Category Archives: Performing

Performing, Teaching

Jury Duty

The past few days have been very busy!  Sunday was our recital at the Ballet School.  I had two students perform (for whom I played piano accompaniment) and they did terrific.  One was my viola student, and the other a wonderful violin student, who is also a talented artist.  I am very proud of both of them…recitals are so much fun for teachers, aside from the stress leading up to them.

Monday I had to report for jury duty (my first time).  I spent most of the day waiting around, and then got called.  I then spent over a day being asked questions, only to finally not get picked for the jury.  It’s amazing how long things seem to take.  I was also surprised–I thought everyone had had their car either stolen or broken into at some point in their life?  Is that just those of us who have lived in Cleveland?

I’ve also been preparing for my week in Kansas, at the Ottawa Mid-Southwest Suzuki Institute.  I’m taking Suzuki Volume Four teacher training with Susan Kempter.  I’ve read both of the books I found that she wrote, and have heard wonderful things about her from one of the women in my Pedagogy Class in the spring, so I’m really excited!  I’ve also been practicing my book four repertoire, particularly the Perpetual Motion by Bohm (the new piece in the revised edition).

It’s funny–I haven’t managed to do any of  the things I listed on my blog earlier in the month, but instead I have been to the City Museum with some friends, and had a blast climbing around.  I didn’t know how awesome it was there!  I do have a pretty severe fear of heights, so I wasn’t able to do everything, but I pushed myself as much as I was able, and was pretty proud of some of the climbing I did.  I have also spent two full days in Jury duty, and been to a ridiculous amount of social gatherings–a 30th birthday party, a going away party (for the summer primarily), two out of town friends driving through town…I suppose lists are great, but sometimes you just have to do what you can do, and I certainly feel (other than the jury duty) as if I’ve been productive this month. (Yes, I consider my social engagements to be productive events, why do you ask?)

Tomorrow I am going to see Opera St. Louis’s production of “A Little Night Music” by Sondheim.  I played the musical years ago when I was at Brevard and really loved it then.  Isaac Mizrahi (of Target fame) is the director and designer.  I have only seen one other opera in my life (Salome with Opera Cleveland), believe it or not!  Then again, isn’t “A Little Night Music” really a musical?  I suppose I haven’t seen too many of those either, and the only ones coming to mind were amateur productions.

Performing, Teaching

Recital preparation

I try to be very methodical when it comes to helping my students prepare for recitals.  Here’s a general timeline I follow:

1. One to two months out:  we select recital piece.  The piece (or pieces, if they are short) MUST be something they already know and would just be polishing. If it will be their first recital or if they are new to my studio, I will talk through what is going to happen on the day so they don’t get surprised. One more point about repertoire choice-I don’t require students to play their more recent piece-they can go back farther if they like.  My only requirement is to perform a piece they know and the goal is to play the best they can with the most beautiful sound!  It’s such a disaster when a student is struggling to learn notes a few weeks/days before the recital.  It’s so much better when they really know the piece and are comfortable with it.

2.  Each lesson, they play through recital piece at least one time, if not many more. I will be sure to mention one or two points to focus on (even if just posture or beautiful tone).

3.  For the last few lessons before recital, I make sure the student will perform the chosen piece several times in his or her lesson.  We also practice with applause and bowing.

4.  The past two weeks I have been asking my students to play through their piece (or pieces) 3 times each day.  This is in addition to any specific spot practicing they are doing.  I encourage them to think about good posture before starting each run through.

5.  I also encourage them to put together small “practice recitals” at home with their family or friends in preparation throughout the whole timeline, and particularly towards the end.

That pretty much sums it up!  This plan is more for beginning/intermediate students–though the 3x a day run through is an idea I got from Linda Cerone back in college.  She suggested running through your recital program 3x a day for a few weeks in advance of the recital.  She said after that, only playing it once would be a breeze!

Performing

Maya Cafe revisited

My phone camera is not super great, but I tried to take a picture anyway.  Here’s one of the Death and the Maiden guys from Sunday night at Maya Cafe in Maplewood.

It’s a small room with a nice little stage.  Sunday nights is classical music/crossover stuff.  Friday and Saturdays  the owner is bringing in more typical live music (for this sort of venue).   It was a lot of fun hearing the music and chatting with friends.

Performing

I have confidence

Here I sit on a Friday night, relaxing in my living room after a long week, looking forward to several special events this weekend in addition to some more hard work, and unable to actually see past this Monday (I never talk about some things until after they happen, but my close friends and family know the deal!). Today was about confidence. I’m ready, I’m prepared, I’ve worked really hard…and I need to tell myself that. (and goshdarnit, people like me?). Since moving to St. Louis, I’ve had so many confidence issues–I have felt like what I had to offer wasn’t good enough, and I have been doubting myself. What I really need to do is go out there and tell or show people what is awesome about me (and my violin-ing, naturalmente), and to do that in a way that they just can’t NOT understand. So that’s my plan. We’ll see how it goes. In a nutshell, I am great, I play in tune, I have fantastic rhythm, and you WILL listen to me!

*hums “I have confidence” from The Sound of Music*

Performing, Teaching

Arts Night

Tonight my two violin classes (well, one is violin/cello) are performing at the school’s Arts Night. (St. Margaret of Scotland School, just fyi). I am playing piano to accompany them, which is always a bit terrifying for me. I took piano lessons growing up, but since then have not owned a piano nor do I have very good access to one for practicing, so it’s a bit scary! Luckily these accompaniment parts are pretty easy. I could probably get someone else to do it, but I don’t trust them to play with the group/lead the group the way I need it, and then what would I do? Conduct?

Hmm…there’s a more frightening thought!

Performing, Teaching

Intonation

2 Comments

I played for a friend today, who mainly suggested I work on my intonation. I suppose it all boils down to that…it’s funny, because unless you are really well trained, you don’t really notice intonation, but the more you focus on it, the more out of tune stuff sounds. So it’s a self fulfilling prophecy–the more you listen, the worse it sounds. But it seems that more drones are in my future, and more scales and arpeggios too, methinks. Always gotta try to be more in tune.

Let me say a few words about my pottery class. I started about a month ago, taking a class at Krueger’s Pottery in Webster Groves with a couple of friends. I am not good with my hands (odd, yet, not odd), but I’m getting better… Tonight was the first night I felt like I was making progress, and tonight was ALSO the first night I got to take something home! Doing a new skill makes me think about what my adult violin students are going through. It’s so easy to want to give up when something gets difficult, and it’s easy to disparage yourself when you don’t get something right away. It’s really hard to be patient and know that the skill you are learning just takes practice. As a kid, you didn’t expect to be able to do stuff right away, often it took years and that was okay, that was expected. As an adult, you can generally accomplish the tasks or skills you want, so a new skill is truly a new challenge. I think it’s great to challenge oneself in a new way, and pottery is turning into a nice creative outlet for me! I hope I can continue to challenge myself in new and creative ways in the future.