These young pianists received top scores in California on the Royal Conservatory Music Development Program exams in 2012 and have been invited to perform at the CAPMT Conference in Glendale later this month. All of these students received scores above 90 and were among the top three scores in California for the their grade level. What a fantastic achievement! Bravo!

Ok, internet. Fess up. Am I the last person in the world to discover Jeremy Denk’s blog? How have you kept this from me? Even in this amazing age of technology I still manage to find out everything on NPR.

So, in the car the other day, I happened to catch part of Terry Gross’ interview with pianist Jeremy Denk. Luckily, the internet and good ol’ fashioned radio do team up, and it is possible to hear the entire interview here. Denk’s latest album pairs the Ligeti etudes and Beethoven’s final sonata. He discusses the four week, 7-hour-a-day process of learning the Ligeti etudes (dear piano students, go back and re-read those numbers!), the vagaries of the recording process, and the commonalities of late Beethoven’s “vast infinity, and Ligeti’s bite-sized bits of infinity.” Oh, and he throws around charming phrases like “circling down the drain of tonality.”

Then it slips out in this interview that Denk has a blog- Think Denk. Just a few posts in, I adore his somewhat hyperactive writing, and now intend to waste lots and lots of time going back and reading through the archives. Thanks radio, and yeah, you too internet…

I am really excited!

I had been looking forward to this part of the trip with barely contained excitement, and after some delayed-subway drama that resulted in me attempting to run 6 blocks and just barely making the bus, the day did not disappoint. The early morning group was small, and our “guide” was John Marek, Manager in Charge of Fabrication. Saying that this was an “inside look” barely begins to describe it.  John spent over 90 minutes taking us through the factory, in and amongst the workers going about their daily production. I came away with a head full of facts and statistics, but even more so, a sense of awe at the time, care, detail and craftsmanship that goes into the creation of a Steinway piano. The factory currently produces about 5 grands and 1 upright a day. Not unlike a baby, the process of building a single piano takes about 9 months.  Here are a few snapshots!

the newly bent rims, ready to cure

matching wood for the soundboard

Steinway has very strict specifications for the soundboard: the grain of the wood should run at 90 degrees, with a 15 degree deviation acceptable in each direction. There must also be no fewer than 10 tree rings per inch. About 50% of the wood for soundboards is rejected because it does not meet those standards. (Did I mention all the statistics?)

carving the bridge by hand (by hand!)

stringing by hand

our guide was not as interested in this part, but we sure were!

In light of all the economic doom and gloom of the last several years, it made me feel rather warm and fuzzy to see the very blue-collar inner workings of the Steinway company (an American company through and through– this was mentioned many times during the tour!) Most of the materials are sourced within the US (wood mostly from the Northwest, wool for the felts from New Hampshire sheep, strings made by a company in Kentucky) and many of the highly skilled workers come from several generations of Steinway builders (and are members of United Piano Workers Local 102).

So, I highly recommend that all piano geeks (and manufacturing geeks, at that…) take a bit of a detour on your next New York trip and head over to Astoria, across the Queensborough Bridge. The Steinway factory does tours on Tuesday mornings, but you must schedule in advance by contacting info@steinway.com

If New York is not on your upcoming itinerary, the marvels of the Steinway factory can be experienced through the 2007 documentary Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037. I saw the movie back when it came out, and the DVD was one of the several souvenirs I came away with from New York. I’m excited to finally own a copy so that I can lend it to all my piano students!

…I will be on my way to New York for the MTNA 2012 National Conference. I anticipate being in a complete “kid-in-a-candy-store” haze the entire time I am there. The other day, I was starting to figure out the schedule of sessions, master classes, etc. and ended up cutting and pasting together a sloppy Word Document of the schedule since there was not a convenient format of it to be found on the MTNA site. Today, however, while poking around on Twitter, I discovered that MTNA (@mtna1 on Twitter) is actually being quite tech savvy and has the entire conference info available for the Guidebook App (A free app available both on Android and IPhone). Once I downloaded the app, my initial searches for “mtna” and “new york” did not turn up anything, but upon looking under the main “Trade Shows and Events” heading, sure enough, there it was! From the app, it is possible to view the daily schedule (with room specifics listed), maps of the hotel and both exhibit halls, a listing of all the marketplace exhibitors with their booth numbers, and even add specific events to your own “schedule” within the app.  Quite convenient! So, if you are headed to the conference, get Guidebook, and follow @mtna1 on Twitter, and maybe follow me while you are at it…@missluba. I’m usually pretty quiet over there, but I think my conference excitement is likely to manifest itself in the Twitter-sphere!

While the conference was just a short drive away for me and for my students’ families, it was wonderful to hear some great performances by kids who had traveled from all over the state. Also, it is exciting to see that The Achievement Program curriculum is beginning to take root in California and throughout the United States!

The last months of 2011 were tough in the Miss Luba household, and while all sorts of musings have been bouncing around in my mind, the time to put pen to paper (or whatever we say in the digital age) was simply not there. I’ve been keeping up, reading all my favorite teaching blogs, but I have missed writing and hope plan to get back to it in 2012.

A few weeks before the holidays, one of my students shared with me a video that he created. Since I only really see my kids in the context of piano, it was a great reminder that as time goes by, they grow up into full grown creative individuals!  And of course, it was wonderful to hear his piano playing as the “soundtrack”…

Feeling a little harried by the lack of preparation on the aforementioned scales, I replied with: “Well, nobody made it up, really. It all has to do with physics…and acoustics…and the vibration of sound waves…and such things.” I know. Hardly a worthy answer of the mathematical marvels that underpin the very existence of Music.

But really, where to even begin?

Luckily, the other day I came across this fantastic video! It illuminates in the most approachable way the nature of the overtone series, the behavior of sound waves, and the way our ear and brain translate all of this into sound. Vi Hart has a fantastic YouTube channel, Mathemusician, where she posts videos bound to get anyone and everyone excited about math.  So, the next time one of your students needs an explanation of the science behind their scales, just have them watch this:

But first, you should wash your hands…

The hot seat is ready for you!

Wait! It doesn’t look like that anymore! This is much better.

Let the work fun begin!

Happy September, everybody!

One other program constantly running on my computer these days is Spotify. Has anyone else jumped on this bandwagon yet? Spotify has been available in the US since July. Currently, it is not available in Canada. (Sorry, Canadian friends! Though I hear you have something similar? Rdio?) This article gives a good overview of all the specifics and details. Basically, Spotify it is an online music-streaming program, with an Itunes-like interface. Unlike Pandora radio (which I also love), it allows you to search for a specific album (or song, or artist) and listen to all the tracks. The basic service is free! (though you will hear an ad a few times an hour).

The fabulous thing is that many of the big classical labels are on board with Spotify: EMI, Naxos, Deutsche Grammophon! It is all right there! Instantly!  I have a decent collection of classical CDs at home, and I certainly intend to keep adding to it. The permanence of having all those disks lined up nicely on the shelves is always going to be deeply compelling. Still, the ability to pull up a great recording of any piece anytime is incredibly exciting!

I think the potential to use this in teaching is huge! I encourage my students to listen to classical music in general, and recordings of their pieces in particular. However, this often means sending them off to search on You-Tube. And while there are certainly great treasures to be found there…well, it isn’t Deutsche Grammophon! So, I will be actively encouraging students’ families to get Spotify accounts. Also, it is possible to create and share playlists. So, rather than just sending a student off to search around for a recording of his Chopin waltz, I could create a playlist for him with several renditions of the piece as well as perhaps other selections which could inform his understanding of the music. Plus, if I am teaching and my laptop is nearby, any piece of music is just a quick search away. Oh the marvels of the internet!

Now, I do have to admit that hearing an ad between movements of say, the Dvořák cello concerto, can be rather jarring. Also, the free version does not support listening to music on a mobile device, or saving music for off-line listening. Depending on how much I find myself turning to Spotify in the coming months, I may consider going for one of the paid options. ($4.99 a month for no time limits and no ads, $9.99 a month for no ads and mobile device/off-line listening).

Do you use Spotify? For fun? In your teaching? How do you encourage students to listen to music?

Why hello there, world-wide-web. It sure has been a while. I would love to say that I am off lounging about and relaxing in the summer sunshine. In fact, I am right here—home in freezing and raining San Francisco.  In the summer, I actually work more hours in a week that I do during the school year.  This is partially on account of the fiscal realities of summer in piano teacher land; but to be honest, I cannot resist the urge to become my alter ego: Miss Luba, the fun, hip, musical theater camp vocal coach!

I have worked for San Francisco Arts Education Project every summer for the last seven years as a vocal coach and accompanist. The Broadway Bound summer camp is a chance for kids ages 9-14 to develop the skills of a “triple threat”—singing, dancing and acting.  Working all day in front of large classes of high-energy theater kids is a total shift from my usual routine. Except that after camp, I go ahead and do my usual routine too, teaching my piano students who are in town for the summer.  Every hour of the day is packed and I always feel like I am forgetting something crucial that needs to get done…Still, it sure is a lot of fun!

I’ve realized over the years that I love my camp job because it lets me indulge in a bit of instant gratification. Over the course of a two-week session, I get to see true transformations take place! It is such a thrill to discover a child with passion for performing and giving him a push to really shine.  Not that I don’t regularly thrill at a relaxed thumb, a level wrist or a curved knuckle, but, well, those little things take a long time! And while those details are occasions for a teacher’s celebration, their subtle drama is often lost on the student. Not so with the addictive excitement of getting on stage, belting your heart out and nailing your choreography!

Miss Luba’s alter ego also approaches teaching music with a different energy in this environment. I am able to be both closer to the kids, and to be tougher with them. It makes me happy to find that even when I am exhausted after a day of camp, some of that “theater” intensity finds its way into my piano lessons!

Last week, our campers had a special treat. The young lead performers of the Billy Elliot national tour came and presented a master class. It was quite the big deal for our youngsters, a few of whom even got interviewed by the local news!

Here’s to a bit of instant gratification now and then!