Prokofieff P-con #2

Have just decided to play the 1st mov. of this highly virtuosic concerto early next year, inspired by Yuja Wang, Bronffmann, and others.

A personal view is that this particular movement is most virtuosic and biased to solo of all piano concertos that i know in ligt of its mechanical demand and the proportion of the cadenza, more virtuosic than Rachmaninoff's #1, #2, and #3, Saint=Saens' #2, Prokofieff's #3; Tchaikovsky's, Liszt's #1 & #2, in sharp contrast to Schumann's (my other favorite and i performed earlier this year) and Brahms' #2.

The major difficulties associated with this particular movement is primarily due to the composer's idiosyncracies around harmony using frequent shifts and composites, in addition to its quite broad movement of both hands over the full range of keyboard, often crossed, presenting tremendous challenge to the performer.

The composer himself found his own creation immensely demanding to his surprise, and it is said that the composer found the need to practice four hours a day to master this piece.

As a concerto, however, it is not very demanding in terms of rhythm, collaboration, and tempo, though.

Therefore, if you get command of those mechanical demands especially of the cadenza, you'd be mostly in good shape performing this movement, which nevertheless requires a lot of careful and thoughtful effort.

quickest way to one-level-up performance

I have seen many performances, including my own, which easy, quick ways have potential to dramatically improve.

Usually I am skeptical of anything that says "quick and easy" especially when it comes to piano, because many hours of right practice with right instructions, even if however talented, are indispensable for good performance.

Nevertheless, I came to believe the efficacy of applying several tips because many tend to make pieces much harder than they actually are for no or little musical reason, but for lack of understanding of what are really required (and what are totally detrimental).

Those tips are: take your time, constrain your movements, and prioritize. If we apply these right, our performance will be dramatically beautiful, engaging, and solid in a day.

Won!

To my greatest surprise in years, I won the A2 category, Grand Muse division of the 33th PTNA piano competition!
This was my 3rd attempt of the competition itself, and 1st of the category, which allows participants who majored in piano at college, and not surprisingly, many of the competitors are piano instructors. Therefore, I did not even dream of making the national final, which was held on Aug. 22th, and thought it would be lucky if I make the regional finals. I was 2nd place at the 1st regional final, which meant that I did not make the national final. This made me at the brink of losing this year's competition, but at the same time, it wiped off my tension to focus on playing the piano at the 2nd regional final.
Actally, I have never practiced more seriously (though not for many hours) in the last one week before the national final than ever, and it brought me one notch up, I believe.

My performance is up (without prior notice to performers, though...)on the PTNA channel on YouTube as:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_htE3ahLew
Watching my own performance always makes me ashamed, and this one is no exception. Need more concentration and careful practice...
Anyway, it's clear that I need much more work on this Scriabin's masterpiece, and sincerely hope to give more life to it.

competition final ... tomorrow

will be on the finals tomorrow, play Scariabin's op.70 as did in the qualifying and the regional finals.
it feels like beyond 'perfection is unattainable.' rather, the more i practice, the further i am from what this pieces demands.
what i can do best at this moment, is to accept that my performance will have faults, but never be afraid of them, and devote the whole of myself to let the music live and flow as it wants.

Int'l Amateur Piano Competition - Semifinal

Today the semifinal round of the 2009 Int'l Amateur Piano Competition was held at Koiwa Urban Plaza, Tokyo. Though I did not take part in this year, went to see and listen to the performances of the participants, many of them are either friends of mine or at least I got to know through various events since last year.
Per A division, any piece by J.S. Bach is mandatory, plus a piece of participant's choice is played. It appears that the primary criterion is how your play Bach, which I believe to be quite reasonable given the fact that any of his requires solid fundamentals, the very essence of how you create the sound, your takt, precision, because simply placing the notes as they are given does not appeal at all, and correctly playing J.S. Bach pieces test your mental strengths as well especially in the pressure-cooker situation on the stage of a competition.
There were many performances that I really enjoyed, and from every one of them I learned a lot, which was not possible if I participated in the competition myself. In hindsight, probably my decision not to participate was to the point, I guess. Above all, it was a great motivator.

Spare 5 mins every day for planning practice

As with most, or probably all, or non-professional pianists, it must be a common issue to find time for, and to make most of, i.e. make it most effective and efficient, practice time.
For that purpose, I make it a rule to spare at least five minutes to plan the practice for the day, often write down the most critical points to focus on, and/or issues to overcome, many of which are small details, e.g. try alternative fingerings for bars xx to xx for a particular piece.
When it comes to piano, as with many other pursuits, progress should be very slow. Therefore it is important to make steady progress each day of practice, however small it may be. Making the focal points clear is meant to ensure that small progress.
I also have a checklist consisting of approximately 100 items to check if I play right at any time, ranging from hand forms, breathing, posture to "sound landscape" in my brain. Since there are so many to think about and do right simultaneously, it requires patience and intelligence to make them "natural" to me, oftentimes requiring me to "unlearn" old bad habits, which is more challenging than learning new things.
One of the biggest "old bad habits" that I have come to unlearn just recently is to flex my wrists and forearms, learning at the same time to concentrate my full attention to fingertips placing them closer to the keys.

accept your mediocrity

when it comes to music, there is no such thing as goal, perfection, or anything that is ultimate.
as a non-professional without years of formal training (though i started something close to it last year) and without brilliant talent, what you shoud do first and foremost is to accept that you and your performance (if it could be called one) is nothing more than mediocre.

pondering on legato, legatissimo, and non legato

I thought it's worthwhile giving it much thought about what is otherwise taken lightly but should not be.
Given the structure and principles of piano as an instrument, legato is something requires not only good control of fingers and wrists (and for that matter arms), but also good coordination and feedback with listeninng to the sounde created.
If you want good legato (bad legato means uncontrolled non legato or contaminated sound with overwrapped notes), you need to keep you wrists calm (not fixed but flexible though), keep your fingertips as close as possible to the keys, and keep keys pressed as long as just enough so that two consecutive notes sound connected to each other. This "just enough" is easier said than done. Never too short, never too long. It's a split second difference. The difference would be much smaller when it comes to legatissimo. The same thing holds for non legato. It is hard to describe it quantitatively. We need to learn by doing, i.e., playing and listening, and listening and playing.

correct mindset for piano playing

have found that many of the mistakes have a common root cause: my mindset for piano playing, be that in practice and that on the stage as well, particularly the latter..
what did i have in mind, consciously or unconsciously, when i was at the stage? if that primarily to prove myself, was that working for the better or worse? if worse, was that a wrong motive to have? if in itself it was not, how could i take advantage of that? need to nail down on it. The strong hypothesis is twofolds: (1) lack or shotage of understanding what exactly i should / want to do, and (2) attempting to do way more than i can do. if this is correct, the countermeasures would be extremely simple; to squarely face my weaknesses (and strengths) and mobilize my full brain potential to do the right things at every moment of practice with full concentration on well thought-out practice plan. There is no trick or shortcut. No room for wishful thinking. Never overestimate or underestimate your ability. Never be distracted by what others do. Never ever force things. Just be yourself, be natural and fluid.

Practice note-Los Requiebros

1. Goal: continuity or smooth transition of motif development thru variations
2. Issues to overcome: logical construction of liberal organization of the piece; expansion between fingers with flexibility without compromising beauty of notes
3. Practice tips:
* bias on left hand esp. for leading the music flow
* volume balance among voices

Basic Principles in Pianoforte Playing

Not until just recently, I found the great value of the work by Josef Lhevinne, "Basic Principles of Pianoforte Playing".
Not only the author is an outstanding performer and instructor, and not only for its thoroughness yet conciseness, but also the insights that are unique and tested over time, and above all, the delivery of the thoughts I found very creative and effective.
If we practice these thoughts in their true intended meanings to the fullest, no doubt our performances will reach the height where we performers and the audience as well could truly appreciate the art of piano playing.
Key thoughts that I particularly found valuable are:

1. What "touch" is to loosen all but absolutely necessary muscles to enable the most artistics fingertips to work themselves, without any obstacles or hitches, to create the beauty of sounds.
2. The "touch" is not to strike or drop the fingertips on the keys but to capture the keys.
3. Tha last note of a passage should be paid careful attention so that the passsage ends delicately, with a reversed (at the beginning of the passage), smooth motion.
4. The left hand dexterity is the one distinguishes the great performance from the mediocre ones. It should not be a drag. Thus, you should be able to play the left hand part solidly and independently with equal mastery with the right hand part.
5. Stop for a while to look back on your performance and think carefully if you have something to express, assert, and deliver to the audience.

Practice note - Granados, Los Requiebros from Goyescas

1. Goal: outburst of passion voiced in well-controlled and structured manner with ever-changing harmony
2. Issues to overcome: flexible and controlled left hand with flexible thumb for melody line in tenor en dehors; virtuosic passgaes by the right hand balanced in harmony with the left hand
3. Practice tips: separate voices; eight bars at a time, very slowly and carefully repeat until played comfortably

appeared in piano journal

The Apr 2009 issue of one of the piano journals in Japan (though hardly amajor one) contains the article on The 2nd Beten Piano Competition held last year.
My name with photo and a brief praise on my performance was up to my pleasant surprise! It says about my performance, Scriabin Piano Sonata op.70, that the trills sounded like bells and the stereophonic construction was articulated, which sounds very encouraging.

your body is part of instrument

A few days ago it occurred to me that, I could play the piano more easily and beautifully at the same time if I focused my feel mind on feeling my entire body transformed into a part of instrument, not peripheral but critical one, close to it being assimilated into the sounds I created. Having thought about the whys, it greatly helped listening to the sounds while relaxing the muscles that should not be tense, the very basics of instrument playing, or music performance. Need to hone this sense in order to achieve ever better coordination of the whole employed.

when not to set a target

For businesses or any activity, there should be a targets or targets set to achieve.
What about piano playing, for those who do it for living and those who do it for pleasure (amateur)? If a target to be set, what would it be? Thinking differently about this questions, should a target be set in the first place?
It is easy to say a target can be winning a competition, but would that be a "good" tagret to aim at? It can lead to make means an end, which we should carefully avoid.
Instead, what about "expressing yourself by exploiting the instrument's potential to the fullest"? Would that serve as a "good" target for us amateurs? I do not think so, because it might be acceptable (or maybe the ideal) goal for any piano lovers, chances are slim that it would be a target that we can clearly visualize and focus our daily thinking and exercises toward achieving it (in this sense it is not "good" as a target) because it is too conceptual as "what" and "how" to achieve it greatly varies by for whom it means.
Appropriate target setting is possible only if there is a set path for attaining that goal that can be defined by humanly efforts.

Lens

This world is much brighter than you perceive it to be.
I'm no believer in any religion. However, not a pessimistic realist, either.
Having read "Message of a Master" for the first time in several years since I accidentally came across this short but extremely insightful, powerful, and intricately articulated work, it came to my mind again that I should clear the clouds I brought all over my mind to be overly realistic to a pessimistic degree.

competition evaluation criteria

PTNA, national piano teachers' association of Japan, clearly provides the evaluation criteria for annual competition on its evaluation sheet, as 12 viewpoints below:

1. accurate touch
2. beautiful tones
3. precise rhythm and beat
4. appropriate tempo
5. balance of melodies and accompaniments
6. memorization
7: range and changes in dynamics
8. emotional expression
9. construction
10. pedalling
11. concentration on the stage
12. appropriate stage manner

requirements of a Master

One of the (rare) modern works that I value, "Laws of Mastering" collates five points that qualifies a Master and those who are not clearly and concisely.
Below are those five points with my interpretations:
1. Persistent yet is able to sustain concentration ... can demonstrate these otherwise conflicting qualities simultaneously

2. Manifests distingushed, unique abilities ... even without any intention to show them off, they stand out naturally, scintillatingly

3. Has very clear focal points ... it is often said that "God resides in details" but a Master

4. Dimensions are different in viewing others ... a Master does not normally outspeak his or her assessment of others

5. Able to accurately recognize oneself ... has full understanding of both strengths and shortcomings of oneself, no underestimate, no overestimate, no pessimism, no optimism; hard look at what really are about oneself

scales, scales, scales

Great piano instructors unanimously emphasized the importance (and its underestimate by pianists and would-be pianists) of practicing scales on daily basis.
There are literally thousands of ways we practice scales.
First and foremost, there are 24 tonalities. To multiply, there other parameters as:
Upward or downward;
Unison or Inverse unison (is there such an expression?);
Both hands, left hand only, right hand only (this is actually very much effective);
In terms of harmonics, there are 8th, 6th, and 3rd;
Touch, i.e. legato, non-legato, portamente, staccato;
Intensity, pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff;
Rhythm, i.e. dotted or not among others (there are other variations);
Simply multiplied, how many are they? ... 24 x 2 x 2 x 3 x 3 x 4 x 6 x 2 = 41,472 combinations. Oops. No surprise we should spend much more time on scales.
I omitted the tempo as one of the parameters because we should normally play slowly, valuing every note carefully listening to it.

Practice note - Albeniz, El Albaicin from Ibaria Vol.3

1. Goal: controlled expression of passion wrapped mystically
2. Issues to overcome: distinguish different colors and touches; balance of left hand and right hand parts; smooth handover between left hand and right hand to clearly embosses the melody line
3. Practice tips:
・right fingering with wrist rotation effectively employed
・acrobatic mechanic in controlled and restrained intensity
4. Recommended recordings: Larrocha, Okada, Fukuma

Practice note - Beethoven, op.111, 1st mov.

1. Goal: utmost energy with outburst of unrestrained emotions
2. Issues to overcome: energetic, not mechanical, passages of 16th and the dynamic range exploited
3. Practice tips:
* fingering should be devised for expression, not ease of playing, prioritized
* subject motive clearly stand out with rapid streams of passages in background
4. Recommended recordings: Arrau, Brendel, Yukiko Tanaka, Kempf

Practice note－Haydn, Hob:XIV-52, 1st

1. Goal: amalgamation of grandiosity and delicacy
2. Issues to overcome: clear yet deep tones of harminies and evenness and leggiero of passages in 32th 3. Practice tips:
* utmost flexibility of wrists to grasp harmonics
* play rapid passages in continuum, chunks
4. Recommended recording: Kissin in London (live)

Performance that wins in competitions

Simply put, maybe too simplistic, it is a performance that is intricately built out and performed, not only on the stage, of course, but that construction began even before the performer even came to know that particular piece.
That is easier said than done, because there it requires passion, aspiration, yet also patience and persistence, and above all, the love of the game.
If you pursue to eliminate anything that is rough or unintelligent from every aspect of your performance, from every note, at any time, it would surely bring you a great enjoyment of performance, and anything beneficial for you might accompany that as well.
I do not say you can be number one because piano playing should not be monodimensional, but surely it would add great value to your life if you practice it over a sustained span of time, which I'm struggling to, and has just begun to, practice after a long years of wasteful practices, which, on looking back, may not be a loss after all...

Deadly sin is the wrong notes

Definition of "wrong notes": simply creating the note that is different from what is supposed to be the "right note". Narrowly defined, it means only about the key, but broadly defined, it would encompass intensity and tone or tonal quality.
Because each note (or tone in broad sense) is an indispensable component of musical performance, the wrong note is in every sense the things that should be avoided first and foremost, and failing to do that is the deadliest sin of all.

In order to avoid wrong notes, we must first nail down their causes. They are:
1. the performer does not have a clear understanding and thus picture of the right note
2. the performer fails to pay attention to every note
3. the performer left it to chance whether his or her touch would create the right note or not (probabilstic or gamble-like playing, I dare call it)

Countermeasures woule be:
1. full grasp of the positioning and meaning of each as a vital component of the whole through rigorous analyses and imaginations
2. on top of 1., pay particular attention in parctice and public performance as well to the priority notes and those who tend to lose attention by the performer. It requires not only concentration but also the flexibility and independence of all fingers so that the preceding finger motion does not constrain the suceeding motion and other physical aspects as well. Fundamentals of scales and arpeggios are indispensable to automate the group of notes played correctly through persistent and stedy practice would help this dimension a lot
3. in particular for those notes in sequence that require travelling distance, correct use of arms and body would also be needed in a coordinated way, let alone the travel needs to be the one with shortest distance without any abrupt and discontinuous motion, and placing the fingers just a split second before they touch the keys

... not every one of them is easier said than done, but the whole boils down to creating the beauty of sounds and any aspiring pianist, amateurs and professionals alike, should pursue them at all cost.

Practice note - Schumann, Toccata Op.7

1. Goal: express the drive with unceasing motions in polyphonic harmony
2. Issue to overcome;
- balance of intensity between different voices
- changes in colors due to harmonic movements
3. Practice tips:
- flexibility of wrists in octaves, ninth, and tenth
- right fingering that enables smooth movements
4. Recommended recordings: S. Richter, M. Stadtfeld

Practice note - J.S.Bach, WTC II-22

1. Goal: express solemnness and grandiose scale exploiting counterpoint potential in modern piano
2. Issues to overcome: control delicate touch as required at the right point
3. Practice tips:
- pursue finger pedalling proficiency
- pursue stereophonic harmony with full understanding of motives and their development

Practice note - Debussy, Etude #2 "for thirds"

1. Goal: diverse faces of flowing water gently and rather wildly at times
2. Issues to overcome: smooth and delicate thirds of both right and left hands with clear melody lines with distinct shifts in colors
3. Practice tips:
* fingering, fingering, fingering
4. Recommended recordings: Pollini, Hiromi Okada

Practice note - Rachmaninoff, Moments Musicaux, op.16, No.2

1. Goal: irrestible sorrow from the bottom of heart
2. Issues to overcome: clear melody line by right hand octaves and incessant and leggiero interweaving passages by both hands with right balance of sound volume
3. Practice tips:
* left hand only practice with flexible thumb
* deep and clear right hand octaves with flexible wrist and natural weighting
4. Recommended recording: Lugansky, Hemlin

Practice note - Chopin, Etude op.10-2

1. Goal: eeriness of supernatural being like a wind blowing
2. Isssues to overcome: utmost smoothness of legatissimo with weak fingers of right hand accentuated by (but with delicacy) of chords marked by both hands perfectly timied
3. Practice tips:
* follow Maestro Cortot's suggestions on sequence to achieve legato with the weak fingers of the right hand
* flesibility of the right thumbs maintained throughout
* weight center of the right hand shifted outward
* steady yet elegant movement of left hand chords
4. Edititions: Cortot's
5. Recommended recordings: Pollini, Yukio Yokoyama, Lugansky, Hiromi Okada, Claire Huangci (YouTube)

listen, listen, and listen with blank slate of mind

Music has not limit in scale and depth in the first place.
Piano as an instrment has evolved successfully over time to expand and exploit its potential to the fullest.
What I want to do is simply to experience the performances without any preconceptions, biases, or any sense that inhibits the joy of the experience.

Beten Piano Competition Award Winners' Concert

With such a short notice (because the competition itself has just been finished!), let me post an ad here for the concert I'd participate below:

The 2nd Beten Piano Competition Award Winners' Memorical Concert
Date and Time: Sunday, Jan. 8, 2009; 11:00- (1st part), 15:00- (2nd part)
Venue: Katsushika Symphony Hills, Mozart Hall (capacity: 1,300+ seats)

My performance will be in the 2nd part, around 16:00, although the program is not yet finished...

I dare to play a piece different from what I played at the Final, for the fist public performance for that particular piece : p