The Old Piano Tree

Found in California . . . pretty impressive.

Updating the Resume

A true lesson in humilty: updating your resume(s).  

As a freelance pianist, it can be difficult to maintain a steady presence in any one area.  Many times*, one will take the jobs that are offered/found - and then adapt as needed.  Here are some examples: taking a church gig (without knowing how to play the organ), taking a theatre pit band job (never having dealt with keyboard patches/volume pedals/Mainstage), or accepting a piano teaching job (yet having little experience with an expected age group).  These are fairly typical events, and the good news is: over time, a freelance musician ends up building many different skill sets.  

On the other hand, a freelance musician can watch skill sets go completely unused.  That's what I realized after putting together an updated set of rep lists and CV info.  I have learned way more Musical Theatre repertoire over the last five years than Classical Voice rep - just because those were the jobs that fell in my lap.  Now I have the luxury (in many senses of the word) to ask - what do I want to do?  As I ponder this question, please enjoy (and critique if you like) my resume/rep lists as they tentatively stand. Keep in mind these are resumes, not CVs, so I prefer to keep them to one page. Getting a new headshot comes up next. God help me.  

Musical Theatre Resume

Musical Theatre Rep List

Classical Resume

Instrumental Rep List

Art Song Rep List 

Opera Rep List

*The situation of employment opportunities differ from pianist to pianist, from city to city, and can hinge on that frustratingly elusive element - luck.

Luxury

*Recently, I have been enjoying a unique privilege: to weekly perform on an incredible (beautiful Steinway full grand piano) instrument.  This also happens to be coupled with immediate feedback from trained ears - another HUGE privilege.  Most students call this 'piano studio' - and it usually isn't appreciated until way after the fact.

And I appreciate it now.  A lot.

I didn't 'get' it back in undergrad - it wasn't appreciated as a luxury because it became expected.  Access to excellent instruments often isn't appreciated at the time because performers don't know the range of suck-ness that exists out there: the disparate jangling of notes eliciting a sympathetic jangling of nerves - missing notes, strings, etc.  Pedals not working. Keyboards with only 4 octaves. Pianos barely in tune with themselves, sticking keys (rising slowly by the minutest of increments), keys that draw blood upon trying to execute a glissando - or how about keyboards that have notes that do not sound**.

It's so wonderful to hear how an ideal instrument can fill a room.  The world is filled with non-ideal piano situations - that much more reason to enjoy the access to excellent instruments when/while you can.   



*I wrote this and forgot to post it during the school year.
**Or worse - my latest experience has been with a keyboard that the F#2?  sounded like it was being smacked with a hammer, no matter how delicately you touched it.    

Practice Techniques

-From the studio of Dr Courtney Crappell at UTSA -

Practice sessions/marathons can easily get repetitive - here are some different practicing approaches:

Learning a new piece
1. Hands Separate Practice – Especially useful during the first day of practicing a new piece--use 3x3 at this point: 3x RH, 3x LH, 3x HT (Lysinger)--and then the month before performance. This is an indispensible technique for accurate learning of classical music.

2. Count Aloud – Be able to count at many different levels: subdivisions, beats, measures, and phrases. This is a crucial prerequisite for true artistic expression. Also, prepare to count the harmonic rhythm.

3. Metronome – Alternate sometimes with counting aloud. Work from slow to fast. Also, prepare to play with the metronome beat on weak beats or syncopated beats instead of on strong beats.

4. Rhythms – Related to group drills, but based on smaller groups (L=long; s=short): play L-s-L-s, s-L-s- L, L-L-s-s, s-s-L-L, L-s-s-L, s-L-L-s, L-s-s-s, s-L-s-s-, s-s-L-s, s-s-s-L; for triple divisions, L-s-s, s-L-s,s-s-L, etc. After groups of 4 or 3, double to groups of 8 or 6. For longer groups of rhythms, say letters for longs (A-B) and numbers for shorts (1-2-3-4-5-6) to keep track (e.g. “6-A-B-1-2-3-4-5”)

5. Blocking – Play all of the notes that fit into a single hand position. Supplement this with block-shift point practice—find the note that ends one block, and begins another, then create smaller blocks that are connected by those single notes. Often, the thumb plays the single notes. 

Tackling trouble spots 

1. Flexible Tempo (Gates) – Slow down your playing when you feel your mind cluttering. Be able to change your tempo while playing at the pinnacle of musicality.

2. Varying Tempos – Use flexible tempo, then slow, then moderate, then fast. You can also use a metronome to work from slow to fast (see “metronome” below).

3. Group Drills – (A variation on rhythm drills) For particularly challenging passagework (e.g. cadenzas), practice playing the first three notes as quickly as possible, then the next three, and so on. After groups of three are simple, try fours, fives, sixes, and sevens.

4. Accents – Instead of changing the rhythm (as in “rhythm” practice), add accents in the same patterns as those listed in rhythm practice. An accent replaces long notes. Short notes are unaccented. Also, useful to accent a specific finger number (e.g. finger 4) for awareness (Thompson).

5. Use the Aural Image (Gates) – For clarity in voicing within a single hand, play a chord or pattern with two hands to get the “perfect” aural image, then focus on the sound and play it with the single hand.

Striving for artistry

1. Voicing – In polyphonic passages (N.B.: homophony, e.g. chorales, is also polyphony), be able to voice each melody line.

2. Sing – Be able to replace any voice within the texture with your own.

3. Experience Dynamic Contrast (Gates) – Be able to play before and after dynamic markings.

4. Shaping – For more control and awareness, play passages while counting crescendos, decrescendos, ritardando, and accelerando. Also, while watching score, conduct dynamics, then play.

5. Play the Chords – Play the harmonies alone (for contrapuntal works, play the implied harmonies—for homophonic works, simply remove the melody) to get a sense of tension and release within the progression.

Techniques for solid learning and memory

1. Stop and Start (Thompson) – Add pauses or play even and odd measures.

2. Backwards by Sections – Divide the piece into manageable sections (6-12 measures long). Play the sections in reverse order by memory. e.g. play section 10, then 9, then 8, etc.

3. Random Sections – Similar to backwards by section, but sections are selected at random.

4. Hands Separate – Should be used at each stage in the memorization process, but is especially useful in preparation for performance. (Can begin process by ghosting RH or LH, then placing it in lap.)

5. With the Metronome, Counting Out Loud – Prepare to count at different divisions of the beat (e.g. sixteenths, eights, quarter, etc.)

Want more?  Here's a link for the entire document - it is a useful handout for reminders on varying your practice sessions.  Dr Crappell also wrote a great MTNA article on Preparing Students for Vibrant Sonatina Performances

Article Repost: Beware the wrath of the church organist . . .

Apparently they slip in songs that make them giggle into the service.  For example:

"In one decidedly high church congregation, an organist punctured the mood of reverence as an elaborately dressed clergyman processed back after the gospel reading – by playing the theme tune to The Simpsons.  

Another congregation found themselves passing around the collection plate to the strains of “Money, Money, Money” by Abba. The survey uncovered examples of Eucharist celebrations livened up with renditions of Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer”; the theme tunes from the Magic Roundabout, Blackadder and Harry Potter and even “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts”. Sung Evensong – widely regarded as the jewel in the crown of English choral music – has been spiced up by such unexpected offerings as “I’m a Barbie Girl” and “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” 

One organist who responded confessed to playing hits by Oasis, Billy Bragg and even Kylie Minogue in services but added: “Nobody notices – I do it all the time.” But when an organist played a slowed-down version of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins, even the most tone deaf members of the congregation eventually recognised, sending them into gales of laughter."

My favorite memory is of a church musician who used to slip in a very slow version of "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac to fill time during prayerful moments.

To read the rest of the article:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10034068/Beware-the-wrath-of-the-church-organist-musical-revenge-is-sweet.html?fb

Rock Musical Auditions

Last night I played for 'Tommy' auditions, and I made a list of the musicals people chose their audition material from:

Aida
American Idiot
Chess
Evita
Footloose
Hair
Jesus Christ Superstar
Little Shop of Horror
Next to Normal
Rent
Starlight Express
Tarzan 
The Toxic Avenger

...plus a couple of stray rock/pop songs from the radio

Here are some links about rock musicals/repertoire ideas (all from within the last couple of years):

A List of Pop/Rock Musicals by Year

30 Days to a Better Book: Day 22 – The Rock Musical

Interview with Artist Sheri Sanders: ROCK THE AUDITION