I'm a theory geek. I love talking about, reading about, and teaching music theory. It's endlessly fascinating. And I believe it also has very important application to our playing and understanding of music.
Sadly, I find that most adults who come to me after having studied piano as a child (or children who come from other teachers) know next to nothing about theory. They may play a Chopin Nocturne, even quite well, but if I ask them what key it is in, or why it ends a certain way, they have no idea. One could therefore make the argument that it isn't necessary to understand theory to play well. But if you love music, listen to it, play it, maybe even devote a large portion of your life to it, wouldn't you want to understand what makes it work, in fact, what makes it possible?
Music theory is like gravity: it's not just a good idea, it's the law! (Borrowed from a t-shirt I once saw....) Theory isn't some system dreamed up by Pythagoras and imposed on us; it describes the inner laws that govern our (Western) music. Everything our music is built on, from scales and chords, to the forms such as Sonata form, follow laws based on mathematical relationships. How the composer uses those laws create the beauty and power (or lack thereof) of the piece. But he/she does not invent new laws with every composition; if that were the case, no one would understand it.
Take for example the Circle of Fifths (if you are not familiar with this concept, you can find a basic, though possibly confusing, explanation on Wikipedia, or refer to a book on music theory). Many people think the Circle of Fifths is just a convenient way to learn or memorize the key signatures of all 12 major and minor keys. But it is much more than that; the fifth is an important interval vibrationally. The closest vibrational relationship between any two tones is an octave, where the relationship of vibrations is 2 to 1 (higher to lower tone). That is why two tones an octave apart sound so similar (not to mention why our whole musical system is based on scales that span an octave). The next closest relationship is between two tones a fifth apart, where the ratio of vibrations is 3 to 2. The Greeks called this ratio (3:2) the Golden Mean and considered it the "perfect" relationship. You can find reference to it in the fields of art and architecture; it was said to be the basis of works as diverse as the Ancient Pyramids and the Mona Lisa. In classical music, jazz, and pop, we see the use of the fifth in the progression of chords from one to another and in the modulation from one key to another within a piece. (Note: some jazz players call it the Circle of Fourths, which is the same thing as the Circle of Fifths, because a fifth up is the same thing as a fourth down; to me, this always seemed to miss the point, because the relationship of the fifth is more central to music than the fourth. You get the "Circle of Fourths" by simply going counter-clockwise around the Circle of Fifths.)
My point here is that when one understands the real importance of these aspects of theory, such as the Circle of Fifths, it makes so much of what happens in our music more understandable. Music, like nature, follows certain laws, but within those laws there are infinite possibilities and tremendous variety. But without these laws it would all be chaos and cacophony.
One can learn about theory from text books or dull lecture classes. But if you can't apply it, what use is it? I find the best, and most fun, way to learn a great deal of theory (though certainly not everything) is to learn chords and play songs from fake books. To play from a fake book, you must understand scales and keys, then how chords are constructed (if you really learn how they are constructed -- see my previous post on chords -- not just memorize them from a chord chart), and how the chords progress from one to another. I find it much more fun to actually use your knowledge of harmony by playing it than just to "analyze" a piece of music. I make learning chords and playing from fake books a part of the curriculum of all my students.
Understanding, and more importantly, hearing, how our music obeys certain laws and how each composer uses those laws to create his masterpieces, can be one of those most satisfying aspects of listening to music. Far from making it dry and analytical, it makes you marvel even more at the miracle that is music.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Practicing by Playing Slowly -- Is it Always Best?
In just about anything you read on practicing the piano -- any book, any blog, any DVD -- and also with most teachers, you will find that the idea of playing very slowly is the way to learn a piece and to master its difficulties.
The general idea is to play extremely slowly and gradually increase the tempo until you are playing at the desired tempo of the piece. This may sound logical at first, but does it really work? More to the point, would it produce the desired musical effect, a performance with passion and dazzling brilliance?
If you wanted to run very fast, would you start by walking very slowly and gradually increasing the speed until you were running? Not really: walking and running are quite different from one another and require different coordination. Walking does not necessarily prepare you for running. Slow playing does not necessarily prepare you for fast playing.
Here are a few of the inherent pitfalls of very slow playing:
1. It can be very un-musical. Notice I say can be. Very slow playing encourages very note-wise playing. What I mean by note-wise is that familiar sound of a total beginner playing, for example, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Each note is emphasized equally, giving a very stiff, stodgy, boring effect. There is no feeling of movement or destination. In fact, the destination is always the very next note, which is not really a destination at all. There is no sense of a phrase, or what musicians call a "long line." If you speak a sentence this way, or a line of poetry, you will hear the effect -- it's very robotic. Yet this is often how people play. In fact, playing this way is encouraged by many teachers for the playing of "finger exercises." When you play a piece of music slowly, note by note, you are often playing it as if it were some kind of exercise. This will simply not translate to gorgeous, exciting playing at some later time.
2. It encourages inefficiency. If you have a piece with very challenging technical aspects, whether it be rapid scale passages, arpeggios, octaves, or whatever, you will only achieve speed and power by being physically efficient, that is, having no wasted motions. Playing each finger with a lot of articulation will not give you a dazzlingly fast arpeggio. Instead, there must be the feeling of a grand sweep with the arm with the fingers precisely in the right place at the right time, but not with each finger making a separate and distinct action. Yet when you play very slowly, you are likely to do just that -- make a separate movement with each finger, for it is difficult to get a "sweep" with the arm at a slow tempo. If you want to master the technique of playing fast, you have to play fast. You will have some stumbles and plenty of "wrong notes" at first. But you will gradually train your body (hands, arms and fingers) to be efficient. Playing the piano is very athletic, and learning to play it is very similar to athletic training. You must learn to increase your reaction time, the ability of your body to respond very quickly. You can't do that by always playing slowly. I've found that most people who try playing slowly and gradually increasing their speed never succeed at playing fast and demanding pieces. They haven't trained their bodies to respond at those speeds.
3. The sound is distorted. Imagine listening to your favorite song on a recording played at a very slow speed. It sounds warped and distorted. When you play very slowly, your ear loses the connection between tones, and can't hear the whole phrase as it should sound. You are essentially giving a false or distorted auditory image to the ear. Since I believe the ear is of the utmost importance, and is really "running the show," I don't believe it is desirable to give it a distorted image so much of the time.
How, then, do we learn a new piece, if not by playing it slowly? The first answer is outlining. For a full description, see my previous post on this wonderful, life-altering method of learning. You play a "sketch" of the piece, hands together, seeking to play the most important, structural elements, and omitting the small details. You play at the the desired tempo, or as close to it as you can, but since you are omitting notes it does not feel terribly fast or demanding at the early stages. You gradually fill in more details. Some will come easily -- more easily than you might have expected. Others may not and you will need to do some "spot work" on those passages. Spot work may involve some very slow playing, so you can observe exactly what your hands are doing and make corrections to the problems you find. But the spot work would be in small doses, only as much as is really necessary.
It is impossible to describe here how I work on every type of technical issue. But to summarize, I am making sure that the arm, hand and fingers are all working together for maximum power and speed, as well as for a focused, precise touch for slow and delicate passages. I give specifically-designed "set-ups" for the student to practice the specific technical challenge. But if the passage being worked on is a fast one, the practice will necessitate playing fast -- even faster than you may ultimately play it -- to increase efficiency and reaction times.
Ear work, through transposing, also helps you to learn the piece. When you are new to transposing you will probably find you need to go quite slowly. But here it is "worth the price." The benefits you are getting by transposing outweigh the problems with slow playing. And you need to give your ear time to really hear the relationships.
It's pretty simple, really: you become what you practice. If you want to play hands together, don't practice hands separately. If you want to play musically, don't practice mechanically. If you want to play boldly, don't practice timidly. If you want to play fast, don't practice everything slowly!
The general idea is to play extremely slowly and gradually increase the tempo until you are playing at the desired tempo of the piece. This may sound logical at first, but does it really work? More to the point, would it produce the desired musical effect, a performance with passion and dazzling brilliance?
If you wanted to run very fast, would you start by walking very slowly and gradually increasing the speed until you were running? Not really: walking and running are quite different from one another and require different coordination. Walking does not necessarily prepare you for running. Slow playing does not necessarily prepare you for fast playing.
Here are a few of the inherent pitfalls of very slow playing:
1. It can be very un-musical. Notice I say can be. Very slow playing encourages very note-wise playing. What I mean by note-wise is that familiar sound of a total beginner playing, for example, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Each note is emphasized equally, giving a very stiff, stodgy, boring effect. There is no feeling of movement or destination. In fact, the destination is always the very next note, which is not really a destination at all. There is no sense of a phrase, or what musicians call a "long line." If you speak a sentence this way, or a line of poetry, you will hear the effect -- it's very robotic. Yet this is often how people play. In fact, playing this way is encouraged by many teachers for the playing of "finger exercises." When you play a piece of music slowly, note by note, you are often playing it as if it were some kind of exercise. This will simply not translate to gorgeous, exciting playing at some later time.
2. It encourages inefficiency. If you have a piece with very challenging technical aspects, whether it be rapid scale passages, arpeggios, octaves, or whatever, you will only achieve speed and power by being physically efficient, that is, having no wasted motions. Playing each finger with a lot of articulation will not give you a dazzlingly fast arpeggio. Instead, there must be the feeling of a grand sweep with the arm with the fingers precisely in the right place at the right time, but not with each finger making a separate and distinct action. Yet when you play very slowly, you are likely to do just that -- make a separate movement with each finger, for it is difficult to get a "sweep" with the arm at a slow tempo. If you want to master the technique of playing fast, you have to play fast. You will have some stumbles and plenty of "wrong notes" at first. But you will gradually train your body (hands, arms and fingers) to be efficient. Playing the piano is very athletic, and learning to play it is very similar to athletic training. You must learn to increase your reaction time, the ability of your body to respond very quickly. You can't do that by always playing slowly. I've found that most people who try playing slowly and gradually increasing their speed never succeed at playing fast and demanding pieces. They haven't trained their bodies to respond at those speeds.
3. The sound is distorted. Imagine listening to your favorite song on a recording played at a very slow speed. It sounds warped and distorted. When you play very slowly, your ear loses the connection between tones, and can't hear the whole phrase as it should sound. You are essentially giving a false or distorted auditory image to the ear. Since I believe the ear is of the utmost importance, and is really "running the show," I don't believe it is desirable to give it a distorted image so much of the time.
How, then, do we learn a new piece, if not by playing it slowly? The first answer is outlining. For a full description, see my previous post on this wonderful, life-altering method of learning. You play a "sketch" of the piece, hands together, seeking to play the most important, structural elements, and omitting the small details. You play at the the desired tempo, or as close to it as you can, but since you are omitting notes it does not feel terribly fast or demanding at the early stages. You gradually fill in more details. Some will come easily -- more easily than you might have expected. Others may not and you will need to do some "spot work" on those passages. Spot work may involve some very slow playing, so you can observe exactly what your hands are doing and make corrections to the problems you find. But the spot work would be in small doses, only as much as is really necessary.
It is impossible to describe here how I work on every type of technical issue. But to summarize, I am making sure that the arm, hand and fingers are all working together for maximum power and speed, as well as for a focused, precise touch for slow and delicate passages. I give specifically-designed "set-ups" for the student to practice the specific technical challenge. But if the passage being worked on is a fast one, the practice will necessitate playing fast -- even faster than you may ultimately play it -- to increase efficiency and reaction times.
Ear work, through transposing, also helps you to learn the piece. When you are new to transposing you will probably find you need to go quite slowly. But here it is "worth the price." The benefits you are getting by transposing outweigh the problems with slow playing. And you need to give your ear time to really hear the relationships.
It's pretty simple, really: you become what you practice. If you want to play hands together, don't practice hands separately. If you want to play musically, don't practice mechanically. If you want to play boldly, don't practice timidly. If you want to play fast, don't practice everything slowly!
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Fear
It's a sad fact that fear dominates the lives and determines the actions of many people to one degree or another. Luckily, you who are reading this probably do not live in fear of war, famine, or other severe hardships. But we do live in fear of what others think of us, fear of speaking our minds, fear of following our hearts or our true calling, fear of making mistakes -- the list goes on and on. These fears often prevent us from achieving our full potential or full happiness in life.
I always feel that playing the piano and studying the piano is a microcosm for life itself. Many of the challenges or triumphs I have, or have had, in life, I have at the piano as well. Fear comes into play when we play the piano and when we practice. It prevents us from playing our best, our most expressively, because it makes us cautious, and cautious playing lacks the passion, the immediacy and spontaneity that inspiring playing must have. It also makes us physically tense, and that contributes to lack of physical prowess and expression.
Fear shows itself at the piano in several ways. The most common fear by far is the fear of "wrong notes." For most people learning to play the piano, even many advanced or professional pianists, playing a wrong note causes them to cringe, and usually to go back and "correct" the missed notes as quickly as possible. I say "correct," but in fact it does not change the fact that the incorrect notes were sounded, and it compounds the problem with another, and worse, problem, in that the rhythm is now incorrect as well. Sometimes the first attempt to correct the note fails and an additional attempt is necessary; after a few of these, the whole passage begins to unravel and there is no alternative but to stop completely and start the piece, or the section, over. Sound familiar?
The attempt to correct a note is usually done in a panicky way; the body is tense and the sounds created can be harsh, out of balance with the rest of the surrounding phrase, and obviously, unattractive and unmusical. If the body is tense you certainly won't have the freest or most fluid technique. If you have a fear about a large jump, for example, you will fall short of your target, because you are tense. Even if you eventually manage to get the right notes in that part, the sound will be strained and will lack excitement. To make matters worse, when we repeatedly have wrong note(s) in a particular place, we tense up when we even start to approach that point in the music. Our bodies say "Uh-oh, here comes that place I usually screw up....." and we tighten up in anticipation. What most people don't realize is that when we have anxiety about a certain place in the piece, our ear also "cuts out," or stops listening. We are so focused on what we perceive as the problem that we just don't keep listening in an open and relaxed way. This is the last thing we want, because we need the ear to be absorbing the music and guiding us. When we stop listening, we lose the most important tool we have, the auditory image of how the music sounds. Without the auditory image, we will continue having problems in that part of the piece, regardless of how much "technical" work we do. That one little "wrong" note has now caused an avalanche of problems, most of which we aren't even aware of. To many students of the piano, the whole matter of "wrong notes" and how to "fix" them becomes an ongoing and frustrating issue.
How do I address this fear? First of all, you must have a change in your attitude. You must expect that in the course of learning so complex an instrument, with the hundreds of thousands of processes in your brain and corresponding actions in your muscles at every moment, you will play MANY MANY wrong notes! Just get used to that fact! Instead of regarding them as mistakes which must be "corrected" before anyone notices, see if you can hear the beauty of the music beyond the notes. The beauty of the music is more than the sum of its parts. (My friends often tease me about the fact that I sometimes will listen to a piece of music on the car radio, for example, even with static or bad reception. "How can you listen to this?" they ask. The funny thing is that I don't hear the static, I just hear the music.) The trick here is that you also must be playing with full commitment, full emotional involvement, as I have talked about in previous posts. When you do that, you will be enjoying the experience of playing so much that you would not even THINK of spoiling it to stop and correct a note. To play beautifully, you must love the wrong notes as much as you love the right ones.
Now at this point, everyone will be asking, how do you prevent the wrong notes from becoming ingrained and permanent? I am not suggesting that note-inaccuracies be ignored. First we need to know the cause of the problem. It is probably a combination of our physical coordination and lack of clear auditory image. The physical issues are difficult to address here, because it IS PHYSICAL. Your hand position could be off, you could be using your body inefficiently (e.g. too much finger action, not enough arm) or thousands of other possibilities, which a perceptive teacher who really understands technique can help you address. The lack of auditory image can be addressed, as I have talked about in previous posts, through transposing and other forms of ear work. If you do the right kinds of practice on the piece, you will gradually see the note errors decrease, without having sacrificed your enjoyment or musicality. You need to be patient; don't expect "perfection." Even a note-perfect performance may not be "perfect" in other aspects. Maybe we could just give up the idea of being perfect altogether. People who expect themselves to be perfect are, in my experience, usually not very happy people. Instead of striving for a perfect performance, strive for one that feels authentic for you. In other words, be the "author" of your experience.
The next most common fear is that of fully expressing oneself. I find that most people are usually "holding back" when they play. It's almost as if they are conserving their "musicality" for some future performance, like conserving energy. But the reverse is true. The more you "conserve," the more conservative your playing will be. I suppose there are exceptions, but I believe very few people want to hear someone play "conservatively."
You may be holding back because you fear people will not like, or approve of, what you have to say. The more you practice "saying what you have to say," the easier it becomes. Some people will love what you have to say, others will not, in life and at the piano. If you hold back your full expression in practice, you will only know how to hold back. It's as simple as that.
You can see how these two fears -- fear of making mistakes and fear of expressing yourself -- are common in our lives today. The brilliant thing is, when you work on these fears at the piano, your life will change too! Some of my students have really taken this to heart. They regard their lessons with me, and their practice at home, as a kind of life-therapy, but more fun, and cheaper too!
I remember hearing about a man who had his hand-writing analyzed; he was told he was rigid and insensitive. He studied what kind of handwriting a flexible and sensitive person would have, and went to work changing his handwriting to be that of the kind of person he wanted to be. It took him years, but over the course of putting his heart, mind and body into the effort, he did change and become the person his handwriting now reflected. Think about the fearless and passionate person you want to be. Become that person when you play the piano and you will become that way in life too.
I always feel that playing the piano and studying the piano is a microcosm for life itself. Many of the challenges or triumphs I have, or have had, in life, I have at the piano as well. Fear comes into play when we play the piano and when we practice. It prevents us from playing our best, our most expressively, because it makes us cautious, and cautious playing lacks the passion, the immediacy and spontaneity that inspiring playing must have. It also makes us physically tense, and that contributes to lack of physical prowess and expression.
Fear shows itself at the piano in several ways. The most common fear by far is the fear of "wrong notes." For most people learning to play the piano, even many advanced or professional pianists, playing a wrong note causes them to cringe, and usually to go back and "correct" the missed notes as quickly as possible. I say "correct," but in fact it does not change the fact that the incorrect notes were sounded, and it compounds the problem with another, and worse, problem, in that the rhythm is now incorrect as well. Sometimes the first attempt to correct the note fails and an additional attempt is necessary; after a few of these, the whole passage begins to unravel and there is no alternative but to stop completely and start the piece, or the section, over. Sound familiar?
The attempt to correct a note is usually done in a panicky way; the body is tense and the sounds created can be harsh, out of balance with the rest of the surrounding phrase, and obviously, unattractive and unmusical. If the body is tense you certainly won't have the freest or most fluid technique. If you have a fear about a large jump, for example, you will fall short of your target, because you are tense. Even if you eventually manage to get the right notes in that part, the sound will be strained and will lack excitement. To make matters worse, when we repeatedly have wrong note(s) in a particular place, we tense up when we even start to approach that point in the music. Our bodies say "Uh-oh, here comes that place I usually screw up....." and we tighten up in anticipation. What most people don't realize is that when we have anxiety about a certain place in the piece, our ear also "cuts out," or stops listening. We are so focused on what we perceive as the problem that we just don't keep listening in an open and relaxed way. This is the last thing we want, because we need the ear to be absorbing the music and guiding us. When we stop listening, we lose the most important tool we have, the auditory image of how the music sounds. Without the auditory image, we will continue having problems in that part of the piece, regardless of how much "technical" work we do. That one little "wrong" note has now caused an avalanche of problems, most of which we aren't even aware of. To many students of the piano, the whole matter of "wrong notes" and how to "fix" them becomes an ongoing and frustrating issue.
How do I address this fear? First of all, you must have a change in your attitude. You must expect that in the course of learning so complex an instrument, with the hundreds of thousands of processes in your brain and corresponding actions in your muscles at every moment, you will play MANY MANY wrong notes! Just get used to that fact! Instead of regarding them as mistakes which must be "corrected" before anyone notices, see if you can hear the beauty of the music beyond the notes. The beauty of the music is more than the sum of its parts. (My friends often tease me about the fact that I sometimes will listen to a piece of music on the car radio, for example, even with static or bad reception. "How can you listen to this?" they ask. The funny thing is that I don't hear the static, I just hear the music.) The trick here is that you also must be playing with full commitment, full emotional involvement, as I have talked about in previous posts. When you do that, you will be enjoying the experience of playing so much that you would not even THINK of spoiling it to stop and correct a note. To play beautifully, you must love the wrong notes as much as you love the right ones.
Now at this point, everyone will be asking, how do you prevent the wrong notes from becoming ingrained and permanent? I am not suggesting that note-inaccuracies be ignored. First we need to know the cause of the problem. It is probably a combination of our physical coordination and lack of clear auditory image. The physical issues are difficult to address here, because it IS PHYSICAL. Your hand position could be off, you could be using your body inefficiently (e.g. too much finger action, not enough arm) or thousands of other possibilities, which a perceptive teacher who really understands technique can help you address. The lack of auditory image can be addressed, as I have talked about in previous posts, through transposing and other forms of ear work. If you do the right kinds of practice on the piece, you will gradually see the note errors decrease, without having sacrificed your enjoyment or musicality. You need to be patient; don't expect "perfection." Even a note-perfect performance may not be "perfect" in other aspects. Maybe we could just give up the idea of being perfect altogether. People who expect themselves to be perfect are, in my experience, usually not very happy people. Instead of striving for a perfect performance, strive for one that feels authentic for you. In other words, be the "author" of your experience.
The next most common fear is that of fully expressing oneself. I find that most people are usually "holding back" when they play. It's almost as if they are conserving their "musicality" for some future performance, like conserving energy. But the reverse is true. The more you "conserve," the more conservative your playing will be. I suppose there are exceptions, but I believe very few people want to hear someone play "conservatively."
You may be holding back because you fear people will not like, or approve of, what you have to say. The more you practice "saying what you have to say," the easier it becomes. Some people will love what you have to say, others will not, in life and at the piano. If you hold back your full expression in practice, you will only know how to hold back. It's as simple as that.
You can see how these two fears -- fear of making mistakes and fear of expressing yourself -- are common in our lives today. The brilliant thing is, when you work on these fears at the piano, your life will change too! Some of my students have really taken this to heart. They regard their lessons with me, and their practice at home, as a kind of life-therapy, but more fun, and cheaper too!
I remember hearing about a man who had his hand-writing analyzed; he was told he was rigid and insensitive. He studied what kind of handwriting a flexible and sensitive person would have, and went to work changing his handwriting to be that of the kind of person he wanted to be. It took him years, but over the course of putting his heart, mind and body into the effort, he did change and become the person his handwriting now reflected. Think about the fearless and passionate person you want to be. Become that person when you play the piano and you will become that way in life too.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Getting the Most From Practice Time
Frequently students, or their parents, ask me how much time they should spend practicing each day. My answer is usually this: until you see improvement. But I really wish they would ask about the quality of practice rather than the quantity.
At my lessons I put a great deal of emphasis on showing the students how to practice. I view the lesson as a sort of supervised practice session. The methods and techniques that I show them at the lesson are to be done at home. Too often people view the lesson as a sort of "test" and the time at home as "homework." I don't view it that way at all.
Here are a few of the most important elements of practice:
1. Focus and energy: If you aren't focusing your full attention on what you are doing, you may as well go do something else. If you are playing through your pieces while thinking about work or what you will make for dinner, you would be better off just going and doing those things instead of playing the piano. It is absolutely a myth that you are still getting something from it if you are just going through the motions, running your fingers through the music, so to speak. You must be listening with laser-like focus, to really hear your playing in the most clear and objective way possible. You must also give attention to your body, to know what your hands, fingers, arms and torso are doing, and to sense unnecessary tension, so that you can correct any problems you find rather than reinforcing the problems by continuing to play them over and over. Try to clear your mind, become aware of your body, and center yourself before you begin practicing. This type of focus is not easy to sustain for hours on end, so it is better to do smaller amounts, or take more frequent breaks and re-center yourself, than to do a long stretch of practice without focus and energy.
2. Playing with full emotional involvement: I know it is a commonly held belief that it is fine, even desirable, to "learn the notes" of a piece before adding "expression." If you've read my previous posts, you know that I emphatically disagree with this idea. Everything that comprises that elusive quality we call expression, or musicality, is channeled into something you do physically. Every tiny nuance in your physical touch of the keys affects the dynamics, the phrasing, the timing, and many other subtleties. My point here is that if you are practicing without emotional involvement or "expression," you are practicing in a way that will have to change later. You are using a different physical coordination than you will ultimately need, and therefore you are practicing something that you will have to discard and replace with a different physical coordination. The expression is not something you can add at the end, like a coat of paint. Or perhaps to put it in its simplest way, you become what you practice: if you practice playing mechanically, without expression, you will become good at playing that way. When students play for me at the lesson without full emotional involvement, I often ask them, "What are you saving it for?" Aim to play with the full force of your being 100% of the time.
3. Ear work: Most students mistakenly believe that when we practice we are just practicing the physical -- the movements of the fingers, hands and arms. But you need to be working on developing your ear, as much, if not more, than the physical mechanisms. The ear will be guiding your hands in everything you play, and if your ear does not really know, at a very deep level, how the music sounds, you will never achieve mastery. Ear work such as transposing or figuring out new music by ear should be done at every practice session.
4. Hands together: Practicing hands separately has been a mainstay for pianists for centuries, but I believe it is a big mistake. The ultimate challenge of the piano is the two-hand coordination, so you may as well jump in and practice that as much as you possibly can. No amount of playing hands separately truly prepares you for playing hands together, because it doesn't develop the corpus callosum, the part of the brain that enables you to play hands together. My motto is: "Practice time is too precious to spend it with one hand in your lap." Read my previous post on outlining to see how it is possible to play hands together right from the beginning.
5. Eyes closed: Once you know a piece by memory, or if you are playing by ear and/or improvising, you should spend as much time as possible playing with eyes closed. This develops your kinesthetic awareness and advances your technical mastery. It is a well-established fact that taking away one sense strengthens the others, and we've all seen the technical prowess that many blind pianists have. I tell my students that if they want to double the rate of their progress, play everything with eyes closed. (If you did the ear work described above, you'll memorize more quickly and be able to play with eyes closed sooner.) Playing with eyes closed is "practicing on steroids."
6. Play real music: Don't spend your precious practice time doing mechanical exercises like Hanon or Czerny. I give my students what I call "set-ups," specifically designed technical work, often derived from the pieces they are playing, which help develop mastery of specific techniques. These are meant to be done in small enough doses that they don't become drudgery but are still effective. Most traditional exercises aren't conducive to playing with expression, and spending too much time on them will cause you to play mechanically.
If you put these principles into practice, you'll find you achieve more in less time, and enjoy your practice time more. What could be better than that?
At my lessons I put a great deal of emphasis on showing the students how to practice. I view the lesson as a sort of supervised practice session. The methods and techniques that I show them at the lesson are to be done at home. Too often people view the lesson as a sort of "test" and the time at home as "homework." I don't view it that way at all.
Here are a few of the most important elements of practice:
1. Focus and energy: If you aren't focusing your full attention on what you are doing, you may as well go do something else. If you are playing through your pieces while thinking about work or what you will make for dinner, you would be better off just going and doing those things instead of playing the piano. It is absolutely a myth that you are still getting something from it if you are just going through the motions, running your fingers through the music, so to speak. You must be listening with laser-like focus, to really hear your playing in the most clear and objective way possible. You must also give attention to your body, to know what your hands, fingers, arms and torso are doing, and to sense unnecessary tension, so that you can correct any problems you find rather than reinforcing the problems by continuing to play them over and over. Try to clear your mind, become aware of your body, and center yourself before you begin practicing. This type of focus is not easy to sustain for hours on end, so it is better to do smaller amounts, or take more frequent breaks and re-center yourself, than to do a long stretch of practice without focus and energy.
2. Playing with full emotional involvement: I know it is a commonly held belief that it is fine, even desirable, to "learn the notes" of a piece before adding "expression." If you've read my previous posts, you know that I emphatically disagree with this idea. Everything that comprises that elusive quality we call expression, or musicality, is channeled into something you do physically. Every tiny nuance in your physical touch of the keys affects the dynamics, the phrasing, the timing, and many other subtleties. My point here is that if you are practicing without emotional involvement or "expression," you are practicing in a way that will have to change later. You are using a different physical coordination than you will ultimately need, and therefore you are practicing something that you will have to discard and replace with a different physical coordination. The expression is not something you can add at the end, like a coat of paint. Or perhaps to put it in its simplest way, you become what you practice: if you practice playing mechanically, without expression, you will become good at playing that way. When students play for me at the lesson without full emotional involvement, I often ask them, "What are you saving it for?" Aim to play with the full force of your being 100% of the time.
3. Ear work: Most students mistakenly believe that when we practice we are just practicing the physical -- the movements of the fingers, hands and arms. But you need to be working on developing your ear, as much, if not more, than the physical mechanisms. The ear will be guiding your hands in everything you play, and if your ear does not really know, at a very deep level, how the music sounds, you will never achieve mastery. Ear work such as transposing or figuring out new music by ear should be done at every practice session.
4. Hands together: Practicing hands separately has been a mainstay for pianists for centuries, but I believe it is a big mistake. The ultimate challenge of the piano is the two-hand coordination, so you may as well jump in and practice that as much as you possibly can. No amount of playing hands separately truly prepares you for playing hands together, because it doesn't develop the corpus callosum, the part of the brain that enables you to play hands together. My motto is: "Practice time is too precious to spend it with one hand in your lap." Read my previous post on outlining to see how it is possible to play hands together right from the beginning.
5. Eyes closed: Once you know a piece by memory, or if you are playing by ear and/or improvising, you should spend as much time as possible playing with eyes closed. This develops your kinesthetic awareness and advances your technical mastery. It is a well-established fact that taking away one sense strengthens the others, and we've all seen the technical prowess that many blind pianists have. I tell my students that if they want to double the rate of their progress, play everything with eyes closed. (If you did the ear work described above, you'll memorize more quickly and be able to play with eyes closed sooner.) Playing with eyes closed is "practicing on steroids."
6. Play real music: Don't spend your precious practice time doing mechanical exercises like Hanon or Czerny. I give my students what I call "set-ups," specifically designed technical work, often derived from the pieces they are playing, which help develop mastery of specific techniques. These are meant to be done in small enough doses that they don't become drudgery but are still effective. Most traditional exercises aren't conducive to playing with expression, and spending too much time on them will cause you to play mechanically.
If you put these principles into practice, you'll find you achieve more in less time, and enjoy your practice time more. What could be better than that?
Monday, June 27, 2011
Seventh Chords
In my previous posts I showed how I teach basic chords (triads). Here I would like to explain how I teach seventh chords (4-note chords).
I find that many people who have come from other teachers, or who have self-taught, have a cumbersome and confusing way of trying to remember seventh chords. Many have learned a method that involves playing one type (e.g. Major 7th chord) and then altering it, note by note (e.g. lower the 7th, lower the 3rd, lower the 5th, etc.) to get the chord they want. This multi-step process is simply too slow for real-time playing. Others have used a chart which shows all the chords, triads and seventh chords, written out in notation, and have tried to memorize the notes of every chord. This would mean memorizing over 100 distinct chords, a very long process for a beginner.
Why not just learn how each type of chord is constructed? Once you know the "system," you can use it to build any chord starting on any note. It involves far less rote memorization, yet you can become quick enough at forming the chords to do it in "real-time" playing.
Before seeing how seventh chords are constructed, we have to understand intervals, specifically the meaning of "major" and "minor" as they pertain to intervals. The word "major" means big, and the word "minor" means small. They do not refer to the associations we have with them, major being the happy, bright sound, and minor being the somber, dark sound. A major 7th interval is the larger of the two possible 7ths; a minor 7th interval is the smaller of the two possible 7ths. (If the preceding description of intervals is completely new and confusing to you, you will need to get a book on theory that explains intervals.)
Every seventh chord has a triad as its base, and adds a 7th, measured from the root of the chord. If you know the construction of the major, minor, and diminished triads, and understand major vs. minor 7ths (intervals), you can build the five basic types of seventh chords.
Below you'll see the name of the chord, followed by how it is constructed, followed by an example of the symbol used in "fake books," which are books used for learning pop and jazz music, where the chords are written using symbols, not standard notation. (I'm using G as the root for our examples).
1.) Dominant 7th chord
major triad + minor 7th G7
2.) Major 7th chord
major triad + major 7th Gmaj7
3.) Minor 7th chord
minor triad + minor 7th Gm7
4.) Half-diminished 7th chord
diminished triad + minor 7th Gm7b5
5.) Diminished 7th chord
diminished triad + diminished 7th Gdim7
The last two require a bit of explanation.
For a half-diminished 7th, the symbol used most often (again using G as our example) is Gm7b5. This is because if you form a minor 7th chord, as shown above, and flat, or lower, the 5th of the chord, you get what I have shown, that is, a diminished triad with the addition of a minor 7th.
The diminished 7th chord uses a diminished 7th interval, which is a minor 7th interval made smaller by a half-step, which means it is really a major 6th! You might wonder why is isn't called a "6th chord." Although the outer interval is "enharmonically" (sounds like) a 6th, it is still functioning as a 7th, because the chord is still built of thirds, and therefore has a root, a 3rd, a 5th, and a 7th.
I recommend to my students to keep the above chart handy, and practice building all five kinds of seventh chords on all keys, at first going around the Circle of Fifths, and later just randomly. You will find that if you understand and internalize the system, you can get proficient and playing these chords, which are, of course, essential for all jazz and most pop music.
I find that many people who have come from other teachers, or who have self-taught, have a cumbersome and confusing way of trying to remember seventh chords. Many have learned a method that involves playing one type (e.g. Major 7th chord) and then altering it, note by note (e.g. lower the 7th, lower the 3rd, lower the 5th, etc.) to get the chord they want. This multi-step process is simply too slow for real-time playing. Others have used a chart which shows all the chords, triads and seventh chords, written out in notation, and have tried to memorize the notes of every chord. This would mean memorizing over 100 distinct chords, a very long process for a beginner.
Why not just learn how each type of chord is constructed? Once you know the "system," you can use it to build any chord starting on any note. It involves far less rote memorization, yet you can become quick enough at forming the chords to do it in "real-time" playing.
Before seeing how seventh chords are constructed, we have to understand intervals, specifically the meaning of "major" and "minor" as they pertain to intervals. The word "major" means big, and the word "minor" means small. They do not refer to the associations we have with them, major being the happy, bright sound, and minor being the somber, dark sound. A major 7th interval is the larger of the two possible 7ths; a minor 7th interval is the smaller of the two possible 7ths. (If the preceding description of intervals is completely new and confusing to you, you will need to get a book on theory that explains intervals.)
Every seventh chord has a triad as its base, and adds a 7th, measured from the root of the chord. If you know the construction of the major, minor, and diminished triads, and understand major vs. minor 7ths (intervals), you can build the five basic types of seventh chords.
Below you'll see the name of the chord, followed by how it is constructed, followed by an example of the symbol used in "fake books," which are books used for learning pop and jazz music, where the chords are written using symbols, not standard notation. (I'm using G as the root for our examples).
1.) Dominant 7th chord
major triad + minor 7th G7
2.) Major 7th chord
major triad + major 7th Gmaj7
3.) Minor 7th chord
minor triad + minor 7th Gm7
4.) Half-diminished 7th chord
diminished triad + minor 7th Gm7b5
5.) Diminished 7th chord
diminished triad + diminished 7th Gdim7
The last two require a bit of explanation.
For a half-diminished 7th, the symbol used most often (again using G as our example) is Gm7b5. This is because if you form a minor 7th chord, as shown above, and flat, or lower, the 5th of the chord, you get what I have shown, that is, a diminished triad with the addition of a minor 7th.
The diminished 7th chord uses a diminished 7th interval, which is a minor 7th interval made smaller by a half-step, which means it is really a major 6th! You might wonder why is isn't called a "6th chord." Although the outer interval is "enharmonically" (sounds like) a 6th, it is still functioning as a 7th, because the chord is still built of thirds, and therefore has a root, a 3rd, a 5th, and a 7th.
I recommend to my students to keep the above chart handy, and practice building all five kinds of seventh chords on all keys, at first going around the Circle of Fifths, and later just randomly. You will find that if you understand and internalize the system, you can get proficient and playing these chords, which are, of course, essential for all jazz and most pop music.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Chords, Part II
In my March 2011 post I described how I teach the major and minor triads, by their physical "shape." By doing this, the student is able to play many simple songs in any key, with melody in right hand and chords in the left. They have learned these chords without needing to know a great deal of "theory" or even how to read music notation. They are still playing melodies by ear. I want them to have the ability and satisfaction of playing a lot of material early on in their lessons.
Next I show them inversions, which are the triads with the order of the notes re-arranged. It is essential the student learn these with good hand position/fingering, using the same ones for that inversion on any triad, regardless of whether it is on black or white keys. Doing this with eyes closed will ensure that the hand really knows the shape of the inversions, rather than depending on eye to find them, which is just too slow for real-life playing. With the feel of the inversions well in hand, I show what I call "close position," where you are playing the I chord (e.g. the C major chord if you are in the key of C) in root position, and the IV and V chords (e.g. the F and G major chords, respectively) in the closest inversions. You now have an easier way to harmonize songs using these three chords, as you are not jumping back and forth between root positions.
Next we need to learn the two other types of triads, diminished and augmented. Before doing this, we have a session on understanding intervals, and how we define or "measure" them in our musical system. Now we get into a bit of the "theory" that we skipped earlier.
One of the big stumbling blocks to people's understanding of chords, harmony, and musical theory in general, is the misconception about the terms "major" and "minor." Most people who are even a bit familiar with music (classical, pop, jazz, or whatever) have come to associate the word "major" with a brighter, happier kind of sound or mood, and "minor" with a darker, more somber, sad or mysterious sound. This association is pretty universal and no one can really explain why these particular relationships of frequencies affect our emotions the way they do -- one of the wonderful mysteries of music! But the terms themselves do not mean happy or sad, bright or dark. MAJOR means big, and MINOR means small, simple as that. A MAJOR triad is so named because its first interval is a MAJOR (larger) third. A MINOR triad is so named because its first interval is a MINOR (smaller) third. If the student doesn't understand this distinction, it will be devilishly hard to really understand 7th chords (4-note chords) and other complex chords (9ths, 11ths, 13ths).
Here's how we construct all four kinds of triads:
(The first interval is from the first note to the second, and the second interval is from the 2nd note to the 3rd, building from bottom to top, as we do in everything in music.)
MAJOR = major 3rd + minor 3rd
MINOR = minor 3rd + major 3rd
DIMINISHED = minor 3rd + minor 3rd
AUGMENTED = major 3rd + major 3rd
Notice again that the first two are named for their first intervals. Diminished is so named because it is the smallest triad, augmented because it is the largest.
Many people learn diminished as "take a minor triad and lower the fifth" and augmented as "take a major triad and raise the fifth," which of course gives you the same result, but it is a bad system, because it forces you to find chords as a two-step process, rather than just know how each one is built and find it in one step.
The student will practice finding and playing all four kinds of triads on all 12 keys. I absolutely do not use any written out chord charts or books which show the actual notes, nor would I let the students write the notes out themselves. This would be like giving you a fish but not teaching you to fish. If you simply refer to a chart which shows you exactly which notes to play, you don't necessarily understand the system. Without this understanding, you will have far too many things to remember. (There will be 48 unique triads, and over 60 unique 7th chords to remember, as opposed to just knowing a few basic formulas.) Learning about chords and playing them from symbols in actual music is the best way to learn the basics of theory, in my opinion.
The student can now play songs from fake books, where the melody is written out in standard musical notation, which I have been teaching them along with the chords and playing by ear if they didn't already know it, and the chords are written in symbols. This is a fun way to learn and play, and gives them the ability to play music that might be beyond their reading ability at this point. They can play any song which uses all the kinds of triads listed above, in any key. They have not yet learned 7th chords; that will be the topic of my next post.
Next I show them inversions, which are the triads with the order of the notes re-arranged. It is essential the student learn these with good hand position/fingering, using the same ones for that inversion on any triad, regardless of whether it is on black or white keys. Doing this with eyes closed will ensure that the hand really knows the shape of the inversions, rather than depending on eye to find them, which is just too slow for real-life playing. With the feel of the inversions well in hand, I show what I call "close position," where you are playing the I chord (e.g. the C major chord if you are in the key of C) in root position, and the IV and V chords (e.g. the F and G major chords, respectively) in the closest inversions. You now have an easier way to harmonize songs using these three chords, as you are not jumping back and forth between root positions.
Next we need to learn the two other types of triads, diminished and augmented. Before doing this, we have a session on understanding intervals, and how we define or "measure" them in our musical system. Now we get into a bit of the "theory" that we skipped earlier.
One of the big stumbling blocks to people's understanding of chords, harmony, and musical theory in general, is the misconception about the terms "major" and "minor." Most people who are even a bit familiar with music (classical, pop, jazz, or whatever) have come to associate the word "major" with a brighter, happier kind of sound or mood, and "minor" with a darker, more somber, sad or mysterious sound. This association is pretty universal and no one can really explain why these particular relationships of frequencies affect our emotions the way they do -- one of the wonderful mysteries of music! But the terms themselves do not mean happy or sad, bright or dark. MAJOR means big, and MINOR means small, simple as that. A MAJOR triad is so named because its first interval is a MAJOR (larger) third. A MINOR triad is so named because its first interval is a MINOR (smaller) third. If the student doesn't understand this distinction, it will be devilishly hard to really understand 7th chords (4-note chords) and other complex chords (9ths, 11ths, 13ths).
Here's how we construct all four kinds of triads:
(The first interval is from the first note to the second, and the second interval is from the 2nd note to the 3rd, building from bottom to top, as we do in everything in music.)
MAJOR = major 3rd + minor 3rd
MINOR = minor 3rd + major 3rd
DIMINISHED = minor 3rd + minor 3rd
AUGMENTED = major 3rd + major 3rd
Notice again that the first two are named for their first intervals. Diminished is so named because it is the smallest triad, augmented because it is the largest.
Many people learn diminished as "take a minor triad and lower the fifth" and augmented as "take a major triad and raise the fifth," which of course gives you the same result, but it is a bad system, because it forces you to find chords as a two-step process, rather than just know how each one is built and find it in one step.
The student will practice finding and playing all four kinds of triads on all 12 keys. I absolutely do not use any written out chord charts or books which show the actual notes, nor would I let the students write the notes out themselves. This would be like giving you a fish but not teaching you to fish. If you simply refer to a chart which shows you exactly which notes to play, you don't necessarily understand the system. Without this understanding, you will have far too many things to remember. (There will be 48 unique triads, and over 60 unique 7th chords to remember, as opposed to just knowing a few basic formulas.) Learning about chords and playing them from symbols in actual music is the best way to learn the basics of theory, in my opinion.
The student can now play songs from fake books, where the melody is written out in standard musical notation, which I have been teaching them along with the chords and playing by ear if they didn't already know it, and the chords are written in symbols. This is a fun way to learn and play, and gives them the ability to play music that might be beyond their reading ability at this point. They can play any song which uses all the kinds of triads listed above, in any key. They have not yet learned 7th chords; that will be the topic of my next post.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Finding a Teacher
Thank goodness that times have changed and most people would not tolerate a teacher who uses physical violence or punishment, or who yells at or harshly criticizes the student. But there are still a great deal of very poor and destructive teaching methods that are accepted as normal. Here are some of the ones I find most common:
1.) Over-emphasis on scales, finger exercises, and mechanical repetition. A woman came to see me recently, and told me her current teacher spent 45 minutes of her 60-minute lesson having her play scales. The last few minutes of the lesson were for her pieces, and when she asked to be able to play more music, the teacher replied that there wasn't enough time and she would have to take a two-hour lesson for that! Even if the scales were necessary, the teacher should just make sure the student is doing them correctly, then let them do them at home, so the lesson could be spent more productively. I suspect this teacher did not really know how to teach actual music, so he let her just practice her scales while he earned $60 per hour for it! Many teachers seem to give hefty doses of scales and finger exercises, which students usually hate, and by the time they have completed these they have little enthusiasm left for practicing. But more important, scales comprise a very small portion of what one might call "technique." Practicing scales and finger exercises in a mechanical way teaches you to play mechanically. There is little likelihood that if you spend hours playing that way, that you will be able to miraculously flip a switch and play your pieces beautifully and expressively. I believe that heavy reliance on scales and so-called finger exercises is the refuge of an unimaginative and burned-out teacher. If this is how the teacher learned to play the piano, this may be the only way they know how to teach, and they have probably not even questioned whether this is a desirable way to learn. But YOU, the student, should question it.
2.) Teachers who cannot really play. Your teacher does not have to be a concert pianist, but should certainly be able to play pieces of moderate level of difficulty with some ease and fluency. Parents of a new student of mine told me that a previous teacher struggled to play the pieces their child was about to learn. No teacher can possibly teach technique or any other aspect of playing the piano if he/she does not have a fairly high level of mastery of that aspect himself. The teacher needs to be able to recognize what the student is doing that prevents mastery of the technique, and to show the student what needs to be changed, and to demonstrate the technique. It simply won't work for the teacher to "explain" the way to achieve some aspect of playing, without being able to show it. The old saying "Those who can't do, teach" does not apply to every teacher, thank goodness, but, sadly, it still applies to many.
3.) Teachers who can only play and teach one style. If your teacher plays only classical music, and insists that you play only classical music, you might want to re-think taking from that teacher, even if classical is your main interest. The teacher should also be able to help you play by ear, harmonize a simple song, play songs from charts or fake books, in case you should decide one day you want to do that. If the teacher says, "Just do those things on your own," it means they don't know how to do it themselves. It is simply good musicianship for a teacher to have familiarity with various genres of music. Unless you, the student, are quite advanced and you know you are concentrating on one genre, you might want to have your options open by having a teacher who can help you broaden, not limit, your horizons.
Here are some things to consider when interviewing a prospective teacher:
First, will the teacher make the learning enjoyable? Even someone who is “serious” about music has chosen this field, hopefully, because of a love of music and an enjoyment in creating music. Unfortunately, many teachers have squelched this love and enjoyment through rigid methods, excessive repetition, mechanical and non-musical exercises, harsh criticisms, and so on.
Second, will the teacher help bring out the individual’s natural abilities and inclinations? No two people will play alike, and the teacher must not direct the student in how to express himself, but rather to give the tools to enable the student to express his authentic self.
Third, can the teacher teach more than one style? A true musician should have many tools in his toolbox, so to speak. This includes playing be ear, harmonizing songs, perhaps improvising, in addition to the traditional reading of printed scores. Many people are not aware that the great composers, from Bach and Beethoven to Liszt, were master improvisers, and they did so often in public recitals. This is an art we should all try to cultivate to the best of our abilities.
Fourth, ask the teacher to play for you and ask yourself if you enjoyed the playing. If the teacher tells you she cannot play because she is too busy teaching to have time to “practice,” beware! Anyone who has played for a number of years should always be able to play something, even if it is not the highly difficult pieces. And how can the teacher expect the student to do what he/she does not do himself?
Fifth, the teacher should have an excellent piano, a baby grand or grand in good condition and of fine quality. A small spinet or otherwise deficient piano indicates either the teacher is not serious about his/her profession, or is not successful enough to afford a quality instrument. The studio should be neat, clean, and free from distractions such as background noise. The studio should not have the teacher's personal effects or children's toys lying about, and should be pleasant to be in. The teacher should be dressed in a professional manner as a sign of respect and that they view themselves as a professional.
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