Yesterday was Halloween as I am sure you are aware. We don’t have so much of that trick or treating around here, although it sometimes takes place. There were a few younger people out and about in costume yesterday, maybe heading to a private party or just dressing up for fun, but no great big American style street decorations and all that spam. We did, however, have a treat and it concerned this piece of music…
My pupil came for his Thursday lesson at the appointed hour, and after the usual, Hi, how are you? Ola good. Sure? Yes. Any news? No… kind of overture that usually precedes an hour’s concentration, we got on with it. Scales: A major, A harmonic minor, A melodic minor, arpeggios of A major and A minor, and on to the next sex in the key of E flat… Then, a look through Bach’s 48 Preludes and Fugues to identify keys from the key signature and first/last notes of a piece. Then, on to the pieces. We started out five years ago by meeting once per week for around 15 minutes. Now, we meet twice a week for an hour at a time. One day we do the usual warm-up scales etc., followed by work from the course book, duets (for a Boxing Day concert we’re planning), and other random pieces for sight reading practice. The other day of the week, we start in the same way and then move on to the grade four examination pieces. Soon, we’ll concentrate more on the exam pieces and technical stuff, anyway…
After a quick break to admire that random photo… Yesterday we worked through a Chopin piece which focuses on playing in octaves, dexterity and speed, and then moved on to the exam pieces, blah blah, and after fifty-five minutes, I decided that was that, so we sat at the piano and chatted. Oh, then he played through the Bach prelude we’d opened on Monday (Neil had joined us by then) and which he’d played by himself for the fun of it (there’s your first result right there). We started chatting about Halloween, and it turned out H and his mates had recently watched the last Halloween film. In fact, he said, ‘We watched this…’
… and played the theme from the film score. It is in moments such as that one that you realise you have made a difference. It might look simple, but have you tried playing in five/four time? Have you heard and then transcribed a piece of music? I’d not taught him how to do this, there had been no music, he’d heard it and gone to his piano and worked it out. Heard it, replayed it, and (and this was the most stunning thing for me who can play nothing by ear not even Happy Birthday), he’d done it in the same key as the original. Hearing/playing is not something you can easily teach, and I don’t think I have, but needless to say, my gob was more than a little smacked. You might think it’s only one line of music, but it went on, the bass came in after the repeat, and that was accurate too.
Anyway… Enough about spooky Little Mozart, and back to the island. We’ve been promised a weekend with temperatures into the early 30s, it’s sunny out there, and I’m currently in here about to work on chapter 18 of the next release. Neil’s weighting next door before heading out, the washing machine is already churning, the water tank is filling, and we’re out to dinner with Miss P tonight, so there’s that to look forward to. Have a great weekend!
