The Last Days Before A Recital

Periscope #4

     

Before The Recital

These are some things I covered in the Periscope video on January 26, 2016

1. Encouraging all students to perform 
2. How do we over come performance anxiety?
3. My audience participation piece
4. My own piece at the recital

The week before recital time can be tough for the unprepared and even for those who have  prepared well. There are countless distractions to throw off our focus. Often the rehearsal before is miserable and then the performance goes off without a hitch.

     I don't have an easy answer to making performing simple. I do, however, know that the more we perform the easier it gets. I take each student into a rehearsal in the venue where we will perform and give them time to get familiar. I like knowing how the piano will work and how the sound blooms. This year we will have another audience participation piece performed by a student. This brings a relaxed atmosphere into the room, helping everyone feel involved. Below is a video by Wendy Stevens who wrote this piece.

   Should a teacher perform at her own recital? I think so. I feel the example of being a constant learner is important. When I anguish over my piece it also helps me be empathetic to the concerns my students have. This year I'm playing Star Dust by Elena Cobb. Below is a video of a beautiful performer who captures the piece expertly. To be honest, I played it on Periscope but the distraction of the video ruined my concentration and I erased the whole video. 

   Next week on Periscope I want to share a few things I learned at a online 88 Keys Winter Webshop this weekend. The subject was How To Teach Your Students Pop Music.

     Periscope is a free app by the Twitter company that allows you to broadcast all over the world. There is no time limit. Viewers can participate by typing messages and questions and by sending hearts for content they like. The recorded broadcast is viewable for 24 hours after airing.

                                                                   

Recitals In January?

Periscope #3

Recitals In My Studio

These are the ideas I covered in the short Periscope video I did Tuesday January 19, 2016. :

1. Time of year I hold my recitals
2. Audience participation
3. Playing a piece myself at the recital

  Yes, I have a recital in January, not in December, when everyone is pulled in so many directions but in January, the end of January. That gives us a whole month to prepare. 

As I have done in the past, I like to have at least one audience participation piece. This year I am drawing from Wendy Stevens, Composecreate.com, and using Yee Haw, a lively beginning piece. The two students preparing this piece thought it looked easy but the rests are tricky. They both struggled at first but when I saw them the next week they had it together. I have not decided if I will have the audience clap or if I will hand out wooden sticks to some of the audience. . 

I play myself at every recital. After more than a hundred recitals what do I play this year?  Well, I happened upon the Dec./Jan. edition of the magazine "The Pianist". The 30 pages of free music is always attractive to me. Stardust by Elena Cobb is just right for my performance. Late intermediate difficulty so it allows me some leeway in preparation time and insuring I will have a polished piece. I played the first page on the Periscope video and promised to play the whole thing next Tuesday morning at 10:30 PST. Come join me!

Periscope is a free app by the Twitter company that allows you to broadcast all over the world. There is no time limit. Viewers can participate by typing messages and questions and by sending hearts for content they like. The recorded broadcast is viewable for 24 hours after airing.

                                                                      

The Vulnerability of Performance

 A few days ago my students and I participated in a piano recital. There is something so very vulnerable about playing the piano in front of a crowd. I have been doing it since I was eight but yet every solo performance I have a moment of wanting to back out, even to this day. 

  There are so many facets of our selves which are in view when we perform. Not only is our physical agility evident but our ability to focus, our gift to express feelings through music, and our self-consciousness is open for all to see. 
"Why would you choose to perform if it is so unpleasant?", my son asked. 
  Now that is such a great question. Perhaps it is that when we can open ourselves up whole-heartedly to the music we have come to live and breathe, it is an amazing high.

   During rehearsal M., age 5, balked as I explained that I wanted him to tell the audience his name and the names of his pieces. 

    "I can't," he said, "I'm shy." 

     It was his first recital so I offered to stand with him in front of the group. 

     "It wasn't that bad." he said after with a broad grin. 

   There in a nutshell is the reason to perform frequently. We can learn that our fears are not that real. Coming through a gut-wrenching experience can build hope that we are growing and changing. If we falter the lesson is still important. Perhaps we should have prepared better, or perhaps we learned that life goes on after a stressful event, or best, that we made music come alive and people enjoyed it.

   For the teacher, sitting on the sidelines, the event is emotional. I know too well what could happen. I see their legs shake, their hearts race, and their hands stiffen with cold. I send them bushels of love and hold them together with teacher energy. Then I clap and whisper that they were fabulous and feel privileged to know them in their most vulnerable hour.  It is exhausting, but so worth the effort.

Recital Tips

Dear Parents,
   It is a few days before the recital and perhaps I can pass on a few tips to the handful of new students playing for the first time. And for those of you who have attended year after year, thank-you for preparing your pianist and making the recital an important event.

   I look at performing at a recital as pay back time. When we play for our families we show honor for the money invested in our progress and give joy to a whole room of people. It is not easy to support a child for years of practice with the hope that they hang in long enough to master an instrument. I try to point out to my students how fortunate they are to have an opportunity to learn and be encouraged on all fronts.
   You can prepare your child by talking positively about their performance and give them many small recitals at home. Some students will feel anxious and vulnerable. Please don't deny their honest feelings but talk about how performing only gets easier when you do it. Mistakes happen and they are allowed without recriminations. I try to create a relaxed atmosphere at the recital and most students come through splendidly. You don't need to come early since adrenaline mounts just before, but arriving on time helps to ease tension.
   May I suggest that you look over the program with your child and note if they recognize any of the pieces. Perhaps you can point out some pieces that they should really listen to so that their attention moves to the performance of other students.
  After the recital we share treats in the hall behind the chapel and this is a time when each student can come down from the high of performance. Again, they may want to give some praise and feedback to other performers whose pieces inspired them.
  I feel so lucky to have a venue where I am not obligated to pay a fee for rental. This allows me to make the recital free of charge for you.
  You may want to look at some pictures of past recitals on the archived blog posts labeled Recital Time.
   See you at the big event!

January Recitals

  It has been ages since I posted. I am still around and madly teaching, or teaching madly, I don't know which. News from my studio includes the fact that I moved my recitals from November to January. The jury is still out about whether that is better. This year the big draw is the music to the Sherlock theme from PBS.

  I have a student playing three themes from this series in one recital and in the other recital I will play a medley of Hero's theme from Sherlock with the main theme from Downton Abbey and a small segment from Mrs. Darcy from the Pride and Prejudice movie. They all seem to be in the same key and one moves well into the other.

   Hero's theme is lively and full of mysterious intrigue, while Downton Abbey moves and flows, which brings to mind the changes in from WWI-WW2 in England. Ending with Dario Marianelli's Mrs. Darcy actually takes us backward in time but back to a romantic ending.

                                                      I am paying homage to the English movies I love to see.

   You can find all this music on musicnotes.com where I search often. Thank-you, Musicnotes for making my life easier.

Another Recital, Come and Gone

 It has been a week since my Spring Recital and I have processed the event. This recital was a success for everyone,which is not always the case. Often there a a few glitches for my students and it makes me anxious for them. In the last three weeks I found a duet arrangement of Hungarian Dance by Brahms which two of my beginning students were playing. Playing the whole piece for them always inspires a deeper love for their two-line simple version. I asked my High School students to play with me but as the day got closer they both felt unprepared. As we met at the recital venue one week before, to rehearse, I gave them a last ditch challenge. 

   " You may be given music to play at the last minute in the years ahead and this will require you to dig deep and go for it. If you back out because you are not perfect you'll miss opportunities to grow. We will stumble a bit next week but I have your back and I think the result will be positive."

  It was positive, not perfect, and it inspired my younger students to listen to original versions of their pieces.

  Another memory of this recital that was special was the grandchildren who played. Two sons had children playing and it makes my heart soar to see them progress and develop as musicians. Grace is the child who does video piano lessons with me every week. She was super excited to come to town to participate with her cousins.

Walking in the Night With Mr. Brahms

   
Okay, so last fall at the recital I taught the audience the little MFPA Book B song, "Knock, Knock, Beethoven". I then played the Beethoven Bagatelle from which this little snippet is taken. The audience sang along whenever this phrase was repeated. This idea ended up paying huge dividends as my young students reached that piece in their books. They all remembered singing it at the recital. So I am thinking I should do it again. MFPA books B and C introduce classical composers and they become part of the story line in the books. I think this is making a high difference in the interest my youngest students have in classical music.

   This time I am picking a lovely little piece by Brahms in 3/4 time. The evenings are warming up so walking in the night is something we might actually be doing. The little tune is hiding out around other notes in the original piece but once we hear it several times we will be able to sing along.

  None of my MFPA students have reached this piece, yet. But I am sure they will remember it when we get there. Three weeks until recital time and the pianos here are playing, for sure.

Recital Memories

 

 






 I am reflecting on the success of the fall recital. It was not perfection but there was perfection in the overall feeling of warmth and comfort we receive from music. 

We did a few new and daring things.  " Davy Jones Plays the Organ" was actually played on the organ. "Firework" was arranged by a student and played with a new style, while in the second recital the same piece was played as a duet on two pianos. Two students played and sang, which added fun and pizazz to some old favorites. Three students played their own compositions.
   

My son, the Piano Man, played a fantastic Brahms "Capriccio" and introduced the half steps which undergird the whole composition. I got the whole audience singing "Beethoven's Door" while I played his Bagatelle Opus 33 No.1

  Thank-you to all the parents who encourage and uplift their children in this life long pursuit of acquiring skill on a musical instrument. My aim is to train independent musicians who find joy in playing and sharing their music.

 


















As I post these pictures I feel sad that I did not get a shot of each of my students. Please understand that I was uebermaxed out with things to remember.

"My idea is that there is music in the air, music all around us; the world is full of it, and you simply take as much as you require.'
Edward Elgar 

The Bagatelle

    Every recital an idea emerges among the many pieces my students play which needs to be explored. This time it is the genre of the Bagatelle. The name bagatelle literally means a "trifle", as a reference to the innocent character of the piece. It all started when one of MFPA students played Beethoven's Door, a piece in Book 2. 

                                         It was snippet of music from Beethoven's Opus 33 No. 1.

 I recognized it and turned on the old I-Pod to Alfred Brendel's recording of the Bagatelles. My student listened with interest as the knock, knock part repeated three times.
   "Why does it repeat so many times?" I had an opportunity to explain variation on a theme. Each time the Knock, Knock part appeared it was preceded by a more complex variation. This Bagatelle is challenging with triplets followed by sixteenths and the cascade of sound is a merry wash of color. The best-known bagatelles are probably those by Ludwig van Beethoven, who published three sets, Op. 33, 119 and 126, and wrote a number of similar works that were unpublished in his lifetime including the piece that is popularly known as Für Elise.  
   Several students are playing a Bagatelle, not of Beethoven's, and so I am working the No.1 up myself.

                  It is great fun to play and I hope I can increase my tempo before the week is over.

Recital Time

  It's late fall and I always schedule a recital the Saturday before Thanksgiving. With two weeks left I have some serious questions to ask my student. These questions are conversations starters that help us think honestly about our performance pieces. (Click on resources and scroll down to Recital Time)
  I have hosted close to 50 recitals in my teaching career and the anxious feelings never change. Some students don't get lessons started until late September and 8 weeks is a short time to prepare a challenging piece. Two weeks prior I wonder if they will be ready. But, they always pull it off and life goes on. Next week I will teach lessons at the recital venue and that is the real testing ground. We rehearse our piece, talk about the stiffer grand piano keys, and practice standing on the stage and announcing our name and the piece we are playing. Looking at the audience and talking is very hard for some. I feel pleased when these students overcome their fears.

   Performance is an opportunity to share and show gratitude for those who sacrifice to provide us lessons. Those are the words I say when a student asks, "Why do I have to perform?" These words can sound lame to an anxious child but they are true to me. Thanks, Mom, for guiding me to the bench each day!