Posts Tagged ‘equivalent’
Techniques and Strategies for Practicing Piano
Saturday, September 19th, 2009
Different amounts of practice time are required to learn piano at various ages and levels. Recommendations also depend on the student’s ambition and repertoire.
Inadequate practice is the number one complaint piano teachers (and other music teachers) have about students. Without practice, frustration mounts as students simply don’t progress in their piano lessons. Arguments about and resistance to practice is one of the main reasons children stop music lessons.
Each instrument has different practice requirements because of the physical demands of playing it. Practice recommendations also depend on age, level, and ambition. The following recommendations are for students learning to play piano.
How Much Should a Child Practice Piano?
Many piano teachers suggest that the student’s lesson length be a preliminary rule of thumb for a daily practice goal. For example, a common recommendation is that a piano student taking half-hour lessons should practice half an hour a day; a student taking hour lessons should practice an hour a day.
This rule of thumb is most appropriate for the earlier levels. At more advanced levels, piano practice requirements can be much higher, depending on the student’s ambitions. For instance, an advanced high school student who intends to major in music at the college level might take an hour lesson a week, but may well practice two or three hours a day, or even more, depending on the level of commitment and the school to which the student is applying.
But these students are exceptional, and well into the self-motivated stage. For average students, matching the lesson time five days a week will give consistent and rewarding progress.
Every pianist, indeed, every musician, develops a series of possible practice strategies to deal with different types of mistakes and to learn difficult passages so they can be brought up to speed and played fluently.
Whether just beginning to learn to play the piano or an accomplished virtuoso, pianists should look at these strategies as part of their “toolbox.” If one doesn’t work, try another. Experience tells pianists which strategies are best for which problems, but quite frequently, a pianist will try a number of practice techniques to master a particularly stubborn passage.
Mechanical Strategies for Piano Practice
Mechanical strategies are those that teach the players’ hands where to go. They deal with issues such as finding the right notes, using the right fingers, and coordinating the hands. these strategies help develop piano technique.
- Play with hands apart. Practice one hand at a time if it makes musical sense to do so. Then play with hands together.
- Play in small sections: Practice the piece in small bits, one phrase at a time. Phrases are the equivalent of sentences in the grammar of music. They are sometimes less than a line of music long, and sometimes more, just like a sentence on this page is sometimes shorter than a line, and sometimes longer. Practicing in phrases makes more musical sense than practicing by the line.
- Combine all the elements in small phrases: Practice each phrase by playing one hand, then the other, then both together.
- Study the fingering. Fingering choices should always be deliberate and intentional. Pianists must remember that good fingering involves not only getting to the note in question, but getting to the next note, and the next after that. Issues of how to tackle a series of similar motifs that start on different notes also come into play, as well as issues of musicality, which can justify fingerings that at first may look awkward. Students who have not yet mastered fingering techniques should run any changes past a teacher.
- Break the music into even smaller chunks: Music can always be broken down into its component parts. If the phrase is too long, break it into two. Or practice a single measure. Identify the weak spots where mistakes are habitual, and practically those spots until the mistakes are eradicated.
Remember, piano mistakes don’t go away by starting at the beginning and trying again!
Rhythmic Strategies for Piano Practice
Rhythmic practice techniques force the player to do all the tasks in strict time, which raises the difficulty, and also makes it very obvious which parts of the piece need more work.
- Use the metronome: At its most basic, the metronome helps pianists keep a steady tempo. Metronomes can also be used to help a student work out technical elements by forcing the pianist to play in time and gradually raising the tempo. Playing with a metronome reveals any weak spots in the piece. Metronome practice is especially valuable for ensemble players.
- Vary the rhythm: An effective way to smooth out bumps in long technical runs of very fast notes is change the rhythm. For example, a stream of 16th notes cold be played as alternating dotted 16th and 32nd notes, and then the player can try the reverse and play the section as 32nd notes followed by dotted-16th notes.
- Addi beats. A difficult series of chords can be practiced by by inserting one or more beats of rests in between them, then gradually, getting rid of the extra beats.
- Change the tempo: Playing very slowly and very fast are also good practice techniques. Playing one hand much faster than the target tempo secures the muscle memory of the passages, which makes the piece easier to play with two hands. Playing slowly helps pianists make fingering and articulation choices that are conscious and deliberate.
Finally, if mistakes persist, change the practice strategy! The worst thing is to keep doing the same thing and making the same mistake. Try to go about the problem in a different way.
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Final Steps in the Dissertation Process at Musicology
Sunday, September 13th, 2009
The procedure for completing the dissertation is as follows:
1. The full text must be submitted to the members of the dissertation committee for suggestions, corrections, changes, etc. Candidates are encouraged to discuss drafts of individual chapters with all members of the dissertation committee.
2. The candidate should check with the Director of Administration to be sure that all degree requirements have been met.
3. The application for the degree must be submitted to the Registrar by the date published in The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Handbook for the November, March, or May degree.
4. After the committee has approved the dissertation in its final form, an unbound copy must be submitted to the department at least 45 days before the Registrar’s deadline. During this 45-day period the members of the department are free to examine the completed dissertation.
5. For musicology students, a public colloquium on the dissertation is required shortly before or after it has been approved.
6. Copies: one copy bound and one copy boxed and unbound for the Registrar; one copybound for the Music Library. The library copy must be submitted to the department office before the dissertation acceptance certificate can be signed. The department administrator will obtain signatures from the committee. At this time, the university microfilms and RILM forms must be completed. The Registrar’s Office requires the dissertation certificate (one original, one copy), the university microfilms form, and its copies of the dissertation.
Satisfactory Progress
A student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences must be making satisfactory progress in order to be eligible for any type of financial aid. The following nine items provide a general definition of satisfactory progress that has been adopted for this purpose by the Music Department. It is hoped that this requirement will have a healthy effect on students’ academic progress, and that it will enable us to preserve resources for those most deserving of financial assistance.
1. During the first two years of graduate study any student who is permitted to register is considered to be making satisfactory progress.
2. A prospective third-year student must have achieved the minimum grade-point average required by this faculty (B).
3. A prospective third-year student must have passed general examinations.
4. A prospective fourth-year student must have obtained approval of a dissertation prospectus.
5. A prospective sixth-year, or more advanced, student must have produced at least one acceptable chapter of the dissertation or its equivalent for each year beginning with the fifth.
6. Requirements 2-5 shall be cumulative.
7. A student who fails to meet a requirement may, upon the department’s recommendation, be considered to be an “exception” —and remain eligible for financial assistance —for a grace period of up to one year. At the close of the grace period, in order to be considered to be making satisfactory progress, the student must have met both the requirement missed earlier and the requirement that would normally be imposed at that time.
8. No student may have more than one such year of grace during his or her study.
9. In addition, the requirements of this calendar may be deferred by a department during one year of departmental approved leave. A department may, if it wishes, defer requirements for a more extended period of approved leave in order to facilitate a student’s obtaining a professional degree.
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