A review of George Walker’s “Poem for Soprano and Chamber Orchestra”

 George Walker, who died in 2018 at the age of 96, was a Pulitzer Prize-winning composer – the first Black composer to have nabbed that prize – and pianist, who was also the first Black soloist to perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Curtis Institute’s first Black graduate. And his Pulitzer-winning piece, “Lilacs,” setting a Lincoln eulogy by Walt Whitman, should be a mandated substitute for Aaron Copland’s odiously puerile “Lincoln Portrait.” Below, we travel back to 1987 and my review of a performance by Albany’s Capitol Chamber Artists, who championed Walker’s work.

THERE SHOULD BE A LAW banning frivolous settings of T. S. Eliot’s poems. And there should be a national celebration when a thoughtful setting comes along that does justice to Eliot’s work.

In which case composer George Walker would be hoisted upon shoulders for his brand-new setting of "The Hollow Men."

Capitol Chamber Artists premiered the work this weekend, locally at Page Hall in Albany last night. Walker’s “Poem for Soprano and Chamber Orchestra” is more than just a chamber piece, however. With its surprising theatrical touches and disquieting voice, it is a completely appropriate and thought-provoking interpretation of the text.

Scoring is for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, guitar, piano, harpsichord and percussion battery; in addition to the soprano two speakers (human, not electronic) are required.

Soprano Mary Anne Ross entered in whiteface, an old felt hat on her head, a blanket grasped round her waist. She carried a plastic bag bulging with street-life stuff.

Michael Murphy, one of the speakers, was ragged and unshaven and wore a woolen watch cap. He uttered the poem’s epigraph (from Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”) as the music began.

This isn’t a work that offers its own melodies. The music is lifted from the words in the poem, from the twists that Walker’s ear has discerned. It might not be the music you and I here, but one of the biggest challenges Eliot offers is diversity of interpretation.

The music was fragmented, constantly shifting in tempo. Little bursts tossed from instrument to instrument as Ross began the first stanza.

Each of the five sections shifted a little in character, as the poem suggests. Many violent, unpleasant words are cloaked in Eliot’s elegance, and Walker’s setting sought and realized that violence.

This is the dream-poem of a person too desperately unhappy to put thoughts into words, and that feeling of having ventured into a dream was supported by the eerie shifts in the music, the same sense you have when a high fever causes your thoughts to shimmer into dreams.

In the end, the thoughts are fragmented enough that Janet Rowe, the second speaker, murmured a poetic counterpoint behind the famous closing lines.

It’s no easy task to perform a score like this one: credit goes not only to conductor Angelo Frascarelli but also to each member of the ensemble. Percussionists Richard Albagli and Scott Stacey moved like wizards; Malcolm Kogut was dexterous in his keyboard work as he shifted from piano to harpsichord and back again.

Irvin Gilman and Charles Stancampiano played the wind instruments; strings were Mary Lou Saetta and Douglas Moore. Sam Farkas was the guitarist.

Walker’s “Poem,” commissioned by CCA in conjunction with a consortium of other chamber groups, is a devastating work, deserving of greater attention.

This premiere is one of the more prestigious occasions that Albany has overlooked lately.

The program of this concert took some shifts since it was announced last autumn. Beethoven’s Serenade in D Major, Op. 25, was moved to front of the program, and presented Gilman, Saetta and Rowe on flute, violin and viola in a five-movement work very much in the classical tradition.

It’s a fun piece of occasional music, already showing the whimsy that Beethoven would make the most of in later compositions. It was the right choice, too, to warm the audience up for the Walker work that began the second half.

From there on in it was all enjoyable fluff. Heitor Villa-Lobos seems to have written something for every possible combination of instruments: “Distribution of the Flowers” is for flute and guitar, and Gilman and Farkas had a ball with it.

Gilman, Saetta and Kogut joined forces for two short works: a minuet by Haydn and a rondo by Mozart, the latter a “Turkish dance” that featured Gilman’s sprightly piccolo.

And the conclusion was downright hilarious. Adolphe Adam, a Frenchman with romance in his heart, fiddled with Mozart’s variations on the tune we know as “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” to provide a soprano showcase, the kind of deal you would have heard at a “society” dinner party as the special guest showed off her tonsils.

With Kogut at the piano, Gilman and Ross took turns (with flute and voice) dancing through these fanciful variations, complete with a voice-busting cadenza before the big finish.

All in all, this was program of contrast and delight.

Some Little Bug Is Going to Find You Someday

From 1915: The song hit introduced in Franz Lehar's operetta "Alone at Last." They say that food can kill you. Here's how. Performed in 2020 by Byron Nilsson and Malcolm Kogut.

https://youtu.be/babF6rlLgdo

More fun with out of tune pianos

Malcolm Kogut faking Fats.

Bad Piano Challenge

I love out of tune pianos and they are plenteous resting in church basements.

https://youtu.be/ICCU3pe6Q4I

In piano playing, what does “to caress the keys” mean?

There is an old technique called carrezando which literally means to caress the keys. Carrezando playing can injure a musician, it is very dangerous. The reason is because people think it is a technique when in reality it is the symptom or end result of technique. It should not be sought after but rejoiced when it appears.

This is a condition of virtuoso teaching. Many virtuosos move properly and never fully learned the biomechanics of playing because playing well came naturally to them so when they teach, they tell the student what they feel and not what they are doing to get that feeling. The student then tries to force that feeling into their playing but they can make many mistakes while trying to obtain it. Virtuosos are often the worse teachers because they sometimes don’t know how they do what they do.

Consequently students who try to force caressing into their technique begin pressing into the keys, playing with flat fingers and doing all sorts of things which will strain the tendons and then crippling pain will ensue over time because the damage is cumulative. The pianist will ignore the warning signs until one day something just breaks.

Ergonomic playing requires in/out motions, up/down, forward/backward and left/right. When you combine all these movements the player begins to play up and allows gravity to play down. The symptom of the congealment of all these motions is the feeling of caressing the keys. The pianist should not be caressing them but should feel like they are caressing them. When done properly the pianist won’t even feel their fingers because the skeleton will be playing from the arm muscles while the tendons in the hands predominately relax.

Much like petting a dog. Your arm lifts up, you move it toward the head, then down, then you pet down the dog’s back. There are four movements there and without them, there would be no petting. The petting is the result of the four movements where the hand appears do be doing the petting, using the arm.

Better yet, lay your arm on a table and lift your elbow off the table, allow your wrist to flex but keep all your fingertips on the table top. Now pull your arm off the table. Feel that your fingers are caressing the table but the fingers are NOT doing the caressing, it is the result of the arm pulling away. THAT is the carrezando technique. 

But every motion MUST have an equal and opposite motion. Like petting that dog, before you can pet down the dog’s back you must first lift up and forward before you can drop down and backward. If you focus on caressing, you will lose the equal and opposite motions required to play properly. Your fingers have no muscles, all the muscles which move your fingers are in your arm. The finger bones move by a pulley system of tendons. All these equal and opposite motions are what gives a pianist a graceful look but some players force that look into their playing. Now, some schools of technique, such as the Russian, will teach you to do this hoping that carrezando will magically appear but shortcuts often come at a cost. If not pain, ignorance of the mechanics. 

It is erroneously thought that the carrezando technique will give you great speed and a very light pearly touch. Again, that is the end result feeling of a proper technique. Don’t ever seek it, it will find you if your technique is proper.

First, you have to find a good teacher. If you want to find a good teacher, don’t listen to them play, listen to their students. If 90% of them play the way you want to play, you found the right teacher. Hopefully that teacher provides student recital opportunities for you to go hear several at a time. Otherwise, go to any of those ubiquitous Chopin competitions and ask the good students whom they take lessons from. CAREFUL the student isn’t a virtuoso whom the teacher is just guiding.

*I* have a virtuoso student but it is nothing I did. The kid just plays correctly naturally and i keep out of his way.

Answer requested for Malcolm Kogut

I Can't Give You Anything But Love

https://youtu.be/gUkMeggYaOE

Do ergonomic keyboards and mice really help to prevent/decrease pain?

Pain and hand problems are caused by moving improperly. Ergonomic equipment, in theory, is designed to force your body into proper positions. They CAN work but it would be better for you to learn how to move ergonomically without the equipment.

The reason is, let’s say you have an improper ulnar deviation when you type (wrist twists to the left on your left and right on your right), you can still execute that improper motion with an ergonomic keyboard and, what good is fixing your typing deviation when you open doors, brush your teeth, write, use your phone or drive your car with the same deviation?

You can’t spot fix ergonomic problems. It is all or nothing. That is why people don’t heal because they try to fix isolated symptoms and not everything that is part of the problem.  You may have pain in your wrist but that is only the location of the symptom.  The problem is most likely how you are using your whole arm.

Often it is not a single movement that is a problem but a cavalcade of movement issues. You may type with flat fingers, curled fingers, too much pressure, equalized fingers, not enough “up,” radial deviation, you may abduct too much, you might isolate a finger, dorsiflexion, have an isolated elbow or shoulder . . . there are a lot of motions we should not do but we do them because many of us are lazy and unaware.

In the old days, manual typewriters forced us to type with the weight of the arm or, gravity.  Today's effortless keyboards have insidiously encouraged us not to use gravity and the fulcrum of the elbow to type and thus, we isolate smaller parts which strain our tendons. There is no such thing as "repetitive stress."  There is only improper movement and if you move improperly, all movement is then "repetitive stress."

Imagine casting a fishing pole with just your fingers, you'd probably hurt yourself.  Now imagine that only with the wrist.  That is better but still not optimal.  Now with your elbow.  Better.  Add the shoulder.  Notice how you are now using all the parts of the arm for one movement.  No single part is isolated but they all share in the casting, including but not exclusively the fingers.  Now as you cast, notice how your feet are planted, how your weight or center of gravity is distributed, your back and abs, notice also the equal and opposite motion required to cast.  In order to cast forward you must first cast backward.  Typing, too.  In order to type down you must first have an up motion.  Without it, you will strain your flexor tendons.  That is also the most dangerous part of using a mouse.  We rest our index finger and long flexor tendon flat on the button and click with no "up" or equal and opposite motion.  There is nothing wrong with the mouse, only how we use it.

The laws of physics must be obeyed. Break them and there is a price to pay.

Shameless Plug

I have composed a collection of songs for church use and have never plugged them before. So, why not.

The book and CD is called Psalms for the Church Year, Volume Ten, published by GIA. If you would like to hear a sample, go to the following link. My favorite is selection ten, Psalm 69: Lord in Your Great Love.

https://www.giamusic.com/store/resource/psalms-for-the-church-year-recording-cd429

GIA's venerable Psalms for the Church Year series has a fresh face with this new volume from Malcolm Kogut, who brings his gift for melody and his comfortable jazz-tinged style to this important new collection of psalms.

Malcolm fills some repertoire "holes" with these settings. He has set Psalm 47: "God Mounts His Throne to Shouts of Joy" for Ascension, and Psalm 45: "The Queen Stands at Your Right Hand" for Assumption, along with a mix of other common and lesser-known psalms. Using primarily ICEL refrains and several Grail translations, this volume is a worthy addition to the Psalms for the Church Year series. And, as with the other volumes, it includes reprint boxes of all refrains and a liturgical use index.

How long does it take a pianist to retrain muscle memory to play a new motion?

This is a wonderful question. There is no such thing, literally, as muscle memory. Movement is hardwired into the brain, not the muscles.

New muscle memory movement is very easy to wire into the brain and it can be immediate however, the brain never forgets the old patterns so, as a musician, if you get nervous or your body is cold, or you go into autopilot, it is very easy for the old movements to reassert themselves and take over despite new and more efficient neural pathways having been created since. This is especially true for musicians and also, how and what we play is very important.  This is why musicians often claim they can play perfectly in their living room but on stage it all falls apart. What is happening is the old muscle memory takes over because of environmental factors such as the presence of an audience, different bench height, temperature, nerves, etcetera. 

There is another danger here. Many teachers instruct the student to build strength and endurance to overcome technical deficiencies. This works to a certain extent but also puts the musician on the path to injury. If the musician then learns new and proper movements, the improper muscles used previously will immediately atrophy. This is why improperly trained musicians feel rusty or stiff after missing a few days of practice because the wrongly built muscles will get weak, quickly. Proper playing utilizes fulcrums, alignment, gravity, ergonomics and the laws of physics, not muscle. This is counter intuitive to most musicians and to many teachers who are ignorant of anatomy and physics. Mediocrity is the result of using the wrong muscles, not lack of talent. This is because most teachers have no idea what they are doing. They only know what they know but what they don’t know is what creates injury, tension, fatigue and sloppy playing.

A beginning student may learn a piece of music and there may be flaws in his movement. Over time he gets better and learns new songs and rewires some of the improper movements in his brain. He progresses further and his technique improves and his brain learns newer and even more proper movement. THE DANGER is playing old repertoire because even though his technique improves and he now has proper movements, the brain remembers the lesser or improper movements of previous repertoire from a time when he moved less properly. It is important for musicians to either never play old repertoire or, re-learn each piece with the newer, more proper motions.

The greatest danger is, as I previously said, the improper muscles atrophy if not used. If a musician built improper muscles to play a piece well, then as he progresses and loses that muscle because it is no longer needed since he is more ergonomic now, then he plays that old repertoire, the brain expects that the former muscle is there and tries to play the work “normally.” Since the muscle is no longer present, this is when the musician runs the risk of greatly injuring themselves. This is why a well trained musician can one day, out of nowhere, injure themselves.  Most injuries are actually cumulative and it is one of those "muscle memory" moments that serves as the proverbial "straw that breaks the camel's back."

In addition, rewiring your brain on your instrument isn’t sufficient. You must simultaneously do the same with how you ring a doorbell, tie your shoes, brush your teeth, pick up a piece of paper, type, swipe, wipe . . .

There is no such thing as repetitive strain, only improper movement.  If you move improperly, all movement can become repetitive strain and as I said, it is cumulative.  That is why a forty year old might get out of bed with stiffness, aches and pains while a 70 who has moved properly all their lives can rise with elan and alacrity.  You can take that to the movement bank.

Q: Why is it difficult to play between the black piano keys?

Piano keys are a fulcrum and as we all know from being children, fulcrums are lightest on the edge. Sit on a see saw and notice if you sit inward, you weigh less and the opposite person has the advantage. Sit on the very outside edge and you weigh more.

So, playing on the outside of the piano key gives you more power and the keys are easier to depress because they require less force. If you play on the inside of the key, in the black area or, closer to the fulcrum, the keys will be harder to depress.
However, this is only predominately true if you have poor technique. There are several ways to give the arm more power to the fingers such as proper alignment, rotation, in and out motions because your fingers are different lengths and a fulcrum unto themselves, gravity and basic laws of physics such as every motion must have an equal and opposite motion.  Then, there are things not to do which if we do, will weaken or diminish our virtuosity. 
Some teachers just teach dot matching and don’t have a knowledge of physics, biology and ergonomics. If your teacher doesn’t know what a pronator is or how to adjust the elbow so the four and five fingers are just as strong as the other fingers . . . that teacher may hurt you.  If you are lucky, you will only be mediocre.

Q: For guitarists, what type of practicing helps you get your playing skills back the fastest?

I am a pianist but I’m sure that my answer correlates.

Technique is in your brain, not in your muscles. You brain hard wires movement which we call muscle memory but, it originates in your brain. That is why you never forget how to ride a bike or swim because the act of balance and using all those ancillary muscles gets mapped directly into the brain through the initial trial and error.

There are two ways to move: properly and improperly. Virtuosos move properly thus, they have virtuoso techniques. People without virtuosity simply move improperly and those improper movements get in the way of proper movement. Much like two people engaged in a three legged race. Both of you must perfectly sync your movements together in order to move freely and efficiently. If one doesn’t, anarchy reigns. Likewise, within our arms are muscles which must work in sync. If they don’t, we are mediocre at best.

When you first touch your instrument you brain makes those neural pathways and if you move improperly that improper movement becomes your permanent technique. Quite simply, you are using the wrong muscles to play and you will forever battle those bad habits. It is possible to brow beat strength and endurance into those wrong muscles and make progress but the day you skip practice, your body immediately begins to atrophy what it doesn’t need and you will feel rusty.

Proper technique uses the laws of physics and ergonomics and never atrophies because gravity requires no muscle. Pianists, for instance, think they depress the keys with their fingers but the fingers have no muscles. They are moved by the flexor muscles in the forearm and they are all interconnected with each other and also with the extensors. Each muscle moves one bone in one direction and there is an opposing muscle to move it back. If you use two muscles at the same time to move one bone, you will create tension, cramps, fatigue, injury or if you are lucky, play poorly. Even the slightest imbalance will create tension. This often happens when a musician isolates a finger. You can not extend and flex at the same time. Even though you can, you should not because they are still interconnected and they will be pulling on one another creating tension.

Proper playing is actually the result of several movements coming together so no single muscle is taxed through repetition. For pianists, this is called shaping. These multiple muscles include the pronator, supinator, shoulder, elbow and most importantly, gravity. Gravity never fatigues, it is always there. I don’t play guitar but I am going to guess that you never have to strum down because gravity or the weight of the arm will play down. Your only job is to play up. If you remember from HS physics, every motion has an equal and opposite motion. As a pianist, I can’t play down unless I first play up. If you sit at a piano, play a chord. Notice that you must play up, first. Up is the only work because down is effortless. Many pianists go wrong there because they press into the keybed. Since they can’t go any further and it creates no additional tone, then why press? It only creates tension and worse, prevents them from playing up because they are pressing down. You can’t move in two directions at the same time.

There are also muscles we should never use such as the abductors. Again, you can’t use two muscles at the same time. If you flex and abduct simultaneously, you are pulling one bone in two directions and the tendons are what will bear the brunt of this vector force and that is where cramps, fatigue or uneven playing comes from.

Go with gravity. Don’t fight it or try to force it. Remember from HS physics, if you push on a wall, it is pushing back with equal force. The wall will always win. Relaxation only comes from effort but it must be from the equal and opposite direction. Like walking. In order to propel your body forward, one foot is behind you pushing backward. In order to walk up stairs you must lift UP one foot higher than the step then come down on to it, using gravity. Although, I have heard people stomping up stairs. Swing a bat, throw a ball, kick a can . . . they all start with equal and opposite motions. Even your car rolls forward because its tires are pushing backward. Physics is not a useless class in HS that you don’t use in real life. It is everywhere in everything. Use it.

Get the laws of physics into your playing and you will never be rusty. Your technique will be there every day, even with several consecutive off days. Practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.

Q: What is “trigger finger” in the thumb, and what is the best way to treat it if you are a musician that uses his fingers a lot?

A:  You didn't mention your instrument.

Trigger Finger or, stenosing tenosynovitis, is a condition where your finger gets stuck in a bent position and you have to snap it open.

Various tendons originate in your forearm and run down to the tips of your fingers. Your tendons are encased in a sheath and everywhere where there is a bend, like a garden hose, your tendon sheath can kink. Your tendon can also develop scar tissue or nodules on them causing them to get caught in those kinks and this can lock them in place. Your tendons actually glide through the sheath and stretch.

The cause for this scar tissue or nodules or kinks is misuse of the fingers and has nothing to do with overuse. If you move improperly all movement is overuse. Move properly and overuse doesn’t exist.

There are four basic muscles which move our fingers; abductors which spread them apart, adductors which pull them together, flexors which flex your fingers and extensors which straighten them out.

Abductors are weak muscles and when, say, a pianist, abducts and flexes at the same time, most do, they are using two muscles to move one bone in two directions. This creates a dual pull or vector force and one or both of the tendons become strained. This can create tension, cramps, fatigue, pain, uneven playing or micro tears to the tendon. Since tendons don’t have a direct blood supply, they are VERY slow to heal and the body places scar tissue there as a quick fix. Scar tissue does not stretch and the next time you strain the same tendon, it tears further creating more scar tissue. Since the scar tissue is cumulative, eventually the fatigue and uneven playing becomes sharp pain or the fingers lock.

The solution is to learn to move properly by working with a teacher who actually knows what they are doing. This requires a knowledge of physics and anatomy - not just music. Good luck finding such a teacher. Many THINK they know about technique but they don’t. Pedagogy is often rooted in what virtuosos feel and how it appears they are playing, not the actual invisible movements under “the hood.”

An example of this is the Carrezando technique. When a pianist moves properly with in/out, up/down motions, as the arm moves the hand around there is a sensation of caressing the keys. The caressing is the end result of the arm movement but this was not understood so they taught pianists to force caressing into their playing which created tension. Relaxed fingers is the result of other larger muscles working. You can’t relax the muscles you are trying to use. So when a student complains of cramps an unknowing teacher might suggest they relax but, relax what? The better teacher will instruct them on the proper muscles to use so that they can actually relax the improper ones causing the cramps.

Your flexor muscles are strong but fatigable. Your abductors are very weak. Regarding the thumb, if you are a pianist, many pianists are taught to cross the thumb under the palm for scales and arpeggios but the thumb’s tendon intersects with the index finger’s long flexor tendon. When you cross under, they grind together resulting in nodules. In addition, the thumb’s flexor is under the palm. The thumb was designed for gripping and that is why its flexor is there. When pianists play down on a key with the thumb, they use its abductor, its weakest most fatigable muscle.

So instead of using the wrong and weakest muscles, a good teacher will teach the student to use indefatigable muscles to play. For instance, gravity combined with a forward shift, combined with pronation and up/down, the thumb can then play effortlessly and with great speed without using any of its grasping muscles.

Isolating any finger is bad for our anatomy because they are interconnected. That is why playing an instrument must involve the combination of several muscles so that no one single muscle or tendon is misused.

Most musicians’ first teachers often don’t know what they are doing and allow their students to develop these improper motions or bad habits and these errant movements instantly become hardwired into our brains. It has been my experience that most people either don’t have the intelligence, patience, discipline nor dedication to rewire their brains to move properly. It can take time to undo years of misuse.

Another movement never to do is pinching with the thumb. Especially with the index because, again, the intersecting tendons. This also isolates two fingers. All five fingers are designed to move in the same direction at the same time. When a pianist gets that into their playing, they will develop effortless playing. It is sometimes called “tapping.” Likewise, they must never press into a keyboard for when you push into an immovable force, it is pushing back. This will only strain the player. It would behoove a pianist to learn to play to the point of sound, not the keybed. Point of sound is that little “bump” you feel when you slowly depress an ACOUSTIC piano key down without making a sound. You will first feel a point of resistance then it gives way. That is the point to play to. No further. The end result of that? Carrezando.

A good technique is the end result of proper movement. You can’t brow beat it into your hands. A teacher who prescribes exercises, demands more practice or says to relax doesn’t know what they are doing. Problems of technique are fixed by adjustments and fixing what you are doing wrong.

-Malcolm Kogut.

Playing With Fire #9: Part One - Bad Teachers

I am often told that I am harsh, unfair and judgmental toward piano teachers. It is true. While many teachers may have much to teach regarding the artistry of playing the piano, it is also true that many of them do not know what they are doing mechanically. The body is a machine with levers, pulleys, rubber bands, torque and fulcrums. We learn about these things in Physics and Biology classes and it is too bad that our educational system doesn't use Physical Education class to combine it all together. It is also too bad that our teachers only know what they are taught and do not seek answers to problems other than relying on what they were taught: practice more, relax, work on finger exercises, build strength and endurance, you have no talent or, they just keep taking the students' money. Often, the cure for technical inefficiency or various syndromes is an adjustment to our movement but that is rarely addressed because a teacher only knows what they were taught and often that is practice more, relax, work on finger exercises, build strength and endurance. I have a friend who can't play tremolos because he tries to play them from his fingers. If he played them from his elbow, they would be instantly effortless. But, what do I know, his teacher told him to practice more and build strength.

I may not be able to pick up and move an 800 pound boulder across my yard but, with a crowbar and another rock, I could make a fulcrum and inch it over. Better yet, if I can nudge it up onto a dolly with wheels, I can then easily roll it over. My strength and endurance doesn't change, but how I use the laws of physics can make all the difference.

I took lessons from one of my area's leading concert pianists with the sole intention of improving my technique. He was one of those virtuoso pianists who simply moved properly. He had an ergonomic technique and didn't know how or why he could play with great ease. He called it talent. Students flocked to him hoping to become as good as he but he didn't know how to help his students find their true potential. Many of his lessons were spent with him playing hoping his students would imitate him but, the actual movement of playing is invisible and shared by several muscles many teachers are oblivious to because they don't know they exist. We think it is the fingers that play the piano but, it is first and foremost the arm. The unenlightened teacher focuses on the fingers, which have no muscles BTW.

This teacher has long since died and his daughter has taken over teaching. I had the opportunity to work with one of her students and his technique was dangerously close to crippling him. Sadly, he only wanted a magic lesson so he could play well and didn't want to put in the work of relearning how to move. There was nothing I could do for him. In order to relearn how to play one must abandon all previously learned movements and start over, which many pianists are not willing to do.

This kind of teacher may be fine for the student who just wants a taste of music, learn a little theory or be able to plunk out some notes for themselves but, a teacher's ignorance can stifle a student's progress, enthusiasm and even set them up for eventual injury. Mediocrity is not related to talent, it is a symptom of teachers who don't know about the physics of movement and our skeletal system.

You would not take your car in for an inspection only for the mechanic to tell you your brakes or tires are going bad but you can get a few more months out of them. Well, actually people do. That mechanic is putting your life and everyone you share the road with in danger because you probably won't come back in in a few months. Sure, you are saving a few bucks today but at what cost in the future? If your brakes are bad, get them fixed, don't drive more. Driving more won't fix them. If you technique is bad, get it fixed, don't practice more. Repeating improper movement only hard-wires it into the brain.

A piano teacher who does not understand that a student is using the wrong muscles or how to teach them to use the correct muscles is setting them up for problems or a career of mediocrity. Every technical problem has an ergonomic solution, and it isn't “practice more.” If walking knock-kneed causes knee pain, the solution isn't to walk more, it is to walk correctly. If your pinky and ring finger feel weak and in-coordinate, you don't need to strengthen them, you only need an adjustment to your forearm alignment.

I have had all the wrong teachers and although they made me who I am today, they set me up to be crippled with pain and to struggle with a mediocre technique. It has taken me years to relearn how to move but I am now pain free and syndrome-less because I stopped fighting the laws of physics and started using them. Although I have much more work to do, my technique has improved significantly.

Playing With Fire #8

Look down at your fingers. If you haven't noticed they are all different in length. Many pianists and typists are taught to equalize their fingers by curling them so that all five are touching the keys at the same time. This places your fingers in a constant state of flexation. It is impossible for a musician to relax their fingers if they are holding them in contraction. In addition, you can only move a bone in one direction at a time but we all have several muscles that can pull them in several opposing directions. So if you are trying to move a finger up or in a certain direction but another muscle is pulling the hand in an opposite direction, there is going to be strain or at the very least, in-coordinate movement. This is why some pianists struggle with scales, arpeggios or speed.

It behooves the pianist to play on the edge of the keys for the keys are lightest on the outside edge. If you have ever played on a see saw as a child, you know that regardless of weight, if one kid sits on the outside edge of their seat and the other kid is sitting forward, the kid on the outside will “weigh more.” Just like the see saw, the piano key is a fulcrum. Such as using a board and rock to move another rock, the further out you are on the board, the more power you will have. Your shoulder, elbow, wrist, knuckles and each phalanx of your fingers are all fulcrums.

If you were to place your middle finger on the outside edge of a white key, all your other fingers will be hanging off the keys in the air. This is counter intuitive to most teachers but by using your shoulder and elbow to move in and out to place each finger, it not only reduces how much you need to move a finger but, it gives the finger the power and weight of motion and gravity without having to use the sluggish flexor muscles. Indeed, the piano is forward so the pianist or typist needs to have a constant forward shift momentum to their movement. If they static load, since the body wants to contract, they risk falling off the keys or cramping. When that begins to happen, the pianist contracts even more in an effort to grasp at the keys and this just creates a downward spiral of technical inefficiency and tension.

To equalize the length of all your fingers you need to get in/out motions into your arm. The pianist who does not risks playing on the inside of the key where the keys are heavier, thus is born, the myth that the pianist needs more strength to play or, they might complain that the action of the piano is stiff. The keys feel stiff because the pianist is playing too far in. Again, this is counter intuitive to most teachers but the arm is much faster at placing a finger than a flexor is at playing.

Using the C scale, place your thumb on the outside edge of the C. When you play the index finger, come out from the elbow and play straight down. Because you are coming out, you need to replace it with a forward shift. The arm will come out, up and forward all at the same time. This is where the wrist and forearm work together. It is also what gives many pianists a look of grace. Even though you are coming out, you are also moving in, up and down. When you play the middle finger, you come out even more. When you play the ring finger, you simply shift forward without needing to use the actual flexor. The same thing happens with the pinky. You just shift inward but stay on the outer edge of the key. Be careful you know about forearm alignment first. I'll discus that later. That is another fulcrum.

Every scale has different patterns of in/out. Actually, many scales are easier to play because the black keys are already forward so there is less “out” to employ. However, since the black keys are higher, you need more forward shifting with an “up” in order to come straight down on the key. This too is where pianist create tension grasping for keys. The finger does not strain and stretch to reach keys, the arm places them where they need to be which is directly over the key. Singers are taught to sing higher than their target note so they don't sing flat. Likewise, when you walk up stairs, your ascending foot raises higher than the next step then comes straight down onto it. Notice also that when your leg raises up, the down muscles are actually relaxed and your up muscles are engaged. Then, you don't stomp on the step but rotate to the next leg. This is important for the pianist to know. They can only relax if they play up then let gravity play down. The moment they press down into the key they corrupt the arms ability to go back up. A dual tension occurs and anarchy of technique ensues.

Without up/down and in/out, the musician will risk strain and uneven playing. Up/down and in/out movements give the arm (fingers) a lot of power allowing the pianist/typist to truly relax the fingers/hands/long flexor muscles. Most hand and wrist strain is caused by using more than one muscle at a time to move one bone in two or more directions simultaneously. It is imperative to learn to use one muscle at a time. This can only happen by relaxing the flexors which are the very muscles most pianists are taught to use.

When you walk, you don't flex your toes with each step. The toes just go where the leg places them. Likewise, the fingers go where the arm places them. The fingers don't operate independent to the arm and they surely don't drag the arm behind them. When you are washing a window, writing on a chalk board or waxing your car, the hand goes where the arm places it and the fingers do as they are told, with no effort.

Playing With Fire #7

In Playing With Fire #5 I mentioned that stretching is not all it is cracked up to be. Let me recap this. Many people are taught to warm up by stretching. What is stretching and warming up?

When you stretch a muscle, you create micro tears to the muscle fibers and the body rushes warm blood to the site to begin immobilization and start repairing the damage. This rush of warm blood gives us the illusion of warming up. Body builders like this feeling because as the muscles inflame with tissue repairing blood it makes them feel bigger and their clothes tighter. Actors and models will often do pushups or other exercises before being photographed for it indeed makes them look slightly larger or more muscular.

Your muscles become tendons which are then attached to your bones. When the muscles are cold, they are contracted and tight. If you force your muscles to move when they are contracted, the tendon is caught between the forces of the muscle and bone. Most often, the tendon will strain or tear. Tendons, just like like muscle, contract and expand. Like uncooked spaghetti, bend it and it will break but add a little heat . . .

The greatest danger to any musician or athlete is the high school gym teacher or ignorant music teacher. Indeed, muscles operate at peak efficiency when they are warm, blood is flowing freely and they are expanded. You can't force that by tearing tissue. A better way to warm up is to sit in a warm room.

In the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, they found that stretching led to more than an 8% decrease in body strength. Researchers suggest that stretching may change or limit your muscles’ ability to fire efficiently because they are damaged. If you try to lengthen a muscle before giving it the chance to warm up, you can limit its potential to generate strength and power. This not only reduces your performance but it may also increase your risk of injury. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22692125

You also can't spot warm up. If you stretch your legs in an attempt to warm up, the blood that you are using quickly circulates to other parts of the body. The only way to safely warm up the whole body is to actually warm up the whole body. You can not force warming up by stretching. Micro tears to the tendons may feel good on first stretch but over time the scar tissue that is placed in those tiny tears will build up to become full blown tendinitis.

In place of stretching, I would suggest gentle movement in your mid range of motion. When you static move to the extreme range of motion where you feel that satisfying stretch, you are creating damage.

Just because your teacher said that stretching is good, that does not mean they are correct. It only means that their teacher was wrong, too. However, if you do have scar tissue on your tendons which will result in inflammation and sharp pain when you move, breaking up the scar tissue is the first step to healing. Instead of stretching and risking augmented damage, get a deep tissue myofascial massage and let the therapist break it up for you without you risking another stretch and further amplification of damage.

Playing With Fire #6

The point of sound can be felt on an acoustic piano. Electronic pianos and organs have them but they are pretty much indiscernible.

Slowly press down on an acoustic piano key without making it sound. At one point you will feel a little bump. If you press beyond that bump, the key will give way and you will be pressing into the keybed. If a pianist wishes to achieve that pearly sound of fast and light notes, they need to learn to play to the point of sound.

As previously mentioned, pressing into the keybed will force a stretch to the long flexor tendon which creates strain. Not to mention, if you are pressing down into the keybed, you can't move your hand or fingers up to the next note because before you can play down you must first play up. Every motion has an equal and opposite motion. This is where some pianists and typists run into trouble because they are trying to maintain a “still and quiet” or relaxed hand. It is in their relaxation they are creating tension because when they use the wrong muscles, they create tension, then they try to relax the very muscles they are using.

When you kick a ball, you first back kick. Swing a bat and you will first back swing. Cast a fishing pole, back cast. Walk forward, press backward. Punch someone, back swing. When you walk forward, as your left leg reaches forward your right hip rotates backward. As your right hip rotates backward, your right shoulder rotates forward. Every motion has equal and opposite motions and your body is designed to work with other parts for balance, relaxation, power and efficiency. When you isolate a part, you will create problems. Pianists and typists are rarely taught this. They think playing comes from the fingers but it shouldn't. It should first originate from the larger muscles of the arm. When the arm does most of the work, it frees the fingers to do some of the more fine tuned movements and, to truly relax. BTW, the fingers don't have muscles. They are moved by the muscles in the forearm. When a pianist or typist tries to originate movement from the fingers, they will strain the tendons.

In order to type or play down on a piano, you must have an up movement to harness the power of gravity. If you play with your fingers pressing down on the keys, you will not have the power, speed and accuracy of the arms. You have probably seen pianists playing with graceful movements. They are not just putting on a show, they are feeling and moderating the weight of their arm. Ideally, most of the up motion should be minimized once it is in the brain. Even playing a simple scale, the arm might change directions via the pronator and supinator muscles up to six times. This is invisible to the eye but must be there in the player's arm. If not, they will static load and create tension, cramps and fatigue.

This law of physics also pertains to other muscles such as your pronator and supinator muscles. If you are rotating your arm to play a downward scale, your must first counter rotate to give the arm both power and to control its direction. Keeping all five fingers together and moving in the same direction will provide great facility. Even the fingers you are not using must go in the same direction and play down at the same time. Some piano teachers call this “tapping.” It is when we stretch our fingers out and pull in opposite directions at the same time we create cramps and fatigue.

Keep in mind that all movement, once learned and ingrained into the muscle memory of your brain, it must be minimized to being invisible. The opposite motions are all there, they just can not be seen anymore, however, the pianist will feel them and it will be a feeling of power and effortlessness because they are not using the wrong muscles to play. Most of us are taught to use the wrong muscles, or, we are not taught anything. It is a dangerous teacher who simply says to practice more, relax or prescribes silly exercises to build unnecessary strength and endurance, both which everyone already has aplenty within their arms. The reason teachers think a student requires strength and endurance is because the incorrect muscles a student may be using are indeed weak and fatigable. Strengthening them reinforces improper movement and sets the stage for the mythical beast called “repetitive strain injury.”

The Nativity Story in Candy

This is a wonderful children's homily but can be expensive, especially if you purchase jumbo sizes for visibility purposes.

As you reference each candy item, hold it up. As you write you own personal script for this, look for ways to repeat many of the candies so that anarchy ensues as you rifle through the once ordered pile to find what is next. Well, **I** think that chaos is fun.

Obviously your presentation requires the right inflection and pauses for the ultimate in campiness. Not only is this a wonderful children's homily but, the kids get to eat the homily after the service. So, in incomplete sentences, you can wax out the full story for yourself . . .

Angel appears to Mary, you are going to have a BABY Ruth.

He will be a LIFE SAVER

Joseph was a GOODbar about it.

They had to leave town because as an unwed pregnant mother, people in town would SNICKERS

The got on a donkey to SKITTLE out of town

They hit the TRAIL MIX

Exhausted from the trip, they decided to TAKE FIVE

When they arrived, they went from BAR to BAR to BAR (three Hershey's), there was no room anywhere.

Finally, at one inn, in a barn, they found room where Mary gave birth to her SUGAR BABY, our LIFE SAVER.

In the barn there were sheep, cows and maybe even a KIT KAT or a DOVE

Shepherds also TOOK FIVE and hit the TRAIL MIX

Mary and Joseph smothered Jesus with KISSES

(here, you can say "It get's worse.")

Herod was up to his old TWIX and sent three SMARTIES to find a babe in a stable.

They too hit the TRAIL MIX

These wise men astrologers were not DUM DUMs nor were they NERDS

They looked up into the MILKY WAY, assessing all the DOTS in the sky to find a specific STARBURST

Everyone thought they were MIXED NUTS to go on such a perilous journey to find a treasure (drops fistful of gold foil wrapped chocolate coins) in a stable.

When they found him, the gave him gifts of Gold (drops chocolate coins again), Frankincense and WHATCHAMACALLIT

They returned from their SNOW CAP'd journey to Herod and not wishing to reveal the location of Jesus, told him a WHOPPER.

Jesus, our LIFE SAVER is the RAISIN for the season.

When this homily was presented at my church, I don't think many of our kids got the puns but they oooh'd and ahhh'd at each delicious and yummy reveal.

Playing With Fire #5

In Playing With Fire #4 I mentioned dropping the hand or finger into the key. This is called playing with gravity or arm weight. Some pianists may complain that certain pianos have a stiff action or, when they are cold, they have difficulty depressing keys. That is because they are trying to use the flexor muscles or the non-existent finger muscles to play. Your fingers have no muscles. They are moved by the muscles of the forearm.

When a pianist plays with gravity, the keys go down effortlessly because they are not using any muscle to depress the key, they are only using gravity or the weight of the arm. The only muscle engaged is the bicep which raises the hand from the fulcrum of the elbow, then controls the descent.

It is important to note that once your finger depresses a key, after you hit the "point of sound," you unweigh your arm so that you are not pressing down, leaving just enough weight to keep the key down. Another source of the apocryphal "repetitive strain injury" is pressing into keys because pressing stretches the long flexor tendons and stretching can create strain and micro tears. Since tendons do not have an active blood supply to promote healing, the body places scar tissue in the wound but, scar tissue does not stretch and results in larger tears the next time you stretch.

Warming up through stretching is also a myth. What happens when you overstretch your muscles, you tear muscle fibers and the body rushes blood to the site to begin repairing the damage of the stretch. Since blood is warm, it gives the illusion of warming up. A better way to warm up is to sit in a warm room. Also, you can't spot warm up since your blood is always circulating. When muscles and tendons are actually cold, they contract and resist stretching. Stretching cold tendons is always bad because they are contracted, resisting stretching and more apt to tear than stretch.

It is sort of like stretching warm taffy into gooey strands. Try that with frozen taffy and it will break. It is important for a pianist to never play with a cold body unless you have mastered ergonomic playing and the laws of physics.

Playing With Fire #4

Another problem with fabled "repetitive strain injuries" is not only what we are doing wrong but, what we are not doing right. Not only are there movements which hinder playing but there are movements which augment it.

Some pianists develop thumb problems. Often they are taught to cross the thumb under the palm which is bad for many reasons and they are also taught to play the thumb straight down which cripples the effortlessness of the rest of the fingers. The hand requires balance and that can not be achieved if we isolate fingers.

The muscle that plays the thumb straight down is the thumb's abductor. Abductor muscles are rather weak and sluggish and fatigue quickly. The thumb's strongest muscle is its flexor which pulls the thumb under the palm. Your thumbs are designed for gripping and holding. But the keys to the piano are not in the palm, they are under it. Crossing under then down uses two muscles at the same time and creates a dual pull of the thumb's bone. In this vector force tug of war between two muscles, strain can occur and certainly uneven playing. In addition, the thumb's tendon and the forefinger tendon intersect. When you cross the thumb under and flex the forefinger, the two tendons grind together. Friction of a tendon is not good. Eventually the pianist may develop thumb problems. Instead of playing the thumb's abductor straight down, there are other movements which can give it effortlessness and power. I'll cover how to get the thumb over (and not under) for scales and arpeggios later.

The first movement is to simply let gravity play the thumb down. Lift your arm up then let if gently fall to the key and depress it (without pressing into the key bed). As you can feel, gravity, or the weight of the arm is very powerful and effortless. Often pianists complain that the action of some pianos are stiff. They are not. The pianist is just trying to play using the wrong or weakest muscles. While depressing a key using gravity, notice you did not use any muscle of the thumb at all. Another motion is to use your pronator and supinator muscle which are located around your elbow. From your elbow, rotate your hand from the elbow, left and right. Notice how fast and effortless you can move your thumb without using it. Make sure your wrist is straight. Now, from your shoulder and elbow, forward shift into a key with your thumb, like poking someone's eye. Again, you don't use any thumb muscle but only arm muscle. The elbow, or pronator and supinator muscles, is where trills and tremolos come from, not the fingers or hand. The pianist who attempts to play them from the fingers (which have no muscles) or hand will quickly experience fatigue, cramps or pain.

You now have three ways to use the thumb to depress a key without using the thumb's muscles at all. Combine all three then minimize them and you will be on your way to effortless playing. Eight fingers to go.

Playing With Fire #3

Median Nerve Entrapment, or carpal tunnel syndrome, is often the result of an inflamed long flexor tendon. When we move improperly or over stretch, micro tears form on the tendon and since the tendon has no direct blood supply it can't heal very quickly so the body places scar tissue in the tear as a quick fix. Tendons glide and stretch within the tendon sheath but scar tissue does stretch not and more stretching or continued improper movement creates larger tears. Soon, inflammation sets in. Our long flexor tendons run through the carpal tunnel where the median nerve also passes. It is a tight and compact space and when the long flexor tendon becomes inflamed or larger, there is no place for it to expand so it crushes the median nerve giving us symptoms of pain and numbness.

Overuse is not the problem or cause of tendon issues, misuse is. Worse yet is if you combine tmisuse and overuse. When you move properly, there is no overuse. Much like a car in peak condition, you can drive it for thousands of miles with little wear and tear. However, if your frame is bent or there is something out of alignment, wear and tear will happen very quickly. Our bodies are no different. Compare this wear and tear to the tires on your car. If your car is out of alignment and that imbalance is eating away at your tires, you can get new tires but the wear and tear will happen to the new tires, too. The better solution is to fix the alignment of your wheels. Likewise, fix the alignment of your movement. Treat problems, not symptoms.

Often doctors treat the symptom of this pressure to the median nerve with drugs, rest, splints, PT, injections or surgery. Symptoms should not be treated, problems should be and for most people, the problem is they are simply moving improperly. Even after surgery and the symptom is “cured,” the problem of poor ergonomic movement still exists. The doctor only made more room for more future inflammation.

The benefit of learning how to move properly is that not only will the symptoms of pain, fatigue and numbness disappear but, as a musician, your accuracy, speed and power will increase and improve. Also, as you transfer these movements to everyday life, you'll discover ease and effortlessness in other motions of your daily living.

There is one danger though, once you learn to move properly, there is no going back to improper movement. Moving improperly will promote muscle growth of the improper muscles and once you stop using them you will lose them, the incorrect muscles will atrophy. This is often referred to by musicians as being rusty. Proper movement does not need to be practiced once learned, like walking or riding a bike, it is always there. Improper movement requires constant maintenance because it is not natural. This gives rise to the old adage, “Miss a day of practice and you notice. Miss two days and your competition notices. Miss three days and your audience notices.” A proper, ergonomic or virtuoso technique, like walking, is there forever and requires no maintenance.

Should you ever go back to moving improperly, you can seriously injure yourself because the incorrect muscles will have atrophied. Proper movement is all or nothing. I have found that many people either don't have the patience, dedication nor intelligence to re-learn how to move. This is not a criticism, it just is.