Van Cliburn Competition

05. June 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: Cliburn Competition, imported, Ramble

I just watched the Van Cliburn competition at its end; the awards were being announced, but prior to that there was a lot of speaking. I wish I could have recorded the speeches, some of which had some nice things to ponder.

But anyway, when it got to the “drum roll” point my heart was pounding.

Isn’t it funny how stressed I can be about something like that? Is anyone else that way? I wonder. I had no tremendous interest in the competition, although it was fun to get to see the broadcasts via my nifty iMac. The sound wasn’t very good much of the time, so I certainly couldn’t judge anyone based on what I was hearing (or seeing). In addition, I don’t know that much about piano and its solo repertoire, so I didn’t feel as if I could judge in any case. But when you get to the announcement of winners I still get nervous. I do the same thing with verdicts that are broadcast live on TV or radio. I certainly get that way watching a ball game. (Hey … the GIANTS won the first game of their double header today!) And tonight I’ll watch the Tony’s and you can bet I’ll probably be nervous then, too.

I’m not exactly sure what this says about me. But I suspect it’s not good! ;-)

Meanwhile…
and totally off topic, I’m dealing with a bug I caught after visiting my killer dentist. (Don’t tell him I called him that, please; I think he’s sensitive (and puzzled) about my not enjoying his company.) My voice is nearly gone, I nearly fell over in the shower yesterday because I somehow lost my sense of up and down for a moment, and I have this cough … my typical cough that, when it starts, doesn’t want to quit. The kind that makes me wonder if I’m going to pull muscles or even rip them. The kind that makes me think I’ll detach ribs from whatever they might be connected to. (ARE they connected to anything?) The kind that causes people to look frightened when they hear me, and makes them move away from me very quickly. The kind that makes it impossible to play. So I need a miracle drug and I need it now. Les Mis begins on Wednesday!
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Music Quote

05. June 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: imported, Quotes

To serve is a performer’s inheritance, plus our obligation.

-Van Cliburn
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Practice Quotes

04. June 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: imported, Quotes

To tie in with my practice blog, I thought I’d post some quotes. One writer, one musician and three golfers! (Hmmm. Maybe that’s why so many brass players read golf magazines during their measures of rest? Maybe they are merely reading about practice techniques? Or not.)

I know you’ve heard it a thousand times before. But it’s true — hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don’t love something, then don’t do it.

-Ray Bradbury (1920 – ) US science-fiction writer

Practice puts your brains in your muscles.

-Sam Snead (1912 – 2002) US golfer

Practice, which some regard as a chore, should be approached as just about the most pleasant recreation ever devised.
-Babe Didrikson Zaharias (1914 – 1956) US sportswoman, golfer

Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.
-Jim Rohn (1887 – 1982) Polish-US virtuoso pianist

The formula for success is simple: practice and concentration then more practice and more concentration.
-Babe Didrikson Zaharias (1914 – 1956) US sportswoman, golfer
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Conscience or Music?

03. June 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: imported, Quotes

Here’s a quote for you:

The only other thing she might have devoted her life to: Music. “If I could have been a classical pianist or an opera singer,” she says, “I might have thrown conscience to the wind.”

-Helen Woodson (61 year old imprisoned anti-violence activist)

Now didn’t that get your attention? Of course.

This is from an interesting article I just finished reading, about a 61 year old woman who, from jail, heard a pianist in the 2001 Van Cliburn competition that really got to her. So much so that she wrote him a letter. (He came back this year to the competition and, like before, didn’t get past the prelims.)

Want to read more? Try this. (You’ll have to register to read, but it’s not a big deal to do so.)
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Practice Makes Perfect …?

02. June 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: imported, Ramble

While exercising today I was watching the National Spelling Bee. Man, can those kids spell! (But I would have nailed “dolcissimo” so I felt fine about that word. I could also spell “jabot”. I think those were the only two I knew I could have done accurately. Sigh.)

The ads during the show were frequently educational ads. One was for Kumon, an after school learning program. They had something there about “We all know practice makes perfect.” And that got me to thinking. Because practice does not necessarily make perfect.

GOOD practice can make perfect. But poor practice can make imperfect. I can’t tell you how many students say, when reaching a certain point in a piece, “I always make that mistake!”

Most of the time, that means that the practicing has been the problem. When a student “always” makes a certain mistake, the brain is probably accepting that mistake in some way, and the fingers are well trained to go there. The student needs to slow down, do the “dissection method” (my students all know what that one means!), and focus. To dissect the problem area the student may need to single out only two notes to begin with. Maybe a few more, but rarely is that the case. Then when those notes can be played perfectly, five times in a row, using a metronome, the student might add the notes on both sides of the perfect portion. Then, to add another metaphor, the student can “open the curtain” gradually, so that he or she ties in all the other notes. (Sometimes we work on only the problem notes and forget to connect them to the notes around that portion and when we go back to playing the whole piece we go back to the same problem we had in the first place.) The student should alternate between moving the metronome up in tempo and adding notes. I try to encourage sticking to the five times in a row rule as well. Fixing the problem usually takes more than one practice session because if you’ve practiced it for a time while “always making that mistake” you are having to retrain your brain and fingers. Patience is a good thing.

So practice might make perfect … but perfecting practice is more likely to result in perfection! :-)

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Nice!

02. June 2005 · Comments Off · Categories: imported, Ramble

I received a message from this blogger and while the site has the (unreadable for me) white type on black background, it now also includes an option to switch to the opposite! So I select “lighten” (look on the right side) and all is well.

Now isn’t that nice? Yes. It is.
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