Kevin Orr maintains an active schedule as a soloist and collaborative performer, masterclass clinician, and lecturer throughout the United States and abroad. Recent activities include a number of concerts and masterclasses at conservatories in China, and in the summer of 2004 he was Artist In Residence at The University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia. He is currently Assistant Professor of Piano/Piano Pedagogy at the University of Florida, where he maintains a studio of advanced piano students, teaches courses in pedagogy and keyboard improvisation, and directs the University of Florida Young Pianists Festival each summer for pre-college pianists. Orr studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music and at The Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University, where his principal teachers included Paul Schenly, Robert E. Hopkins, and Caroline Oltmanns. He is a recipient of the William Kurzban Prize in Piano from the Cleveland Institute, and of the Aurora Ragiani Martin Piano Award from The Dana School.
Kevin Orr
University of Florida School of Music
Box 117900
Gainesville, FL 32611-7900
352.392.0223 Ext. 230
korr@ufl.edu
As university teachers, we are rightly faced with questions regarding the professional opportunities that our students may encounter upon graduation. In no profession are such questions posed more than in the arts, an arena which is often perceived to be of marginal importance in much of society. This reality has brought me to consider ways in which we could better equip piano students with a more diverse range of skills, suited to today's professional music world. It has become clear to me, in light of the sheer broadness of our society's appetite for music, that we should consider expanding the scope of instruction to encompass more than the great masterworks, particularly in a modern climate where students' aspirations often include goals other than, or in addition to, the concert stage. An addendum to the piano curriculum is in order, that would provide, or at least introduce, skills with which students could discover new musical interests, and thereby play a more active role in the music profession. I submit that the teaching of improvisatory keyboard skills, specifically improvisation and playing "by ear," should be central to this broadened approach - not in a way to compromise traditional piano study, but to complement it. Before continuing, however, I must state that one need only observe my own performance activities to realize that I would not advocate the hindering of classical piano study. It remains my true passion, not to be overshadowed by any supplemental interest. However, I can also speak, from personal experience, to the advantages brought about from the ability to play to play a piece upon hearing it, as opposed to reading it. The sheer confidence one has in performance, knowing that his or her ear will chart the course, even in classical performance, provides an intangible advantage upon which no price can be placed.
Focusing upon 'The Practical'
It is important to clarify that, by improvisation, I am not referring to so-called free improvisation - a manner of experimentation at the keyboard, often encouraged of children for development of their musical ear. While I strongly advocate this activity for the young, and believe that such exposure is directly related to one's success at more advanced levels of improvisation, this paper is concerned with improvisatory skills of a 'practical' nature, relevant at the older student - that is, the improvisation of a melody over a given chord progression, or the improvisation of accompaniment from chord symbols alone - skills that are more immediately relevant to today's pianist.
Commonalities between Improvisation and Playing by Ear
While improvisation and playing by ear are essentially separate activities, I submit that in many ways, they demand the same skills and place the same sort of demands upon the performer. Each skill prompts an intuitive response, for which the results will differ every time - generally not the case in classical performance, except, of course, in regard to interpretation. Each of these skills relies upon the performer's ability (and courage) to play without the security of the printed page, as I noted earlier, letting the ear 'chart the course'. And, perhaps most importantly, each demands a well-trained musical ear. Should one question the relevance of such studies, I would refer them to any of the many respected writings, long in existence, on the merits of keyboard-related aural skills. In his classic text "The Pianist's Problems", William S. Newman notes that "...by translating to the piano a mental concept recorded by the ear, rather than a printed page recorded by the eye, the student does much to heighten his harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic acuity." Certainly, we could agree that "harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic acuity" are values sought-after in all musical circles. Therefore, even if one's musical tastes lay solely in the classical realm, there is much to gain from the supplementary studies proposed here, as I will now detail.
Justification I: Benefits for the Teacher
As piano pedagogues, the ability to play by ear is possibly one of the most powerful teaching tools that we can possess. Teachers who play by ear have a considerable advantage in teaching by demonstration - something to which most students respond well. The spontaneous demonstration of passages from a variety of works, even if not originally composed for the piano, greatly enhances our ability to make a musical point. In my own teaching, I encourage students to consider the genres for which a particular composer may be better known when attempting to understand his or her piano works. In Mozart, for example, it is often useful to draw comparisons to the composer's operatic masterpieces when attempting to understand the dynamic musical character of his sonata themes - not an original idea - one I picked up from a former mentor and friend, Dr. Daniel Shapiro at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Nonetheless, a few relevant measures from Don Giovanni, or The Magic Flute do much to illuminate the change of thematic character in Mozart. While most of us could certainly memorize such passages to use in our teaching, and we do, of course, the ability to demonstrate spontaneously by ear - to walk to the piano and perform a passage that delineates a specific musical point, is a more desirable, not to mention more stimulating, skill to possess. After all, one cannot predict what may be necessary to demonstrate before a given lesson occurs. To be sure, instrumental music teaching is a very personal art form, for which each of us has developed his or her own means of communicating to students. I intend, in no way, to detract from those who find it more effective to express themselves through the spoken word. I am merely admitting that my own spoken word is far more effective when accompanied by some degree of performance, especially of a spontaneous nature, pertinent to a specific musical situation.
Justification II: Benefits for the Performer
As improvisational skills are somewhat of a misunderstood art form, they often lie outside the concentrated studies of the traditional pianist. However, among the many profits to the performer, the refined ear that develops from engaging in improvisatory activities vastly enhances the ability to, among other things, learn and memorize music. The sharpened ear assimilates and retains new pieces much more easily, and thus more rapidly. Furthermore, an aural association of the keyboard is developed whereby pitches are conceived internally before they are played - the process of "audiation", as Edwin Gordon has often discussed. Such capability greatly aids in surviving the inevitable memory lapse during a performance. One must witness typical student keyboard performances for only a short time to observe that much of the memorization is purely 'mechanical' - that is to say, the memorization is based upon the mechanical movements of the fingers, or 'finger memory', as it is often called. Of course, some element of harmonic and melodic retention exists, but I would submit, not nearly to the degree necessary. Consequently, upon suffering a memory lapse, students are often unable to begin within a phrase (or sometimes even within a major section), and are instead forced to return to the beginning of a section, or even the beginning of the work, to recover. Such occurrences illuminate, to use Mr. Newmann's term, a lack of aural acuity of a piece - a lack of inner hearing of the harmonic progression and the manner with which the melody interacts. Conversely, students who are encouraged to play 'by ear', gain a greater aural comprehension of everything that they perform, and are thus far more likely to recover from the inevitable error in a more effective way, perhaps even a musical way, befitting the harmonic content of the passage. Not surprisingly, students whose ears are accustomed to such listening automatically retain new music much faster. They listen polyphonically - that is, they listen to all of the voices, relying less and less upon their eyes and more upon their ears in subsequent readings of a piece. They are able to think through a piece when away from the piano at an earlier stage, fostering a greater level of retention in day-to-day practice. Ultimately, the notion of 'memory practice' will become a thing of the past, as pieces become memorized unconsciously.
Justification III: Broadening the Stylistic Repertoire
While thus far I have attempted to justify improvisatory skills for the traditional pianist, those active in other musical styles often recognize improvisation and playing 'by ear' as basic skills for survival. Pianists, who make their living in popular music, jazz, and church music, are, by necessity, already fluent in various forms of improvisation. Performances in these styles are often inspired as much by intuition as by the printed page. Interestingly, to them it is often classical performance that seems a lofty task. Yet, performance opportunities for the keyboard improviser far exceed those of the traditional pianist. For example, the world of commercial music - those duties fulfilled by the recording studio musician, is essentially closed to those who are unable to perform and, most importantly, adapt, to any given musical style presented to them. The emphasis in this setting is focused upon getting results quickly (as recording costs are prohibitively high), sometimes requiring the performer to intuitively react to an audio recording rather than read from a printed page of music. How would the purely classical pianist respond in this setting? In light of what I would deem as 'declining musicality' in both popular and commercial music, I would propose that the trained musicians, composers, and arrangers reclaim this territory - an excellent opportunity, in deed, for the promising music student fluent in a broad range of styles.
There are a variety of methods by which these skills can be included in the curriculum. At this point, I would like to detail some specific approaches that I have found useful for meaningful implementation.
Implementation Approach I: The Separate Course
Without question, the most effective realization of these skills has occurred through the development of a specific elective course on the topic. I developed such a course four years ago, with the intention of addressing two general areas:
1. The study of music presented in a 'fake-book' format
2. The learning of pieces 'by ear' from an audio recording
Other areas that I have noted above, such as the exposure to music technology, are woven into these two activities. The 'fake-book' format, whereby the student is presented with only a melody and accompanying chord symbols, requires an ability to improvise, at least in terms of producing an accompaniment from the chord symbols alone. Additionally, the 'freer' nature of such a piece fosters the opportunity to 'embellish' the melody, or even 'improvise' over the chords, as done in jazz. The true strength of the activity, however, lies in the preparatory activities that it demands, the most fundamental of which being drills in jazz chord voicing. And, while voicing is, perhaps, the most intricate and sophisticated topic of the jazz idiom, students gain, at least, a basic understanding of how to approach the peculiarities of typical jazz-inspired chord progressions. Given the fact that students are often intimidated at the thought of improvising a melody, the activity is first approached by altering the rhythm or by adding chromatic pitches to the existing melody - a fairly safe approach for most. From this stage, students can progress to improvising an entirely new melody upon the existing chords - admittedly, an improvisation 'with rules', although certainly a form of the skill most practical to real-world applications. As mentioned earlier, 'free improvisation', may be thought-provoking, and indeed, even a means for fostering composition, but it is only modestly relevant to the trained college pianist in search of the 'practical'.
The other main component of the course, learning pieces 'by ear' from an audio recording, is directly related in that it demands a great deal of 'inner' hearing of a piece or passage before it is played. Students then transfer that which they hear to the keyboard, much in the same fashion they would if improvising a melody, and quite differently from the practice of reading music, where the eyes are the primary stimuli. Actually, a refined ear can be a great detriment in reading music, as one may try to anticipate the melodic or harmonic direction, only to be terribly fooled. I've been the victim of this very thing many times, as have many of my students.
Since students are likely to be drawn to playing pieces 'by ear' that specifically appeal to them, the range of music for this portion of the class is necessarily wide. I recorded a number of short piano excerpts to CD, representing a variety of styles that include musical theater, pop music, patriotic songs, and folk songs. Each student possesses his or her own copy of the CD for study. Since the activity is new to virtually everyone, much preparation is again necessary to achieve any degree of success. We begin by listening to a selection as a group, with each student responding to questions about what they hear - questions relating to the complexity of the harmony, the number of different chords present, the rhythm, the distribution of notes among the fingers and hands, the direction of the bass voice, etc. Such difficult questions, naturally, foster a detailed discussion in which all are actively engaged. From this discussion, students embark upon the assignment with a general understanding of the harmonic content and physical arrangement of the notes on the keyboard. They are thereby aptly prepared for the trial-and-error process of deciphering the selection using only their ears, fingers, and a CD player. In actuality, what is really being learned, however, is not so much the specific piece within each assignment, although they have been chosen for their usefulness and popularity; what is actually learned is a method of how to listen when playing 'by ear'. Students gain a sense of how to approach this eccentric task in a practical way. They learn how to separate the individual voices of a recorded performance 'by ear', and transfer them to the keyboard in a musically appealing way - always a highly-stressed point in class.
Understandably, creative activities such as these are often achieved, initially, at the expense of good musicianship. For example, to grasp something concrete, students will often interpret chord symbols not in a manner stylistic to the piece at hand, but as block chords, and in the octave below middle-C, to avoid interfering with the right hand melody. Of course, the result is anything but musical. Low-register block chords produce little more than a dissonant blur, and the physical distance between the right-hand melody and left-hand chords creates an unappealing, empty texture. Fortunately, such problems are merely the product of the student shifting his or her focus to other issues of the task. Upon observing a few effective examples, students will begin recognizing and correcting these voicing problems on their own.
As one might expect, the success of such a course is heavily dependant upon the maintaining of a small enrollment. Each student will develop these skills to a different degree (largely dependant upon the sharpness of their musical ear), and will take a completely unique approach to each task. Likewise, each student will pose different problems and questions, each of which requiring very unique explanations. This has certainly been my experience thus far, and is the impetus behind my efforts to maintain a low enrollment in the course.
Implementation Approach II: Within the Private Lesson
Meaningful inclusion of improvisatory skills into more traditional settings of musical study, such as the private lesson, is another matter entirely. These are sacred arenas in which anything viewed as superfluous is not readily welcomed. Justifiably, the time is directed to meeting specific musical goals set by the instructor for the student. Fully respectful of this point of view (and quite supportive of it in regard to my own teaching), I would suggest that improvisation may be introduced, not as a separate activity, but within pieces that specifically lend themselves to it. For example, there are numerous slow movements of Mozart piano sonatas where the composer presents the simplest of melodies, seemingly as a set-up for later embellishment through ornamentation, or other improvisational tactics. A study of several of these works would provide the insightful student a palette of tools with which to experiment with his or her own improvisations of the melodies. Other such learning opportunities could arise from the study and interpretation of figured bass symbols, Baroque ornamentation, or perhaps even an endeavor to create one's own concerto cadenza. Of course, such things never have to leave the confines of the studio, or even the practice room, but the degree of creative research and practice required to even approach such activities is of the highest educational value, in my estimation.
As in other areas of the arts, a great many of our music students will maintain private teaching studios, in which they may draw upon the influence of our instructional style. I certainly draw upon the teaching styles of many influential mentors on a daily basis. In light of this inevitable ideological transfer, we can assume that students will be greatly impacted, not only by what we say about a given piece, but how we say it. The manner in which we make our argument can be the most significant factor in its successful comprehension. To recall an earlier premise, the art of teaching by demonstration, particularly in the manner of spontaneous reaction to a given situation, can have an immeasurable impact upon our students. This is especially true as they begin to develop their own instructional style. It is, in my estimation, a teaching skill that they will strive to achieve.
Closing Remarks
As I trust you have gathered, my argument for including improvisational keyboard skills within the college music curriculum is one driven, not to satisfy a generic desire for a more broad-based curriculum, but to address specific skills that, I believe, would better prepare our students for a professional life in music. The responsibility of presenting our students with a fine education is partnered with the necessity of recognizing the ever-changing professional world of which they will soon be a part.
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