Productive Practice and the Pursuit of Happiness (Part 2.)

What happens between lessons is every bit as important as what happens in the lesson itself. A student can be very sincere, really want to learn and be better, have a good teacher, practice regularly, and even a lot, but to accomplish one’s aims, goals, and dreams efficiently, productive practice* is essential.

Learning curves will always have their ups and downs, but if practice is productive, the general trend should always show an upward spiral of accomplishment over time and not just  a turning around and around in the same circle.

Unproductive practice is always uncomfortable and feels not unlike those bad dreams of running as hard as one can and yet not going anywhere. Productive practice, on the other hand, always feels lighter, and clearer, and has its own unique kind of joy.

There are no rigid formulas or mechanical methods that will automatically produce productive practice; productive practice is a very personal affair—it is a process that is written in the sand and not carved into stone, yet, there are a few simple suggestions I can offer that may help to create conditions favorable to a productive practice.

Formulate an agenda and a plan for each week. Be very specific. Don’t just say, “I’ll do technique exercises for the first ten minutes;” instead, think about what technical issues you specifically want to address and what studies or exercises you want to use to work on those technical issues.

I often remind my students that mindlessly and mechanically repeating any technical exercise or study will amount to nothing more than a total waste of their time! But those same exercises or studies become invaluable when used as an opportunity to address very specific technical and musical issues. Define your objectives as simply and specifically as possible, for example, playing more on the tip of the fourth finger of the left hand in scales and chords. Continuity is very important in productive practice—students sometimes start things with the best of intentions but don’t follow through.

Control is another important aspect of productive practice; go slow enough so that you can control the placement of the fourth finger every time you use it in the exercise or study you are working with.

In my book, From Silence to Sound, ** the teacher, Alex Kubadi says, “Two should always be present in your practice; your teacher and your student.” The teacher is the mind and the body is the student. The teacher works in the realm of concepts and ideas. The student’s intelligence is in its ability to learn and remember and reproduce specific physical positions and movements in time. An effective teacher is always very clear with regard to what it wants the student to do and how it wants the student to do it.

The job of the teacher is to translate his ideas—his vision—into the language of the body and then to create the right conditions to facilitate the learning of the student. The student—the body—learns by repeating an action a number of times, but the teacher must always keep in mind that practice, in the sense of repetition, does not make perfect, it makes permanent; and that the number of repetitions needed for the student to learn a particular action is in direct proportion to the teacher’s state of attention while guiding the actions of the student.

In the relationship between the teacher and the student, the teacher functions in the domain of the mind—and in that domain, the body is slow. For example, in my mind I can travel from my house to my friend’s house at the speed of thought—much faster than the time it takes for me to physically go to my friend’s house.

But conversely, in the domain of the body, the mind is slow. Once the body learns even a relatively simple action, the mind cannot keep up with it. Think about even the act of walking and all its components of multiple and simultaneous actions regarding the coordination of the feet and the legs and the arms and balance, etc.

Because of the discrepancies between the relative speeds of the mind and the body in the mental and the physical domains, it is essential that the mind establishes and maintains control of the process of work and must never allow the tempo of the work to get out of its control.  Therefore, if one feels that the work is going too fast for to control, that the body is allowed to make the same or random mistakes over and over again, then it is time to stop and think and ask questions that will lead to a better plan of work.

And this leads to one of those little secrets. Speed can be very impressive and its pursuit can become very compelling, but speed is never achieved by trying to go fast. The capacity for speed is acquired through perfection and refinement of positions and movements and the degree to which these positions and movements are programed into the body’s memory—what is generally called muscle memory. That is why refining and perfecting positions and movements at slower tempos, tempos that the teacher can control, leads to the capacity for speed. It could be said, to play fast later, practice slow now.

One further point on the subject; if you allow the body to learn three different ways of the doing the same thing, one of which is preferred over the others, when called upon to reproduce the action, there is only a one in three chance that the body will reproduce the preferred way.

And finally, always review your work weekly. Ask the pointed questions. Remember that being critical is not the same thing as being negative. Negativity has no place in Productive Practice. As the poet once said, “Ours is not a caravan of despair!” Ask questions like; “What progress did I make over the week? Did I meet my expectations? What could I have been better? What could I have done differently, etc.? As with the initial plan, the answers should be very specific and simple. Your review should lead to your next week’s agenda and plan. There is a saying, “A good plan is a plan that works!”

 *&**Because of the initial difficulty to objectively observe and evaluate one’s work, the guidance of an experienced teacher can be useful.  For one on one lessons in Productive Practice, or to purchase copies of the book, From Silence to Sound, please contact Michael Kovitz at FromSilencetoSound142@gmail.com

The Art and Science of Performing

You’ve worked out the music, overlooked no detail regarding the notes, the rhythms, the fingerings, the history, and the analysis of the piece. You have worked hard to ‘get the music under your fingers.’ Now, is the opportunity for you to share your vision of the music with yourself and others.

But for many, this sharing is an experience fraught with anxiety, misconceptions, fear, unrealistic expectations, in short, all manner of dysfunction. Would it help to label the experience demonstrating one’s work?  Of, course, merely changing the label on the jar doesn’t change what’s in the jar, but words do have power and thinking about a problem in a different way may lead to new possibilities… 

One cannot demonstrate work that has not been done, but one should be able to demonstrate work that has been done, though the ability to demonstrate that work does not come automatically. One step in the process is the practice of demonstrating one’s work, but here too, practice does not make perfect; practice makes permanent. I often remind my students, in order change the level of one’s work, one has to change the level of one’s practice; to change the level of one’s practice, one has to change the level of one’s thoughts; and to change the level of one’s thoughts, one has to change the questions one is asking…

Performers often employ meditation and relaxation techniques like deep breathing and body awareness to help calm their nerves and improve their focus; some use psychological conditioning to shape a more positive mental attitude, and no doubt, these methods can be and have been effective, but it has been my experience that these techniques often miss something important—the heart of the problem—a deeper question regarding the science of situation.

Solving this problem begins with understanding the changing roles of the mind’s relationship to the body. When one is working out a piece of music the relationship between the mind and the body is akin to that of teacher and student. The mind as teacher decides that it wants to play a piece of music. It then needs to understand all that needs to be known about how that music should sound. Then, it needs to translate all of that information into specific positions and movements in time that the body can understand—because the body is unable to directly understand the language of the mind—its concepts and ideas.  

Positions and movements are the language of the body—get the body to do something a few times and it begins to remember. Once this is accomplished, the mind must relinquish its role as teacher and take on the role of conductor, but therein lies the problem, because the mind, having become habituated to and identified with its role as teacher, often finds it all but impossible to give up this role.

During a performance, a world-class conductor of a world-class orchestra never wonders if or whether the orchestra can play the music; instead, the conductor’s only concern is with communicating to the orchestra in the moment  what it needs to do to in order to express the conductor’s vision of the music. It’s like the difference between learning how to drive a car and actually driving it. A competent driver does not continue to consider how to turn or brake or accelerate, the driver leaves that to the body while it concerns itself with the exigencies of the journey at hand. But in performance, if the mind begins to consider mistakes and mishaps, or starts to worry about what comes next, or how to do it, it is reverting to its role as teacher…

Of course it’s easy to say, “don’t think about your mistakes while playing, don’t worry or second guess yourself,” but this is easier said than done; because it is the nature of the mind to go to whatever it is told not to— tell it to not think about blue elephants and automatically, that is exactly what it will begin to do. And so, the more successful solution would be to deflect the mind, to get it to think about something else, like say, red elephants—because the more the mind becomes concentrated on red elephants, the less it will thinks about blue elephants. In this case, the red elephant is the musician’s vision and expression of the music.

So, the blue elephant is the state of the mind as teacher and the red elephant represents the state of the mind as conductor. Let’s examine what a conductor does. At first glance it may appear that the conductor’s actions/movements are in response to the orchestra, but, though simultaneous response is an important aspect of his role, his primary attention is to his vision—his musical vision—of the work he is conducting. In other words, the conductor must relate his inner world—his musical vision—to his outer world—the orchestra—and do it in the moment.

This relationship—this balance—of the conductor’s inner and the outer worlds is an act of attention that can be illustrated by a double arrow. One arrow of attention is pointed at the orchestra from his musical vision, while simultaneously, the second arrow of attention is pointed at the conductor’s musical vision from the orchestra, and this relationship is exactly what the soloist must achieve in performance—a relationship between his body as orchestra and his mind as conductor.

But to achieve this balance takes practice—the practice of sharing—and a fair amount of self-study as well—the study of one’s attention. It is work, but it is work that I have personally found to be very rewarding on many different levels. This I say, not as someone who has achieved the goal—perhaps some final goal can never be perfectly achieved—but as someone engaged in a musical and personal journey that becomes more and more interesting and enlightening with every step.

It is a journey that is different for everyone, but I would characterize it as a journey of love—and sharing love is what love life and music is all about. I have witnessed this love—this sharing—in the performances of the great maestro of the guitar, Andre Segovia. There was something different that I observed when we, the audience, left the concert hall at the end of his performances. Unlike many other concerts, I noticed that we were all generally much quieter and smiling a whole lot more.

Why? I believe that it had something to do with Segovia’s discipline, both as a musician and as a human being. I believe that his work was never about dominating the music, but about serving it. He mastered the music by serving it with love; it was a mastery in servitude, and when something is mastered through service and not the violence of domination, it is felt by all who are in the presence of it as something very unique and very special.

But, regarding this love manifested as disciplined service, what more can be said?

“For when the subject turned to love, pen broke and paper tore.” – The great mystical poet, Rumi.

So perhaps it would be best leave it here, because, as Rumi also said, “the tale of love, must be heard from love itself, for like the mirror, it is both mute and expressive!”

© Copyright, Michael Kovitz 2018

Structural Awareness in Music

Seven levels of structural awareness can be found within a complete piece of music. From the smallest units to the largest they are:

(1) Individual sounds, (2) Intervals, (3) Triads and Chords, (4) Motives, Figures, or Music molecules, (5) Sub-phrases and Phrases, (6) Sections and (7) Movements.

All seven levels of structural awareness are most clearly identifiable in classical symphonies, concertos, and suites. Simpler forms, like songs and individual pieces, sometimes contain only five or six of these levels; while in the practices of composition of the Middle Ages, and the music of much of Renaissance music, the concept of triads and chords did not exist—even though contemporary musicians do hear and see these harmonies in the music of these earlier periods.

Structure and awareness go hand in hand— their connection can be understood in this way: A piece of music is made up of many different sounds; when one is aware of these different sounds, but not of the connections among them, then awareness is only of the first level of structure—the single sound. This is often the situation with beginners whose awareness is primarily involved with trying to read and play individual notes, i.e. “This is a c note, that is an e note,” etc.

The second level of structural awareness is about the relationship among the sounds, i.e. about intervals. Here one is aware, for example, that there is a relationship between a c note and an e note and this relationship is designated and understood as a major third. Add another level of structural awareness, i.e., the awareness of the relationship among three sounds, and we have the awareness of triads, and by extension, chords. As it is with sounds, intervals, and triads, so it is also with motives, phrases, sections, and movements.

A word of explanation is also warranted regarding my use of the term, music molecule. Within the domain of music, common corresponding terms are motive and figure. They all mean about the same thing. In his book, Fundamentals of Musical Composition, Arnold Schoenberg said;

“The motive generally appears in a characteristic and impressive manner at the beginning of a piece. The features of a motive are intervals and rhythms, combined to produce a memorable shape or contour which usually implies an inherent harmony. Inasmuch as almost every figure within a piece reveals some relationship to it, the basic motive is often considered the ‘germ’ of the idea.” – Fundamentals of Musical Composition, by Arnold Schoenberg, page 8

Personally, I often use all of these terms somewhat interchangeably, but I particularly like the term music molecule. In science, a molecule is the smallest amount of a substance that still retains all of the qualities and characteristics of that substance. Here, the word substance is consistent with the material that makes up the whole of a given piece of music and the term music molecule is the smallest structure within that whole that identifies the unique quality of that whole piece of music.

Take, for example, the great old song, “Autumn Leaves.” Merely hearing the first sound will not identify the piece, nor will hearing the second sound, nor will hearing the third. But the first four sounds, corresponding to the words, “The falling leaves,” will identify the song to anyone who is familiar with it. Those first four sounds, their duration, and the harmony they imply create the first molecule of the song we call Autumn Leaves that through the processes of repetition and variation exhibit most all of elements of melody, rhythm, and implied harmony that are heard throughout the song.

It has been my experience that merely playing the correct notes in correct time does not create a satisfying interpretation and expression of a piece of music, but that the awareness of each of the seven levels of structure that make up the whole of a piece of music leads to an understanding and subsequent interpretation and expression of a piece of music that can be both competent and aesthetically satisfying.

I believe that aware of the music molecules, their repetition and variation, and how they combine to form sub-phrases and phrases, which, in turn, combine to form sections and then movements, is the key to that elusive quality that is called musicality. 

Listen to the first four notes, the first music molecule, of Autumn Leaves. This music molecule consisting of the words, “The falling leaves,” is followed by five notes corresponding to the words, “drift by the window.” Notice that those five notes have the same intervallic relationship as the first four notes corresponding to the words, “The falling leaves.” What makes them sound different is that the second five notes begins a whole step lower than the first four and the whole note that ends the first molecule is divided into two half notes in the second in order to accommodate the two syllable word, window.

Some might ask if the second molecule is a repetition or a variation of the first molecule. Personally I favor repetition, though I would not argue too strongly if someone preferred variation. What I think is more important, however, is that the two molecules are in an antecedent/consequent relationship, in other words, the second molecule is a response and completion of the first molecule. The antecedent/consequent relationship is so prevalent in all music that it is nearly impossible to conceive of music that does not exhibit it. It is found to connect molecules, phrases, sections, and even movements.

In Autumn Leaves, the first two molecules, corresponding to the words, the falling leaves and the words drift by the window, make up the first sub-phrase which is then followed by the second sub-phrase containing the words, the autumn leaves of red and gold. Notice that these two sub-phrases are also in an antecedent/consequent relationship, and that the first molecule of the second sub-phrase is a repetition of the very first molecule of the song, beginning on a note that is one-half step lower than the second molecule.

The next line, the autumn leaves, repeats the first molecule a whole step below the notes corresponding to the words, drift by the window and are then followed by a variation of the molecule corresponding to the words, of red and gold. That completes the first sentence of text and the first eight measure phrase consisting of two four measure phrases in an antecedent/consequent relationship.

Here, a phrase is taken to mean a musical sentence. A grammatical sentence needs a subject, verb, and object, for example, the sentence, “I went home.” Notice the similarity, but also the difference, between a phrase and a music molecule. A phrase is a complete thought, like a sentence, but a music molecule, though being the smallest unit that identifies the unique quality of that whole piece of music, is not, in itself, enough to make a musical sentence—a phrase.  

The next phrase of the song, “Autumn Leaves,”  corresponding to the words, I see your lips, the summer kisses, the sun-burned hands, I used to hold, is an exact repetition of the first phrase, but with a variation of the final (cadential) measure.

Which leads us to the second section—the bridge—beginning with the words, since you went away... This is a new molecule, and though it retains the three note step-wise movement found throughout the molecules of the first verse, the second part of this new molecule introduces a melodic skip from a chord tone to a non-harmonic tone and then returns to the same chord tone. The name of this particular type of non-harmonic tone is called a free tone. It resembles and auxiliary tone in that it is between two chord tones that are the same pitch, but differs from the auxiliary tone in that its distance from the chord tone is more than a step.

The next three music molecules, variations of the first, and  corresponding to the three groupings of words, since you went away, the days grow long, and and so I’ll hear, exhibit this same  free tone shape found in the first molecule of the bridge. The phrase ends with the words, old winter’s song, and the cadential consequent of the third molecule.

The next phrase of the bridge is the consequent of the first phrase of the bridge. It corresponds to the words; but I miss you most of all, my darling, when autumn leaves start to fall, and exhibit the greatest contrast, in the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic materials that compose its music molecules.

Of great importance to the discussion of music molecules is the observation that the majority of all music molecules do not begin on the first beat of a measure not do they end on the last beat of a measure. Music molecules can be seen to exist over and between bar-lines while the harmonies often tend to change at the bar-lines. Failure to appreciate this distinction creates numerous problems.

For example, notice that in “Autumn Leaves,” the first music molecule that begins the song starts on the & of beat one of the first measure and ends on the first beat of the third measure. The second music molecule then begins on beat two of that measure and ends on beat one of measure five. But the chords, the harmonies that accompany this melody consistently change on the first beat of each measure. Hence, the music molecules begin after the chord changes, not on the chord changes. 

Amateur ensembles often have trouble with the timing of this song, trying to start the music molecules on the chord changes rather than after them. It would be like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole by filing down the edges of the square peg. Yet, the tension that exists between harmonies and melodies is one of the most important factors that contribute to a good piece of music.

Another common mistake made by amateur musicians and ensembles is the failure to appreciate the importance of the caesura—the moment between music molecules, phrases, sections, and movements of a piece of music. What is a moment and what is time? They are both states of awareness—interconnected and yet, independent of each other. We commonly think of time in terms of past, present, and future, but, a moment just is and has no specific measurement in time and has no past or future. A moment only exists in the eternal present.

In music, we establish time by designating tempos and measure time in units of beats and measures. But because the caesura exists outside of time, as a moment, it cannot be found in the beats and measures that measure the music. But it can be felt, and when the caesura is expressed by a great musician, it is always found to make the music feel right.

Segovia once told a student, “Both the good musician and the bad musician disrespects the music (notation), the difference is in how they disrespect it.”  The caesura disrespects the literal notation of tempo, beat, and measure, but when handled correctly, the caesura respects the music that is being indicated by the notation—the music that is the very reason for the notation.

As a musician my aim is to play music in such a way as to share the depth of joy that I feel while I’m playing it, and as a teacher, to help my students do the same. It is my conviction that knowledge plays a role in this process, but that knowledge has to be distilled and integrated into an almost instinctive feeling that goes beyond words and ideas.

I believe that listening is one of the keys to this distillation—listening more and more, and studying more and more, the works of great composers and great musicians.  Also, we should not forget the importance of listening more and more, and understanding more and more, one’s own music, for, in fact, we can really only play what we hear, and what we hear is not just defined by the physical organ ear, but is the result of the cultivated impressions of the mind that responds to and interprets the auditory sensations relayed through it through the ear, to the mind, and ultimately on to the Infinite soul that the body and the mind serve.

Music is a beautiful thing, the deeper one goes into it, the more beautiful it becomes, and the more amazing is the experience—amazing and fulfilling—and as in all things, the key is love.

“My teacher was telling the story, but he was the story itself. It was about Mr. Kubadi and Johann Sebastian Bach, the lover and the beloved, and God’s original question—‘Who am I?’ And it was about me too—and it was about love.” –  From Silence to Sound – Richard Kyle’s Journey to Musical Competency, by Michael Kovitz, page 73 (Available through the author at mekovitz@gmail.com).

  

                                                                                                            © Copyright, Michael Kovitz, 2017

    

A Review of Gurdjieff, de Hartmann, music for the piano, Volume III, by Charles Ketcham and Lawrence Rosenthal

It is interesting to compare this CD, done digitally, with the original analog recordings of Thomas de Hartmann circa 1950.  Technically, the recordings of Charles Ketcham and Lawrence Rosenthal are far better than the de Hartman which was done on amateur equipment. The instrument itself is better, the micing and mixing is better, and the recording equipment is all better than what was available to de Hartman. 

With regard to the playing there are also many differences—not necessarily better or worse, just different.  Ultimately, it may be up to the listener to decide if he or she prefers one over the other—personally I like them both, but if I had to choose, I would choose to listen to the de Hartmann.  

Charles Ketcham and Laurence Rosenthal are modern world-class pianists with wonderful touch, and tasteful use of dynamic change, nuance, and use all of the elements of musical language like acceleration, ritard, ritinuto, legado, staccato, etc. They bring a kind of clarity of line and structure to the music. And, listening to them, I feel their connection to the sacredness of this music.

So why do I still prefer the de Hartmann? There is just something, for me, in hearing the squeak in de Hartmann’s chair, the very occasional miss-played note, the slightly out of tune piano that brings me back to a moment that has passed, a moment, yes, to move on from, and a  moment to be both enshrined and built upon…

  There is a story attributed to the Sufi Mullah Nasruddin.

“A man knocks on the Mullah’s door introducing himself as a friend who has brought a chicken for the Mullah’s wife to cook into a soup. The Mullah invites him in, the wife cooks the soup, and the Mullah and the guest eat it.

“The next day there is another knock on the door. ‘ Who is it?” asks the Mullah. ‘I am the friend of the friend who brought the chicken—can I have some soup?’ The Mullah invites the man in and goes into the kitchen. There is a little soup left, but not enough, so the Mullah adds some water and serves the soup. The next day another man comes, ‘I am the friend of the friend who brought the chicken—can I have some soup?’

“Again the Mullah goes to the kitchen, adds more water, and serves it to the guest. This goes on for seven days, seven friends, seven watered down soups. Finally the last guest says, ‘This does not taste like chicken soup, it tastes like water!’

“The Mullah responds, ‘That is because it is the soup of the chicken, of the chicken, of the chicken, of the chicken, of the chicken, of the chicken, of the chicken, that your friend, of the friend, of the friend, of the friend, of the friend, of the friend, of the friend, brought to me!’”

                                                                                                 (c) copyright Michael Kovitz , 2016