More for the brain 2012-05-14

At times it is fun even for older music students to put aside their instruments and, in this case, brainstorm over a seemingly easy nine piece music-themed puzzle.  These two viola players tried as a team for three weeks to solve it…

Learn to learn 2012-05-14

 In my teaching of violin and viola private lessons, I keep returning to the theme of “how to practice” verses how long to practice.  It is a most commonly asked questions by parents of music students.  During private lessons, I spend a good amount of time on teaching young musicians how to approach studying a piece of music, how to learn it in a most efficient manner while still enjoying it, so practicing does not become an exercise in boredom and frustration; how to focus the energy not on the amount of time spent with an instrument, but on the quality of time spent while playing it. 

In particular, I stress a concept of analyzing a piece of music even prior to playing it for the first time.  Time that should be spend away from the instrument and devoted to studying that piece with a pencil in hand; identifying challenging music passages, notes and places in music that might be difficult to tackle based on the knowledge of your own music skills.  It is just as important to do the above process as it is actually playing the instrument.  By analyzing music prior to playing it a student will learn it in a much shorter time, since he/she has already identified and marked difficult places in music that would need more focus.  A piece of music is like a puzzle: some pieces fit easily together, the ones that are obvious, the others – are much harder to fit.  No piece of music is ALL hard – which makes it useless to practice the entire piece from start to finish at once. Identify/isolate problem spots and focus on those for a few days. Later, “piece” them together with the rest of the music and you will have a final product well learned. 

Whether it is a music piece, a math problem or any other challenge – mental analysis of the problem prior to execution of the solution is a key.  This approach will make learning easier, more efficient, hence faster and will provide a confidence booster when a student realizes that he/she is capable of surmounting any challenge. The inner knowledge “I can learn anything” will motivate a child’s desire to learn more on many different subjects, expanding his/her horizon and enjoying life in the process of learning. 

I have had many parents commenting that their children have taken analytical approach from music lessons and applied to school studies.  It worked wonders to many of them, students as young as six and seven year old.  Bottom line – children need to be taught  how  to learn, learning is not a natural skill but has to be obtain via others.

Below are photos of music that show how some of my students go about studying their pieces by marking challenging notes, measures, etc… That time DOES count as practicing, in case if you were wondering…

Our Lady Of The Sacred Heart High School 2012-04-25

This place has just moved up on our list of “Pittsburgh jems”. I was in absolute awe of the beauty that I saw in the Chapel of this artistically hidden school in Coraopolis.  The preserved architecture, wood work on the inside, the feel of the histrory back to the 1930′s is incredible! The outdoor surroundings are straight out of utopian perfect world! The people we worked with fit right in with their kindness and appreciation for our music. 

Bad choices in wedding music for processionals 2012-04-25

As a part of our service as wedding musicians, we work with our clients on “building” their wedding music programs.  Usually, a client will provide us with a list of their choices of music for a wedding ceremony and at that point we can edit it as needed, giving our suggestions, making sure that their wedding music selections are suitable for a ceremony.
     Here is an example from a client who sent us an e-mail with her choices for the ceremony. We are looking at the pieces chosen for the processional, before the start of the wedding ceremony: 

Groom’s mother – Trumpet Voluntary

Bride’s mother – Amazing Grace

Pastor and bridesmaids – Canon in D

Ring Bearer, flower girl – Arioso

Bride and Father – Bridal Chorus by Wagner

    At a first glance, the choices seem to be excellent, providing plenty of processional music for the wedding party walking down the aisle. However, here are a few negative points on the above music selections that might not be obvious at first.
 One:
Having that many wedding music pieces for the processional IS quite unusual and can be overwhelming, not for musicians but for guests. For musicians the only issue might be is changing pages from piece to piece, leaving “gaps” between the music as a bridal party is walking down the aisle.
Two:
A very obvious contrast between the two wedding music pieces for mothers: Trumpet Voluntary is a happy, upbeat  wedding music piece, whereas Amazing Grace is a mournful, solemn piece, most commonly played at funerals, not weddings. Hence, it might not be a good idea to play them side by side, they might sound odd.  
Three: 
Another issue with Trumpet Voluntary is its’ style.  The most “prominent”, spectacular piece of music during the wedding ceremony processional should be reserved for the entrance of the bride, not the bridal party.  Trumpet Voluntary IS very bright, loud, attention-attractive piece, used very often as a bride’s processional piece. Even though Bridal Chorus for the bride is a perfect choice, it clashes with Trumpet Voluntary.  Either one or the other, but not both.
Here is the solution we came up with for the bride in this case, altering the wedding music choices as follows:

Groom’s mother and bride’s mother – Arioso (same piece for both, gentle yet very pleasant piece of music, easy to fade as needed)
Pastor,bridesmaids and the rest of the bridal party – Canon in D(very beautiful, well known piece, and long enough for a large wedding party)
Bride and Father – Bridal Chorus by Wagner (as in the original selection; very appropriate choice of a wedding music piece that will especially stand out after softer sounding Canon in D)

Embassy Suites 2012-03-26

Once again, police forces and classical musicians come together.  Our Pittsburgh string quartet performed at the Embassy Suites of Pittsburgh for the Allegheny County Police 80th Anniversary Banquet.  It was a big event with many active and retired police officers in attendance, as well as some political figures of our state.  

Unlike for weddings, string quartet musicians for this gala put together a music program that somewhat strayed away from classical music, leaning towards a different genre – oldies and pop style music.  The musicians played selections from Beatles, Volare, In a Sentimental Mood, On Top of the World..

As far as the place itself – a hidden paradise in Pittsburgh! Who would have thought of having a fish pond in the lobby of a hotel and surround it with a picturesque jungle, adding quite a bit of magic to the place?!  The staff working with the musicians and the police was amazing, accommodating any need, however small it was. What a fantastic place and a crew of workers!