No, really!
Hello, everyone,
Here's hoping we are all returning from our various "vacances" with energy, determination, and renewed fire ;-)
Tuesday, March 29 is the first day of Spring Quarter.
First dress rehearsal (at the church): Monday, April 18
Second dress rehearsal (in Campion): Thursday, April 21
Third dress rehearsal (at the church): Tuesday, April 26
FIRST CONCERT: Friday, April 29
SECOND CONCERT: Saturday, April 30
I've prepared my Task Calendar for this epic prep and momentous weekend.
Because I absolutely LOVE making charts of all kinds, my Epic Concert Planning Thing is handwritten on 18 x 24 inch drawing paper - a tabletop-sized spreadsheet/calendar/Gantt Chartt hybrid capable of holding sticky notes detailing Very Import Urgent Tasks that would otherwise keep me tossing and turning all night ;-)
But then, this is my job.
I recommend a somewhat less epic version of The Big Sheet for all y'all. Some things actually sink in better if planned out the old-fashioned way - by hand (writing).
Make a calendar for the time period from March 28 (day before) to April 30. Write in ALL rehearsals that require your presence. Time and venue!
Then: copy learning/mastery deadlines from your assignment sheets to the appropriate dates in the calendar. This will be particularly useful if you are in more than one group.
F'r instance: if you're in Women's Chorale and Chamber Singers, you have TWO "sets" of repertoire assignments due on Mondays. If everything is on one sheet, nothing will be forgotten or lost.
I mentioned the use of sticky notes as personal reminders for practice focus (i.e., make/date note of things you missed in rehearsal or need more work to master and put that sticky note IN YOUR MUSIC, right at the spot!)
If you need to dry clean/ press/ otherwise freshen up your concert attire, buy something (socks? bowtie? hair scrunchies? hose?), get a haircut, or do other extra-musical prep, PUT IT IN THE CALENDAR!
LONG REHEARSALS ARE LONG...
10 things to do when you are not on the risers or being directed to move somewhere:
1. Review text (memorizing practice).
2. Tap rhythms.
3. Practice diction sotto voce, or subvocalize.
4. Don't succumb to electronic distractions. Although dress rehearsals may SEEM more "free-form" than rehearsals in Campion or the choir room, they aren't. They're actually more intense, more focused.
5. Support your colleagues with engaged listening and APPLAUSE!
6. If you need to nosh at a time other than scheduled group nosh time - please remember to do so in the Social Hall or outside the building. Nothing other than water (in water bottles) may be ingested inside the nave or narthex. We're free to nosh in the Social Hall.
When you are on the risers, really "rise" to the challenges of singing in a new space and projecting your wonderful self out towards where our audience will be seated. Practice everything! "No phones at rehearsal" also means, "Don't phone in your performance!"
I'll always be grateful for this rehearsal and performance advice from one of my concert-pianist teachers: "The minute you step on stage, those cameras are CLICKING - walk the walk and talk the talk!" Word!
CONCERT HEALTH INSURANCE POLICY: DON'T GET SICK!
Yes, it happens to the best of us - but mind must triumph over matter.
Counting March 29 through April 28, there are 31 days until Concert #1.
Take care of yourself, beginning NOW - eat properly, get enough sleep!!, stay hydrated, be alert to the faintest drumbeat of oncoming problems and take firm measures to stop The Gunkk dead in its tracks. You know the drill: extra Vitamin C, echinacea, Air-Borne (yup, the gunkk is still going around)...Alcohol dehydrates a person...a smart person will stay away from it during the entire concert week, if not before ;-)
If you're flying or taking the train back to Seattle this weekend, please consider fortifying your immune system with Air-Borne or similar preventative.
Your body is your instrument is your body - you are now in the final and most intense stages of training for The Main Event.
LISTENING UP
At this point, I'm hoping Soundcloud tracks are history for you. Time to hunker down with the choral recordings in Dropbox!
They're listed alphabetically (that's Dropbox' doing, not mine) - but it's a simple thing to arrange the Spring music in concert order and transfer to other playback mode so you can listen to the concert music in more holistic fashion. I recommend doing this with "sets" as well - just take this information from the concert order in your syllabus and make yourself a nice little bunch of mixtapes.
Listening Tips:
1. Listen to the piece as background music.
2. Listen to the piece as "foreground" music - i.e., sitting with your scores and following along.
3. Listen for one particular voice part (not necessarily your part!)
4. In pieces where the musical texture is generally laid out high / low alternation (Red, Red Rose, for example) - focus on the entire group of parts (if you're a tenor, focus on tenor AND bass parts)
5. Focus on the outer parts.
6. Focus on the inner parts.
7. "Performance" listening - stand in singing position and listen to the piece, singing your part aloud or audiating it as the music plays.
8. Stand in singing position, begin the track, and practice an attitude of relaxed alertness during piano introductions, interludes, and postludes. What you practice will come naturally to you in performance! You won't have to remind yourself to "get ready."
9. I love this one: Conduct! Dance around!
...to be continued...
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Thursday, March 10, 2016
They're HEEEEEERRRREEEEEE.....
Hello everyone,
Spring "break" is just around the corner - remember to bring your choir music with you if you're traveling - just 10 to 15 minutes of focused work a day will reap ENORMOUS dividends when we next see each other at the beginning of Spring quarter!
If you deliberately make time for music practice, it will likely happen. Personal experience tells me that the more specific the assignment, the better.
Invariably, I have more success when my practice task assignment looks like this:
Tuesday, December 4 -
Mussorgsky "Catacombs" - LH legato work, RH continuous tremolo overkill
Bach fugue - voice combinations and mm work 4 clicks above perf tempo
Brahms #1 - Sweeping #2 Left arm drop #3 Shifting accents RH, LH legato
und so weiter
I have little real success if I give myself this kind of assignment:
Tuesday, December 4 - Practice piano 3 hours
------------------
Use Doc's assignment sheets as your models - they are excellent ways of training yourself to think specifically when you're working alone.
Modify the task assignment to include your PERSONAL challenges. If you need to work on rhythm, INCLUDE THIS SPECIFICALLY IN YOUR ASSIGNMENT, as though you were detailing it in an email.
Not "rhythm" - but, "Count and tap Froggy Goes A'Courting mm.1-20, shift major beats till thinking in 1"
you see where I'm going with this.
The more specific the assignment, the more you'll be able to "quantify" your accomplishment.
This really doesn't take much time to do -
Punch and put a few plain sheets of paper in your binder.
Get a pad of 3 x 3 sticky notes.
For each piece: Devise an acronymn or something to identify the piece and write it at the top of the sticky before you begin.
To assign something to yourself - go to the music you'll be working on, locate trouble spots, and write ONE specific practice task for each trouble spot on a separate sticky note. Stick these notes to the score.
When you're ready to practice, just work through the stickies.
When you finish the tasks, check each one off on the stickie and then put the sticky on one of the plain sheets of paper - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
The beauty of this is its flexibility. If you don't get to something, leave it stuck onto your music, reminding you of work yet to be done. When you finish something, the plain sheets serve as a collection point and a reminder of continual success!
I use something like this to manage work flow - it's my personal modification of the most amazing task management concept ever - Kanban. It has kept me sane and productive since September 2015. I couldn't live without my Wall of Stickies.
Rehearsal in 15, must take off for Campion - remember to bring your music with you if you leave town or to put it in a prominent place in your digs if you do a stay-cation ;-)
LL&P,
Lee
Spring "break" is just around the corner - remember to bring your choir music with you if you're traveling - just 10 to 15 minutes of focused work a day will reap ENORMOUS dividends when we next see each other at the beginning of Spring quarter!
If you deliberately make time for music practice, it will likely happen. Personal experience tells me that the more specific the assignment, the better.
Invariably, I have more success when my practice task assignment looks like this:
Tuesday, December 4 -
Mussorgsky "Catacombs" - LH legato work, RH continuous tremolo overkill
Bach fugue - voice combinations and mm work 4 clicks above perf tempo
Brahms #1 - Sweeping #2 Left arm drop #3 Shifting accents RH, LH legato
und so weiter
I have little real success if I give myself this kind of assignment:
Tuesday, December 4 - Practice piano 3 hours
------------------
Use Doc's assignment sheets as your models - they are excellent ways of training yourself to think specifically when you're working alone.
Modify the task assignment to include your PERSONAL challenges. If you need to work on rhythm, INCLUDE THIS SPECIFICALLY IN YOUR ASSIGNMENT, as though you were detailing it in an email.
Not "rhythm" - but, "Count and tap Froggy Goes A'Courting mm.1-20, shift major beats till thinking in 1"
you see where I'm going with this.
The more specific the assignment, the more you'll be able to "quantify" your accomplishment.
This really doesn't take much time to do -
Punch and put a few plain sheets of paper in your binder.
Get a pad of 3 x 3 sticky notes.
For each piece: Devise an acronymn or something to identify the piece and write it at the top of the sticky before you begin.
To assign something to yourself - go to the music you'll be working on, locate trouble spots, and write ONE specific practice task for each trouble spot on a separate sticky note. Stick these notes to the score.
When you're ready to practice, just work through the stickies.
When you finish the tasks, check each one off on the stickie and then put the sticky on one of the plain sheets of paper - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
The beauty of this is its flexibility. If you don't get to something, leave it stuck onto your music, reminding you of work yet to be done. When you finish something, the plain sheets serve as a collection point and a reminder of continual success!
I use something like this to manage work flow - it's my personal modification of the most amazing task management concept ever - Kanban. It has kept me sane and productive since September 2015. I couldn't live without my Wall of Stickies.
Rehearsal in 15, must take off for Campion - remember to bring your music with you if you leave town or to put it in a prominent place in your digs if you do a stay-cation ;-)
LL&P,
Lee
Sunday, March 6, 2016
DANNNNNGGGGGGGGG
...what an incredibly satisfying performance last night.
There's something very special about performances done without applause, particularly in a dedicated space like St. Ignatius Chapel.
I'll break out of pedagogical mode for a minute to add my theological comment: to the tradition in which I'm ordained, EVERY space is sacred space. It depends upon you.
I'm not sure that I agree with that 100 percent, however. But, my perspective is limited by context, so who knows?!
Right now, I believe that the meaning of life is not a thing, but a process. You are given life; you must ACHIEVE consciousness.
Okay, we are given musical scores: we must achieve COMMUNICATION. It's not a given. It must be studied and worked and (yes!) sometimes it will take its pound of flesh from us. Artistry and excellence are not reserved for a chosen few. Everyone can achieve artistry and excellence at SOMETHING.
Well, our "something" was a wonderful program done wonderfully, and now on to the next objective.
(Insert sound of bucket hitting the wall)
The next objective is our Spring Concert weekend. Two performances, 24 hours apart. A daunting job even for people who do nothing but perform for their livings. For those of us who have lives (HAH!), even more daunting - but it doesn't have to be an Everest expedition.
Speaking from many years of solo performing, small ensemble work, and work with large groups of both "majors" and "volunteers," I have found a few things proven by time and experience:
1. PREPARATION. I'm a firm believer in Murphy's Law: Nothing is as easy as it looks. Everything takes longer than you think it will. If something can go wrong, it will - and likely at the worst possible moment.
Preparation is the most potent weapon in one's arsenal against Murphy. Preparation and confidence can leave The Great And Terrible Murphy begging in the dust.
2. THOUGHT CONTROL. If you think you can, or think you can't - you're right. Your call.
3. PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT, IF PRACTICE IS AS PERFECT AS POSSIBLE. I've learned this the hard way with solo work. Practice begins once you've figured out what to do and how to do it. Everything before that time is - well - figuring things out. The process of figuring things out is crucial and necessary and adds to one's overall abilities, but mastery of the specific skill really gets going once one is able to do many consecutive CORRECT repetitions and use the incorrect repetitions as feedback and course correction.
How does this relate to work with the SC music?
1. Murphy:
a. Nothing is as easy as it looks. Amen to that...in fact, one of the most seductive aspects of the work of a professional is that the professional makes everything look and sound easy. None but other professionals have a clear idea of the BST (blood, sweat and tears) behind that effortless-seeming performance. One of my teachers used to say, "You can either play a piece or you can't. It's either easy or impossible." Yahhhh, back to the metronome... But this is true, in a certain sense. I can't play a piece unless I can play ALL of it the way it should be played. If part of it isn't "there," then I haven't played it.
b. Everything takes longer than you think. One reason why class material is planned so thoroughly and worked so far in advance - small sessions done regularly have a more lasting and beneficial effect than frantic marathons. Long-term preparation gives everyone a good chance to achieve success. Since we're all in this together, we must ALL succeed if we are to say that we're successful.
If only one person isn't with it, this is usually audible (and cringe-worthy).
What about professionals who do amazing "short-order cooking," learning and performing complex music in record time? Well, what about the years upon years, thousands of hours of study and practice underlying these feats? There's still a price to pay.
c. If anything can go wrong, it will - at the worst possible moment. Oh yah, we don't like to think about this, but it does happen. However, having good solid prep in your arsenal will free up energy to deal with the crisis without crashing everything. I 'm thinking of my coach, who gave an unforgettably transcendent solo piano recital hampered by double pneumonia and a temperature of 104 degrees. Or of the recital I played 2 weeks after my mother died. Or of a horrifying experience of my undergrad years, when a good-hearted but incautious janitor moved our newly rented concert grand a little too far forward to clean and watched it crash from the lipless recital hall stage onto a concrete floor - the day of the big choir concert. Examples abound...
I also believe that few difficulties can withstand the constant and careful application of a focused, dedicated mind. THERE IS ALMOST ALWAYS A WAY TO GET IT DONE.
Spring break is the deal-maker or deal-breaker. Fifteen minutes of focused work on the concert music a day will yield amazing and positive dividends. Ten days of diligence also sets up a habit of work that will carry one through the concert week. s
(So does a countdown calendar, daily rewards for work accomplished, and a written record of what was done - but I digress...)
There's something very special about performances done without applause, particularly in a dedicated space like St. Ignatius Chapel.
I'll break out of pedagogical mode for a minute to add my theological comment: to the tradition in which I'm ordained, EVERY space is sacred space. It depends upon you.
I'm not sure that I agree with that 100 percent, however. But, my perspective is limited by context, so who knows?!
Right now, I believe that the meaning of life is not a thing, but a process. You are given life; you must ACHIEVE consciousness.
Okay, we are given musical scores: we must achieve COMMUNICATION. It's not a given. It must be studied and worked and (yes!) sometimes it will take its pound of flesh from us. Artistry and excellence are not reserved for a chosen few. Everyone can achieve artistry and excellence at SOMETHING.
Well, our "something" was a wonderful program done wonderfully, and now on to the next objective.
(Insert sound of bucket hitting the wall)
The next objective is our Spring Concert weekend. Two performances, 24 hours apart. A daunting job even for people who do nothing but perform for their livings. For those of us who have lives (HAH!), even more daunting - but it doesn't have to be an Everest expedition.
Speaking from many years of solo performing, small ensemble work, and work with large groups of both "majors" and "volunteers," I have found a few things proven by time and experience:
1. PREPARATION. I'm a firm believer in Murphy's Law: Nothing is as easy as it looks. Everything takes longer than you think it will. If something can go wrong, it will - and likely at the worst possible moment.
Preparation is the most potent weapon in one's arsenal against Murphy. Preparation and confidence can leave The Great And Terrible Murphy begging in the dust.
2. THOUGHT CONTROL. If you think you can, or think you can't - you're right. Your call.
3. PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT, IF PRACTICE IS AS PERFECT AS POSSIBLE. I've learned this the hard way with solo work. Practice begins once you've figured out what to do and how to do it. Everything before that time is - well - figuring things out. The process of figuring things out is crucial and necessary and adds to one's overall abilities, but mastery of the specific skill really gets going once one is able to do many consecutive CORRECT repetitions and use the incorrect repetitions as feedback and course correction.
How does this relate to work with the SC music?
1. Murphy:
a. Nothing is as easy as it looks. Amen to that...in fact, one of the most seductive aspects of the work of a professional is that the professional makes everything look and sound easy. None but other professionals have a clear idea of the BST (blood, sweat and tears) behind that effortless-seeming performance. One of my teachers used to say, "You can either play a piece or you can't. It's either easy or impossible." Yahhhh, back to the metronome... But this is true, in a certain sense. I can't play a piece unless I can play ALL of it the way it should be played. If part of it isn't "there," then I haven't played it.
b. Everything takes longer than you think. One reason why class material is planned so thoroughly and worked so far in advance - small sessions done regularly have a more lasting and beneficial effect than frantic marathons. Long-term preparation gives everyone a good chance to achieve success. Since we're all in this together, we must ALL succeed if we are to say that we're successful.
If only one person isn't with it, this is usually audible (and cringe-worthy).
What about professionals who do amazing "short-order cooking," learning and performing complex music in record time? Well, what about the years upon years, thousands of hours of study and practice underlying these feats? There's still a price to pay.
c. If anything can go wrong, it will - at the worst possible moment. Oh yah, we don't like to think about this, but it does happen. However, having good solid prep in your arsenal will free up energy to deal with the crisis without crashing everything. I 'm thinking of my coach, who gave an unforgettably transcendent solo piano recital hampered by double pneumonia and a temperature of 104 degrees. Or of the recital I played 2 weeks after my mother died. Or of a horrifying experience of my undergrad years, when a good-hearted but incautious janitor moved our newly rented concert grand a little too far forward to clean and watched it crash from the lipless recital hall stage onto a concrete floor - the day of the big choir concert. Examples abound...
I also believe that few difficulties can withstand the constant and careful application of a focused, dedicated mind. THERE IS ALMOST ALWAYS A WAY TO GET IT DONE.
Spring break is the deal-maker or deal-breaker. Fifteen minutes of focused work on the concert music a day will yield amazing and positive dividends. Ten days of diligence also sets up a habit of work that will carry one through the concert week. s
(So does a countdown calendar, daily rewards for work accomplished, and a written record of what was done - but I digress...)
Thursday, March 3, 2016
HAHYAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In 48 hours and 31 minutes, our crew will arrive to set up St. Ignatius Chapel for Lenten Prayer concert.
In 51 hours, the challenging and rewarding labor of many weeks will be distilled into a fine and intoxicating musical potion.
Have a wonderful 2 days (now, it is 47 hours and 5 minutes until we begin with the bell ;-)
And, please take special care of your body tomorrow. Celebratory libations will be all the sweeter for your having waited.
And now, stretch out - put on your headphones, take the Red Pill, and enjoy a little intergalactic excursion...bon voyage.
WHOA. (Theory people: Yes, tonal!)
One of my favorite Ligeti piano works - the "devil's staircase."
And...
Anderson and Roe...whoa!
In 51 hours, the challenging and rewarding labor of many weeks will be distilled into a fine and intoxicating musical potion.
Have a wonderful 2 days (now, it is 47 hours and 5 minutes until we begin with the bell ;-)
And, please take special care of your body tomorrow. Celebratory libations will be all the sweeter for your having waited.
And now, stretch out - put on your headphones, take the Red Pill, and enjoy a little intergalactic excursion...bon voyage.
WHOA. (Theory people: Yes, tonal!)
One of my favorite Ligeti piano works - the "devil's staircase."
And...
And...!
Anderson and Roe...whoa!
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