MUSIC EXPLORATION WORKSHOP FOR YOUNG PIANO STUDENTS A thesis submitted to the Kent State University Honors College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for University Honors by Ying Han Gan May 2011 Thesis written by Ying Han Gan Approved by ________________________________________________________________, Advisor __________________________________________________, Director, School of Music Accepted by _____________________________________________________, Dean, Honors College ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………iv CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………..1 Guidelines to Reading the Lesson Plans…………………………………2 II. CLASS 1: DOWN THE TIME TUNNEL OF MUSIC………………….3 Lesson Plan………………………………………………………………4 PowerPoint Presentation………………………………………………...11 Teaching Diary…………………………………………………………..17 III. CLASS 2: EXPRESSIONS IN PIANO PLAYING……………………..18 Lesson Plan……………………………………………………………....19 PowerPoint Presentation…………………………………………………25 Handouts……………………………………………………………..…..30 Teaching Diary………………………………………………………..…32 IV. CLASS 3: HOW TO? THE ART OF PRACTICING AND PREPARING FORAN EVENT………………………………………………………...33 Lesson Plan………………………………………………………………34 PowerPoint Presentation………………………………………..………..39 Teaching Diary……………………………………………………….….44 V. THE PREPARATION PROCESS……………………………………....45 VI. WORKSHOP FLYER…………………………………………………...48 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am most grateful to Dr. Donna Lee, my thesis advisor for helping me construct this music workshop from the very beginning. This music workshop would not have been as successful without her constant encouragement and patient guidance. I would like to thank my oral defense committee members, Dr. Jerry Wong, Dr. Bill Sallak and Professor Gianna Committo for their warm support. I would also like to thank my honors advisor, Carolyn Sampson for believing that I was capable of completing this task. My appreciation goes to my fellow piano peers that have always been there whenever I needed them. Last but not least, many thanks to honors alumna, Dr. Hilary Ratner for her kind donation. iv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION With how piano lessons are taught today, piano teachers constantly face the dilemma of time distribution within a lesson. Due to practical reasons such as parents’ expectation, upcoming performances and pressure from society norms, piano teachers would normally succumb to dedicating most of the lessons to performance repertoire. Nevertheless, understanding and obtaining knowledge of related musical subjects such as music history, various means of musical expressions in piano playing as well as ways to achieve productive practicing and effective performance is vital in the musical growth of young piano students. Therefore, I organized a “Music Exploration Workshop for Young Piano Students” which includes three classes targeting young piano students from ages six to fifteen. The goal of this workshop is to nurture these young piano students to be better musicians. I hope that this workshop would serve as a possible solution for the time distribution problems that piano teachers face at present. My goal is that these young students would learn and be inspired from this workshop, hence incorporating the ideas and concepts introduced in their own piano playing. 1 2 Guidelines to reading the lesson plans The lesson plans are organized to supplement information for the teacher in direct relationship with the PowerPoint presentation prepared. The left column of every table represents a rough idea of each PowerPoint slide while the right column contains notes related to the material on the slide. CHAPTER 2 CLASS 1: DOWN THE TIME TUNNEL OF MUSIC The first class of this music workshop, “Down the Time Tunnel of Music” was held on Friday, November 19th 2010 at 4.30pm in D106, Music and Speech building, Kent State University. This class covered music history, focusing on important composers for piano as well as significant pianists. Major musical periods of western art music namely Baroque, Classical, Romantic and 20th Century were explored. Influential pianists starting from the Romantic period, where the idea of performing pianists flourished, were also introduced. 3 4 Lesson Plan Class 1 1 Down the Time Tunnel of Music (Title page) 2 Baroque (1600-1750) - Four major music periods in the Classical (1750-1820) history of classical music Romantic (1820-1900) 20th Century 3 Baroque - Portuguese; pearl of irregular shape - “barroco” - Relate to picture of Baroque - Highly decorated architecture. 4 Baroque - Important keyboard instrument associated with Baroque period. Harpsichord - Compared to the piano. (how sound is - Different sound produced) Piano: hammer strikes the string. Harpsichord-pluck. 5 Baroque - American harpsichordist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71iUAFF The Harpsichord vs. Piano Test Q8ik 00:00-00:30 - Elaine Comparone - Hungarian pianist. - Andras Schiff http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt- anoUcFgw 00:00-00:30 - Watch videos and compare. 5 6 Baroque - Written for his second wife. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) - Understanding the dance forms will help Anna Magdalena’s Notebook us play the pieces better. Dance forms - Is it in 2? 3? 4? - Minuet Minuet - 3 - Bourree Bourree- Quick 2. - Gavotte Gavotte- Moderate 2. 7 Clapping Time Can You Clap Along to this Minuet? Minuet- in 3. Emphasis on 1. - Demonstrate clapping. Invite audience. Johann Sebastian Bach – Minuet in G - Play through piece once. Invite audience to clap along. 8 Classical (1750 – 1820) - Italian; meaning sound. Piano - Most important composition form for Melody and Accompaniment keyboard at this time. Sonata - Literally means small sonata. Usually - “Sonare” simpler than a sonata. - Sonatina 9 Classical (1750 – 1820) - Anyone heard of Mozart? Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 10 Classical (1750 – 1820) - Anyone heard of Beethoven? Ludwig van Beethoven 6 11 Classical (1750 – 1820) Melody or Accompaniment - Interactive activity with audience. - Detective work: Where is the melody? Beethoven, Sonatina in G – Moderato Is it in the right hand or the left hand? 12 Classical (1750 – 1820) Melody or Accompaniment - Interactive activity with audience. - Detective work: Where is the melody? Clementi, Sonatina Op. 36 no. 1 – Is it in the right hand or the left hand? Andante 13 Romantic (1820 – 1900) - Romanticism New emotional depth - Basically means being able to play a Virtuoso lot of notes very fast. 14 Romantic (1820 – 1900) - Suggestive titles Robert Schumann (1810 – 1856) - Composed for his 3 daughters. - Character pieces - 43 pieces - Album for the Young Op.68 - Eg. Soldiers March, Spring Song. 15 Question - Character pieces, suggestive titles What is the name of this piece? - Guide them through. A is probably sad, A. The Poor Orphan minor key and B is probably happy, B. Happy Farmer lively and in a major key. - Write them down on the board. - Play recording. - Guide them through checklist. 7 16 Romantic (1820 – 1900) Composer and pianist - Polish Frederic Chopin - Polish dance forms: polonaises, mazurkas. Franz Liszt - Hungarian. Johannes Brahms - Virtuoso - German 17 20th Century - Who watches the TV every day? - Who has a computer at home? Technology - These composers that we discussed World Wars previously did not have that. - Exposure of new sounds - War. Sense of feeling lost. - Complex, mixture of a lot of feelings 18 20th Century - Relate to Monet’s painting French Impressionism - Nature Water, light - Color, sound 19 20th Century - Inspired by daughter, Emma. 6 pieces French Impressionism - Interesting names, eg. Jimbo’s lullaby (Jimbo being Emma’s toy elephant), Claude Debussy the snow is dancing etc. - Children’s Corner Suite http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUALE40j No. 6 Golliwog Cakewalk 3TE Alfred Cortot - 06:24 – 07:14 - 1936 animation Maurice Ravel - Swiss/French pianist 8 20 20th Century - Music educator Russian Composers - Consistent efforts in connecting children with music Dmitri Kabalevsky (1904 – 1987) - Interested in folk elements (Relate to next exercise-folk dance) 21 Clapping Time - In 2 (Previous clapping exercise was Can You Clap Along to this Folk in 3) Dance? - Demonstrate clapping. Invite audience. Dmitri Kabalevsky – Folk Dance - Play through piece once. Invite audience to clap along. 22 20th Century - Contemporary of Kabalevsky Russian Composers - Pianist Dmitri Shostakovich 23 Melody or Accompaniment? - Interactive activity with audience. - Detective work: Where is the melody? Dmitri Shostakovich – March Is it in the right hand or the left hand? 24 20th Century - Hungarian - Collect Hungarian folk song BelaBartók (1881 – 1945) - Usage of Hungarian folk themes in compositions (Relate to next exercise) 25 Melody or Accompaniment? - Warn them that something is going to be tricky this time. (The melody is in Bartók – Folk Song II, from Three the left hand Hungarian Folk Songs 9 26 Pianist - During the Romantic period - Liszt: Solo piano recital, memorization. - Russian style - French style - German style 27 Pianists The Elders Franz Liszt Anton Rubinstein Clara Schumann Theodor Leschetiszky Carl Tausig Ignacy Jan Paderewski 28 Pianists of the early twentieth century - Recording technology. Impact on pianists. Russian school German school - Briefly guide audience through the list Godowsky Petri Rachmaninoff Schnabel Lhevinne Backhaus Hofmann Edwin Fischer Arthur Rubinstein 29 20th Century Pianists (deceased) - Briefly guide through names. Claudio Arrau - Picture of Horowitz on piano in power Leonard Bernstein point. ShuraCherkassky Alfred Cortot Georges Cziffra Rudolf Firkusny Walter