Picture above with a more relaxed expression :0). This visualization will help achieve the right angle of the hands on the keyboard directing sound towards the outer voices for greater effect.
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Voice those chords!
When playing anything with multiple voices in a chordal fashion, voicing is almost always an issue. A helpful image I like to give my students is to visualize holding and supporting a basketball with two hands out in front of you. 3-4-5 have more grip or support of the ball on the bottom and the thumbs which are higher up on the ball should be more relaxed and floating.
Picture above with a more relaxed expression :0). This visualization will help achieve the right angle of the hands on the keyboard directing sound towards the outer voices for greater effect.
Picture above with a more relaxed expression :0). This visualization will help achieve the right angle of the hands on the keyboard directing sound towards the outer voices for greater effect.
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Visual Productivity-Pull out the abacus!
This week, I got a bit excited about abacuses. Let me explain...
One of the reasons practicing remains difficult for students to gage is the lack of daily project completion/assignment confirmation for students. Think about this - at school, kids routinely hand in daily assignments and get checks for completion or some sort of letter grade. For piano, my proposal is for the student to use an abacus as a physical and visual measure of daily productivity. There is an appropriate abacus for every level of student and engagement!
My youngest student, loves the rainbow abacus (second from the left). She squeals in excitement in order to "move the beads!" For this student, the different lines and colors are great for breaking down the sections. Say one is working on a 4 line, 16 bar piece. A single row could be a line, or even half a line (2 measures), right hand, left hand, or hands together. By moving the beads, he or she stays on track and has both visual and physical confirmation of completion. The top red line could be for linking two sections/lines together successfully or even playing through the whole piece. I swear that using this method may beat giving out stickers!
For the intermediate or advanced student (see 1st or 3rd abacus), each row can be applied towards running through a larger section; ie. an entire exposition, and the rows could be used to keep track of progress through several days or a week even or less if broken into smaller sections and used for different pieces. There really is no wrong way to use an abacus.
Have fun practicing and organizing everyone!
One of the reasons practicing remains difficult for students to gage is the lack of daily project completion/assignment confirmation for students. Think about this - at school, kids routinely hand in daily assignments and get checks for completion or some sort of letter grade. For piano, my proposal is for the student to use an abacus as a physical and visual measure of daily productivity. There is an appropriate abacus for every level of student and engagement!
My youngest student, loves the rainbow abacus (second from the left). She squeals in excitement in order to "move the beads!" For this student, the different lines and colors are great for breaking down the sections. Say one is working on a 4 line, 16 bar piece. A single row could be a line, or even half a line (2 measures), right hand, left hand, or hands together. By moving the beads, he or she stays on track and has both visual and physical confirmation of completion. The top red line could be for linking two sections/lines together successfully or even playing through the whole piece. I swear that using this method may beat giving out stickers!
For the intermediate or advanced student (see 1st or 3rd abacus), each row can be applied towards running through a larger section; ie. an entire exposition, and the rows could be used to keep track of progress through several days or a week even or less if broken into smaller sections and used for different pieces. There really is no wrong way to use an abacus.
Have fun practicing and organizing everyone!
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