Pianist and Pedagogue
Since 2015 I’ve hosted a series for piano teachers called, “Exploring the Repertoire” at The Art of Piano Pedagogy on Facebook. 3-4 times a year we pick a theme (Women Composers, Bartok, Bach, Sonatinas, etc.) and discuss teaching strategies, favorite pieces, share student and teacher …
Each year the Music Teacher’s National Association (http://www.MTNA.org) hosts a convention. There are presentations, exhibitions, masterclasses, competitions, and concerts. I’ve attended State and National conferences before but this year I decided to apply to give a presentation for the first time. Thankfully, I was accepted! …
“You must compose for children the same way you write for adults, only better.” – Kabalevsky after Maxim Gorky
Since 2015 I’ve hosted a series for piano teachers called, “Exploring the Repertoire” at The Art of Piano Pedagogy on Facebook. 3-4 times a year we pick a theme (Women Composers, Bartok, Bach, Sonatinas, etc.) and discuss teaching strategies, favorite pieces, share student and teacher performances, etc.
For our most recent edition, our theme was Russian composer Dimitri Kabalevsky. This proved extremely popular as Kabalevsky’s works for elementary to early advanced students seem to hold a special place in the hearts of teachers and students alike. It also offered an opportunity to explore pieces that were unfamiliar to many teachers, myself included.
In addition to moderating, I recorded 28 of the 30 pieces from, “Music for Children” op. 27 on my home practice instrument. You can listen to my performances here.
Below is a short introduction to Kabalevsky, his music, and his teaching philosophy. In addition I have put together a listening guide to Kabalevsky’s enormous pedagogical output. It is designed to be browsed and used as a reference when looking for new teaching choices rather than devoured in one gulp. When possible I have included corresponding RCM, AMEB, and ABRSM levels. If you are a teacher many of these may already be a part of your teaching repertoire, but no doubt you will find some new gems as well.
Who was Kabalevsky?
Kabalevsky was born in St. Petersburg in 1904. His contemporaries include Russian virtuoso Vladimir Horowitz, who performed many of his works, and Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian.
While modern in style, his compositions are largely diatonic with a little chromaticism, quick shifts from major to minor tonality, quartal harmonies and lots of major 7th chords. As a result of his musical conservatism, he had an easier time as a composer under Soviet communism than Prokofiev or Shostakovich. But while his concert pieces remain popular, particularly “The Comedians” suite, he has not achieved the same status as a great composer.
It is perhaps his pieces for children which have the greatest staying power. This is not an accident as Kabalavsky loved working with young people, first teaching a class of seven year olds at the Scriabin Music School and then setting up a pilot music program whose syllabus was later adopted by every school in the USSR. His writings on the subject include, “Music and Education: A Composer Writes about Musical Education” published posthumously in 1988.
Kabalevsky died of a heart attack in 1987 at a conference in which he was to lecture on nuclear disarmament having devoted the last 30+ years of his life to teaching children music and promoting world peace.
Music for Young People
Of Kabalevsky’s 253 published pieces, nearly half are for children. Kabalevsky believed music for children should fall into three forms: march, song, and dance.
To illustrate this he published “A Story of Three Whales” in 1970. In the story, he relays an ancient slavic myth that the earth was supported on the back of three whales. For Kabalevsky, all larger musical forms (symphonies, oratorio, opera) were derived from the three basic building blocks of march, song and dance.
“Songs, dancing music, and marching music – these three main forms are unnoticeable because they are so easily woven into our lives, yet no one person can do without them, even when he may think he does not like music.”
In comparing music education to literature he believed that folk and fairy tales told to children before they could read formed the groundwork from which the great works of literature could be comprehended. Nationalistic and folk songs with a narrow vocal range play a large role in Kabalevsky’s compositions.
For ease of comprehension textures are generally clear, triads are played in parallel motion, melodies are often in five finger positions, and many pieces are written with the hands playing in unison. Virtually all of Kabalevsky’s writing is idiomatic to the instrument and a limited number of concepts and technical challenges are found in each piece, so as not to overwhelm the student.
Pedagogical Approach
Not unlike Kodaly, Suzuki, and Gordon, Kabalevsky took a sound-before-sight approach to teaching children. He believed that “music is experienced first through listening, then singing, and finally through seeing.” For Kabalevsky the role of the listener was as important as that of the composer and performer. At the core teaching children was the development of what Kodaly called “inner hearing” – hearing music inside one’s head without those sounds being externally present.
Listening Guide
Below I have put together an overview with video examples.
a. Music For Children op. 27 and 39
b. 35 Easy Pieces op. 89
c. Variations
d. Rondos
e. In the Pioneer Camp op 3/86 and From Pioneer Life op 14
Op. 27 30 Pieces for Children
Was written from 1937-38 and later revised. The pieces range from intermediate to early advanced and feature many studio favorites.
Fairy Tale (n. 20) was a favorite amongst our participants. It also provoked some controversy. It features a beautiful melody on top of broken first inversion chords. The controversy was in regards to the tempo marking: ‘andantino’. Andantino generally implies a little faster than one would walk but many teachers preferred a slower tempo to bring out the beauties of the line and harmony. Other teachers felt that too slow a tempo loses the child-like innocence of the piece.
For comparison I’ve included my own quicker recording with Diane Hidy’s beautifully crafted slower performance.
Etudes in A minor (n. 3), F major (n. 24) and A major (n. 26)
These are a wonderful ways to work on technical patterns in the context of exciting music. Both F and A major require the students to play arpeggios in one hand, scales in the other. I used ‘adult’ tempos but they needn’t be played so fast.
Toccatina (n. 12) and Sonatina (n. 18) are perennial favorites. Both are in A minor and are rhythmically dynamic without being too hard. I chose to interpret Kabalevsky’s slurring literally in the Toccatina but some teachers prefer longer phrases.
Playing Ball (n. 5) is an etude of sorts for playing fast repeated notes. It’s also a lot of fun as the ‘balls’ jump all over the keyboard. For the three repeated notes we had a wide variety of favorite fingering choices: 2-2-2, 4-3-2, 4-3-1, 3-2-3, 3-3-2, 3-3-3, and 3-1-3. The choice which received the least love was 3-2-1. To be a contrarian I recorded with this fingering.
Waltz (n. 1), A Little Song (n. 2), and A Night at the River (n. 4) are the simplest pieces of the set. The Waltz is music box like, the other pieces hauntingly sad and quintesentially Russian.
A Little Prank (n. 13) is playful and great for working on fast five finger patterns.
Song of the Calvary (n. 29) is regularly performed at festivals and competitons. Playing the left hand melody against the right hand chords is not easy to coordinate but well worth the effort.
Meadow Dance (n. 17) sounds like it belongs in a Miyazaki film. The left hand chord leaps are deceptively difficult.
Novelette (n. 25) was another favorite amongst are members. It is Schumann-inspired and tells a sad story.
Op. 39 24 Pieces for Children
Features some of Kabalevsky’s most beloved works. The first 12 pieces are at a late elementary level, the second twelve early intermediate. I’ve used my Art of Piano Pedagogy co-admin Jason Sifford’s recordings. You can listen to his complete performance of the set here.
Melody (n. 1) a simple three note tune with diads in the l.h.
Polka (n. 2) is a happy dance with a legato melody in the l.h. and staccato diads in the right.
A Little Joke (n. 6) is capricious with parrallel motion between the hand mixing staccato and two note slurs.
A Funny Event (n. 7) features copy cat play between the two hands.
A Little Dance (n. 9) is a jolly folk dance great for students working on primary and 7th chords.
March (n. 10) uses a short-long rhythm to create a pompous march. The black keys sections can be taught by rote.
Scherzo (n. 12) is heavily patterned and sounds harder than it is. This is always a favorite in my studio.
Waltz (n. 13) Melody in the r.h. with diads in the left and a little mode mixture.
Jumping (n. 15) is a fun coordinational challenge with the hands playing the same melodic figures but with different rhythms.
Clowns (n. 20) polled as our favorite Kabalevsky. The rapid switching between major and minor seems to represent the happy and sad painted faces.
Slow Waltz (n. 23) uses off beat chords in the l.h., single notes and sixths in the right. This is a funny and sometimes sardonic dance.
Op. 89 35 Easy Pieces
Was written between 1972 and 1974 and is similar in difficulty to op. 39. It represents a lifetime of experience writing for children and is his last published work for piano. One senses a feeling of completeness as he writes in meters and keys not contained in the earlier sets.
Amongst the simplest pieces are:
At Recess (n. 4) uses almost all thirds played with fingers 2 and 4, played as two note slurs or staccato quarters.
First Waltz (n. 5) Slightly melancholy with the melody in the l.h. Accompaniment and countermelody in the r.h.
Little Hedgehog (n. 8) Contrary motion broken chords and little dissonances depicting the playful, spikey animal.
Little Goat Limping (n. 19) The use of the irregular meter of 5/4 perfectly captures the limp. The drone bass gives the piece the feel of a folk song.
The Little Juggler (n. 21) is a lot of fun with one hand playing a broken octave, the other crossing over and back.
Chastushka (n. 25) A joyous folk song toccata with offbeat “wrong note” minor seconds and lots of crossing over.
Stubborn Little Brother (n. 27) A humorous piece with a gentle melody in the r.h. continually interrupted by accented repeated notes in the left.
More Challenging pieces include:
A Merry Tune (n. 26) is rollicking song written in parallel motion with a brief excursion to the minor (played here by APP member Jackie Sharp).
Rabbit Teasing a Bear Cub (n. 31) The l.h. lumbering bear moves slowly while the r.h. hare flits around interrupting his journey.
Almost a Waltz (n. 33) is a little sad a first but settles into contentment at the end. It is in a crooked 7/8 meter.
Melancholy Rain (n. 34) has ‘rain drops’ in the left hand, a fragmented sad melody in the left.
Trumpet and Drum (n. 20) is a hit with students. The ‘trumpet’ is in the right hand playing broken chords. The drum is in the left repeating a rhythmic ostinato.
Variations
Kabalevsky wrote many variation sets:
Variations op. 40 features two variation sets in D major (RCM 9) and A minor (RCM 10). They are a longer and more technically challenging than op. 51.
Easy Variations for Piano op. 51 features five sets based on Russian and Ukranian themes. These were familiar folk themes to his students and the pieces often sound harder than they are.
Variations on Folk Themes op. 87 uses well known international songs such as Sakura and “All the Pretty Little Horses”
Other collections by Kabalevsky include
Four Rondos op. 60 played at the link below by APP member Dan Severino (all are RCM 7). The first three of these pieces exemplifies Kabalevsky’s “three whales.”
The fourth is a tocatta.
www.pianolessonsplus.org/40-p-iece-challenge-2018-2019
In the Pioneer Camp op 3/86 and From Pioneer Life op 14
The Youth Pioneers was a movement similar to that of scouting in the U.S., although they were government sponsored and part of their function was to teach children and early adolescents communist doctrine.
These works that can be played separately or as a set. Op. 14 captures the activities of Youth Pioneers at camp including drumming, sport, vacationing, singing, and march. Op. 3/86 is a day in the life of scouts from early morning, exercises, river hiking, forest and mountain trails, extraordinary events, and an evening by the campfire.
The teacher may or may not want to discuss or not discuss the communist roots, but these are delightful pieces that will be enjoyed by any student who enjoys scouting, hiking, and camping.
I hope you have have found this post informative. I’d love to hear from you regarding your own experiences with Kabalevsky’s music in the comment section!
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The question of tone quality comes up amongst pianists regularly. It is often said that no matter what the pianist does all that matters is the speed of the hammer when it hits the strings. This is partially true from the point of view of physics where all that is taken into account is the relationship between the fundamentals and partials. But what we consider to be “tone quality” is a result of a complex and fascinating combination of the mechanics of the instrument, the body, and human perception. Without getting too technical here is a brief overview:
Pitch generally corresponds with frequency. The higher the frequency, the higher the pitch. Few sounds are made of pure, regular sound waves. The number and intensity of overtones (partials) are what allow us to distinguish between a harp and a violin. This can be described as timbre.
Our bodies react to external stimuli via the end organs of the inner ear (fine hair-cells), our retinas (rods and cones) and through touch (bulbs beneath the skin). In piano playing we are primarily concerned with auditory stimuli but when we play the piano or watch the piano being played our vision and touch can also play significant roles in our perception of tone quality.
What we perceive to be tone quality is a result of three different attributes combined to create a single aural experience.
a. Pitch- frequency
b. Intensity- tonal loudness
c. Duration- length of time the pitch is sounded
Each of these elements can vary greatly. It is through combining these elements that a vast array of tone colors are created at the piano.
Otto Ortmann, was an American educator who served as director of the Peabody Conservatory from 1928 to 1942. Beginning in the 1920’s Ortmann and other researchers began using a device called the oscillograph to record and create graphic representations of sound waves.
The results were fascinating. For instance, the higher a pitch is played on a trombone, the fewer partials are present and a more pure tone quality is produced.
The greater the intensity (loudness) of a mezzo-soprano when singing A=440 the greater the complexity.
The shorter the duration of a sound on the piano the more noise and less tone we perceive.
When we play a key we hear not only the tone produced by the instrument but also how percussively the key is played and mechanical noises produced by the instrument (finger-key impact, key-bed impact, hammer-string impact, hammer-check impact, and friction among the action parts).
A percussive sound is created by striking the key from above. A non-percussive sound by staying close to the surface of the key.
Ortmann showed in his research that these noise and percussive elements affect the way we perceive the quality of tone. Subsequent research, including this study published in Novemeber 2014 issue of “The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,” support that view.
A fascinating blog post on the study can be read at Physics Central:physics buzz blog.
As Ortmann notes, the effect of duration in piano playing is particularly striking as the human ear is not capable of separating the noise elements present at the beginning of a tone from the tone itself. When the noise elements were removed in the recording studio even professional musicians were unable to identify the tone as being produced by a piano, and instead guessed double bass, flute, violin, and other instruments.
The piano does not sound like a piano without a human being playing it.
If you want to create a soft sound at the piano play slowly into the key. If you want to play loudly, play fast. However, volume is not the only thing that is altered by varying the key speed. The mix of overtones shift as well.
If you play too slowly the hammer will fail to hit the string and a weak sound, or no sound at all will be produced.
If you play too fast a harsh sound that fails to carry is created. This is due the suddenness of the attack which causes the strings to segment the vibrations rather than allowing the whole length of the string to vibrate, enforcing the fundamental sound.
Children and amateur pianists often make the mistake of believing volume is created by force and will press and push on the keybed. This is a waste of muscular effort and creates an unpleasant tone. As soon as the hammer has struck the string there is nothing we can do to alter the sound other than activating or releasing the dampers. It is important to separate our emotional response to the music from the physical means of tone production.
Despite some claims to the contrary, how we physically play the instrument matters. Small changes in alignment and balance can produce large differences in tone production due the way they vary transfer of energy into the key and alter key speed. I’m always astonished how simply unlocking a joint or balancing the finger into a key, a weak, flabby tone can suddenly sound rich and full.
As Thomas Mark notes in his book “What Every Pianist Needs to Know About the Body,”the kinesthetic energy delivered to the string is a function of mass and the velocity of the hammer. But kinesthetic energy fluctuates not with the velocity but with the square of the velocity. Consequently, a change in velocity by a certain percent…will result in a larger change in the kinetic energy delivered to the string. This means that seemingly slight changes in the speed of key descent produce large differences in volume and tone quality.”
At the 1:02:00 mark of this Masterclass, Leon Fleisher suggests to a student playing the opening of Beethoven op. 110 that she play more on the pad of the fingers in order to slow the descent of the key and create a more lyrical sound.
At the 2:20 mark of this Masterclass, Fleisher suggest that the pianist play the opening of Prokofiev’s 6th Sonata on the tips of the fingers in order to create a bright and percussive sound.
In order to drop into weighted keys without having to use excessive force, forearm weight is essential. While the weight of the arm does not directly affect the sound, it can indirectly change the tone quality by altering the speed of key descent. For instance, asking the forearm to release more weight into the key can cause the key to descend more slowly and less percussively.
One particularly useful way creating different sounds at the piano used by Tobias Matthay was to think in terms of “arm touch”, “hand touch”, and “finger touch”. We of course use all three in combination when playing (moving any part of the body in insolation is in-coordinate), but by slightly altering the proportions we can create different tonal effects.
This was first shown to me in a lesson with Nina Tichman, an expert in Debussy. I was preparing Book 1 of the Preludes for a performance and played for her “Voiles.” The opening passage depicts a sail fluttering in the wind. She suggested playing the opening third with a weighty “arm” sound to ring in the air, the descending thirds with “finger sounds” to create the light flutter of the sail, and the final gesture with “hand” sounds for the ending gust. Immediately the passage took on three distinct colors and sonorities.
You can see her masterful performance of the work here at 1:03:10.
It can be great fun going through your repertoire and experimenting with different combinations.
Ortmann recognized that we mostly use visual and tactile imagery to describe sound. In his book, “The Physiological Mechanics of Piano Technique” he dedicates a chapter to unpacking what goes into creating these sound images for the listener. Here is a brief summary:
Image Pitch Intensity Duration Percussion/Noise Technique
The sound quality needed in the beginning of Schubert Sonata in Bb D. 960 will not be effective at the opening of Bartok’s “Allegro Barbaro.” Provided we create them in a way that is healthy for our bodies, the greater the range of sounds we can conjure up at the instrument, the more interesting our playing will be.
The focus of this post has been on altering the tone quality of a single note. But there are many other ways to alter the tonal qualities including use of the damper and una corda pedals, balancing chords, melody vs. accompaniment, musical line, and timing. Some factors like regulation of the instrument and acoustics of the space are out of our control.
What is so remarkable about the piano is the seemingly endless sounds and colors that, with knowledge and imagination, we can draw from it. I hope this post will inspire you to experiment and enjoy all the possibilities that the instrument has to offer.
Please let me know if you enjoyed this post. Questions and comments welcomed!
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In my previous “Junior Virtuosos” post I described strategies for helping young students to find a natural hand position. This week I would like to a focus on the next essential step to developing a healthy technique: Dropping and balancing into a key using the weight of …
One of the most common questions piano teachers have is: how do I help my student to develop and maintain a good hand position? To answer this question we first have to define what a good hand position is and what it is not.
A good hand position is a hand that is in its natural alignment. To find it is simple enough. Drop the arm loosely by the side of the body and voila!
When hanging by the side of the body our fingers have a gentle curve, the main knuckle is prominent, there is a little space between the fingers, and the hand and forearm are in one piece. The thumb acts as an extension of the forearm. The ‘look’ of the hand will vary a bit from person to person but these features remain consistent.
To help the student become familiar with this alignment a mirror is useful. I like to begin each lesson by taking a moment to check the students seating and reminding them of their natural alignment, dropping the hand by the side of the body and bringing it to the keyboard exactly as it is.
Another trick is have the student flip over the hand palm up
and then place it palm down on the keyboard in the same alignment.
There are various images you can use such as: “bless the piano,” “hold a cup of soup” etc. I find “hold a cup of ice cream” works best because when students are asked to hold a cup of soup they often squeeze their fingers together to stop the soup from spilling out.
The trouble teachers often run into is our language is ambiguously descriptive. The most common example of this is instructing the student to play with “curved” fingers. But one person’s curve is another’s curl. A student with long fingers is going to look quite different than one with short fingers. Our own lax hand is the perfect model of what our hand should look like at the keyboard.
In many old method books the student is instructed to hold a ball, or an egg, or a bubble.
The problem with these images is they encourage the student to curl the fingers overworking the flexors. There is nothing natural about curling the fingers. The only time we might do so walking down the street is if we saw someone scary walking by.
3. Common Pitfalls
The most common pitfall for students is our human desire to be “neat and tidy.” Students will often try and line their fingers up, one per white key over a five finger position.
In doing so the fingers are abducted (spread apart) causing unnecessary tension in the hand. For a young child their hand will only cover 3-4 keys. Even most adult hands will not cover more than 4-4 1/2 keys in their natural hand alignment.
I find it useful to have students practice bringing the hand to the keyboard with their eyes closed to avoid this problem. Most are shocked how few keys the hand covers.
Another “neat and tidy” issue is the common desire to straighten at the wrist. When our hand is hanging by the side of the body neither side of the hand is in a straight line with the hand, nor is the hand angling towards the side (as if pigeon-toed or Charlie Chaplin’s feet). No particular finger should line up with the forearm. The image I most commonly use for the hand is a “tulip and its stem.” (Thanks Teresa Dybvig for the image and Lauren Sonder for the tulip drawing!)
If I find a student is getting out of alignment I will ask them to take their hand away from the keyboard, shake it out a bit, and bring it back exactly as it is. A word of warning about the word “alignment.” Students, including adults, will often hear “line” and proceed to make a straight line with parts of their body.
The other common pitfall is what a colleague calls negraclaviphobia (“Fear of the black keys”). Students are so afraid of having their fingers in the black key area that they curl them in avoidance.
Some old method books even advocate making the finger tips into a straight line (eek!) to avoid the black keys. It’s hard to imagine a more unnatural use of the hand. For a young or small handed child the fingers will be near the black keys. For an older or larger-handed student the fingers will be in the black key area if the thumb is playing.
(Martha Argerich’s gorgeous hands)
The key is lighter the further away we get from the fallboard. When the thumb is not playing it is preferable to have the thumb off the keyboard provided no black keys are to be played in the near future. The intricacies of moving In and Out in relation to the fallboard will be explored in a future post.
This brings us to another pitfall: dangling thumbs. The intrinsic muscles of the hand at the base of the thumb are the heaviest in the hand. Students will often allow the thumb to drop down below the keyboard causing the rest of the hand to collapse.
In addition to reminding students of their natural alignment, I enjoy the image of the thumb tip being a “ghost with a flashlight (or laser beam).” The light can go up or down, side to side, or shine at an angle but it should always shine on the fallboard when not playing.
Even more than knowing how the hand should look at the keyboard we need to know how it should feel. The body awareness of children is generally quite low. If you ask them the lift their elbow many will lift their shoulder instead. Two effective approaches to developing awareness are moving in and out of the mid-range of motion and asking questions.
Moving in and out of the mid-range of motion: Our range of motion (ROM) is the motion allowed by the joint’s shape and surrounding soft tissue to allow a specific movement between bones. When the hand is in its natural alignment the joints of the hand are in the mid-range of motion. We can develop awareness by moving in and out of the mid-range. I like to begin by having the student move towards the end-range of motion and back to neutral. For instance:
Curling the fingers and then returning to neutral
Straightening the fingers and returning to neutral
Spreading the fingers and returning to neutral
Squeezing the fingers and returning to neutral
Angling the hand towards the thumb (radial deviation) and returning to neutral
Angling the hand towards the fifth finger (ulnar deviation) and returning to neutral
Dropping the hand at the wrist and returning to neutral
Raising the hand at the wrist and returning to neutral
Over time you can make these movement smaller and smaller so the student becomes aware of when they are using unnecessary tension. Regularly asking the student to verbalize how their hands feel will help them further increase their awareness. At first they may not feel much of anything but the more times you revisit these movements the greater their awareness will expand.
With young beginners there is rarely an occasion in the elementary repertoire to leave their natural hand alignment. Gross motor skills come before fine, arm before hand. I make a point of avoiding legato playing until the student is capable of maintaining a natural hand position and using their arm weight by lifting and dropping the hand-forearm as a unit from the elbow joint. For a beginning four or five year old this might take a year or more.
As the student progresses they will be asked to play increasingly varied figurations including large intervals, leaps, and chords. Our muscles were designed to alternate between tension and relaxation. When playing a large interval like an octave (or for a young student a 6th) the hand does not need to return all the way to the size it would be in when hanging by the side of the body. But it does need to beclose enough to release excessive tension . This is what Dr. Teresa Dybvig calls “open but unstretched.” When the hand is open but unstretched there is a greater distance between the fingers but the abductors are not activated.
To help the student feel this place gently open the students hand for them (always ask permission before touching) so they can feel what it is for the hand to open passively. Alternate between having them actively stretch open the fingers and having them opened passively. In my adult male hand this is somewhere between a 6th or 7th depending how my body feels that day.
I began by using the term hand “position” but in actuality the goal is not to find a fixed position at all. Rather, when a student is aware of their natural alignment they have a healthy neutral from which to depart from and return to allowing for maximum freedom and ease of movement.
Please let me know if you enjoyed this post. Questions and comments welcomed!