We will be hosting our 2nd Winter Workshop over Christmas break  at the BC Conservatory of Music. If you are not familiar with this wonderful genre of classical music, please listen to some string quartets or piano trios. All the great composers have written for this genre, and instrumentation for chamber music can range from a smaller group of duo, trio, quartet to  larger ensembles such as quintet, sextet, septet or octet.

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In addition to listening and watching world-class performances of classical music, YouTube offers a wide variety of music-related videos such as documentaries, masterclasses, tutorials, films, analyses, interviews with renowned artists and scholars etc etc. Beginner students can also benefit from this immense resource as there are many wonderful classical music cartoons and great composer documentaries for children on YouTube as well. 

We are excited to start learning our favourite piece of music, and our passion and desire often makes us want to learn it quickly, but this tendency usually ends up working negatively. The first step in learning a new piece involves a lot of "brain work", figuring out the most basics: notes, rhythm, fingering etc etc. But if one is impatient, one will encounter more mistakes in the learning process, and as a result, you might feel like you're off to a faster start, but you will definitely end up spending more time fixing the mistakes in the process.

J. S. Bach is commonly known as the "Father of Music", but to me his unfathomable achievements deserve far beyond this. Bach acquired his compositional skills, simply unmatched by any other composer, primarily through diligent self-study, intense copying, studying, and transcibing works of his contemporaries.  And the most intriguing part is that somehow he managed to come up with the most complex contrapuntal music every written, and not to mention his vast output for all genres except for operas. Also, considering how there wasn't much machineries and absolutely zero technologies during his lifetime. His achievements are beyond monumental!

In a more simplistic way, playing the piano is very similar compared to other physical activities, such as dance, gynastics, yoga, that require repetitive motions to build up muscle memory. Therefore, understanding how to make muscle memory work FOR you is a highly important concept. Like a double-edged sword, muscle memory can work for you but incorrect muscle memory, due to improper training, can work AGAINST you!

The Schubertiade Salon Series kicked off with a lovely enthusiatic audience at the cathedral last night. The wonderful acoustics and salon-like setting of the chancel provided a perfect setting for a memorable opening concert for the new series.

One aspect that is often overlooked is how to sit at the piano (see the image). Very often students do not sit properly, and even if they are "set-up" correctly, they would slouch or crisscross their feet, compromising their posture, which is very important because it affects the sound and the technique. For young students who cannot reach the floor, it is important for provide a foot stool, or even better, a pedal extender, so that their feet are not dangling at the piano. Part of the energy from playing the piano comes from the feet!

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There are three senses at work when playing a musical instrument: sight, hearing and touch. However, the product of music making is simply HEARING, and when one is playing, it is impossible for our ears to be functioning at 100%. And this is still the case even for the top musicians in the world.

One needs to supplement scales and arpeggios with additional exercises such as Hanon to strengthen the fingers. These are designed to build a strong and flexible foundation for challenging musical works and to achieve even finger control with smooth, clear tone. They serve as a wonderful daily warm-up.

I would like to share this wonderful interview of Condoleezza Rice, the former Secretary of State, who is also an highly gifted musician who at one point seriously considered pursuing music as a profession. Rice also claims that "playing the piano made her a better secretary of state," and despite her extremely extremely super super busy schedule, she "always finds time to practice."