Singing

 

I find it somewhat sad that many people don't sing. Or they sing very softly and timidly because they believe they don't have a good voice and/or don't sing on key. Singing is universal -- all cultures do it -- and singing most likely emerged right along with speech in human evolution. We need to exercise our human right to sing!

Singing is so natural that, regardless of how well (or badly) you think you sing, you can see that there is a direct connection between the brain (auditory cortex) and the vocal chords. When you want to sing Happy Birthday, you just sing it. No one ever taught you how exactly to contract your vocal chord muscles to sing each of the notes. In a sense, the ear just tells the voice what to do, and it does it!

If you think you sing badly, the solution is to sing more, not less. That is the way to strengthen the ear/voice connection. You don't need to take singing lessons; instead, play a note on the piano (or other instrument) and try to match it with your voice. When you really are singing the same note, you will experience it "lock in" with the note you are playing. If it doesn't sound right, try to determine whether you are too low or too high and try to adjust until you lock in. (Obviously, try to play a note that is within your vocal range -- lower if you are a man and highter if you are a woman.) Many people struggle with this, but I believe everyone can improve. This is a good first step.

I do teach ear development as well as sight-singing (which you'd need to do in a choir, for example), and have many methods to help students with this. However, it's beyond the scope of this post to detail it all here.

What does this have to do with the piano? As you've read in previous posts, the importance of the ear cannot be over-stated. 

Specifically, I often have students sing the melody line of the piece they are working on. (You can also sing the bass line or any of the other lines, if it is a multi-voice piece, but start with the melody line.) If you find you can't quite do it, that means the music is not "in your ear" yet, meaning the ear/brain doesn't really know how it sounds. It's imperative that the ear knows it. (By the way, ear and memory are essentially the same; see my post on Memory.) After you have sung it, try playing it again and you will most likely feel it is easier. 

Of course, piano music has a lot more than just melody going on, and since you can't sing more than one note at a time, you can't sing the complete piece. There are many ways to approach that, such as playing everything except the melody on the piano while you sing the melody. 

When you're away from your piano, waiting at a red light,say, sing the melodies from the pieces you're working on. It will help you when you get back to the piano.

Another big advantage to singing the melody is for hearing the phrasing. When you sing, you automatically take your breaths at places that make sense for the music. If there are lyrics, you would breathe where there would be a comma or a period in the lyrics. You wouldn't want to take the breath in the middle of a word, for example. Likewise, in instrumental music, even though there are no lyrics to guide you, you can sense where a musical "thought" ends and where another begins. The equivalent of a breath would be a release of the key(s), so that there is a clear sense of one phrase ending and another beginning. I've heard students, even those with a lot of natural ability, just elide phrases together, which sounds like the equivalent of a long run-on sentence, and doesn't make for a very musical rendition. If you cling to the keys (read my previous post on being "clingy") and you are fearful of picking up your hand(s), you will almost certainly end up eliding the phrases. Whenever a student has the tendency to do this, I write "p.u." in their music, which stands for "pick up." But again, singing the phrase will probably be the most helpful tool.

Don't Be So Clingy

 

Many beginning students -- and some not-so-beginners who have tried to teach themselves -- tend to develop a habit of clinging to the keys. They hold on to a key they have just played, not because it's indicated in the score to do so, but because they are unconsciously using it as an "anchor." Their brain is saying "I've found this note and I'm not letting go until I find the next one!" The unconscious mind thinks that holding onto a note will help them find the next note, which may or may not be the case, but it is a limiting technique. Your playing will never be free and expressive if you are employing fear-based techniques.

Beginners usually start out using a book which starts you in what we call a 5-finger hand position in each hand. The five fingers are placed over 5 notes, usually C to G, and the very earliest pieces just use those 5 notes. This is actually a good method. It enables you to learn to "navigate" from note to note, without looking at your hands (this is perhaps the most important part). The downside of this method is that just playing five keys becomes a kind of "comfort zone" and the student just doesn't wan to leave it. 

When you have some ease with this, the book will introduce another note in each hand, so you will learn to cover a span of six keys. Even though it is still a very limited range, the hands need to learn to move around slightly; they can't just keep one finger over each of the five notes, as before. Then the span of keys will increase again. When you begin to have the interval of an octave, for example, it is tempting to keep your thumb on the lowest note while you "stretch" for the top note. But keeping your hand in this position will limit you from developing the fluidity and ease you need for future music you'll encounter. More advanced music will require jumps of more than your hand can reach by "stretching." After all, the piano has 88 keys, and you can't play intermediate or advanced pieces while unconsciously trying to keep your hands in one place. And of course, holding onto one note means it will continue sounding, which, if not indicated by the composer, may create a sound you don't want.

Most students aren't even aware they are doing this, until I point it out, of course. Becoming aware of what your hands are doing is critical (see my previous post on body awareness). Your body is going to learn how to move to accomplish moving from place to place. This actually happens in the arm, not the fingers. (I often say, the hand isn't going anywhere the arm doesn't take it.) This is because we all have proprioception, that is, the body's ability to sense its own position and movement in space without relying on visual input. It's an automatic, subconscious process that allows us to do virtually everything we do, such as walking, driving, and of course sports and playing an instrument. It goes without saying the great athletes, dancers, and top musicians have highly developed proprioception. (I suppose it doesn't really apply to singers.)

There are "exersices" I give my students to help develop this ability, such as doing large jumps with eyes closed, focusing on the feeling of where your arm is in space. They are always amazed that they can do a jump with accuracy several times in a row, without looking of course, just from putting their awareness on the arm, rather than the keys themselves. 

You just can't develop advanced proprioception if you "cling" to the keys. Clinging is antithetical to progress. 

When you notice you are clinging, just try to let go of the fear of wrong notes and let the hands and arms move. You WILL hit wrong notes when you are learning, that's for certain. But you will improve.  Trying to avoid wrong notes by being fearful won't really work, and it also takes all the fun out of it.