The Exploratory Pianist

Deliberate Practice, or How to Become a Virtuoso   I recently finished reading Peak by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool. Here are a few takeaways: First of all, there are no obvious shortcuts. Becoming an expert performer in any field requires a lot of work and years of daily practice. But there is a difference in practice styles, and that can make all of the difference in how far you can go in your field. Many of us think of practice as the repetition of something until we can do it automatically. As we repeat our action, the thinking goes, our performance improves. This is only partially true. The old saying about practice and perfection is true only if your practice is perfect. I tell my students that "practice makes permanent." (Thank you, Mr. Monson.) If you practice with your shoulders tense and your fingers curled into unnatural positions, that is what your body will do when you play. If, in your practice, you often hit a note that is not in the sco...

When I signed on with the band, I really looked forward to trying out the mallet percussion instruments. Then I found myself at an unfamiliar instrument with sticks in my hands while trying to sight-read a piece at a very fast clip. The layout of the mallet percussion instruments is the same as the layout of the piano, but I still find myself studying the instrument in order to find C and F. Why? Something about it throws me off. I'm not as insecure as I was last Fall, but the challenges are real. The "black" keys are not black. Sometimes the keys are labeled, but only in sharps. It's a good thing I know that A# and Bb are the same note. Unfortunately, looking at A# and automatically playing a Bb on it is easier said than done. The motions required to play the bells and xylophone are very different from those required to play the piano. On the piano, your arms move your hands more or less smoothly into place so that your fingers can play the notes. On t...

Monday is band night. I joined a band last Fall, after asking the director (BD) whether he could use a pianist/keyboard player. He had been wanting to try some pieces that had piano in them, and he figured they could also use another auxiliary percussionist on some other songs. So I gave it a try. Playing with the band has been exhilarating. It has pushed me far beyond my comfort level. Prior to playing with the band, I had found accompanying a church service sort of intimidating. Well, trying to play in time with 30 other people, with a conductor that you are supposed to pay attention to, on a song that you didn't choose, in an unfamiliar genre is an order of magnitude beyond the church service. I had a hard time getting the piece up to speed. I had a hard time watching the conductor and playing at the same time. I listened really well, but I couldn't always keep time very well (it was fast ). I spent months working on the song with my metronome, and I still had difficulty g...

I practice about two to two and a half hours most days. About an hour of that is taken up with finger exercises and scales. They are necessary if I want to improve my technique, but they can get tedious pretty quickly. I recently started trying to think of ways to make my technique exercises more interesting (thereby improving my focus and helping me improve faster). About a month ago, I made a list of variations on scales, which I have been sampling from when I get bored. It has helped me with my focus, but scales are still sort of tedious. Today, I tried out the "beat pattern" setting on my digital piano. Wow! It is a real challenge to maintain a steady tempo while your metronome is playing something funk-a-doodle! I can now play a slow-but-steady eighth note, triplet, or sixteenth-note pattern against a triplet plus dotted eighth pattern, at least in the key of B major (the key of the week).