Thursday, March 4, 2021

A Concert in Spring, Reforming Instruction and Musical Allies (All Rolled Into One)

May 2021 Concert (YouTube Live)

It has been quite a while since I've performed anything, and after having more time to practice (since it's been months since my last performance) I've had the opportunity to ponder quite a bit about which pieces I want to play at my next concert. I've been avoiding setting an exact date, somewhat deliberately, because I fear that my busy schedule will keep me from practicing and that it will result in a "sub-par" performance due to lack of preparation. Nevertheless, I'm playing with the idea of doing a mid-May date, like May 15th or May 22nd (both Saturdays). In the mean time, all I have on my website is "TBD" for the time and date of the show. 


One part of this upcoming performance that I'm excited about is the fact that I've locked in the song "Autumn at Bidwell Park" as a definitely part of the list, and most likely it will be the first song. I performed it a long time ago, but this was on Facebook Live about four years ago when I was doing weekly broadcasts about my music (a series called "Piano Thor'sday"). There will probably be six songs total, and I'm delightfully surprised that I've been able to select pieces that seem to "flow" well from one song to another. As many musicians know, this involves questions like, "Should I play the next song in a minor or a major key?" "Should I play a slow song after a fast song, or vice versa?" etc. I seem to have found a good combination with the selections I chose, so maybe it's just luck :D


"Tightening the Screws" on Music Instruction

As busy as my schedule is (and always tends to be, for some reason) I was able to find time to enrich my curriculum a little bit. I've mentioned before that even though the pandemic initially caused my clientele to drop a little bit, the number of students I have has actually gone up and I've had more now than ever. This has steered me towards the need to keep better track of what each student is working on (you know, so that I don't have to ask a 7-year-old kid, "What were we working on last time?" and other embarrassing questions). 

I've been teaching music for about 10 years now, if you count all the lessons I've ever taught since I had my first student back in 2011. On a full-time basis, I'd say about four years now. I don't think I'm necessarily in a position to act like a wise "Yoda" or "Jedi Master" of music instruction, but if I were to give anyone a tip or a suggestion, it would be this: pick a "main" lesson book that you work out of, and give the students regular supplementary material to support it. This means you have a "textbook" (e.g. the Lesson Books from Faber Piano Adventures) but find other stuff that's appropriate for the student's level, such as songs from other books, other pieces, or downloads from the Internet. In the past few weeks I've been trying to be very mindful about this and it seems like it's already showing benefits. 


How to Find Musical "Allies"

It hardly needs to be said that if you're a musician -- regardless of whether you play in a band, a group of any kind, an orchestra, or if you're a soloist -- you need support. This support, of course, can be described as "moral support", as well as social, physical, financial, etc. It also shouldn't be any surprise to anyone that even with COVID-19 so widespread, musicians from all over the world are still able to connect, learn and perform by the wonderful technology of the Internet. I've recently taken even more advantage of this by joining a Facebook group called "Performing Without Fear," which is a group designed for any musician who suffers from performance anxiety (stage fright). The only "performance" I've done for this group is a video I posted of one of my originals, from my YouTube channel. I took this initial route mainly because I haven't had any time to really do a live performance. The nice thing about this, though, is that I got very generous feedback from some of the other members, including one who ended up buying my sheet music. This is just one example of why people in the music industry should always network, regardless of circumstances. 

At this point I'm looking more optimistically towards the future, especially when people are finally able to have gatherings again. This will mean more networking and, of course, more live performances and the opportunities to put on more recitals for my students. It's been almost a year since California had its first lockdown from the virus, and if this past year can go by that quickly, it only means that soon enough I'll be able to pour my soul into that piano with an actual audience. I feel very lucky that I still have these "allies" online to support me until that day comes.



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