Newsletter
Publisher: Kay Ellen Wilkins
Volume Number: 2011
PARENT’S CORNER
PRACTICING! PART ONE
This is one of the biggest challenges
parents often face:
getting their
children to practice willingly.
A
common refrain from parents is, “My
child doesn’t like to practice.” In the
next couple of issues we will focus on
ways to make this more enjoyable for
you and your child, I promise!
THE PARENT’S ROLE (YES! you have
a part in this!) at home is two-fold:
cheerleader and enforcer.
It is
essential that you sit in during the
weekly lesson at least for part of the
time. If you know what your teacher
expects, you can help your child
achieve maximum success at home.
You can support and encourage,
remind and reinforce the lesson,
praise
and
offer
constructive
criticism.
You can also make sure
that the entire assignment for the
week is completed.
PRACTICE TIME for each child
varies, however a good rule of thumb
is to practice the same amount of
time as the length of your lesson (30’
lessons = 30’ practice time each day)
for six days a week – everyone
deserves at least one day off! It is
also important to mention that
playing through the piece, beginning
to end, is not quality practicing.
Students should focus on small
sections and drill slowly until the
section is completely learned, then
Issue Number: 1
Date: 10/20/11
apply the same procedure to the next
part, and so on.
Good, quality
practicing requires slow and steady
focused attention. Encourage your
child to be creative in the ways
he/she practices. If your child has
fun during practice time, everyone
benefits.
It is also a good idea to develop a
practicing routine. Try for the same
time each day (I know! We’re all so
busy!!) However, children respond
best, and are the most productive,
when they have a consistent
schedule. Think about the way you
manage homework and manage
practicing the same way, it is, after
all, just another aspect of their
education. When our children were
young, their school didn’t start until
9am, and they were up at 7am! So
we used some of our morning time to
get in a small amount of practicing.
Even just 15 minutes in the morning
before school took a lot of pressure
off of too-busy afternoon schedules.
COMPOSER
OF
THE
MONTH:
BRAHMS
JOHANNES
This month we are discussing
Johannes Brahms in theory class.
Brahms was born May 7, 1833 in
Hamburg,
Germany
during
the
Romantic Period of music history.
Before the Romantic Period, music
was composed to be pleasing to the
mind and the basic form and
structure of the music was very
important.
Romantic composers
thought that music should affect a
person’s feelings and emotions.
Music
from
this
period
was
passionate,
dramatic,
thrilling,
moving, touching, etc., all designed
to elicit an emotional response from
the listener.
Brahms began piano lessons with his
father at the age of five. At his first
piano lesson, he surprised his father
by naming each note without looking
at the keyboard. He also amazed him
by inventing his own system of
musical notation, not knowing that
one had already been invented. His
father hoped that Brahms would
become good enough to support the
family with his music, and insisted he
play in taverns and inns as soon as he
was able.
At the age of 10 he gave his first
public concert where Eduard Marxsen,
Hamberg’s best known piano teacher
heard him and agreed to be his
teacher. At 14 Brahms gave his piano
debut playing pieces by Bach,
Beethoven (his countrymen), and
some of his own compositions.
At 20, Brahms was asked to go on
tour with Hungarian violinist, Eduard
Remenyi as his accompanist. Through
Remenyi,
Brahms
met
another
violinist, Joseph Joachim, who was
friends with Franz Liszt. Liszt was a
famous
composer
who
wrote
wonderful, fantastic, virtuostic music
for the piano. When they met, Liszt
insisted on playing his music for
Brahms, however, Brahms fell asleep
and Liszt was very displeased!
Through Joachim, Brahms also met
Robert and Clara Schumann. Robert
was a very famous composer and
Clara was a concert pianist. The
three developed a deep friendship
that lasted the rest of their lives.
Brahms was a slow and methodical
composer. He labored over every
note and his original manuscripts are
full of revisions, cuts, scribbles, and
markings everywhere.
He held
himself to exacting standards. Later
in his life he destroyed everything he
had composed before he was 19.
When you listen to the music of
Brahms, you will here the depth and
complexity of his compositions.
Brahms wrote two piano concertos, a
concerto for violin and piano, piano
solos and duets, 11 chorale preludes
for organ, and nearly 200 songs. His
is considered one of the greatest
composers of the Romantic Period.
Two of my favorite pieces by Brahms
are Intermezzo Op. 118, No.2 and
UPCOMING
EVENTS
Mon., Oct 31st –
Happy Halloween!!
It is also a
regularly scheduled lesson day.
Please speak to your teacher as soon
as possible if you will be unable to
attend your lesson.
Arrangements
will be made to accommodate our
trick-or-treaters.
Tues., Nov. 1st – Deadline to turn in
Christmas Potpourri Applications.
The Festival includes an audition on
Dec. 3rd, after which the judge will
select
those
students
that
demonstrate performance readiness
for the Christmas Recitals on Dec.
10th and 11th. The auditions will be at
Rochester Conservatory and the
Recitals will be at St. Philip’s
Episcopal Church.
1st Semester Recitals are Nov. 12, 13,
19, and 20 at St. Philip’s Episcopal
Church. To be eligible for recitals, all
students must perform in at least two
performance workshops. There is one
left: Nov. 5-6.
ANASTASIA RIZIKOV
On Friday, October 14th the Rochester
Conservatory of music and St.
Irenaeus Church sponsored a solo
piano recital by 12-year-old Anastasia
Rizikov. Already well on her way to a
fabulous performing career, Anastasia
has competed all over the world
against other pianists up to 30 years
old – and she is winning! Her program
included pieces by Bach, Beethoven,
Chopin, Liszt, and Gershwin among
others.
Nov. 22-27 – Thanksgiving Vacation,
there will be no lessons or classes on
those days.
Thank you to all of the Conservatory
families
that
attended
this
phenomenal event! With almost 800
people in attendance, Anastasia was
thrilled at the turn-out.
What a
wonderful concert that was.
She is
truly a remarkable talent and
destined to go very far as a concert
pianist. If you missed it – check out
her website: anastasiarizikov.ca
FACEBOOK
MUSIKGARTEN
Did you know that the Conservatory
now has a Facebook
page?
Like us and keep
updated on RCM
current events!
Did you know that the Rochester
Conservatory of Music’s Musikgarten
program is recognized nationally as an
exemplary early childhood music
program? It is one of only about 50
such programs to be recognized in the
entire nation! We have received this
award five times and are very proud
of the accomplishments
Musikgarten teachers.
of
our
Childhood
Music
Lessons
May
Provide Lifelong Boost in Brain
Functioning
Research explores possible link
between early musical study and
cognitive benefits
Musikgarten classes meet weekly for
30-60 minutes, depending on the age
group, using curricula especially
designed for young children. The
Musikgarten experience is broad
based and is not performance
oriented.
The focus is to help
children learn to enjoy music,
develop an inner rhythmic sense, and
develop aural skills.
Musikgarten
classes give children the gift of active
music-making, while developing the
whole child.
The Musikgarten
curriculum is widely recognized as
essential in helping young children
develop valuable social, emotional,
musical, and physical skills.
Musikgarten is for young children
ages 1-5. This program is a fabulous
way to introduce your young children
to a structured music program. Too
often the Conservatory receives calls
from parents looking for piano or
voice or guitar lessons for pre-school
age children. We believe that the
Musikgarten program is the best
vehicle for this age group.
MUSIC LESSONS AND THE
BRAIN
There are numerous studies about the
cognitive benefits of childhood music
lessons regarding children, however, I
thought this one about lifelong
benefits for adults was interesting.
Those childhood music lessons could
pay off decades later - even for those
who no longer play an instrument – by
keeping the mind sharper as people
age, according to a preliminary study
published
by
the
American
Psychological Association.
The study recruited 70 healthy adults
age 60 to 83 who were divided into
groups based on their levels of
musical experience. The musicians
performed
better
on
several
cognitive tests than individuals who
had never studied an instrument or
learned how to read music. The
research findings were published
online
in
the
APA
journal
Neuropsychology.
“Musical activity throughout life may
serve as a challenging cognitive
exercise, making your brain fitter and
more capable of accommodating the
challenges of aging,” said lead
researcher Brenda Hanna-Pladdy,
PhD. “Since studying an instrument
requires years of practice and
learning, it may create alternate
connections in the brain that could
compensate for cognitive declines as
we get older.”
While much research has been done
on the cognitive benefits of musical
activity by children, this is the first
study to examine whether those
benefits can extend across a lifetime,
said
Hanna-Pladdy,
a
clinical
neuropsychologist who conducted the
study with cognitive psychologist
Alicia MacKay, PhD, at the University
of Kansas Medical Center.
The three groups of study participants
included individuals with no musical
training; with one to nine years of
musical study; or with at least 10 years
of musical training. All of the
participants had similar levels of
education and fitness and didn’t show
any evidence of Alzheimer’s disease.
All of the musicians were amateurs who
began playing an instrument at about
10 years of age. More than half played
the piano while approximately a
quarter
had
studied
woodwind
instruments such as the flute or
clarinet. Smaller numbers performed
with stringed instruments, percussion
or brass instruments.
The high-level musicians who had
studied the longest performed the best
on the cognitive tests, followed by the
low-level musicians and non-musicians,
revealing a trend relating to years of
musical practice. The high-level
musicians had statistically significant
higher scores than the non-musicians
on
cognitive
tests
relating
to
visuospatial memory, naming objects
and cognitive flexibility, or the brain’s
ability to adapt to new information.
The brain functions measured by the
tests typically decline as the body ages
and more dramatically deteriorate in
neurodegenerative conditions such as
Alzheimer’s disease. The results
“suggest a strong predictive effect of
high musical activity throughout the
lifespan
on
preserved
cognitive
functioning in advanced age,” the study
stated.
Half of the high-level musicians still
played an instrument at the time of the
study, but they didn’t perform better
on the cognitive tests than the other
advanced musicians who had stopped
playing years earlier. This suggests that
the duration of musical study was more
important than whether musicians
continued playing at an advanced age,
Hanna-Pladdy says.
“Based on previous research and
our study results, we believe that
both
the
years
of
musical
participation and the age of
acquisition are critical,” HannaPladdy says. “There are crucial
periods in brain plasticity that
enhance learning, which may make
it easier to learn a musical
instrument before a certain age and
thus may have a larger impact on
brain development.”
Article: “The Relation Between
Instrumental Musical Activity and
Cognitive Aging,” Brenda HannaPladdy, PhD, and Alicia MacKay, PhD,
University of Kansas Medical Center;
Neuropsychology, Vol. 25, No. 3