Following twitter followers

I finally found a pocket of time today to check out the followers of my twitter account BLOGMAIDEN. While Robert is working with our sound engineer on the final mastering of our first CD downstairs, I am discovering interesting people with interesting ideas and music to share.

When I opened Joseph Akins’ website, I was greeted with the most lovely piano music I’ve not heard in a long time. It’s new and refreshing and original. I surfed through his well-organised website to find a video clip I could put in this blog. I am sure it exists somewhere. His audio samples relaxed me as I browsed other twitterers’ profiles and links.

Joseph Akins is a composer, pianist, keyboardist, and producer. I’m not surprised. Musicians are multi-faceted. No one is just a pianist. I’m sure that my fellow musicians have portfolio careers as I have. We perform. We compose. We organise concerts. We write reviews. We teach.

Another pianist who followed me on twitter is Paul Kenyon. The samples of his performances of music of Haydn, Schumann, and Debussy are crisp and clear. Having had Joseph’s music continuously streaming in the first hour, I wished that Paul’s music could accompany me in the next hour. But it wasn’t set up that way.

The above are just two examples of two very different kinds of pianists. I discovered that this blog of our piano guitar duo also attracts guitarists.

The website of Simon Powis welcomes me to a world of classical guitar. He had contacted me back in September 2009 about my sight reading thesis (which I wrote for my piano teaching diploma) for he was working on his doctoral thesis on the very subject, but for guitar. I see from his calendar that he is finishing soon and will pass through the UK before returning to Australia. Maybe I will finally get to meet him, if our trip to London in the first half of August pans out.

Once upon a time, I had to know what I was looking for. Use a search engine with the right keywords, cross my fingers, and hope to find what I was looking for. Now, interesting people find me, giving me new ideas and new insight into the world of music. I don’t know how they find me on twitter. Their websites are professional. Their music mesmerising. Their blogs, well-written and food for thought.

Before I go down stairs to reclaim my space for practising the piano, I must mention the blogs of clarinetist David Thomas. His is the kind I want to read and leave my comments. Dare I also reveal that I long to play Schumann’s Fantasiestücke Op. 73 with a clarinet player. My Romanian bassoonist friend had introduced it to me. I loved it so much that I transcribed it to play with French horn. Later I tried it with cello, but never clarinet. At least not yet.

Twitter

The routine and rhythm of daily practice

A concert pianist, who claimed to know more than 100 piano concertos from memory, once told me that competition winners have to lock themselves in a room and practise for hours on end before they will be ready to go on tour.

I don’t remember his exact words, but I do question the need to “lock themselves in a room.”

My piano with scores divided into piles for French horn, cello, guitar, flute, and solo piano

Practising is not so boring or tedious that you have to lock yourself in a room to accomplish the task. You do need to resist the temptation to stop practising though. I think that’s what he meant.

You don’t get paid to practice. You will miss out on a lot of activities, including the world around you. You have to be able to give up many things, including the temptation of interruption.

Everything becomes an interruption. Phone calls. Door bells. E-mail checks. Breaks for the loo. Tea breaks. Coffee breaks. Lunch breaks. Dinner breaks. It has been said that breaks are good. One must not practise without a break.

After my trip to Helsinki in November 2009, I decided to enter a self-induced piano marathon. I would practise as long as I could by liberating my diary of commitments. I stopped taking Dutch language lessons. I declined meal invitations. In spite of this, I could only manage a maximum of five hours piano practice. There were still too many interruptions and responsibilities in my life.

The view into the reception and winter light from my piano

Just before Christmas, a computer programmer by day and pianist otherwise told me that 4 hours is a good target, if you have a full-time job. I should be able to do more. At university, I once clocked in 4 hours practising for my senior recital. I had the time but not the stamina then. Now I have the stamina but not the time.

I suppose the only way to clock in more practice time is to get into a regular routine and rhythm. Wake up early. Simplify all meals. Delegate all house chores. Switch off the telephone and the wireless Internet. Stop blogging. Stop writing.

Help! I need to lock myself in a room so no one else can enter and interrupt my practice. And I’d better do this before the seasons change and the (hopefully) warmer weather and (happy) sun tempt me outside.

The view from my piano to the garden house and the outside world

Practise to perform: clocking performance time

On Carnegie Hall’s website, it says “While it takes some people a lifetime of practice to get to Carnegie Hall (as the saying goes), others just have to follow these simple directions.”

Question: “How to get to Carnegie Hall?” Answer: “practice, practice, practice!”

Before our first concert in 2010 in Doorn, Netherlands

For a chamber music duo like ours, not only do we have to practise alone, we also need to rehearse together. Just putting in the hours, however, is not enough. I have come to the conclusion that we need to clock in performance time.

A pilot’s flying experience is often measured by his flying time. No amount of flying inside a flight simulator can substitute for actually flying a plane full of passengers. However, not all planes and routes are equal. Cargo and passengers are different. Short haul is different from long haul flights.

Similarly, not all concerts are equal. A house concert is very different from a big public concert hall. Playing at a nursing home is different from playing in a museum. Is it then possible to practise performing?

After our first concert of our 2010 programme in Doorn in January, I practised even harder. At our second concert in Amsterdam, I realised that I should focus on what I thought were easy pieces. I had spent so much time gaining confidence on the difficult pieces, that I had underestimated the challenge of playing the easy pieces in sync with the guitar.

Robert Bekkers studying his score during the intermission at Doorn

The more we perform, the sooner we will be ready to record our second CD. That is our ultimate goal: to record a CD so that we can move on to new repertoire. We want to reach that stage, as we did in 2009, of being so confident in our playing that we can perform anytime anywhere without any advance notice. Having reached that point in 2009, I long to get there with our new programme.

And so, we accepted a last-minute request from a composer to perform his work at a private party. We offered to play a few pieces from our new programme at another private party the following week. We deliberately challenged ourselves to play to a knowing audience of culture vultures, composers, musicians, and real aficionados of classical music. We were the invited guests, just like everyone else, but we put ourselves to work before we could indulge in the wine and festivities.

Those two occasions in Amsterdam were “tryouts” for us.

“Tryout” translates to “please forgive us if we make mistakes or don’t deliver the quality we intended.” Tryouts are usually free because the performers need the audience, not the other way around. Performers use tryouts — a concert before a concert — to get ready. It’s the step between the last rehearsal and first important performance.

Next Saturday 13th February 2010, I will go to a “tryout” house concert of a violin / piano programme of Grieg, Prokofiev, Debussy and De Falla. I will attend to support the pianist who is a good friend. I will also attend out of curiosity. I’m sure there will be others in the audience that I know and want to catch up with. It’s nearby and it’s free. [See my blog entries on why musicians attend concerts part one and two.]

Perhaps our duo will offer to “tryout” a piece as a surprise. Probably not.

Why musicians attend concerts, part 2

My earlier blog “why musicians attend concerts” caused such an outcry on facebook that I am expanding it in part two.

The same question can be rephrased, as my economics professor friend in the UK so aptly put it, as “why would professors read papers/books by other professors when they are so busy writing their own papers/books?”

Indeed, why would artists attend art exhibitions if their own works are not included? Why would authors attend book-signing events of other authors? Clearly, that is not the point, as summarised in the last facebook comment:
“birds of a feather flock together, and you can always learn from others in your profession.”

One answer is to get a different perspective on the way you do things. A high school classmate, who became a professional sports trainer, wrote “This is a common issue for yoga instructors as well. While it may be challenging to find the time to attend other teachers’ classes it can be so refreshing to not hear your own voice! It also gives you a chance to experience someone else’s movement sequences and phraseology.”

A fellow composer mentioned that a concert could be a valuable networking occasion. Networking for musicians is critical for information gathering, deal making, idea generation, and relationship building. There is opportunity to do so before and after a concert, and sometimes during the intermission if there is one.

It is also a way to benchmark yourself against others in your own profession. This is the reason why industry conferences are so popular. A decision scientist I met at an operations research conference in California said, “The biggest reason is checking out the competition and maybe seeing how others perform. …how they come across to their audience. Second minor reasons might be because they’re friends or you just like to hear music! Why do us decision scientists always need a reason for doing something you enjoy! …or am I missing something here?!”

As a performer, I would attend a concert to check out the venue. Does it have nice acoustics? How is the space? Is it easy to get to? Do the concert organisers do publicity? Does it have its own audience?

Perhaps I should retitle this blog: “why do, would, and should musicians attend concerts of other musicians?”

Chinese opera in Amsterdam

A composer invited me to hear a new work which is being premiered at the Chinese Opera Weekend in the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t Ij. “Sorry,” I replied. “My piano guitar duo is giving a concert in Bussum that afternoon.”

This invitation, though declined, was enough to make me curious. How did she, a Dutch singer and composer, get to write for a Chinese instrument? How did she get her work performed at the shining new 21st century building that embraces new music?

What was Chinese opera doing in Amsterdam?

I checked out the web site of the “Music Building on the Ij.” The description of Chinese Opera Weekend, like other concerts, was written only in Dutch. Despite this, it’s possible to see that there are many things happening that Saturday and Sunday in Holland. Several kinds of operas (Peking, Sichuan) are being performed on 13th and 14th February 2010. It is definitely unusual to see this kind of event in the Netherlands — truly authentic Chinese performance of an ancient tradition.

I wonder if local Chinese restaurants are offering special discounts to these concerts. It would be a good way to get those fond of Chinese cuisine to see a bit of Chinese culture.

I, who grew up with my parents watching Chinese opera on television, decided to write to my 79-year old father, who is working on his memoirs.

“Is it true that Chinese opera is only appreciated by the older Chinese generation? Would it be interesting to go see it, here in Amsterdam? Should I educate myself first?”

He replied:

On the eve of Feb 14, why not consult Wikipedia offered by Google and you could more or less understand more than you wish to know? I’ve just read it, and would like to thank you for giving me the chance to find how little or shallow I really grasped the vicissitudes, evolution, status and profound this Guoju, the National Opera.

Yes, it takes education for a Chinese to enjoy this King of all Chinese local operas, since it prevails in all provinces, while local operas prevail only in their respective prov, mainly based on their dialects. However, just like Western opera, Beijing opera attracts only the elderly who grew up in the old society, a jargon of the Communists. The young are crazy about Avatar, hip-hop, hits or pops. Generation gaps?

Grannnie, Grandpa, and Father Ku when they were young

Late Grandpa once told Grannie and me he had been crazy about Peiping Opera (Pingju, called during 1927-1949 while Chiang Kai-shek unified China, not de facto of course). He spent his boyhood in impoverished environment, but he managed to get into theatres and watch almost every play for free. How?

Well, he admitted that as a boy, he was naughty but witty. He simply followed a crowd of theater-goers jostling into the gate. He pretended he was with one of the crowd, and since he was a boy, ticket checkers cared little about his presence. Once he got in, he immediately found a vacant front seat, or simply stood watching aside if he was not lucky enough to get a seat.

The role he liked best, he told me, was Sheng (young man role), not Dan (young woman role), as most fans are interested in, and the reason why. He always loved to share with Grannie and me his experience in watching those vivid, picturesque, elite parts of Chinese culture, which are all based on Chinese history, romances, legends.

On holidays in Shanghai, he would play Chinese musical instruments (he could play three of them very well) and often hum along a few arias. And he had read quite a few Chinese classics, and always considered his second beloved course was history (the first is Chinese and English).

Under his influence, I’ve read a lot of Chinese historical novels, essays, poetry, other genres of Chinese literature. And he was always happy about this and even proud of me. (When I told him all of you had completed your higher education outstandingly, he felt his struggle had not been in vain, and considered all of you the pride of the Ku family).

In retrospect, I would have ended up with majoring in history at Taita, because on the eve of filling in the form to attend the entrance exam in 1952, I decisively chose the foreign language and literature dept as my first choice, and let history be my second without hesitation.

You ask me whether Peking Opera attracts Westerners. My answer is: I don’t think Chinese audiences can accept Western opera. Isn’t Kipling’s tagline correct? The culture gap or wall is so wide that even people in the same country have difficulty conquering it.

The website you attached to your email is in Dutch, which is Greek to me. If English can be called my “uncle tongue” (I coin this), then any other foreign language is my “cousin tongue,” so to speak.

A Chinese banquet in Hsinchu, Taiwan: (from left) the bicycle attendant, dad, late grandpa and grannie, me, grandpa's assistant

Writing concert reviews

For the reasons I listed in my previous blog entry “why musicians attend concerts,” I don’t expect professional musicians (performers) to come to my concerts or any concert. If I tally the total time spent on attending a concert, including the round-trip journey, it’s quite a chunk out of someone’s normal day.

However, I do “force” myself to go to concerts to broaden my knowledge of music. What I mean by “force” is that I write and publish reviews of concerts. Writing a review may take anywhere from two hours to several days. If I work out the opportunity cost of teaching or giving a concert, clearly it’s not worth it.

Some years ago, I decided that I needed to go to operas so that I could compose one myself. I offered to write a review of the opera in lieu of paying for the expensive ticket. Then I decided that one opera was not enough. I needed to to see more operas. The more I saw, the more I’ve come to love operas.

Initially I reasoned that writing reviews would improve my writing. One cannot advance without doing it constantly and continuously. While writing does get easier, it’s through reading other people’s reviews that actually makes a difference.

By requesting a press ticket, I felt obliged to write a review. My reputation was at stake. I could not simply go to a concert and not share the experience afterwards. It became a way of life for me —- a hard habit to break.

I don’t scan concert listings to see which concerts I’d like to attend. I get told by composers who are having their works premiered, musicians who are performing in those concerts, and e-mails from various mailing lists I’m on.

At the last concert that I reviewed, I found out in December that a composer was going to be in town to work on a piece with the performers. This did not register immediately until I received e-mails from the ensemble and two other organisations. Then it dawned on me that I should make the time to go to that concert — a world premiere of works of winners of a composition competition. “New music from China in Amsterdam” was thus born.

Soloists of Chinese instruments in Amstelkerk, 22 Jan 2010 Photo credit: R. Straver

Nieuw Ensemble with Chinese instruments, Amstelkerk 22 Jan 2010 Photo credit: R. Straver

Why musicians attend concerts (part one)

Before I became full-time musician, I often wondered why the free concerts at conservatories were not well-attended. They were of excellent quality in acoustically perfect concert halls. The instruments were perfectly tuned. The concerts were listed in advance on web sites. The locations were central and easy to get to. In other words, there were no barriers to entry.

As I got busier in my studies at conservatory, I discovered that there was not much time left to go to concerts. Even if they were free, I could not afford to go. I was still curious, and I still felt the necessity to explore new repertoire and be exposed to new sounds. But it became a tough choice as the opportunity cost grew too high.

It’s hard to get other performers to come to concerts because they are busy rehearsing or giving concerts themselves. I daresay that to take time away from my own practice (if I am not already giving a concert), it would be for reasons such as

a) it’s free or nearly free

b) curiosity

c) to support another artist I know i.e. simply to show up and witness a performance

d) a personal invitation that is hard to refuse

e) to meet the others that will be there, i.e. networking

f) to educate myself

g) to see a work or composer I absolutely love or miss

h) a social occasion, i.e. to go with others and make an outing of it

I’m sure there are more reasons I’m not even aware of.

I don’t count on musicians attending the concerts I invite them to unless they have the time and the inclination as I’ve listed above.

The last reason (h) is why I’m taking time off tonight. I’m going to see a free concert performance of Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro” at the Amsterdam Conservatory. I invited three others to see this three hour opera. A fourth one tried to book it online, but it was already full. Even FREE performances can be “sold out.”

…continued

House concert for an artist

Anne Ku, caricature 1998

About three years ago, I spotted a notice on the bulletin board of Utrecht Conservatory. It was a WANTED ad for musicians interested in performing in a house concert. I called the local architect who had posted the ad. She lived very close to me and invited me to try her baby grand piano that sat in the living room. And so began a conversation about doing a house concert in her home.

In those three years, I composed and produced my final exam concert, organised many house concerts, performed in numerous more, graduated from conservatory, and tried to get others to hop on the band wagon of producing live classical music. I invited the architect to most of these events, none of which she was able to attend. She maintained her interest while she went through her own transformation.

She became an artist.

Perhaps she has always been an artist. I don’t know her so well, but on my last visit I saw her latest paintings on her walls. They were remarkable enough to be noticed.

Once again, she could not come to the house concert I was promoting then. In fact, she has never seen us in concert. She has never come to a single concert I produced. Neither have I attended her exhibitions or events. But she has a vision to have a house concert in her home.

I said on my last visit,”You should have a house concert so people can see your artwork.”

I told her about the house concert series in Amsterdam that was launched by a couple of art lovers. They wanted people to see and buy the art displayed on their walls and home. Live music was a good way to do that. And so they turned their one bedroom apartment into a museum and a concert hall. This was their hobby — to support artists and musicians.

I also told her about the importance of a unifying theme. She was excited about the possibility of painting to a theme. She told me about her neighbours who dreamed of opening a restaurant of their own one day. They love to cook and entertain. We could hold the concert in her home, with her artwork on display, and then walk to her neighbours’ house for home-cooked gourmet food afterwards.

We discussed this in early December 2009. She suggested that we think of a theme and allow herself enough time to paint to a theme.

Via two e-mails, we agreed on a date in April. A few days ago, she cycled to our monument house (where we hold our house concerts twice a year) to see my piano guitar duo play the pieces she will paint for the house concert. We agreed on the theme and how we would work together to make it another sold out, full-house concert.

Coincidentally a few months ago, I met another artist in Amsterdam who had thought of turning her studio into a stage. What a concept — to use live music to lure listeners to view new works of art!

Choosing a CD cover

Bekkers Piano Guitar Duo, photo credit: Anjam Ahmad, London 2002

While Robert is getting our first CD produced, I’m looking around for a suitable image for the CD cover. Should we use the first official photograph taken of us or the last?

Bekkers Piano Guitar Duo at Warmond, photo credit: Humphrey Daniels 2008

Or is it more timeless to use something more abstract? Perhaps a drawing, such as the one below by a young artist after seeing our concert in Oosterkerk, Amsterdam?

Bekkers Piano Guitar Duo in Amsterdam, acryllic on wood by Elea Bekkers 2009

Essential shortcuts in Sibelius

The Sibelius music notation software is one of several tools that arrangers and composers use nowadays. I had the pleasure of visiting the global IT department of Sibelius in London and meeting its director several years ago. There is a big divide between users of Sibelius and its immediate rival Finale. Users of one software stick to it. Rarely are there users of both. Some attribute this tendency to the steep learning curve and its various intricacies.

I have always used Sibelius to input notes, transpose and arrange music, make changes, and compose. When I was actively using it during my four years at conservatory, I knew the shortcuts by heart. Since graduating in 2008, I’ve been busy not composing. As a result, I’ve forgotten how essential it is to know the shortcuts.

Hence this blog — so I won’t forget the shortcuts next time I get distracted by the buzz of practising the piano for hours on end or get overwhelmed by audience development in the concerts I produce. The following shortcuts work on Apple Mac computers. I can’t remember if they are the same on PC’s.

Single letter shortcuts:

<H>: draws a crescendo sign from the beginning to the end of the highlighted passage or just a small crescendo from the cursor if nothing is highlated

<shift><H>: draws a diminuendo sign (as above)

<I>: adds or deletes instruments in the staves

<K>: changes key signature

<L>: opens the LINE menu where you can choose horizontal lines such as trill, 8va, 8vb, etc across the highlighted passage or vertical lines such as arpeggio

<Q>: change clef

<R>: repeat whatever is highlighted. This is extremely useful, for you can repeat the previous note, chord, or passage.

<S>: slur on the highlighted notes, or the highlighted single note and the next note or chord.

<T>: change time signature

<X>: flip the highlighted slur or passage (in which case the stem gets inverted)

Non-letter or combined keystrokes:

<spacebar>: plays the music from the cursor onwards

<alt> and then click: copy whatever’s highlighted onto the area pointed/clicked at.

<apple command> and then <R>: enters a rehearsal mark on the barline highlighted (apple command is the key on the immediate left of the space bar)

<apple command> and then <up arrow>: moves the highlighted note up one octave

<apple command> and then <down arrow>: moves the highlighted note down one octave

I shall return to this blog entry to add more shortcuts and tips.