MTAC Convention 2011 - Day 1

I am attending the annual Music Teachers Association of CA (MTAC) convention at the Marriott hotel in downtown Oakland this weekend.

I couldn't rouse myself from sleep for any of the early presentations this morning. June was a challenging month for me, and now it's July 1st; this convention snuck up on me. I'm going to do my best to glean insights from the weekend's events, despite my fatigue.

Here's a summary of the events I attended this afternoon:

Meeting the authors of the "Just The Facts" Theory books:

- Any parent or student of mine knows that I swear by the "Just The Facts" music theory books. Almost all of my students work from this series of books. They are absolutely the best I have found. A couple months ago I was placing a phone order with them and the woman helping me, Regina, mentioned that they'd have a booth at the MTAC Convention this year. I promised I would come by and meet her then. 

I doubt she remembers me from our phone conversation, but when I found the "Just The Facts" booth in the Exhibit Hall I started doling out my plaudits straightaway. Regina was at the booth and later her co-author Ann stopped by. I told them repeatedly, "I'm your biggest fan!" and purchased a couple books that I needed. It was a cool experience; I interact with their work 3-4 days a week, every week. Fun to now be able to say that I've met them.

"Teaching the Romantics to Young Pianists" lecture by Dennis Alexander:

- Mr. Alexander offered many excellent insights in his presentation. He is not only a piano teacher but also an oft-published composer. Nearly every musical excerpt he performed to demonstrate his points was from one of his pieces. So that was interesting. Thankfully, it never felt like he was urging us audience members to buy his books. He seems a genuine, sweet individual. 

Some assorted takeaways:

*Decide what "picture" is being painted by the music. Students should sometimes be asked to actually draw a picture to better express the sound of a piece they're playing.

*A general performance practice: when ending a piece, hands should float up, wrists first and then hands slowly return down to one's lap.

*When performing a piece requiring hand position changes, float wrists above the keyboard on the way to the new position, with the wrists in motion in time with the pulse of the music (hard to express this point in words here without the visual demonstration Mr. Alexander provided).

*Where is the "heart" of each musical phrase? Have student draw an actual heart above these moments - 1 heart per phrase. In performance you move your body slightly toward the instrument when the "heart" is reached, to add emphasis, and then pull away thereafter.

*Words to employ when teaching rubato:  hug, stretch, flexible, tenderly, elastic, love, bend (i.e. "'Hug' this note when performing this passage").

*The presentation ended with this excellent quote from another music educator:

"When we play the piano, we create a dance with our bodies, and the keyboard translates that motion into sound."

"Care and Maintenance of Your Piano" lecture by Gavin English:

- Gavin English is an employee of Steinway pianos and his lecture veered dangerously into "Steinway propaganda" territory -- he was pushing his products heavily -- but still he offered many excellent insights. His presentation was broken into 5 parts:

• Cleaning Your Piano

- Use a thin cloth, lightly dampened with water

- No waxes, no polishes

- Piano keys should be cleaned with a lightly dampened cloth. Avoid getting moisture on the side of the keys.

- Do not clean a piano using paper towels! Use a cloth instead.

- To whiten ivory keys: use a small amount of peroxide on a cotton swab

• Tuning - the best maintenance

- If you have purchased a newly manufactured piano, the recommendation is: tune your piano 4 times in the first year. Tune the piano 2 times a year in subsequent years.

- The main factor in a piano's tuning fluctuating is humidity.

- Try to maintain a climate of 35-50% humidity -- without wide swings of temperature -- in your piano room. To measure humidity in the room, buy a hygrometer at a home center.

- Best time to tune a piano? Two or three weeks after a seasonal change, so that the instrument has already settled in the new climate.

• Voicing

- Voicing a piano controls, to a large extent, the tone of a piano and is separate from tuning. Technicians can adjust the characteristics of the piano's hammer felts to affect the range of tone that can be produced by the piano.

- Voicing is based on individual preference and should be discussed with a technician. Considerations such as wanting a "bright" sound vs. a "mellow" sound from the instrument are some of the common discussion points.

- As a piano is played, the condition of the hammer felts will change. For normal home playing, voicing service is recommended every 2-3 years or so, as you perceive changes in the instrument's tone.

• Regulation

- Regulation of the piano action adjusts the overall touch and consistency with which each note responds to your playing. Your piano "action" consists of approximately 7500 parts manufactured primarily with wood and felt. As the felt compresses over a period of time, the evenness of touch will change.

- For normal home playing, regulation is recommended every 2-3 years.

• Environment

- Avoid positioning your piano in the path of direct air from heating/cooling vents, or in the close proximity of a humidifier.

- Try to maintain relative humidity of 35-50%.

- Avoid exposure to direct sunlight as it will bleach the finish of the piano and adversely affect tuning stability.

- A cheap insurance policy: monitor your piano room with a hydrometer, which will measure the relative humidity in which your piano resides.

I'll post again tomorrow.

Jesse