Have you ever taught a master class ?

[m1469]

I am going to be doing some group teaching with my up and coming studio class, but also, I have been asked to teach some master classes (very low key) in the future (and I have never taught any).  I have observed a lot of master classes and participated in many.  Some are much more engaging than others for the observer and possibly the performer, though I cannot tell if they are related exactly.  I mean, perhaps the class can be engaging for the student while not for the observer or vice versa.  I have noticed that the masters whom I cannot take my eyes off of, are often the ones who are the most animated and passionate about teaching.  But, is this what makes it engaging for everyone ?

So, I am wondering about ways to make it engaging for everyone involved, including the observers, while not losing the substance of the teaching.

Also, are there any tips regarding the "most important" elements to consider ?  Does one aim at helping the student sound different (hopefully "better") right then and there with a little anecdote, or just try to give them new tools to use in their practice, or both ?

Is it essentially, an observed lesson ?


Thanks for your thoughts,
m1469

[ptmidwest]

How exciting for you, m1469!  This is one of the most rewarding aspects of teaching!  I hope that in attending and participating in many master classes, you were exposed to the many styles and types of classes.  The possibilities are enormous!  The personality of the teacher, the energy of the audience, the subject matter requested, the experience of the expected students, and of the expected audience, what angle of teaching you are into right now,  the size of auditorium, the inevitable surprises (which can be the best), is it specific repertoire--there is no one right answer.  What do you want to do?  How do you want to do it?

[m1469]

oh, thanks ptmidwest.  Now, while I think about your post, I just have to say that this is another private teacher who has asked me to give some master classes for her students in the future, not some university (I wouldn't want people jumping to conclusions and for me to sound "more important" than I am  ).


m1469

[pianistimo]

even in a masterclass with an informal setting, you can start teaching students about how to be professional.  i mean, how to walk onto the stage (don't be shy now - walk boldly stuff - head up - smile at audience), how to grab hold on the one side of the piano and bow (some teachers have the students count according to the steps of this (bow, slight pause, return, turn, sit.  for dvd's you could actually watch the stage presence of other pianists as they enter and leave the stage (only).  this could be an entire master class believe it or not (when you have a whole class).

next, i think, is audience repore.  some students alienate the audience by doing little things.  i can't think exactly what i am trying to say yet, so this is short.  not acknowledging applause is the one that most comes to mind. facial expressions.  learning how to show feelings (if a piece is too metronomic).  seeing oneself videotaped is really excellent because it teaches you the most.  what you actually look like while playing.  aiming for smooth actions is important (choppy or smooth?).

memorization - can be another thing they practice.  to go up and attempt to play soley from memory.  if they make a mistake (teach them about finding - in their heads- the next possible place to start again - and try not to let them get emotional).  start teaching them, as in military school, to stick with it and not start crying or fall apart.  you can make it less tense, too, by saying something about the chord they are on and which one follows (naming notes).  if that doesn't work, and they don't find their place (go ahead and let them look at the music) - but for those students - often playing their piece twice would be advantageous.  in fact, one of my teachers always had us play twice.  first, the whole way through.  then he would ask the audience (other students) well, what do you think?  we each would give our opinions and encouragement.  then, he would start in on a certain passage and help us play it better.  then, we might just play a section (or the entire piece again - better).

lastly, the teacher i am thinking of always gave more credit to the students who came to every master class AND participated.  you can't be shy.  to overcome shyness, you have to learn step by step to overcome it.  many youngers students don't like to feel embarrassed or humiliated.  but, as you grow to adulthood, you realize you hit many of those situations in life anyway. why nto learn to deal with it.  in fact, you could make it a practiced item (to teach how to accept valid criticism without becoming upset).  and the types of criticism you won't allow from student to student (and, to build trust, from yourself).  it should never be about the person, or in a joking manner, or to humiliate.  always, to improve.  and praise is helpful too. 

then as your master classes go on for awhile, tell them to bring a friend.  the more the merrier, right.  the friend doesn't have to play piano.  just be a warm body and make the  pianist feel the same feelings they would in a recital.  learning to handle nerves, stress, (as someone else mentioned in another thread - what to eat beforehand - what helps their nerves), how to handle mistakes that are unplanned or even tripping, proper shoes and clothing.  (now that is an item by itself - shoes and clothing - especially with younger students!!)

i once wore some highheeled boots (thinking it would help me on the steinway because it was on rollers).  i got majorly chewed out.  he probably said something like, 'don't wear high heels when you play the piano.  they make you unsteady and unable to control the piano pedals.  wear low heels')  something my current teacher does, is choose shoes that are wide toed.  i didn't ask specifically, but image this keeps you on the pedal and not sliding off.  also, you don't want slippery soles.  it is very unnerving in the winter and on slippery stages. (you can buy those rubber plastic soles and stick them on).

hope this helps!

ps  i found some black pumps at a regular dept. store that had the wide toe and LOVE playing in them.  they are low heeled and i feel steady and able not just to play the piano, but to walk on stage (without worrying about your ankles) steadily.  it gives you more confidence.

another item for discussion is strengthening your back.  extremely important to pianists and often left undiscussed.  you could even hand out those regular back strengthening exercises handed out by chiropractors.  if every pianist did these, they would at least have some strength (even without working out).  if the kids were my own, the exercises would be mandatory to playing the piano.  you can really damage your back sitting for long periods without taking care of your back.

oh, and another thing is those taubman videos about relaxation.  a lot of good stuff.

and, you could add in about the history of certain pieces or more about the composer.  one of my teachers used to even give a little quiz afterwards to see what people remembered about what he said on very many different topics.  sometimes he would hand out just general info, or funny polls (kind of like on piano forum).  it's good to have humor too, sometimes, and hear a joke.  it warms up students who look really stressed before they play.

[ptmidwest]

This is still just as exciting, m1469!  Here are a couple things you may want to ask; things it helps to know beforehand, so you can start shaping your plan.

How many students, ages, and at what level (or levels) do they play?

How big a room (you'll get an idea of the seating arrangement, who can see what, etc.) and the piano or pianos available in the room.

Here's a biggie--what rep will the students have for the class, and how much prep will have been done (still learning notes?  performance-ready?  You can do either, or in-between, but it helps to know beforehand what they are bringing in).  Knowing this will help determine more exactly what you will be doing with them, or at least point you in a direction.

Some of the best teachers I know make a point of brushing up on composer stories.  Students in these classes seem always to enjoy little tidbits of information and little narratives, even if they've heard them before!  They can ease awkward moments, fill a leftover minute, engage the audience, give you time to think (if you can think and talk at the same time, that is ), bring a laugh, help everyone change gears to the next activity.

[pianistimo]

dear mayla,

my son has just gone through some chiro adjustments to help his backback carrying maladies.  his back is much better and he has some exercises (but he hid them in some pant pocket and i can't find). 

anyway, so i looked for some basic back exercises on the internet.  i found some under the 'about arthritis' but they are probably not as specific to piano as the alexander technique, which i have also included address for:

www.arc.org.uk/about_arth/booklets/6002/6002.htm  (scroll down to exercises)

(i happen to think hiring a chiropractor to speak for a master class is a great idea! and having everyone copy the exercises once to get 'into a routine.' - especially at a young age).

alexander technique:

society of teachers of the alexander technique (not sure how much to join, but they have a FREE newsletter - good idea for all the students!)

www.stat.org.uk
1st floor, Linton House
39-51 Highgate Rd.
London, NW5  1 RS
phone: 0845 230 7828

there's a link too:  www.directionjournal.com/

have been trying to find some back exercises on these sites, but haven't yet.

if anyone has other back exercises - maybe they'd want to share.

[xvimbi]

alexander technique:

society of teachers of the alexander technique (not sure how much to join, but they have a FREE newsletter - good idea for all the students!)
...
if anyone has other back exercises - maybe they'd want to share.

Since you already quoted the Alexander Technique, you are certainly aware that back-strengthening exercises are not really necessary, provided one has good posture. Any muscle strengthening would only be used to correct bad posture or (in the worst case) to mask and compensate for bad posture. I therefore find it more important to teach basic principles of good posture and tell the students that those principles apply to situations at the piano as well as all other situation, i.e. they are fundamental. Without good posture (and movements) away from the piano, one cannot have good posture (and movements) at the piano.

[pianistimo]

i happen to think a combo of the two is good.  i agree that you have to constantly be aware of how you move - but for me, personally, my back has gotten weaker in my 40's.  i didn't have much of a problem in 20's and 30's because unlike other women, i refused (most of the time) to wear high heels.  for women, this is a really bad thing.

men don't have to deal with pregnancy either.  it zaps your bones if you don't get enough calcium. *another thing to do - eat lots of calcium (yogurt, milk, cottage cheese, cheese, nuts, dark greens).

i would say that any exercise (swimming, bicycling, tennis) cannot hurt and only help (especially how to take in oxygen and to breath properly - which helps you have the energy to stand up straight)  you learn you can't breath a certain way without your posture being correct.  you feel when it's right and when it's hampering breathing.

also, for me, now at fourty and seeing the results of even a week of back exercises - try to get younger women (maybe not men so much) to do them.  they can't hurt you.  in some modeling classes they show women how to tilt their pelvis back - this is standard with chiro, too, because the pelvis is the base of the spine (and if you tilt too much forward, you get sway back)  muscles hold all of this in place.  strengthening stomach muscles with sit- ups isn't bad either.

[xvimbi]

i happen to think a combo of the two is good.  i agree that you have to constantly be aware of how you move - but for me, personally, my back has gotten weaker in my 40's.  i didn't have much of a problem in 20's and 30's because unlike other women, i refused (most of the time) to wear high heels.  for women, this is a really bad thing.

also, for me, now at fourty and seeing the results of even a week of back exercises - try to get younger women (maybe not men so much) to do them.  they can't hurt you.  in some modeling classes they show women how to tilt their pelvis back - this is standard with chiro, too, because the pelvis is the base of the spine (and if you tilt too much forward, you get sway back)  muscles hold all of this in place.  strengthening stomach muscles with sit- ups isn't bad either.

I agree with most of what you wrote, but would like to stress one thing. The skeleton is designed to adopt a perfectly balanced posture with the minimum amount of muscle action involved, essentially only so much hat one doesn't collapse. In people that have not been corrupted with respect to their posture (toddlers, certain native people), one finds that they tilt their pelvises back quite naturally, because they never adopted the bad habit to move them forward in the first place. Moving the pelvis forward, like moving the head forward, will require muscle action to counter-act these unbalanced positions. This is the reason why people think strengthening muscles will help their posture. It really doesn't. It only helps to keep that bad posture for longer and retard the effects of bad posture (for example, lower-back pain). This is tackling the problem from the wrong end. One has to make sure that agonistic and their antagonistic muscles act with the same force. This is often better achieved by reducing muscle action rather than keep on building up muscle, which in most cases introduces and/or aggravates imbalance.

There is an interesting manifestation of such artificially introduced imbalance in pianists: many pianists have observed that their "relaxed" hand position is characterized by a strong curling of their fingers, much more than before they started to play the piano. This is the result of one set of muscle being rendered more tight over time than the antagonistic muscles. The new, relaxed state feels completely "normal", yet is severely out of balance. One can correct this by making sure that the antagonistic muscles are developed at the same rate. Weight lifters very commonly have the same problem throughout their bodies.

[abell88]

In people that have not been corrupted with respect to their posture (toddlers, certain native people), one finds that they tilt their pelvises back quite naturally, because they never adopted the bad habit to move them forward in the first place.

m1469, I don't want to hijack this thread! -- but I really need to ask a question about this whole pelvis bit. After reading Thomas Mark's book, I got the impression that the pelvis should be at such an angle that one's buttocks are not tucked under the body, but sticking out a little (sorry I can't think of a more genteel way of saying this clearly). Is this correct? I have tried to change my posture the last couple of weeks and I am feeling taller this way.  (I lent the book to someone, so I can't give an exact page/quote. )

[lostinidlewonder]

Also, are there any tips regarding the "most important" elements to consider ?  Does one aim at helping the student sound different (hopefully "better") right then and there with a little anecdote, or just try to give them new tools to use in their practice, or both ?

You should make sure that each of the musical students who are attending has one piece they have prepared to play for you. Each of them has to come up and play so that you can give them personal analysis. You should also address the audience when you are analysing the piece with the student at the keyboard and demonstrate right and wrong ideas. Usually I would do something over the top wrong, then lessen the intensity to something more practical so that they can still sense it then show them how to do it right.

Usually you will be targeting expression for the more advanced students and often for the more beginner/intermediate students physical action.

If a student comes up and starts playing weak ineffective staccato for instance, you perhaps side track to the audience and speak for a minute or two on the many different ways to produce staccato and reasonings why you would choose one over the other.
This helps the student sitting at the piano with you and also engages the audience as well.

So, I am wondering about ways to make it engaging for everyone involved, including the observers, while not losing the substance of the teaching.

Try to get everyone to sit around the piano not sitting far away. This is much more engaging than having a stage with a piano and you standing there alone. People are close to the action, make sure everyone can see your hands and whoever else is at the piano with you. Ask questions you don't expect them to answer but to consider themselves.

Is it essentially, an observed lesson ?

It is not really a one on one lesson or even a group lesson. The material that you cover in a master classes is controlled by the students who come up to play for you. They decide what you will target and discuss. This realy requires that you are fast and to the point when picking out peoples inaccuracies at the piano which is a great deal more difficult than a planned lesson. It is not good enough to keep saying louder here, slower there, but show with example what is right and wrong. Show that if louder here it damages this and make this more ineffective, whatever. Give reasons and support for your ideas and critique.

[xvimbi]

m1469, I don't want to hijack this thread! -- but I really need to ask a question about this whole pelvis bit. After reading Thomas Mark's book, I got the impression that the pelvis should be at such an angle that one's buttocks are not tucked under the body, but sticking out a little (sorry I can't think of a more genteel way of saying this clearly). Is this correct? I have tried to change my posture the last couple of weeks and I am feeling taller this way.  (I lent the book to someone, so I can't give an exact page/quote. )

You are absolutely correct. If you watch "Alexander people", you'll notice that they have "bigger" butts, so to say. That is only because they don't try to tuck their butts in as fashion dictates. One of the most important steps to proper posture is to accept one's butt  . In that respect, it helps to get the video that accompanies Mark's book. He does demonstrate all the principles. It is somewhat sobering to see how "proper" posture looks like, because it's really not anywhere close to how most Western people have been brought up (pull stomach in, chest out, stand straight, chin up, butt in - yikes).

Let me know how you progress in changing your posture. I've been working on it for some time, and I'm not nearly finished. It really takes a lot of time to change one's posture, because the muscles have to adapt. I am pleased, however, with my progress, because I start to feel uncomfortable when I slouch or sit crooked. That's a good sign that I am on the right way. Before, those positions felt completely normal.

We should probably take this to another thread. Feel free to start one if you think it would be worthwhile

[pianistimo]

the only time my butt feels comfortable sticking out is sitting on a bench.  then, i think, i want to sit there for a while.

butt, i mean but, when a person sticks their butt out, they automatically get a sway back which forces their head up.  when you tuck it in, you can feel your neck becoming able to hold the head at many positions comfortably. that's why they use it in modeling.  it frees up your neck and allows your nerves to work freely throughout your body.  you can walk smoothly.  watch models and ballet dancers.  ps they exercise, too.

[xvimbi]

the only time my butt feels comfortable sticking out is sitting on a bench.  then, i think, i want to sit there for a while.

butt, i mean but, when a person sticks their butt out, they automatically get a sway back which forces their head up.  when you tuck it in, you can feel your neck becoming able to hold the head at many positions comfortably. that's why they use it in modeling.  it frees up your neck and allows your nerves to work freely throughout your body.  you can walk smoothly.  watch models and ballet dancers.  ps they exercise, too.

Sorry to disagree, but that is exactly the opposite of how the human anatomy actually works. Tucking the butt in leads to the hip joints to be misaligned (they are now in front of the vertical line that goes through the body and on which all major points of balance should lie), causing the spine to be misaligned and therefore the neck and head to be misaligned.

[maxy]

masterclass..

what is a master?  some would say, a musician with at least 20 years of experience in teaching AND 20 years in performing...  according to that definition, there are not that many masters around.  what we call master class are usually simple "group class" 

[pianistimo]

you're probably right, but it sounds better.  how does one learn to be a master, unless you get some practice at it.

[timothy42b]

I have never taught a master class but I have attended a number.

It is not really an observed lesson, because it is a one shot event.  So that alters what you work on and how.  I guess that aruges against doing things that make incremental progress, but for changing the approach to allow it.

I don't think I've ever learned any technique from a master class.  I go for the burst of enthusiasm that bounces me out of my rut and makes me more determined and disciplined in my practice.  I see people playing at levels that I'm not going to get to with my current level of effort, and I adjust it.  Or try, anyway. 

Master classes will often break a technique down into a level of detail never addressed in a normal lesson.  It isn't the detail itself that is the point, it is the high level of precision and attention. 

It is always helpful, though not absolutely necessary, for the clinician to show off a bit.  When they have something prepared that they place twice as fast as I can hear, for example, it gives them instant credibility with the audience. 

[m1469]

Okay, I am not ignoring all of these generous responses, I just don't know how to respond to them right now.  They are so abundant  !


Thanks,

m1469

[pianistimo]

one tendency i have had is to try to remember everything (details of stories about composers and music background) from memory.  but, if i were to teach a master class now, i would definately use notes to look at once in a while.  there are a few teachers that can be incredibly accurate off the top of their head.

taking grad classes now, i realize that accuracy is what it is all about.  don't get the dates wrong, spell the guys name backwards, or things like that.  your students don't care if you use notes, but if you give out incorrect information, that is teaching something false.

i would not attempt to impress anymore.  my teacher has been showing me that with piano technique.  not to try so hard.  just to be yourself and relax and play.  so, you can show your students that learning about their music is the same way.  the natural questions that arise can be answered in class (OR LATER).  if you don't know the full answer to something, you can just say, i'll look into that and tell you more about it next time. 

i used to think that a master knew everything.  they don't.  they usually specialize.  but, some people are able to hold a lot of facts, and figures.  music isn't only facts and figures, though.  for me, i also like art and would bring into the conversation the art of the times of the composers.  for instance with impressionistic music there was also the impressionist paintings.  or, romantic writings and poetry.  modern architecture.  (could go to museum)  for students to see these different examples of art would broaden their perspectives, imo.