​Why use a metronome?

1. Learning to play to an external beat will pay dividends when you begin to play with others.
2. You will learn where and when you are rushing. Especially if you record yourself doing it.
3. Your sense of time will improve. Time is the flow in music. The metronome will help teach you not to rush or drag.

How to use the metronome.

1. Count aloud
2. Start slow
3. Record yourself and evaluate
4. Play one note per click, then 2 notes, then 3, and finally 4 notes. Keep counting aloud. No silent counting.
5. If you are having trouble, clap rhythm patterns from your pieces while counting aloud. Do this slowly.
6. If you can’t count aloud and play, ask your teacher for help. They will be thrilled you asked.

 
If I can help you learn to count, call me.
 
David

1. Listen everyday to the professional recordings supplied with your books. As the Bugs Bunny Theme song “This is it” says, “We know every part by heart.”
2. Record yourself playing. Video is best. Play, watch, make notes on what needs work, repeat the process. Evaluate your playing. No mindless repeating. No grinding: grinding just creates a pile of dust.
3. Play your technique with a metronome. Use a comfortable tempo. Make a note of the tempo played by date. Increase the tempo incrementally.
4. Memorise the music and technique at your earliest convenience. Theatrical rehearsals get serious when the actors are “off the book.” 
5. Spend one-third of your time on theory, ear training, and sight reading. The pillars of understanding and long-term accomplishment.

If I can help you, call me.
 
David 

​Helping kids to practice piano 5 Tips:

1. Take them to piano concerts. Be enthusiastic. Normalise the experience. If the child is learning Classical music expose them to Classical music. Same thing if they are learning Jazz. Play piano music at home and in the car. In short, expose them to music at an early age. Enthusiasm is contagious. Short story: I started playing music at age 13. But, in my home I've many memories of my mother playing classical piano and playing New Orleans music, Harry Belafonte, and Frank Sinatra on the record player. Years later I'm a professional pianist playing guess what? You guessed it.  Between those two experiences I earned a degree in Jazz Composition and an ARCT in Classical piano pedagogy. Alea iacta est.
2. Supervise their daily practice.
3. Help them organise their practice space. Everything in its place and ready to go. Many kids won't go looking for missing books and music. 
4. Work with and support the teacher. Let the teacher know about the child's musical interests. 
5. Have them participate in exams, assessments, recitals, and festivals. Meeting other kids creates a community, community creates buy in. And new friends with common interests. Bonus: The child will hear pieces played by other kids and will start requesting pieces at their lessons. Now the buy-in is complete. 

If I can help you and your kids, call me.

​David

Janice Legere, a long-time student, played her scales like this today. I approve. 

​David

Learning to love how we sound.

In the 1921 teaching manual “Principles of Pianoforte Practice” by James Friskin, he asserts that most students “simply do not hear all the sounds they produce”. I concur. Friskin would be amazed, I’m sure, at the technological tools available to students today, namely YouTube and phones. YouTube for inspiration, artist impression, and guidance. The phone for recording and evaluating their progress.
It would be interesting to discuss together what students continue to miss when they grind instead of plan. How they often bore themselves silly with endless repetitions, hoping for a musical miracle instead of exploring the range of interpretations on their pieces.

First level: Before practicing, listen to a professional performance. Then record yourself playing and listen back. How did it go? Jot down notes and annotate the tricky bits, like fingerings, into your score.

Second level: Before practicing, listen to a professional performance. Mark your score with notes on what you heard: Tempo changes, phrasing, articulations. All and everything you hear. Now, with the recorder going, play from your notes. Listen and analyse the results. Repeat.

Third level: Repeat level two working from a different performance/musician. Compare the different interpretations.
Sometime students don’t realize that the notation tells you what to play, but not how it goes. “How it goes” comes from experience listening to and witnessing great performances. “How it goes” also develops from our study of music history, harmony, and rudiments.

Now the hard part, learning to love how we sound. It takes a certain amount of fortitude to listen to ourselves. Especially in early music study. It can be discouraging. But push on in faith. You will be the first to hear improvement and progress in your playing. Over time you will accumulate hundreds, even thousands of practice recordings. (In 12 years of playing drums I’ve 248 Gigs of mp3 recordings) It’s fun and gratifying to hear how one sounded a decade earlier, or even last year.

If I can help you learn to practice effectively, call me.
​
David

I can help you avoid this problem. 

David
​#pianohumour

1. "Scales offer us a chance to practice playing beautifully" Donald Himes We can vary the tempos, articulations, and dynamics to train our ears and hands to respond to our artistic commands.
2. Scales teach us the pathways through different key centres. Not everything is only on the white keys!
3. Scales when practiced with a metronome improve our ear's ability to play in time. 

If I can help you with your scales, call me. 

David

It is possible to teach an old guy a few new tricks. This past week I had an improvisation lesson with my coach Jacqueline Ching-Ling Leung of Toronto. Topic: Modern improvisation. Thinking in post-Jazz, post-Classical idioms. 

Thank you for listening.

​David

​#Pianoimprovisation #Modernistart #postjazz #pianistdavidstory #pianopreludes #pianistJacquelineLeung #Improvisation