When I accept new students that have been trying to teach themselves, mostly from YouTube videos, I often cringe. That's my usual reaction because most of the time these students have been learning from semi-amateurs/non-classically trained musicians who have been handing down bad technique and habits to these impressionable learners. That makes my job a WHOLE lot harder, as I have to un-train them from these bad habits and then re-train them the correct way. One very good and public example is the newest Subway $5 footlong commercial where the famous singer/songwriter Charlie Puth is performing a jingle singing, while accompanying himself on keys. Now, I can't speak to his singing ability, as I'm not a vocalist; but I can attest that his piano technique as witnessed here is HORRENDOUS! As soon as he starts playing (0:08), we can see his right hand bouncing off the keys as high as almost half a foot (no pun intended!). There are even animations of green and yellow lines rendered above his hand that accentuates this fact. "Why is this such an issue," you ask? Well just think: if he's playing all those repetitive chords on every single beat, it would make much more sense to stay closer to the keys than to spend extra time and energy to come back from a mile high for that entire length of the jingle. Also his left hand is just....*sigh* where do I start? Notice his active fore- and middle fingers (2 & 3) are pretty straight, which shows tension, and it doesn't take a musician to know that when doing anything with tension, you'll wear down faster, and the task at hand will be much harder than compared to when you're totally relaxed. We can say that the human hand is relaxed when we naturally let the fingers curve. On to the next issue....the inactive ring and pinky fingers (4 & 5) are at a weird angle and even look uncomfortably squeezed in every so slightly. Again, when we're relaxed, our fingers will natural curl, forming a "C" shape, and all the fingertips will be equally settled on the surface of the keys. Finally, the thumb (1) is mostly inactive, and for some reason Charlie thinks that because of this he can just hang it down off the side of his keyboard. That might be ok if we didn't use thumb at all when playing piano/keys, but we do, so this isn't kosher. And then he does a weird cross-under at the end with his 1st finger (0:21), which is totally unnecessary---he could've finished with his 2nd or 3rd fingers, since they were doing most of the work all along in that area. Thumb cross-overs/-unders only are needed when doing scale-like passages where one might run out of fingers from their current position (for example, playing 7 keys stepping up with the right hand would demand us to execute a thumb cross-under). Of course, after thinking about the whole premise of this short performance by Charlie Puth, I have to give him the benefit of the doubt and consider that maybe the Subway commercial executives wanted him to be very "showy." So perhaps the commercial director told Charlie to do all these things that I"m pointing out, on purpose. But I wanted to have a little rant and make a public disclaimer that this is NOT how one plays the keys/piano! So if you are one of those people that is trying to teach themselves any instrument via YouTube videos, please take the technique shown with a grain of salt. Better yet, just hire a music instructor who can teach you the CORRECT way of playing your instrument!
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The last in-person lesson I taught before all this craziness of the global pandemic and self-isolation began was March 19th. It's been a new adjustment teaching most of my students online the past couple of months, as I mentioned in my last post.
And now, as of Tuesday May 12th, 2020, I restarted in-person lessons with a couple of my students here in my neighborhood. To be honest, it was a little surreal. I think mostly because I had gotten so used to doing pretty much everything via webcam, even meeting up with friends or family, that what was once considered "normal" now seemed "foreign." To be sure, I wasn't scared like some people would be. But it was slightly different than before, since I had committed to wearing a mask at all times within my students' house, didn't touch their piano at all, as well as restricted myself from touching anything else except my own belongings. I asked my students to handle their own lesson books because I wanted to reduce possibly spreading the virus via surface contact. I'm sure these students thought this was all strange as well! Today on the 13th, I had another in-person lesson, this time at a local music school where I have a few students. The requirements for everyone coming in (teachers, students, parents, employees alike) was to wear a mask, of course maintain 6 feet apart, and sanitize all surfaces after touching them. Thankfully there was a keyboard in the same room I was teaching in where I could demonstrate for my student, while she played on an upright piano. It was still a little surreal, especially not seeing that many people there on a normally busy Wednesday afternoon (there was only the office secretary and one other teacher with their student). Going forward, I'm confident more students' families will be willing to restart in-person lessons, but I know I have to proceed slowly and with caution, and give them reassurance of their families' health and safety. But I foresee most people wanting to continue webcam lessons via Skype, Zoom, etc. So I guess this is our new normal. An this is only one example of many different workers across all kinds of different fields adjusting to a new way of doing their job. Who knows how long this will last.... It's definitely been a crazy and unprecedented past few months....with the global pandemic of COVID-19 affecting almost every aspect of our lives, we've all had to adjust our daily routines somewhat drastically. For us educators, it has been no different. Since late March, I've had to mostly convert physical in-person lessons to virtual webcam lessons, with a few families opting out entirely, hoping to resume when we're allowed by our state government (I've personally decided to resume in-person lessons on May 12th, same day retailers are allowed to open back up here in Ohio).
Originally, I was admittedly a little disorganized in the first several days, even though I already had experience teaching an out-of-state student via Skype for 2 years. What helped me effectively teach this student is that I was able to purchase the trumpet books he has been working out of and follow along with him, designate assignments for the next week, etc. But that idea is a lot more complicated when you have 23 other students who each might be doing completely different books, all at various levels. Thankfully I had the idea for parents to send pics/scans of their children's music to me either ahead of time, or during the lesson. That helped TREMENDOUSLY! Another thing that students, their families, and I had to overcome was the positioning of their devices to get the best angle and perspective of their hands and fingers, especially when playing piano. I had spent a few minutes at the start of almost every lesson navigating the parents to find that perfect spot that would allow me to correct the students' technique and analyze any pitfalls in their performance. Technical issues of course have been a major hurdle as well, from slow internet speeds (in the beginning I had "late 90's" speeds, before I broke down and switched back to my old ISP with much better speeds) to bad audio quality, video calls dropped for no apparent reason, etc. But I think one good thing that has come from this is that it has encouraged me to be more concise, clear, and structured during the lesson. Perhaps this comes from the ability to see myself in the corner of all of these webcam platforms, and therefore adjust how I interact with the students. Perhaps it's an innate drive to reassure the student that even though I'm not there with them physically, I'm more than 100% there with them in spirit, and I want to encourage each student to drive forward with their passion of learning music. So yes, there have been many challenges that have presented themselves during this strange time of doing everything online, but I think we can all learn and grow from this time as well. And this has been a great reminder that music connects us all, through even the darkest times. Hang in there world, we can get through this! About two weeks ago, my one adult violin student, Nancy (yes, she gave me permission to use her name and other info) forgot her lesson book at my place when she left. I told her about forgetting her essential music, and she asked if I could drop it off at her work. Of course I said sure---she needs this book to practice her assignments for that week! Well it turned out that she OWNS this wonderful Asian restaurant, Aristo Bistro (which you should check out if you're ever in Westlake or west side of CLE), and to thank me for doing something so simple and expected, she treats me to FREE dinner, which included two main dishes, plus two types of rice....plus some cash. I tried to refuse all this, but she insisted, saying that in her native China, teachers are almost revered, and she considered me like her personal Confucius! That day I felt so appreciated as a teacher, and it opened my eyes to how blessed I am. The point I'm trying to make by telling this story, is this: fellow teachers, including private and public teachers of all subjects, tutors, mentors, and personal trainers, we may at times feel like none of our students, mentees, or clients appreciate us, but always know there is at least one person who thinks very highly of you and your expertise, so keep your head up and keep doing what you're doing! Also on the flip side: students, do something to show your teachers that you are grateful for them! Even if it's some small gesture, like a card or flowers or their favorite treat....just let them know that you've made a difference in their lives.
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About this blogHello world, this is your friendly musician friend and teacher, Joseph! This is where I share my thoughts and feelings about anything and everything music-related. Enjoy! Archives
September 2022
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