holidays

I've been swamped, as I'm sure you have too, with preparing for the holidays.  Lots of concerts, lots of lessons before we run into the school break, lots of online shopping (fits my hours).  So, where can we cram in some fun for US?  Well, I"m hoping to get more fun play on the bass during this holiday break, and wanted to share a little music with you all.  This is some carols, transcribed in keys that work well, and I've made some easier and harder versions to keep my students going while we're apart.  I tend to give the harder ones out to even younger students because they will be curious and check them out.  They come back with questions like "how do you read treble clef?" and "where is THAT harmonic?"  I don't expect my students to really learn all these carols, but I figure they just might get bored with the wii or want to escape all the adult company for a little while, and sometimes you need a puzzle to keep you occupied.

Enjoy!  Eat, drink and play bass!
Gaelen

10 rules - John Cage

I ran across these rules from John Cage, possibly from when he was working with Merce Cunningham.  They instantly struck a chord in me for our work as musicians.  I especially like rule 6: nothing is a mistake.  there is no win and no fail, there's only make.

Now, for practical purposes, I bet you're going to say "there's definitely a 'fail' that can happen".  I mean, you don't get the seat you want in orchestra, you don't win the job at the audition, you flub the passage you had nailed a hundred times in the practice room during your degree recital (think maybe I've experienced a few of these?)  But I say, if you're *in* the work, he's right.  There's no win, no fail, only "make".

What this means to me is that we need to stay in the frame of mind where we are directed toward a goal, but as we go about our work/practice, we need to stay open to the process along the way.  In finding my sound for the opening of Beethoven 5's third movement, I discovered all kinds of other sounds that didn't fit the bill, but were wonderful timbres in their own right.  Stay with the work in those moments: what about that sound "isn't right"?  What kind of sound *is* it?  And most importantly: how did you produce that sound in the first place?  As you go through that kind of process, you will eventually get to the sound you want, the original goal you had set up for yourself, but the better thing is that you will have focused on your ability to make a wide variety of sound and categorized your method of doing it.

I met a ceramicist (? pottery maker, is that what they're called?)  He had developed this wonderful technique of getting crystals in his final glaze, and it began as an experiment in something else.  But he saw the results, then really dug into the work of figuring out what he did, what variables he could control, and what outcomes they gave.  As he told me about this, he said other makers were able to do the same thing, but without any control.  And we both agreed, the fine line there is that art is both about discovering these magical moments, and being able to reproduce them consistently.

Here are some of my favorites of his work:

So, stay in the work, but allow yourself to hear your "mistakes" as opportunities to grow.

Gaelen

working through the possibilities

I posted today on my facebook page about thinking of alternate fingerings when it seems like you are working too hard for the orchestra part (or any music you are working on).  There are lots of factors to consider WHY your fingering might not be suitable - tempo and timbre are the two that jump to mind.

To help my students think about options, I suggest they play their scales many different ways.  We don't want to approach notes as "an A is always first finger, first position".  Why does it have to only be in one place?  Why not explore the end of the neck on the D string, or the A octave harmonic on the A string?  So, I'm going to attach a link to a simple sheet explaining many different ways you could play a D scale in one octave.  Once you've played through that sheet, I think you'll see the variety of ways you could approach your scales, and (ergo) also your orchestra part.

The scale sheet is here!

happy practicing!
Gaelen

It's all in your head

Today I'm thinking about mental practice, and how successful this has been for me.  And the fact that I don't do it nearly enough.  Despite seeing the great results firsthand, I still cling to the feeling that "real" hands-on practice is the only time I should carve out in my schedule.  Here's what I'm talking about with mental practicing:

I first started reading about the subconscious mind's inability to distinguish between the "real" world and the imaginary one we all carry on in our heads everyday.  So, for instance, you keep imagining that you're going to mess up a certain passage in your audition, and even though it goes ok more often than not in practice, the audition comes and you mess up EXACTLY the way you had feared.  It wasn't a weird coincidence, my friend, you made that happen by showing yourself that video over and over again in your subconscious mind.  Don Greene talks about this in his book "Performance Success" (which I highly highly recommend to students and professionals alike).  He gives clear exercises to help you visualize the outcome you want and to exchange the tape of failure for one of success.  It sounds easy.  And in fact, it is easy.  But you have to do the work to get the results.

So today I was working with a student and realized that given his hectic schedule at college, he would really benefit from learning some mental practice techniques.  I'm reasoning that he could cram in 10 minutes of focused mental practice during his day, apart from his hands-on practice time.  In his case, I've asked him to focus on a particular habit he has with his left hand that I'd like to see changed.  So I've asked him to visualize that hand shifting between position, and maintaining it's perpendicular position to the neck (rather than twisting it as he shifts, which is the current habit).  Jeff Turner always reminded us that you can't just stop something, you have to replace one habit with another.  So, my student needs to replace that habit of twisting with one of staying perpendicular as he moves.  In this case, he'll need to visualize his hand and arm in the first position, then as they travel, then the gentle "landing" in the new position.  All the while, remaining relaxed in his chair, and visualizing being relaxed at the bass while he shifts.

Think it can't work?  I'll tell you how I really came to believe in mental practice.  When I was a grad student, Jeff had assigned me the Third Cello Suite to play, from memory, at my first recital.  This is standard fare for that level, and I struggled both with the technical issues within the music, and with the memorization.  Memorizing normally comes easily to me, so I was frustrated that when i had to play the whole suite top to bottom, my memory started cutting in and out at odd intervals.  It never seemed to happen at the same places, so it was really hard to pin down why I was blanking out when I did.  The walk home to my apartment was about 20-25 minutes, which is about how long it took me to play that suite.  So I started singing through the suite in my mind as I walked home each day.  Soon I realized that I made the same mistakes in my mental practice that I did in my real practice, and that I had memory gaps in my mental practice as well.  So, I decided I would focus on the technique places only during these walks, and really slowly work out the issues.  Just like practicing scales, this meant taking a very short passage (one phrase or less) and looking at it from different angles.  I might start by feeling how much bow each note got.  Then how my right arm felt as it moved through space with the bow.  Then the "above the left fingers" camera angle as I watched my fingering and shifting.  Then the "whole neck" camera angle as I watched the left arm, torso, and again the fingering in a bigger picture.  Then one last time visualizing the whole thing working together, bow and left hand, expressing the music of the phrase while accurately playing the technique aspects.

Sounds like a lot of work?  In some ways, it is.  But so is practicing with your hands on the bass.  The thing that floored me was that I would walk home at 6, eat dinner, walk or drive back to campus for the evening practice session about 8, and whatever I had mentally practiced on the way home was fixed.  I could pick up the bass and it was fixed, exactly as I had done it in my mind.  I was able to close the memory gaps this way, and felt far more confident on stage when it came time to perform.

Yesterday, I played a movement of an unaccompanied work by David Walter at a faculty recital at Roberts Wesleyan College, one of the two colleges where I teach. Because I had been scheduled in the middle of the pack of performers, there would be no warming up, and I had had memory issues earlier in the week when I performed this for my students at Nazareth College.  But I used the mental practice techniques to isolate where my memory was faulty (lots of similar phrases that open into new ideas, just trying to remember the sequence of which comes first,and what leads to what afterwards).  Happy to report my memory was just fine, and the technical issues I addressed all held together.  I even used the lead time while I was sitting in the audience to rehearse one more time so I was at least mentally warmed up when my spot in the program arrived.

Try using the sequence of camera angles as a jumping off point for your own mental practice.  One word of caution: do NOT do these exercises while you are driving.  They take so much brain focus that you really will not be able to concentrate fully on the road.  (ask me how I know)  I know most of us have our "free" time while getting to gigs and it would be nice to utilize the time that way, but I've got other ideas for filling that time in a supportive way for your playing that will keep you safe on the road.  That's for a another blog post, though.

Happy practicing!
Gaelen

Look in the mirror

Good morning!

I was at the gym early today after taking my daughter to her new school, and noticed that I rarely look in the mirror at the gym.  Why?  I guess I think I can feel my form and don't need to look?  Also, I'm just a bit put off by people who seem to be staring at themselves the whole time they work out.

So what does this have to do with bass playing?  Well, I started thinking about the metaphor of "looking in the mirror" - really examining yourself (or in this case, your playing).  It takes more than a mirror, since our art is sound, not just visual, though you certainly can learn a lot from watching yourself play.  The questions is: are you looking?

I started my private studio lessons again last night, and have a few new faces joining us in the Left Shoe Bass Studio this year.  I hadn't mentioned in any of my emails or phone calls that I use a video service in my lessons.  I just put the camera on, and upload at the end of their lesson.  What I failed to anticipate was the reaction some of them had when they saw the camera!  By and large they are good at settling down, but I had to ask one of them what he thought about the video idea.  "It's just....I don't know if I really want to see what I'm doing!" he said to me, rather exasperated.

Dude, I get it.  Life is a lot more comfortable when I go around with blinders on, too.  But, you all came to me for help in improving, and watching yourself play, and seeing the change that happens during your lesson can be a wonderfully positive reinforcement for the practice you do all week long.  And the support of the changes is what I'm after by using video in lessons.  I suspect my students think they will need to criticize themselves by watching these videos, but really I'm interested in getting them to think analytically, and to appreciate the growth that happens during a lesson, and over the course of months of lessons.

So, I think I should really be looking in the mirror at the gym, as well.  Not to criticize, but to support the changes I've already made (very proud of my triceps these days, honestly), and the continue the work I do there.  And yes, I do watch and listen to myself practice, too.

Happy practicing!
Gaelen

I must be hearing things

I can't believe it's been a week since my last post - where has the time gone?  Well, actually, I can see from my calendar exactly where the time has gone.....  I teach at two local colleges and both of them started on the same week, and while scheduling and teaching in two studios isn't all that daunting, the first-week-of-classes email deluge is really something to behold.  Add to that, that I'm trying to squeeze in as much summer with my daughter before she starts pre-school next week, and well... here we are.

So one thing I've been thinking about lately is hearing.  I mean, we all hear things the same way, right?  I guess not, or I wouldn't have to point out pitch issues when I'm teaching.  One thing that has taken me a long time to learn is how to listen and place pitch both vertically and horizontally.  (relax, I'll explain as best I can, and it's actually not rocket science)  I ask my students to listen to their intervals, and many of them are working on scales in thirds at the moment, as a way to deeply learn the fingerboard and become more confident as they shift up the A and D strings.  It bothers me that so much pedagogy allows students to take the G string as the way of ascending without asking them to really learn the higher positions on ALL their strings.  We have a wealth of beautiful tone colors to choose from on our other strings.

Ok, but I was talking about pitch, or hearing pitch, or really hearing ahead of time how you want to place your pitch in context.  So here's my example today:  as you play a scale up and down, probably you are thinking horizontally, that is from note to note, how far to space your half and whole steps.  So it probably sounds fine.  But if you place a drone note below your scale (if you're in C major, let's say, you might work with a C or a G below your scale as a reference point) - you'll find that you need to adjust your pitch in slight ways to make the notes consonant with the drone note.  That's a vertical pitch placement.

Why does it matter?  Well, if you play with a piano, a fixed pitch instrument, you'll need to think about placing the pitch against that kind of drone.  If you're playing with other string players, you'll all bend the pitch around to each other and the key you're playing in rather naturally.  Also, in the case of yesterday's lesson, I had a student working on solo Bach and playing heaps of double stops.  If he played the melody line alone for me, his placement of the notes was fine.  But once we added in the double stops, he had to adjust his melody notes (especially when they were above an open string or harmonic, basically a fixed pitch) to correct the intervals.

Ideally, I'm working on pitch in both ways, just not both at the same time!  It's important to think about how your melody is written and whether you are going to color a note, accentuating a leading tone for instance, by pushing it a bit closer to the tonic note.  If you are the accompanying voice and your pianist has the melody, really find the piano and be centered on that pitch to match the piano's temperament.

Maybe this seems a bit head in the clouds, but I've seen great results in students who practiced their scales against drone pitches every day.  It gives them a real sense of grounding the pitch and regulating it, so that when they do decide to use color, it is a musical decision and not just a whim.

Happy practicing!
Gaelen

Becoming an ideal student

I was emailing Orin O'Brien yesterday and thinking about an article she recommended to me when I was looking for a grad school teacher.  It's titled "Becoming an Ideal Student" and was written by Jeanne Baxtresser, the wonderful flutist and pedagogue.  Do read the article (I linked to it) and don't just take my word for it.  One of the items I have taken to heart as both a teacher and a student is investing in the way I prepare for lessons.  Ms. Baxtresser talks about having her students use index cards to write what they worked on, what needs attention, questions to address in the lesson, etc, and she keeps those cards filed as the semester progresses.  I don't use that system exactly, but for a long time I did use a carbon copy paper where I'd write out the main items a student needed to work on, ideas from our lessons, any music they needed to buy.  This way I could give them the sheet and still have something to refer to the next week as they were warming up, helping me to prepare better to teach that specific person.

But the times, they are a changin'.  I don't even use that system anymore.  I felt it created too much paper for both the student and me.  Like most other teachers, I now require my students to bring a notebook to each lesson, and for the younger ones I do the note taking.  My high schoolers need to take their own notes!  This year I've experimented with also using a video service where I can easily upload the lesson to a private site, and only the student who was taped can see their lesson.

How you do notes or notebooks or videos is really not the point I wanted to make (honest).  What I'm thinking about today is how I prepare myself to teach or learn.  I need to clear my mind, turn off my cell phone ringer, and give my student my full attention.  As a student, I also need to do these things, and even more, put myself in a place where I can receive comments not as criticisms, but as helpful tools to better my playing.  I'd say teachers have it easier in this scenario!  While my students are tuning, I read their notebook, get out music they are working on, and generally prepare to really listen to where they are right now in their playing.  Maybe they've had a week where there wasn't much practicing.  I find we often have great lessons on those weeks!  Perhaps because there is only growing that can occur?  I'm not sure, but often I find my students are more receptive on weeks where they are slightly underprepared.  (However, students, you know that we can't make progress like that every week.  Practicing simply HAS to happen.)

I wonder how often we really set ourselves up to be present for our students?  We all have deadlines, voicemails, text messages, emails, begging our attention away in little intervals.  In fact, I'm amazed at how much will accumulate during just a few hours of teaching, while I wasn't available to anyone but the student in front of me.

This was the biggest take-away from Ms. Baxtresser's article for me: being present with your student.  Do you have other tools you use to help frame your lessons?  I know of a percussionist who studied with a teacher who insisted on a 30 minute sitting meditation before their lessons.  While that's a great idea, I doubt I could get any of my 7 year olds to do a 2 minute sitting meditation!

Cheers to being present!
Gaelen

Hello world :-)

Seems like I've talked about blogging long enough and want to dip my toe into the pool.

I've been playing with the Rochester Philharmonic for 17 years (though it's gone by in a hurry) and happily teaching private students for about as long.  The more I teach, the more I know about playing.  And the more I perform, the more ideas I have about how to improve my teaching.  This is a great two-way street to be on!

Just to be clear, these are just my opinions and I welcome your comments and dialogue.  I'm certainly not "right" about anything, and think sharing our tools as teachers and performers can only strengthen our commitment to our art and pedagogy.

Today, I'm thinking about one big item I've been working on in my Alexander Technique lessons with Katie Fittipaldi.  She's a wonderful teacher here in Rochester, and also a cellist, which adds great value to our discussion of technique.  We've been addressing my right shoulder and the way I tend to let it slip forward when I play.  If I focus on keeping it back, that feels like I'm adding extra effort and tensing a new set of muscles.  But one idea I've been playing with is that if you are pronating as you bow out to the tip, you can also be "unwinding" the upper arm in opposition to that.  It sounds weird, yes?  But try it without the bow in your hand:

1. move out to the right, like a downbow, and notice that near the end of the stroke you'll naturally start to turn your hand over the stick (probably more noticeable in french bow hold, but I play German and we do this to some extant as well).

2. do it again, overdo it this time and make sure you use and turn from all the way up in your should socket.  Now your arm is like a washcloth that wrung in one spiraling direction.  Can you feel it pull in the pectorals and across the top of the shoulder? 

3. now do it again, but as you move out in the bow, think about your upper arm twisting towards your back even as your lower arm is twisting towards the bass.  You don't need to "do" anything about this, don't try to make them do the opposite actions, just imagine this is the direction each part of the arm is going.  Can you feel the relaxation in the pectorals now?  I also find my shoulder blade eases back into my back while I practice this way, since I'm not trying to pull the upper arm into the bow action anymore.

The bigger challenge for me is to incorporate this motion not only during practicing, but during performance when all my instinctive habits kick in.  Start small - start with whatever your easiest warm up is (open strings, simple scales) and keep attention on letting the opposition happen, rather than making it happen.

Happy practicing!
Gaelen