All posts by Karen Berger

Songs and Pieces

Classical Music for Halloween Playlist

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Halloween and classical music are a natural fit. Shrieking violins, demonic trills, spooky organs: the range of sounds available to the classical composer can conjure up visions of demons and ghosts, witches and warlocks.

Halloween is particularly well-represented by Romantic music — that is, music composed after about 1825 to the beginning of the twentieth century. This is Romantic with a big “R” — big feeling, big fears, big mysteries, big stories. Before the Romantic period, composers didn’t reserve a whole lot of creativity for titles, and we got stuck with something like “Sonata in A minor.” And one million “Minuets.”

But the Romantics, now that’s different. Thematic music told whole stories, without words. In Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture,” we can listen to Napoleon’s invasion of Russia; we hear the prayers before battle, the horns and drums of marching cavalries, snippets from the French national anthem, folk dances around the soldier’s campfires, and the flaming retreat from Moscow.

Not to say that other composers didn’t have their share of spooks. From Bach to the moderns, Halloween and related myths — full of ghostly stories, mysteries, and the grand feelings of passion and death — are well-represented.

Commerce with the Underworld: The Sale of Souls and Dancing with the Devil

One of music’s most enduring myths is that of the musician who sells his soul to the devil. The Faustian bargain, described in poetry by Goethe, found a receptive audience among concert-goers, who were more than willing, for example, to believe that the great violinist Niccolo Paganini sold his soul to the devil. (So, according to legend, did the twentieth-century blues master, Robert Johnson; indeed, one can visit the highway crossroads where the transaction is said to have taken place.) 

  • Carl Maria von Weber, Der Freischutz. This piece describes the forester who meets the devil in a forest, and agrees to sell his soul. Cheap? Expensive? The price was seven magic bullets.
  • Camille Saint-Saens, Danse Macabre. It’s based on a poem where Death appears on Halloween to call the skeletons from their graves. How much spookier do you need? 
  • Franz Liszt’s Totentanz. This piece recalls the work of 14th Century artists, who depicted the Dance of Death. This one is based on a poem by Henri Cazalis.
  • Franz Liszt: Mephisto Waltz. Liszt wrote this to depict Mephistopheles, who plays his violin at a local pub and seduces the villagers into following him.

Myths and Fairytales

The ghosts and goblins, the legends and myths, of medieval Europe have found a home in the music of the 19th and 20th centuries. As composers experimented with changing keys, new tonalities, dissonance, and sound effects, they found plenty of ways to depict the macabre, the thrilling, and the mysterious.

  • Modest Mussorgsky, Night on Bald Mountain. This depiction of a witch’s sabbath was included in Walt Disney’s Fantasia.
  • Modest Mussorgsky, Baba Yaga  from Pictures at an Exhibition. Another witch’s sabbath, this one atop Mt. Triglav. in this version, the old hag witch flies through the air and lives in a hut make of chicken bones.
  • Charles Gounod, Funeral March of a Marionette. You’ve heard this: It’s the famed Alfred Hitchcock theme.
  • Franz Schubert, Erl King. The dark and spooky nighttime forest of the 19th century European Romantic makes another appearance in Schubert’s famous lieder. This one is based on a poem by Goethe, which describes the frantic nighttime ride of a father trying to save his son. He fails.
  • Cesar Franck, The Accursed Huntsman. Another nobleman, another forest: In this morality tale, a huntsman skips mass to go hunting, and is cursed by the devil.
  • Paul Dukas, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Who can forget this Halloween favorite, also based on Goethe (Is anyone else seeing a pattern here?) Mickey Mouse portrayed the hapless apprentice in the Walt Disney classic, Fantasia.
  • Edvard Grieg, Peer Gynt Suite. Scandinavian myths, with trolls and dwarf-like beings come alive in this Norwegian composer’s classic work. In The Hall Of The Mountain King builds from a slow, portending start to a frantic ending. Whoever is in that hall sounds like they in a massive panic to get out.
  • Maurice Ravel, Gaspard de la Nuit. This piano suite depicts a seductive water fairy, a hanged corpse, and mischievous goblin. The last movement, Scarbo (that would be the goblin) is considered one of the most difficult piano pieces ever written.
  • Claude Debussy, La Cathedrale Engloutie (“The Engulfed Cathedral”). This piece recalls  a story where the devil floors a city by opening the gates to a dike. The bells of the underwater cathedral still ring on occasion.
  • Adolphe Adam, Giselle. A nobleman, a peasant girl, love, betrayal, and death by grief. In the second act, he meets here spirit in the forest, and she and her friends start to dance him to death. But she spares him in the ballet’s final moments. 

Just Plain Scary Music 

Does a piece of music have to have a story or a myth? Does it have to be about the devil, or can it just — evoke mystery, evil, weirdness, fear? Listen to these, and you tell me:

  • Johann Sebastian Bach, Toccata and Fugue in D minor.  Can you think of scary piece of organ music? Yup, that’s the one. A stalwart of old movies, its first notes virtually guarantee midnight other-worldly trouble. One of the keystones of the organ repertoire — but musicologists debate its authorship.
  • Léon Boëllmann, Toccata (fourth movement of Suite Gothique.) This menacing pieces is probably the best known work of this nineteenth-century French composer. The Gothic title tells you all you need to know.
  • Olivier Messiaen, “Quartet for the End of Time”.  A piece of music written while the composer was a WWII prisoner of war; the subject is the end of the world. What more to say?
  • Giuseppe Tartini, Violin Sonata in g minor. “The Devil’s Trill” takes place in the double-trills of the the final movement — scary to musician and audience alike. Music legend tells us that the devil himself played the music to Tartini in a dream. 
  • Hector Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique. The Musical autobiography of a demented artist soul, suffering from all the usual things — despair,  unrequited love, and let’s not forget an opium trip that shows him his own death (“March to the Gallows”) and the subsequent orgy with witches (“Dream of a Witch’s Sabbath).
  • Carol Orff, ”  O Fortuna”   You have your basic church choir; then you have… THIS. Based on 11th and 12 century poems written in part to satirize the Catholic church, this 20th century adaptation sounds intense? Evil? Epic? And really…  it’s used to introduce Simon Cowell and his fellow judges in the X Factor: How much spookier do you need? 


For Parents, Piano Lessons for Children

Dealing with Failure and Frustration

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The New York Times magazine’s educational supplement recently published this article called “What if the Secret to Success is Failure.”  It’s about character education and how learning to deal with frustration and failure can help create success later in a child’s life.

The article didn’t mention music once, but it should have.

Throughout the nine-page article, the author interviewed principals of schools ranging from a tony private school in Riverdale, N.Y. to a stellar public school in the Bronx, along with educational consultants and experts. They talked about character components that were important for success in later life — grit, perseverance, curiosity, self-control, optimism — and about ways they had developed to measure and nurture these traits.

But I’ve got an easier way to see what kind of character a kid has: Just watch how he or she approaches music lessons. Does she slump down in fatigue every time a teacher asks her to play something again? Does he look for praise even after a lackluster performance he knows is full of flaws? Does she avoid practicing the hard stuff at home because it’s too “confusing”?

The more I teach, the more I see that success in learning music — and I believe, by extension, in learning anything — has to do with character. Not character as in following the golden rule and standing up to bullies, but character as in an attitude of approaching and dealing with the world and its challenges. Character as in taking responsibility for your learning. Character as is showing up for your life — prepared, eager, willing, interested, alert, energetic, engaged.

Interestingly, this is most evident with smart students — the ones for whom everything in school comes easily. According to the article, these students can be among the most resistant to tackling projects that actually require real work. In so many cases, bright students are underchallenged in school and never really have to deal with the mammoth difficulties that, say, a math-challenged student faces every day when looking at an algebra problem. Even in gifted program where bright kid are challenged, the steps for figuring out the problem come easily enough; the problem is usually solved without the head-banging frustration of just not “getting it.”

Music is a more even-handed task-master: It challenges the brilliant student just as easily as it challenges everyone else. Becoming a musician is an infinite process, and none of us ever stop learning, ever stop making mistakes. So the bright student’s typical modus operendi — figure it out, do a bit of work, succeed, be done with it — doesn’t apply. There is no “being done with it.” There is always someone better; there is always a harder piece; there is always something you can’t do. There is no such thing as 100 percent; an A+ is not the goal. There is no top to this mountain; there is only the climb.

The “problem” is never entirely solved, because as soon as we learn to play one Beethoven Sonata, we discover another, harder one, we want to play. As soon as we figure out what scales Art Tatum was using in his improvisations, we are faced with the problem of playing them as fast and as lightly as he did, with all the melody notes woven in just so. And even when (or if) we can do that, there are other pieces to learn, other styles to master.

We take forever to “master” a piece, then we perform it and make a mistake. The band director doesn’t pick us as first chair. We fail an orchestra audition and the job goes to a younger player. The audience likes a flashy showpiece by a  technically sloppy performer better than our note-perfect but less appealing offering. We perform our tour de force technical masterpiece at a community talent show, but the talk of the town is the six-year-old who improvised on the harmonica.

Do we fold up and go home? Or do we practice our piece some more, try again for first chair, re-audition for the orchestra, and kick our improvisations up a notch? (As for the six year old — well, best to learn to never share the stage with a talented little kid. Some battles you just can’t win!)

The choices we make are not talent questions; they are character questions.

We are used to hearing about the benefits of music education: Serious music students score better on standardized tests, do better in college, have fewer problems with drugs and alcohol. MRIs have shown that musician’s brains function differently in terms of neural pathways than non-musician’s brains.

But we don’t have to look inside a music student’s brain to find the answer: It may be as simple as the issue of  character — of getting up when you’re down, being honest about your mistakes, dealing with frustration, trying one more time, breaking a problem down and patiently putting the pieces together one at a time.

As we teach our students rhythms and notes and pedaling and dynamics, it’s worth remembering that the “character education” we are giving our students is equally, or even more, important. It is at the heart of what we, as music teachers, give to our students. And these are lessons that go far beyond the “Entertainer” and “Fur Elise” — to college, and life beyond.

For Parents, Group Piano Lessons, Piano Lessons for Children

Group Piano Lessons: How to Make Them Work

Traditionally, piano lessons have been taught one-one-one in private lessons. But with the advent of portable, inexpensive digital pianos equipped with headphones, programs have sprung up to teach piano to groups of beginners. For parents, these programs are less inexpensive than private lessons. At the same time, they can be more lucrative for teachers. Win-win. but what about the students?

While there are pros and cons to teaching groups lessons versus private piano lessons, group lessons for beginners can be successful if certain elements are in place. Here’s what to look for if you are parent… and what to be sure you are doing if you are a teacher.

Elements of Success in Group Piano Lessons

The success of group lessons depends on the skill of the teacher, the class curriculum, the number of students, and how well matched the students are in age and learning ability.

  • Teacher Skill: Typical group lessons may be an hour in length, which is a long time for a small child. Therefore, the teacher must have a bag of tricks to keep students interested and keep the class varied and moving. The teacher must also have class management strategies in order to deal with working with one child privately while keeping the others busy with independent learning tasks, regaining control when the class turns chaotic, and coping with different learning styles and abilities.
  • Class Curriculum: The curriculum should be developed or modified so it is workable for groups. For example, the teacher should have plenty of supplemental activities to reinforce concepts, and to give to students who finish assignments before everyone else. Materials should also be age appropriate, as young children who can’t yet read have difficulty using instructional materials developed for older children who are reading fluently. The curriculum should include plenty of variety in order to revive interest when students get tired or lose focus.
  • Number of Students: While some classes have experimented with teaching a dozen or more children, most teachers of group piano classes prefer a group size of about four children. This gives everyone plenty of time for individual attention, but allows for camaraderie to develop. Group dynamics add to the “fun” elements of the class.
  • Student Compatibility: Children should be grouped by age, and, when possible, learning ability. Children who are five should not be in classes with seven or eight year olds: The cognitive differences between different age groups make classroom management and evenly paced instruction virtually impossible. Even children of the same age can be vastly different in learning ability. The most successful groups combine children of similar ages and abilities together. Indeed, group lessons may not be appropriate for children who are very talented, or those who need constant extra attention.

Materials Required for Successful Group Piano Lessons

A professional group piano studio will have most of the following elements:

  • Digital pianos, one per student: Digital pianos must have headphones. Touch control (dynamic control when keys are pressed with different amounts of force) is required. It is preferable that keyboards have pedals and 88 weighted keys, so they feel as much like an acoustic piano as possible.
  • A photocopier: For writing group assignments and homework, for photocopying parts and music when needed.
  • A whiteboard or blackboard (and appropriate writing implements): Used for writing games such as drawing and naming notes.
  • Inexpensive percussion instruments: For rhythm exercises.
  • Computers (optional): Computers with mini-piano keyboards can be used for music theory and music-reading exercises. Teachers should be sure that the learning programs being used penalize students for mistakes, otherwise, students simply click randomly as fast as they can to try to score points.
  • An acoustic piano (optional): Having an acoustic piano enables the teacher to demonstrate, and allows the children to move among instruments and feel and hear the differences for themselves.
  • CD player (optional): for listening exercises and games.

With an enthusiastic teacher, a well-designed classroom, an age-appropriate and varied curriculum, and a class of compatible students, group piano lessons can work well for the first year or two as an introduction to more advanced, private study.

For more information on group music lessons, see Group Music Lessons for Young Children.

For more information on piano lessons, see: How to Know a Child is Ready for Piano Lessons.

Performing

Stage Fright and Performace Anxiety: A Guide for Teachers and Parents

Sweaty palms, shaking hands, nervous stomachs. Years after the first violin or piano recital, former music students can still remember the symptoms of anxiety. But the children’s music recital is a rite of passage: How do we make it easier for them?

Performance anxiety is a fact of life, and it isn’t limited to kids. Adults, including both recreational, and professional musicians, can both freeze from nerves on stage. Indeed, stage fright, is one of the most common social phobias, closely related to the fear of public speaking. At its most basic, stage fright is a fear of looking foolish in front of others, or failing at a task in a public setting. But music teachers and parents can help their students and children deal with this common phobia.

Symptoms and Effects of Performance Anxiety

Some amount of anxiety is normal before a performance, and indeed, professional musicians learn to channel the adrenaline of stage fright into their recitals. In most cases, young performers learn to cope with stage fright simply by gaining a bit of experience.

But sometimes the problem is more serious, and in severe cases, stage fright can completely undermine the benefits of giving a performance. Sometimes, stage nerves make a performance impossible. A student’s hands or legs may shake so much that it is impossible to play a note or push a pedal on a piano or an organ. Or a memory lapse may take place, a frightening occurrence performers describe as awakening from the dream-state of a performance only to find that they have no idea where they are in a piece of music, or even, what piece of music they are playing. At its most severe, stage fright can blossom into a full-fledged panic attack or anxiety attack.

Preventing and Overcoming Stage Fright

In most cases, treating stage fright is a matter of prevention. Acclimating, or getting used to the performance process, is the first step. Teachers can help beginning performers by scheduling no-stress or low-stress performances that take place in non-threatening environments such as a teacher’s living room, a class-room, or even a friendly local coffee shop (serving cookies also helps). These practice performances can be as low key as asking a student to stay three minutes longer to play his piece for the next student family that walks in the door. Or (even) play for the dog or the cat. 

In a very real sense, stage fright is a matter of conscience. Students know how well prepared they are, and whether or not they have practiced effectively. In most cases, the more confident a student is in the ability to perform a piece of music, the less severe stage fright will be. For a student’s first few performances, teachers should choose easier works that the student likes and feels secure about performing. Virtually every instrument has a literature of student performances, and many composers who write for students create works that sound more impressively difficult than they really are. These pieces are often fun to play, and they boost a student’s confidence.

Ways to Boost Confidence

When I’m sure the student can do it, I ask the student to play a piece, or a section of the piece, with his or her eyes closed. Assuming there aren’t any huge jumps, it’s amazing how  many students are able to accomplish this. practicing with your eyes closed is another way to convince yourself that you really do know the piece inside outside and backwards.

And we play the “interruption game,” in which the student’s job is to keep playing — no matter what. “No matter what” can include me turning the lights on and off, yelping suddenly in the middle of the piece, slamming a door, waving my hands in front of the students music, juggling, making funny faces, or jumping up and down. This is a really fun game with a group of kids, although for sanity’s sake, give some ground rules: No touching the performer and taking turns being the interruptor are two good ones that keep things from getting out of control.  This game is so successful that students beg to play it.  

Familiarity with the performance process helps relieve anxiety. Some teachers have full-fledged recital rehearsals where students practice walking up to the stage, performing for each other, and bowing,

One of the most common causes of stage fright in music recitals is the performance anxiety associated with playing from memory. Unless the student is truly on a path to being college music major or a concert artist, playing from memory is something that can be introduced very slowly or avoided all together. Of course, a student who has memorized a piece is better prepared to perform it, but there’s no reason not to let a child or an adult recreational player have the security of sheet music if they want it.

Adults, too, are susceptible to stage fright. Some use prescription drugs such as beta-blockers under the close supervision of a medical doctor. Others undergo hypnotherapy for their performance anxiety. Meditating and visualizing a successful performance are other common techniques.

With a combination of reasonable expectations and repertoire, a friendly, non-threatening environment, adequate practice, and a bit of experience, the process of performing music can become what it is meant to be: an opportunity to share a musician’s art, rather than an anxiety-packed ordeal.

Music Musings

Paying the Price

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“Do you know how much a Rolex costs? Or a Maserati?” I asked my 16-year old student. He looked at me blankly, wondering why I was talking about luxury goods in the middle of a piano lesson.

“A lot?” he ventured.

“A lot.” I said. “And if you wanted one, you would have to work for it — and at your age, you can’t really make that much an hour, so you would have to work for many many many hours to buy one. You’d have to decide if you really really wanted it, and if it was going to be worth it to you to do all that work, and then mid-way, you might realize just how much work it was and decide you wanted something else.”

“But I don’t want a Rolex,” he said.

“No, but you came in here saying that you wanted to play the last movement of the Moonlight Sonata, which is a concert pianist piece. It’s a Rolex. It’s expensive, only it doesn’t cost money. It costs PRACTICE. Just like a Rolex, if you want this expensive piece of music that not everyone can have, you have to pay the price.”

Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata is the holy grail of the adult piano student. Just like kids clamor to play Beethoven’s “Fuer Elise,” adults want to create those mysterious, soul-touching sounds. And teenagers want to take on the drama and fury of the last movement with its thundering chords and unsettled emotions.

In all three cases, generally what you’ve got is a pianist with champagne tastes on a beer budget. The pieces they want to play are the champagne. The price they are willing to pay — the practice time — that’s the beer budget. And just as with champagne, watches, automobiles, or pretty much anything  else in life — you get what you pay for, and what you’re willing to pay determines what you’re going to get.

I can’t tell you the number of adult students who come to their first lesson with the Moonlight on their mind. Some drag in the first four measures.Some bring simplified versions. Some bring the sheet music. One  brought the sheet music and his own version of it written out in note names, one at a time. He can figure out notes, but can’t read fluently yet, so he figured this would shorten the process. They come looking for a magic bullet, and want to know why it sounds different when I play it. After a few lessons, they start sounding annoyed and impatient.

“It takes years,” I tell them. They don’t want to hear it — at this point in their lives, they’ve graduated from college, had careers, raised children, paid mortgages — why can’t they do THIS simple, one thing. On average — for a rank beginner with average musical ability and dexterity, I’d say it would take two to four years before they could play the first movement of the Moonlight, and that’s with diligent practice. I should probably also mention that some students will never get there: Musical ability is an ephemeral, wispy flirt, and the Moonlight Sonata, even the “easy” first movement — is over the line where you need some musical talent to put the pieces together.

And that’s not even beginning to think about the mercurial, tumultuous last movement: with its technical demands ranging from giant keyboard-spanning arpeggios to dynamic control to touches ranging from mysterious legatos to controlled staccatos, all applied with flying fingers to fistfuls of notes.

A Rolex. Lots of people want one, but not everyone can pay the price, and of those who can, even fewer want to.

“I’m going to practice six hours a day and come in here next week and play that first page better than you can,” my student told me, and I said — with all sincerity — “That is something I’d really like to see.”

Maybe one day I will.

 

For Parents, Piano Lessons for Children

What Makes a Good Piano Parent?

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Okay, so my not-so-short rant on parenting and piano lessons has now reached thousands of people from dozens of countries…. literally, all around the world. Clearly, it hit a nerve — in Russia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Jamaica, South Korea, Mexico, China, Portugal, Italy, South Africa, Israel, Japan, Bolivia, Estonia…

But there’s a “glass-half-full” aspect to all of this, and I wanted to share that, as well.

Last night, David and I hosted a music party to celebrate — well everything: The 9th year of our studio here in the Berkshires, the publication of seven music books in the Idiot’s Guides series, and a community that has given us amazing support in our mission to bring music into people’s lives.

And the performances of our students and the joy of David’s song-circle of guitarists playing old favorites together reminded us, once again, why we do this: it’s so much more than a job. Watching our students turn into musicians before our eyes is a one of the greatest gifts I can imagine.

So I wanted to share with you some of what I see that my really wonderful piano families (and David’s equally wonderful guitar families) are doing right:

1) They are making music a priority. For some, this means that lessons and practice are a non-negotiable part of life. Kind of like brushing your teeth.

2) They don’t overcommit. Our most successful students (and this includes those who are successful  academically AND athletically as well as musically) do two maybe or three activities at a time — not four or five.

3) They supervise their kids. For very young students, this means that they make sure the kids have put in their required practice, completed any assignments, have their books for their lessons. For older students, it means maintaining a presence: asking about a piece, showing interest, making sure their kid plays in recitals and other musical events. 

4) They support lessons by playing music at home and attending live music events — ANY live music events.

5) They listen in at lessons and then remind students of what the teacher told them to do. (Yes, we allow parents to sit in… I know some teachers don’t, and there are good arguments both ways.)

6) If they CAN help with practice (counting, correcting wrong notes, etc.) they do.

7) Even if they can’t help with correcting musical problems, they ask their kids to play for them and show them what they are working on.

8) They are JOYFUL about music: They see it not as just another chore, but as something special in life.

9) They listen to us when we talk about lesson length or practice times or overscheduling or summer lessons or the need for a quiet practice place uninterrupted by toddlers trying to bang along on the high notes or a blaring TV.

10) They communicate with us: Let us know about scheduling issues, school problems, and other issues that might affect how a child is doing. Sometimes we can help by changing the requirements, taking a break from the “serious” stuff to have more fun, or simply knowing that a kid is feeling overwhelmed.

If you’re a parent reading this: What have you done to support your child’s music education?

If you are a music teacher: What makes a great music parent in YOUR eyes?

Please comment.

Ensembles, Practice and Skills

If You Don’t Have Rhythm, You Don’t Have Music

Rhythm is the heart beat of music, pure and simple. You can make danceable music with a drum and one note, but you can’t make music with notes and no rhythm.

In a classical solo performance, of course, you can speed up and slow down all you want (well, within reason). In an ensemble, the group leader or conductor will lead the group through rhythm changes so you stay together through them. Accelerandos and ritardandos are part of the classical style and the audience and the critics will make their judgment, and that will be that.

But ensemble players in pop and jazz music have to stay steady together, without a conductor (even if there is a group leader, you’re still expected to maintain tempo and rhythm on your own.)  Indeed, pop players  can drive their musical trains right off the tracks if they don’t stay steady. And I’ m not just talking about beginners and kids here.

Here are some reminders… for all of us.

Counting it in: Some people have a knack for this, most don’t. If you’re one of the majority, and you are leading a song, here’s how to count everyone in so they start at the same time at the right tempo:

  • First, get a strong phrase of the song in your head and start singing it in your head at the tempo you want to play it.
  • Add finger snapping to find the beat.
  • THEN — and only then — count in a full measure.  Be sure your vocal tone and counting style leave no doubt as to where people are supposed to come in.

Learn the Arrangement! Don’t use how you think the song goes as the backdrop in your head to lead you through playing it. Not every band plays every song just like “it is on the record.” They may drop weird little rhythmic variations for simplicity’s sake, ditch a solo, or repeat solos to give more people a chance.  You’ve got to listen to the people you are playing with, and to a metronome in your head — not try to copy “the way the song goes.”

Tapping. Keep the rhythm with a body part (depending on your instrument): foot tapping, finger snapping (for singers), nodding your head, whispering the counts.

LIisten  — and that means to each other, not just to yourself. I’ve been in band situations where everyone was nodding and foot tapping and feeling like they were in a groove, and they were — that is, each person was in his own groove. The overall sound was a mushed mess because it was like everyone was playing in a bubble.

Look at each other. Make eye contact, nod, FEEL the beat together so that your counts are the same as your band member’s counts. If everyone is speeding up and you aren’t, you may be right — but YOU are the one who will sound off.

Drummers: DON’T SPEED  UP!!!!

Bass Players: Keep it simple until you’ve got everyone on board.

Follow the Leader. If the groove seems off, someone needs to pull it back in. Drummers can stress the downbeats, keyboard players can stop playing with one hand and start conducting, the bass player can hammer the ones and the fives on the downbeats. Simplify. Drop the complex syncopations. Guitarists and pianists should drop the little in-between-the-beats upstrokes and fills. When everyone is hitting the main beats together, then you can let the music evolve into more complexity. But if you’re off, rein it in.

Count! If you’re playing a song from a lead sheet, you need to know how many beats each chord change is. If the changes are uneven or unusual, or there’s a little half measure in there somewhere, put a little note in your lead sheet.  Not all songs go in even four measure phrases.

Steady as she goes. If you are in a rock/pop/jazz group and the singer or lead soloist is bending the rhythm (holding back or anticipating the bar lines) — YOUR job is to keep the steady beat, even if that means you are not with the soloist. This is the OPPOSITE of what classical musicians do: Classical accompanists, anticipate (or rehearse) the soloist’s ritardandos and stay with the soloist. Pop and jazz rhythm sections stay with the rhythm, giving the soloist a steady place to come back to at the end of the phrase. If you stay with the soloist instead of with the rhythm section, you will drive the train right off the tracks.  The only exceptions are endings (and, very occasionally, transitions to bridges) where ritardandos are rehearsed.

Work at home with a metronome. To practice soloing, count off the measures so you fit your solo into the time allotted for each chord. You can also record (for example, on a keyboard) the backing chords, played in strict rhythm, and practice soloing over them and hitting the changes of your solo at the right time.

Bottom line: You (and your listeners) shouldn’t need a search light to find the beat! By listening to each other and prioritizing rhythm, you can help your bad achieve a tighter sound and a better groove.

Guitar

How to Tune a Guitar

So you bought the guitar (That was my last post.) Now you need to learn to tune it. 

Like violins, violas, or cellos, guitars go out of tune very easily. Guitars must be tuned every time they are played. (Indeed, during concerts, performers often stop between songs or movements to re-tune.)

The standard tuning for a guitar (both electric and acoustic) is, from the lowest note to the highest note: E-A-D-G-B-E. Using the piano as a reference, the lowest E on the guitar is 13 white notes below Middle C; the highest E on the guitar is the E just above Middle C.

Beginning players often use mnemonics to remember the names of the strings: Here’s one that many guitar students find easy: “Eddie Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Eddie.”

Using a Tuner

The easiest way to tune a guitar is with a battery-operated electronic tuner, which costs a few dollars, and is available at any music store. Tuners attach to the guitar’s headstock. Simply play each string; a light display reveals whether the string is flat, sharp, or in tune. If a guitar string is flat (low) it needs to be tightened by slowly and gently turning the tuning peg corresponding to that string. if it is sharp (high), the tuning peg needs to be loosened.

Many tuners come with other features such as a metronome. In addition to making the actual process of tuning more precise, tuners are useful when playing with other musicians, all of whom may be making a racket as they, too, tune and warm up for a performance.

Using Another Instrument as a Reference to Tune a Guitar

If no tuner is available, or if you’ve lost yours, tune to another instrument or a pitch-pipe (assuming anyone still has one of those hanging around). This requires playing the note (or having someone else play the note), then playing the guitar string, then listening and adjusting the tension of the strings so they sound at exactly the same pitch as the reference instrument.

Using tuners is so easy that many guitar players don’t bother to tune by ear any more, but being able to hear matched pitches is an important musical skill. It can be difficult at first to hear the subtle differences. One technique is to hum the note the guitar string plays, then hum the note the instrument being tuned to is playing. It’s possible to feel whether the pitch is going up or down by whether the voice tightens or relaxes to match it. Another technique is to listen for “beats, which are slight vibrations that occurs when the two strings are almost in tune, but not quite. Get rid of the “beats” and the instrument is in tune.

Using Relative Pitch to Tune a Guitar

If no tuner or instruments are available, the guitar can be tuned to itself. That means that while none of the notes may be exactly right, they will be in tune with each other. (Of course, if another guitarist shows up to play, the two instruments then have to be re-tuned to match each other).

To tune a guitar to itself, start with the low E string, which has the least tension on it, and is most likely to stay in tune.

  • Hold down the fifth fret of the E string. This makes the E string play an A. That is the sound the next string should make. Tighten or loosen the A string’s tuning peg until the two sounds match.
  • Once the A string is in tune, put a finger on its fifth fret. to make a D note. Play the next string (the D string), and adjust the tuning until the two sounds match.
  • Once the D string is in tune, put a finger on its fifth fret to make a G. Play the next string (the G string), and adjust the tuning until the sounds match.. Be careful when tuning the G string. It’s one of the strings most likely to snap if tuned too quickly.
  • Once the G string is in tune, put a finger on its FOURTH fret., which is the B. Play the next string (the B string), and adjust the tuning until the sounds match..
  • Once the B string is in tune, put a finger on its fifth fret. to make an E. Play the next string (the high E string), and adjust the tuning until the sounds match..

It may be necessary to repeat the process a few times.

The above guitar tuning techniques are the basics: Tuning any instrument is actually an endlessly complicated subject. The mathematics of tuning an instrument so it can function in multiple keys require some compromises in the purity of intonation, and compromises lead to controversies. (See Temperament: How Music Became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization by Stuart Isacoff, Vintage, New York, 2003).

Some guitarists additionally use advanced techniques such as harmonics (which requires gently pressing certain frets to create a ringing tone that sounds in harmony with the main string). Finally, some songs require guitars to be tuned to different notes in order to create special effects. But those are all issues for more advanced players. (You can find out more at guitarnoise,com, which has exhaustive resources for guitarists of all levels.).

For now, buy a guitar tuner and remember “Eddie Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Eddie.”

Guitar

Buying Your First Guitar: Types, Sizes, and Styles of Guitars

Guitar is one of the most popular instruments taken up by adults.

As with all instruments, there a steep learning curve at first, but it doesn’t take 10,000 hours to learn enough to accompany yourself on a basic three-chord song (and there are thousands of basic three-chord songs to pick from, from blues to folk to rock).  Plus, you can enjoy playing it both solo and with friends.

Once you’ve made the commitment to learn, you have to find an instrument. And in choosing which guitar to buy, things can get confusing: It turns out that a guitar is not just a guitar. Here’s a quick guide to deciding from among the classicals, steel strings, 12-strings, acoustics, resonators, hollow-bodieds, dreadnoughts, jumbos, and a few more types of guitars that may be new to you.

Choosing a Guitar: Electric Guitars versus Acoustic Guitars

Most people’s first guitar is some kind of acoustic guitar. Unless you are a heavy metal fan, or you plan to only play rock and roll leads, an acoustic is more versatile for a first guitar, because it can work with rock and roll, folk, and country. An acoustic doesn’t mean you’re stuck without amplification: Acoustics can come with electronics built in for amplification, or you can insert a pick-up into the sound hole, or you can play directly into a microphone. But acoustics also work without amplification, giving you greater flexibility.

Still, if you are determined to buy an electric, you’ll find many affordable choices. Indeed, some manufacturers make beginner’s packages complete with amplifiers and cables.

Classical Guitars Versus Steel Strings

Classical guitars have nylon strings and wider fret boards; they also have fewer frets (12) before the neck joins the body of the guitar. Steel string guitars have two more frets (so you can get those notes WAY up there) and they may even have cut-outs so you can reach even more notes. The basic steel string acoustic is the warhorse of guitars: Almost everyone who plays guitar has at least one.

Classical guitars do not come with built in amplification, and they aren’t widely used in anything but classical music or, sometimes, folk singing. However, for new players who feel that their fingers are clumsy, the wider fretboard can be easier to learn on. The nylon strings also make playing less painful for beginners, who don’t yet have calluses built up. Classical guitars are great choices for young children who are just starting out because of the nylon strings. Note: you can put nylon strings on an acoustic guitar; you can’t put steel strings on a classical guitar.

Standard Acoustic Guitar Versus Specialty Instruments

Unless you have a passion for a particular kind of music, you’ll probably want to start with an all-around one-size fits all acoustic. But those who are determined to play country blues or jazz might want to look beyond standard acoustic guitars. For example, the resonator guitar, or Dobro, is part metal, and has a garbage-can twang that sounds great for playing country blues. Hollow-bodied jazz guitars are amplified, but can be played acoustically. The thinner reverberating chamber means that the notes doesn’t sustain as much, which is important when playing dissonant jazz chords.

One specialty guitar beginners should stay away from is the 12-string. It’s not that the technique is so difficult; it’s more than you won’t develop all the elements of proper basic technique if you start on a 12-string. Let the “twelve” be your second guitar!

Guitar Sizes: Standard, Mini, Dreadnought, and Jumbo

Guitars comes in several sizes and shapes from the standard acoustic to smaller scale guitars, and larger models such as dreadnoughts (its the big one with a sort of pear shaped body and it can be hard to handle, especially for smaller women) and a jumbo (as the name implies, this is an oversized behemoth; however, because of its shape, it may be manageable by smaller women). The size of the guitar has an effect on its timbre and resonance; Dreadnoughts, for example, often seem to “boom” while three-quarter sized guitars may have a finer more subtle tone. But don’t just fall in love with the sound: Be sure the guitar feels comfortable in your hands.

According to guitarist and teacher David Hodge, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Guitar, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Rock Guitar, and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Bass Guitar, the most important thing to consider in choosing your first guitar is how it feels. “You’re going to play it more if you love the sound,” he says. “And you are going to play it more if it feels comfortable.” He also recommends that you talk to music store personnel about quality and set-up (making the guitar ready to play by adjusting the action). David also recommends taking someone along to play the guitar for you so you can hear what it sounds like from the audience side of things: “Because the sound hole points away from the performer, the guitar can actually sound quite different from the playing and listening perspectives,” he says.

“There are many playable guitars available for less than $200 or $300,” David says. “And good guitars can also be found at garage sales or used, on consignment at music stores. A very cheap guitar can actually be painful to play, which means you won’t practice because it hurts too much. So bring a guitar playing friend to the store with you, or choose a store that has been referred to you by a teacher or guitarist friend. You don’t want to buy a guitar that is cheap, but turns out to be unplayable.”

Finally, remember that choosing your first guitar is not a decision that has to last a lifetime. Most guitarists end up owning several guitars for playing different kinds of music. If you fall in love with playing guitar, chances are you’ll find yourself in the music store again… and gain…. and again…. once more deciding which guitar to buy.

Oh, and pssst: You’ve have to learn to tune your guitar. That’s my next post….

Acoustic Pianos, Buying a Piano, Tuning a Piano

Buying or Selling a Used Piano? Call a Piano Tuner First

A friend pointed me to a Criag’s List ad: “Guitar for Sale. May Need tuning.”

We had a good laugh over that: How clueless can someone be? But in the world of used piano sales, that ad — so funny and unusual for a guitar — is the norm. The normal course of events, it seems, is that people buy pianos, abandon the attempt to learn them, use them as picture stands and plant display areas for 10 years, never tune them… then offer them for sale.

But after several years, a piano that is never played and never tuned may actually be unable to be tuned. Untuned pianos are not instruments: They are pieces of furniture.

So: Some bottom-line advice — Never try to buy or sell an untuned piano.

How Often to Tune a Piano 

Ideally, pianos should be tuned whenever they fall out of tune. Professional technicians suggest FOUR times a year, but in reality, most people don’t tune their pianos more than once a year, which is probably the minimum to maintain it so it is playable. Twice a year is a much better schedule, especially in climates with wide swings of temperature and humidity.

Why tune a piano that isn’t played? Pianos are not static instruments: They are made of moving wooden parts, which change with changing conditions. These changes cause tension to change, wood to swell,  adjoining pieces to rub against each other, and parts to crack — even if the instrument isn’t played. If an unplayed, untuned piano is then played, some of this damage may cause other problems to occur. When an instrument is tuned, it gets a regular “check-up” and minor problems can be fixed before they become major problems.

Piano strings exert literally tons of tension on the tuning pins and the pin block, and this tension needs to be correct and constant. An untuned piano will slowly lose tension, and when it is re-tuned, the pinblock may be unable to hold that tension. Result: the piano slips right back out of tune. Another possible problem: Strings that are not tuned may become so set in their position that they break when tightened.

If you haven’t tuned your piano in a long time, it may need to be tuned twice (a “double tuning”). The first tuning is a rough tuning that brings the strings up to the general tonal neighborhood they are supposed to be in, and the second tuning is a finer tuning. Sometimes, the process can be done in one day, but it’s not a bad idea to let the piano sit between tunings to get the strings used to the new tension.

Piano Tuners versus Piano Technicians

There is a difference between a tuner and a technician. Most tuners can handle minor technical problems, but they may not be able to handle major problems. Most technicians can also tune, but some prefer working on technical problems and refer tuning jobs to tuners. If you are evaluating a piano, or having a piano tuned that hasn’t been tuned for many years, be sure to consult a qualified technician. The Piano Technician’s Guild has a list, sorted geographically. These experts can detect problems that may not be obvious, even to an excellent pianist or a piano teacher.

A piano costs thousands — sometime many thousands — of dollars. Tunings cost about $75 – $180 depending on your location and the extent of the work needed. This small investment can keep your piano working and suitable for resale.

And if you are thinking of buying a used piano that hasn’t been tuned in years, ask that the seller tune it, then bring along a technician to evaluate it for you. This will save you the trouble of buying and moving a piano that may turn out to be nothing more than a piece of furniture.