Jump to content

pauline de snoo

Members
  • Posts

    138
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by pauline de snoo

  1. Hello Robin Look forward to meeting you in Swaledale. The idea is that I do some workshop(s) on performing on concertina using the ideas that we have just been discussing here and I will adjust to whoever joins in . How to improve performance in all musical aspects will be the main theme. And maybe a workshop on accompanying songs. It depends on the interest. Jane will ask people and send a mailing I believe beforehand. So you will hear more about it.
  2. My big problem is lyrics. Even though I spend an inordinate amount of time memorizing them I am still likely to draw a blank in the middle of a performance. I hate to perform with a music stand but have been forced to on occasion. There does seem to be a point after a few months which must be when the lyrics must move from short to long term memory when the problem lessens. It has caused me real concern as I had recently had problems preparing for exams. I chalk it up to age and joke about it but I continue to work hard to learn new lyrics as I understand that exercising the memory improves it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Unless there is something really wrong (illness or so) it is possible to learn to memorise up to a high age. It depends on interest and method used. How about expressing the lyrics you are learning in mime. As if you were showing a deaf person in movement what you want to say. At the same time ofcourse singing the lines in your head. Maybe that may help you speed up memorising. In the beginning you will find that you come up against spots which you forgot but just go over them again. Do a bit of it every day and you will find that every day you have remembered more.
  3. Yes Mark it has to do with energy too. You see in order to express music (play expressively) one does use a ecrtain amount of energy related to the expressiveness. Like in anger... When you are angry you use a lot of energy. When you try to express such a feeling in music it requires the same amount of energy. If you are just following instructions from a teacher or the score saying fff (fortissimo) it is not so easy to call forth the necessary expression. When you have expressed it in movement, by for exampl throwoing a ball with much force onto the floor, you can then imagine while you are playing the music how that felt. And then you see that the musician immediately knows what to do, how to use technique or anything he has learnt without even thinking. It just happens. Anyway that is why it is the energy that shows. Unfortunately in classical music, but also in Folk and jazz, this aspect is often not realised by teachers. They are not taught themselves in that way and only know about the rigid theoretical way of teaching. Mostly in a small room just big enough to stand or sit in. And certainly no space to move. I WILL PUT AN INSTRUCTION ON MY WEBSITE BY THE END OF MAY SO THAT ANYONE WHO IS INTERESTED CAN READ MORE ABOUT IT AND TRY IT.
  4. Yes I found out about this method through reading Jacqueline du Pre's biography. She was an outstanding musician (cellist) and her mother trained he in her childhood through the method that was Dalcroze Eurythmics. That is why she moved the way she did while playing. Nowadays this method is mostly thought of as being for small children only. But Dynamic Rehearsal is in fact the application of Dalcroze Eurythmics and is also used for advanced and professional musicians. It works for soloists, ensembles and even orchestras. I t is a great way and unbelievably easy to apply with some coaching. It also helps to prevent nervousness in a very serious way and to solve technical problems which otherwise can cause injuries.
  5. I forgot to mention that on the dvd "Playing the concertina" you can see some of the training in Dynamic Rehearsal apllied to concertina playing while Karin Greenhead is teaching.
  6. All that has been said before applies. Learning to memorise music takes time and practise. A lot of it. There have been written several books on the subject over the last 100 years. Most of them by classical musicians. One of them is Gieseking, famous pianist and teacher. I have had much help by reading his books and by using movement during my practicing. That is called Dynamic Rehearsal. It is a special way to learn to perform music and many psychologists will agree that movement helps memorising. There are special trainings developed for people to improve memorising of anything not just music. All the same it is not enough to memorise fingering on an instrument, although that helps too and is movement. But it is too limited. Have a look at themovementofmusic I am writing a dissertation on that subject and found that there are quite a lot of people who are unaware of this method which also improves expressive playing besides memorising.
  7. Just adding here that the dvd is in ntsc format and therefore playable on almost all dvd players. If you cannot play this format please contact me.
  8. I have voted that I also play holding the instrument in the air when I am sitting. I ususally play standing but because of a lot of practicing often sit down. I always use a neckstrap myself. However I play in exactly the same position whether I am standing or sitting. In the dvd "Playing the concertina" one can amongst other things see how players hold the concertina when sitting down to play; a.o. Dave Townsend, Sara Daniels, Douglas Rogers, Pietro Valente and myself and some others. Pauline
  9. Pilgrimm Pictures has just released a documentary on DVD, directed by Bernd G.W. Out which is titled "Playing the concertina". Bernd is a professional filmmaker who has produced with this DVD a documentary of outstanding quality which in a shorter version will be televised in a not too distant future. This 80 minutes version contains extensive interviews with Douglas Rogers, Steve Dickinson of Wheatstone in his workshop, visits to the Horniman Museum, historic sites in London, impressions of Dave Townsend's concertinaweekend "Hands on Music", Pauline's preparations for and part of a concert, Pietro Valente, a lot of music and more. For a preview visit www.concertina-academy.com
  10. I found a cd by Pietro Valente on concertina; playing jazz. I put a more extensive message under buy and sell. It is available from his daughter. I never heard anyone play this style sofar and I think Pietro is not well known yet amongst concertina players although he has played the instrument for 70 years now and has performed with it on stage from a very young age in Gemany but also in Paris in the 1950's.
  11. I found that there is a cd available on which Pietro Valente plays jazz on the concertina. Titles a.o. Stompin'at the Savpy, Tea for two, What a wonderful world etc. Avaliable directly from his daughter email: info@josef.pfleghar.de Price 20 Euros including p & p . Bank: Hypo Vereinsbank München Acc. 1990149603 BLZ 70020270. Pietro Valente (1925) plays the concertina since he was 8 years old and he learned it from his mother Maria Valente. She played lots of instruments and in the 1930's toured also in the US. Pietro has been performing on stage with different acts since he was 5 years old.
  12. I have too learned myself to play the Anglo for different reasons. one is that on request I wrote an Anglo tutor in Dutch so I had to learn it. It is very well possible to play both. It all requires practice and one can do more on a 30 button anglo than one usually hears. I still prefer my English though.
×
×
  • Create New...