The Art of Piano Performance

MusicComicsWe were recently at Long and McQuade to pick up some scores for students when we happened upon this fantastic series of comics written by a piano professor called Peter Coraggio. Titled the Art of Piano Performance, the five titles include: Musical Style, Imagery in Music, Pedaling – “The Soul of the Piano”, Perfect Practice and The Spectrum of Expressive Touches.

The comics are illustrated by Jon Murakami and feature Maestro Profondo and Musabella, his teaching assistant, who guide the young student, Agitato, through different ideas and concepts related to music and piano.

Written in a casual and fun style, the comics are very easy to read. We highly recommend them as they contain a lot of valuable information presented in a fun way. The physical motions at the piano can be complicated at times to grasp, even for advanced students, and the comic breaks it down in easy to understand chunks, accompanied by entertaining and helpful illustrations.

Musical Style covers the different stylistic periods of music history and introduces the main composers of those periods. Imagery in Music is a dictionary of Italian terms commonly used in music. Pedaling – “The Soul of the Piano” reveals the technique of the pedal and the many ways it is used in playing the piano. Perfect Practice takes the student through common mistakes in piano practicing, how to correct them and practice in the most effective and efficient way. Last of all, The Spectrum of Expressive Touches explores the different types of sounds at the piano and the physical motions used to create those sounds.

We have enjoyed reading these comics ourselves and found them extremely instructive. They can be found at or ordered at the music bookstores in town – Long and McQuade or Tom Lee Music. We were also able to find a few of the titles on Amazon and sheetmusicplus.

 

 

Applause!

Recital PictureSunday, May 3, 2015 was a special day for our studio, as we celebrated the accomplishments of our studio with a Spring Recital at the Ryerson United Church. Sixteen talented young students ranging from 4 to 18 proudly presented pieces they had worked hard to learn and polish to perfection. They really did us proud, as each student stood bravely in front of the large audience to share with us their gift of music.

Performing music is such a big part of being a musician. Learning music, practicing pieces, conquering technique – those are mostly carried out in solitude. Without the end goal of sharing the music in public, with ones we love, with colleagues or with strangers, the music has no purpose. So we strive to teach our students the poise and emotional maturity to handle being in front of an audience. To give them the tools to be confident in their abilities, even with pounding hearts and sweaty palms to perform their hearts out.

 

Concert Etiquette

clapAs our studio recital gets closer, you will probably notice the topic of concert etiquette coming up more and more. This topic is important to us, because we want our students to not only learn how to be great performers, but be a great supportive audience as well. Simply put, etiquette has to do with proper behaviors and manners for a specific situation. In this case, concert etiquette deals with the proper and expected behavior at a classical concert or recital.

Concert etiquette has changed and evolved over the last few hundred years, but these days, with the overwhelming presence of technology in everyone’s lives, it’s very easy to become distracted or be the distraction at a classical performance.

Thus, one of the things you’ll hear most often before a concert starts is a request for all cell phones to be turned off, as well as anything that beeps or makes noise. Unfortunately, it is not enough simply to put your phone on silent or vibrate, because things like alarms will not be automatically turned off. Imagine listening to a beautiful slow movement of a piece, and all of a sudden an alarm starts beeping. But because the owner of the cell phone thought that his or her phone was on silent, it couldn’t possibly be theirs and it just kept on beeping until it shut off by itself. Not only has that person’s inconsideration distracted other audience members from enjoying the music, but it has also interrupted the performer’s concentration.

Let’s put it into the context of a student recital.

As parents, you know best how much time and effort your child has put into learning, practicing, memorizing and perfecting a piece for performance. How would you feel if during your child’s performance, a cell phone started ringing and caused him or her to lose concentration and make mistakes? It would be upsetting for you and your child as well.

At the bottom of it, we just want to remind everyone that playing the piano and performing music is a complicated skill that requires a lot of work and intense concentration. The physical coordination and mental focus and emotional involvement is quite incredible. To show support and respect for each student and acknowledge the work they have put into their performance, we want to create the best environment for them to perform in.

So please come, and turn off your phones, iPads, tablets and cameras. Be present, enjoy the performances and cheer loudly for each student.

Great recitals coming up!

Piano in the hallOne of the benefits of living in Vancouver is being able to access a number of wonderful concert series featuring world renown musicians. We encourage all our students to take advantage of these opportunities since there is so much to learn from watching great musicians perform, experiencing music as a listener and enjoying music as an audience member.

There are two in particular coming up which we will be attending and highly recommend to our students. Presented by the Vancouver Recital Society, these two concerts are held at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, on the UBC campus. The first one coming up is a piano recital by Emanuel Ax, performed on Sunday, January 18, 2015 at 3 pm. And the second one features Sir András Schiff on Sunday, March 1, 2015 at 3 pm.

The Vancouver Recital Society offers some great deals for student rush tickets, children pricing and a program called Ru35, which gives discounted ticket prices to those between the ages of 18 and 35. Please take a look at their website for pricing, or contact us for more information if you are interested in attending more concerts.

We added links of those recital and concert organizations to the right sidebar of this page, so you can check out more opportunities there!

1st Festival Completed!

party_crackerCONGRATULATIONS to two of our little pianists!!!

Two students from our studio entered in the Pacific International Youth Music Festival and just performed in the past week. It was such a great experience for both of them as well as for Melody and Naoki. We now know the standards for the young pianists in the Greater Vancouver area.

Although both of them did not advance to play in the Gala concert, they presented themselves on the stage very excellently, even though it was their first music festival/exam. We enjoyed our students’ performances which were full of personality. Techniques are very important, but on top of basic techniques, creativity and comprehension of music are what will stand out in a performance.

We’ll keep encouraging each student’s creativity and imagination, while grounding them in practical music knowledge and comprehension, in order to establish an even stronger foundation! Looking forward to more festivals in the future with more students participating!