Last week I held my annual studio recital at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto. Since I teach children, teenagers, and adults, I like to break up the program into two halves, the first for the younger students and second for adults of all ability levels. You see, many of my adult students are terrified at the thought of having to play after some young hotshot and feel much more comfortable around those of their own age, even though they might be playing at vastly different ability levels. Thus, an advanced student might be greatly inspired by watching an adult beginner who has made great strides in a short period of time, just as that beginner can learn much from watching an advanced player they can relate to. I’ve found that younger students can be thrust into all sorts of difficult performance situations without too much fretting, whereas adults need to feel comfortable with the situation and with each other before they can play at their best.
Posted in Performing, Promoting Your Studio
Image by allaboutgeorge
Yesterday when judging the ORMTA Southern Zone Competition in Hamilton, Ontario, one of the participants came up to me before performing and asked if it would be appropriate if he talked about one of the pieces on his program before playing it. My response to the pianist was that more than being just appropriate, it was a brilliant idea and I looked forward to hearing him speak.
The piece that he was playing was Larysa Kuzmenko’s In Memoriam to the Victims of Chernobyl, a dramatic, moving, and atonal piece, precisely the kind of piece that many people might have difficulty connecting with. That is, until they understand that it is also a work dedicated to those who perished in the most catastrophic nuclear accident in history. The pianist also mentioned the current Japanese nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiishi nuclear plant as a contemporary frame of reference. Because of his introduction, the audience was able to connect with his fine performance on a level that they might not have had he not talked beforehand.
Audiences love it when performers talk. It is absolutely necessary for every single type of popular music, and many artists in these genres are able to connect in ways that they would not be able to by merely keeping silent and playing their music.
We in the classical music world need to learn how to talk to audiences for two reasons:
Posted in Performing, Professional Development, Promoting Your Studio
Photo: D. Sharon Pruitt
Fourteen years after my injury, it’s clear to me that it is unlikely I will be able to have a professional career as a pianist again, despite many years of treatments of all kinds. I have a new career as a life coach for musicians and other creative artists, which I find very rewarding, I still teach piano and musicianship, and conduct children’s choirs. I have now chosen to talk about my condition, in the hopes that my openness will help others in their turn to be open about what has been and continues to be a taboo subject. Read more…
Posted in Performing, Practicing, Teaching Tips
I graduated with two Master of Music degrees (vocal performance and vocal pedagogy) in 1997. I’ve been teaching privately and performing regularly since then, while still taking lessons myself. I learned a lot of detail work and artistry since then, and I didn’t feel as if I needed to go back for my doctorate. Most of my studio has been high school students and adult devotees.
Last year, though, I had three high school seniors preparing to go on to vocal performance degrees, as well as one community college student, preparing to go on to her junior year in vocal performance in college. Read more…
Posted in Financial Business, Performing, Practicing, Professional Development, Teaching Tips
Yes, YouTube has been around for awhile–founded in 2005. This year I have claimed YouTube as an official and permanent tool for my teaching.
I give most of the credit for my recent YouTube fascination to my new Flip®Camera. This easy-to-use camera has changed by video-life. Forever…
A book entitled YouTube in Music Education by Rudolph and Frankel also gets some credit for my latest affair. There is still something about the printed page, the feeling of a book in hand, that helps me digest information. Although I was familiar with YouTube, the book gave me confidence to grasp the intuitive (yes, intuitive!) features of YouTube.. Coupled with my new Flip®Camera, this video-sharing site has propelled my teaching into the 21st century.
YouTube is now be an intentional staple in my teaching since I’ve set up my own channel (I know, I’m behind so please disregard if you know this all!) My channel features Read more…
Posted in Music & Technology, Performing, Practicing, Product Reviews, Teaching Tips
Unprepared Students on Recital Night: Prevention Strategies
March 6th, 2011 by Ronnie Currey (Editor)
The following is a guest article written and submitted by Lisa Shoreland:
As a piano teacher, I know I have a few students every year who keep me up at night wondering and worrying about their ability to execute successful performances. As our recital date creeps up on us, I find myself weighing their practice and dedication against the feeling that they just aren’t prepared to perform in a way that would be a positive experience for them. Inevitably, I find 
myself backstage with at least one student who’s terrified of performing. I listen to the litany of reasons for avoiding the night’s performance, and at the end of it, I have to decide whether the student should play or be allowed to postpone the performance.
No one likes to be in that situation. No matter which choice you make, there are potentially negative consequences that could prevent students from coming back for more lessons. A negative performance experience can seriously affect a student’s motivation to keep learning and practicing.
To help you avoid this painful backstage melodrama, I’ve compiled some strategies that usually work for students who sit on the fence of public performance all year long. I hope you can use them to help every student in your studio arrive prepared for successful performances on recital night. Read more…
Posted in Performing, Professional Development, Teaching Tips
This past Christmas break I was working on music for a faculty voice recital, scheduled for January 20, 2011. As I practiced, I noticed that something was just NOT right with my voice. Singing classically, I was fine, if sounding slightly tired. The problem came when I was trying to sing a slightly higher Broadway belt sound (D4-E4). My voice was making extra noise and just wouldn’t phonate properly. I knew that I felt I was working too hard, and my self-diagnosis was muscle tension dysphonia (in other words, using too much muscle and “overblowing” the cords).
So, on January 13, 2011, I went to an ENT to have my cords looked at. I was shocked when the doctor told me that I had small bilateral pre-nodules on the leading edge of the vocal folds. I have always had “cords of steel” and been able to pretty much sing through anything. This diagnosis of pre-nodules really made me re-think how I was approaching my voice.
What are pre-nodules? Here’s the layman’s version: the vocal folds are covered with the same skin as the outer layer of the skin on the outside of your body (squamous epithelium). Nodules are similar to calluses that form from repetitive motion. If, when you notice that a callus is forming, you change your behavior, the callus can go away pretty quickly. This is similar to the situation of pre-nodules on the vocal folds: it’s what is the beginning of the formation of a callus, but the skin has not yet hardened. Because I knew my voice and knew that what was going on was NOT just because I was exhausted, I got myself to the doctor quickly. 
What causes nodules? Nodules are most often a vocal disorder of vocal misuse. But, in any voice disorder, there are generally a confluence of factors that contribute to the diagnosed disorder. In my case, I had many factors that contributed: 1) On top of my private studio teaching and my regular performance schedule, I began teaching in a university setting in September 2010 (including 13 private students and class voice) which drastically increased my voice use, 2) in December my daughters became ill, & I ended up with very little sleep for 2+ weeks while continuing the crazy schedule that is a singer’s life in the Christmas season, 3) because I am able to be loud, I was speaking too loudly at home to my daughters, 4) I was singing in the Turandot chorus, which for mezzo-soprano is on the upper end of the tessitura (it hangs D5-F5), 5) I was working learning how to belt while my voice was tired, not the style in which I’m most highly trained, 6) I had an undiagnosed case of Laryngo-Pharyngeal Reflux Disease (LPRD). All of these factors combined to create what I had felt was just a “tired voice,” but ultimately resulted in something that COULD have been very drastic.
How are pre-nodules diagnosed? Read more…
Posted in Performing, Practicing, Product Reviews, Teaching Tips
The other day I received a call from a parent asking to discuss his daughters progress in her band she is enrolled in. I run a small music school called the Brooklyn Music Factory and a cornerstone of our program is the bi weekly band rehearsals. Kids can sign up for different styles of music like the all Motown band, Atlantic Ave. Soul Review or the New Wave synth group, Club Keyboard. The kids love the chance to practice and eventually perform and for the band leaders (teachers) it is wonderful to dive head first into one genre or songwriter. What the phone call from this father made me realize is that it is not as easily apparent to those observing the actual musical value of a band program. Sure, they see that their child is having fun, in fact, tons of fun, but as this parent pointed out, “sometimes if a kid is having too much fun, how can they really be learning anything?” This entry is dedicated to how to respond to parents effectively and what I see to be the value of the group learning environment that can be both tons of fun and extremely educational.
Posted in Composing & Arranging, Music History & Facts, Performing, Practicing, Teaching Tips
It was at the age of seven, when I came to the United Kingdom, that I first encountered the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) music examination system. “What grade are you?” the other children would ask when I told them that I played the piano. It was not a question I had encountered in the United States, and I didn’t know what to tell them. However, soon enough, my new piano teacher decided that it was time for me to take one of these examinations, and I began to learn all about the system. Read more…
Posted in Music Theory, Performing, Product Reviews, Teaching Tips
In four weeks my studio will hold the first concert of the year. As well as memorising & polishing repertoire and refreshing concert etiquette, my students are currently in the midst of preparing program notes. This is a particularly difficult task for students, and I believe that it is vital that students are able to articulate their thoughts about music elegantly and intelligently, using appropriate musical language.
My top five hints for writing effective program notes are: Read more…
Posted in Music History & Facts, Music News, Music Theory, Performing, Teaching Tips