Volkslieder 2

We also listened/watched to two versions of this one, a traditional interpretation by Hermann Prey and a Manhattan-Tranfer-ish one by the Ute Mann Singers. 

Since in J's piano lessons we're working on modes, I sang this one also in Phrygian, with an F natural in the penultimate bar. 

Puppets and piano practice 7

J performed in his first piano recital in early May. He played "City Sounds" by Helen Marlais, then together we played "Alles neu macht der Mai" as a duet.  

After weeks of practice with these two short pieces, they were very polished, so J played them very well and enjoyed himself immensely, mostly because he knew he played them well and the audience responded accordingly. The first thing he said after he sat down was "When are we going to do this again?" 

Ever since the recital, his attitude toward practicing at home has been transformed. He now freely sits down more at the piano, practices on his own initiative, lets me sit next to him and help him, and enjoys playing his pieces as duets with me.

So, even though I've felt guilty and questioned myself on the many occasions when J has burst into tears at the keyboard, I do feel vindicated in pushing him rather hard over the last months. With music, as with many things, there's a positive-feedback loop: If one doesn't practice, then the first recitals can be unpleasant or even traumatic, leading one to want to practice even less, leading to ever worse recital experiences. If one practices, one plays well, enjoys oneself, and wants to practice more. For this reason, I felt it was crucial that his first recital experience be positive. 

One upshot of this is that Friedel and Thusnelda don't have to intervene anymore in the practice sessions and reprimand me for my strictness. Or that's how it was for awhile, anyway. Recently there have been a couple of minor rough patches, and J has summoned them once again to mediate. 

It's more lighthearted now though. J's recent thing is to have Thusnelda help him with the practice and dance along to the music while Friedel holds my mouth shut. 

"Alles neu macht der Mai," 2

Happy May greetings from Jamie and me!   

Alles neu macht der Mai        

Alles neu macht der Mai,

macht die Seele frisch und frei.

Lasst das Haus, kommt hinaus!

Windet einen Strauss!

Rings erglänzet Sonnenschein,

duftend prangen Flur und Hain:

Vogelsang, Hörnerklang tönt den Wald entlang.

Everything is new in May

Everything is new in May,

The soul is refreshed and free.

Leave the house, come outside!

Tie a fresh bouquet!

The sun is shining all around,

Meadows and groves are fragrant:

Birdsong, horncalls

Sound throughout the forest.

Puppets and piano practice 6

Today J and I are practicing music together for the first time, getting ready to play a duet at a recital in a couple of weeks. It has not been easy. Having the puppets as an audience and for silly commentary has made things easier.

Piano practice 5

J's piano teacher has been trying to get him to perform at a recital. So far he hasn't wanted to. Today however I proposed performing the German Volkslied "Alles neu macht der Mai," which he loves, and he seemed to warm to the idea. 

I told him that most of the other students probably don't know many, if any, German songs, so this would be a chance to share something very special and unique with them. I found a version in the key of C, printed it and gave it to his piano teacher today, who was very excited and worked out the fingerings with J at the lesson. 

Puppets and piano practice 4: little breakthroughs

While Friedel's and Thusnelda's intervention has definitely helped, piano practice has continued to be a mixed bag, and sometimes the puppet preliminaries end up taking so much time and being so much of a focus that the piano loses out. 

The piggies have to get past J before they can play the piano.

It continues to be difficult for me to stay calm and patient, and at this point J feels that even Thusnelda is sometimes "too strict." My wife has suggested that J can now start practicing on his own, and yesterday under her aegis he actually did sit down and, for a few minutes, practice with concentration. She told me that as he finished, he looked up and beamed!

And this morning there was another little breakthrough. After noodling about on the keys a little, he got a piece of paper, announced he was going to write a song, and started drawing notes. 

"What is the song about?" I asked, since I heard him mumbling words. "About a snake, a sidewinder," he replied. He had a first verse in mind already: Die kleine Schlange schlängelt sich, but was hung up on the second part. I suggested du-u-urch die Wüste. He liked that. He finished the melody, hummed it to himself with the words,

Took the song to the piano and played through it, 

Then asked the piggies come and listen. We couldn't find Friedel, so he played the song for Thusnelda.

Here's the finished composition (he changed sich schlängeln to sich winden):

Die kleine Schlange windet sich / du-u-urch die Wüste

On our shopping trip afterwards he was already working on a second song. He proposed Die kleine Schlange frisst die Maus, die schluckt sie ... and then got hung up. I proposed die schluckt sie ganz herunter, which he liked. He wrote the music when he got home.

Puppets and piano practice, part 3

Today when doing his key-coloring in preparation for piano practice, J divided each key into three spaces, one for himself, one for Friedel and one for Thusnelda.

Puppets and piano practice, part 2

Piano practice has been going generally very well ever since Friedel and Thusnelda took over. Each time, I try to think up new games and play strategies as a fun introduction to the lesson. 

One that we've been doing the last couple of times involves Friedel and Thusnelda having to get past J to the piano, whereby he beats them off with martial arts moves and the help of other animals. 

This worked extremely well today—at first. J actually requested *extra piano practice* so that he could play the game more times. But then something unfortunate happened. When one of the piggies finally did succeed in getting past the defense, J became quite angry. 

Now, according to my puppetry philosophy, which I explain in my essay, all the puppets have their own personalities and dignity. So J doesn't get to have it all his way all the time. This was one of those times. The piggies felt that they had gotten past J's defenses quite fairly, and that it is unfair of J to expect to win every time. However, right now this has only made J angrier, and he told us he never wants to play the game again, and at the moment I'm writing this he is off muttering to himself in another room—in German, by the way! 

So it's an end to piano practice today. But I'm hoping that in the bigger picture the piano practice, the puppetry, and J's social development in general is better served by enforcing these kinds of rules. 

Update: half an hour later J is calm. He explained to Friedel and Thusnelda that their move—one piggy catapulting the other over the Christmas tree—was not good because they could have knocked off and broken an ornament. They agreed and said they would not do that again. In turn, they asked him if it was ok if they won once in awhile without J getting angry. He agreed. 

Puppets and piano practice, part 1

I freely admit, I bring a lot of unhealthy baggage to my son's piano practice. The puppets help me with that. 

I am a failed classical musician, and I lay heavy blame on my parents. As a child, whenever I was in a room with a piano (practically every week at my cousins' house), I would sit and tap out little pieces and compositions. My folks never got a clue. Later, at 13, when I expressed interest in the guitar, they bought me a K-Mart special with string action so high it was unplayable. That killed three more years, after which I finally took it into my own hands to get a decent instrument and some instruction—ad hoc via my cousin, not actual lessons. 

But 16 is simply too late a beginning for someone with performance ambitions in the world of classical music, as would become painfully clear to me when I studied classical guitar in college.

One unhealthy way this baggage has manifested itself is that I was overzealous in redressing it in J's case, such that we probably started his piano lessons too early (at 4.8). We should have waited until he was 6 or 7. But the biggest problem is that I have a very hard time being patient during practice. This sets up a nasty feedback loop: I get impatient, J feels bad and wants to stop playing, which makes me more impatient, etc. I really don't feel I have this problem in any other area—just with music. And self-awareness doesn't seem to help much, at least when it's just J and me at the piano. 

This is where the puppets come in.  

I have always used them in encouraging J's interest in music, for example by providing another enthusiastic audience:

But  a couple of weeks ago, when the piano experience became so negative that we were talking about stopping the lessons, I realized that the puppets could do much more to help. They could conduct the practice sessions with J all on their own. Here, my wife was the pioneer. One day when I wasn't around, she had one of J's favorite stuffed kitties lead a practice, and it went great. She says she was just employing my methods, but for some reason this had just not occurred to me.  

So I've turned it all over to the puppets now. They suggest the practice session, they prep the pieces, they offer corrections and comments, and they sing along. Everything is more relaxed, a little slower, and, of course, there is lots of silliness. But there is also progress. J listens to the puppets far better than to me, and the puppet personalities are so established that I am able to be more patient when I am in character than when I am just myself. Friedel, for example, is the essence of porcine chill; it is unthinkable and unfeelable to get impatient with J while I am doing Friedel.

Or almost unfeelable. And here is the real rub. Now, when I do find myself getting impatient, I simply have the puppets turn to me and slap me down, like this:

"Herr Sager, halten Sie bitte den Schnabel! Sie haben gesagt, Sie wollten sich nicht mehr einmischen. Das haben Sie versprochen! Der Kleine meint, Sie sind zu streng und zu ungeduldig. Er mag es, wenn wir mit ihm üben, mit Ihnen mag er's halt nicht. Wir können's besser machen. Wenn Sie geduldig sein können, dann dürfen Sie ab und zu was sagen, aber bitte nicht zu viel!"

("Herr Sager, please shut your trap! You said you would not interfere. You promised! J said that you are too strict and too impatient. He likes practicing with us, he doesn't like practicing with you. We can do it better! If you can be patient, you can say things sometimes, but please not too much!")

J loves it when the puppets lay into me, and this has restored real enjoyment to the practice sessions. Castigating myself in this way—sometimes with real vehemence—is a tangible psychological release, helping me work through the bugbears and develop more real patience in this area.