What is Around the Corner: What Do We Expect?

Ah, the fall season! It is such an invigorating time of year for everyone who returns to an academic schedule. The cooler fall air is emerging with a hint of golden color in our land-scapes. For many, it forecasts the beginning of shorter days, long carpool lines and extend-ed teaching days. Our vacations are mostly in the rearview mirror and have become ran-dom flashbacks of relaxed time with family and friends. Our excursions to familiar and exotic locations bring refreshment and appreciation to our wellbeing, while workshops, summer conferences and classes, concerts in the park and casual reading have revitalized our mind with creativity and appreciation. We have found restoration. I hope everyone has experi-enced some level of “vacation” during the last 3 months. The musical journey dashes before us! So welcome back to everyone! I feel sure we are all busy organizing our schedules, setting up budgets, planning and purchasing repertoire, and making numerous contacts with our music families. Once again, our students have the chance to make music an integral part of their daily lives. We must ask ourselves, “How do we engage their curiosity and their desire to set up a routine practice time, to practice and not just play the piano, to THINK and not just DO?” For sure, it is a proverbial question. In my personal and professional life, I have established a keyword to set my course in each project or responsibility that I have. My keyword this year is EXPECTATIONS. Perhaps it is a substitute for goals but expectations seems to resonate in a different way. What do I ex-pect of myself? What do I expect of my home, my studio, my church job, my RPTA respon-sibilities, etc.? (Notice I put myself first.) I am doing my best to exercise the intentional acts of what is happening today, tomorrow, in a month and over the course of the year. I’m not always going to succeed and I’m sure that reactive rather than proactive times are a certain-ty. But if I can find sources of control and promise, I know that I can be a better teacher, friend, and colleague. Stress can, hopefully, be reduced and resourceful ideas will be more fluid. This leads me to reach for ways to engage my students in what their expectations are for themselves. Can I find a way to make shaping phrases, drilling sections, and planning fin-gering more appealing? How can counting out-loud become something my students expect of themselves and not be just to amuse the teacher? Does my lesson reflect the way I want them to practice at home and do I offer positive criticism and expectations for them? I share these thoughts with you as a fellow piano teacher who is always on the quest for more. I challenge you to seek ways that you may find deeper, creative and defined expectations for you and your students. We have such a privilege of mentoring these beautiful souls. Fo-cused and organized, confused and purposeless, talented and not so talented…they come to us to guide their thoughts, their musical discoveries and their expectations of themselves. What is our ability in making their musical tomorrow begin today? Wishing you great joy through inspired teaching! —Dr. Jeanine Skinner, NCTM

From the President

Affiliate of North Carolina Music Teachers Association

September 2015 Number 120

Raleigh Piano

Teachers Association

Monthly Meeting

Sept. 16, 2015

Meredith College

9:30, Prelude

9:45, Business

Meeting

10:30, Program,

Dr. Richard McKee

Inside this issue:

Let Them Eat Cake! 2

NCMTA Workshop 3

Library Sale 3

Ensemble Festival 3

Scholarship Auditions 3

September Program

Preview

4

2015-2016 Programs 4

Looking Ahead 4

This is a synopsis of my article, “Let Them Eat Cake!: The Pros and Cons of Layered Practice for the Elementary Piano Student” published in the October/November 2014 issue of American Music Teacher magazine. —Chrissy Ricker I find that many of my elementary students have difficulty transitioning from their beginner piec-es to more difficult repertoire. Sometimes they have trouble processing the amount of infor-mation in the score: notes, rhythms, dynamics, articulations—all of the symbols can be over-whelming. Often beginner students get frustrated when they can no longer master a piece simply by playing it through once or twice.

To help my students develop their practice skills, I like to use the image of a cake. Our “practice cake” is made up of many layers. We practice these layers in order from the bottom to the top to build upon a strong musical foundation when learning a new piece. These layers are: rhythm, notes and fingerings, articulation, dynamics and tempo, and lastly, pedal. By practicing a piece of music using these layers, students can focus on one musical element at a time so they don’t overlook any important details in the music. They also learn a systematic pro-cess for practicing, so they always know how to work on a new piece independently. I like to supplement the “practice cake” approach with sight-reading, as well as less complicated pieces that allow students to visualize multiple layers in the music at once. This allows students to eventually reach a point where they can suc-cessfully play a piece of music without needing to practice each layer individually.

However, students can continue to benefit by using the “practice cake” as a tool for self-assessment. For example, students might evaluate their practice by asking themselves: did I play this piece with a steady beat? Did I have difficulty with any of the notes or fingerings in the music? Were my staccatos crisp? Did I listen carefully to play a smooth legato? Did I make a big difference between my forte and piano sounds? The “practice cake” makes a great check-list to help students ensure that they are using their practice time effectively. Happy practicing! —Chrissy Ricker

Let Them Eat Cake!

Page 2

Raleigh Piano Teachers Association

RPTA Library Sale

Ensemble Festival 2016

The 38th Ensemble Festival will be January 23-24, 2016. It will be held at The Raleigh Vineyard Christian Fellowship, 6894 Litchford Road, Raleigh, NC. The revised guidelines will be in the 2015-2016 yearbook and posted on RPTA’s website. Entry Deadline: Wednesday, November 18, 2015 by noon, at the RPTA meeting or received at Maxine Sal-vatore’s home (8200 Apple Orchard Way, Raleigh, 27615) by November 18, 2015. Reminder: Entry Fee per student is now $15.00. If you have questions, please email the co-chairs, Bonniewalker0214@gmail.com or Maxinesalva-tore@att.net. —Maxine Salvatore and Bonnie Walker, Ensemble Festival Co-Chairs

Plan to attend the Fall NCMTA Piano Contest/Festival Workshop Saturday, September 12 at Ruggero Pi-ano, 9 am to 4 pm. You and your students will benefit greatly from all you can learn, especially if you plan to enter students or serve as an adjudicator. Even if you have no students participating, attending the workshop is an excellent pedagogical opportunity to experience a broad range of repertoire from this year’s list. Offering pedagogical and performance insights for the music will be clinicians Dr. Olga Kleiankina and Dr. Barry Salwen. You may find additional information on the state website: http://www.ncmta.org/memberresources/contestworkshops.html

Do you have an advanced student in need of a special challenge this year? If so, consider entering the RPTA Scholarship Auditions. These rigorous auditions offer students the opportunity to compete for scholar-ships by not only performing advanced repertoire, but also by demonstrating their knowledge of keyboard skills and their ability to answer questions about their repertoire. The RPTA Scholarship Auditions will be held Saturday, February 20th, 2016 at Meredith College. Check your yearbook and the RPTA website for an entry form, as well as guidelines for how to prepare your stu-dents for the auditions. —Chrissy Ricker, RPTA Scholarship Co-Chair

NCMTA Contest-Festival Workshop

2016 Scholarship Auditions

Page 3

Number 120

We have numerous books, VHS video tapes, and cassette tapes for sale! They will be for sale next to the library cart at the September and October meetings. Books and VHS tapes are $1.00 and cassette tapes are .50. Proceeds will go to our library account. Any items that are unsold in October will be donated to The Community Music School. —Kellis Dryer, RPTA Library Chair

Looking ahead… September 12 NCMTA Workshop, 9a—4p Ruggero Piano September 25-27 Hopper Piano Sale October 15-17 NCMTA Conf., Meredith November 8 Student Musicale January 23-24 Ensemble Festival February 7 Student Musicale February 20 Scholarship Auditions Febrary 27 NCMTA District Piano Contest March 11-12 Young Artist Auditions April 2-6 MTNA Conference April 9 NCMTA State Piano Contest April 24 Student Musicale

May our words be dolce,

our hearts be

giocoso,

our spirits,

con fuoco,

and all our teaching,

con amore.

Beethoven often wrote short slurs in creating his melodies. Many times exe-

cuting these slurs literally does not sound very good on a modern piano and

goes contrary to modern thoughts of consistent legato touch and long lines.

In order to be more expressive, pianists tend to create more legato passag-

es and longer slurs than Beethoven actually indicated. This presentation will

be using a few examples from Beethoven’s Moonlight and Pathetique Sona-

tas, and we will show that playing Beethoven’s shorter slurs as literally as

possible actually produces much more freedom of expression than by trying

to create longer slurs. Some problems that occur when playing short slurs

at a fast tempo on a modern piano will also be addressed.

–Richard McKee, PhD

Affiliate of North Carolina Music Teachers Association

Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival in the Triangle, in partnership with The Smedes Parlor Concert Series, presents A Program of Piano Quartets. Saturday, September 19, 7:00 pm, Saint Mary’s School, 900 Hillsborough St. www.ecu.edu/fourseasons

Music in Our Community :

Find RPTA on the Web: www.raleighpianoteachers.org

www.ncmta.org www.mtna.org

Yahoo Groups: raleighpianoteachers

September Program

2015-2016 Programs All monthly meetings take place in Carswell Concert Hall, Meredith College, 9:45-12:00

SEPTEMBER 16 - Dr. Richard McKee Title: "What Was He Thinking?" Performing Beethoven's Slurs on a Modern Piano OCTOBER 21 - Dr. Mark Fountain Title: "Paderewski: The Improbable Pianist" NOVEMBER 18 - RPTA Panel of Teachers Title: "Why Teach Sight Reading?" DECEMBER 16 - TEACHERS' MUSICALE JANUARY 20 - Dr. Joe DiPiazza Title: "Muzio Clementi: Looking Beyond His Sonatinas" FEBRUARY 17 - Dr. Margaret Evans Title: "Teaching the Very Young, Gifted Student" MARCH - NO MEETING - YOUNG ARTISTS AUDITIONS APRIL 20 - Carolina Contemporary Composers, Chrissy Ricker Title: "Collaboration and Variation: The Process of Composing and Pub-lishing New Music." MAY - TEACHERS' MUSICALE