QUEER USE FOR MUSIC (Music and Youth, 1933)

There was once a dentist who used to employ a band. No, it was not that he liked music: it was because he found it useful in his business.

This dentist was a well-known London character, and he used to go around the various districts extracting teeth at sixpence a time. Anaesthetics were not yet discovered, and altogether this dentist's methods were crude and painful for his victims. It is easy to see that the shrieks of the "patients" were not helpful to business, and so the dentist engaged a band. He would set up his booth in the market place with the band alongside it. The bandmaster's job was quite simple: the more the dentist's victims yelled, the louder the band must play. Ouch!! :-O

That says something of the history of open-air music in England... Was its real (if humble) origin as a blanket for the yells of farewell to departing teeth??

he!he!he! :-)

:-D LOLTISSIMO!! :-D

Chopin used to place his pupil's hand on these five notes - E, F#, G#, A#, B# . They represent the most convenient, the most natural, the most relaxed position of the hand and fingers on the keyboard, since the shorter fingers - the thumb and little finger - are on the white keys which are lower and the longer fingers (index, middle and ring) are on the black keys which are higher. Anyone can see how much less convenient is the position of the five fingers on only the white keys: C, D, E, F, G.

Thanks to this simple exercise the beginner immediately makes friends with the instrument, and feels that the piano is not an alien, dangerous and even hostile machine but a familiar, friendly being ready to meet you if you treat it lovingly and freely. 

Instead of this, how many hundreds and thousands of pitiful beginners, when brought by their teachers into contact with the keyboard for the first time, tried to turn their living hand with its nerves, muscles, flexible joints and pulsating blood, into a piece of wood with curved hooks, to extract with these hooks offensive combinations of sound...

Heinrich Neuhaus - The Art of Piano Playing

*he!he!he!!  I apologize to each and everyone under my charge whose hand I turned into a piece of wood with curved hooks!*

THE PLACE OF MUSIC EXAMS – Charles Pearce

Undoubtedly it is a great and helpful thing for a child to have an incentive to work by knowing that on a certain date in the near future he or she will be called upon to exhibit the skill acquired by long hours of patient study and practice in the presence of a sympathetic listener such as one of the examiners of a recognized Institution. To expect children merely to love music and to work for the love of it in the vague hope that they may be good musicians some day in the far indefinite future – when they are grown up, when perhaps their parents may be dead, and so on – is evidently to expect too much. The child wants to know now how he is getting on, what progress he is now making, how much more hard work lies before him in the future, and so on.

And as long as human nature is human nature, so long will music examinations hold their own. They have come to stay. Does any person suppose that as long as examinations play the important part they do in all other branches of general education, music is likely to become the one subject exempt from examination tests? The teacher who thinks so must surely take a very low estimate indeed of his art. And if he thinks so, his pupils will think so too; and then they will all find themselves dropping out of line with the teachers and pupils in other subjects of general education. And in these days of active competition this sort of thing will never do. Music may be, and is emotional; but it is also an intellectual study which effects the head as well as the heart. Of that there can be no doubt. And as long as brain-culture, as well as emotional-culture, can be taught, so long can both be examined.

A GOOD START - Music and Youth, 1925 :-)

The most important part of your practice is the beginning. You know very well how, when you begin the morning in a bad mood, nothing seems to go right with you through the entire day. And if you begin your practice in a half-hearted, trifling way you will get no pleasure or gain from it. But if you want to get the greatest possible gain from your work, always try to make a point of being alert and keen at the start, determined not to let the smallest detail in the music escape you.

Beware of haste. Don't let the music hustle you. Assert your authority over it - show that you are "boss." Calmness always conquers. You need your self-possession in playing the piano as much as you need it in learning to swim. Brace yourself for your practice with the same eager spirit as you would brace yourself for a high dive into a crisp, cold sea. Afterwards you will feel the exhilarating glow of achievement. :-)

MEMORISING FOR SIGHT SINGING - E M G Reed

Memorising vocal music should be much easier, for the singer has only one line to think of instead of several. But how is it that good sight-readers at the piano are often weak at sight-singing? It is because they are entirely dependent on hearing beforehand exactly what they are going to sing. With the pianist a good eye memory will often take the place of an ear and mind memory; some people have the kind of photographic memory that fixes the picture of the music that is coming on the brain, while the eye can go on photographing the next phrase of the music. But in sight-singing the voice has to hear the correct sound before it can make it.

In singing any rapid music memorising is essential. The eye and ear grasp a phrase of a melody, and while it is being sung the singer is looking ahead to grasp and memorise the next phrase. Text yourself with the passage given here in this way: -

1. Play the key note. Study the first phrase only for the minute, trying to hear the notes exactly, and covering with your hand the remainder of the melody.
2. Cover the whole piece, turn away and sing the phrase. Can you do it?
3. Repeat the two processes with each successive phrase.
4. Look at the whole tune.
5. Sing it from memory.

Till you get quick and accurate with this method it is no use proceeding to the further stage, which is to memorise the second phrase while you are singing the first. Yet this is, of course, necessary in rapid music.

One warning word - Get into the habit of memorising your music phrase by phrase, and not bar by bar! :-)

MEMORISING FOR SIGHT READING - Music and Youth, 1925 :-)

SIGHT READING is half memory, and to become a good sight reader you have to practise memorising at the same time. Here is a simple exercise to start with. Do not take it to the piano at once. Sit down with it away from the piano and notice the following things: -

1. The time is 3/4
2. The key is D minor. How do you know? The first bar tells you pretty plainly if you know your scales, and the last bar tells you still more plainly. If that isn't enough the two C sharps tell the same tale.
3. Bar 1 (Right Hand). The first four notes occupy only 1 beat. Count your first bar or use the Time Names.
4. Bars 1 - 3 (Right Hand). Each has the same "time pattern," and each begins with the first five notes of a different scale. Find these scales.
5. Bars 1 - 3 (Left Hand). The left hand only enters to play the chord of the scale which the Right Hand is playing - e.g in the first bar, the Right Hand plays the scale of D minor. The Left Hand plays the chord of that key.
6. Hum over to yourself the tune of the piece.
7. Look carefully at bars 4 - 6 and find out what chords these are - e.g bar 4, beat 3 is the chord of D minor, first inversion.

Now go to the piano and put the exercise on the music stand - upside down!

Play it, seeing how far you can get from your previous study of it. Notice where you break down, and pick yourself up if you can, making a good try to get through with one hand, even if you forget the other - to the end. 

Now look at your copy and see exactly where you have gone wrong. Did you hum the tune wrongly? Did you leave out that first chord in bar 4? Did you remember that the second chord in bar 5 was the second inversion of the key chord (D minor), and that the next was the chord of the dominant of that key? I won't even suggest that any of you forgot the C sharp in that chord, because I warned you of that, didn't I?

WHAT IS AN ARTIST?

Many people think of an Artist as a person with certain pronounced gifts, and probably a careless and irresponsible nature - the so-called "Artistic Temperament." Others imagine that the word "artist" applies only to great performers.
Neither definition is correct. An Artist is he who always puts his very best work into whatever he does, and who never offers only his Second Best.
So everyone can be an Artist in his work, whether it is interesting work or dull work - whether it is at school or in an office or a factory. :-)
Every one of us can make our work artistic by doing it as perfectly as it can be done, and every one of us can make our work interesting by loving it as an Artist loves it. :-)

REGULARITY - EMG Reed

If public business was conducted as some people conduct their private business, I wonder what would become of the country? Suppose, for instance, the Post Office only collected letters when it felt so disposed? Suppose, when the officials wanted a holiday, they arranged to make only the afternoon collections and deliveries, or to make all the collections in the afternoon and none in the morning? Things would soon get in a muddle, wouldn’t they?

Yet many of us expect to accomplish our daily work on the haphazard plan. Take a study like music, for example. One day, perhaps, we decide that we’re tired of scales, and will only do pieces for a day or two. The next day we spend the whole time over arpeggios, and the third day we read through new music for the whole of the practice hour.

But, if charged with unthorough work, we should probably say (with a sense of virtuous indignation): “Why, I did my whole practice time every day this week!”

As well might the postman, tired of collecting all his letters daily, decide to take only those bearing London addresses, and, when charged with the offence, protest: “But I did my round every day!”

Be sensible about practising, and don’t expect miracles to happen when you neglect to apply to music the common sense which you exert in other departments of life. It would, indeed, be a miracle, if you made progress under those conditions! He!he!he! :-D

ATTENTION

As a teacher, once the spell of your attention is broken it is extraordinarily difficult – with children one might almost say impossible – to recapture it. The mind is always attending to something. If, therefore, you ever allow yourself to say that your class was inattentive, you are simply saying what is not true. They ARE attending to something. Your remark is merely a public confession that they found something else more interesting than they found you. Do not lay blame on them, but commune with your own soul and try to discover why and where you lost hold over them, and allowed their minds to wander. They are under no vow or obligation to attend to you, and you are being paid to teach them – i.e to gain and hold their attention. It would not be a bad thing if every teacher in the world were to have hanging in his bedroom, so that it would be seen first thing every morning on waking up, a motto framed and glazed like the texts of an older generation; and the words would be: “If ever my class is inattentive, it is because I am dull.” OUCH!!! :-O   :-O

COACHING - Anthony Anderson

Picture this typical classroom scenario - the teacher spouts pearls of wisdom, the students absorb it verbatim, then the teacher tests the students to check what they have learned. Not terribly interactive. Not terribly effective either...
Coaching can be a way to breathe new life into this tired scenario. Coaching is not what it might sound - it doesn't have much to do with shouting from the sidelines, nor is it a synonym for simple encouragement.
Rather, it depends on encouraging students to set targets and take responsibility for breaking down long-term goals into manageable chunks. This can be a useful tool in music teaching, where learning dialogues arise naturally due to the performance nature of the subject.

Models
One of the frequently used coaching approaches is the GROW model. This involves establishing a clear, focused Goal, looking at the Reality of how distant that goal currently is, charting and considering Options to take steps towards the set goal, before finally considering a suitable Way forward. This concept is about transforming the teacher-student relationship - not presenting students with solutions, but encouraging them to find their own.

In Practice
Struggling to help a class improve their music essays? Why not ask them to predict what their marks will be for an assignment, before presenting them with the reality?
Try breaking down the activity into the following steps: -
- What mark would you like to have achieved for this piece of work?
This helps students set their own aspirational GOALS, rather than focusing on teacher-set tasks.
- What mark did you actually receive?
This helps students to measure the REALITY of where they are now
- How could you close the gap between the different marks? List as many ideas as you can.
This helps students list OPTIONS and decide how they can overcome any obstacles
-Choose your favorite idea. What could you do by next lesson to work towards this idea?
This helps students to decide on a WAY FORWARD and gives them a timeframe.
- Write down two positive words about your work on a post-it-note and put it somewhere where you can see it.
This helps students hold themselves to account throughout the process.

Coaching can make a real difference and seems so much better than pleading with students to do better or chastising them for their lack of effort. For me, it provides a real strategy for moving musical progress forward. Instead of eulogising to students, perhaps energising them to learn is a better way.

MAP OR SATNAV? - Paul Harris (Music Teacher, June 2012) - Shortened

Do you prefer driving with maps or with a satnav? To be honest, I usually prefer a satnav. When I'm en route for some distant (and often) unknown destination, it saves me preparation time and gets me there. But I don't always like the fact that I neither know where I am (in relation to where I was when I began the journey) or how exactly I managed to get there.
It seems to me that some teachers use maps when they teach and others use the satnav approach - the kind of teaching which, should, really, be saved up for those moments when a clever shortcut is the only way. It is ultimately destructive. Yes, it may yield speedy results, but the connections haven't been made. It's learning without understanding, and often, pupils taught repeatedly like this will eventually give up. Because they 'don't get' where they are. They are lost.
With the map, on the other hand, we can really see where we are. We can see how each destination (be it technical, musical or theoretical) connects to what we already know, and we can see how it connects to the world of music in general.
Let's go back to route maps for a moment. We can still take short cuts, but with the map the shortcuts are MEANINGFUL; we still know where we are. and we can recognize it's the church, say, from whichever direction we happen to be coming, we know what's going to be around the corner, even if we can't see it. When we teach using the map, our pupils will know where they are.
Why is it that pupils who can play a particular rhythm in their pieces often stumble over the same rhythm in a sight-reading context? It's usually because they've got there via satnav; they don't really UNDERSTAND the rhythm. The map approach is probably going to take longer to teach, but the rewards will be considerable.
There is, of course, the satnav way to teach a rhythm. We simply play or sing and say 'this is how it goes.' And teachers often feel that's enough; not seeming to mind that when the same rhythm appears in another piece, it has to be retaught. It's not a great way forward.
So, to the map approach. Set the scene by establishing a really strong pulse. Then, like learning a language, we need to reinforce it aurally until it feels  (and sounds) comfortable and natural. This physical stage is important - take time over it. We now move on to the notation, and here the map approach really comes into its own. We make connections with 'theory' - which means explaining the rhythm carefully. Pupils need to see rhythm in different contexts and come at it from different directions. And as we move forward, we make further connections with aural work, search for examples in other pieces, apply what we've learned to scales and arpeggios, and improvise and compose using it. It's Simultaneous Learning in action. Our pupils are less likely to get lost. This is thorough, responsible and, ultimately, TIME-SAVING teaching.

Let It Be

Let us be, as we are, because that is how it was meant to be...

We did not mean for it to be this way, so let it be, and let us be - black or white, red or yellow, humans or animals, birds of the air or the creatures that dwell in the waters...

Only God should not let it be, because only He can let it be, as He meant it to be... whether we understand it or not...

Let it be...

SILENCE - Music and Youth Magazine (1920s) :-)

SILENCE

We are often reminded that “Silence is golden,” but never oftener than when we neglect our rests in playing the piano. It is not only the beginner, but oftener the advanced performer, too, who commits this crime and allows the pedal, or his own love of a “good noise,” to sway him more than the thought of his audience’s desire for a moment’s rest and silence. Remember it is the rests which make the music beautiful.

 In some performances, it is ONLY that! :-D

A PRACTICAL MUSIC LESSON ~ George Cecil 

There are times when students become dispirited, and, perhaps, disheartened. They have an excellent teacher, and they faithfully carry out everything that has been taught them. But they cannot attain their ideal.

Inspiration Wanted

What, then, is wrong? Should they try another teacher? There is no need for that. Indeed, the remedy is so simple that it lies at the pupil's door. They are probably suffering from two maladies - staleness, and lack of inspiration. And, happily, both are easily cured. The patients merely have to take a rest for a week or two, and to employ the interval in reading musical biography, and in listening to competent performers. 

The Need for Knowledge

Every student should be well versed in musical literature; but comparatively few are. Many an artist, after years of success, is lamentably ignorant of what has happened in the past. He knows very little about the lives of the great composers, singers and instrumentalists, and of the music belonging to the different periods.

Reading about musicians awakens a new interest in their music and new enthusiasm for it.

And the more pupils read, the greater will be their pleasure, the feeling of staleness giving place to a desire to conquer all difficulties. Inspiration, in short, is theirs.

An Incentive

The greatest inspiration, however, is furnished by a good performance during concerts, or by one of the many interesting instrumental recitals which so frequently take place. The standard in there is so high that students have the chance of hearing the very best, and consequently the listeners come away refreshed and stimulated to try to achieve what these artists have done. It may be long before they succeed, but the main thing is that they have an incentive. Taken out of themselves, they face the task with redoubled energy 

Making it real :-)