A Good Month For Piano (... & justin bieber ... )

March ended with my piano teacher affectionately scolding me for my failure to identify one of the chords in the E minor scale. "You’re supposed to know this stuff! What am I going to do with you?" It was the V7 chord and you can bet I’ll never forget that one again. But tell me all you music lovers ... do any of YOU know what a V7 chord is? (Except I’m sure my nephew Conor does.)


When the lesson was over, I had to tell Pam that, though I knew she was joking with me, the teacher I had as a child wouldn’t have been. That same mistake back then would have earned me a crack with a yardstick and a stern lecture. Is it any wonder why kids hate taking lessons?

Another reason March was a good month for piano is that I discovered a new book, not published in March but very recently. I just read the free sample chapter on my Kindle from Leon Fleisher’s newly published autobiography. Fleisher of the ultra-prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, is one of the most famous pianists and piano teachers in the world. As I’ve mentioned in prior writings, he is also one living pianist I have found in my research who is one of Beethoven’s progeny. That means he’s in a direct line of succession of great pianists who were taught by Beethoven. Specifically in his case, he was taught by Artur Schnabel who was taught by Theodor Leschetizky who was taught by Carl Czerny who was taught by Beethoven. I’m particularly interested in this book as it promises detailed discussions of all the great pianists he has trained, which should help me immensely in identifying a great many more living progenies of Beethoven, hopefully much younger ones. But I have already been struck by the very first sentence of the book when, speaking of his first teacher as a five year old, "For Mr. Shorr, it wasn’t a good lesson until he made me cry." There does seem to be an ongoing theme among famous piano teachers that lessons have to painful for the student to learn. How many people learn to hate music because of this?

So it’s goodbye to the month of March, a month always infamous for its weather madness, but it was for me a really good month for piano. Of course, the really big one is coming up in May. My audition is May 20th and then I finally find out if I get to graduate from elementary. And if that goes well, then on Friday June 3rd I will be performing my graduation recital playing all three movements of Clemente’s Sonatina in C.

But though it was quite challenging on a personal level since I had to weather three medical crises with Mom (she’s fine now), musically it was a good month. It began with a fabulous recital at the March 8th Tuesday Musicale featuring the scholarship performances by three extraordinary young ladies, one of whom was from Oakland University who, at 19, is pursuing a double-major in both piano and engineering-premed. She looked surprisingly healthy for someone whom I sure can’t possibly be getting any sleep given such an ambitious schedule.

The following Friday, March 18th, the Musicale sponsored another mind-blowing concert with one of the greatest ragtime pianists in the world, a gentleman named Bob Milne who happens to be a local, Lapeer! This guy is so fabulous that he has been officially declared a National Treasure by the Library of Congress. For 2-1/2 hours, he entertained us with a comprehensive history of ragtime tunes all of which he played entirely by ear. His finale was a full 30 minute totally improvised medley of patriotic tunes covering every period of American history from the Revolutionary War to the present. He basically improvised an entire concerto right on the spot, and was so incredibly rousing that the audience couldn’t even wait until the end. The standing ovation began about 3 minutes before he finished. I think this is the first concert I’ve ever been to that the audience got so high on the music that they couldn’t hold their applause until the end. Fortunately, though it was completely improvised, it turns out he’s improvised this many hundreds of times before and there was a CD for sale after the concert of this same medley performed at another venue. I actually ended up buying $60 of books and CDs.

But it was so impressive that he played entirely by ear and entirely by memory. While it is true that many of the poor rural folk musicians of the early 20th century to whom he was paying tribute and who were instrumental in the development and growth of ragtime were completely illiterate and untrained musicians who played solely by ear and couldn’t read a note, he claimed that he too could not read a note of music. But I don’t believe this. He did after all attend the Eastman School of Music in New York, which is right up there with Julliard as one of the finest music schools in the world and, even as he lectured us, he spoke of things like inversions and cadences, syncopation and polyphony, augmented and diminished chords and (gasp!) even the vaunted V7 chord that I forgot about at today’s lesson and for which Pam gave me an affectionate chiding. I believe the man has a natural ear but I don’t believe for a second that he can’t read music, only that he prefers not to. Plus the fact that he had several books of his music for sale after the concert.

But that’s all beside the point. In addition to his natural ear, he’s also obviously had extensive formal training and it’s just not possible to receive formal training that does not include extensive reading. And reading isn't really that big a deal. I know there are some very famous musicians who claim to not be able to read a note but I find this very suspect. There are, after all, only seven notes plus five accidentals which are spread over 7-1/2 octaves. Anyone who knows their ABCs (which are 26) can certainly learn to read the seven notes that define all of music.

Bob made it even simpler. He contends that all of music is really based on just two chords, the C chord and the F chord. All other chords and all melodies are just variations on those two. That’s just six notes! Now I realize that most people believe that playing by ear is a gift. However, in all the research I’ve done on piano pedagogy, I have discovered that there are very long prescribed time-tested techniques for learning to play by ear, and that any musician trained beyond the elementary level can learn to play by ear in about two months of one-hour daily practice. I have learned that all ear training boils down to is learning to recognize intervals. There are exactly twelve intervals in all of music. There are proven training methods that will enable one to master recognition of those twelve intervals. Once you’ve accomplished that, you can listen to any piece of music once, identify the intervals, and then sit down and play them.

That’s also why so much emphasis is placed in formal training on mastering the 25 scales that all music is based on. If you can listen to any piece of music and instantly recognize the scale, you can build on the intervals and by using the various combinations of cadences and inversions that are relative to each scale, you can instantly improvise a beautiful harmonic expression that will have people convinced you’ve been practicing the piece for months. This is also what makes for masterful sight reading. Expert sight readers like Pam need only look at the key signature and then just by doing variations on that scale can just follow the chord patterns and play a piece of sheet music they’ve never seen before without actually playing the literal notes that are on the page.

But that’s all pretty advanced stuff that I’ll be getting to as I progress in my studies. The reason I mention all this is because I’ve learned that, though some people are born with a natural ear, all people (save the impaired) are born with the ability to develop one. And I was just so gratified to hear Bob Milne confirm all that in his lecture. As I said, he went even further. He maintains that all music is just a variation on two chords. He maintains it’s possible for anyone to learn to play by ear and that he can teach you in just one lesson! He further maintains that there is no such thing as being tone deaf, that anyone who can can tell the difference between a telephone and a doorbell, anyone who can distinguish between their mother’s voice and their father’s voice can also distinguish between different musical notes. Anyone can learn to play music and anyone can learn to play it by ear. He even sponsors a weeklong music camp up in Lapeer every September for doing just that. How fortunate for me that a world class musician who has been designated a national treasure is just forty-five minutes up the road. I may make it an annual tradition to attend his camp where he conducts daily master classes and gives individual 45 minute lessons each afternoon.

I spoke to him for quite some time at the reception and he seemed delighted that I was undertaking such a serious study of piano at my age. I told him I planned to spend quite some time studying his music and then come to Lapeer to take a lesson at some point. In addition to the camp, he also offers private lessons. These are one-time three hour lessons @ $130/hour (which he videotapes and gives you the DVD) at which he gives you all the tools you need to teach yourself to play by ear. You then go away for weeks or months and practice these techniques until you master them or feel a need for a refresher, in which case you then schedule another three-hour lesson. This is something I would love to do at some point.

So that was my encounter with Bob Milne, one of the world’s greatest pianists and likely THE world’s greatest ragtime pianist. Thank you Tuesday Musicale!



And now from the sublime to the ridiculous... another encounter ... this time with Justin Bieber.

The night before the Bob Milne concert, I did something all you music lovers out there are going to deem downright blasphemous. I went to see the film, "Justin Bieber 3D."

I had never seen Bieber before nor had I heard any of his music. So I had no preconceived opinion of the boy. But I have also almost non-stop for the two or three years since he first came on the scene heard nothing but disparaging remarks about him in the media and from practically everybody I know. It seems everyone hates this kid. Passionately! Well, Thursday night March 17th I found would be the last night this 3D experience would be in the theaters so, after piano of all things, I went to the Waterford 16 to check it out, if for no other reason than to answer the question: is this kid really as horrible as everyone says?

I have to confess I was quite surprised by what I saw ... and heard! It was immediately apparent to me why so many people have a problem with him. What I don’t get is why everyone fails to see what was so terribly obvious to me. JUSTIN BIEBER IS NOT WRITING FOR US!!! So this teenager has found a way to connect big time to tween girls and their mothers. And he’s become hugely successful as a result. Is that the problem, that’s he’s so huge? Is everyone so down on him just because what he does he does so incredibly well even though it’s not our taste? News flash: we’re not in his demographic! Why does that make him a bad guy?

I say forget the fact that he’s currently writing for ten year old girls, forget his sickeningly squeaky clean image, and just listen to the music. This kid is incredibly talented. His technique is fabulous! His piano playing is prodigious! Okay, so he’s catering to very young girls right now and his music is so pre-G rated that their mothers love him too, which of course makes the rest of us squirm. This doesn’t make him a bad musician, just a very good business person. What is he doing that is any different from The Monkees or Dino, Desi, & Billy in our generation? Except that he’s a lot better than those two groups ever were. He’s found a niche and he’s using it to the hilt. But I don’t think the Grammys declared him "Best New Artist of the Year" because they think he’s reached his pinnacle. I think rather they were making a declaration of faith that they already see him well on the path to becoming a great future musician.

So to all of you who blanche at the very sound of Bieber’s name, I have just this to say. I guarantee you he’s going to grow up. And I’m betting that as he matures he’s going to start writing music for the rest of us, much more adult, much more sophisticated. I am personally very anxious to see what he will be coming up with as he moves into his 20’s and early 30s and how he transitions into a much more worldly and refined sound, something I’m already convinced he’s more than capable of.

And the 3D was marvelous. 3D really works wonders with concerts and sporting events, rendering the really fantastic illusion that you’re actually there.



And, in closing, one more terrific thing for piano in March. The National Piano Guild officially accepted my application for the first level of Intermediate at May’s auditions. Now all I have to do is pass. And the month ended today with a wonderful climax. For in addition to the affectionate chiding I received from Pam this afternoon for my failure to identify a V7 chord in E minor, she also commended me on my progress and declared that I was already set on three of my four pieces for the audition. Of the fourth piece, the Clemente sonatina, she has no doubt I will be ready. I’ve already mastered the musicality, she says, I just need to get the tempo. But it is a lightning fast tempo that I am currently no where near. As for the other three, I could audition tomorrow and pass. We will be spending the next seven weeks just improving them musically.

So yes, March was a good month for piano. A really good month.