Thanks to Dr. Lovell and the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire

A big thank you goes out to Dr. Owen Lovell and the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire for coming into our community to give us a weekend of masterclasses.  Lovell's fees were covered by the U, SPTG just had to pay expenses.  Wow!

Owen worked with eighteen students playing everything from Clementi to Liszt.  A highlight was Nancy Daley's student Katherine playing the Hungarian Rhapsody #2.  Katherine was already playing it amazingly beautiful, but Dr. Lovell still had some profound insights for her. Congratulations Katherine and Nancy!

A couple good ideas and reminders included things as simple as remembering to always play the scales and cadences in the keys that your pieces are in.  This seems obvious--but often our study of theory doesn't always correlate to the interpretation of the piece we are actually playing.  It should.  My students cycle through their scales each year, but it makes more sense to focus on the keys we are using the most in our repertoire.

Calvin played Solfeggietto for him.  Dr. Owen suggested to Calvin, that he continue to play with the metronome, but gradually switch to greater units of subdivisions.  In other words, start out ticking eighth notes at 120 bpm, then play the same passage at quarter note equals 60 bpm, and then finally play it at half note equals 30 bpm.  All three are the same tempo, but longer ticks makes the student more accountable to the subdivisions.  A great reminder.  Oh, one more thing--after all this time and training, you think I would have thought to remind Calvin to keep his hand rounded.  (Note sarcasm. . .directed at the vague and distant look my son got on his face when Lovell asked if Calvin knew what shape his hand should be in.) I'll get right on that.

I'm joking a bit, but Calvin did respond well and has already been working very hard on his technique.  It takes a village.  I'm proud of Calvin.

Lovell had some nice ideas about memory work, including ghosting the piece--to remove the memory from only motor muscle, and put it in the ear and intellect.  He asked the student to go in and out of ghosting (that is playing the notes with no sound) as he clapped and clapped again.  This is the same principle Caroline Fraser uses in her early reading classes--to grow the kids inner ear.  Fun, and valuable.

Lastly, Owen spoke to several students about the idea of rubato--and keeping the flow balanced--suggesting that the more a player pushes through a phrase, the more time he will have to take at the end to keep it balanced.  They related to that.

Oh--one more thing--a total coincidence--Owen studied with my very own undergraduate and graduate piano teacher, Dr. Betty Mallard from UT Austin.  We decided that made us piano cousins--or something like that.  Betty was an amazing teacher, but that is another story.

Thanks again, Owen, and all the folks at the University of Wisconsin.  We had a great weekend.