learn it than in the workshop of technical exercises and their weird keys, black vs. white notes, fingerings, patterns, and forms.

5. Velocity. Once you're able to slowly and carefully play through a scale, broken chord, or arpeggio, the time is ripe to increase the speed and get through it quicker. I always like to tell students that in order to achieve velocity, they should be thinking faster in addition to playing faster.

6. Warm-up. There is a certain regularity to technical exercises. Many pianists are comforted by having a daily regimen of warm-up exercises that feature technique in order to help them warm up their fingers, hands, wrists, and arms and achieve a sense of grounding at the keyboard before venturing into the minefield of repertoire.

7. Detail. I've lost count of the times I've written that a student's scales were "almost" perfect or "nearly" accurate. Taking that final step to excellence demands hard work and dedication and what better way to get there than by ironing out the details.

8. Focus and Concentration. Everyone says that practicing technique is good for your fingers and overall playing mechanism. That's only part of the story--technique is also a workout for the mind, building mental focus and clarity that can also be put to use no matter what you play.

9. Weird keys. Part of becoming comfortable playing piano is the art of making friends with distant keys. These unlikely friendships (I'm particularly enamored with D flat major) can often spill over into the discovery and enjoyment of new and unexpected corners of the repertoire.

10. Identifying keys. Before you play a technical exercise, it helps a great deal to be able to understand and visualize what it consists of. Dominant and diminished 7ths in particular require some thought as to their layout before embarking upon playing them.

11. Feel the power. What many pianists discover at some time in their development is that playing fast and loud can be incredibly fun. Once you make this discovery, playing technique can be an exercise in power, command, and control of your playing. Rock out, dude.

12. Get those hands playing together. Left vs. right fingering patterns in parallel motion can be entirely different from each other in many scales. And let's not mention that left hands are often more sloppy and inaccurate than right hands. Spending time with the hands apart as well as together can sometimes be a useful fix for this common problem.

13. Keyboard geography. One of my teachers once compared playing piano to sitting in the press box watching a football game. Technique can help you greatly with learning the lay of the land and help you get from end zone to end zone in the heat of battle.

14. Let loose. Practicing technique isn't just about correctness and rigidity, but a lesson in practicing performance as well. Being able to play technique with sparkle and elan is an important step in transforming from student to artist.

15. Evenness and reliability. Above all, a piano technique should be a skill you can rely on and trust, helping you in even the toughest of performance situations with comfort and command.


Further reading:

The 5 C's of Learning Piano Technique
The Extreme Piano Guide, or 30+1 Ways to Improve Your Practice Time
5 Things to Remember About Fingerings
Developing an Artistic Sensibility
10 Ways to Get a Fresh Start With Summer Practice Assignments

The 100 Music Education Bloggers Project

What if 100 of the top music education bloggers created a network with the goal of sharing information and resources for the mutual benefit of themselves, their readers, and students? The ME Blogger project, begun by Grove City College faculty member Joseph Pisano, aims to do just that. So far he has assembled a list of 54 blogs on the topic of music education (The CPB occupies a proud 53rd spot), with 46 spots still remaining. Check out the entire list of blogs, as well as rules for participation and links to more information at the 100 ME Blogs page. Look for links to articles by some of the ME bloggers in the coming weeks...