Showing posts with label play piano. Show all posts
Showing posts with label play piano. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
When I Was in Heaven - Live Performance
Here's a conversation between myself and some angels before I was born... Based on a true story.
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When I Was in Heaven (Michael Stegner)
Originally Released on the album Fascination Nation
Lyrics:
When I was in heaven
before I was born
I would sing, I would play
in the clouds with the angels and their harps.
They gathered me around
and said my time had come.
Then the angels sang this song for me
to prepare me for the world...
"Sometimes your brains will hurt.
Sometimes your food won't taste quite right.
And sometimes you won't get what you want -
That's more often than not."
I don't want to hear any more.
I just want to stay where I am.
I can't wait to be big and strong.
I'll just run around and do whatever I want.
What do I need to do
to stay up here with you?
I don't want to live down there
in that crazy people stew.
"It's not as bad as it seems.
Some people are really nice down there.
Time will go by so fast...
You'll be back here in a flash."
I don't want to listen any more.
I can see with my own two eyes.
People down there - they can't get along.
Whose to say I won't play along?
When I was in heaven,
before I was born.
The angels sang this song for me
to prepare me for the world.
by Michael Stegner
Copyright © 2009
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Chords for the Piano in Eb Major
Here are the basic triads in Eb Major. Learning these along with the video will help you play songs in the key of Eb.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Popular and Rock Piano Tips Part 2
This is the second video in this series of playing popular and rock piano styles. It will expand on the previous concepts in the last video and add some more intricate rhythms between the hands. You can try this with many popular songs that are played at this tempo.
Have fun.
Michael Stegner
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Practicing the Unknown
Once students establish an effective routine in practice, it is always fascinating to see what they do when they practicing. Often we practice something for a long time only to feel that our progress doesn't match our efforts. In my opinion, this is a choice to feel this way. It is a choice in how we practice. I only say that because I often fell into the pitfall of associating the amount of time to the success of my practice.
I used to be so impressed by the stories of people who practiced eight hours a day. I did this for many years thinking this was the trick to improving a lot. Then I realized that I wasn’t improving as much as I would like during the eight hours, so I became convinced by teachers and mentors that correct repetition during the practice sessions was the key. This did help me considerably. Lately through teaching and my own practice, I have found the element that was missing from the first two approaches was the “unknown.”
When I practiced something that I was already comfortable with for any amount of time, my focus dipped. I could go on autopilot and waste valuable time. Then my eight hours really turned into a diversion - not a practice.
As a young student, it was stressed to me that I repeat something three times, five times or seven times in a row before speeding up the tempo or moving on to something else. Neuroplasticians have proven that our brain does not benefit from this static repetition. Mastery grows and our brains benefit from incremental practice. Every time we do something, the stakes should get higher (or change). The tempo should get a little faster. We add another hand or part to the mix. We change the key. We force the issue into the unknown.
I can’t begin to count the times when I would dutifully put the metronome at the tempo recommended by my teacher and have it pound away all week as I repeated the assignment. Not only was it boring, it wasn’t helping me very much because I could zone out.
The flaw with this type of practice is that it doesn’t encourage our connection and engagement with what we create. This is very sad and frustrating. I would even go one step further and say that we can’t possibly create when this is the method.
If we as music teachers get frustrated about sports, video games, dance and all the other activities competing with our time; we really only need to look in the mirror. The thing that those activities have in common is that they emphasize incremental improvement. Whereas we were often taught that the way to play music is to do the same thing over and over again. When we play video games, we are excited for the next unknown challenge. When we play sports we want to rise to new challenges and improve. We get hooked on the unknown and the next adventure.
The culture of teaching music has become so repertoire driven, that teachers may confuse harder and/or “more fun” pieces as incremental progress. Sadly, this only encourages students to perform moderately more difficult pieces in the same way they have played their previous pieces... Good... Average... Poor... All detached from the creative process of performing. In sports they call it “going through the motions.” It's not fun to do no matter what activity we apply it.
Since I use the motto in my teaching studio of “four or more,” let’s start with that. We play each assignment four or more times each day. Here are ways you could use the metronome (or MIDI/play-along tracks) to practice the same piece for a week. Let’s say the piece has a suggested tempo or end-of-week goal of 105.
Day 1 (Traditional):
First Repetition - Metronome at 60
Second Repetition - Metronome at 67
Third Repetition - Metronome at 74
Fourth Repetition - Metronome at 81
Day 2 (Traditional - Increase Tempo):
First Repetition - Metronome at 60
Second Repetition - Metronome at 70
Third Repetition - Metronome at 80
Fourth Repetition - Metronome at 90
Day 3 (Traditional - Build Tempo Threshold):
First Repetition - Metronome at 75
Second Repetition - Metronome at 85
Third Repetition - Metronome at 95
Fourth Repetition - Metronome at 105
Day 4 (Reverse Metronome):
First Repetition - Metronome at 60
Second Repetition - Metronome at 50
Third Repetition - Metronome at 40
Fourth Repetition - Metronome at 30
Day 5 (Slow, Slower, Fast, Faster):
First Repetition - Metronome at 50
Second Repetition - Metronome at 40
Third Repetition - Metronome at 90
Fourth Repetition - Metronome at 100
Day 6 (Extreme Tempos):
First Repetition - Metronome at 40
Second Repetition - Metronome at 30
Third Repetition - Metronome at 110
Fourth Repetition - Metronome at 120
Try this out and let me know how it goes. Be slightly uncomfortable and engaged the whole time. Embrace the unknown and see if it doesn’t help your connection to the music.
Michael Stegner
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Monday, January 2, 2012
Practicing and Performing
Throughout my playing and practice career I have often consciously and unconsciously struggled with being 100% connected to what I was playing. Possessed by a faithful autopilot, my hands and body sometimes carry me through a performance or practice session. Without respecting this disconnect; we typically endlessly analyze our performances, learn new material, push ourselves in negative ways and use external motivation to improve.
I found that even though many of these methods are great in theory, they didn’t change my performing or playing experience. However, when I started involving the creative process in my practice my musical life began to evolve quickly.
One of the biggest revelations in my musical development came when I realized that I didn’t have to wait to sound good. I would often trudge through scales, arpeggios, technical exercises, theory books, repertoire and improv exercises so that “someday” I would sound good. I was so focused on sounding good “someday” that I got in the habit of mentally checking out when practicing. I was told by myself and others that I wasn’t ready to sound good.
By the time that “someday” came around, my bad practice habits came to the forefront as uninspired and stressful performances.
I couldn’t believe how I instantly sounded better when I decided to take what I had and make it sound good!
In sports we have coaches who drive us to practice harder, push our limits and increase our focus. We are typically supervised several times each week. Learning to play piano was one day with my teacher and six days unsupervised to “work it out.”
When practicing my instrument alone, I often would be unproductively hard on myself or just meander through things without being present. In my head I would bounce between vague memories of my teachers’ suggestions and what I was going to do when I finished practicing, repeat something until I could do it at a certain level of proficiency or master something so I could move on to the next thing. And so the disconnect was born and nourished.
Now when teaching, I’ll ask a student if they would pay $10 to attend a concert where someone played the way they just did. So far in 15 years no one has said “Yes.”
When I ask “Why?”
They typically respond in a robotic, monotonic voice that recites something like, “It didn’t have dynamics, my left hand was too loud, I had a lot of pauses and it sped up.”
And I say, “Wow! I’m surprised that you would go pay for a concert and be inspired by that list of things. That doesn’t sound like a fun way to experience music. Is that what you think when you go see your favorite rock band?”
Finally, the student comes to the simple conclusion that they would be bored by their performance. And if they are really aware and honest, they admit that they were bored when they were playing (and practicing at home). We’ve all been there and still go there.
It is fascinating how we can be bored when recreating music written by geniuses or creating our own improvisations or compositions. At times it can even seem like the norm.
With all the elements of a solid performance in place, a performance can still fall very short. We somehow assume that we can practice void of any energy and excitement and show up for the gig and rock the house.
When the stage lights come on we are thrown for a loop because our nerves and adrenaline tell us that this time is different. Our newly obtained superhero abilities of focus and concentration zoom in on every little detail around us. We don’t know what to do with the intensity and our performances rarely live up to our expectations or potential.
Then we say, “I could have done so much better.”
Or, “I sounded so much better at home!”
And we create a divide between the practice and performance... the lessons and home... rehearsal and the gig.
So... what do we do?
We practice more hours. We switch teachers. We choose pieces that are more fun. We no longer play in front of people - the performance anxiety is just too much!
After trying all of these things at various stages of my life, I think they just avoid the issue.
I believe we owe it to ourselves to learn to practice in a way that can continuously renew our musical experience. Each day we should be entertained and inspired by the music with which we practice. Ironically, I feel this has very little to do with the actual repertoire but how we approach our day-to-day practice.
At it’s base level, music is about expression and communication. To effectively communicate we do need to improve our abilities and do the hard work. But we don’t do this by putting our creative self on hold. Our creative self needs to be driving the motivation to practice and how we practice.
This process does not need to wait until you get to a certain level. It needs to happen before we practice void of energy, quit or let the autopilot permanently replace us.
We perform every single time we sit at our instrument. These are opportunities to express and entertain ourselves or our audience. In our mind and attitude, there can be no difference between practice and performing.
Through teaching and practice I have come up with a few practice techniques that have helped my students and myself. I will share them here so that you can experiment and expand upon them in ways that work for your personal experience.
I will touch on techniques for the following:
I found that even though many of these methods are great in theory, they didn’t change my performing or playing experience. However, when I started involving the creative process in my practice my musical life began to evolve quickly.
One of the biggest revelations in my musical development came when I realized that I didn’t have to wait to sound good. I would often trudge through scales, arpeggios, technical exercises, theory books, repertoire and improv exercises so that “someday” I would sound good. I was so focused on sounding good “someday” that I got in the habit of mentally checking out when practicing. I was told by myself and others that I wasn’t ready to sound good.
By the time that “someday” came around, my bad practice habits came to the forefront as uninspired and stressful performances.
I couldn’t believe how I instantly sounded better when I decided to take what I had and make it sound good!
In sports we have coaches who drive us to practice harder, push our limits and increase our focus. We are typically supervised several times each week. Learning to play piano was one day with my teacher and six days unsupervised to “work it out.”
When practicing my instrument alone, I often would be unproductively hard on myself or just meander through things without being present. In my head I would bounce between vague memories of my teachers’ suggestions and what I was going to do when I finished practicing, repeat something until I could do it at a certain level of proficiency or master something so I could move on to the next thing. And so the disconnect was born and nourished.
Now when teaching, I’ll ask a student if they would pay $10 to attend a concert where someone played the way they just did. So far in 15 years no one has said “Yes.”
When I ask “Why?”
They typically respond in a robotic, monotonic voice that recites something like, “It didn’t have dynamics, my left hand was too loud, I had a lot of pauses and it sped up.”
And I say, “Wow! I’m surprised that you would go pay for a concert and be inspired by that list of things. That doesn’t sound like a fun way to experience music. Is that what you think when you go see your favorite rock band?”
Finally, the student comes to the simple conclusion that they would be bored by their performance. And if they are really aware and honest, they admit that they were bored when they were playing (and practicing at home). We’ve all been there and still go there.
It is fascinating how we can be bored when recreating music written by geniuses or creating our own improvisations or compositions. At times it can even seem like the norm.
With all the elements of a solid performance in place, a performance can still fall very short. We somehow assume that we can practice void of any energy and excitement and show up for the gig and rock the house.
When the stage lights come on we are thrown for a loop because our nerves and adrenaline tell us that this time is different. Our newly obtained superhero abilities of focus and concentration zoom in on every little detail around us. We don’t know what to do with the intensity and our performances rarely live up to our expectations or potential.
Then we say, “I could have done so much better.”
Or, “I sounded so much better at home!”
And we create a divide between the practice and performance... the lessons and home... rehearsal and the gig.
So... what do we do?
We practice more hours. We switch teachers. We choose pieces that are more fun. We no longer play in front of people - the performance anxiety is just too much!
After trying all of these things at various stages of my life, I think they just avoid the issue.
I believe we owe it to ourselves to learn to practice in a way that can continuously renew our musical experience. Each day we should be entertained and inspired by the music with which we practice. Ironically, I feel this has very little to do with the actual repertoire but how we approach our day-to-day practice.
At it’s base level, music is about expression and communication. To effectively communicate we do need to improve our abilities and do the hard work. But we don’t do this by putting our creative self on hold. Our creative self needs to be driving the motivation to practice and how we practice.
This process does not need to wait until you get to a certain level. It needs to happen before we practice void of energy, quit or let the autopilot permanently replace us.
We perform every single time we sit at our instrument. These are opportunities to express and entertain ourselves or our audience. In our mind and attitude, there can be no difference between practice and performing.
Through teaching and practice I have come up with a few practice techniques that have helped my students and myself. I will share them here so that you can experiment and expand upon them in ways that work for your personal experience.
I will touch on techniques for the following:
- Scales, arpeggios and technique
- Playing written music
- Improvised Music
- Performing
Michael Stegner
Copyright © 2012
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