Myrtle who?

Our friend and harpist extraordinaire, Rashida Naomi Black, has launched a new site for musicians called the Myrtle Hart Society (MyrtleHart.org). MHS is "an Internet-based music research and educational resource committed to illuminating the historical and contemporary accomplishments of classical musicians of color."

So who's Myrtle Hart?

Born into a family of musicians in 1878, Myrtle Hart was possibly the only African American musician to play the harp during that time. At the age of 15, Myrtle was asked to perform in the British Exhibit at Chicago's World Fair in 1893. A local paper said she was "the only Black to play harp." Today's black harpists owe much to the legacy of this amazing woman.

Help with chords

Even the best musicians need help with chords from time to time. If you don't know all your chords, check out these handy sites:
HotFrets.com
MedianMusic
PianoChordFinder.org
DanMan's Picture Chords

Importance of fingering

When I studied piano as a child, I never understood why my teacher, Mr. Barnes, would spend so much time writing down the fingering I should use on my pieces and technical exercises. I mean, what was the big deal? Why couldn't you just read the notes and then play 'em?

Mr. Barnes would painstakingly write down the little numbers over the notes then tell me to get off the piano bench so he could test it out. He might change a sequence or two, and then he'd test it again.

In this way, he'd work out the fingering that I would use to learn my pieces. Sometimes, in subsequent lessons, he made adjustments to fingering if he saw that I was having difficulties. Every once in awhile he'd let me keep fingering that I intuitively figured out on my own.

Little did I realize how important fingering is to a musician's ability to perform and memorize a piece well. If you've ever tried to change the fingering of a passage that you already memorized, you might have experienced confusion and forgetfulness. Why? Because fingering and muscle memory and confidence all work together. When you change one aspect of the formula, you risk forgetting the notes.

There's a science and art to working out fingering, especially as pieces become more and more difficult. Whether you're playing a flute, a violin, or piano, fingering is fundamental. Your fingers are doing so many things at once that the last thing you need to worry about is what finger to use on what note. Remember the Bugs Bunny cartoon where he plays the piano so fast that his fingers get all tied up in knots? Probably the result of bad fingering!

Well-thought out fingering will help you learn the swampy measures. There's something about playing a difficult passage the same way, with the same fingering, over and over that nails the notes in your muscle memory.

So the next time your teacher spends a lot of time on this, be patient. It will help your playing in the long run.

Freebie!

Have you ever wanted to compose music? Check out Finale NotePad® 2007, free music notation software. I've used it to arrange music and got hooked! http://www.finalemusic.com/notepad/

More than one way to bow a string!

Loved him! Violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR & The Mission) with Ayanna, Adé, and Mira after his concert at the Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. DBR makes his violin sing rock, hip hop, jazz, funk, and everything in between.

Putting the musician in the music

"Every single note on this album is there for a reason." Vanessa Carlton

Making music is different from playing notes. This is a difficult concept for students to often grasp but extremely important if you are to transform a piece from just mechanics to artistry.

Excellent technique is fundamental to making beautiful music, and dynamics can really get the ball rolling, so don't ignore those p's, ff's, <'s, etc.

As important as dynamics are, those little instructions are just the beginning to mastering a piece. Ayanna's teacher often asks her, "How would you do this phrase? How do you feel about it?" Those are some of the most courageous questions a teacher can ask a student because anything can happen (and often does). But these questions are absolutely essential for the musician to put him/herself into the music.

It also takes courage for the student to make this leap. "What if it's not right?" But if you can take a chance and play a piece the way you feel it in your heart or hear it in your head, you're going to find the fun in performance and even practice. A little bit of confidence will go a long way.

Bach's advice

"There's nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself."-- Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Teach well (or else!)

This joke is making the rounds on the net:

"Haven't I seen your face before?" a judge demanded, looking down at the defendant.

"You have, Your Honor," the man answered hopefully. "I gave your son violin lessons last winter."

"Ah, yes," recalled the judge. "Twenty years!"

Review of Imani Winds concert

The Hyde Park Suzuki Institute and Ravinia hosted Imani Winds in concert yesterday. Although I couldn't make it, Adé was there, and here's her review.

Adé Williams

The Imani Winds concert was wonderful and fantastic. Imani Winds is an all winds quintet. There are five people in it: four ladies and one man. The man plays the tuba and the ladies play the clarinet, flute, oboe, and bassoon. My favorite two songs were their variation of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" and another song that I really liked. It was kind of a salsa dance type of song. After they played, the man told me that it looks like somebody copied my mom's face and put it on me. :) The concert was FANTASTIC!

Classical music for Black History Month

Richard Greene has a thorough, well researched site listing classical music recordings of black composers. It includes more than 135 composer names and more than 800 recorded works. He sent me an email, sharing the sites of other young African American ensembles. In honor of Black History Month, check them out!
Buskaid String Project
Imani Winds
Marian Anderson String Quartet
Ritz Chamber Players Society
The Young Eight

Bravo!

Joshua Greer

On Sunday we had the pleasure of hearing 3 rising stars in the classical music world at Ravinia's Bennett-Gordon Hall. The amazing thing is that they were 9 (Adé, violin), 13 (Clayton Penrose-Whitmore, violin), and 14 years old (Joshua Greer, viola). In a word, these young African American musicians were AWESOME! They received a standing ovation after each performed a movement of the thrilling Violin Concerto No. 4 in D Major by 18th century French-born black composer Chevalier de Meude-Monpas. I know he must be cheering in his grave.

These students practice at least 2 to 3 hours per day. Sorry, kids, it's the only way!

The event, titled "Pine and Protégés," was the annual benefit of the Highland Park Strings. Rachel Barton Pine (www.rebf.org) also performed and was simply spectacular.

Great practice resources

Ayanna's cello teacher, Avi Friedlander, submitted the following resources to help make your student's practice more effective!

"A great website to link to is www.violinmasterclass.com/index.php. Sassmannshaus has great masterclasses, technique work, and lesson ideas on this webpage that can be used for any string instrument.

"Another great technique helper is the book 300 Basics by Simon Fischer. It is a violin technique book that can also be used for cello. (Richard Aaron made me get this book when I was studying with him.) Fischer was a Dorothy Delay student and he explains her teaching methods in this great technique book. "

Avi Friedlander
avideuce@yahoo.com
www.triadamusicfestival.org

Practice tip from Suzuki: LISTEN!

As a child, I learned a piano piece by first hearing my teacher play it once, then by working out the notes and fingering in daily practice. But hearing it just one time wasn't enough. I would have learned my pieces more quickly if I had listened to them more often, like Suzuki students do.

When students listen to a piece on a CD over and over, the notes and dynamics get into their heads. This helps them to learn pieces more quickly. Memorization comes more easily. Rhythms and notes aren't so difficult to figure out.

It's crazy but I used to think that listening to a piece while trying to learn it was cheating somehow. Professional musicians use the listening strategy all the time. Sometimes they'll even listen to several different performances of the same piece. When they start practicing, they bring their own artistry and interpretation to the music.

Music instruction boosts academic performance

Music is a core academic subject of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 (Title IX, Part A, Sec. 9101-11)—yet, drastic reductions in funding for music education in public schools across the country are wiping out music and other arts programs.

Music education is an effective antidote to low academic performance and student behavioral problems. A University of California (Irvine) study showed that after eight months of keyboard lessons, preschoolers showed a 46 percent boost in their spatial reasoning IQ.

Researcher Amy Graziano studied the effects of piano instruction and math software usage on 237 second graders. The group that took the piano lessons scored 27% higher on proportional math and fractions tests than the children who only used the math software.

Trying to get out of practice

At camp last summer, a music student was overheard saying that she tried to get out of practice by offering to do the dishes. The mother smiled and said, "Go practice...and then do the dishes!" Got any other gems? Let us know!