Pianist – Daniel Bachelis

One thing that I particularly love about playing the piano is the fact that when you truly master it at a very high level, it is truly one of the few right and left brain activities.

LEFT BRAIN

Now, in my opinion, MOST of what people consider learning music is ACTUALLY a left brain activity.  Left brain means logical & analytical, etc.  You have to learn the notes, you have to learn the chords, you have to learn the different keys to play, etc. etc.  On every instrument, the first thing you must learn is what key corresponds to what note on the staff.

Once you have learned that, then you slowly master a muscle memory technique of being able to play more notes, at faster tempos, in wierder and wierder configurations.  This is the left brain aspect of music.  I consider this to be much like a language, it can only be learned by practicing and drilling all the information in to your brain.  Do you know a faster way to learn a language other than by slowly memorizing the different words?

This is how I learned music at first, and that’s how I became a very good sight reader too.  I was always reading new music, and expanding by ability to process music faster and faster as the years went by, so much so that most simple music I am able to play at sight, especially many different musicals, (I love being a musical accompanist).  I merely process the information, and put it into my fingers, and voila, I make music.  But this is only half the battle!

RIGHT BRAIN

This is considered the more intuitive, and creative part of the brain, and where a particular piece of music is realized different by every artist who renders it’s creation.  It’s because of this that just about every musical performance of any particular piece will sound fairly different from any other.  In music, there is a lot of things that simply aren’t on the page, and can’t be written in that are considered to be fairly fundamental musical concepts.  Be sure to teach these to your students once the’re ready to take their playing to the next level.

Whenever you have a melodic line, 2 things must occur.  1. It must be louder than any of the accompanying music.  2. It must also have a definite shape and contour.  Nobody can write exactly how they want a particular melody to be phrased.  This kind of decision is up to the performer to bring out.  Even a C major scale can sound totally different depending on how you want it to be played.  You can have the phrase start loud & get softer, or you can have the apex of the line be any note in the middle, or just diminuendo throughout, but you must decide!  Choose what you feel sounds best considering your own artist integrity.  Listen to the chords, and feel where you want different phrases to go.  Such choices are not in the music, but are spontaneous to the creation at hand.

Rubato is an especially creative aspect of making music.  When phrases resolve, will you take an extra bit of time to prepare the listener for it?  If you were to get technical, you would say that you need a fraction of a second here, and a fraction of second, and nobody can notate that.  That’s why it’s very important to understand the style of a piece your writing, and the history behind, to know just what kind of rubato you want to take.  With Chopin, it’s always over the top, but with Bartok, you might want to limit it, depending on what you’re playing.

IN SUMMARY

When practicing piano, you must first memorize everything.  Every note, every dynamic marking, every melody.  This is quite a robotic process.  It’s only after this that you can truly make music come alive with your own artistic decisions of phrasing and rubato & voicing.  Will you take an extra bit of time when resolving a dissonance?  When a subido forte comes, will you shock us by hitting us over the head with it right away?  Or will you prepare it with a grand gesture with your arms?  All these decisions become an expression of the self through the music you play.

These concepts are hard to describe so I hope I didn’t become too convoluted.  I love feedback so let me know what you think?  What is your philosophy about technical vs. musical practice?  Or perhaps you should always be as musical as possible from day 1?  I love comments!

Interested in taking lessons?  I offer a free introductory lesson to any new clients.  Just E-mail me at bachelis@msu.edu for more info!

The past few days I’ve been in quite a few stints with friends and relatives, and a common theme has developed, or perhaps I’m just a cold and bitter.

People make mistakes

People can let you down

People are sinners.

They cheat and lie and steal.

Well, not all of them, but a fair share of them sure do.  They don’t understand you, don’t listen, and all day long, you can argue and argue and never get anywhere.  Some people will never overcome their differences and that’s just the way it is, and there’s nothing you can do about it.  Like a family member who will never stop doing drugs and throw their life away, no matter HOW MUCH you try to convince them to cut the habit or rehab, or whatever.

Now…….that’s not my story, it’s just an example, but in terms of relationships, there’s been a lot of arguing and yelling among mine these past few days and that’s when I realized

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Music isn’t like people, it NEVER messes up!

Everytime you have ever practiced, music can never let you down, it can never fail you, or betray you, or ever mess up, nor will it ever be like your drugged up relative who will never get better.

Everytime you practice your playing WILL IMPROVE!!!  That’s how it can save you!  Some relationships will NEVER improve no matter how hard you try.  You can put in hours and hours and hours, and still nothing will have come of any of it.

If you put in hours and hours and hours at the piano, I’m pretty sure that your playing WILL improve, hence why practicing is perfect.  It will never let you down when you put in your time, and it can never fail, if you give it the chance to move you forward.

Now honestly, this is just my opinion, but here’s some practical advice.

Anytime you are having a rough time with life, or things are keeping you down, just try practicing.  I know there are days when I couldn’t practice happy songs in a bad mood, but don’t think about the mood of the song, think about the PRACTICE you are doing, and how it never fails!  No matter how bad your mood, no matter how bad life may have sent you a bad hand for the moment, when you practice, your musicianship is ALWAYS improving, and so you can take delight in the fact that despite all the horrible decisions or relationships you may have had crushing down on you, the practice that you do in this MOMENT will always make you a better musician, NO MATTER WHAT has happened in your life.

That’s my few cents for the day.  Hope that helps.  What are your feelings about practicing when in harsh times?  Does it help, or do you feel it hinders?  Let’s open this discussion for debate.  Any comments?  How do YOU feel about it?  I look forward to your comments.

Whoa now!  The greatest aspect of a pianist isn’t his/her musicianship, technical ability, phrasing, or artistry, but merely his/her ability to plan ahead?  How could this possibly be true?

Well without practice time, none of those above things can ever improve, and without good planning, rarely will you practice.

I personally know from experience that without a solid habit, you won’t practice much.  I have gone semesters where I have gone weeks with only a few hours practice, and I’m a piano performance major!  The reason was because I didn’t plan WHEN I would practice.

When you never plan when you will practice, odds are you won’t practice much, but why?

Because something will ALWAYS COME UP!

Your friend sees you, there’s a great recital going on, there’s a concert at Wharton, you have homework in other classes, it’s your friends birthday, and many other excuses.  All those things STOP you from practicing when you don’t plan accordingly.

Start setting aside practice time as if it were a class.  People usually go to their classes (when they have to anyway), and rarely do things come up where they actually won’t go to class.  When you have class that conflicts with a social event with friends, friends usually will be upset, but NOT mad at you.  In order to practice your solid 2 hours a day, set aside what time you will do it EVERYDAY, as if it were class.  You can even tell your friends you are going to class, (because it is!)

Here’s one more thought.  Lessons are usually a 3 credit course for only 1 hour a week, and 1 hour in a studio class, but it’s a 3 credit course!  So that practice time is really class!  If you take a hard 3 credit course at this university, odds are you’ll have homework at about an 1 hour every other day, and class 3 hours a week.  Well, I think its time that we musicians united in treating our practice time like class time, that’s what all those hours are for.

Plan accordingly boys and girls, and we’ll ALL have a great semester.  It’s time to take our artistry to the next level. What separates the GREAT from the mediocre?  One Answer: Practice!

PS, and as always, if you need any accompanying, feel free to contact me.  I love reading your comments and E-mails.  Bye byes!

Whenever I speak to vocalists and instrumentalists, it surprises me how few of them go the extra mile with their pieces.  The music field is supposedly one of passion and joy, yet people treat their pieces like homework.

Going the extra mile isn’t something as simple as practicing more hours, or simply playing a phrase over and over a thousand times until it is absolutely perfect or pristine (although that will definitely help).  No, going the extra mile is something quite simple, yet effective.

It’s learning about your piece!

This is something I used to take for granted, that I would learn about my pieces before or while learning them.  That was until one day, when I was meeting with a vocalist who was singing a song from an opera in Italian.  She did sing it beautifully, and so I asked her what it was about, and she didn’t know!

So here’s rule number 1:  If you are ever playing any kind of song with any kind of text in any language, TRANSLATE IT!  Learn what it’s about.  The last thing you want to do is sing happily about how your husband killed himself out of shame for some action.  If the song is from an Opera, learn about the opera. Where in the plot does the song take place?  What is it about?

The same types of questions apply to any piece by any composer.  At what age did he write it?  Was it during a particular war?  What kind of things were happening in history at the time?

The Grove Dictionary provides a great starting point, but ultimately, you’ll probably have to do a little digging at the library.  Chopin’s last mazurka is pretty bleak.  Ode to joy was written after he had been long deaf, and it’s an ode to joy!  Schumann supposedly wrote with multiple personalities, and Symphony Fantastique was supposedly based on a huge opium trip.  In order to really understand art, you must know where it comes from.  That way, you can bring the subtlety and nuance of those subtexts in to your own playing.  With a war sonata, you’ll hit the keys just a little bit harder, and with a romance, you’ll give it that extra sense of caressing care.

Whether you are aware of it or not, this kind of thing separates the men from the boys and it’ll bring more layers of sound to everything you do.  So do your research and you’ll be surprised at how interesting the pieces you’re learning may become.

Have any questions about music, or piano in general?  Just contact me at my E-mail!  Or leave a comment, I love reading them!