 Piano Practice When You Have An Injury By Jenny Leigh Hodgins
Today’s Piano blog features the ideas provided by Veteran Piano Teacher, Dawn Ivers, of Kansas, in her blog, Broken Arms & Sprained Wrists. Ivers runs a successful piano studio in Kansas and was recently featured in her local newspaper, McPherson Sentinel. See Iver's article on tips for handling stage-fright (featuring ideas from my blog, How To Turn Your Nerves Into Good Energy.) Yikes! What do you do about piano lessons when you (or your child) have an injury like a broken wrist, a sprain, or jammed fingers? Is it best to take a break until the injury has healed? Or would it be best to press on with piano practice and lessons? Piano Teacher Recommendation I recently came across Kansas Piano Teacher, Dawn Ivers’ blog about this on her website, dawnspiano.com. Of course, performances would obviously need to be postponed, unless the program consists solely of one-handed repertoire. But I wholeheartedly agree with Ivers’ recommendation to press forward with both practice and lessons. Why and how are the important questions to ask. Why Should You Continue Piano When You Have An Injury Stopping piano practice when you have an injury risks the loss of momentum with your piano progress. It’s challenging to get your groove back if you’ve sat it out for more than a week. Our muscle memory, not to mention our brain’s recall, suffers from inactivity during gaps in time. Absence Makes Learning Harder This issue was never more apparent to me than during my years as a public school music educator. Students returning to music class after winter, spring or summer break had glaringly forgotten large chunks of information, musical and even social skills. This is why the first several weeks of public school music classes were spent on review and hands-on immersive practice. Moving forward without these refresher activities caused more frustration for students and decreased successful learning in the music classroom. Fortunately, with piano lessons, the student or parent of the student has the option of moving forward despite an injury. The critical point is how you focus your piano practice to accommodate the injury. How To Practice Piano Is Key If you’re dealing with an injury, fortunately, there are lots of ways to move forward while working around it. In her blog, Ivers offers no less than eight piano practice strategies for continuing musical progress while accommodating an injury. Often, budding pianists get in the habit of relying on two-handed playing, leaving other weaknesses unattended. The healing period for an injury provides a great opportunity to strengthen those areas. Ideas For One-Handed Piano Practice In her blog, Kansas-based piano teacher, Dawn Ivers suggests practicing sight-reading, one-handed duet practice with a partner, pedal practice, technic and solo pieces for one-hand, and honing scale and musical theory while building improvisation skills through one-handed practice. Duet Practice Helps Sight-Reading & Rhythmic Skills I agree with Ivers focus on using the opportunity for duo playing. In my piano studio, I often honed in on a piano student’s sight-reading, rhythmic, or technical skills by having them play one hand while I played the opposite part. This is a great way to have the student focus on developing better notation reading skills, or to provide more practice for those struggling with maintaining fluency with rhythm. By playing duets with the piano teacher and only having to play with one-hand, the student’s technical skills may be addressed. This works particularly well when the teacher guides the student with a slower practice tempo. One-Handed Improvisation Opens Creative Expression I often found students more engaged when providing the chance to improvise in a duet. One strategy is for the piano teacher to provide a simple, harmonic progression while the student is assigned an allotted key signature and a specific range of notes and/or fingering. The student practices improvising in this manner, learning from limitations with the use of specific form, fingering, rhythmic or melodic phrasing. The restriction of having only one hand to practice takes the pressure off the student. I have found that many students open up more creatively with this type of stress-reduced activity. Forging Musical Comprehension Through Music Theory Ivers also recommends more time spent on games and exercises to develop musical theory expertise. Often, time runs out during a piano lesson before the piano teacher can fully address the student’s musical theory needs. Using the injury healing period to work on those music theory topics is time well spent toward greater piano mastery. Assigning music theory worksheets or other theory-based work throughout the week gives the student the chance to build their musical understanding. As the student grasps theoretical aspects, he or she expands musical comprehension on multiple levels, contributing to a greater performance mastery, and a deepening confidence. Students Tap Self-Expression Through New Approach Ivers also points out the opportunity to develop musical composition abilities while a student’s injury heals. This is a great way to encourage students to try something new, engage their personal interests and encourage self-expression. Lessons could be spent teaching compositional aspects and allowing the injured student time to learn more about notation, intervals, chords, scales, fingering, form, key analysis, melodic phrasing and rhythmic patterns. Lastly, Ivers suggests taking time to work on rhythm and sight-reading. This is one of my favorite ideas, as students can solidify understanding and better grasp rhythmic and meter issues when the focus is narrowed to the use of only one hand. If you or your child has an injury prohibiting piano practice with one hand, consider these suggestions as encouragement to continue musical progress throughout the healing period. For more information from our featured piano teacher, Dawn Ivers, her piano studio and informative blog, click here. More tips on effective piano practice can be found in my blog on left and right hand coordination here. Let me know in the comments below if you found this blog helpful or if you have more piano practice tips! CLICK HERE for a list of piano and music-making resources I use and recommend. SIGN UP for more strategies for creativity, piano, caregiver and spiritual wellness at YourCreativeChord.com
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 Prepare well to overcome stage-fright. by Jenny Leigh Hodgins
HOW TO HANDLE STAGE-FRIGHT Throughout my music teaching career, my music students have either asked me how to overcome stage fright, or have been nervous enough to warrant a discussion on the topic. Getting performance jitters is a common experience among performers. I have personally experienced it, so I understand the concern! When I first starting performing as a solo pianist/vocalist in my twenties, I used to get so nervous I’d throw up before a performance. Onstage, my legs and hands felt like they were shaking so hard I feared people saw me gyrating! Playing piano for performances, my right leg and foot shook like a hyper-active sewing machine pedal. Performing as a vocalist was similar. My heart beat so loudly, I thought it would fly out my throat the moment I started to sing. Fortunately, I learned to tame the stage-anxiety beast. I have four suggestions that worked so well for me, I wound up as a professional solo pianist/vocalist for 25 years! I also taught and spoke for many years in front of global audiences from 50 to thousands. Of course, I’d still sometimes feel nervous before a performance or presentation, but I employed the four suggestions I’ll share here to help you completely win over stage-fright. RINSE, REPEAT, OFTEN! My first suggestion is to get as many performing opportunities as possible and frequently! Desensitizing to the scenario, performing frequently, takes the sting out of it. Find a way to play for family, friends, church, spiritual groups, libraries, schools, meet ups, anybody, and anywhere! If you can’t find someone to perform for, video or audio-record yourself and pretend it’s a performance! Ignore any mistakes and continue on without stopping. Later, watch or listen to your performance for tips on sections where you may have tripped up. Analyze why. This is also a great way to evaluate your practice routine! Making mistakes is usually due to lack of thorough preparation. DO YOUR HOMEWORK! This leads to my second suggestion; prepare well. In hindsight, most of my nerves were due to lack of confidence in my performance because I simply had not prepared well enough. I tackled that aspect with a vengeance in my practice routine, determined to master every note of a performance. I especially practiced any particular section where I did not feel fully confident, because when nervous, I’d lose it on those sections! I practiced enough to memorize every detail of a piece. Any section that I was even slightly unsure of was what I went after with a gusto—until I knew the music inside and out! I NEVER relied solely on finger memory for a performance. I made sure to memorize everything, including key, scale, harmonic analysis, form, melodic phrasing, fingering, dynamics, patterns, etc. If I did not know the piece fully inside my mind away from the instrument, I knew I was not prepared well enough to perform it. SEE YOURSELF…THERE I visualized myself in the specific performance scenario. Even better if I could actually practice in the performance venue. This eliminated the element of surprise and created a familiarity (back to ‘desensitizing’). I practiced performing while envisioning it as the real performance, including as much detail as possible. I imagined the people there, the color of the walls, the lighting, the aromas, my piano, the stage, and that the audience was loving the performance. I especially imagined feeling confident, enjoying the music, and performing successfully. I practiced this kind of visualization while playing the music repeatedly, until I felt a sense of assured mastery over the music. Once I had prepared well, practiced consistently, memorized entirely, and used imagery, I knew I had tackled the music enough to perform. FIND THE TRUE PURPOSE Lastly, I shifted my focus away from myself and directly fixated on the music for the audience’s benefit. To me, nerves simply indicated my ego. If I was focused on judging my musical ability, that was my vanity or ego, which is completely irrelevant in musical performance. Why? Because for me, the musician is only the middleman, the vessel, or messenger, of a much greater purpose; the MUSIC reaching the audience’s hearts. Once I learned to shift my attention away from myself, I could center all my being on bringing the power and spirit of music to life. The purpose of the music became connecting with or giving something positive to the heart of another human being. I reminded myself that performing music has less to do with the performer than it does with human connection. It doesn’t matter whether there may be several, or a hundred, or a thousand human beings in the audience--it all comes down to heart to heart communication brought alive through the universal medium of great music. FIND THE BIGGER PICTURE Whenever I concentrated this way, I humbled myself sincerely to achieving the task of sharing the great power of music with another heart. Focusing on this true purpose of musical performance took every ounce of my sincerity and effort, leaving no room for vanity or ego to get in the way. I’m a Soka Gakkai International - USA Buddhist, so I still chant before every performance (or when I compose or write) to use my best life-state in harmony with the music as a tool for uplifting the audience, and to spiritually communicate human potential. This has never failed me. Prayer of any kind shifts one’s heart toward a greater purpose, and to view things from a perspective different from ego. Any performance I have witnessed that truly moved my heart or life was one in which the communication through music was the focal point--not the performer. NERVES ARE GOOD ENERGY One last comment; I’ve taught music/choral/piano students never to be afraid of or attempt to escape nerves—because that incredible energy can be transformed into an exciting, moving performance. Nerves are GOOD because they make you alert and aware of doing your very best! SLOW YOUR ROLL WITH BREATH Even a seemingly negative thing like nervousness can become positive when you choose to direct it. Use your nerves as a wonderful sign that you care about doing a good job! Turn that sincerity into exciting energy for a performance that inspires with vigor. Breathe deeply and slowly while keeping the above points in mind to help control the physicality of excitement. Be intentional as you practice these four suggestions to transform stage-fright into supportive energy for your successful performance! Share your victories or tips on how you handle stage-fright in the comments below! And...if you loved this blog don't forget to show your awesome support by Liking the link, Subscribing for more updates and adding your comment below! More Tips On Handling Stage-Fright Featured In Dawn Iver's Piano Teaching Blog Here. CLICK HERE for a list of piano and music-making resources I use and recommend. You can also find me on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook! |
PIANOIn my PIANO blogs, you'll find ways to overcome boredom, get past musical and mental blocks, explore the creative process with piano, and improve musical progress through piano teacher recommended best practices and effective piano practice tips. Archives
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