Interview

Interview

 Channel North: Tony Underwood 
and Yuka Bath
 

Channel North: "We are with Yuka Bath here, and we just want to say it was really wonderful to hear what you played"

Yuka Bath: "Thank you"

Channel North: "I am sure other people who have watched it will enjoy it as well"

"Now, you were just telling me you were playing from a very young age, what did your mother say, how young were you when you started playing the piano?"

Yuka Bath: "I was very young. My mother said I was three when I started to play the piano, but.... I think it is physically impossible to move the fingers separately at three years old, so I believe I started to learn the piano when I was five... four, five, six something like that..."



Channel North: "And then how long did you keep playing for after that?"


Yuka Bath: "Oh, until eighteen years old and after 12 years I was really seriously practicing the piano for my career... Sometimes my mother remembered I was playing the piano about eight to twelve hours per day!...Yeah I know, it's crazy isn't it?...


Channel North: "You must have really loved it?"


Yuka Bath: "Yes, must be...I spent most of all my time in front of the piano when I was young, yeah... "

Channel North: "So what made you stop when you were eighteen?"

Yuka Bath: "Well, I decided to take a different career when I was seventeen, so that gave me one year to give up the piano. When I was seventeen I decided, that's it, I am going to do something else....
I think part of the reason was that I have very small hands. If I had had larger hands, then I may still have been in Japan and play the piano...But yes, that is one of the reasons why I decided to quit the piano" 

Channel North: "And you had a bit of an injury from playing so much too?"


Yuka Bath: "Yes, because well.. 12 hours... and I think my form of playing the piano was not really the correct way...So, yeah, that was a bit of a strain on my wrist, so I had quite a bit of injuries from playing the piano"


Channel North: "So, now you are more conscious of that? And you make sure this will not happen again?"


Yuka Bath: "Yes, exactly, because this time I want to play the piano for a long time, almost like the rest of my life hopefully, so you don't want to damage my hands..."


Channel North: "The pieces you played today were Schubert.... What is it about those pieces that you particularly like? Were there any challenging parts which were harder than others?"


Yuka Bath: "This is one of four pieces, the second one I played today, [Impromptu Ab, Opus 90] and I think I was fifteen or sixteen when it was the first time I played this one and I played all four pieces in sequence. But at the time I came to number four, which I played today, my wrist gave up on me and so yes, I had a really bad injury after that I played this number four... So it is very memorable music for me, because I could not play the piano for a good couple of weeks after that... Every time I play this number four I remember the image I used to have, of a Christmas tree...It's a twinkle, lots of light... I have the same image I have, when I play this piece. Perfect one...


Channel North: "Well, it has been really, really wonderful that you have been able to do that today and we thank you again for coming in and sharing this with us. Hopefully you will enjoy it when you get to see it."







 
                  Channel North: Tony Underwood 
                                 and Art
 
Channel North: "Can you tell us a bit about Yuka?"

Art: "Yes, I got to know Yuka actually through her daughter. She brought her daughter last year to me for me to teach her. And when I was teaching her - you get to know people - she told me she actually played herself her whole life more or less and that her mother was a piano teacher. She liked to observe the way I was teaching Jessica and that gradually made her aware of why she had some problems when she was around eighteen and she was studying at University or something and was forced to stop. And it is a very good example of the fact that as a pianist when you get to a more advanced level if your technique is not healthy that you really can injure yourselves. Really playing advanced piano is top sport. It really is yes, but without the whole support environment, which is there for sport. And that is only gradually the last couple of years worldwide getting recognized. Really that top pianists need top care also. It is not there yet....

When People win a competition, it is a wondrous achievement, but afterwards there is this huge gap, there is nothing for them, yes, I think this should change. It IS changing in Asian countries for instance, where a top pianist is a pop star. A classical top pianist! There is this support environment. But in our Western world over the last twenty years it has been fading a little bit ...

So with a wrong piano technique you really can injure yourselves. And whilst I was teaching Jessica she just found that quite a few things were different from the way she was taught to deal with the keyboard, so she started taking lessons too and she explained a few of her problems and we managed to overcome, it takes years to really overcome them, she will overcome them. Just changing a few things of how to approach the keyboard and now she is playing this Schubert, which is really very difficult, you bounce with your hand and use gravity. 

So, yes that is my experience with Yuka...."

Basic Rhythm

Basic Rhythm

 

'Music is organization of time' was the mantra of our performance teacher at University. There is a good deal of truth in it, I only wondered how he perceived time. Because in the end how we perceive time has an enormous impact on our performance of music. 

The left side of our brain perceives time as spacious and circular, basically without past en future, everything is here and now. The right side of our brain to the contrary perceives time as linear and probably it is this where he was referring to. 

 Music has this tremendous power of combining the two perceptions of time and create a wholesome experience. That's what 'Art' does. 

Now, if we talk about organization of time, basically we talk about having control over it and to have control over it means to understand it and use it to our advantage. Because when we are in linear time, we are constantly worried about what is to come. 

Basic Rhythm is a concept in Music which can come to our assistance here and solve many a problem for us, because of its capacity to combine both perceptions of time in the performance of music. 

Basic Rhythm is the basic pulse in music, sort of the heartbeat of the intentions of the composer. The time signature tells us a lot about the basic rhythm, whether it is 6/8 or 4/4 or 2/2. Especially with the last it is very important to find out when the music writes 4/4 whether not really 2/2 is assumed. 

When you practice or when you perform a pianist is his/her own conductor. Together with phrase structure the basic rhythm brings the performer straight into the circular spacious experience of time. And there is only the beauty and the meaning of the music. The past and future does not exist and hence neither do its worries. 


When we are performing we know that in fact what we are playing at this very moment we probably can master quite well. But it is the difficulties in the part of the music to come in the future, which make us feel insecure and threaten to take our performance down. Thinking in terms of Basic Rhythm and phrasing helps us to keep our performing in the 'here and now'.

Also closely related to basic rhythm is the way we co-ordinate our movements. Look at how a horse walks. Does it walk always the same way, but at different speeds? No! The horse changes its behavior if it wants to go faster. 

Then why do we practice as if we have to do the same thing, but only faster?


The horse walks and has a basic pulse and puts its weight on every step. The horse trots and has another basic pulse and puts its weight on every other step. The horse gallops and has again another basic pulse and puts its weight on one action with all its four legs. 


The basic pulse has to do with your (and your audiences) heart beat. When you embed your basic rhythm in there, you are well on your way in mastering your music and combining both time experiences into one wholesome experience.

Performance and Stress

Performance and Stress

 

In this period where so many of our students are exposed to performance and/or exams it is probably a good idea to shed some light on what we go through when we have to perform. And really an examination is just a form of performance.

When we are exposing ourselves to a situation where we experience danger, our body starts responding in a certain way, which is adverse to our normal routine. It starts blocking out everything, which is not really necessary to deal with that dangerous situation. And our sub-conscious  is not really aware of what the danger exactly is, only that there is danger. And sitting down calmly and appreciate a beautiful piece of music is not exactly what our sub-conscious is interested in at that very moment. It is more interested in checking where the exit doors are and whether the shoes are suitable for a good run. 

The day before the performance or examination then, you most likely will wish that you hadn't exposed yourselves to this situation and you can't see how the things you need to perform well are ever going to work on that occasion. You even feel there is no way you will find the right piano keys let alone play something at all.


There are quite a few things, which will be helpful in dealing with the situation:


1.  The sub-conscious mind is programmable to some extent and in advance you can give it signals that really there is no danger. Unfortunately some of those signals require for you to have experienced a few performances already and if this is your first there is no way you can tell yourselves in advance that it really isn't that dangerous at all.  Actually something you have enjoyed on a previous occasion! For this reason we always let our students give a performance before the examination and encourage them to play their pieces for fellow students and family. Family is an important factor here to help you experience some positive performances in advance.

2. Practice your performance situation in advance. The more: your practice is also performance, even with only yourselves as listener and when you see your lesson as a performance opportunity also, the more you are putting yourselves at ease with the idea that it is actually good for you. 

Here you see that of course good practice helps increasing your confidence, which in turn will decrease you anxiety. Having practiced well will send positive messages to your sub-conscious that you are not in a dangerous situation really, actually you are going to do something which is good for you and you can enjoy. 


On the other hand pre-performance anxiety will find all sorts of reasons for you not to practice before hand. Because not practicing sort of takes your mind off performing altogether and therefore away from the reality you will be finding yourselves in as a dangerous situation. Your sub-conscious mind is not going to tell you that you are fooling yourselves! To the contrary: Problem solved for now! By deliberately setting good practice standards beforehand you send positive messages to your sub-conscious.


3. Instead of allowing your sub-conscious mind to shut down the things you need for a good performance, shut down that sub-conscious by thinking about all the things, which you need for a good performance. Good phrasing, setting the mood and the character of the music and enjoying it. Having a good time will disallow your sub-conscious to assume that you are in a dangerous situation. 


When I studied at University our performance teacher was a sadist of some sorts. He was just writing a book on the animal instincts when dealing with performance anxiety, hence he was probably in the need for juicy stories and therefore put us performance students through lots of fear and let us describe how we felt. Just a pity he didn't think it was a good thing to show people how to actually fool those instincts and provide for solutions out of the dilemma. For which reason I handed down to him a blank page with no descriptions of fear. A performance time or show should be an enjoyable thing, both for audience and performer, which hands down the secrets on how to  trick the sub-conscious mind in its own little game against us or even turning the table entirely.

Two Schools of Piano

Two Schools of Piano Playing

 
There are two schools of piano teaching, which have remained blissfully seperated from each other as if the other did not exist. 

The first one originated from the keyboard approaches of the baroque era and its instruments the harpsichord, cembalo and the organ. Teachers like to cite references to its champion J.S. Bach who sat with quiet body and very skillful fingers behind the keyboard and they like to give their students studies from Czerny to emulate the finger technique.

And Czerny wrote more than 600 Opuses on what you can do to improve your major and minor scales.



Schumann described in his 'Neue Zeitschrift fuer Music' (new magazine for music) how Carl Czerny did away with Frederic Chopin as an upstart minor talent, when the latter performed in Vienna for the first time at the age of 18, not realising that Chopin would develop a fully new approach to the keyboard.


Chopin would revolutionize the approach to the keyboard, to such an extent, that he could put forward his wishes for the development of the action of the piano keys to the piano manufacturers, for which reason Pleyel developed the piano action as it is today. Chopin's technique involves the use of gravity, which again involves intelligent co-ordination of the arms and hands.

Eleanor Bailie in her book on Chopin, says it thus:

"It was undoubtedly Chopin, however, who legitimised such ideas as the free use of the thumb on black notes: crossing the longer finger over the shorter,e.g. the third over the fourth or the third over the fifth or leaping upwards over the fifth finger to the thumb or downwards over the thumb to the fifth finger. 

I say 'legitimised', but the fact that although Chopin's principles of fingering were seen to work by his contemporaries, they still, it seems, one hundred and fifty years later, have not penetrated some of the more dimly lit corridors of the teaching profession."

So after 150 years you still see the oranges being promoted into the hands of poor little piano students by 'duly registered' sections of the piano teaching profession.