Music is Everywhere

Make Music Part of Everyday Life is the motto by which I live, conduct my business and inspire my students.  I believe that we do not need to set aside special time for music or art. Being creative should be as natural as breathing and we can find so much beauty in the ordinary - if we only look and listen. I play the piano everyday, I sing everyday, I create beauty and order in my household tasks everyday and by doing so, I live a rich life.

When I found out about Earth Harp - I was so inspired.  An instrument made by using the natural environment or man-made buildings - brilliant!  William Close is making music part of everyday life. 

 

 

 

 

 

Adding Creativity and Improvisation to Traditional Piano Lessons

 

 

I found this chart funny and interesting for one reason:  the greatest fear.  For me that is not a place to fear, but an opportunity for improvisation!

OK, I'm not completely serious, however, since I learned to improvise early in my musical development, I have been known to slightly rewrite a recapitulation or two, but only when playing from memory.

This brings me to an interesting article I read today.  As I'm preparing for another year of teaching piano, I'm looking for ways to revitalize my studio and provide maximum benefits for my students.  It's time to shake things up!

In my research, I ran across this article by Edward Weiss. 

Do piano teachers have it backwards? They do if they start with the note-reading approach. Most would agree that music is a language. Language is learned first by speaking it. Yet this simple logic eludes many well meaning music teachers as they head first into the study of note-reading.

But just imagine if children learned how to speak the language of music before learning how to read and write it? Imagine the connection, the innate sense of 'wiring' for lack of a better word that can occur if we introduce kids to simple diatonic harmony and improvisation first.

Speaking the native language is a natural and thrilling experience for children. They can't wait to use words and communicate. So why is it that note reading is literally forced down the throats of our young people instead of giving them the opportunity to express firsthand through improvisation?

True enrichment comes from direct experience with the music. And this is best accomplished when children can actually create on their own without the aid of sheet music. Why this isn't being done more is a complete mystery to me.

Watch a child at the piano as they experiment with music firsthand and you will see a joy seldom seen via traditional piano lessons. They beam as music, their music is created before them. Just a few brief improvisation rules are introduced and the child can happily create.

In fact, not only is this route easier than note reading, it's also faster. As children become more comfortable playing and becoming adept at the piano, learning and progress also becomes an easy thing to do.

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music's online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Visit now and get a FREE piano lesson.
 

 

 

Isidor Saslav, Violinist

My father-in-law, Isidor Saslav, will be honored in East Texas on Saturday, March 31, 2012, as the Stephen F. Austin College's String Department newest chair.

Information about the scholarship program for the chair can be found in this article:

Nationally acclaimed musicians to perform in Saslav Scholarship benefit concert

March 9, 2012—Sylvia Bierschenk

http://www.finearts.sfasu.edu/news/03/2012/302#

NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS—They studied with or under him, used to perform or currently perform beside him, and have directed or were directed by him.Regardless of how they know him, the acclaimed musicians are coming from across the United States to perform with Dr. Isidor Saslav, former director of strings at Stephen F. Austin State University, in a benefit concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 31, in Cole Concert Hall on the SFA campus.The purpose of the concert is two-fold, explained Jackie Warthan, member of the SFA Friends of Music and co-chair of the event. “We wish to honor Dr. Saslav and to raise money for the Isidor Saslav String Scholarship, which will help continue the superb strings program he was so instrumental in forming at SFA.”Among the acclaimed performers will be violinists Charles Castleman, prize winner of the Queen Elizabeth of Belgium Violin Competition and professor of violin at the Eastman School of Music; and Kenneth Goldsmith, professor of violin at Rice University who maintains an active touring and recording career and was Saslav’s college roommate at Wayne State University.Also violinist Karen Clarke, professor emeritus at Florida State University, frequent performer, and current faculty member at Vanderbilt University; and violist David Jordan, retired distinguished professor of French history who was Saslav’s classmate at the Cass Technical High School in Detroit.Cellists include Evan Drachman, founder and artistic director of the Piatigorsky Foundation who has frequently performed at SFA; and Daniel Levine, a 40-year member of the Dallas Symphony who was Saslav’s classmate at Cass Technical High School, Wayne State University and the Chatauqua Music Festival in the 1950s.Among the acclaimed pianists will be Richard Dowling, recording artist, scholarly editor and owner of Dowling Music; and Robert Freeman, former director of the Eastman School of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music, and former dean of the College of Fine Arts and current professor of musicology at the University of Texas at Austin.Also, pianist Tonu Kalam, music director of the Longview Symphony Orchestra and professor of music at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he is the music director and conductor of the UNC Symphony Orchestra.The roster of musicians also includes pianist Ann Heiligman Saslav, Isidor’s wife; six SFA faculty members; six SFA alumni; four additional non-SFA-related performers; and members of the Orchestra of the Pines.The program is arranged by composers and features works such as J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto, Felix Mendelssohn’s Trio in D Minor, Op. 49, and Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto for four violins and orchestra.Immediately following the concert, the Friends of Music will host a reception in the foyer for all audience members and the performers.“This will be a wonderful chance to honor Dr. Saslav and meet the other performers,” said co-chair Camille Bolinger.Individual tickets are $25 each. Patrons can also choose to make a contribution of any amount towards the scholarship.To purchase tickets and/or make a contribution, please call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or (888) 240-ARTS.

Musicians of Note

A fantastic article about Ann and Isidor Saslav (my in-laws) from the TylerPaper.com newspaper in East Texas. I will be attending the concert on March 31, 2012 at Stephen F. Austin College to honor, Isidor, and raise money for his chair at the college.

Ann and Isidor Saslav

Overton Couple Share An Art Form That Transcends Language
By KELLY GOOCHStaff Writer

OVERTON -- For Dr. Isidor and Ann Saslav, playing music is not just a hobby -- it's a way of life and a source of joy. Saslav, a professional violinist, serves as concertmaster for the Longview Symphony while Mrs. Saslav, a professional pianist, practices about two or three hours a day, preparing for performances. They have lived all over the world and studied with many outstanding musicians. Although the couple shares a passion for music, their career paths began under different circumstances.

Born in Jerusalem and raised in Detroit, Saslav, 73, started studying violin when he was 7.
Mrs. Saslav, 75, said her husband grew up in public schools and is "very beholden" to public schools. It was those public schools and scholarships he received in Detroit that afforded him opportunities, such as studying with violinist and concertmaster Mischa Mischakoff, she said.
"Mischakoff took him on and as a teen, he put him to (such a) high standard that by age 17 he was a member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra making a living at 17 playing the violin," she said, adding that her husband rode the bus to rehearsals and was able to help his family out financially.

"We're so impassioned to help other poor kids get that start."

Mrs. Saslav was born in Tyler and raised in Overton, where her mother always sang to her and her father played violin. "In my home all kinds of music were played," she said. "My father adored Dixieland and regular jazz, but he also listened to (Ludwig van) Beethoven and (Wolfgang Amadeus) Mozart, and I remember (composer Dmitri) Shostakovich when I was very young."When she was about 3 years old or earlier, her father discovered she had absolute pitch, Mrs. Saslav said. From then on, she played piano and took lessons from a teacher in Overton, who had studied in Italy.

She had her first piano recital at age 5 in Overton High School, along with other students.
As a young girl, she said she knew Van Cliburn and learned she had Synesthesia, a neurogically based condition that causes her to hear in colors when she plays. "My father started me with a toy piano with eight notes on it when I was 2, (and) he had the idea to color the notes. He would write tunes for me in red, yellow, green on the right places on the staff. I think that's what started my Synesthesia off," she said.

By age 15, Mrs. Saslav had studied in Dallas with a famous teacher from the University of North Texas as well as a noted concert pianist in New York, where she went to study, she said. She had also played with the Houston Symphony by age 15, and that helped launch her career.After winning a contest at age 15, she said she played clarinet and "was a normal kid except I practiced piano on a high level every day.

"In my senior year (at Overton High School), they gave me half a year off because I had my credits and let me go home and practice," Mrs. Saslav said. "It was a flexible school system."The Saslavs eventually crossed paths while working on advanced degrees at Indiana University. They discovered they knew a lot of the same people and were later married in the university's chapel. This March, they will celebrate 50 years of marriage. They have two children who live in California.

Like their marriage, their careers have also blossomed throughout the years.
Saslav became the concertmaster of and soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Minnesota, Baltimore, and New Zealand symphony orchestras as well as the Round Top Festival of Texas after studying with master teachers Mischakoff, Josef Gingold, and Ivan Galamian, according to his biography. He's also served as concertmaster of the Indiana University, Dallas, Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), Terrace Theater, and Baltimore opera orchestras as well as a member of the Detroit and Chautauqua symphonies, and the Orchestra of the Festival Casals in Puerto Rico. He has played several times at Carnegie Hall in New York and taught at Stephen F. Austin State University for 10 years.

Mrs. Saslav has toured the United States as pianist of the Nova Arte Trio with violinist Arnold Steinhardt and cellist Robert Newkirk. She also received a Fulbright Scholarship to Vienna, Austria, where she attended the Akademie fuer Musik und darstellende Kunst, according to her biography. Among her former teachers are Menahem Pressler, Isabella Vengerova, Miecyslaw Horszowski, Grete Hinterhofer, and Silvio Scionti.

The Saslavs have performed thousands of youth concerts and taught others. Saslav even had a famous student -- Boyd Tinsley, violinist for the Dave Matthews Band. "They're such intelligent people," said Jeannie Barber, executive vice president for the Overton-New London Chamber of Commerce. "You get lost in their conversations."

Next up for Saslav is a concert at 7:30 p.m. March 31 at Stephen F. Austin State University, where a scholarship is being given in his name. Twenty-five performers are slated to participate.
For Mrs. Saslav, it's a concert on Feb. 11, where she is playing a Mozart concerto with the Longview Symphony, with Tonu Kalam conducting. "When he (Kalam) was a boy, his father was a conductor, and he played the same concerto with his father conducting, so he knows this piece well as a pianist, but he said can't wait to do the other side," Mrs. Saslav said.
Both musicians have advice for residents starting out.

Mrs. Saslav encouraged pianists to practice at least 30 or 40 minutes each day and to warm up with scales and arpeggios. She also advised parents to give their child music because "it organizes the mind in a way only reading can do." Saslav's advice? "If public schools offer music -- take it." His wife agreed, saying "Grab any opportunity to study because it will enrich every day of your life. I can turn to any score and it lifts me up so high above the fray of the politics and the junk, and there it is. I have the most beautiful expression of mankind's creation."

While the Saslav's music has taken them to various locations around the country, they are pleased to call Overton home. Overton's "great," Mrs. Saslav said. "The train goes by and I can hear it when I practice. A lot of people (here also) knew my father and knew my family ...
"Overton for me is just a wonderful place to live. It's quiet, there's not much traffic, and I can go anywhere I want to from here." Aside from music, she remains active in the local garden club and in school activities. She has also coached some children in band and tries to remain active in the Overton-New London Area Chamber of Commerce.

When the Saslavs are not playing music, they enjoy reading and writing. Saslav also loved to drive to Canada each year for a George Bernard Shaw festival, and the couple even has a personal Shaw library in downtown Overton. Inside the library, an old medical building that Mrs. Saslav's father built in 1936, are pictures of friends, colleagues, great teachers, and conductors on the wall. There is also plenty of other memorabilia, including an old eye chart with pictures, which Mrs. Saslav's father used with children. Additionally, there is a kitchen and bedrooms where visiting scholars can stay and a keyboard.

The Shaw Library in Overton, TX

As Saslav holds his violin in the library on Thursday, he is asked what he enjoys most about playing.

He responds by saying, "What do you enjoy most about breathing?"

Ann and Isidor in their living room in Overton, TX

Keyboard Idol and my Grand-teacher

Baroque Master / Harpsichord Idol Gustav Leonhardt

"We *use* articulation; we don't want to *show* articulation. [...] You think of *what* you have to say, and not *how*." - Gustav Leonhardt

Gustav Leonhardt was my Grand-teacher since he taught Tamara Loring, with whom I've been studying Baroque keyboard for the past several years.

With Tamara, I've been trying to incorporate his HIP (historically inspired performance) styles into my Bach and early music repertoire. It is quite difficult, and I'm far from a master of HIP techniques.

This Leonhardt recording of Bach's E Major Invention is perhaps the best example of his HIP principles that I've been trying to accomplish in my lessons with Tamara. Listen for the way he stretches the downbeat to show you what to listen for in the piece. Here is my rendition of the Invention, before my studies with Tamara.

I hope with much more practice to emulate his masterful sense of rhythmic timing. Tamara told me that Leonhardt's sense of time was so accurate, that at exactly 54 minutes into each of her lessons, he would rise and fold his arms. A signal, without looking at a clock, that the lesson was over. Ah, to have such timing.

Stage Presence

While performing, I keep my movements simple. I've never been one to swoon and look to the heavens while playing. I work very hard to convey meaning in my sound, but find most pianists' theatrics distracting and annoying. Perhaps, Alexis Weissenberg says it best

“You cannot lose your control physically and be precise as to what your hands do. Can you imagine a surgeon operating on somebody, and swooning and looking up at the ceiling and being very excited about it? The patient would die. That is what happens in music too. The patient dies, because there’s too much going on besides the actual performance.” -Alexis Weissenberg, pianist

This amazing Bulgarian pianist died on Sunday at the age of 82. Click here for the New York Times article.

And to judge his playing and stage presence for yourself:

Alexis Weissenberg plays Chopin

Alexis Weissenberg plays Schumann

Alexis Weissenberg plays Bach

More on Practicing

The "Less is More Strategy":

(From the Study Hacks Blog)
The Piano Player Confessions
I recently received a message from an accomplished piano player. Let’s call him Jeremy. This is someone who majored in piano performance at music school, where he was one of the top two students in the major. He won state-level competitions throughout his college career. Jeremy wrote in response to my recent article on the surprisingly relaxed lives of elite musicians.

Jeremy’s Strategies for Becoming Excellent…
Strategy #1: Avoid Flow. Do What Does Not Come Easy.“The mistake most weak pianists make is playing, not practicing. If you walk into a music hall at a local university, you’ll hear people ‘playing’ by running through their pieces. This is a huge mistake. Strong pianists drill the most difficult parts of their music, rarely, if ever playing through their pieces in entirety.”

I only play through my pieces when I'm working on stamina, as I get close to performance day; at that time, I play through my entire repertoire or set three times in a row. Interestingly, when I'm collaborating with singers - "practice" often means running songs or arias once and only once.

Strategy #2: To Master a Skill, Master Something Harder.“Strong pianists find clever ways to ‘complicate’ the difficult parts of their music. If we have problem playing something with clarity, we complicate by playing the passage with alternating accent patterns. If we have problems with speed, we confound the rhythms.”

For decades, I've been told by my teachers to create "exercises" from difficult passages. As an example, in approaching difficulties surrounding trills, I've created "Trill Drills" in every key and every finger combination for both hands -- possibly with the exception of thumb-pinky! -- in every register of the piano.

Strategy #3: Systematically Eliminate Weakness.“Strong pianists know our weaknesses and use them to create strength. I have sharp ears, but I am not as in touch with the physical component of piano playing. So, I practice on a mute keyboard.”

This doesn't really work for me, but I do practice "mentally" away from the keyboard. I'm very interested in Frederic Chiu's "Deeper Piano Studies" method.

Strategy #4: Create Beauty, Don’t Avoid Ugliness.“Weak pianists make music a reactive task, not a creative task. They start, and react to their performance, fixing problems as they go along. Strong pianists, on the other hand, have an image of what a perfect performance should be like that includes all of the relevant senses. Before we sit down, we know what the piece needs to feel, sound, and even look like in excruciating detail. In performance, weak pianists try to reactively move away from mistakes, while strong pianists move towards a perfect mental image.”

This principle is not stressed enough. According to Charles Rosen, piano players are the only musicians who do not have to listen to their sound to produce their sound. Or as one of of my own teachers said, "some students play the typewriter, not the piano". One of the major reasons I rarely encourage my students to play Hanon exercises is that they play them mindlessly, never really hearing the ugly, or at least non-musical, sounds they are producing. I work at each and every lesson with my students (as well as in my own practice) on producing beautiful sounds, thinking about what emotions the composer wants to express, and remaining fully engaged in the process.

Thanks to my great friend and fellow pianist, John Poole, for sending the Study Hacks blog post, which I've shared partly here.

Overtones

Beautiful writing about music and aging.

http://theamericanscholar.org/the-overtone-years/

George Shearing - Piano Icon

When I was eight years old, George Shearing and his trio played on the Community Concert Series in Havre, Montana. Friends of my parents, Verlyn and Jackie Stahlecker, took me to the concert. This event was my very first concert experience and from that moment on, I wanted to be on stage.

The fact that Shearing was blind and could play the piano did not make a big impression on me; his playing, however, did.

After the first piece, I was transfixed; I wanted more than anything to be in a jazz trio. I found the music the trio played thrilling, and their improvising on the melodies - fascinating. I thought the string bass was so cool and loved the bass solo moments with the hushed piano chords -- and, of course, being out at night without my parents...Intoxicating!

My favorite piece from that concert was "Lullaby of Birdland", which happens to be Shearing's most famous composition. I learned to play the piece in high school, and even today I can still play and improvise over the chords in spite of my faulty memory.

Once under Shearing influence, I began to improvise on my "classical" tunes. I became very proficient at improvising in various classical styles, so much so that my Mother could not tell if I was playing what was in a score or improvising on it. She called my ramblings "Melissa-isms" and would yell up from the basement at me as I practiced: "Now, is that Mozart or a Melissa-ism?"

I would never tell.

I had a good ear, but the teaching methods of my day considered the ability to read music so critical that no one was ever allowed to play a melody for me, for fear of my not learning to read. This was quite traumatic for me, and almost ended my music career before it began.

But I did learn to read music, and then rarely played by ear. Later, sightreading became very important for me, as my first music job (at age 10) was to play for the children's choir at church. Choir pianists are forever sightreading, so I was forced to focus on that, while my ear training suffered. I think as a consequence, my ability to memorize music was compromised. Of course, playing by ear has been pretty much out of the question.

Luckily, though, all of that "improvising" in the style of various composers helped me whenever I would have a memory slip (and I always did, and still do slip whenever playing from memory). I've gotten myself out of many a trouble spot my improvising a measure or two until I could find my way back into the score. At first this impressed my teachers, but later they would be very angry with me when I would "get away with improvising" through memory slips.

Nowadays, I always play with music -- even when I have a piece memorized. I no longer want to improvise my way through memory slips, and the presence of a score calms my nerves so I can play with greater musicality and accuracy.

Regardless, thank you, George Shearing - sensational piano icon - for making a lasting impression on me and for being such a great artist. I'll never forget you.

Here's a link to a wonderful interview with Shearing. Also a link to the NPR tribute and Terry Gross' Fresh Air remembrance.


Go to Dailymotion.com for a great video of Shearing playing "Lullaby of Birdland". There will be a few short advertisements, but persevere. Other Shearing videos are on this site as well.

Keyboard Idol - Emanuel Ax

In the Fall of 1980, I was 18 years old and a Freshman at the University of Montana. I was just beginning my studies as a piano major, when I saw a poster that the Music Department was sponsoring a concert of all Beethoven Piano Sonatas, performed by Emanuel Ax. As music majors, we were required to attend concerts. I was a diligent student and I thought this concert was as good as any, to begin to fulfill my recital attendance requirement.

I grew up in Havre, Montana --- God's country truly, but the small, isolated town had virtually no access to any classical music. Live music shows in any genre were infrequent at best, so my chances to hear any kind of music were extremely limited. I was a Philistine as far as my musical tastes were concerned. I did have the good judgement to love most of the composers I was exposed to through my piano lessons. I adored and revered Bach. As a teenager, I couldn't get enough of Chopin and Brahms. I also loved any music that was contemporary, new, avant garde...the strange harmonies and driving rhythms of Prokofiev, Bartok, Stravinsky...really spoke to me. Regardless, I certainly had not ever heard a pianist play a program of Beethoven Sonatas, nor heard any recordings. The Beethoven I had played as a child - bored me. "Fur Elise", ugh - I couldn't stand practicing that piece. I had played a few Bagatelles very poorly I should add, as well as a few of the early Sonatinas, but I thought at my young age, Beethoven, WHO CARES!

Then came the day that I chanced upon Emanuel Ax giving a concert of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas. That event changed my life. I had never heard such music from the piano. And by the end of the first sonata, I was determined to play as many Beethoven works as possible. I began to listen to the string quartets (so quaintly as I remember now - in the listening library with the largest headphones imaginable over my ears, but transported to old Europe none the less, through the amazing playing of the Budapest String Quartet...). Next, I listened to all of Beethoven's chamber music as long as it included a part for the piano!

Now I love Beethoven's music and consider it one of the great privileges of my life that I can play a Beethoven Sonata any time I desire. I owe this romance to Emanuel Ax's transporting, passoniate playing of Beethoven Sonatas in the 1980s.


Thank you Manny!


In this clip, Mr. Ax talks about playing with the New York Philharmonic. My favorite quote is "pianists are actors". I completely agree.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU6ZMOMHqdo&p=1AF972F08806CE49&playnext=1&index=24

A lovely interview from the Barbican Centre in London

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCfcAbGoxxE&feature=related

Ax playing with Yo Yo Ma.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfhWXTlRn0M&feature=related

One of my favorite stories about Ax in this New Yorker profile of the Marlboro Music Festival (pages 60 and 61) in Vermont.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/29/090629fa_fact_ross

Keyboard Idol

I'm starting a new series on the Renditions Music Fan Page on Facebook. If you are a member of Facebook and not a fan of Renditions - sign up now!

My first "official" post (I've been posting "idol" messages for awhile now) is the film "Richter, The Enigma". This movie changed my life when I saw it more than a decade ago. I have been encouraging my students to borrow the film from my library as Richter's life's story is so moving and his playing - so beautiful, passionate, insane, daring, transporting, sublime --- and I could gush on and still not adequately describe the impact of his playing on the senses.

The film is now available on-line for free, so there is no reason not to watch the film. The film is in Russian with subtitles. Perhaps watch just a segment a day, like a daily dose of Vitamin C - your spirit will be refreshed, revived and invigorated - not to mention the possibility of banishment of "rickety" thoughts.

If the above link to the free video doesn't work - here is the link again.
http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=richter+the+enigma

Music Matters!

This speech was sent to me by my former piano teacher, Eliane Lust. I think it is an appropriate way to begin my blog for the new year! Welcome Speech, New Students, Boston Conservatory, by Dr. Karl Paulnack, Director of the Music Division September 1, 2004 "One of my parents' deepest fears, I suspect, is that society would not properly value me as a musician, that I wouldn't be appreciated. I had very good grades in high school, I was good in science and math, and they imagined that as a doctor or a research chemist or an engineer, I might be more appreciated than I would be as a musician. I still remember my mother's remark when I announced my decision to apply to music school-- she said, "you're wasting your SAT scores!" On some level, I think, my parents were not sure themselves what the value of music was, what its purpose was. And they loved music: they listened to classical music all the time. They just weren't really clear about its function. So let me talk about that a little bit, because we live in a society that puts music in the "arts and entertainment" section of the newspaper, and serious music, the kind your kids are about to engage in, has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with entertainment, in fact it's the opposite of entertainment. Let me talk a little bit about music, and how it works. One of the first cultures to articulate how music really works were the ancient Greeks. And this is going to fascinate you: the Greeks said that music and astronomy were two sides of the same coin. Astronomy was seen as the study of relationships between observable, permanent, external objects, and music was seen as the study of relationships between invisible, internal, hidden objects. Music has a way of finding the big, invisible moving pieces inside our hearts and souls and helping us figure out the position of things inside us. Let me give you some examples of how this works. One of the most profound musical compositions of all time is the Quartet for the End of Time written by French composer Olivier Messiaen in 1940. Messiaen was 31 years old when France entered the war against Nazi Germany. He was captured by the Germans in June of 1940 and imprisoned in a prisoner-of-war camp. He was fortunate to find a sympathetic prison guard who gave him paper and a place to compose, and fortunate to have musician colleagues in the camp, a cellist, a violinist, and a clarinetist. Messiaen wrote his quartet with these specific players in mind. It was performed in January 1941 for the prisoners and guards of the prison camp. Today it is one of the most famous masterworks in the repertoire. Given what we have since learned about life in the Nazi camps, why would anyone in his right mind waste time and energy writing or playing music? There was barely enough energy on a good day to find food and water, to avoid a beating, to stay warm, to escape torture-why would anyone bother with music? And yet-even from the concentration camps, we have poetry, we have music, we have visual art; it wasn't just this one fanatic Messiaen; many, many people created art. Why? Well, in a place where people are only focused on survival, on the bare necessities, the obvious conclusion is that art must be, somehow, essential for life. The camps were without money, without hope, without commerce, without recreation, without basic respect, but they were not without art. Art is part of survival; art is part of the human spirit, an unquenchable expression of who we are. Art is one of the ways in which we say, "I am alive, and my life has meaning."... ...From this and other experiences, I have come to understand that music is not part of "arts and entertainment" as the newspaper section would have us believe. It's not a luxury, a lavish thing that we fund from leftovers of our budgets, not a plaything or an amusement or a pass time. Music is a basic need of human survival. Music is one of the ways we make sense of our lives, one of the ways in which we express feelings when we have no words, a way for us to understand things with our hearts when we can't with our minds. Some of you may know Samuel Barber's heart wrenchingly beautiful piece Adagio for Strings. If you don't know it by that name, then some of you may know it as the background music which accompanied the Oliver Stone movie Platoon, a film about the Vietnam War. If you know that piece of music either way, you know it has the ability to crack your heart open like a walnut; it can make you cry over sadness you didn't know you had. Music can slip beneath our conscious reality to get at what's really going on inside us the way a good therapist does. Very few of you have ever been to a wedding where there was absolutely no music. There might have been only a little music, there might have been some really bad music, but with few exceptions there is some music. And something very predictable happens at weddings-people get all pent up with all kinds of emotions, and then there's some musical moment where the action of the wedding stops and someone sings or plays the flute or something. And even if the music is lame, even if the quality isn't good, predictably 30 or 40 percent of the people who are going to cry at a wedding cry a couple of moments after the music starts. Why? The Greeks. Music allows us to move around those big invisible pieces of ourselves and rearrange our insides so that we can express what we feel even when we can't talk about it. Can you imagine watching Indiana Jones or Superman or Star Wars with the dialogue but no music? What is it about the music swelling up at just the right moment in ET so that all the softies in the audience start crying at exactly the same moment? I guarantee you if you showed the movie with the music stripped out, it wouldn't happen that way. The Greeks. Music is the understanding of the relationship between invisible internal objects. This is why music matters. What follows is part of the talk I will give to this year's freshman class when I welcome them a few days from now. The responsibility I will charge your sons and daughters with is this: "If we were a medical school, and you were here as a med student practicing appendectomies, you'd take your work very seriously because you would imagine that some night at two AM someone is going to waltz into your emergency room and you're going to have to save their life. Well, my friends, someday at 8 PM someone is going to walk into your concert hall and bring you a mind that is confused, a heart that is overwhelmed, a soul that is weary. Whether they go out whole again will depend partly on how well you do your craft. You're not here to become an entertainer, and you don't have to sell yourself. The truth is you don't have anything to sell; being a musician isn't about dispensing a product, like selling used cars. I'm not an entertainer; I'm a lot closer to a paramedic, a firefighter, a rescue worker. You're here to become a sort of therapist for the human soul, a spiritual version of a chiropractor, physical therapist, someone who works with our insides to see if they get things to line up, to see if we can come into harmony with ourselves and be healthy and happy and well. Frankly, ladies and gentlemen, I expect you not only to master music; I expect you to save the planet. If there is a future wave of wellness on this planet, of harmony, of peace, of an end to war, of mutual understanding, of equality, of fairness, I don't expect it will come from a government, a military force or a corporation. I no longer even expect it to come from the religions of the world, which together seem to have brought us as much war as they have peace. If there is a future of peace for humankind, if there is to be an understanding of how these invisible, internal things should fit together, I expect it will come from the artists, because that's what we do. As in the Nazi camps and the evening of 9/11, the artists are the ones who might be able to help us with our internal, invisible lives."

Happy Halloween Flaustenbach

A hungry crow feats on eyeballs on the way to the studio...

Igor warms up the piano...


Students await Flaustenbach's appearance...

FLAUSTENBACH ARRIVES!

Hiistoric Flaustenbach Recording Found!

A primitive recording has been found of Mildred Irene Tomsheck's playing of the theme of Heinrich Wilhelm Flaustenbach's "MIT Variations" which he wrote for her in the 19th century. Click on "MIT Variations" or on Mildred Irene Tomsheck to hear the recording.

Clearly Flaustenbach was a genius with electricity! See also: electrified piano mistake corrector.

What remains of Mildred...

Insanity and Music

There is no doubt in my mind that Flaustenbach's brain worked differently from other musicians. Of course almost any pianist is a little crazy, but there are degrees!

Instruments of instruction on the piano - including the octopus light treatment - the different-colored arms of the lamp envelope the student, creating a warm, yet uncomfortable embrace. Correct posture is absolutely essential!

Igor, Flaustenbach's lab assistant, demonstrates the electric finger rats. Perfect for practicing Hanon and other composers of torturous, tedious hand exercises...!

The Flaustenbach Story Continues

While Flaustenbach haunts my studio...strange things occur. One day sheet music began appearing on the walls.

Perhaps this is an explanation... from the "Wikipedia article" at http://tr.im/flaust ...

His father, Heinrich Johann Ludwig Flaustenbach (author of Harpsichords of Middle Europe – A Complete Taxonomy) was also a music educator and scholar, as well as an experimenter in the non-traditional use of musical scores. The elder Flaustenbach is perhaps best known for his unsuccessful early 19^th-century attempts to use pages from oversized oratorio scores of German High Baroque composers as cheap wallpaper for the homes of lower-middle class German families.

It is believed that the imposition of reams and reams of musical wallpaper in Flaustenbach’s earliest environs may have had a significant formative impact on young Heinrich Wilhelm, and had a causal effect on some of the more remarkably unfortunate episodes that would mark his adult life.

And like all good dead musicians --- he's no longer decomposing! In the PianoSmith MadLab, Flaustenbach has started to write "The Bell Cantata". Does the bell toll for you?

Flaustenbach's Mottoes

It is important to set the correct atmosphere for learning. Posters and signs in music studio have achieved this purpose for generations. Flaustenbach had adapted MadLab posters for his own unique purposes...


The fine print reads..."Children Should be Seen Practicing, Not Heard... Therefore, in this studio, only the works of SCHubert, SCHumann, SCHopin, and SCHaminade shall be played"


We all know that "acid" rock melts a pianists fingers!


The "electrified" piano was one of Flaustenbach's great "flashes" of inspiration. It also explains why his lab assistant is so twitchy.


One of Flaustenbach's more outlandish ideas was to force groups of students to practice all of their instruments in the same place, at the same time. According to the Wikipedia article on Flaustenbach, this had incendiary results:

One of his very few published papers, “On the Efficacy of Simultaneous Practicing of Various and Several Musical Instruments by Multiple Students” (1831) led to a vociferous debate (which nearly devolved into fisticuffs among the brawnier musicians in attendance) at the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria, and is thought to be responsible for the strict isolation of students from one another while practicing on their instruments today...

And my personal favorite...


this simultaneous homage to Bach and Oppenheimer reflects one of Flaustenbach's experiments - which accidentally provided a century's worth of power for his future mad laboratory creations...!

Dr. Flaustenbach Has Taken Over My Piano Studio

If you haven't heard of Heinrich Wilhelm Flaustenbach, the 19th Century German Music Pedagogue, I suggest you click on his name and read David Saslav's story about Flaustenbach now. Fascinating practice tips, such as "Practice Makes Permanent Scars" and other gems from a life experimenting with how to get the worst out of students.

For some reason, Flaustenbach has risen from his place of eternal (not so much) rest to HAUNT my studio....

At the entrance to the PianoSmith Mad Lab where Flaustenbach has taken up residence, is "Mildred Irene Tomsheck" Flaustenbach's beloved student for whom he wrote the "MIT Variations". She died while trying to perfect this most difficult work. Flaustenbach had her remains glittered to honor her dedication to his piano methods.


Flaustenbach developed potions to increase memory function, speed of fingers, and mental and physical stamina at the keyboard. Careful...drinking and piano playing may be fatal!


If you did not practice in Flaustenbach's studio...you would be labeled a "RECALCITRANT" student and put into a jar!

Flaustenbach will demonstrate many of teaching methods with his Lab Assistant on Saturday, October 31, 2009, 1-4 PM in San Francisco. Come if you dare...

Practice Tip Number Seven

Slow vs Fast Practice
Notes from Dr. Helen Marlais' Lecture at the MTAC Convention / July 2009

This is the piano version of what your trainer at the gym suggests you do while working out on the treadmill.

Play a passage three times slowly -- and really do play slowly, then once more, immediately, at full tempo.

If the piece is long, use this method for individual sections -- playing an entire movement of a Beethoven Sonata in this way could drive a person to really hate practicing, which would be counter-productive.

Since the ultimate goal is to play well and enjoy your repertoire, all of these tips will make your practice time very efficient and manageable. Tip number seven is also great for solving a tricky measure or any difficult passage in a longer piece.

Practice Tip Number 6

Practice Tip Number 6: EIGHT (8) Times to Perfection!

This one is a killer.

One measure - 8 times perfectly;
One passage - 8 times perfectly;
One phrase - 8 times perfectly;
One section- 8 times perfectly;
One page- 8 times perfectly;
One movement- 8 times perfectly; then
An entire piece - - 8 times perfectly!

Thanks to Dr. Helen Marlais for this practice gem.