When I take on a new piece of music of any complexity I will go through some or all the following steps. My goal is to have a clear artistic impression of the piece before I begin. 

1. Compare the different scores available to me.
2. Seek out professional recordings.
3. Print the music as I will be marking it up. 
4. Study the form and phrasing of the work. Sometimes, as in the Telemann I will mark in the phrasing. 
5. I will consider the era in which it was written for clues on possible interpretations.
6. I translate any unfamiliar terms I find in the score.
7. I might consult other sources to explore the style and era of its creation. For the Sonata in C, I enjoyed re-reading the section on Haydn ornaments in the book below.
8. I will listen to multiple professional performances and mark on the score ideas of interest. I often will slow down a recording to hear how the artist plays their ornaments. 
9. I might consult with a colleague or my piano coach as well. 

In short, I will have a clear set of ideas, those I discovered and my own, to explore as I now start to "learn" the piece. I will share these with my students.

If I can help you discover intriguing world of classical music, please call me. 

David

Will I ever get there?

Maybe.

An adult student is working on the scherzo of Haydn’s piano sonata in F major Hob.XVI:9 A fun work from RCM level 4. It goes fast, it’s light, it’s fun under the fingers. It reminds me of joyful summer memories as a kid riding our bikes as fast as we can go, just celebrating the joy of movement and being alive.

How does one play like that?
Can I ever go as fast?

Another story. I’ve a young teenage student preparing to sit for her level 8 exam later this month. One of her pieces is Solfeggio in C minor by CPE Bach an extremely fast and demanding piece of music. She runs like the wind through it. The power of youth. Can my 61-year fingers play that fast? Nope. Period. It’s as absurd as looking on while high schoolers compete in the 100-yard dash. Yeah, I can still run fast, but not like that.

Moral of the story. Be at peace with it.

​Now can we learn to play faster. Of course. Can we ever go as fast? Maybe, maybe not.

​
Now back to Haydn. Pianists who play well, including fast, have worked patiently in the following areas.

1. Repertoire is developed in a thoughtful and methodical manner over many years.
2. They learn theory to understand the music they are playing: patterns and relationships. 
3. They have developed their aural skills to fine degree. Ultimately all playing is playing by ear.
4. They learn something about the history of the music they play Classical, Jazz, Blues, Folk, or Americana. Whatever it is, it has a tradition, a history, a story to tell. They are wanting a piece this story in their lives. They enthusiastically seek out experiences to get it.
5. They carefully learn to sight read well.
6. They cheerfully deal with their etudes and exercises.
7. They take their growing knowledge, experiences, and skills to understand the nuances of great performances.
8. They can answer the question, “who are your favourite pianists?” And tell you why? The sophistication of their answers will evolve as they develop as musicians. 
9. They are emotionally committed to the project of learning the piano. And have the maturity to understand it is a journey of learning.
10. They love the music.
11. They have studied how to practice the piano through different sources of reliable information. They avoid the pitfalls of seeking a work around, a hack, or quick fix. And the huskers selling shortcuts to expertise. 
12. They make the time to practice.

If I can help you on your journey, please give me a call.
​
David

Practice tip #1

How many times do I need to repeat a passage?

“Until it’s comfortable” Benny Greb, expert practicer

Most students practice until they get it. Professionals practice until it’s comfortable. I buy that.

Practice tip #2

Why is proper fingering so important?

“Under pressure, a performance, one does not want to train the brain with ineffective or multiple choices of fingering in difficult passages. Under stress the brain will have to decide. It might pick the poor fingering pattern and BOOM! a mistake happens.”

So, when learning, take extra care to follow the fingering in the early stages of learning. Don’t give yourself an unnecessary handicap of poor fingering options.

​David 

Time to dream again. Covid-19 will abate this year; the vaccines are coming, spring will arrive. Time to get musically ready to share our music with the world again. 

Here are 10 ideas to mull over.

1. Organize your practice space with everything you need ready at hand: scores, recordings, pencil, headset for listening, phone recording app operational, metronome, lighting, piano tuned, distractions minimized. 
2. Schedule practice time in the calendar, the same way other non-work-related activities are. In short prioritize music this year. 
3. Plan to take lessons this year: Let a little fresh air in. A fresh perspective.
4. Learn to love how you sound at your instrument: Recording frequently and accepting how it sounds and thinking about how it might be improved is an effective step forward.
5. If your instrument is lacking, and you have the means, upgrade. 
6. Seek out other adult learners online. There are wonderful communities on Facebook. I belong to several them. Contribute, celebrate the privilege of being able to make music. 
7. When concerts return, go. Be sure to be there, it will be an emotionally cathartic experience of lifetime that first downbeat. Expect tears.
8. Find a duet partner after you get your vaccine jab. Celebrate together, the joy of playing together again.
9. Consider expanding or updating your musical preferences. There has been a lot of music created since our musical preferences were set in our youth. Much of it will speak to you in new ways. YouTube algorithms are good for this. My teenage students have the most eclectic tastes which I attribute to these algorithms.
10. Make a fresh list of pieces you like to play this year, purchase, or print the music, put it in a folder and plop it on the music stand and visualize yourself playing beautifully.

Cheers, 

David 

1. Scrolling scores
2. Fugues voices on separate staves
3. Sublime playing by a former weight-lifter Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka
4. Sublime compositions

Bach's WTC would be one of the 2 music books I would take with me if I was to be exiled to an island. 

David

Who know hundreds of tunes, in the right keys, at the correct tempo? He never complains, is ready day and night? Doesn't drag or get lost? 

Mr. Sunny Bass

Someday I hope to buy him lunch, a small gesture for all the get help he has been to my students. 

​David

Heather Lotherington
13 December
 
I took up the violin in early summer 2018. I reckoned I would get a running start on a bucket list project. But let’s fast forward a couple of years, past the commitment of buying a violin and a sustained period of caterwauling that inspired the neighbor’s dog to howl, past the perpetual state of terror at lessons, a wretchedly inflamed shoulder, constant and unending frustration, and perpetual tweaking of violin, shoulder rest, chin rest, bow to find a position where this instrument felt even quasi-comfortable. 
 
Let’s begin instead a few months into Covid lockdown when I reconnected with my violin teacher and we resumed lessons on Zoom. After brushing up my basic skills, I thought I might sign up for the Royal Conservatory of Music program to provide structure to my learning. We embarked on the preparatory level violin curriculum, and emboldened, I booked an exam date.
 
My available practice time was limited by full time work (on Zoom), which, on some days, wiped me out past even starting the depressing regimen of hit and miss scales. But motivated by a fear of making a total ass of myself in front of an examiner accustomed to 5-year old’s capable of mastering this content, I practiced. I pushed onwards, I stretched, I recorded myself and self-critiqued, I watched superstar violinists on YouTube, and listened attentively, studying how they held their violins and their bows. I practiced with my husband playing the piano or the ukulele, I played to recorded tracks, I sent video-recordings to friends and family. Mostly they were encouraging; a few were incredulous that I would undertake such a project at my age. But why not?
 
A month before the examination my nerves started getting the better of me, so I intensified my practice time on weekends, bearing down on my scales and arpeggios, determined to get my fingers in the right place for each note. A millimetre up or down the string produced disharmony, yet there are no guiding frets on a violin. I practiced as deliberately as I could: open string bowing, scales, arpeggios, get that fourth finger in place ahead of time! My teacher advised me to focus my attention on one piece at a time, but sometimes I drifted off to picking out tunes by ear or playing old favourites from the early days: Mary had a little lamb, Twinkle, twinkle little star... I decided to do a mock exam with my teacher during lesson time. It was humiliating.
 
The week before the exam, my pieces were running on a constant loop in my head. I practiced my fingering while I slept, when I slept, which was seldom and badly. I practiced maniacally. I worked out every kink in continual mock Zoom exams, doubling down on the bits I messed up.
 
Two days before the exam, a curious sense of calm descended. Out of nowhere, I felt that I had learned the elements of preparatory violin, and performance of these basics was up to the vicissitudes of exam performance where, of course, anything can happen. I had memorized my repertoire pieces and, though not necessary, my étude. My scales were on autopilot. I needed to credit myself with accomplishment of this basic learning and damn the torpedoes. I was ready for the exam.
 
The morning of the exam, I ran around in circles preparing: my violin needed to be acclimatized to the humidity of the basement. The piano and the violin had to be tuned exactly in pitch. Was there enough resin on my bow? My husband and I practiced our simultaneous piano and violin start: an audible sniff, and tally ho. I entered the zoom waiting room nervously. We were being recorded though no one was there.
 
And suddenly there she was: my examiner presented a friendly face. I silently thanked the heavens above that I had been spared a hangman. Decades of examining graduate theses and dissertations had taught me that best performance in a tense examination situation was facilitated by an encouraging tone and not by a repeat of the Spanish Inquisition.  
 
All the same, my fingers trembled, my sweat glands went into overdrive, and I forgot how to breathe. I did remember to smile and to play with the conviction my teacher had taught me to show. There were to be no faces pulled, indicating disappointment or frustration, and if I made a mistake, I was to make it with pride and immediately move on. I began with my scales, and true to practice, practice, practice, they rolled off just fine. My teacher had told me to sing to my piece called (appropriately), Song: make up words, create a story and tell it in music. She told me to play what I heard in my head not what I produced with my fingers. So, I did. My étude began a little flat but it had spirit. My favourite beautiful slow song scrolled in my head, and I played as if that were me. My fast piece, the last in my program, was intended to be humorous, and it flowed with relief. It was the very final note in the exam that I blew, probably because I knew I was nearly done. I heard the ear test note perfectly but by that time, my flustered fingers just missed the spot. It was almost funny. And the exam was over as suddenly as it had begun. It had taken 7 minutes.
 
In the academic sphere in which I work, I am not a fan of examinations, which create a ceiling as easily as a floor and encourage parroting of known standards rather than innovative thinking. But I was surprised by the excitement I felt taking a preparatory level violin examination. Learning the violin is qualitatively different from the cognitive learning I work with. Playing the violin is deeply embodied, requiring the player to learn precise physical skills to communicate with an instrument. There is no music without mind, body and instrumental medium working in concert.
 
My mark—not yet received—now seems immaterial. I sensed that my performance was a pass for this level of accomplishment, and I could now pursue the next level of play. The basics I so fervently argue against in public education (which has developed over the past 200 years past the horse and buggy era) indexed something else in violin: an ability to perform skills enabling me to proceed to more complex embodied music making. I could now move into level 1 learning.
 
And that is where I am now: learning the D harmonic minor scale and playing 2 octaves of the G major scale. Woohoo!

I was the proud accompanist for Heather, my wife. 

​David

Links: ​Sound Ways of Knowing: Music in the Interdisciplinary Curriculum : Janet R. Barrett Claire W. McCoy Kari K. Veblen : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Know more than the notes. Exploring the questions of sociological context, compositional techniques, recorded history and more will add depth and sophistication to your playing and security to your memorization. 

Click on the picture for more, or for the "science" click the link. 

Here is a simple example:

1st Movement of Sonata in F minor op. 1

Who created it?
Beethoven, German Romantic era composer 1770–1827
When and where was it created?
1795 Vienna Austria
Why and for whom was it created?
Dedicated to his teacher Joseph Haydn. Apparently it was his first publicly published work.
What does it sound or look like?
Dramatic opening rocket type theme of the tonic, then dominant chord announces that there is a "new kid in town". Great dynamic contrasts throughout the movement keep us focused. A composition of a young man.
What kind of structure or form does it have?
Classic Sonata Form
What is its subject?
The interplay is between the 2 main themes in the exposition and their development through many key centers. 
What is being expressed?
Youthful exuberance, drama and compositional skill demonstration of the classical era style.
What techniques did its creator use to help us understand what is being expressed?

• Sonata form
• Tonic/dominant harmony
• Melodic development

David

Group activities will be back. In the meantime we will all practice, stay safe and continue our lessons online. 

​David

I'm going to check out Yann Tiersen today. An artist I'm not familiar with. This book is a favorite with many adult students. 

​Restarting piano after a 4-decade hiatus? How to get started.

The hands will be slow. But they will improve. Patience is the key here. An analogy: You were at 18-year-old track star back in the day. You buy a pair of expensive running shoes, the kind that promise speed, endurance, and youth. First day out, you run 10K. It is glorious, next day you can’t move. Shoes go in the closet; you are back in front of Netflix. Oops, you’ve made a tactical mistake. Try this instead.

1. Tune the piano.
2. Find a sympathetic coach/teacher.
3. Buy an anthology of classical piano music, the kind that covers a range of performance levels.
4. If you haven’t already, start listening again to classical music.
5. Take a course on Classical music appreciation. There are lots of online opportunities: YouTube, Great Courses, Community College etc.
6. Play a few scales, sight read a simple piece. Avoid a Chopin ballade if the fingers have been resting for 40 years.
7. Fifteen minutes, maybe 20 1st day and each day for a week.
8. Each week at 10% to the duration of practice.
9. Investigate the Pianist magazine, a wonderfully affirming resource for adult piano enthusiasts.
10. Dust of a theory book and review.

Have fun, if I can help, call me.
​
David

I'm 15 or so, I've been playing a year or two. I "practice" in quotes all the time. She is cute, she sings, she needs an accompanist for the church strawberry social. I step up. I'm waaaaaay over my head. But keen to impress.

We practice, I survive. But I am about to learn the difference between the practice room and the stage. In hindsight I imagine it is like the difference between basic training and real combat.

It's a beautiful day, they haul a small piano outside on the grass. The back of the piano faces the singer and the audience. We step up. I am soooo nervous, so underprepared that my right leg starts to bounce uncontrollably, audibly, banging the underside of the piano. People are looking around for the source of the noise. I'm deadpan behind the piano.

It mercifully ends.

Lessons?

1. "Superbia et ante ruinam" Pride goes before the fall. But the show must go on.
2. Never underestimate the power of shameless audacity in a show biz career.
3. It's harder than it looks. The magic of the performing arts is the illusion it is easy.

David

Bach - The Complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by Arthur Grumiaux

Classical students 

1. Phrasing: Notice how the performer tapers each 2 note slur
2. Chords: Notice how the performer "strums" the chord from the bottom to top note
3. Dynamics: When the music goes up in pitch so does the intensity and vice versa. This is a very common effect in classical music performance. 
4. Dynamics part 2: Phrases which rise start softer and crescendo.

Jazz Students

1. Broken chords that ascend on a 7th chord and resolve in the opposite direction. Measure 4, beat 3
2. Enclosures in measure 2, beat 1 around the note C. Measure 5, beat 3. 
3. The use of chromatic approach notes to chord tones in a broken chord in measure 3. Mozart likes these types of figures as well. See Fantasia in D minor measure 10.

Have fun. 

David

Lockdown 2.0 Oh boy!
The article above supplies some great ideas to keep us practicing. I invite you to click the photo to read the article. 

​David

Poland is a long way to travel to learn with American Jazz Masters Dena DeRose, Miguel Zenon, Aaron Goldberg, Mike Moreno, Ali Jackson, and Luques Curtis.

​It was worth every penny for such a transformational experience. Bonus, a beautiful country and people too.

Aaron Goldberg, pianist, was our ensemble leader for the week.

But first.

About seven years ago I first attended the Jamie Aebersold Jazz Workshop in Louisville Kentucky as a drummer. I was green but pumped. I was pulled out of the workshop on day one and sent to a room where two instructors waited. Bassist Bob Sinicrope started drilling me with questions. Who are you? Why are you here? Very direct.

I explained I was a piano teacher and musician from Toronto who now played the drums. I had attended Berklee College of Music back in the day… He cut me off. “Who did you study with?”

Ah, Ray Santisi.
“Ray Santisi, I’m his bass player!” We were instant friends.
Which brings me back to Poland and Aaron Goldberg.

After hearing us all play we were put into groups and assigned rooms to report to. A bunch of us showed up, nervously eying each other. Language was an issue. There were 5 Poles, 2 Russian teenager wunderkinds, 1 Chinese Rock Star, and 1 Canadian old guy. We all noticed the room was devoid of music stands.

Aaron walks in. He was a student of Bob Sinicrope! He calls the first tune: Body and Soul. No music. We sing as a group the bass line of the song after much discussion and negotiation. We get it. Then the singer, in halting English, explains it’s in the wrong key. Aaron gives us a new tonic note and low and behold we sing the bass line in a new key. He counts us in. Away we go. I’m glad I’m a drummer that day.

At the concerts during the week, we are the only group playing without music. We play with intensity and conviction born from pure terror. We nail it.

Aaron buys us a bottle of Bison Vodka at weeks end and salutes us all. 
​
Thank you Aaron for valuable insights and the vodka.

​David

Memorize these tunes as your first priority using the method below. This method is based on the wise words of Louis Armstrong and experience of Lenny Tristano. I credit the singing of the chord roots to my week of study with Aaron Goldberg of Yes Trio. What a great insight Aaron presented. 
 
Autumn Leaves https://youtu.be/tguu4m38U78    Key of Gm
Take the A train https://youtu.be/D6mFGy4g_n8     Key of C
Blue Monk https://youtu.be/_40V2lcxM7k             Key of Bb
Satin Doll https://youtu.be/Gj42JotNUko                Key of C
Blue Bossa https://youtu.be/U7eOs5lERww    Key of C minor
C jam Blues https://youtu.be/16UIKglJ56w             Key of C

1. Listen to the recordings over and over until you can confidently sing the melodies.
2. Learn the melodies of the tunes by ear.
3. Learn to sing the roots of the bass lines. See Below. Be sure to sing in key and in time. You can use a fake book here to finish what I’ve started. Add your own turn arounds.
4. Put the melodies over the bass roots. Close the fake book.
5. Learn the Jazz chords and put them under the melody.
6. Play from memory everyday until they are solid.
7. Now you can learn to improvise and play jazz.

​Benefits?

• You head is no longer in the book.
• You can play with the recordings.
• You can jam with some confidence.

Because you learned the melodies by ear, you will have absorbed the feel, swing, and articulations of jazz. Other beginners will be envious.
 
David

It is two months before the big date. What do you do? How do you practice?
​
Some thoughts:

1. Listen to great music, piano music, music in the style of your program. Over time you will begin to recognise the difference between good, great, and indifferent playing.
2. Practice technique using a metronome. If this is difficult; start by playing the scale in whole notes with the metronome playing in quarter notes. Count aloud. When this stabilises play in half notes, then quarter, and finally 8th notes. Counting aloud the entire time. This step may take some patient work over a week or two.
3. Listen to professional recordings of your program before practicing. You need the intimate familiarity of the music to the same degree we all know happy birthday. You want to easily know when an error occurs in practice.
4. Work daily on the sight-reading book exercise, pencil in hand, answering all questions. The text is the lesson.
5. If you ear testing is weak, use the online service. Codes are in inside the back cover of the sight reading book.
6. Self assess your progress by recording yourself playing your program. Note in the score on playback where the trouble bits are found. Start practicing there. Playing the pieces top to bottom before they are completed is a waste of time.
7. Do some more listening to great music.
8. Back to the theory book. The pillars of music learning are aural skills, sight-reading skills, and theory knowledge. Excelling in these 3 areas will build your confidence and put a bounce in your step.
9. Back to technique.
10. Finally, intersperse other pieces you enjoy playing into your practice time for 2 reasons. One, to remind yourself you really can play the piano. Two, playing time, clocking the hours. The 10,000-hour rule has been heavily criticized by folks more knowledgeable than me, but it still gives us a good benchmark. The steps above respond to those criticisms: Hours are fine, but how you spend your hours is more important.

​David

Listen to great music. A musical truism: "we are who we listen to".

Try this on your next new piece. 

1. Find a professional recording.
2. Listen a few times while watching the score.
3. With pencil in hand work out the fingering for both hands on nearly every note. You can skip repeated notes.
4. Now back to the recording. Listen to the 1st phrase, typically 2-4 measures. Using the fingering you wrote down. mimic what you heard. Make adjustments to match the expression of the professional. If you are playing jazz, make adjustments of the notation to match the recording. The recording is correct. Fakebooks are approximations. 
5. Continue to the end of the piece, painstakingly working out one phrase at a time. 
6. Next day start over. It will go quicker today.
7. As you go along, record your phrases and listen back. Are you shaping and articulating correctly. Don't worry about the tempo. That will come later. 

Have fun. 

David

How do I become a great pianist?

An honest question if a tiny bit naïve.

If you are in a great hurry, it is going to be difficult. If you are looking for a “hack” or some shortcut, I don’t know any.

But musicians for centuries have followed a pretty standard set of practices on the road to proficiency.

1. Humility is good. Trying to reinvent the wheel on your own might make you an artist in the end, but it won’t make you a pianist.
2. Patience is required. Learning to play the piano is a physical skill. It takes time. Though the ten-thousand-hour rule has been debunked, it is a good metaphor.
3. Listen to piano music. Through listening, study, and reflection we raise our level of sophistication which is needed to play well. Student's listening experience is often as a music fan, not as a musician. We musicians listen with intent. Starting with the question, “what is going on here?”
4. Find a teacher who has travelled the road you aspire to experience.
5. Learn to practice. Become a student of practice. Read books, watch videos, read blogs, take courses on how to practice. 

I'm available to help and encourage you on your journey. Just call me. 

David

​

1. Listen to jazz. Really. A lot of jazz. Listening is practicing. Why? You will need to recognize when you are doing it right. Listen like a musician. I’ve other blogs on how to listen. There are courses online available from great sources. Like the audio lecture series "Elements of Jazz"
2. Memorize 3 tunes: a blues, a ballad, a standard. This is where you will apply your growing knowledge.
3. Learn the basic building blocks of Jazz: the major scales for these 3 tunes, the jazz chords played broken through the inversions. There are a couple of other things as well, but we will save them for later.
4. Mess with the melody. (Advice from Louis Armstrong: memorize the melody, mess with it, then mess with the mess). Listen to how the greats, “interpreted” the melodies on the ballad and standard. Imitate.
5. Learn to play your instrument to the same level as the jazz solos you aspire to create.
6. Isolate a short phrase, three maybe four notes, within a jazz solo you like on YouTube. Listen to it over and over and over until you can sing it. Then find it on your instrument. “Licks” you learn this way you will make your own. “Licks” you read will have to be memorized. I will show you how to transpose these licks onto the other chords of your three pieces.
7. Study the solos of other musicians on YouTube. Type in “Autumn Leaves Transcription” for example and see what pops up. I wish we had that when I was a kid. Find multiple instances of your three pieces.
8. Forget all the fancy stuff you see online until you can play 12 bars on the blues without getting lost. Then 8 measures on the other 2 standards.
9. At some point you will need to study music theory in depth. High level jazz is theory played live in real time at high speed.
10. At some point you will need to study ear training. It’s hard to play what you can’t hear.

I can help you with each of these 10 points.

Call me

​David 

It's a honor and thrill to teach piano. After all these years I still look forward to going to work each day making dreams come true. 

I'd be pleased to help you find your way.

​David

​It is fun.

It’s fun if you are young and playing with your mom, it’s fun if you are older and playing with your spouse. The experience of duet playing is social bounding.

The piece teaches so many skills to a neophyte.

1. Ear training: getting the hands to play together
2. Musical memory: remembering the pattern
3. Time training: listening to the accompanist
4. Expression: the joy is infectious
5. Technique: Using the arm
6. Finger numbers are reinforced
7. Helps contribute to the positive “vibes” to learning the piano.

If you like to be part of this, call me.

​David

It might. If the instrument you play now is uneven, out of tune, and has missing notes, joy will be dampened. Chopin is reported to have said, “play the best instrument you can when learning.”

Here are other thoughts on staying in the game:

1. Revisit the reason you started this project in the first place. Are you on or off course?
2. Are you playing the right music?
3. Is your time commitment and timeline realistic when put up against your goals?
4. Is your practice space attractive and organized?
5. Are distractions keeping you unfocused?
6. Are you suffering from Covid fatigue?
7. Are you getting enough sleep?

These are problems all musicians/students must deal with from time to time or in these times.

David