Response to Student's Showcase

Maia Raimon won the Student of the Year Award

"I really enjoyed the show! Didn't everything go well with each student's performance? I brought my 11 year old neighbour with me as hubby had to stay at home to welcome house guests. She loved Elmo and Pops and was impressed with the students (she voted for Zoe to win again). The evening was pronounced "cool". High praise from a Year 7 student! I think it was her first exposure to a programme including classical music." 

Cheerio Jenny

"Just to say thank you for an awesome show last night. You have some very talented students and you have obviously worked hard with them. It was lovely to have the show in the Captain Bougainville theatre. Thanks for all your hard work." Carina

"Everything was so well organized, and you certainly know how to get the best out of children, you understand them really well. My son was determined not to play, but in the end he did and looks forward to doing it again. Amazing" Colly

After an amazing first half, where young and old enjoyed both the almost faultless performances and the thrown-ins by Elmo and Pops it was surely a difficult vote for the audience to decide who would win the 'Public Favourite'-Award 2011 PLUS $100.00 prize money. But the trophy went to Jessica Bath for her performance of 'the Swallow' by F.Burgmuller and a movement of a Sonata by W.A. Mozart. The 'Student of the Year'-award was easier, because that award is always already known in advance by Art and this year's winner of the trophy PLUS also a prize of $100.00 was Maia Raimon. Many thanks to the sponsor of the prizes, Mrs. Coppolino, who is a faithful guest at our events and lunch concerts.

The second half was exciting too, everybody really being impressed with Kaylee Anderson and Yuka Bath's performance of the second and last Movement of W.A. Mozart 23rd Piano Concerto. It was an experiment to work with orchestra sound track on the back ground, but an experiment which indeed will be repeated in future with other Piano Concertos. Thanks again all involved for a wonderful Saturday spent listening to such a variety of piano performance...

 

Lessons are not necessarily restricted by time

I only sell lessons and not time. If someone works hard and deserves it he/she gets more time. So Ronald started to come twice a week for two hours. That was of course not two hours playing, but talking, drinking coffee, listening to music etc. etc. And teasing of course!


In his early twenties admittedly, there were many things related to his daily life he couldn't do. Write for instance. Or make a calculation with a number above 10 or even below. He was very adept in hiding it. But never in his life was he used to being taught as an equal and being taken seriously. He was in a special class were math was deemed not necessary and he learned things like how many days there were in a week and he was reminded frequently of the fact that he was stupid. 

But he wasn't I found out soon enough. So talking about music leads to forming an opinion about things he loves and that leads to writing it down. When he finally got his grade 8 his self esteem was completely restored and he began to see himself, 'I am actually quite smart'. 

Ronald is now very articulate about music. He understands style. Is able to write down his thoughts and express himself. He tells me what he thinks. It is my job to let him do the discovering and steer him in a certain direction. Correct him when I think he is wrong, but showing him why he might be wrong. It is not my job to tell him what to do, but how to do it, if he runs into difficulties.

Should a lesson be only about music? Yes, in general of course it is. But attention spans are different with different people and in order for some people to excel some other things are needed also.



I find I have in general little problems with getting the student's attention and that is perhaps because I am sitting behind my own piano and they are sitting behind theirs. I can also show what I mean. But a lesson is also an opportunity for dialogue and students tell you all sorts of things.


By always going with the student and then picking him/her up there and leading him gently to where you want him to go. Of course the student does not always realise how much he/she is learning, because in the end it is the achievement of the student and must come natural.


I can't teach!


No, I can't. I can only remove obstacles. It is my job to let the student discover and learning music. The correct way in the end always is self discovery also.

Those exams

Those exams

Exams are not everybody's piece of cake. And the number of people with a 'grade 8' in their pocket and still having the feeling not to be able to 'play' the piano admittedly is large. So the use of exams, although parents love them, is a bit limited. But they do offer the children (and adults) a means of aspiring to something, for which reason I like my students so sit grade 5 and 8 at least. 

To fill up the gaps I have designed a way to assess my students myself and every year at an official show evening the students receive their grade award. What I want to say with these certificates is: 'If you want to you can sit and pass this and this grade, you are at that level' 

I have grade 'X' under my belt…

You can compare these awards with the coloured belts for Asian Sports and I will be using a likewise colour scheme. It also gave me the opportunity to redesign my route for technical scales and improvising, and this has worked out well.

My students have left an impressive record in their exams with ABRSM and Trinity College, but as a teacher I will promote especially the performance exams at grade 5 and grade 8 level. Twice a year I will assess my students and if successful give them an award. 

The grades are equal in level of difficulty as the grades an ABRSM or Trinity College and the grade is an indication that a student awarded at a certain grade level can sit and pass the same grade level of an external exam board.

Grade level criteria

Grade 1 colour: white                           Three pieces at level 1

Scales over 1 octave C,G,D,A,E,B

Improvisation in any of above keys: In five finger position using six crotchets and one minim as rhythmic pattern. Play back by ear of a simple three note melody

Grade 2 colour: yellow                          Three pieces at level 2

Scales over 2 octaves C,G,D,A,E,B

Improvisation in any of above keys: In five finger position using crotchets, quavers and minims as rhythmic pattern. Play back by ear of a simple five note melody

Grade 3 colour: orange                        Three pieces at level 3

All major Scales over 2 octaves

Improvisation in any of above keys: Using all notes of the scale using crotchets, quavers and minims as rhythmic pattern. More complex left hand in tonic chord.Play back by ear of a simple melody in octave span

Grade 4 colour: green                          Three pieces at level 4

All major and melodic minor scales over 2 octaves

Improvisation in any of above major keys. Left hand uses tonic and dominant chords. Play back by ear of a simple melody in octave span.

Grade 5 colour: blue      Three pieces at level 5

All major and melodic minor scales

       over 3 octaves

Playing accompaniment using tonic sub-     

       dominant and dominant chords.

Hearing intervals

Grade 6 colour: brown  Three pieces at level 6

All major and melodic and harmonic minor scales over 4 octaves

Playing a standard blues/boogie

Grade 7 colour: brown/black border

Three pieces at level 7

Playing a jazz standard from a fake book.

Grade 8 colour: black

Three pieces at level 8

Playing a jazz standard from a jazz-fake book

Fingering

Many editors of music provide for a fingering suggesting that all notes have to be played legato from start to finish.  Very often this gives some very impractical results.

Ideally, fingering supports the phrase structure of the music and in that respect it is good to learn the student to reposition the hand at each new phrase and try to find a fingering which enables the student to have the whole phrase or fragment 'in the hand'.

Bach, for instance, starts his phrases AFTER the heavy beat and lets the phrase run until the first note of the next heavy beat. This means that you do not base your fingering on the first note of the bar, but on the second note. Since this is the way Bach has written his music you avoid a lot of difficulties if you realise this in you finger and practise habits.

In contrast Mozart very often ends his phrases at the end of the Bar and does start at the beginning of the bar. Debussy is very Mozartean in his writing style, but Chopin again was greatly inspired by Bach in his phrasing. 


Another aspect of fingering is getting around the keyboard really treating all keys the same. There is nothing wrong with a thumb on a black key and it is not always useful to change fingers on repeating notes, if only your wrist is flexible. 


Students should be taught to lead fingers below other fingers - very often the thumb - or over other fingers - very often the 2nd or 3rd finger. The last is an option which is very often ignored by a teacher.


Muscles do not like to be in the same stretch continuously. They are not designed for that and if you do it it may backfire very badly on you. You can injure your hand! Muscles typically want to perform an action and relax again. Do and undo. 


Which means through the execution of a phrase the hand opens and closes again. Just, by the way, as the music does. There is nothing wrong with tension during an execution of a phrase, there are many things wrong with lack of relaxation after the execution of a fragment of music.

So never take the fingering in an edited piece of music for granted. Edit it during study very carefully and adapt it to your hands, your needs and the flow of the music if the editor has forgotten about the last principle.

It's all in the mind...

For something to be achieved it has to be thought of first. Or dreamed of first if you like! It is therefor not bad at all that you think you can become good at playing the piano.

Admittedly when you start playing the piano it is good to have an idea of how you see yourselves playing in a couple of years. Very often young students will have the idea 'Oh, no, but no classical music!'.  I can understand that, because if the idea is only coming from the wishes of perhaps the parents then it will not always lead to good results. It can also work the other way around. My parents were somewhat shocked when I moved to classical music. That was soo not the thing to do. So my response will be to say that there is so much music that I surely am in a position to find the right music for my students and they have always choices.

But then the realisation. It is always a mystery for piano teachers why some students just fly off, where others take longer. 


In the end of the day progress has to be thought of and it is a mind thing. Therefore I always try to find a challenging piece amongst other tasks which are easier. Those students who take any task and will work on it progress the fastest. They seem to enjoy any task hard or easy and don't think in terms of what other people might think of it, but what they themselves can make of it. For instance Paul was a student who only wanted to do a piece that was famous. But since he knew not so many piano pieces which were famous he was really limiting himself as to what he could do. He should realise that it is a person who at some stage picked up a piece and made the song famous, because of a good or new interpretation.

Then there are two other types of students. Those who think "oh, I could never do that" or those who are so fixated on the type of music they want to play that they are not open for all the good music which is out there.

 There is only good and bad music.