Is it a lesson... or a rehearsal?

A bit of background:
As a singer I performed with the Chattanooga Boys Choir for 7 years (directed by Stephen J Ortlip) , the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga Singers for 4 years (directed by Glenn Draper), was an instrumental grad assistant for Carolina Alive (directed by Richard Conant), and have performed with numerous other groups (vocal, pop, rock bands, big bands, etc etc etc ad nauseum).

Oh, and I played tuba in high school band (almost majored in it, in fact, but decided I could make more money as a pianist. I was right.)

I've had 4 piano teachers, each of whom taught in dramatically different ways. One of those teachers - let's call him Mr. Smith - was terrible at teaching, though an excellent pianist. The other three were excellent teachers.

So? The point is that I've had significant experience in performing groups where you "rehearse", you don't practice. So what's the difference, and what in chocolate milk's name does this have to do with teaching piano?

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"Lesson", all too often, brings forth images of the poor pitiful student playing away at the keyboard, while the teacher hangs over them unapprovingly with a pointy stick, ready to jab the student at any mistake. The student pounds away at piece after piece after piece, while the teacher gives constant feedback: "This was wrong, this was wrong....".

While extreme, I think many teachers think of a piano lesson in this galaxy (if not neighborhood!) - where the student is there to soak up fountains of learning poured forth by the almighty teacher. In some situations this would work, but I posit that a different approach can work a world of wonders: Treat the lesson like a rehearsal.

So, what's the difference between a lesson and rehearsal? In a lesson, you are one to one, and often it has the aforementioned floodgates of knowledge - sponge type of dynamic. A rehearsal, though, has much more give and take. There is often a focus on a particular passage, rather than a runthrough - accompanied by practicing techniques to overcome limitations and mis-playings.

For example, in your typical choir rehearsal with a good director, the choir may not do a complete runthrough of a piece for several rehearsals - instead focusing on particular passages that have or may prove problematical. The director can demonstrate why this place is a problem, how to fix it - or even several ways to fix it - and then ask the choir to transfer the learning to another piece. (i.e. when you see a passage with the same issues somewhere else, apply the same solution)

How to apply in the piano lesson context? When is student is going through a piece (and has practiced it, and it's a decently intelligent day!), try rehearsing the piece in bits. Don't just do a runthrough - take the piece a chunk at a time and look at the problems, come up with solutions, and (THIS IS IMPORTANT) practice the solutions right there.

Take a problem spot, and slice-n-dice it vertically or horizontally. Work on a chunk. Make a duet out of it so the student's brain has some bandwidth open up. Focus and widen on the problem spot. (Future posts on planned describing these techniques in more detail. Keep an eye out!)

The student can see some immediate results, PLUS they learn how to practice, which is a double bonus for any teacher.

So don't just teach a lesson. Run a rehearsal.

What part of the body is playing the Piano?

I think its a common misconception that the fingers play the piano. We speak of our fingers getting tangled up, the fingering is wrong in this passage.

In actual fact, though, the fingers aren't what's playing the piano. The BRAIN is.

{yes, I'm being a bit overblown here. Hang on for a minute.}

Think about it - if I'm having trouble fingering a particular passage, it generally isn't because my fingers CAN'T play it correctly. It's actually because my brain hasn't been given enough time to get the fingers in place in time. If I slow the tempo down enough, I can play it.

So what?

This fact should change your approach to practicing. Practicing is NOT about repetition, getting through a piece, etc. It's really about training your brain. Troublesome spots (consistently troublesome, not the "brain blip" kind where you mess up because you were distracted) are an indication that your brain hasn't been adequately trained to play that particular passage. This should cause you to stop and think about what you need to do to get the training "upstairs".

..... which will be the sucject of the next post.

Video: 6 year old pianist on the Tonight Show

I find a couple of things interesting about this clip (beyond the fact that Evan is surprisingly articulate in the face of all the attention). His technique still has a lot of "flop" in it - there is a fair amount of wasted motion as he plays. There are some NICE musical aspects of his playing - a particular nice crescendo at one point. The pice he "wrote" is also surprising - it has a definite form to it.

Enjoy!

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The 4-fingered pianist

A friend sent me this link - it's a video of a 20-year old girl born with 4 fingers (2 on each hand) who is playing the piano. The video opens with her playing some Chopin.

Click here to view the video.

See what some practice can accomplish?
(hint hint)

New video performance

This is a performance of "I Surrender All" that I did at Vineville North in July, 2007. This was a jazz improv version - inspired by the thought that this traditional church tune sounds kinda mournful - but the idea of surrendering to Someone who is perfect is pretty cool, and should be cause for celebration!

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Versatile piano students

One of my piano students was part of a recent New York Times article on a summer camp she attended that specializes in explosives. The full article is here.

Sounds like fun!

Making a CD: Lessons learned

Now that it has been a couple of months, what have I learned? What would I do differently?

1) This was definitely worth the time involved. not so much from a monetary viewpoint, but from a PR (the parents really appreciated it) and from a "cool" aspect (the kids thought it was cool I knew how to do this. Greater cool factor = greater opportunity to teach them)

2) It really brought home the fact that having equipment does no good by itself. You have to take the time to learn how to use it. I had all this stuff (that I use for other purposes), yet it took some thinking to figure out how to make the CD happen.

3) There are easier ways to accomplish this same thing. There are direct - to - CD recording decks out there (or even the Alesis Masterlink). In that case you can record the performance straight to a CD, and even hand the student the CD right there. It's the CD equivalent of sticking the cassette recorder in front of the piano and pressing "Record". You could even get a set of preprinted blank CDs (Diskmakers sells them) that have your studio's logo on them with room to write the student's name on them.

You lose the ability to edit, though.

I'd love to hear from other teachers who have attempted this same thing.

Making a CD: The reactions

So the MIDI got recorded, edited, transferred to audio, shipped over to the recording studio, printed, and mailed. What were the reactions?

Overwhelmingly positive! I had made the kids promise not to tell what was coming (and most kept the secret!), so the kids received a package in the mail from their piano teacher. I told them it was up to them whether to keep it a secret until Christmas, or to let their parents see what was in it.

I don't think any of them waited!

The parents came up to me over the next couple of weeks and gushed at how good their kids sounded. The kids (epecially the 5 eyar old twins) were just bustin' out with pride on how thye sounded.

The one exception was one of my adult students, who didn't know I had recorded her (she'd have gotten too nervous) - she wanted to sound better than that, and was very aware of her mistakes. This is common in adult students - we as adults are aware of where we are in the process (kids are just focused on the moment).

I suggested she treat it as a snapshot - and can play it in 6 months to compare how much better she is then.

Was it worth the effort? Oh, yes.

Lessons learned from my viewpoint? That's the next entry.

Making a CD: Send it to the studio!

Almost done with this series of entries on creating Christmas CDs for my piano students.

To this point I've detailed the equipment, recording process, editing, and graphics creation. The next step: transferring the data to a studio for actual creation of the physical cds.

At this point in the process, I had graphics files for each student's CDs, plus the assoaciated audio files. What I don't have is a way to print on CDs - it isn't something I need to do very often, so the best route for me was to outsource this part of the project. in other words, I hired a friend who has a recording studio - Joey Stuckey, of Shadowsound music in Macon.

Joey offers CD duplication and on-CD printing as a part of his studio services. After a couple of conversations, we figured the best way was for me to email the graphics files to the studio - they also use Microsoft Publisher, so all I had to do was send the original publisher file. I then used sendthisfile.com to transfer the audio files to them. They were MUCH too big to email them, and I've found sendthisfile.com to be reliable, even when using the free account.

Joey and the staff then took the audio and the Publisher files, ran them through their system, and produced the CDs for me. I brought down some pre-addressed CD mailers, assembled the packages (along with a little note from me regarding what this CD was - a low budget Christmas card, if you will), and mailed them out.

Next entry: Reactions and benefits

Making a CD: The graphics

Another entry in a continuing series discussing a custom Christmas present I produced for my piano students - a CD with their performance, recorded in a lesson.

To this point I've detailed how the MIDI data got recorded, how I transferred the MIDI data to my studio machine, recorded the audio, and exported the audio in a CD-friendly format.

But the CDs needed to have SOMETHING printed on them! I googled (at Google images) a piano keyboard, and selected a shot that was a closeup of a piano keyboard (AND that wasn't covered by copyright).

I did a mockup of the CD cover using Microsoft Publisher (a program I do not particularly like - but it was available). I used Publisher primarily because the studio I was sending the audio to also uses it. This allowed me to create a template, and all they had to do was open up the template and change the text to reflect each student's information.

Each CD had the student's name, what date it was recorded, the phrase "Merry Christmas", and the pieces on the CD (along with the track number).

Again, the idea was for the CD to provide a snapshot of the performance - a memory, if you will.

Making a CD: Recording the audio

At this point I had good quality MIDI files ready, that sounded just like I wanted them to. They represented a fair picture of the student's performances, but were still listenable.

Getting the audio into the computer was actually fairly simple. Remember I have a G3 desktop for sequencing, and a Mac mini that I use for audio - but this can be done with a single computer running the appropriate software (anything that can do both MIDI and audio work, and there are tons of options out there for both Macs and Windows machines).

Essentially all I had to do was to start my audio software recording, switch to the Sequencer program, and hit play. It didn't take very long because all of the pieces were short (the longest was about 2 minutes, but the average was about 45 seconds. These ARE beginning piano students!)

Once the audio was captured, I made sure the audio was normalized (i.e. as loud as practical), and then exported it as an AIFF file.

Naming the resulting files was important, because I had over 2 dozen files to keep track. I used studentName_track number_songname.aif. For example, macmusicguy_1_twinkle.aif

Next time: Graphics. Coming soon: Using the 'net to transfer to a studio, and parent reactions.

Making a CD: Decision time - how much to edit?

So at this point it the process I had recorded all of the students who were going to be recorded, and I had a floppy disk with several sequence files on it. Several of the pieces had duet parts as well.

Each student had a separate file. Each file - because of how the program works - can contain up to 25 separate sequences. I put each piece into a different sequence. indeed, I put separate takes into separate sequences, except for the 5 year olds.

I transferred the files to the PowerMac in the outhouse, called up the files into Musicshop (an old, defunct sequencer by Opcode), and had some serious decisions to make.

1. How much editing should I do? I could go through and edit every note, put in place just so, and make the performance sound perfect. However, the idea behind this project was to give a positive snapshot of the student's performance - a substitute for a live performance. I decided on minimal editing - after all, I did want the tracks to be listenable!

2. What sounds to use? Piano, yes, for the student - but what about the duet parts? I wanted something that was piano-like, but that allowed the student's performance to be very easy to hear. I decided on an electric piano/Rhodes type sound. The Rhodes proved ideal - you can hear it, but it doesn't cover the piano part in any way.

Most parts were left mostly alone. I trimmed off silence at the start and selected the best "take". One student, who had recorded a longer piece, required me to create a comp (i.e. "composite take"). She had gotten a bit confused entering the B section, but the A section was fine. Due to time constraints I had her re-record the B section, and her second attempt was much better.

In the next entry I'll continue discussing the process and decisions that had to be made.

Making a CD: Recording in the lesson

Looking back, it was interesting at the different approaches I had to take getting the recording done. All of my students had seen me use that old Mac Classic before, and they all knew it would "record" their performances - I use it fairly regularly to help them hear their mistakes. This took the novelty factor down a bit.

With 9 year olds and older I could treat the lesson as a regular recording session. I would start the recording, and they would start the take whenever they were ready (a serious advantage of using MIDI). If there was a false start, I just told them to try again, while letting the sequencer roll.

Duet parts I generally recorded right after their parts were recorded. This way I didn't have to try and recreate them later using music I didn't have. I didn't try for exact timing with their part - just tried to get the exact right notes, and get kinda close on timing. (I fixed the duet part timing later in the outhouse.)

My younger kids presented quite a challenge. In particular I have a pair of 5 year old twins who were real excited at recording, so getting them to focus and actually DO the recording took some doing. They finally did a good job, but the duet parts were real rushed, and took a bit of editing later to make functional.

With everyone recorded, it was time to put the files onto a floppy and transfer them down to the outhouse machine.....but that's a story for another entry.

Making a CD: The process

So I have a teaching studio at the music store with a very old Mac and a digital keyboard, a small recording setup in the outhouse, and a friend with some professional studio equipment. How do you use that kind of setup to create student CDs?

Step 1: Record the students

Each student and I had obviously been working on several pieces for a couple of weeks. We had even done some "practice" recording, so the kids would realize that they often didn't hear their mistakes, so they needed to really focus when practicing, to quash the errors.

Because I was using MIDI, I didn't have to do the standard practice of pushing record, and then cueing the student to start. I pressed record whenever, and then let the student start when they were ready. If there was a false start, I just let the sequencer keep rolling.

The kids did NOT play to a metronome (or click) - there was no real need. When there was a teacher's accompaniment part to record, I played it on a second track, roughly trying to play in sync. I primarily was concerned with getting my timing close to theirs, and playing all the correct notes. Timing errors could be fixed later (again, becuase of using MIDI).

I had to record the accompaniment right then because of time constraints, and because I didn't necessarily have access to that music later.

Each student was placed in a separate file and saved to floppy (I did mention this was an old Mac, right?).

Step 2: Editing

I transported the files down to the MaconOutHouse, where I loaded them into EzVision on my powerMac G3. I decided early on not to do much editing. I wanted to strike a balance between letting the recording be a snapshot of the student's performance, and making it listenable.

I did splice together one student's performance at a section break - i.e. I used Section A from Take 1, and Section B from Take 2, primarily because of time. (We didn't have time in the lesson for another take). The only other editing I did on the student's performacnes was to delete dead air at the beginning and ending of their performances.

The "teacher accompaniments", however, underwent some serious editing. I tried to get the accompaniment to line up as closely as possible with the kid's performances. In the case of my rambunctious 5-year-old twins, this was quite a challenge!

Step three: Drop the Audio!

At this point, all the MIDI files were cleaned up, so it was time to get the audio onto a hard drive.

The G3 was used to drive my Roland RD-700sx, which provided the piano sounds. It is hooked up to a Mackie Micro1202VLZ, and then into the audio interface to my Mac Mini. I recorded the audio using Soundtrack Pro (but could have just as easily used Garageband, or even the freeware Audacity. )

To make it easier to tell which was the student part and which the teacher's, I used the "Superior Grand" sound for the kid's part, and usually an electric piano sound for the teacher's.

So basically: Start the audio recording. Play the midi file. Save the recording - making sure I named the file something appropriate.

Step four: collect the parts

I had previously worked up a graphic for the CD - just a picture of a piano keyboard. I forwarded this on to my friends down at ShadowSound studio. I also zipped up each student's files, and used sendthisfile.com to transfer the files to them.

ShadowSound took the files and created the CDs using their CD burner/printer. They looked great!

I mailed them out the day after everything was complete.

Coming up in the series: Decisions, Reactions, and other ways to do the same thing.

Making a CD: Technologies used

Another post in the continuing story of making a CD for my students. Today: a look at the technologies used.

This is not the only process possible - indeed, there are easier ways to do this. However, I decided to use what I had available. I should note that it wasn't one CD - it was 9 different CDs, each student received a CD with only their performances on it, plus it had their name and song titles printed on them (along with a neat graphic of a piano keyboard).

The first of the technologies used is actually fairly old: MIDI. [I remember when it first came out - I got married when MIDI was still in diapers]. MIDI is basically a "language" (the computer geeks call it a protocol) that allows a computer to memorize what notes were pressed when, and how hard. It also can keep track of things like sustain pedal presses, when the sound was changed on the keyboard, and more.

So I had the computer "memorize" what keys the students played when. This allowed me to easily transfer the MIDI data down to the outhouse using - gasp! - a FLOPPY DISK.

[the outhouse = my studio back at the house. It's the little house out back.......yes, my family enjoys puns.]

MIDI files are ridiculously small - you could fit all the parts for all of Beethoven's symphonies on one 1.4 megabyte floppy. That same floppy will only hold something like 6 seconds of CD quality audio.

The DISadvantage is that the quality of the "box" - synthesizer, soundcard, etc. - actually making the sound when "fed" the MIDI file is what determines how good the music sounds.

Another technology: a sample playback keyboard - specifically, a Roland RD-700sx, with 88 weighted keys and a very nice sound. This was used to actually create the sound that was eventually recorded.

The audio was recorded using a Mac Mini with an M-Audio Firewire audiophile box attached to it. I used Apple's SoundTrack Pro to record the audio, but there are other options available (for me, Traktion from Mackie, or the free Audacity software would have worked as well.)

Other technologies used: the internet and email - used to transfer the audio files to a friend's commercial studio. He then used a CD burner and printer to actually make the CDs.

Then, of course, there is the United States Postal Service, which took care of delivering the packages to my students. That's an overview of what was used.

Next posting - details on how this project was accomplished.

Making a CD: my equipment

As a reminder, this series of posts is a review of a special project I did for my students - recording them in the studio and getting CDs made of their performances.

But first, an overview of what equipment I have available, which influenced the process I went through.

In the studio at the music store (Young America Music in Macon, GA) I have a positively ancient Mac Classic (it runs at a whopping 16 MHz processor speed) that dates from 1992. I run opcode EzVision on it for basic sequencing work - I use it fairly often to record the kids as they play - they are amazed at the technology ("It's HOW old?) and the fact they can hear themselves.

I teach on a home digital piano from Casio - it's what the store has available. It isn't bad, but not the best in the world by any stretch. Keys ARE weighted, though, and the piano sound is pretty good.

In the outhouse studio (so named because it's the house out back) I have a small recording setup - a Mac mini, Soundtrack software, and an M-Audio Firewire Audiophile interface. My keyboard is a Roland RD700 - has an excellent piano. I also have a mac G3 desktop - running (yep, you guessed it) Opcode's EzVision.

The fundamental problem (challenge!) is that I don't have a direct way to record the audio that the kids produce in the studio. A cassette recording is out of the question - quality is too low (and would be a real pain to get done).

So there's the setup and the problem. The story continues in the next post with details on the technologies used and the process........ all to give my students and their parents something to listen to.

Making a CD: An experimental piano studio Christmas present

The situation: The store where I teach (Young America Music) has been doing construction for some time - adding on a new building - so we were not able to have a fall recital there. My schedule was so full I was not able to schedule a recital somewhere else, so I decided an experiment to give the kids something to work towards, and they would have something of their own to give to their parents: A CD of themselves playing.

Following episodes will detail the equipment I have available, what skill sets were required, other ways to accomplish the same thing, decisions that had to be made in the process, and the results.

It was an interesting process - probably made more complicated than necessary because I'm fairly picky - but the end results were fairly satisfactory. Tune in as the story unfolds!

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Acoustic vs. Digital Pianos

Heard mention the other day that a local piano tuner was recommending to some of his clients to switch to digital. He said he was tired of keeping all those acoustics in tune.

Sounds to me like he's ready to retire!


My views have changed on this subject over the years as technology has evolved on both the acoustic and digital fronts. While I do believe there is NOTHING like playing a quality grand (the expressiveness and sound is unbelievable), the digitals come out ahead when comparing a quality digital piano and the cheaper spinets and consoles.


The acoustics have the advantage of longevity - even a cheaper spinet will last for decades (IF taken care of). I don't believe the digital keyboards will last much longer than a decade, of that long (Depends on how much they are played, of course). The acoustics in general allow a bit more touch control, and especially pedalling nuance (things like half-pedalling, etc are just not possible with most of the digitals.)


On the other hand, digitals never go out of tune. You can use headphones. They generally have additional sounds, useful for keeping practice interesting (ever heard Bach played with a harpsichord sound? A vibe?). The MIDI capabilities, when used with a computer, open up a world of possibilities. Some are portable.


So what do I recommend when buying a digital? I look at three primary things: Key size, Keyboard feel, and Sound. The keys have to be full sized, and the feel needs to be as close to a grand as possible. (I currently really like the feel of the Casio Privia series, for example - especially in it's price range.) I tell my parents to sit down and really listen to a piano's sound for an extended period of time - if their ears aren't tired of hearing the sound, then it will probably work.


I wish all my students could use a quality grand piano in their practicing - but that's not going to happen in this lifetime. The digitals are a great alternative.

That's my opinion. What do YOU think?


So what do I prefer?



I'd REALLY like a Bosendorfer Imprerial Grand - but that ain't gonna happen in my lifetime, because not only would I have to put down well voer $100,000 for the instruments, I'd also have to buy a MUCH bigger house to put it in!

I love playing a good piano - there really isn't anything like it. HOWEVER< i also use digitals, and have for years. I've learned to adapt my touch to different intruments, and can make music on just about anything.

I currently have a Roland RD-700sx (88 note fully weighted hammer action keyboard which feels pretty good).



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http://www.tomrule.info/

http://www.tom-and-co.com

Improv at the piano

I have been working - in my mind, at least - on an outline re: teaching improvisation. Usually my starting point is either a book of some sort, from which I pick up a pedagogical outline, or my own experience. In terms of improv, though, the books I've found seem insufficient. They are either way too theoretical, or way too tune-based. By the latter I am referring to the design where a book throws several tunes out and basically says, "Here, play this".

There deosn't seem to be material which walks a student through the process of working on an improvisation, which has started me thinking about the process you go through when improvising. What musical skills and knowledge do you have to have in order to imrpvo successfully? What ear capabilities?

In this, also, my own experience is proving deficient. I don't remember how I started improvising - other than I began by adding in parts to the boring piano accompaniments I was playing for my high school choir.

So, my initial thoughts:

1. Scales and keys play a part. You need to know instinctively what notes fit a particular key.
2. Knowing chords is also a part. You could work off the notes in a particular chord.
3. Some Rhythmic capabilities is necessary - being able to play rhythmic patterns for comping work, for example.
4. A sense of form - you'd want to play differently between the verse and chorus.
5. There's also the non-note-based but oh-so-important performance aspects such as tempo, dynamics, expressions, and articulations. Intonation, too!

So in what order would you teach these concepts? Using what material? At this point I am certain you can't segment the areas listed, but how to mix them together into a cohesive whole is a fairly knotty problem - not to mention the problem of keeping things interesting!

There are a few things i've worked - some commercial, some just for kicks, posted on my regular site. Take a listen if you've got some time!

The Piano Teacher

A blog about

• piano teaching
• piano pedagogy
• piano technology
• and music as a profession in general

by the macmusicguy.

First, a quick introduction. I have umpteen years experience performing piano and keyboards all over the country with various groups. I studied piano at the University of Tennessee @ Chattanooga (a.k.a. UTC) with Earl Miller, and at the University of South Carolina with Dr. Raymond Dudley and Dr. John Williams. I also studied piano pedagogy with Dr. Max Camp.

It's telling, I think, that three of the four teachers mentioned are now dead.

I am or have taught piano at Chattanooga State Technical Community College, Macon State College, and in my own private studio.

I also play with several bands, and have a fair amount of recording, writing , and arranging experience....and I'm an ASCAP writer.

So what is this blog for? I'll be adding entries about all things piano related- whether it's teaching teachniques, music reviews, technology tips.... it's all fair game.

The purpose? I'd like to start a dialog with piano teachers - especially teachers just beginning to teach. I've picked up some techniques I want to pass along (plus as i set them in the blog I can refer to them when I forget them!), and express some opinions along the way.

.........and maybe you will also see something interesting in the Google ads at some point. If you click on one, remember to smile because you just helped support a hungry musian with teenaged mouths to feed!