Piano Recital
When it was over and the mingling had begun some of the kids went over to the piano to play for each other. My oldest got her turn and played the famous Bach Minuet in G from the Anna Magdelena notebook. About a year ago I was surprised to learn that the tune was probably written not by JS Bach, but mostly like by Christian Pezold Bach. When she finished and walked away, another kid sat down and played the same piece, the first half anyway. This kid looked at least a year older than my older one, and based on what I saw in the recital, she was the best of these students-- but I think my oldest can play better.
I'm glad the kids got to see their pals from the music school, even though my oldest didn't get to officially preform in the recital. I think it might make her want to work hard for the spring recital when she is supposed to play.
Both kids though are going to be monsters on the piano. They've both got great ears, and they're surrounded by music. The older one has good solid technique, she has to make certain mechanical changes as she grows (the way you use your pinky as a real little kid is different than when you're older, and you can "dig in" more when you're older but I can't describe it any better since I'm a guiarist), but her musical memory is great and she is a wiz with her scale work. She is already on course for being a pretty fast player.
The little one picks out the melodies that the older one is working on by ear. It is pretty funny actually. She wants to play the stuff the older one is working on. Her teacher asks her to write songs and she comes up with really nice stuff. She gives them crazy names like "The Brand of the New Hope" which is one of her better songs.
The older one doesn't write songs yet, but I think she want's to. Her teacher is focusing on "tone" which I didn't evern realize was an option for piano. On guitar we can get a lot of tonal "colors" and timbre and so on. The piano seems to me to be more limited in that way, but apparently there is something more to it than it would appear on the surface.
Anyway, it is cool watching them grow up. They are a great team. They're both very different, and in certain ways they both want to be like each other. They're both smart, but man they both are on track to be monsters on the piano. I can't wait till one of them starts putting in the time on the guitar. Partly because then the other one will too just to keep up. gotta run ...
posted by: bronwynj (reply)
post date: 12.21.06 (5:24 pm)
What a proud Dad!
Do you have any of your guitar playing on YouTube yet?
posted by: musicalhair (reply)
post date: 12.21.06 (7:25 pm)
Reply to: bronwynj
Thanks! No, I haven't put them on You Tube-- I don't know how yet nor have the technological capability yet-- but I've been meaning to record them and put them up on Garage band dot com
posted by: bronwynj (reply)
post date: 12.21.06 (7:29 pm)
Reply to: musicalhair
I think most digital cameras these days have a short video capability, just get someone to video you, upload the video to your computer, then upload to YouTube, it's easy! Now I must check out garage band, thanks.
posted by: musicalhair (reply)
post date: 12.21.06 (7:41 pm)
Reply to: bronwynj
When I get a video from the recital I might be able to do it, but for quality of sound I'd rather use my own audio recording equipment and just upload an mp3 of the music. Over the next couple of weeks I should get it done. I'll post about it when I do.
I dont' like bringing my old video camera (hi-8 format) anymore because I feel clumsy, can't keep track of the kids, and just dont' enjoy myself. The teacher had someone videotape it and will get the tape to interested parents. That is the way to go-- one camera set up well instead of ten wanna-be Martin Scorcessi (which, I think is already plural) all in each other's and everyone elses way.
Thanks for the interest.
posted by: commontater (reply)
post date: 04.17.07 (3:05 pm)
Reply to: musicalhair
Hi, I'm new to your blog and I'm enjoying your posts, although I have a ways to go to catch up :) This particular post caught my eye, first because it thrilled me to see the words "piano recital" and "5 and a 1/2 year old" in the same context, and secondly because it appears you enjoy chamber ensembles?
Wow. It sounds like you have a very musical family and you can be proud of your daughters to the nth degree, indeed. I've been around music all my life but can only play the radio :( Somehow, that special little gene slipped through my crack and it's useless for me to keep stoking the dream of being a musician. sigh) Music is the universal language as far as I'm concerned, so it might be true that I'm an alien from mars heh heh.
I'd be interested to know what exactly is meant by what you said here: "on guitar we can get a lot of tonal "colors" and timbre and so on." I'm familiar with those terms being used for vocalists, but am ashamed to say I really don't *know* what "colors" and "timbre" means, and especially where guitars are concerned. Would you help me on this?
Thanks, and I'll be stopping by to get my "music" fix here on tblog. :)
PuC
posted by: musicalhair (reply)
post date: 10.02.08 (5:48 am)
Reply to: commontater
I've not been around at all. Sorry to have left this comment go for so long. I see you may not have been around either based on your last blog entry, so maybe it will be along time till you see this.
Timbre on guitar can be thought of like this: there are a few places on the guitar where you can play the same note. The open first string for example is the same pitch (not an octave up or down, but notes of the exact same frequency) as the 5th fret on the 2nd string, 9th fret on the 3rd string, 14th fret on the 4th string, 19th fret on the 5th string and if a guitar has 24 frets then the 24th fret on the 6th string. But each one sounds slightly different. This is due to a lot of factors, like: the length of the string vibrating, the way the sound resonates on the guitar, and differences such as each strings mass.
Another thing that effects timbre and tone is how you hit the string. The reason this matters is that you can make the string vibrate differently to some extent by hitting it differently. The string doesn't vibrate in one single piece fron end to end (bridge to nut), it breaks up into waves that vary from string to string depending on how well made the string is (this is rather standardized but it used to be on nylon strings that you'd find imprefect strings that did weird things with certain notes due to uneven thickness in certain parts of the string). On a theoretically perfect string the waves are predictable and for the most part harmonious until you get into the very small high pitched waves. It is the case that everyone note and notes-between-the-notes as you progress up and look for smaller and smaller (and higher and higher pitched) waves on the string. All can be found in the one in a sense.
So, if you hit a string right in the middle of its length-- which isn't always the same place as you go up and down the frets-- you will encourage the bigger waves to be strong. When you hit the string on an angle very close to the bridge you encourage the higher ones to be strong. When you hit a string while-- or in quick sucession-- touching a node (where one of these waves are at zero if we looked at it like a sine wave) you will isolate that wave to some extent. They are called harmonics or pick squeals, depending on how you get it and what sound you're going for. ZZ Top's guitarist is really known for it. Villa Lobos Etude no. 5 (I think it is no. 5) has a great section filled with harmonics on the otherwise open strings. It is meant to simulate the gentle start to a rain in the Brazilian rain forest.
Thanks for the kind words concering my kids. They continue to shred on the piano. It is never to late to play an instrument. I find it above all very meditative and calming and a great tool for personal and spirtiual growth as well as an anchoring part of my life keeping me disciplined-- othewise I'm disorganized and running from crisis to crisis.
posted by: commontater (reply)
post date: 11.12.08 (11:07 pm)
Reply to: musicalhair
Hey, bet you didn't think you'd hear from me this soon, eh? Thank you so much for explaining:
"The string doesn't vibrate in one single piece fron end to end (bridge to nut), it breaks up into waves that vary from string to string depending on how well made the string is (this is rather standardized but it used to be on nylon strings that you'd find imprefect strings that did weird things with certain notes due to uneven thickness in certain parts of the string)."
I mean thanks for such a long, extensive and eye-opening response to my question. I really hadn't thought about the connection of the sound waves along the strings, which is really amazing because I spent 20 years working for an R&D firm where our specialty was earthquakes and underground nuclear explosions! Sometimes the mind works (doesn't work is more apt) in very strange ways. I also thought you did an excellent job explaining the concept. Do you teach music? My son teaches music and he gave up on me years ago when I sat beside him on the piano bench that chatting about stuff and I asked him a dumb question about reading music and when he realized I didn't know there were notes for each hand on the score, well, he just lost all respect for me I think. *tricksy titters* Hey, by the way and just an aside, my kid & his chamber ensemble entered the 40th Tolosa International Choral Competition in Spain, and they won in their class! I just hope no reporter shows up at my door wanting to know more about him and his early music days, because, well, you know.. I'd end up saying something equally as stoop-id and my son will never speak to me again.
I hope those kids of yours shred on the piano until they're well-known around the world for their mastery on the instrument, musicalhair..:) Good luck, and you'll see me around again, I'm sure. Again, thanks so much for getting back to me about "colors" and "timbres", now you know why I can't ask my son these kinds of questions, lol.
PuC
