My music and music education

Practice tips

2006-04-25T18:17:00.000-07:00

Practice TipsPractice Makes Perfect—or Does It?By Dr. Robin Kay Deverich
Why is it so hard to improve on your instrument, even though you know you've practiced? Unfortunately, the adage "practice makes perfect" isn’t always true. Instead, improper practice often leads to poor results, not perfect playing. Why? Many of us simply don't know how to practice productively. The following overview of the fundamentals of practicing will provide you with useful ways you can create your own productive practice sessions.
Practice Time
When is your "prime time"? If you feel freshest in the morning, early morning practice may be for you. If you feel your energy peak in the afternoon or at night, practice then. Do you tire easily when you practice? Divide your practice time into two segments instead of having one long practice session. Whatever time you do choose, be consistent and try to practice at the same time five or six days a week.
Location
When you practice, find a quiet room where you won't be disturbed. Turn off the TV, put away your CD player, and turn on the answering machine.
Music Accessories
Before timing every nanosecond of your practice time, gather together all of the practice materials you'll need. Music, a pencil to note difficult passages and fingerings, and a music stand are basic necessities. If you do practice sitting down (some teachers prefer that you stand while practicing), make sure you use a chair that isn't too soft, or it will be difficult to use proper playing position.
Physical Needs
Before you even begin to practice, drink some water, have some fruit or a healthy snack to rev up your blood sugar level, and change into something comfortable. If you prepare yourself physically before you start to practice, you'll find you can concentrate easily, and you won't be quite so tempted to interrupt your practicing for kitchen or bathroom breaks. Playing a musical instrument is not a passive experience. You need physical strength and energy to practice with proper playing position. If you practice while you're tired, you may run the risk of slipping into poor playing habits
Length of Practice Session
How long you practice every day is irrelevant. How much you accomplish when you practice is what counts. It's great to follow a scheduled practice time, but if your daily practice ritual consists of playing straight through pieces over and over while you daydream, you might be better off not practicing at all. It's easy to reinforce mistakes when you don't concentrate while playing or when you practice without purpose or focus. Strive for quality practice, not quantity mediocre results.
Productive Practice Sessions
Structured practice sessions are the key to productive practicing. The following suggestions will help you progress, instead of regress, when you practice.
Warm-up. Each practice session should begin by limbering up and strengthening your fingers through scales, exercises, arpeggios, or trills.
Practice with Purpose. Have one or more focused goals each time you practice. At the beginning of practice sessions, ask yourself, "What do I want to accomplish today? Do I want to polish a piece? Slowly learn part of a new piece, play with heightened musicality, or fix some problem spots?" As you practice, your focus may change as you continue to analyze your playing with questions such as: "Am I playing in tune? Is the rhythm correct? What parts of the piece need work?"
Problem-solving. One of the most effective ways to make a piece sound better is to pinpoint the difficult passages in the piece and then work on one small section at a time. Don’t reinforce mistakes by repeating them. Identify what the problem is, then determine how you will fix it. Play the notes of a problem spot very slowly, one note at a time, until you are playing with the proper rhythm, fingering, and notes. Once it sounds correct, play that small section over and over, gradually picking up speed until that segment of music is up to tempo. It's always simpler to begin at a slow tempo and increase your speed rather than go back and correct new errors.
Problem spot tips. At times, it may be useful to record yourself (tape or video) to pinpoint problem spots. If you’re having difficulty with a fast passage, playing a small section first very slowly, then experimenting with rhythmic variations, often helps. For example, if the small section you’ve identified as a problem spot contains four measures of sixteenth notes, instead of playing them all at the same tempo, try: long-short-long-short-long-short-long etc. Then, reverse the sequence and play the passage: short-long-short-long-short-long-short etc. Another practice technique for fast passages is to to quickly repeat each note two, three or four times (e.g. d-d-d-d-a-a-a-a-c-c-c-c—almost as if you were playing a bowed tremolo on the same note).
Musicality. Are you expressing yourself through your music, or are you mechanically repeating notes from a printed page? Musicality, the ability to interpret a piece with feeling, is what distinguishes the performance of a fine musician from that of an automated, boring performer. Need ideas? First, try following printed directions such as dynamics, style of playing, and the tempo or speed at which the music should be played. You can gain additional interpretive insight by listening to recordings of the same piece played by different performers and by researching the history of the composer or the era in which the music was composed. Then, experiment! Try different phrasing or explore variations in tone production, style, and intensity. Memorizing a piece also may assist you in achieving freedom of expression. Once you know a piece so well that you are "free" from the music, you may find it easier to interpret music on your own.
Fun time. At the end of each practice session, it's always fun to sit back, relax, and enjoy playing straight through the piece. The progress made during "problem spot" practicing can be reinforced, and you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment hearing changes you’ve made in the full context of the piece.
So let the music-making begin! You CAN make the adage "practice makes perfect" come true for you. All it takes is a little hard work and a lot of concentration. You'll soon find just how rewarding productive practicing can be.

violinonline.com

great web page!

2006-04-25T18:05:00.000-07:00

violintips.com

Violin vibrato

2006-04-25T18:03:00.000-07:00

Figure 1

When Should You Start Vibrato?
Vibrato is one of the best vehicles of expression for a string player. For beginners it seems to be one of the most intreguing aspects of the instrument, so I wanted to inform you about the proper performance methods and also to warn you of starting too soon. Vibrato should be introduced around the time you begin to play generally in tune, and are able to hear and correct when you are out of tune.
Practicing Vibrato Separately
Vibrato will initially be just another thing to think about while you are trying to play a piece of music. For this reason I suggest practicing it 'on it's own' at first. Do this by playing scales for the purpose of learning vibrato. When you first start, scales should be practiced both with and without vibrato. This allows you to practice intonation as well as vibrato.
What Is Vibrato?
Vibrato is the rapid (yet slight) lowering (in pitch) and returning of a single note in music. Take note: our ears favour higher pitches. What this means is that if you quickly shift pitch equally above and below the desired note, it will sound sharp (too high). What we must do the is vibrate from the desired note down, and return to the desired note.
In Figure 1 the pink line is the variation in pitch (vibrato) and the blue line represents the perceived pitch (what it actually sounds like to your ears) through time. If you were to use vibrato like this, as long as the vibrato is rapid enough, you would hear the peceived pitch perfectly in tune, because your ears hear only the highest pitch in the wave and disregard the lower pitch fluctuation.
How Fast Should Vibrato Be?
With a little experimentation you will discover that there is a range of quickness to vibrato that will produce a tasteful sound. Because the pitches/notes on the violin or viola sound higher than the cello or bass, it stands to reason that vibrato for a violinist should be slightly faster on average than the lower instruments.
I suggest practicing a violin vibrato range of 5-7 beats per second (bps). This gives you a range of colours to use for different styles of music. This means 5-7 full cycles of vibrato, from the original pitch, to below that pitch, and back.
How Wide Should Vibrato Be?
The width of your vibrato (or how far below from the original pitch you go) will also give your playing different colours, and again there is a tasteful range you can practice. Naturally, the faster the vibrato the narrower it will be. The slower your vibrato, the more time you have to get away from the original pitch.
In music, the semi-tone (or the closest distance between two musical notes in Western music) is divided into 100 degrees called cents. This is so that we can talk about the slightest differences in pitch. Most people can't hear a difference between pitches a couple cents higher or lower, but it is a way to talk about these subtleties.
I would say that a wide vibrato streches 40-50 cents below the original pitch (or around a 1/2 semi-tone lower). A narrow vibrato might be very, very close in pitch to the original note, maybe 5 cents, and create a shimering effect on the sound. Narrow vibrato is naturally faster than wide vibrato. I would try to practice a medium to narrow vibrato so that you keep the intonation accurate and are able to produce a relatively fast vibrato.
Arm Vibrato, Hand Vibrato and Finger Vibrato
There are different ways to create vibrato. The basic vibrato (arm vibrato) is achieved by moving the arm at the elbow away from and toward your body so that the finger which has been placed on the fingerboard rocks on the string, minutely changing the pitch. In arm vibrato, the wrist is kept steady (aligned with the arm) and the fingers relaxed, so that the movement in the elbow can affect the placement of the fingertip on the string.
Hand vibrato is a variation on arm vibrato. It is the same motion of the hand away and toward your body, yet acheived by the wrist instead of the elbow. Some violinists use hand vibrato all the time, which can be very tiring. I suggest using hand vibrato only when you are in the higher positions (especially on the G and D strings) when your wrist can no longer be aligned with the arm.
Finger vibrato is the very fast very slight (vertical) movement of the finger in response to the action of placing it on the fingerboard. This is difficult to master and is used for very quick passages where you would not have time to use arm or wrist vibrato. I just wanted to mention it here so that you know it exists and what it is used for.
Open String Vibrato
Believe it or not, there is a way to get a vibrato 'effect' on an open (unstopped) string. This is usually only used for the open G string, because it is the only note on the violin that there is no alternate 'fingering' for. (That would be the open C string on viola).
The way you do this is to stop the note one octave above the open string with your finger, on the next highest string (ex. G, 3rd finger on the D string), and apply vibrato to that note, while playing only the open string below. This creates a shimmering vibrato sound for the open string.
This happens because the vibration of the open string creates a sympathetic vibration in the string next to it (especially when it is one octave higher). And because you are applying vibrato to that higher octave, it passes the effect back to the open string in a similar way, through sympathetic vibrations. It also affects the overtones of the open string.
Historical Relevance & When Should I Use Vibrato
A Breif History of Vibrato
Vibrato was initially used in the Baroque era (1650-1750 AD and perhaps earlier) as an ornament to the legato sound of the string instrument. It was not considered the standard way to play. Just the opposite was the norm: a smoothe, round tone produced by the bow and a quiet hand.
Vibrato was introduced in music to intensify the sound, and change the emotional inpact of the music. Not all were impressed with the use of vibrato, yet it continued through the Classical era (1750-1850 AD) being included in compositions as something written into the music: specific notes were designated to have vibrato, while generally there should be none.
Not until the beginning of the 20th century did the constant use of vibrato become the standard way of playing. Ensembles looking to revive the sound of Baroque music and older string music have, in many cases, taken vibrato out of their performances to recreate the sound as it would have been heard when it was composed.
Vibrato is a personal vehicle of expression, and so no one should tell you to always or never use it. Music is changable and through the ages the perfomnce methods have also changed. Learn to use vibrato, but do not become dependant on it to play music. In this way, as you become more masterful at playing the violin, you will be able to choose what suits the music better.
Vibrato Practice Methods
As mentioned earlier, vibrato should be practiced 'separately' from the pieces you are playing at first. This means using long, sustained, legato notes for each finger: slow scales are a good tool for this, but initially you can just use any note.
Generally, the fourth finger (pinky) is the most difficult finger to train. It is usually the weakest and the joints tend to lock (straighten). I would start with the second or third finger, whichever is most comfortable.
To get the general motion in the arm, get in playing position and tap all four fingers against the upper rib of the violin by moving your arm at the elbow. You can practice like this for a while until you can tap a steady beat.
Use a metronome set at 60 beats per minute (bpm) (or 1 click every second) and tap at various speeds. Start with three or four bps and tap it continuously for at least a minute. If you succeed and remain rhythmically accurate, increase the bps by one and continue until you can do this at 6-7 bps for an extended amount of time (45-60 seconds).
Make sure to take breaks, relax your arm and shake it out between practices.
Once you can tap these different beats on the rib of your violin, place your fingers on a string and try moving your arm while allowing the tips of your fingers to rock on the string. Do this to the metronome without the bow, and place all four fingers on the same string all at once. (They do not need to be placed 'in tune'). Try to keep each of your fingers relaxed and rounded with the joints 'unlocked'.
Once you are comfortable with this motion on the string, do the same thing with individual fingers, without the bow at first. Add long sustained notes with the bow, changing the bow consistently every four beats. It is important to keep the bow changes consistent at first so that you can eventually 'forget' about it - let it be automatic - and focus on the left hand. You do not need to play scales at this point, just one finger at a time on any note you choose.
Add vibrato to scales when you begin to get the hang of it. Again, choose a consistently timed bowing. When you start scales with vibrato, look out for these traps:
Inconsistent vibrato: rhymically different from one finger to the next, or one finger without vibrato entirely which happens to the fourth finger sometimes.
Vibrato stopping when you need to change bows: you should try to continue the vibrato through the bow changes as though there was no change
Vibrato stopping when you change strings or shift: this is similar to when you change bows. Just be aware of your consistent vibrato through string changes and shifts. There is a slight break in the vibrato as you are shifting, yet once you have finished the shift, there should be no hesitation
Don't forget to practice scales without vibrato for intonation purposed as well.
Practice first what you can't do well. It seems obvious, but it is tempting to practice what we can already do well. It is more work to practice what we can't do well, but you will advance more quickly if you practice vibrato on the fingers that feel the least comfortable.

Do you know the effects of music education

2006-04-06T14:26:00.000-07:00

The pace of scientific research into music making has never been greater. New data about music’s relationship to brainpower, wellness and other phenomena is changing the way we perceive mankind’s oldest art form, and it’s having a real-world effect on decisions about educational priorities. The briefs below provide a glimpse into these exciting developments. For a more in-depth treatment of current music science, visit The International Foundation for Music Research, and to see updates on the latest findings, check the "Build Your Case" section of SupportMusic.com.
Did You Know?Middle school and high school students who participated in instrumental music scored significantly higher than their non-band peers in standardized tests. University studies conducted in Georgia and Texas found significant correlations between the number of years of instrumental music instruction and academic achievement in math, science and language arts.Source: University of Sarasota Study, Jeffrey Lynn Kluball; East Texas State University Study, Daryl Erick Trent
Did You Know?Students who were exposed to the music-based lessons scored a full 100 percent higher on fractions tests than those who learned in the conventional manner. Second-grade and third-grade students were taught fractions in an untraditional manner ‹ by teaching them basic music rhythm notation. The group was taught about the relationships between eighth, quarter, half and whole notes. Their peers received traditional fraction instruction.Source: Neurological Research, March 15, 1999
Did You Know?Music majors are the most likely group of college grads to be admitted to medical school. Physician and biologist Lewis Thomas studied the undergraduate majors of medical school applicants. He found that 66 percent of music majors who applied to med school were admitted, the highest percentage of any group. For comparison, (44 percent) of biochemistry majors were admitted. Also, a study of 7,500 university students revealed that music majors scored the highest reading scores among all majors including English, biology, chemistry and math.Sources: "The Comparative Academic Abilities of Students in Education and in Other Areas of a Multi-focus University," Peter H. Wood, ERIC Document No. ED327480"The Case for Music in the Schools," Phi Delta Kappan, February, 1994
Did You Know?Music study can help kids understand advanced music concepts. A grasp of proportional math and fractions is a prerequisite to math at higher levels, and children who do not master these areas cannot understand more advanced math critical to high-tech fields. Music involves ratios, fractions, proportions and thinking in space and time. Second-grade students were given four months of piano keyboard training, as well as time using newly designed math software. The group scored over 27 percent higher on proportional math and fractions tests than children who used only the math software.Source: Neurological Research March, 1999
Did You Know?A McGill University study found that pattern recognition and mental representation scores improved significantly for students given piano instruction over a three-year period. They also found that self-esteem and musical skills measures improved for the students given piano instruction.Source: Dr. Eugenia Costa-Giomi, "The McGill Piano Project: Effects of three years of piano instruction on children's cognitive abilities, academic achievement, and self-esteem," presented at the meeting of the Music Educators National Conference, Phoenix, AZ, April, 1998
Did You Know?Data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 showed that music participants received more academic honors and awards than non-music students, and that the percentage of music participants receiving As, As/Bs, and Bs was higher than the percentage of non-participants receiving those grades.Source: National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 First Follow-Up (1990), U.S. Department of Education.
Did You Know?Research shows that piano students are better equipped to comprehend mathematical and scientific concepts. A group of preschoolers received private piano keyboard lessons and singing lessons. A second group received private computer lessons. Those children who received piano/keyboard training performed 34 percent higher on tests measuring spatial-temporal ability than the others ‹ even those who received computer training. "Spatial-temporal" is basically proportional reasoning - ratios, fractions, proportions and thinking in space and time. This concept has long been considered a major obstacle in the teaching of elementary math and science.Source: Neurological Research February 28, 1997
Did You Know?Young children with developed rhythm skills perform better academically in early school years. Findings of a recent study showed that there was a significant difference in the academic achievement levels of students classified according to rhythmic competency. Students who were achieving at academic expectation scored high on all rhythmic tasks, while many of those who scored lower on the rhythmic test achieved below academic expectation.Source: "The Relationship between Rhythmic Competency and Academic Performance in First Grade Children," University of Central Florida, Debby Mitchell
Did You Know?High school music students score higher on SATs in both verbal and math than their peers. In 2001, SAT takers with coursework/experience in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal portion of the test and 41 points higher on the math portion than students with no coursework/experience in the arts.Source: Profile of SAT and Achievement Test Takers, The College Board, compiled by Music Educators National Conference, 2001.
Did You Know?College-age musicians are emotionally healthier than their non-musician counterparts. A study conducted at the University of Texas looked at 362 students who were in their first semester of college. They were given three tests, measuring performance anxiety, emotional concerns and alcohol related problems. In addition to having fewer battles with the bottle, researchers also noted that the college-aged music students seemed to have surer footing when facing tests.Source: Houston Chronicle, January 11, 1998
Did You Know?A ten-year study, tracking more than 25,000 students, shows that music-making improves test scores. Regardless of socioeconomic background, music-making students get higher marks in standardized tests than those who had no music involvement. The test scores studied were not only standardized tests, such as the SAT, but also in reading proficiency exams.Source: Dr. James Catterall, UCLA, 1997
Did You Know?The world's top academic countries place a high value on music education. Hungary, Netherlands and Japan stand atop worldwide science achievement and have strong commitment to music education. All three countries have required music training at the elementary and middle school levels, both instrumental and vocal, for several decades. The centrality of music education to learning in the top-ranked countries seems to contradict the United States' focus on math, science, vocabulary, and technology.Source: 1988 International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IAEEA) Test
Did You Know?Music training helps under-achievers. In Rhode Island, researchers studied eight public school first grade classes. Half of the classes became "test arts" groups, receiving ongoing music and visual arts training. In kindergarten, this group had lagged behind in scholastic performance. After seven months, the students were given a standardized test. The "test arts" group had caught up to their fellow students in reading and surpassed their classmates in math by 22 percent. In the second year of the project, the arts students widened this margin even further. Students were also evaluated on attitude and behavior. Classroom teachers noted improvement in these areas also.Source: Nature May 23, 1996
Did You Know?"Music education can be a positive force on all aspects of a child's life, particularly on their academic success. The study of music by children has been linked to higher scores on the SAT and other learning aptitude tests, and has proven to be an invaluable tool in classrooms across the country. Given the impact music can have on our children's education, we should support every effort to bring music into their classrooms."Source: U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman (NM)
Did You Know?"The nation's top business executives agree that arts education programs can help repair weaknesses in American education and better prepare workers for the 21st century."Source: "The Changing Workplace is Changing Our View of Education," Business Week, October 1996.

Kreisler's Praeludium and Allegro-History

2006-04-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

Kreisler - Praeludium and Allegro
Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962)
The Praeludium and Allegro, composed by Fritz Kreisler during his long and prestigious career is considered one of the great standards of violin music. The Kreisler Praeludium and Allegro was one of the many violin pieces the composer attributed to lesser known composers of the 18th Century, even though they were his own works. This particular violin composition was originally attributed to Pugnani, and is often interpreted as a very Romantic homage to a Baroque Italian virtuoso. The Praeludium and Allegro along with the many other works for which Kreisler did not originally take credit have, since their introduction, become a permanent part of highly respected violin repertoire and it does not quite square in retrospect that anyone should have thought them anything but effective exercises in expounding upon the style of various composers and not merely parodies. Critics cannot help but feel that the composer intended to shake the music world because of the dramatic way he confessed the hoax he had played for over 30 years by ascribing many of his most popular works to early composers.
One of the most distinguished and beloved violinists in history, Fritz Kreisler was born in Vienna in 1875. By the age of seven, his musical talent was already apparent, and he became a student at the Conservatory, even though the minimum age for entry was ten. As his talent progressed and he graduated from the Conservatory in Vienna in 1885, he entered the Paris Conservatoire where he studied under the famous Joseph Massart. His aptitude for the violin helped him breeze through the Conservatoire, and by age twelve, he had graduated, having won first prize in a competition, and by thirteen, he was out performing in the world. His subsequent international career was only briefly interrupted by medical studies and a short period of military service, but eventually consolidated his position as a leading virtuoso. At the height of his career, he was performing sometimes over 260 concerts each year.
Kreisler was esteemed most for his effortless performance and his distinctive vibrato, which was applied both to slow and fast notes. His lilting style of playing has Viennese characteristics, and can certainly be attributed to his time at the Vienna Conservatory. The Praeludium and Allegro is conducive to this style of playing, and is also clearly influenced by music of the Romantic period, with long, lyrical phrases and a rich texture, but also by the stately Baroque period to which it was originally attributed. Because Kreisler was present for the dawn of recorded music, he wrote many of his pieces with the specifications of the recording equipment available at the time in mind. The Praeludium and Allegro is no exception, and was definitely among a group of pieces not only composed with the intent of recording, but also composed to highlight Kreisler’s own multi-faceted versatility and ability to convey deep expression and sentiment without being sappy or over sentimental. Still, the Kreisler Praeludium and Allegro is one of the few pieces the composer never recorded himself playing.

Kreisler's Praeludium and Allegro-violin

2006-04-06T14:20:00.000-07:00

Practicing slow is great. Do it. Slow the piece down to the fastest speed in which you can play it perfectly. That might be 80 to the quarter note, and it might be 20 (which isn't even on the metronome, but that doesn't matter). The important thing is that you can play it perfectly at some tempo (could be insanely slow...doesn't matter). Once you find this speed, play the whole passage through. If you are satisfied, move the metronome up one click only! Don't go any further. It is all about training your reflexes and muscles to play perfectly, and that has to start from perfection (which can usually be acheived at a REALLY slow tempo). It is also good for your psyche. Hearing yourself play perfectly is very important for establishing good performance patterns, and is great for confidence. Don't be in a hurry. Get it perfect one click at a time, and resist the temptation to advance the metronome before you've got if perfect. It sounds quite technical and boring (and it can be), but it works.

Tips for playing Praeludium and Allegro by Kreisler-violin

2006-04-06T14:14:00.000-07:00

Slowly practice the shifts in the opening. They seem easy but they'll bite you during performance. *cringes* - Start the allegro at 50 BPM with the metronome and edge it up to a hundred one click at a time. This might seem tedious, but it saves a lot of cleaning up later. Make sure that the elbow "hinge" is working properly; if you tense up your arm, you'll be in a lot of trouble by the top of the third page. I think that 100 is a bit under-tempo (I played it at 124. I guess most people play it somewhere between 115 and 130. I'm pretty sure that Bell is the fastest.) but it's pretty easy to inch it up from there. Make sure to practice accentuating different notes in the groups of 16ths- this really keeps it clean. You can practice the cadenza-esque bit (the part that keeps going back to open e on the third page) in double stops for intonation. Most people group this passage three notes at a time as opposed to the way it's written (basically, you go into four for a while), but it helps to practice it in groups of four- keeping the 3/4. Another thing to remember is that this piece sticks you in first position for extended periods of time. This really got to me because I'm a small person (holding out my arm that long without shifting bugs me) so if you are as well- and even if you're not- remember to take breaks when you're practicing.