Piano lesson on Czerny's Study op. 299 n. 8

Piano lesson on Czerny's  Study op. 299 n. 8

The Study op. 299 no. 8 in C Major by Carl Czerny is part of the collection of Studies "The school of velocity" ("Die Schule der Geläufigkeit" is the original title in German) that the author published in 1833.

Czerny, as you know, is one of the major names in piano teaching of the nineteenth century. He was a pupil of Beethoven and teacher, among others, of the young Liszt. He was born in Vienna in 1791 and died there in 1857.

The Study op. 299 no. 8 can be considered a medium difficulty study. Its main feature, immediately evident, is the fact that it entrusts to the right hand a continuous series of quatrains of sixteenth notes, which continues uninterruptedly for 54 bars and closes at bar 55 with a conclusive chord. The left hand is instead given a simple accompaniment, with some jumps and a short polyphonic passage in the central section of the piece.

Therefore, the main purpose of the study is to develop the agility of the right hand. Within the 54 bars of continuous movement in sixteenths we find a certain variety of figurations, which require different mechanisms. This will be the object of our preparatory work.

Let's not forget the need to vary the intensity of the sound: the author has specified a series of indications of dynamics, including crescendo and diminuendo, which require further technical skills to be performed correctly.

I prepared two videos: in the first, after this short presentation, you can listen to an execution of the Study, that I made on April 29, 2020. In the second video I carry out a real lesson in piano technique and execution, where I illustrate in detail all the different figurations present in the piece and the correct method of study and realization, which is achieved through appropriate movements and positions of the hand and arm.

You can download the first video at the link  https://youtu.be/d37FBa5fxuc

The second video can be purchased by downloading it at this link: send an email to maestrosfredda@gmail.com

Dear reader, if you are a person passionate about music studies visit the page Our services or access the Download Area of ​​our blog

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Study of double jumps in music for piano

One of the difficulties that are often encountered in the piano music are the quick movements, the jumps that we must do to reach distant keys from the position where you will find the hand.

Very often the jump is double, because writing is expected to reach a distant key and then go right back to the previous position.

There are many examples. Now I'm studying a transcription for piano of Mozart's famous Serenade for strings, "Eine kleine Nachtmusik". It is a beautiful transcription made by Ludwig Stark (1831-1884), the author of the famous Method "Lebert und Stark". Here's an example:

As you see, there is a double jump (highlighted by the first blue square) between bichord 'F sharp - A' in the central octave, the 'G' under the 'middle C' and then the bichord 'G - B' in the central octave. Similarly another passage, highlighted by the second blue square.

To study well these passages necessary to fix well with the eye of the target position and then execute the move at lightning speed: as exercise is useful to make the move in sudden way and then stop in front of the key or keys to arrival.

It's 'evident that the glance is very important, as well as the speed of movement of the arm.

Here is another example taken from the same piece; as you see, teaching graphic helps to focus attention on the single pass:

 With a short video I explain the mechanism:

YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/c/NicolaSfredda

Do you like playing the piano and singing?

The are no age limits to learn!

The music is good for our body and helps us to express our emotions.

The music hleps us to put in communication with the world.

In this video I explain my method of learning music:

Preliminary piano lesson

Here is a video that presents the lesson in a few minutes preliminary to start playing the piano: a beneficial activity for the body and for the whole person.

In the video are explained in a simple way the fundamentals of proper approach to the instrument.

It clarifies that a state of muscle relaxation is functional with the proper performance. The rhythmic pulse is the basis of our coordinated movements and everything corresponds precisely to the physiology of our natural breathing, in the two phases inhaling and exhaling.

From the very nature of our body comes the music!

Studying a piano piece in an effective way

I responded to a question in a forum that was set like this: "what is the ideal method to study well a piece on the piano with the minimum of expenditure of time and energy?"

The question is complex. First, the "ideal method" is a subjective choice, because it depends on the psychological characteristics of the individual.

To begin the discussion, I suggest some preliminary tasks:

1) Read the music in theory: try to sing the parts, such as the main melody, but also the bass and possibly the inner parts; try to follow the music at the right time, also helping with the hand movements (similar to those of the conductor); is therefore a mental reading and at the same time voice and gesture. This is to keep all the parameters of the sound, those written and those that can be deduced from an analysis or a subjective choice; then try to imagine them in your mind; Finally, try to translate them into movements of the body functional and effective.

2) try to finger the piece; if the fingerings are already marked on the score, try to hide them and look for your fingering; in this way you can immediately enter into the hearts of executive problems. The fingering prescribed in the score (which is rarely the work of the author, more often than a reviewer) can be studied later, as compared with your choices; but the starting point must be a careful personal observation of the figuration of music, so that it can be done with a proper fingering. The fingering has two purposes: to find the most comfortable position; find an effective application of the choices of phrasing.

3) identify the physical movements appropriate to the individual rhythmic movement (meaning always up to beat the next movement): in this way, when you go to the piano you already have a full awareness of what needs to be done to make the most of every single passage.

Support the weight of the arm

A young piano student has asked this question: "I would like to have opinions on which fingering to use in the twelfth bar work of Schubert Impromptu Op 90 no. 3 in G Flat Major. Precisely where you "beat" for the first time on those E flat and C flat together. My problem is that I just can not give the correct pressure not to make it look like a hammer."

Here the musical example:

My short answer is this:

"The question is not at all strange, it is very sensible! I'll play with the fifth finger on the E flat and fourth with the C flat supporting the weight of the arm on the fifth finger, "leaning" softly, without a hammer! You will say, easy to say! Depends on technique".

Now I add something. The word "support", not surprisingly, is used in a number of cases in instrumental technique and also in the technique of singing. What does it mean support? It means "to lean, to stand on something, something supportive": so it's the exact opposite of what you do when you make an effort, you lift a weight, it faces a struggle. In everyday life, we lean when we need to stand up to support us (and, metaphorically, we rely on a few people when we feel discouraged or distressed ...).

So, lean means countering effort with an aid which, in the case of the piano, we are given simply by the force of gravity.

But more importantly (and this is the sense of the question) is that properly leaning the weight of the arm can also change the sound between the fingers of the same hand. This is necessary when we, in cases such as that place in this example, the composer needs to play melody and accompaniment in the same hand and therefore, by implication, requires two different sounds in the same hand.


Of course, you do not get an immediate: it is an instrumental technique that acquires the appropriate exercise.

How to begin playing by ear

Pianist Galì in the forum "Theory and solfege" Site "MyPiano Talk", posted this interesting article.

Is it more important to be able to read music or play by ear?  I really don't know the answer, but I know they are both important.  I am teaching my son who is eight to play the piano and though we focus mostly on reading music, I am already teaching him to play by ear.

One of the things I hate to hear my kids say is "I can't".  In most cases they can if they want to badly enough.  When I tell pianists they need to learn to play by ear, the first thing they often say is "I can't."  Don't say that!  Just start practicing.

So how can you start learning?  Here is a simple plan.

1. Learn to pick out a melody of any simple hymn.
2. Learn to play the melody in several different keys (preferably all of them).
3. Pick a key (C is a good choice) and start playing the melody in the right hand.  As you play, experiment with simple triads in the left hand in the octave just below middle C.  In almost every case, either the I, IV, or V chord will work.  In the rare cases where none of those chords work, either skip the chord or cheat and look in the hymnal.
4. Once you know the melody and the supporting chords, you can start improvising a bit.  Play the chord in simple arpeggios in the left hand or move the melody to the left hand and play chords in the right hand.  Or try some inversions in the chords.

To make it easier, let me refresh your memory on the I, IV, and V chords in the key of C.  This is the octave that they will sound best in if you are playing them without any inversion.


Let me pause for a moment and remind you that I am making some assumptions about your current knowledge of theory.  For example, I am assuming that you understand how to identify and play I, IV, and V chords.  If you do not, please find a book or website that you can learn from before continuing this lesson.  Knowing the I, IV, and V chords in each key is absolutely critical to your ability to learn from these lessons.

Some great things will start happening are you start faithfully working through these simple steps.  Don't overdo it--15 minutes a day is sufficient.  Don't worry if the sound is not wonderful.  The important thing is that you are starting to crawl.  You will be able to run later.  

I am going to cover step 4 in much more detail in the next lesson.  For the time being, just work on steps 1-3.

Practice strategy:
Practice steps 1-3 on "Jesus Loves Me."  Learn to play it in a minimum of four keys including C and work on step 3 in the key of C.  Then try it in Db.  If you have time, add another song.

Sources: http://www.greghowlett.com/blog/free-lessons/061111009.aspx 
http://www.mypianotalk.com/forums/34/theory-and-solfege

Music teaching and education

At the conclusion of the course of  Elements of Music Teaching and Education, I taught this academic year 2011-12 for students of Level II (Biennium) of the Conservatory of Music in Mantua, I would like to make some brief conclusions.

My teaching approach, consistent with some of the most historically important of those principles set out, provided a continuous dialectical and critical involvement of the students present. It has therefore created a climate of cultural good and effective.

A school is, in my opinion, a continuous process, in which any presence, any contribution enriches and broadens the perspective, and none can be said to have arrived at the conclusion of a path, each path of culture and research is always transitory and changeable, and its therein lies the beauty and power of culture and perspective of higher education.

It 's necessary to maintain a constant focus on teaching and its educational foundations. For this I am very passionate about the creation of this course.

After three introductory lectures on the history and issues of general education, followed by four lessons of history teaching and music education, classes 8 and 9 (true "center" of course) were devoted to the theme: "The Music Academies in Italy between new and old systems".
 
The course was finally completed with the last six lessons, dedicated to problems and methods of musical education in various fields (preliminary, theory, practice, instrumental and vocal). Students were able to download progressively from a page of my website educational materials (over five hundred pages), consisting of my introductions and attachments taken from the works of various authors.

Is it possible learn to play the piano at age twenty?

That question was posed by a young woman on a social network.

I replied: I think, to learn to play the piano is a beautiful thing, at any age, it means establishing a new relationship, active with the music, valuing your own passion.

You will notice the benefits for your body and your soul!

Personally I think we can begin the practice, rather than from theory, because the ear and the musical instinct can guide you and accompany you in a satisfactory manner; be able to learn everything that can then be reformulated even theoretically.

Best wishes of good fun!

The school, the music and the joy

Émile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865-1950) 

The education of the sensitivity and personality, through rhythm, must precede the ear, because the rhythm is a primordial element of the music. 

 This education has given to the child a chance to become aware of itself. Educated to know the mechanism of this wonderfully built his body, the child will feel the birth and growth of the desire to fully use the powers at its disposal.

You will also develop the imagination, because his mind, free from all tension and all nervous resistance,  will surrender to fantasy.

He will experience profound joy, higher order, because it is not based on special or external circumstances. What sets it apart from the pleasure is that becomes a permanent state of the individual. Do not depend either on time or by events that occur around us, it is an integral part of our body.

This joy does not manifest with bursts of laughter, like cheerfulness, can remaine hidden inside of us, flourishing in the privacy of our "I", whereas vibrate all the active forces of the individual, that must not be wasted, but oriented, without suffocating them.

The joy comes in the child when his faculties are freed from the inibitions.

This self-knowledge is the result of an education: it is up to the tenacious teachers turn a  little flame of joy, shines timidly at the beginning and irregularly, then light up and feed into a source of light and heat that will continue to grow becoming brighter, warm and beneficial.

(1915)

Annulla

Carl Ph. Em Bach: communicate to the heart and speak to the imagination

From experience we know that all too often the people who listen to great technicians and virtuous, though talented, can not capture any sense: they arouse astonishment but not emotions, actually generating a sense of boredom.  

Who is able to communicate the heart and spoke to the imagination, has other qualities than just a virtuoso who just play the right notes: indeed, melodic and linked units would no longer have any meaning if he was wrong even chords.




(Quotes from: Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen, Teil 1, Berlin 1753 )

Augustine of Hippo: Do not explain in words what my heart sings

"Praise the Lord with the lyre, the harp of ten strings sing to him.Sing to the Lord a new song!" (Psalm 32/33, 2-3). Put off what old now and, you know the new song. A new man, a new testament, a new song. The new song is not suited to older men. Do not learn it unless the new men, men renewed by grace, from what was old, men now belonging to the new testament, which is the kingdom of heaven. All our love to it sighs and sings a new song. However, raise a new song not with the language, but with our lives.

Sing to him a new song, sing to him with art (see Psalm 32/33, 3). Each question is how to sing to God. You must sing to him,but not out of tune . Refuses to have offended his ears. Sing with art, oh siblings. When, in front of a music connoisseur, you're told: sing to him so to please him, with no preparation in the music, come to be with trepidation upon singing, because you would not want to displease the musician: the fact that escapes the layman, is noted and criticized by a connoisseur. However, those who would dare to present himself to sing to God with all your skill, good judgment who knows the singer, who looks exactly everything and hear everything so well? How could you show an ability so perfect in the song, not to offend no ears so perfect?

Here he is giving you almost the tone of the melody to sing: do not go in search of words, as if you could translate into a chant of articulate sounds which God delights. Sing in exultation. Singing with art to God consists in this: to sing in jubilation. What does it mean to sing in exultation? Understand and not be able to explain in words what my heart sings. For men who sing both at harvest and during harvest, and during some intensive work, the first feel the pleasure aroused by the words of the songs, but later, when the excitement grows, they feel that they can not express in words and then vent only modulation of notes. This part we call "jubilation".

The jubilation is that melody, with which he pours out his heart as he is unable to express in words. And for those most appropriate to raise this song of joy, if not for the ineffable God? In fact, it ineffable one that you can not express. And if you can not express, and besides you can not keep silent, what you have left if not "Jubilee"? Then the heart is open to joy, without the use of words, and the extraordinary greatness of joy will know no limits of syllables. Sing to him with jubilation in the art (see Psalm 32/33, 3).

Quotes by Augustine, Commentary on Psalm 32/33, in Enarrationes in Psalmos (403)
The portrait of Augustine by Vittore Carpaccio

Let childhood ripen in children (Rousseau, Emile)

Do the opposite of what is customary and almost always do well. Since their purpose is not to make a child a child, but a doctor, never seems too soon to fathers and teachers scold, correct, criticize, cajole, threaten, promise, educate, persuade.

Make it better: be reasonable not ever thinking with your student, especially to make him agree that he is sorry; always pull at stake right about unpleasant things has the effect of harassing and discrediting what could make earlier and in intellect that does not is still able to understand.


He practiced in the body, organs, senses, but keep in idleness forces his soul for as long as possible. Beware of all the feelings prior to the judgment that is able to evaluate them. Hold, stop the alien and impressions, to prevent that evil can be born, do not rush to want to do good, that can never be such if it is illuminated by reason.

Consider any extension as an advantage: it is a substantial gain to get close to your destination without losing anything, let childhood ripen in children. And when they really need to be educated, refrain from giving today's lesson that you think you can give without delay tomorrow.

The figure of the teacher in the view of Quintilian

Marcus Fabius Quintilian, from Institutio Oratoria

First of all, the teacher takes to his students the disposition of a father and thinks he will succeed the place of those who entrust their children. He himself has no vices and will not bear. Its severity is not oppressive and does not exaggerate in giving confidence , not to raise one hand I hate, despise the other.  

He talks a great deal of honesty and good: in fact, the more often admonish, punish much more rarely; he is absolutely short-tempered and does not omit the corrections that you he has to do, teaching is simple, resistant to fatigue, methodical rather than flimsy. Responds willingly to those who asks questions, questions of its own people who do not arise.  

In praising the exposure of students is neither park nor excessive, because the first attitude creates discomfort in them for the effort, the second makes them lay in quietness. In correcting the mistakes is not harsh and is not absolutely insulting: just this, in fact, many away from the purpose of study, namely the fact that some teachers complain as if they hated.  

He himself says something every day, even many things, that listeners can ponder to himself. Although in fact derive from reading enough examples for the imitation, however, supplies the voice more fully alive, and especially that of a teacher to his disciples, provided they have been properly trained, love and respect. Barely on the other hand one could say how willingly we imitate those to whom we are well prepared .

 

The Foundations of music education aimed at the well-being

The rhythmics is a discipline that comes from observation and practical experience of the functionality of our body.

The vocality is one of the main features of these, which we possess in nature and we just need to find out how the latent potential of our body.

These simple principles, applied to a keyboard instrument (the classical piano, or an electronic keyboard), can be easily achieved with positions and movements that give benefits, relaxing and musically effective.

These concepts are developed in e-book The Foundations of music education aimed at the well-being. Playing Singing Wellness. Theory and practice. This text not only deepen the content of the theory that underlies my method of teaching, but I present the procedures that apply to the three disciplines in practice interacting, the bodily rhythmics, the vocality, the instrumental application to keyboard instruments.

Here are some of the topics covered in the e-book:

Music: a great need, a great resource that we can discover with an effective method

Let me tell you my experience with a "musical diary pedagogical"

The interaction between play and sing

The bodily rhythmics: technique and exercises

The vocality: technique and exercises

Method for choir

The application to the keyboard instrument: Piano Method