I am of course continuing my piano lessons. Bach, Brahms, Bartok, and Debussy are all on the plate at the moment. At a recent lesson, my teacher asked if I was planning any performances any time soon. I wish! The dates never seem to coincide with my availability and level of preparedness. He opined that I hesitate because I have "standards." Maybe so, though I'm hardly a perfectionist. I think the problem may be that I'm working on such hard pieces.
This is good in many ways. It's challenging, and I'm learning techniques (like fast repeated notes, how to voice thick chords, and how to play fast in general) that have always been baffling to me. But are they too hard? Are the tasks insurmountable?
The bad part is I don't have anything simple I can just toss off on request. I suppose I could remedy that on my own by working up a few pieces that are within reach just for this purpose. But as I keep lamenting, I have so little time; every week is a scramble just trying to make progress on what I'm doing for my lessons.
All that being said, I'm still very happy with my teacher. He always tells me things I find interesting and useful, and I think we work well together. So I will press on. Perhaps it all will come together in time.
Friday, May 17, 2013
I got the job
I found out a couple of days ago that I got the teaching job! I'm pretty excited about it. Stay tuned ...
Friday, May 10, 2013
Music/life happenings
I see another month has gone by without a post from me. It's not that I'm not doing anything musical -- on the contrary, I'm going crazy and only wish I could quit my job tomorrow so I could have time for everything I want to do.
As the date for this fall's performance of the Schumann concerto hovers ever closer (looks like it will be in November), I am motivated to practice by a combination of fear and desire to do my best. This past weekend I had my first full lesson on the piece with a cellist from the National Symphony, and I'm both surprised and grateful that he's done a lot of prep to help me, including consulting with the principal cellist in the symphony and getting me a copy of the latter's part with all his bowings and fingerings. We went through the entire piece and he walked me through some of his choices on these points as well.
Good and appropriate bowings and fingerings for most pieces are obvious, at least to me, but there seem to be infinite plausible ways of playing this concerto that create subtle emphases one way or another (should there be a slide here, or there? change strings or shift? connect all these notes or break into shorter bows?). So I'm feeling like I need to try out as many as I can think of before I settle on something. Either it's something about this piece (which may very well be true, because it's technically complicated) or I'm getting pickier, or both. In any case, I'm glad I pushed myself to find someone to work with me on it rather than trying to do it all on my own. I've already garnered a lot of wisdom.
Another thing that's been going on is that over the past couple of months, something has been driving me to pursue more teaching opportunities. I've been teaching one adult cellist for more than a year now, and this winter I took on a child beginner as well. I realized that this is something I really enjoy doing. I like the human interaction (which I get very little of at my day job) and the challenge of explaining and conveying technique and music, and trying to do it well. It also reinforces everything I know and gives new insights.
That is why I've put out feelers about acquiring more students, and this week I had an interview for a part-time job at a small private arts school (music, dance, drama, visual art). The interview consisted of talking with the school director, who is someone I know from college (yay networking!) and the outgoing cello teacher, teaching a 20-minute lesson with a current student at the school, and performing a short bit of something (I played a page of a Haydn concerto). I will find out in the next few weeks if I got the job or not. Even if I don't (and I can understand if I'm not the best choice), the whole experience was totally engrossing.
I'm going to continue to explore teaching possibilities and am looking forward to what happens next.
As the date for this fall's performance of the Schumann concerto hovers ever closer (looks like it will be in November), I am motivated to practice by a combination of fear and desire to do my best. This past weekend I had my first full lesson on the piece with a cellist from the National Symphony, and I'm both surprised and grateful that he's done a lot of prep to help me, including consulting with the principal cellist in the symphony and getting me a copy of the latter's part with all his bowings and fingerings. We went through the entire piece and he walked me through some of his choices on these points as well.
Good and appropriate bowings and fingerings for most pieces are obvious, at least to me, but there seem to be infinite plausible ways of playing this concerto that create subtle emphases one way or another (should there be a slide here, or there? change strings or shift? connect all these notes or break into shorter bows?). So I'm feeling like I need to try out as many as I can think of before I settle on something. Either it's something about this piece (which may very well be true, because it's technically complicated) or I'm getting pickier, or both. In any case, I'm glad I pushed myself to find someone to work with me on it rather than trying to do it all on my own. I've already garnered a lot of wisdom.
Another thing that's been going on is that over the past couple of months, something has been driving me to pursue more teaching opportunities. I've been teaching one adult cellist for more than a year now, and this winter I took on a child beginner as well. I realized that this is something I really enjoy doing. I like the human interaction (which I get very little of at my day job) and the challenge of explaining and conveying technique and music, and trying to do it well. It also reinforces everything I know and gives new insights.
That is why I've put out feelers about acquiring more students, and this week I had an interview for a part-time job at a small private arts school (music, dance, drama, visual art). The interview consisted of talking with the school director, who is someone I know from college (yay networking!) and the outgoing cello teacher, teaching a 20-minute lesson with a current student at the school, and performing a short bit of something (I played a page of a Haydn concerto). I will find out in the next few weeks if I got the job or not. Even if I don't (and I can understand if I'm not the best choice), the whole experience was totally engrossing.
I'm going to continue to explore teaching possibilities and am looking forward to what happens next.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Such a slacker
I've been a bad blogger. My excuse is that the "kinda fried" conditions have been continuing, with some health issues interspersed (though I'm fine now).
I've been practicing both instruments, though dividing my time between them is slowing me down considerably.
We went to hear András Schiff this past weekend. This was his rescheduled concert from last fall, that was canceled because of Hurricane Sandy. The original program, as you may recall, was Book II of the Well-Tempered Clavier, but what we heard the other night instead was all of the French suites plus the French Overture (not really an "overture" but a long, grand, multi-movement piece).
He did a beautiful job with these, of course, though hearing them all together was a bit much. I agree with this very positive review in the Washington Post:
Andras Schiff Delivers Immaculate Unvarnished French Suites
Other than that, my music life has been Bach, Brahms, Bartok, and Schumann in my practice room, plus teaching my cello students every week, plus my piano lessons. I guess that's a lot to be doing!
But anyway, I'm still here. I'll try to think of something more interesting to say next time.
I've been practicing both instruments, though dividing my time between them is slowing me down considerably.
We went to hear András Schiff this past weekend. This was his rescheduled concert from last fall, that was canceled because of Hurricane Sandy. The original program, as you may recall, was Book II of the Well-Tempered Clavier, but what we heard the other night instead was all of the French suites plus the French Overture (not really an "overture" but a long, grand, multi-movement piece).
He did a beautiful job with these, of course, though hearing them all together was a bit much. I agree with this very positive review in the Washington Post:
Andras Schiff Delivers Immaculate Unvarnished French Suites
Other than that, my music life has been Bach, Brahms, Bartok, and Schumann in my practice room, plus teaching my cello students every week, plus my piano lessons. I guess that's a lot to be doing!
But anyway, I'm still here. I'll try to think of something more interesting to say next time.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Master class: Yuliya Gorenman
This past Sunday, I participated in a master class taught by Yuliya Gorenman for the Adult Music Student Forum.
Yuliya is a lively and warm person as well as a thorough virtuoso. She said lots of helpful and useful things: tips on how to practice, how to analyze, how to pedal, how to use your arms to get a big sound. The setting, an average-sized living room with two concert grands side by side at one end, was not ideal; both piano lids were closed, so the sound, though loud enough for sure, was muffled.
I played the Villa-Lobos piece I've been working on. I don't think it was the best I could possibly play, but considering that I was not feeling well that day, hadn't had lunch, hadn't warmed up or even tried the piano, had been sitting listening for an hour and a half, AND that this was the first time I had performed the piece, it wasn't too bad. I managed to get a recording of it on my phone:
Villa-Lobos, Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4, Preludio
Yuliya is a lively and warm person as well as a thorough virtuoso. She said lots of helpful and useful things: tips on how to practice, how to analyze, how to pedal, how to use your arms to get a big sound. The setting, an average-sized living room with two concert grands side by side at one end, was not ideal; both piano lids were closed, so the sound, though loud enough for sure, was muffled.
I played the Villa-Lobos piece I've been working on. I don't think it was the best I could possibly play, but considering that I was not feeling well that day, hadn't had lunch, hadn't warmed up or even tried the piano, had been sitting listening for an hour and a half, AND that this was the first time I had performed the piece, it wasn't too bad. I managed to get a recording of it on my phone:
Villa-Lobos, Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4, Preludio
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Kinda fried
I haven't been posting much lately. Reason: I have too much to do, not enough time.
Piano work seems to increase exponentially as I improve, like running on a treadmill that keeps upping the tempo. Sometimes I feel like I'm about to fall off. In addition to about 20 to 30 minutes' worth of technical work (scales, chords, short exercises) I've taken on a Bach partita (No. 2 in C minor), a Bartok Mikrokosmos (No. 153 -- last one in Volume VI), and am still working on several Brahms pieces. Oh yes, plus the Villa Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4 Preludio, which I am scheduled to play at a master class next weekend.
So there's that.
And then on the cello, I'm working on the Schumann concerto for a concert this fall, date TBD. I want to also practice some etudes (Popper and Piatti) as well as the Bach Suite No. 4 in E flat, but wow, so little time.
In an interesting development, I just met with one of our local National Symphony cellists to play for him and talk about these things I'm working on. It was really fun, and it looks like we'll be getting together a few times more for some lessons. So I actually have a teacher now, at least for a bit! He described what we'll be doing as more coaching than lessons, but whatever you want to call it, I think it will help. I've kind of been worrying that the Schumann doesn't seem as awful to play as I remembered from my attempt years ago, that maybe I wasn't appreciating its difficulties fully. But my coach today was very encouraging about where I am with it.
This is all very nice, but every night I have to decide whether I want to have two short practice sessions so I can fit in both instruments or one long one on either piano or cello so I can get more done. Either way, it's exhausting doing this after a full day of working in an office.
There's an orchestra concert coming up in two weeks -- luckily, not difficult cello parts, but I do have to go to the rehearsals and be reasonably prepared. In fact, I have to head out to a rehearsal in about 15 minutes.
I'm also now teaching two cello students, which takes up a couple of hours on Saturday afternoons.
In the rest of my life, in addition to going to work, I'm of course taking care of things at home and trying to maintain my physical and mental health.
So yeah, kinda fried. But what's the alternative?
Piano work seems to increase exponentially as I improve, like running on a treadmill that keeps upping the tempo. Sometimes I feel like I'm about to fall off. In addition to about 20 to 30 minutes' worth of technical work (scales, chords, short exercises) I've taken on a Bach partita (No. 2 in C minor), a Bartok Mikrokosmos (No. 153 -- last one in Volume VI), and am still working on several Brahms pieces. Oh yes, plus the Villa Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4 Preludio, which I am scheduled to play at a master class next weekend.
So there's that.
And then on the cello, I'm working on the Schumann concerto for a concert this fall, date TBD. I want to also practice some etudes (Popper and Piatti) as well as the Bach Suite No. 4 in E flat, but wow, so little time.
In an interesting development, I just met with one of our local National Symphony cellists to play for him and talk about these things I'm working on. It was really fun, and it looks like we'll be getting together a few times more for some lessons. So I actually have a teacher now, at least for a bit! He described what we'll be doing as more coaching than lessons, but whatever you want to call it, I think it will help. I've kind of been worrying that the Schumann doesn't seem as awful to play as I remembered from my attempt years ago, that maybe I wasn't appreciating its difficulties fully. But my coach today was very encouraging about where I am with it.
This is all very nice, but every night I have to decide whether I want to have two short practice sessions so I can fit in both instruments or one long one on either piano or cello so I can get more done. Either way, it's exhausting doing this after a full day of working in an office.
There's an orchestra concert coming up in two weeks -- luckily, not difficult cello parts, but I do have to go to the rehearsals and be reasonably prepared. In fact, I have to head out to a rehearsal in about 15 minutes.
I'm also now teaching two cello students, which takes up a couple of hours on Saturday afternoons.
In the rest of my life, in addition to going to work, I'm of course taking care of things at home and trying to maintain my physical and mental health.
So yeah, kinda fried. But what's the alternative?
Carter Brey talking about cellos
Carter Brey is principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic, someone I always enjoy hearing. I came across these videos in which he's talking about the difference between Baroque and modern cellos, and specifically about playing Bach. He's playing all of the solo suites in New York next month on Baroque-style instruments, including using a five-string cello for the sixth suite.
Some interesting stuff here ...
James McKean, who posted the videos, is a luthier based in New York who made the Baroque-style instruments Brey is using here, and I am assuming he is the off-camera interviewer.
Carter Brey: The Bach Suites for Solo Cello from James N McKean on Vimeo.
Carter Brey: The Bach Suites part 2 from James N McKean on Vimeo.
Some interesting stuff here ...
James McKean, who posted the videos, is a luthier based in New York who made the Baroque-style instruments Brey is using here, and I am assuming he is the off-camera interviewer.
Carter Brey: The Bach Suites for Solo Cello from James N McKean on Vimeo.
Carter Brey: The Bach Suites part 2 from James N McKean on Vimeo.
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