After 1500 Hymns and no more cherries, I have decided to explore a more rewarding repertoire.
I am still doing Hymns with the metronome so I have a better idea of my improvement "tempo wise".
Here is a list of new things I have been sight reading:
Mozart - Lieder
Mozart - Violin Sonatas
Berio - Canzoni Popolari
Jaell - French Character Pieces
Italian Arias
Rodrigo - Serenata Espanola
Tiersot - Chants de la Vielle France
Schubert - Lieder
Tagliafico - 15 Melodies
Kirchner - 60 Preludes Op.65
Brahms - Lieder
Wolf - Lieder (I am not there yet but the harmonies are gorgeous-I shell go back to them later)
Faure - 50 Songs Med/Low (very beautiful)
Persichetti - Sonatas (my favorite!)
I have also been going through my students intermediate repertoire (super fun). I read a lot of their Baroque style pieces in order to be exposed to some polyphonic writing.
My new piano professor has suggested that I do Czerny Op.821 (great for "chuncking").
Next post will be about my meeting with the optometrist. It was very helpful. Don't miss it.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
"A Neurocognitive Approach to Music Reading"
A Neurocognitve Approach to Music Reading by Lauren Stewart
Dep. of Imaging Neuroscience
University College, UK and University of Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7 RU, UK
The article, which I highly recommend, investigates how musical symbols are decoded into music response (perceptual and physical) for pianists reading 2 staves.
They found that pianists eyes perform a set of horizontal and vertical mappings. (There was no mention of what kind of "zig-zag or "mapping" is more efficient).
Adults musically untrained who were taught to play the piano for 3 months showed a change in the superior parietal cortex. The experiment was monitored by MRIs.
The author states that these changes correspond to "the acquisition of of a process that deals with the extraction of spacial (pitch) and featural (rhythm) properties of notation, respectively".
The neuroimaging were focused on reading musical pitch, which for pianists is a spacial task (where high notes correspond to the right side of the keyboard and lower notes correspond to
the leftside). However, the study showed that music reading also involves recognizing the rhythms (when to play).
These rhythmic instructions, differ from the pitch instructions because they are not spacial but they are conveyed by visul features.
The imaging tests for rhythm recognition also showed changes on the left supermarginal gyrus.
The conclusions were:
"The studies described above reveal that music reading, at least for keyboard performance, requires coordinated sensorimotor translation between a set of vertically organized stimuli and a horizontally organized set of responses. These spatial mappings, which are likely to relate to the decoding of pitch from notation, develop in the early stages of skill acquisition and are associated with functional changes in the superior parietal cortex. The ability to decode the rhythmic elements of notation, by contrast, appears to depend upon a visual discrimination process subserved by the fusiform gyrus. These “what” and “when” aspects of music reading seem to map onto the what and when occipitoparietal and occipitotemporal streams, respectively".
Dep. of Imaging Neuroscience
University College, UK and University of Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7 RU, UK
The article, which I highly recommend, investigates how musical symbols are decoded into music response (perceptual and physical) for pianists reading 2 staves.
They found that pianists eyes perform a set of horizontal and vertical mappings. (There was no mention of what kind of "zig-zag or "mapping" is more efficient).
Adults musically untrained who were taught to play the piano for 3 months showed a change in the superior parietal cortex. The experiment was monitored by MRIs.
The author states that these changes correspond to "the acquisition of of a process that deals with the extraction of spacial (pitch) and featural (rhythm) properties of notation, respectively".
The neuroimaging were focused on reading musical pitch, which for pianists is a spacial task (where high notes correspond to the right side of the keyboard and lower notes correspond to
the leftside). However, the study showed that music reading also involves recognizing the rhythms (when to play).
These rhythmic instructions, differ from the pitch instructions because they are not spacial but they are conveyed by visul features.
The imaging tests for rhythm recognition also showed changes on the left supermarginal gyrus.
The conclusions were:
"The studies described above reveal that music reading, at least for keyboard performance, requires coordinated sensorimotor translation between a set of vertically organized stimuli and a horizontally organized set of responses. These spatial mappings, which are likely to relate to the decoding of pitch from notation, develop in the early stages of skill acquisition and are associated with functional changes in the superior parietal cortex. The ability to decode the rhythmic elements of notation, by contrast, appears to depend upon a visual discrimination process subserved by the fusiform gyrus. These “what” and “when” aspects of music reading seem to map onto the what and when occipitoparietal and occipitotemporal streams, respectively".
Monday, August 31, 2009
Beginners and Intermediate Students
I teach my beginners and intermediate students "guide notes" first.
I start with middle C, high C, low C, G form G clef and F from F clef . Form there, we start reading short pieces with seconds only. They are not supposed to name the other notes (around ttheir guide notes) but just describe them as "second up, second down". After they master that, I inroduce the thirds , fourths and so on. The same thing applies to the guide notes. After they master the mid C, low C, High C, F and G, I add another set at a time: low G (from F clef) and high F (from G clef). Next, I add what my kids call high-high C and low-low C. we keep using the same strategy adding one interval at a time.
For rhythm, I make them tap both hands together from the beginning. If they can play hands together, they can tap them together too.
As they improve, we start "mapping" the pieces (always short). They have to draw lines for both hands that describe the movement and rhythm of their music. I let them use their imagination as far as their maps go. Each student is different. These maps are also great to memorize pieces.
I use a book which was suggested to me by an OMTA adjudicator called "Accelerando". They have a series of progressive technical exercises (always two lines long) with rich rhythms and key signatures. I realy recomend them. They sound very nice two. My students love them!
Duets
Duets are a wonderful way to practice sight-reading.
The first duets I use are Pozzoli (the Italian composer, not the Mexican soup) called "Sorrisi Infantili" and Diabelli "Melodious Pieces". They are all in 5 finger position. At this point, my students are also practcing 5 finger patterns in all keys.
Later, I add Kabalevsky's "Favorite piano duets for beginners" and Dello Joio's "Family Album".
There is an amazing selection of nice duets from the 20th century and contemporary composers.
The next step should be learning scales and modes and mapping those as well.
I start with middle C, high C, low C, G form G clef and F from F clef . Form there, we start reading short pieces with seconds only. They are not supposed to name the other notes (around ttheir guide notes) but just describe them as "second up, second down". After they master that, I inroduce the thirds , fourths and so on. The same thing applies to the guide notes. After they master the mid C, low C, High C, F and G, I add another set at a time: low G (from F clef) and high F (from G clef). Next, I add what my kids call high-high C and low-low C. we keep using the same strategy adding one interval at a time.
For rhythm, I make them tap both hands together from the beginning. If they can play hands together, they can tap them together too.
As they improve, we start "mapping" the pieces (always short). They have to draw lines for both hands that describe the movement and rhythm of their music. I let them use their imagination as far as their maps go. Each student is different. These maps are also great to memorize pieces.
I use a book which was suggested to me by an OMTA adjudicator called "Accelerando". They have a series of progressive technical exercises (always two lines long) with rich rhythms and key signatures. I realy recomend them. They sound very nice two. My students love them!
Duets
Duets are a wonderful way to practice sight-reading.
The first duets I use are Pozzoli (the Italian composer, not the Mexican soup) called "Sorrisi Infantili" and Diabelli "Melodious Pieces". They are all in 5 finger position. At this point, my students are also practcing 5 finger patterns in all keys.
Later, I add Kabalevsky's "Favorite piano duets for beginners" and Dello Joio's "Family Album".
There is an amazing selection of nice duets from the 20th century and contemporary composers.
The next step should be learning scales and modes and mapping those as well.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Observing myself
I always advice students to sight-read music a notch below their level. During my readings about this subject, I have bumped into this same advice several times. I however, realized that I am resisting or ignoring this important detail. Aside form the hymns, I have been trying to challenge myself with difficult pieces. Today, I spend a couple if hours sight reading lower level pieces. It was very rewarding and I had the chance to observe my reactions in a more efficient way.
Here are the results:
- I was able to look ahead (some) and use my "buffers" (this was very exciting)
- I could perceive notes and patterns from my parafoveal area (outside the fovea) as if I could GUESS the notes.
- I can read the bass clef much better then the treble
- I read polyphony easier then homophony
- When I play the hymns, I use my keyboard so I can turn the sound of and this works very well. On the other hand, without picking at the keyboard at all (although I rarely do it) things get very complicated. The visual sense is vital while the auditory sense is not a necessity while I sight-read.
Here are the results:
- I was able to look ahead (some) and use my "buffers" (this was very exciting)
- I could perceive notes and patterns from my parafoveal area (outside the fovea) as if I could GUESS the notes.
- I can read the bass clef much better then the treble
- I read polyphony easier then homophony
- When I play the hymns, I use my keyboard so I can turn the sound of and this works very well. On the other hand, without picking at the keyboard at all (although I rarely do it) things get very complicated. The visual sense is vital while the auditory sense is not a necessity while I sight-read.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
"The effects of skill on the eye-hand span during musical sight-reading"
The article by S. Furneaux and M.F. Land (Sussex for Neuroscience, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK) is one of the very few papers written about sigh-reading dual-staved scores since the 1940s. Weaver (1943) and Van Nuy & Weaver (1943) have looked into sight-readers reading two staves. Sloboda (1974) and Truit at al (1997) both have looked into single-staved scores and sight-readers. Sloboda looked into *EHS of pianists without looking and measuring eye movement. His results are likely to be overestimated (we will discuss it later).
This paper is unique because it measures EHS in *note index, *time index as well as the*time delay aspect of sight-reading.
The results were:
"- professionals showed a 4 notes index versus the amateurs who showed a 2 notes index
- the time index varied with tempo therefore, the length of time that information is stored in the musicians *buffers is related to performance tempo rather than skills, but that professionals can fit more information into their buffers."
It is a fascinating article that shows the zig-zag movement of the pianist's eyes in very informative graphs (you should take a look at them). Ot was found that pianists do not read the two staves together. I realize that my theory of us pianists having to make choices as we sight-read is very likely since our eyes zig-zag and move not only horizontally, but vertically. I would like however, to find an article about these abilities to make choices where two pianists are analyzed while sight-reading the same score. What king of zig-zag is more effective?
*EHS = eye hand span
*note index = number of notes between hand and eye
*time index = time between fixation and performance
*time delay = how long the information is stored before the actual performance
*buffer = a temporary memory area used when transferring data between devices and programs operating at different speeds
This paper is unique because it measures EHS in *note index, *time index as well as the*time delay aspect of sight-reading.
The results were:
"- professionals showed a 4 notes index versus the amateurs who showed a 2 notes index
- the time index varied with tempo therefore, the length of time that information is stored in the musicians *buffers is related to performance tempo rather than skills, but that professionals can fit more information into their buffers."
It is a fascinating article that shows the zig-zag movement of the pianist's eyes in very informative graphs (you should take a look at them). Ot was found that pianists do not read the two staves together. I realize that my theory of us pianists having to make choices as we sight-read is very likely since our eyes zig-zag and move not only horizontally, but vertically. I would like however, to find an article about these abilities to make choices where two pianists are analyzed while sight-reading the same score. What king of zig-zag is more effective?
*EHS = eye hand span
*note index = number of notes between hand and eye
*time index = time between fixation and performance
*time delay = how long the information is stored before the actual performance
*buffer = a temporary memory area used when transferring data between devices and programs operating at different speeds
Saturday, August 22, 2009
"Chunking Behavior"
I have yet to read more about "chunking". It is still too early on my quest. So far, I have just bumped into "encourage chunking behavior" without further explanations besides finding the definition of it.
For "chunks", I use a lot of Czerny, Clementi ,Kabalevsky, Tansman, Pishna, Berens and Heller with my early intermediate students (to complement their sonatinas Clementi, Diabelli, etc). For advanced intermediate students, I work on Sacarlatti, Haydn, Diabelli, Burgmuller.
I, on the other hand, have been avoiding working on my "chunks". Today, however, I found an excellent Czerny (a Chinese edition) which is perfect for more advanced musicians. It explores "chunkings" to exhaustion and it has wonderful fingering. You also have to work very hard on the geography of the keyboard (they go through several key signatures).
It is useless for me to go through studies that I use with my students because I know them too well.
I will start working on them daily and post here my results.
The book ( you probably know it already), is called Schule des virtuosen Op.365
I am currently reading another research about sight-reading which studies pianists reading two staves. It is called: The effects of skill on eye-hand span during sight-reading music (Royal Society) by S. Furneaux and M. S. Land.
I will post the conclusions later on.
For "chunks", I use a lot of Czerny, Clementi ,Kabalevsky, Tansman, Pishna, Berens and Heller with my early intermediate students (to complement their sonatinas Clementi, Diabelli, etc). For advanced intermediate students, I work on Sacarlatti, Haydn, Diabelli, Burgmuller.
I, on the other hand, have been avoiding working on my "chunks". Today, however, I found an excellent Czerny (a Chinese edition) which is perfect for more advanced musicians. It explores "chunkings" to exhaustion and it has wonderful fingering. You also have to work very hard on the geography of the keyboard (they go through several key signatures).
It is useless for me to go through studies that I use with my students because I know them too well.
I will start working on them daily and post here my results.
The book ( you probably know it already), is called Schule des virtuosen Op.365
I am currently reading another research about sight-reading which studies pianists reading two staves. It is called: The effects of skill on eye-hand span during sight-reading music (Royal Society) by S. Furneaux and M. S. Land.
I will post the conclusions later on.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Surprising research results are GOOD news for me!
I have read an article called "The Perceptual Span and the Eye-Hand Span in Sight-Reading Music" by Frances E. Truitt, Charles Clifton, Jr., Alesander Pollatsek, and Keith Rayner - Journal of Visual Cognition, 1997, 4(2), 143-161. Department of Psychology - University of Massachussets, Amherst, USA.
The conclusions which do not differ too much from another experimental studies give me a lot of hope. Maybe all I need is more practice.
The researchers, concluded that "pianists do not need to see more than the whole measure that they are fixating in order to perform normally and the eye-hand span is a little more than one beat". They say, and it is true, these results are " at odds with the belief about sight-reading among musicians which is that their eyes need to be well ahead of their hands".
The authors state that the center of fixation is only one note ahead of the hands and that "the maximal region that musicians obtain information from is about 3-4 beats ahead of the note being played". Sight-readers, they say, rarely extract information ahead of the measure being played.
The authors also say that musicians are "seduced by the illusion that detail can be extracted from a wider region of the parafovea and periphery than is actually possible". While sight-reading, the eyes STAY VERY CLOSE TO THE NOTE that is being played.
The developmental optometrist I am in contact with has sent me this article. I am going to meet with her to get acquainted with the machines they use for measuring eye movements so I understand it better. She also wants to see some of my piano scores since I have told her that although this research was done with pianists, they have used only ONE line music which differs a lot from the pianists reality.
I would like to thank Sara and Lisa for the nice comments. Can you give suggestions that I can try during my practice?
The conclusions which do not differ too much from another experimental studies give me a lot of hope. Maybe all I need is more practice.
The researchers, concluded that "pianists do not need to see more than the whole measure that they are fixating in order to perform normally and the eye-hand span is a little more than one beat". They say, and it is true, these results are " at odds with the belief about sight-reading among musicians which is that their eyes need to be well ahead of their hands".
The authors state that the center of fixation is only one note ahead of the hands and that "the maximal region that musicians obtain information from is about 3-4 beats ahead of the note being played". Sight-readers, they say, rarely extract information ahead of the measure being played.
The authors also say that musicians are "seduced by the illusion that detail can be extracted from a wider region of the parafovea and periphery than is actually possible". While sight-reading, the eyes STAY VERY CLOSE TO THE NOTE that is being played.
The developmental optometrist I am in contact with has sent me this article. I am going to meet with her to get acquainted with the machines they use for measuring eye movements so I understand it better. She also wants to see some of my piano scores since I have told her that although this research was done with pianists, they have used only ONE line music which differs a lot from the pianists reality.
I would like to thank Sara and Lisa for the nice comments. Can you give suggestions that I can try during my practice?
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