The Importance of Music Theory

As a teacher, I'm not very strict about most things.  I don't require practice times.  I don't require that you learn only the pieces I assign.  I'm flexible about getting you different types of repertoire.  There is one thing on which I'm not flexible, and that is Theory.

To take lessons with me is to accept that Music Theory will be part of your education.  It may not be a huge part, but there will be some for sure.

There is one thing that makes me much more upset than anything else: not doing your theory assignment.

I understand two things against this point.  The first is that I am honestly biased.  All of my degrees were based on theory and composition.  I've invested in the knowledge and want to share it.  I have a high respect for its importance.   The second is one I think I need to address, and that is the feeling you might have:  I'm paying for PIANO lessons, not theory lessons.  Why should I waste my time on theory?

What is Music Theory?

In the world of science, a law is a principle which can be proven beyond dispute, often with numerical evidence (such as gravity and inertia).  A theory (such as relativity and evolution) is a reasoned, researched principle that can't necessarily be proven.  Theories are often open to debate.  To be a theory in the first place, however, it is required that the concepts be sound and valid, whether or not they are completely correct.

There are no laws in music.  Music is free to be created and re-created.  For nearly every rule ever stated in music, you can count on finding an exception somewhere.   That said, music is not a happy accident.  The pieces and songs that move you did not randomly appear into existence.  It took thought to create it.  If a piece is really good, then the person who created it could not only likely read music, but also understood how intervals work, how the functions of harmony are successful, what makes a good melody, how voice leading can make the piece better or worse, and so much more.

What is music theory?  It is all the common ideas mankind has developed about music in Western culture, and our understanding of how and why music works.

Why is Theory important as a pianist (or any other performer)?

To understand theory is to understand how music works.  To understand how music works is to open doors in a lot of ways.  First, it helps explain why you like certain music more than others.  It's a source of pride to me, and it can be to you too, that I can verbally explain why I like the music that I do and why I don't like other music.  Understanding theory helps you understand a composer's intentions.  The piece speaks to you like it didn't before when you know things about it.

It also helps you achieve the ultimate in musical achievement:  creating your own music.  People marvel over the fact that Beethoven could compose such great works while he was completely deaf.  I love Beethoven and I think his music would be great even if he had always been able to hear...but let's not call this a miracle that he could do it while deaf.  The fact is that Beethoven KNEW his theory.  He knew why chords and keys worked.  He understood how rhythm worked.  He knew orchestration.  As a composer myself, I often write at a table, away from instruments, and only use the sounds to fine tune my product.  Beethoven could write without hearing because he knew his stuff.  He didn't need to hear it to know how it would sound.

People imagine composers being these mythical people that just wait for inspiration to hit, but composing is rarely just a result of inspiration.  It's very much a craft.  When I write or improvise music, I am taking my understanding of how music works, disassembling it, and putting it back together in my own way with an understanding of what is more likely to be pleasing and not.

The best performers in every genre have much more often than not been shown to be very competent in music theory.  There's a limit on what you can achieve blindly in music, that is just playing notes and not understanding what they're doing.  To be great in music, you need to understand it.  My most accomplished students of the past 14 years have all been among the most knowledgable about music itself.

I urge every one of my students to not just regard Theory as something separate from practice.  Think of Theory as a type of practice all by itself, a type of mental practice.

Save the Date - Winter/Spring performance opps

There are 3 opportunities for you to perform in the first half of this year.

1. Sunday, February 2nd - 3:00pm, Young Artist's Musicale - at Piedmont Music Center, Winston-Salem.  First come-first serve for limited availability.

2.  Sunday, April 13 - 3:00pm Young Artist's Musicale - same place and situation as above.

3.  Sunday, May 4 - 2:30pm - Spring Recital - all students of all ages are welcome to participate, no limit.  Location TBD.

New Year, New Goals

One year ends and another begins.  This is a great time for thinking about new goals and resolutions.   It's a good time to think about what you'd like to do with your piano studies.  Obviously, for a resolution to mean anything, YOU have to commit to it and buy into it.  It's great if you choose and follow your own goals.  However, if you're scratching for ideas, here are some suggestions.

1. Commit to 300 days of practice.

Here's how it works.  You don't plan for 300 days.  You plan for 365 days, but you understand that things come up, and you might not be able to practice every day.  Hopefully, those days where you can't practice won't happen often, but you must commit to achieve this.  300 days is 6 days a week for 50 weeks per year.  To prove you've done this:  keep a log of your practice.  Here's an example of how your log may look.

2.  Add 5 more minutes to your average practice time than you did in 2013.

I hate even suggesting practice times because of differing goals and schedules.  Any time you add, even 5 minutes per day, will make a difference.  But if you really, truly want to make leaps and bounds on the piano, you need to be thinking much more than that.  However, let me offer the next suggestion to go along with this one.

3.  Shoot for at least 3 hours of practice within a week.

If you're keeping track of the numbers, that's 6 days of practice at 30 minutes per day.  Now, maybe you've had a busy day and can only practice 10 minutes.  That means you'll have 20 minutes to make up later on.  A good solution is to plan for, as an example, 45 minutes of practice, which gives you some leeway.  No matter how many minutes you practice, the days matter the most!  4 days X 45 minutes equals 3 hours, but it's not as effective in the long run as 6 days X 30 minutes.  Keep in mind that this suggestion is only intended for those who are not already doing 30 minutes per day on the average.  If you're doing more already, then just see if you apply goals 1 and 2.  30 minutes is a floor, not an ultimate goal.  More practice, provided you're practicing daily and correctly, is always better.

Does your practice schedule match the type of pianist you want to be?

4.  Become an expert at practicing, note reading, and technique.

       A. Practicing - Learn how to aggressively and strategically break a piece down and to overcome any difficulties.  Learn how to estimate the maximum number of measures you should expect to learn in a practice session, and become really good at those, not just barely improved over the whole piece.

      B. Note reading - You need to know all the notes you ever see in a piece of music, AND you need to be able to name the notes without having to think about it.  You should be able to see a note and name it instantly.  If you can't yet do this, go here several days per week at http://www.musictheory.net/exercises/note, click the customize button in the upper right corner to set up your exercise to suit you, and get good on the notes.  Answer 100 notes correctly within 3 minutes, and you are an expert.

     C.  Technique -  Play your scales with the right notes and the right fingerings on every single attempt no matter what the speed.  Learn all your chords and arpeggios for your level.  These are the things you just plug into practice and speed up the process.

What else musically do you wish to accomplish next year?

I want to wish all my students and readers a happy New year, and for a most successful 2014!

Mid Boot Camp thoughts, Facebook Page recommendation

Mid boot camp thoughts

I'm not quite done with the Musicianship Boot Camp testing, but everyone is doing very well on the average.  Two areas that are coming out consistently as things to improve are technical skills and music reading speed.  I'll cover technical skills recommendations in a future post, but let me elaborate on music reading speed.

Since musictheory.net has yet again made revisions to its website, I need to revise my tutorial for the Note Identification exercise.  It's an exercise everyone can use.  If you've mastered your notes, you can stretch your upper and lower ranges, increase your speed as much as possible and incorporate the key signatures you've learned.  Really, everyone should play around with the settings to learn and practice this exercise frequently.

However, remember that the primary purpose is not just accuracy, but speed AND accuracy.  The goal for you needs to be to acquire instant recognition of notes on the staff.  Why?  It is because you don't have the luxury to take your time IF you want to sightread well and spend less time in practice.  So here are a few rules when working with the Note Identification exercise.

1. Challenge yourself, but don't overwhelm yourself.  If you're struggling with all notes, focus on just 5 or 6 to get started.   Exhaust those and then add on to them, or switch to a new group of notes before you add them all together.  It should never feel too easy, but should never be so difficult that you aren't improving quickly.

2. Ignore the percentage.  If you get 10 correct in 20 attempts, it will tell you that you are getting 50%.   If you're working for speed, this or worse may occur, especially early on.  Don't worry about wrong attempts.  If you're following rule 1, you're going to see the same notes over and over and over.  You'll not be able to help but eventually get them right more often than not.

3.  Focus on the number correct AND the timer.  There is a timer that keeps track of your game.  Play the exercise in one of the following two ways.

(A) Time yourself and see how quickly you can correctly name 100 notes.  Don't be discouraged if you're really high the first few attempts, even above 10 minutes.  Your ultimate goal, regardless of level, is to be able to do it in 3 minutes or less.  You can do this if all you have to do is see the note, recognize it right away, point the mouse to the correct letter and click.  Answer 100 correct notes in 3 minutes or less, and you're nailing it.

(B) Only recommended if Goal A seems overwhelming for where you are with learning your notes, this would be to watch the timer and observe when you hit the 5 minute mark of the exercise.  See how many you can correctly name by that point.  Keep doing this until you get at least 75 in 5 minutes. Then go with goal A and see how quickly you can answer 100.

As always, remember the first part of rule 1 and that is to challenge yourself.  If it's getting too easy, how can you make it a little harder?  Add more notes, mix your clefs, add sharps and flats in the key signatures (if you've learned them in your lessons already).  Note reading isn't an infinite skill.  You can reach a ceiling in how well you can do, but that ceiling is very high.  Keep stepping up until you reach it.

Facebook Page Recommendations

If you have a Facebook account, please take a moment if you haven't already and "like" the page for:

The Winston-Salem Piano Teachers' Association (a group I belong to and a page I admin.)

And

My own personal page for my composing and performing at David M Lane - Composer, Musician.  Thanks for your support.

Deliberate Practice - A Music and Basketball Parallel

One of my favorite websites to browse is www.lifehacker.com.  Today, they had this wonderful article here about deliberate practice.  It mentions Mozart, but focuses much on basketball player Kobe Bryant.  Parents and other guardians have frequently complained about lack of progress from their child even though they are "practicing".  What's likely going on is that they're sitting down at their instrument, but are they really doing proactive deliberate practice with a goal in mind?  This article explains very well.  I encourage everyone to read it.
http://lifehacker.com/what-mozart-and-kobe-bryant-can-teach-us-about-delibera-1442488267

Musicianship Boot Camp

Introducing something new for my piano students - This is something we are going to try for the month of October and the first part of November.

For lack of a better name, I'm calling it Musicianship Boot Camp.

What is this?  This will be an alteration to your usual practice schedule for the upcoming month.  I'll be asking you to work on technique, music reading, rhythm skills and ear training.   We will work on these things in October.  During the first part of November, we will take portions of one or two lessons to test these skills.  Please note:  I will be giving you a letter grade for how you do.  Don't worry; Unlike school, the letter has no effect on anything you do outside of private lessons.  The grade is just to let you know where you are versus where you should be.

What is the purpose of this?  The four categories we are working on are tools for any musician to have on them.  If a musician knows their technique well, can read notes well, can use their ear and can figure out rhythms, then they are in a great position to learn music faster and learn it correctly.  NOT knowing these things is a hindrance.  Try reading a book written in a foreign language that you don't know.  This is how music is if you neglect your tools.  I like the word "tools" because it suits the context.  Think of cutting a tree limb with a dull saw.  Imagine driving a nail in the wall without a hammer, or drawing with your pencil that has never been sharpened.  There are things in piano that you should know and know well.  You should never have to figure out certain things when you're learning a piece.  You are wasting practice time if you don't have these tools ready.

What kinds of things will you be doing?

Keep in mind that this will be individualized.  I will be assigning things for each of you to do personally that is designed to fit only what you've studied thus far.  I may, in some cases, push you to learn new things or take the things you know and make them better or faster.

TECHNIQUE:  For piano, this involves scales, arpeggios, and chords.  Beginning students may be limited to 5-finger positions.  Some of you will be doing more keys than others.  Some hands separately, while others are hands together.  Some one octave, while others have multiple octaves.  Some will have tempo requirements, while others will not.  You will not be asked to do more than you should already be able to do unless you are already at that level and desire an extra challenge.

RHYTHM:  I will be giving you rhythm exercises that include any rhythm notes you have learned along with any time signatures you have learned.  We will learn how to figure out the rhythm for any pattern using these.

EAR TRAINING:  Every student will be tested on recognizing notes as going up vs going down.  You will be asked to recognize rhythms.  According to your level, you may be asked to recognize intervals, chords, and scales by their sound.

MUSIC READING:  This includes three parts:
1.  Staff Note Recognition:  For whatever notes you have been introduced to so far, you will be asked to get better at note reading.  I will give you a list of notes to learn.  Important to know: Music Reading tests will be timed.

2.  Key Signature recognition and application -  For several of you, this will not apply.  For those who have started adding sharps and flats at the beginning of pieces, you will be expected to name the key of a piece by sight and to play something easy that includes the sharped or flatted notes.

3.  Sight Reading - We'll be working on playing music you've never seen before and improving how well you can play for the first time.

Next week, I'll begin talking to you about your individual requirements.  If this goes well, it will become something we'll do once or twice a year.  The goal is to make much better musicians of all of you by this time in six weeks.

Used Piano Shopping - What to Look For

Readers, I apologize for my extended time off from this blog.  Like many of you, I was in summer mode, but intend to have something for you at least once a week from this point.

A student of mine just inquired about what to look for when shopping for a used piano, so let's go over some important points.

Rule # 1 -  The condition of the cabinet is unimportant.

FACT:  Most people selling their pianos are selling them because they don't play them.  They liked the idea of having a piano in the house, and chose it primarily as a furniture piece.  This means they have probably kept up the appearance - making a pretty, shiny cabinet, but probably not maintained it as an instrument.  Your piano does not need to be pretty to be a good piano.  It can be devoid of polish.  It can have scratch marks.  It's cheap to buy an ugly piano, and then be creative with table runners and to add some polish.  Pianos are like the people you meet;  It's not what is on the outside that counts, it's what is on the inside!

Rule # 2 -  Check the tuning pins first.  If they are rusty, walk away.  Below is a typical, view of the tuning pins inside a piano.  These are not pristine, just dusty.  This is normal and means, however the keyboard sounds, it is at least salvageable.

On the other hand, if the pins look like this, you should not waste any more time.

The price of restoring the tuning pins just so a piano will hold its intonation, not to mention all the piano tunings it will take will in all likelihood EXCEED the asking price of the piano.

3.  Evaluate how badly out of tune your piano is.  If all you're ever going to do is play the piano with yourself (and no other instruments), then it doesn't matter if the D sounds like a D-flat, as long as all the other keys sound just as flat.  In other words, the piano should be in tune with itself.  If having the correct pitch is important to you, then you should buy a chromatic tuner with a sound generator so you can compare a pitch, or download a tone generator app for your smartphone.

Here are some tone generator app choices for Android and for Apple Products.

If a piano is more than slightly out of tune, it could take 3 or 4 tunings to bring it up to standard where it will hold.  This is an average of $75-100 per service in this area at this time.  Remember, it's one thing if a note is a little off.  It's another more serious issue if one, and especially several keys sound like more than one note.  This means the 2-3 strings per key are not in tune with each other.  This is serious neglect.  Below is a video (not available on email versions of this blog), for you to hear a short sample of a piano evaluation.

4.  Check your damper and una corda pedals.  If the piano has two pedals, these are the two.  If it has three pedals, the damper is the one on the right, and the una corda is on the left.  A middle pedal is sometimes cosmetic and doesn't work correctly on an upright anyway.  If you are shopping for a grand piano, it is a consideration.  The middle pedal (the sostenuto) on a grand works like this.  With the lid open where you can see the dampers (see picture below), you play a low note within the first two octaves, THEN press the middle pedal and let go of the key.  Only that damper should remain up.  The others should be down.

Again, this doesn't matter, nor does it work the same way on an upright.  The damper pedal should work and you'll probably know by your ear.  If the sounds sustain while you press the damper pedal, it works.  If the sound stops, it doesn't.  But the above picture shows the dampers, and they should all be off the strings when the damper pedal is depressed.

The una corda acts in the following way.  On an upright, the hammers move closer to the strings.  On a grand, the hammers move a small amount to the right.  You'll actually see the keyboard move on a grand.

If the damper pedal does not work, don't panic.  Open the bottom panel.  You'll either have a dowel rod that is out of place or needs tightening or, in the case of the video below, a pedal linkage rod you can tighten.  The embedding feature is disabled on this video, so you can find it by clicking here.

5.  When in doubt, consult a professional.  Actually, that isn't me.  For piano students on my roster, I will make an effort to see a piano if it is local and give you my opinion as an experienced pianist, but I'm not trained in tuning or restoration.  I would call a local piano technician if the investment is more than a few hundred dollars.  The hundred dollars they might charge is worthwhile.