Polyphony: the rhythm of musical development, the music lesson and the academic year.

Q. You have spoken about the sound ideal for a piece and of the importance of projecting a musical interpretation and performance to that very high level. Would you clarify this?

A. In the mind's ear, one has an ideal of the perfect performance of a piece. You may have even heard this perfect performance, perhaps by a concert artist, on a recording or even in a wonderful interpretation by a student. This ideal is all encompassing, including tone, tempo, interpretation, inflection, finesse and, most of all, the piece is convincing in energy and emotion of that work. The sound ideal refers to the mental image of how a piece of music in an ideal form might sound in performance. It is the highest imaginable level of performance a person has for a particular piece of music.

What happens in teaching is that, while we want a student to come so very close to that sound image we have in our minds, sometimes a teacher will allow a student to stop working on a piece of music when the student's performance is too flawed or too far from achieving the quality the student can achieve. Sometimes the teacher unknowingly becomes influenced by hearing a poor rendition week after week from one student or from several students, in which case, the teacher loses the high standard she once strived for in a particular piece or with a student. A singer friend of mine calls this the "Caro mio ben" affect. This piece, known by many pianists who accompany singers, is part of the standard vocal repertoire and sung especially by beginning singers. While the vocalist may sing the notes correctly at the correct tempo and with proper pronunciation, the artistry and nuance are not there. Hearing a Pavorotti recording of a native Italian speaker using all his mature art to sing a lovely song brings the teacher back to the ideal to be strived for--brings life to this piece so commonly sung and not always sung artistically.

The remedy is first to be aware that this is possible and to do everything in our power not to let this happen. Teachers always must continue to surround themselves with high-level, artistic musical performances and want to continue to play and study as much as possible. Listening to music, live and recorded, is vital to keeping our musical ears open to the enormous range of possibilities for interpretations, colors and finesse in musical performance.

It is acceptable and desirable to demand high levels of performance from a student. Most successful teachers know the right time to leave a piece, when the student has reached his own capacity and when they are pushing a student too far. Likewise, they know when not to stop working on the piece of music.

We live in an increasingly goal-oriented and immediate gratification culture. You may find students who race through books with a conscious or unconscious attitude of "I learned the notes, so I'm ready to go on." As the teacher, you may hear the "insignificant" but regular stumbles that signify the piece is not truly learned. Full security is achieved by being able to play a piece in a satisfying way, not just most of the time, but consistently, every time they play. I address ways to achieve this in the answer to the next question.

If you hear that sound ideal in your ear and the piece is appropriate in terms of musical and technical difficulty for the student, there is no reason not to experiment by asking more of that student. Students will mold themselves to our expectations, and if the piece is right for them, we should expect the best of the piece and the best the student is able to give. Any demonstration in the lesson on the part of the teacher is helpful in this regard.

Q. Sometimes my students seem to locked in a performance interpretation. What can I do to change that?

A. If a student can play a piece at three different tempos, and perform convincingly at three tempos, then often she or he really knows that piece well. To do this, the student is able to establish different tempos in the mind before playing and then executes the piece in three rather different ways, even with different characterizations, perhaps. It follows that she or he is secure in knowing well that piece of music. At first in the lessons, a teacher will need to give the student possible tempos to match, as well as tempos to use for practice at home. This is a sure way of moving a student out of a rut and giving her possibilities for further experimentation and development.

Q. Would you please address the pedagogy, including counting strategies, of teaching rhythms of three against two and other more advanced combinations of "odd balanced" rhythms, such as those found in Debussy Preludes and Chopin Nocturnes?

A. You might try this. Go to the piano, and learn to play a C-major scale in triplets ascending and descending in the right hand against a left hand playing a C-major chord Alberti bass in sixteenths. Observe how you learn to do this. If you are more adventurous, next learn to play an E-major Alberti bass in the right hand, sixteenth notes, against an E-major scale fragment in triplets in the left hand. Observe your learning process as you achieve the first skill, and then, perhaps, the second one. Watch yourself as you move through various practice techniques to achieve this skill.

When playing three against four or two against three or other combinations such as these between the hands, the student must be very secure with three things: the large pulse, the right-hand pattern as played in the pulse and the left-hand pattern as played alone within the pulse. When the hands are played together, the downbeats of the large pulse must line up, assuming that is the way the figures are written. The individual practices in small units, hands together, concentrating on the alignment of the hands for one unit, or two units, gradually adding units to the beginning portions. In essence, I tell students often that one hand is very much on auto-pilot and, actually, both hands must be quite well-learned, up to tempo, for this to happen. To practice these "odd balanced" patterns hands together, students must be able to play the figures fully up to tempo hands separately and feel the pulse in the hand. Students generally focus their ears on the "melody" rather than the accompaniment during these stages of trying to place the hands together.

I believe that many times students who have inordinate problems with such patterns as two against three are not able to play the patterns sufficiently well hands separately to then successfully play the figures hands together. They need much more fluency playing the figures hands separately.

The following are my thoughts with more complex patterns found in such literature as some Chopin Nocturnes or Debussy Preludes. It would likely be rare to find a student who could immediately play and feel comfortable playing complex rhythms found in Chopin, such as twenty-seven in the right hand versus twelve in the left hand. Here, performers need to think in a similar way to what was described previously: they need to establish the unit pulse in both hands and work from there. For an odd pattern such as twenty-seven in the right hand against twelve in the left hand as perhaps found in Chopin, a student might practice fourteen against six in the left hand and then thirteen against six in the left hand. The student must be secure in three things. He or she must feel the large pulse of the tempo. Is the piece in four, three, two or some other rhythm? Then the left hand will have its own rhythm within the large pulse, and the right hand will have its own rhythm within the large pulse. In reality, the left hand will work into a large pattern of two (or three, depending on the piece), and the student will work from that large pattern, letting the left-hand accompaniment establish the overall pulse for the piece. The student, in this instance, would concentrate primarily on hearing the right-hand melody/filigree in groups of fourteen and thirteen notes. Something like this is very difficult to practice slowly, and performers usually are more successful practicing in a moderate tempo rather than spelling out the differences between the hands. Without a pulse strongly established and felt, it is difficult to execute this kind of passage.

Q. I would like to do some things differently in my teaching, but do not know where to start or how to really make the change. It almost seems like I am boring to myself when I teach, and I tend to do the same things over and over. Yet, changing them seems difficult to accomplish. What do you suggest?

A. This is a great question, because we all "bore ourselves" if we do not change and grow. To authentically bring about changes in our teaching style and techniques as independent teachers can be challenging.

Peer observation

First of all, I suggest you find two or perhaps three teachers and observe them regularly, on a weekly basis. These should be teachers you respect and seem to possess traits you want to emulate or incorporate into your teaching. Then observe one or two lessons weekly of each teacher for a set period of time. The lessons you observe should be lessons of students who practice regularly, in my opinion, so you can see what can be accomplished from week to week. Even six weeks of observations can be quite illuminating. Make notes during the lessons and discuss with the teachers what you have observed. Exchange ideas and be sure to incorporate some changes bit by bit in your own lessons. The techniques you work with may seem, at first, like experiments, but gradually you will discover whether they work for you. Just getting out of the studio and observing what someone else is doing can be freeing and begin the path to something new and exciting in your own teaching. Be a student again

Enrolling in piano lessons and practicing regularly, even if the practice period is brief each day, can be the impetus of huge changes in your teaching. Putting ourselves in the position of student and learner can be refreshing and helps us realize the experience of bringing in a prepared lesson for further growth and exploration in a musical setting.

Keep a teaching journal

Perhaps we do not need lengthy instructions for keeping a teaching journal, yet doing so can play a major role in our awareness of what we like in our teaching and what we want to replace. Keeping a journal can be an intuitive and natural activity. No matter whether we are looking to change aspects of our teaching, or just trying to be more aware of what we really are doing in our teaching, writing each day at the close of lessons or perhaps journaling once during the day between lessons, can bring to us awareness of what we continue to write from session to session, what seems to be working and what can be explored more. A teaching journal can be your own awareness record of what is going well in the studio, what you want to remove and replace in the teaching, what you liked or did not like in preceding lessons and so on.

Role play

Perhaps another way of incorporating change is to consciously "role play" when teaching the lesson. Decide what you want to do in a specific lesson, what teaching techniques you want to alter or what new listening skills you want to bring to your students and so on. Be aware of opportunities in the lesson to incorporate them, then do just that! This can be an upbeat, yet very conscious, way to try new things in the lesson to allow the growth in teaching we all need to thrive in our professional worlds.

Send Us Your Questions

Do you have a teaching question you would like to have answered? Perhaps you have a practice tip for students you would like to share or a studio idea you are trying differently this year. Questions and other items may be sent to: American Music Teacher, Attn: Polyphony; 441 Vine St., Ste. 505, Cincinnati, OH 45202-2811; fax [phone]; or e-mail to [e-mail].

Jane Magrath, NCTM, is internationally known as a pianist, author, clinician and teacher. She is professor and director of piano pedagogy at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.