Home : Plato's Words : November 2008

November 2008

The month of October was an active month for me in many ways. Teaching is really busy this year and I have all kinds of ideas this season to hopefully inspire my singing and piano students. I am planning on having each of my students study a song or composition by a Canadian Composer to celebrate CANADA MUSIC WEEK that takes place in November. There is much great repertoire to select from but it can be tricky to locate since the Canadian composers are buried in amongst all the European composers and the American composers in the piano repertoire. For Canadian song material I want to stick to truly Canadian folksongs or arrangements of such and also some of the beautiful art songs that exist. I have a large poster to display in my music studio, which will have all the students’ names and the composition titles listed. Everyone seems quite keen on the idea of getting their name somewhere on the giant piano illustration on the poster. In any event it seems like a good project and gives my students something in the immediate future to work towards. I also have almost everyone of my students from beginner to advanced students attempt to compose something of their own. I had my students compose in previous years as well, whether or not they were studying theory with me because it seemed like a very creative way of having students explore melodies and harmony and actually learning how to write that out on manuscript paper with proper notation and details. What I have done this year is come up with some supposedly catchy or at least descriptive titles and then I have created a left hand part for a simple 8 or 16 bar piece using different key signatures and time signatures and then have the students come up with a melody that will work over that bass clef part. Some of the students have wonderful ideas and create truly sing-able and catchy tunes. Dissonance is explored too and we discuss which melodic notes may be better choices but that indeed some dissonance is an interesting contrast to the chord tones too and can be quite beautiful. It is a good way for me to recognize which students have a good understanding of time signatures, rests, note groupings and rhythms. Somehow this seems to be a good method for beginning the study of theory without it really seeming to be theory. Most of my students don’t really like theory and I know as a young student I didn’t like it at all. I would sit at the kitchen table at my piano teacher’s house as she taught another piano student and try to work on my theory questions but mostly I would look out at the gorgeous scene in front of me. I could see for miles over the vast prairie landscape because my piano teacher’s house was at the top of the hill with a perfect vantage point to gaze and ponder the vastness of the prairies. So perhaps I wasn’t such a good theory student but I do believe some of that prairie gazing in between attempting questions on cadences and scale writing must have influenced my own compositions later on in life since much of my inspiration comes from nature and the wonderful scenes Mother Nature gives us. Now in my teaching studio I don’t have any distracting scenes to cause my students to gaze outside since we are located downstairs although there are windows of course. I myself while listening to students play for me will often gaze out at my giant blue spruce as a contrast to the sky so there I am still doing a little bit of nature gazing while inside working with music. I do believe that for someone like Beethoven in his day nature was absolutely one of the driving forces in his creativity and in helping him formulate his musical ideas. So maybe all this gazing and daydreaming isn’t such a bad thing.

Now, to the performing side of my life. I recently returned from Regina where I performed a concert at the CBC in the wonderful Galleria. CBC Regina has done much for me over the years and I have performed there a number of times. Each time I seem to get the royal treatment from everyone and I have an ever-present smile on my face because I am made to feel so welcome. This concert was to celebrate the 25-year existence of the Broadcast Centre at CBC Saskatchewan. Many years ago when I was a budding young singer/songwriter I had submitted a demo tape for a contest called The Broadstreet Review and I won! The prize allowed me to travel to Regina and record several of my original songs with a band. I don’t even know if I have a copy of that recording anywhere but I recently found the reel to reel tape on which the demo was recorded and had to smile thinking about the years have passed and how music truly has been a part of my life for a long time now as teacher and performer. Hopefully my song writing skills have improved somewhat over the years!

For the concert I chose to bring together a trio from Montreal, which is led by pianist John Roney with whom I have performed a number of times. He is a wonderful pianist with a keen sensitivity when it comes to dynamics and the shaping and sculpting of a tune. His band mates included two wonderful musicians: drummer Martin Auguste and bassist Remi-Jean LeBlanc. I flew to Regina with great trepidation because I caught a miserable cold in the days leading up to the concert and I was concerned that my voice would disappear or that my endless sneezing would ruin the concert and the recording of this concert. I was very lucky because although I didn’t feel very well my voice seemed to “behave” and did most of the things it would usually do and the sneezing fits ended for the concert duration. That sounds rather strange, as though my voice has a mind of its own and that I perhaps don’t control it at all. Sometimes it feels that way. Sometimes it can surprise me with the great ease it allows me to express myself and other times it seems to fight with me and I am up against the wall negotiating and pleading for it to behave. Anyway all was well in the world for me when the trio played exquisitely and the music seemed to flow with ease. That’s how I like it! This concert will be broadcast on CANADA LIVE on CBC Radio in November.(November 25th @ 8 PM on CBC Radio 2). I think it was quite fun to have the Eastern side of Canada (Montreal) and the Western side (Vancouver) come together in the middle of the prairies (Saskatchewan) and connect through music. There is something special about that to me and perhaps the music was decidedly different since we were coming from different places and meeting on some common ground. This was my first meeting with both Remi-Jean and Martin Auguste for example and yet through music we were able to connect a little bit as human beings. I certainly do hope to make more music with the group again at some point in the future.

The future for me now however involves getting ready to sing with yet another group! My Toronto group with Nancy Walker, Steve Wallace and replacing Joel Haynes on drums will be Nick Fraser. Joel was already booked on the date that my CD release concert will take place in Toronto which will be November 14th. I am so excited about going back to Toronto and not just because of the music. I know there is a type of rivalry between Vancouver and Toronto although that doesn’t exist in the music world, only the hockey world, so far as I know. I personally love Toronto and have formed some lovely friendships there and I have enjoyed the excitement and bustle that the city has to offer. I will be there for a week leading up to the concert re-connecting with people and hopefully hearing some music as well. I will miss the fact that there is no longer The Top of The Senator or The Montreal Bistro to go to in Toronto but there will be other places to check out and new places to discover. So now I had best put the Saskatchewan trip into my memory folder and work towards the upcoming events. I still have much work to do. Yes, the CD is done and has been for some time. Now I need to revisit the music and think about putting some new life into it as I perform with my band in Toronto. I will also start negotiating with my voice and see if it might agree to be on its best behavior for the Toronto trip. Surely if I am gentle in my request…..

Karin