Hilarious Introduction to the Metronome

The metronome is a very handy tool for measuring a regular beat, guiding practice, giving yourself very strict standards for your pulse and also scaring the living daylights out of your cat. A friend forwarded me this funny video. I have never listened to it with the sound on, but just watching it made me laugh.

Metronome use does help your practice! A student of mine recently had two lessons on two consecutive days. He plays Abram Chasin's Rush Hour in Hong Kong from Three Chinese Pieces and on Monday it sounded okay- he got through it with some minor hesitations. We had a lesson on it, and the next day he came back with a completely different Rush Hour. He was playing energetically with flashy dynamics and had rock solid pulse. "Please tell the rest of the world your secret to such success!" I exclaimed, " To make that much progress in 24 hours is really something!" "I practiced with the metronome," he replied. Then five days later he performed it beautifully in recital.

I shouldn't guarantee that same success, I suppose, but wow, I know it sure has helped me control and organize my practice. I can set a goal for myself and strive to make it, gradually bringing up my tempo in an orderly way. And all of my students who have practiced with the metronome have certainly reaped the benefits. Too much metronome practice can take away the natural breath of the piece, so an understanding of the natural flow of the piece is also important.

Need to buy a metronome? I recommend a quartz metronome and not an annoying beepy digital one. I like a metronome that has all the original numbers series like 6o, 63, 66 through 208, etc. (and not every number there is from 30-300. )

The pendulum kind that the cat attacked in the video above is fun but they tend to break and are not as reliable. Maybe I begin to see why.

Haydn's Manuscripts make it to the Hairdresser

Josef Haydn (Yes, I know it was "Franz Josef Haydn," but he didn't know it) was irrepressibly optimistic. With sore difficulties wracking his childhood ("I received more floggings than food") he came out beaming with happiness in his demeanor, his conversation and of course in his music. He was socially successful because of this point. Constantly negative people drain so much energy it's depressing just to talk to them, But Haydn, the lighthearted prankster made friends right and left that helped him succeed in spite of coming out of low socioeconomic circumstances, which, I might add, may have been stacks harder to combat in that day.

But it wasn't all sunbeams for Haydn the adult either- He missed the mark big time in one respect: His wife. Oops. Haydn loved a girl who was unfortunately predestined by her family to a nunnery, so she was packed off to the nunnery, much to Haydn's disappointment. Her sister was available. So he went for her instead. After their marriage he found she had... not a lot of respect for music or composition or composers or manuscripts or any such thing which made things really hard for her musical, composing, manuscript writing husband because their living depended on his success and his success depended on his manuscripts that were too often taken from his writing desk and ending up lining her muffin tins and ending up as curl-papers for Mrs. Haydn's coiffure. I am Dead Serious. This really happened. This is one of those situations that would make even the most hardened marriage counselor's jaw drop. Well, needless to say, their relationship did not flourish because she was like this on a regular basis. They separated, whether amicably or not I cannot tell, but he supported her comfortably in her own home and regarded himself as a married man the rest of his life. This I really, really respect about him: Haydn wrote to a friend who was suggesting the beginning of a relationship between Haydn and one of his students, a rich, handsome widow who obviously preferred him: "I am not a free man." Haydn recognized that vows are forever.

Is it Classical? Is it Jazz?

You need to hear the Impromptu Op. 66, No. 22 by Nicolai Kapustin.

This artist plays beautifully- but it's not a pure jazz sound. That's OK with me, but after hearing Kapustin play it I almost miss the cold, deep soul of jazz, she sounds like she plays with the fire and touch of a classical artist by comparison. I love the music around :50-:60

To hear what I mean, Kapustin himself sounds way more like the jazz player he is here.

Cool piece! I really enjoy composers who blend the jazz with classical traditions.

Like Copland's Clarinet Concerto.

Enjoy!!!