Angela Hewitt

Angela Hewitt, a Canadian born pianist is one of my favorites.  Here is a youtube.com link to her comments about slow practice.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPv_5VHlHUs

Interestingly, slow practice goes hand and hand with patience.  That basically means that I don't like to do much of it.  When I was younger slow practice, to me, meant that something was wrong with me and wrong with my playing.  That was somewhat short sighted on my part.  Ms. Hewitt does comment that you should play a very fast piece slowly and also play a very slow piece quickly.  You can think of it as sort of being and exercise for your mind.

I guess (and I am no expert) but slow practice points out the flaws in the piece.  Going at a slower speed allows you to hear what you are doing wrong and to correct it.   AAAAARGH as Charlie Brown would say when Lucy pulled the football away from him.  I guess that gigantic sigh of relief also applies to slow practice.

Even though we have all heard of the benefits of slow practice, it always bears repeating.

The fermata!
 - A hold or pause sign that indicates a note should be held longer than its normal duration.

Why have I been thinking about the fermata today?  Well quite simply I am working on Chopin's Etude in E Major which he composed for his friend Franz Liszt.  On page 4 of the etude there is a passage described with con bravura in the measure.  The notes are crazy sevenths that test one's patience beyond any reasonable level of understanding.

When I dream about playing this etude in a drawing room with a fire place, I think that when I reach the end of the etude on page 5, that I should hold the final e g and e g for ever.  In other words I should hold those final notes as if there were a fermata on top, so I will have the time to realize what I accomplished in getting to the end of this wonderful piece.

Which leads me to one additional thought about fermatas.  Every year from 7 to 18 I participated in a yearly piano recital.  Each year, I seemed to play with more polish than in years past.  However when I got to the end of the piece, I often seemed to play the last note and jump off the piano in sheer relief.  Relief that I got through the blasted sonata, invention or nocturne.  Or relief,that I could finally take a couple of weeks off and play music from my various "Beatles" books.

Some times when I think about the fermata, I think about it in terms of work.  Perhaps when I am doing a presentation I should pause, sort of holding that thought, and give the people I am speaking to the time to digest what I have said, before I jump to the next topic.

I remember hearing Jean Yves Thibaudet at the Ohio Theatre one time.  He had the ability to play and linger on the last note, which gave you time to think about all he had accomplished, and of course to look at his red socks.  He has a wonderful Debussy CD which is life changing actually, so I would suggest buying it very soon.

My daughter Sarah while in the Bishop Watterson High School, had a button that said "hold me I'm a fermata"  Good advice I think!

Madeline Karn

"No excellence can be acquired without constant practice."  These were the words of actress Judi Dench in Pride and Prejudice (the Kiera Knightley version)  as Ms. Knighley played the piano.  Truer words were never spoken!.  Which brings me to my thoughts about my current piano teacher.

Madeline Karn first and fore most is a fine pianist.  She is also an Oberlin graduate, which speaks volume about her ability as a pianist and musician.  Madeline was also my daughter Sarah's only piano teacher, and Sarah is not rhythmically challenged today because of Madeline.

Madeline was also a friend of Earl Wild, one of the finest American pianists.  His influence on the world of piano is still strong today, as many budding artists and amateur pianists play his wonderful transcriptions.  There will be more about Mr. Wild in a future blog post, but take a look at the story of his life in A Walk on the Wild Side.  Also his recordings are available through Ivory Classics.

However, back to Madeline.  I think when someone is truly in love with the piano, it just shows.  For instance, when you enter Madeline's house, she literally has all of her music in book shelves.  It reminds me of a professor at Oxford, who cannot part with any classic literature.  One of the things I have learned about playing the piano, is when your teacher marks your music, and/or makes suggestions, you have those suggestions for ever.  So, you can refer back to those markings as reminders about how you can play a piece better.

Madeline also has her originally theory/rhythm books, which she uses with you to figure out rhythmic patterns.  Usually the approach to figure out a rhythmic pattern is to clap out the beat.  It seems and sounds elementary but it truly works.  It also can make you crazy!

Madeline can also play very well!  I had the opportunity to hear her play several years ago at a Women in Music concert and it was very affirming to know that her technique and musicality were actually quite amazing!.

Madeline has never given up on her students.  I guess she could retire and sit around listening to Horowitz CDs but instead she keeps focused on her students.  There is a certain amount of sheer discipline that is required to teach the fundamentals of piano to others.  Madeline has that discipline!!!  She also loves teaching adults, which is somewhat comforting when you are coming back to the instrument after many years or starting for the very first. time.

You have a very personal relationship with a piano teacher, which is actually very rewarding.  Madeline has been a great confidant and friend, and I enjoy my time learning new things about the piano with her.  She also didn't talk me out of working on Rhapsody in Blue.  I bought the piece when I was 12 and now I am actually learning it.  It will never be at concertizing stage, but I can dream.

Who knows 10,000 hours for Gershwin's number one may be all I need!

Aaron Diehl

http://www.aarondiehl.com/videos-5.html


Take a moment to look at this link for Aaron Diehl.  In this link you can listen to him playing Viper's Drag by Fats Waller.  This is incredible.  Perhaps because he is from my adopted city of Columbus, Ohio, Aaron is a sign that Columbus, Ohio is so much more than Buckeye football.  In fact, if you follow my blog, you can expect to hear about other amazing Columbus area musicians, and in particular pianists.  I like other instruments, but I guess it really is only about the piano, and probably will be until I become an angel playing a key board in heaven.

I have seen Aaron perform live at the Columbus Great Southern Theatre.  He is absolutely incredible.  I am 58 and I think he might be 27, so I hope I can live to 80 years old so I can see what he is going to be up to in the world of jazz.  It is an honor as an amateur pianist to be able to attend any concert where he is performing.  As the late Tim Russert would say, "what a country!"

Word on the street, is that while a student at Juilliard he was invited by Wynton Marsalis to go on tour with him.  That is still so incredible, and whenever I have a bad day as a lawyer I just go to Aaron's site and play this link.  Again, so, so incredible.

Aaron has a very good Facebook page, and you can keep track of what he is up to in terms of concertizing.

Art of the Fugue by Angela Hewitt

The great pianist from Canada, Angela Hewitt has released her compact disc, Art of the Fugue.  If you like Bach, and want to hear some orderly, and calming music this disc might be for you.  Angela has a wonderful Facebook page where she talks about her concert schedule as well as her master classes.  She actually held a master class in Spoleto this summer, and you can catch a glimpse of her work by looking at her wonderful and informative Facebook page.

In 7th grade I was attending the local public junior high school in Farmington Hills michigan. OE Dunckel Junior High.  One of my friends Catherine Schroeder asked me if I knew how to play Rhapsody in Blue.  Not to embarrass myself I said yes.   What an out and out lie!

I then thought, I have to get it and learn it!!!  So I made my mom drive me to the music store in Berkley, Michigan and I bought the $4.00 Warner Brothers edition.   Did I learn it?  No!


But I decided now that I'm an almost empty nester, I am going to learn it!  31 pages and I can play through, poorly the first eight.  So part of this blog will be my discussion of Rhapsody in Blue progress.  It is a piece that has so much greatness, but also a piece that brings out the Charlie Brown aaaargh!

Page 4 measure 7. 4 flats and those close 4 note chords in the right hand.   Simply intimidating!   More to come about the Rhapsody.

The years 7 to 21, I dreamed of being a pianist, something along the lines of a church musician, or a pianist for a ballet company, or arranging popular music, and playing in a class lounge with a black grand piano.  When I got to Albion College my freshman year, and I signed up for piano lessons, I decided I simply wasn't good enough to be a professional musician.  The teacher I had, who mostly had piano majors for students, told me I had double jointed thumbs and I would never be able to play correctly.  That took me into almost a ten year hiatus away from the piano  When I was home from college ( I switched to Michigan State) my sophomore year I looked at my parents' piano and aside from the occasional Christmas carols I didn't play it.  However my college boyfriend, whose older brother was in a fraternity, convinced me to play the frat piano when they had Friday night TGs for sorority girls.  I guess it was at that point, that I got back into it.  I would play a variety of lounge lizard songs for drunken fraternity men and their girlfriends.  They were too drunk to care, and I would improvise and change keys on the Beatles, Beach Boys, Bread etc.  I was insecure around guys, and the piano was my refuge, I could play and do something constructive instead of hanging out with dolt like guys who had greek letters on their sweatshirts.

So I am back into piano lessons once again,   Part of the motivation is to end my empty nester grief.  My husband Mark is a amateur musician.  He had his own barbershop quartet in law school, and he is currently committed to our contemporary church choir at St. Peter.  I love the choir, but I always have believed if I commit to anything musically it simply has to be the piano.

Right now I am learning the etude in E major by Frederic Chopin.  It is a very well known Chopin work with four sharps.  He wrote it for his friend Franz Liszt, which says so much about the piece.  Can you only imagine being friends with Franz Liszt?  That is something to think about, and something that could make you day dream for an entire day.  The nitty gritty of this work is balancing the melody in the right hand with the continual base in the left hand.  But the challenge of the piece starts on measure 38 of the Willard Palmer edition, with chromatic fourths (professional musicians, please don't kill me if I describe it incorrectly, and then the craziness of measures 46 to measure 53.  I decided on measure 46 through 53 I would simply have to write in the notes, with a pencil, because I simply cannot remember then after I work them, out and then leave the piece to come back another day.

Sometimes I am so bogged down in the notes, that I feel like the piece is "learned" once I learn the notes.  I know that is only a small piece to the puzzle.  Perhaps that is what calls me back to the piano so often, I know I will never be quite perfect at playing.  But knowing on some level I can play something keeps me going, because a solid practice session is one of the best things you can ever do.  You spent some time creating something in the language of music.  It is so amazing.  Sometimes I dream, that when I die, there will be millions of grand pianos all being played by musicians (including all of the famous ones) who have gone before me.  Just thinking of that is gratifying, and helps to make any day a good one.