One thing I had a truly difficult time with in Bucks County was the other independent European classical music instructors. To me mostly Racist babysitters. Almost all of them, particularly female, had zero respect for me and admonished me for not dating any old white male or other prominent local community musician they ordered me to date. It caused a big rift in my professional teaching in the Philadelphia/ tri-state area.
They treated me worse than a prostitute most times. And despite my busy schedule NEVER addressed me as a person with any personal opinion.
They brought whole-hearted racist American disgrace into my life by their jaunts and criticisms.
Showing posts with label Classical. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Classical. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
Rotten American Classical teachers
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Viewpoint: Piano performances
repost from July 24, 2011performerspiano.com by Angela M. Kneale
Here are some general guidelines that the average Classical music professional follows as soloist:
allow minimum of 3 months time to book:
And, as an accompanist, don't feel "bad" for your vocalist. They can pay you. Vocal coach/teachers today charge on between $50 to $500/hr. Any decent recording quality professional vocal teacher/coach will be $200+.
"performers-reality-groundrules"
Where can you find a guide to "ground rules" of being a pianist? Do audiences today and interested persons have any idea of how difficult the actual work is to arrange a song, write a show, improvise to the atmosphere, or even accompany someone on a demanding duo? And then, most people take pianists to be inept business people and "too nice" so they will often times, in person, jerk you around with the conditions of your participation. Once a collegue of mine at a non-profit school (who hated me and was a female over 300lbs heavier than me) tried forcing me to play a show without paying me a deposit for my time. She even left a twenty dollar check from someone I never met on the floor for me to pick up behind her. Needless to say, I showed up to the event and asked her for the deposit check (a minimum of $130 for back then) and she said no she didn't have money for me from any of her 40 students. I walked out refusing to play since they were prepared with a boom box and recordings they were familiar with. Mind that there was no rehearsal. Alot of people, even collegues will try to bend you out of shape by soaking your time and running you into poverty when you could work on something more financially solid or even fun. If they aren't your favorite person, don't do it. I had a collegue violinist then of the Philadelphia Orchestra who brought a technically demanding, modern and rare piano accompaniment to me just for fun. We rehearsed it within a week. After the rehearsal she said to me "I gave this to you because I knew you could do it faster than anyone." I was happy to take the compliment and hear the piece aloud for the first time. Unless the person is appreciating your music and artistry, make sure you impress that you work for pay and aren't the "minority" to be walked all over. The general public doesn't "appreciate" (depreciates) such things unless they invest in it. If so, leave and find better people who will appreciate your musicianship.Here are some general guidelines that the average Classical music professional follows as soloist:
allow minimum of 3 months time to book:
- Piano concert (for some musicians up to 1 year) $3000+ per concert
- Live music for a Wedding and commisioned Wedding march ($250 to $6000 average-- Special: if you want a celebrity like Elton John you'll need much much more!)
- Background music for Parties of 1.5hrs to 3 hrs max ($250-$600+)
- Accompanist for an entire Broadway show already written (price varies- compare to accompanist price below)
- Professional commissioned works range from $500-$16000+ on average (for 1min to 25 min. of music)
- Accompanist Pianist- $130 to $500 per song/piece - 1 rehersal plus performance
- Soloist Pianist- $50- $100+ per classical solo piano piece (ie., at a church service)
- Piano Instructor- $20 to $500/hr - Many good studios and schools expect a student to pay tuition and commit for a Quarter up front. This spares the instructor accountant fees and the student, wasted lesson time to collect funds rather than learn. Usually @ $20 the student and/or teacher are still trying to memorize where the keys are on the instrument. $100+ is a teacher more dedicated to creating a high quality recording artist or live performer.
And, as an accompanist, don't feel "bad" for your vocalist. They can pay you. Vocal coach/teachers today charge on between $50 to $500/hr. Any decent recording quality professional vocal teacher/coach will be $200+.
Viewpoint: Philadelphia to Hawaii piano instruction
repost: Cross-Cultural- Understanding from Piano_Noir
First published Dec. 28, 2012
Aloha...is from a land of Hawaiian Ukulele music. Ukelele music is popular among the local Hawaiian families and is frequently used at weddings and celebrations. Aloha land is 4920 miles away from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the East Coast of the United States where traditional Christian weddings are plentiful. Philadelphia, PA where Rachmaninoff hisself conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra, where the legendary piano instructors Gary Graffman & the Sokoloffs reigned for over 50 years as the best piano instructors on the planet through the 2000 millenium. Though I was adventurous as a prior student of a Hungarian piano instructor who was a collegue of Zoltan Kodaly where local folk music was embraced, the Hawaiian attitude is anything except harsh.
I was in a condusive traditional Classical piano environment and learned piano in a very strong Christian based community. One where every church has at least one grand piano, if not two or more grand pianos and electric organ or common pipe organ. I grew up with the general knowledge that Bach and many of the great keyboard Composers were supported by the Church and wrote sacred as well as secular music, with a pethora of churches and institutions where I could perform on a variety of period instruments frequently. In diminished comparison, Hawaii barely houses an electric keyboard at any church, let alone 1 studio upright or pipe organ.
In the current 21st century economy many Hawaii churches have "gotten rid of" their keyboard instruments due to maintenance costs and vandalism from an obtrusive population. Before moving to Hawaii, I took my east coast musical environment for granted and wished the general population was understanding of my Japanese heritage. However, most of the Christian community included everyone in the USA who has traditionally hated the Japanese;- including newly formed Korean specific churches. So I continually befell physical attacks, verbal criticism, and blatant discrimination on the East coast for most of my 30 some years of life.
So, I move to Hawaii and am inundated with a severe local attitude that is against piano. They say I have "too high makamaka" think I'm better than them. I worked at piano because I loved it and my talent put me through college with a scholarship.
The other day, a local parent mentioned to me that his child was learning a popular "Traditional Christian wedding piece" on their keyboard on her own. This is the first time that I have gotten to explain that these are normal pieces, that many children on the mainland learn to play at their family weddings. It's difficult for me to believe that the culture in Hawaii is so vastly different from the East Coast USA that these things are so "foreign" to local Hawaii. Especially since I see the religious rosary with crosses dangling from many rear view mirrors, and other Christian car markings. Just as most mainland people could not explain the differences and nuances of Hawaiian musical performances because they don't know the Hawaiian traditional song repertoire;- most Hawaiian Islander natives could not begin to explain the subtleties of any Classical piano repertoire performance.
edited: Nov. 23, 2016 Sproutfuel.com
First published Dec. 28, 2012
Aloha...is from a land of Hawaiian Ukulele music. Ukelele music is popular among the local Hawaiian families and is frequently used at weddings and celebrations. Aloha land is 4920 miles away from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the East Coast of the United States where traditional Christian weddings are plentiful. Philadelphia, PA where Rachmaninoff hisself conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra, where the legendary piano instructors Gary Graffman & the Sokoloffs reigned for over 50 years as the best piano instructors on the planet through the 2000 millenium. Though I was adventurous as a prior student of a Hungarian piano instructor who was a collegue of Zoltan Kodaly where local folk music was embraced, the Hawaiian attitude is anything except harsh.
I was in a condusive traditional Classical piano environment and learned piano in a very strong Christian based community. One where every church has at least one grand piano, if not two or more grand pianos and electric organ or common pipe organ. I grew up with the general knowledge that Bach and many of the great keyboard Composers were supported by the Church and wrote sacred as well as secular music, with a pethora of churches and institutions where I could perform on a variety of period instruments frequently. In diminished comparison, Hawaii barely houses an electric keyboard at any church, let alone 1 studio upright or pipe organ.
In the current 21st century economy many Hawaii churches have "gotten rid of" their keyboard instruments due to maintenance costs and vandalism from an obtrusive population. Before moving to Hawaii, I took my east coast musical environment for granted and wished the general population was understanding of my Japanese heritage. However, most of the Christian community included everyone in the USA who has traditionally hated the Japanese;- including newly formed Korean specific churches. So I continually befell physical attacks, verbal criticism, and blatant discrimination on the East coast for most of my 30 some years of life.
So, I move to Hawaii and am inundated with a severe local attitude that is against piano. They say I have "too high makamaka" think I'm better than them. I worked at piano because I loved it and my talent put me through college with a scholarship.
The other day, a local parent mentioned to me that his child was learning a popular "Traditional Christian wedding piece" on their keyboard on her own. This is the first time that I have gotten to explain that these are normal pieces, that many children on the mainland learn to play at their family weddings. It's difficult for me to believe that the culture in Hawaii is so vastly different from the East Coast USA that these things are so "foreign" to local Hawaii. Especially since I see the religious rosary with crosses dangling from many rear view mirrors, and other Christian car markings. Just as most mainland people could not explain the differences and nuances of Hawaiian musical performances because they don't know the Hawaiian traditional song repertoire;- most Hawaiian Islander natives could not begin to explain the subtleties of any Classical piano repertoire performance.
edited: Nov. 23, 2016 Sproutfuel.com
Friday, June 10, 2016
Hyperacusis vs Super Hearing
USA question Summary:- Are they going to bring back the super hearing classification to market products because manufacturing claims need evidence that humans can perceive sound at a magnified" level? Is decibel perception and super-hearing equivalent?
Will they re-classify those of us who were "mis-diagnosed" with hyperacusis due to elimination of "super hearing" classifications, so that we are no longer considered disabled in the current world?
In 1999, I was working in an electro-acoustic sound lab creating HF sound waves. With visions of John Zorn's HF warnings on my future music creations, I was working on an independent animation that I never actually finished. I had already had a lifetime of refined classical piano performance training and was already sensitive to the oscillating of sound waves.
The difference being, that Hyperacusis was triggered by psychological sound events such as ambulences, Gunshots, etc. So, in anycase, I was considered Hearing disabled by the last semester of my Music Degree program. They said, it would go away in time, and if anything that aging would correct the issue. I was no longer allowed to wear headphones and the Music School invested in a couple of speakers in the $30k range accomodated my handicap so that I could complete the course. They also fitted me with a pair of rock-star custom earplugs to reduce the incoming HF waves. Total bill in the earplugs with fitting ran about $650 with insurance.
To describe what I went through for 3 years after the HF accident incident is somewhat painful and isolating. #1, I couldn't play most pianos because I could hear each wave distinctly and it began to sound like glasses being shattered on the ill kept instruments. At home, I couldn't stand the refridgerator frequency, it sounded like I was in a roomful of crickets even 10' away in the carpeted livingroom of my condo. When I went to shower, I cringed under the individual water drops hitting the bathtub basin. I decided it was interesting after the initial shock so, I'd hold my fingers over my ears and then take a breath and then listen. It was like seeing with my ears and completely mind-blowing.
Once in 2002 (I was I sat in an audience of pianists and was the only one cringing and plugging my ears with my fingers during a beginning student duo. The children played on pianos positioned with matching hearts. The masterclass pianist from NZ, actually took note of my behavior over 20' away and made a mention that the pianos should not be placed that way because they give off a high frequency. Apparently, I was the only one in the room who noticed. The typical Orchestra concert pianist (which I am not, i only perform solo) has hearing loss from the decible level of the Orchestra which also includes tinnitus.
Now it's been 15 years, and my ears are much more sensitive than most people around me. Changes in the airpressure around my ears bothers me to no end. It's not just the sound of the fan or AC that is grating to try and sleep to. Loud non-acoustic environments mentally exhaust me within 3hrs. I learned in 2001-2005 that I can't play on a keyboard (Clavinova) for much longer than 3hrs with speakers. My ears also strain in anticipation of a natural acoustic decay on "fake" acoustic sounds.
Listening to musical mistakes made by students are literally painful, as if someone jumped out and stabbed me with a knife. I'm listening along and know what I should approximately expect on the path and then the frequency is WAY OFF, not even in microtones. Because it is not a simple matter of being startled, my ears go into decible and frequency shock that takes me time to recover from. It is very different from the emotional disappointment of an enjoyable pianist making a mistake.
Going for a swim and putting my ears underwater is like having a magnifying lens. I can hear the seashells softened by the water yet trickling down the beach back to the ocean as the tide receeds. It's absolutely beautiful. And, on occasion above water, I can hear dolphins clicking in the distance.
It is very isolating. Random screams of children are so painful sometimes, I steer away from family shopping times. You'd be more likely to find me in a store on Senior Citizens discount day, simply for the quiet differences. Night Clubs generally have mediocre sound systems that have been overused and blown speakers. It turns into an awful environment for me quickly. I also had to forgo going to weekly or 1/2 a week of concerts and live music I was accustomed to for most of my life.
It's been 15 years since I was diagnosed with Hyper-acusis. And, It seems like they are bringing back the "super-hearing" idea in Hearing diagnosis. I read an article the other day on Super Hearing. Some of the reasoning is because they want to market devices so that they can prove humans can perceive sound in this way.
Sometimes, I think they should make the majority who have damaged hearing from years of headphones and bad music be the "disabled" and take away their Driver's licenses for not hearing enough. Just on the dual piano frequency being such a Classical Victorian era issue, I think my hearing may have been the old NORMAL a century before electronic music and speakers were invented. So, after months of listening to HF sound waves, it seems to me that I became sensitive to the frequency range. I think that by listening to HF waves, maybe my hearing mechanism triggered a way for the rest of my brain to adjust the auditory perception of decibles so that it became clear. I did not experience any hearing loss or tinnitus.
While working on a project sound wave that split 3 ways, I lost track of the upper HF wave. In need of inexplicable help, I was sent to The Sir Alexander Ewing Speech and Hearing Clinic, then one of the best hearing clinics in the USA.
The thing was, I became hypersensitive to the high frequency range and was hearing it clearly. However, my perception of the HF range was somewhere between 20% to 50% louder than normal.
The hearing specialist told me that they used to have something called "super hearing" prior to it being "reclassified" into a psychological disorder called Hyperacusis.The difference being, that Hyperacusis was triggered by psychological sound events such as ambulences, Gunshots, etc. So, in anycase, I was considered Hearing disabled by the last semester of my Music Degree program. They said, it would go away in time, and if anything that aging would correct the issue. I was no longer allowed to wear headphones and the Music School invested in a couple of speakers in the $30k range accomodated my handicap so that I could complete the course. They also fitted me with a pair of rock-star custom earplugs to reduce the incoming HF waves. Total bill in the earplugs with fitting ran about $650 with insurance.
To describe what I went through for 3 years after the HF accident incident is somewhat painful and isolating. #1, I couldn't play most pianos because I could hear each wave distinctly and it began to sound like glasses being shattered on the ill kept instruments. At home, I couldn't stand the refridgerator frequency, it sounded like I was in a roomful of crickets even 10' away in the carpeted livingroom of my condo. When I went to shower, I cringed under the individual water drops hitting the bathtub basin. I decided it was interesting after the initial shock so, I'd hold my fingers over my ears and then take a breath and then listen. It was like seeing with my ears and completely mind-blowing.
Once in 2002 (I was I sat in an audience of pianists and was the only one cringing and plugging my ears with my fingers during a beginning student duo. The children played on pianos positioned with matching hearts. The masterclass pianist from NZ, actually took note of my behavior over 20' away and made a mention that the pianos should not be placed that way because they give off a high frequency. Apparently, I was the only one in the room who noticed. The typical Orchestra concert pianist (which I am not, i only perform solo) has hearing loss from the decible level of the Orchestra which also includes tinnitus.
Now it's been 15 years, and my ears are much more sensitive than most people around me. Changes in the airpressure around my ears bothers me to no end. It's not just the sound of the fan or AC that is grating to try and sleep to. Loud non-acoustic environments mentally exhaust me within 3hrs. I learned in 2001-2005 that I can't play on a keyboard (Clavinova) for much longer than 3hrs with speakers. My ears also strain in anticipation of a natural acoustic decay on "fake" acoustic sounds.
Listening to musical mistakes made by students are literally painful, as if someone jumped out and stabbed me with a knife. I'm listening along and know what I should approximately expect on the path and then the frequency is WAY OFF, not even in microtones. Because it is not a simple matter of being startled, my ears go into decible and frequency shock that takes me time to recover from. It is very different from the emotional disappointment of an enjoyable pianist making a mistake.
Going for a swim and putting my ears underwater is like having a magnifying lens. I can hear the seashells softened by the water yet trickling down the beach back to the ocean as the tide receeds. It's absolutely beautiful. And, on occasion above water, I can hear dolphins clicking in the distance.
It is very isolating. Random screams of children are so painful sometimes, I steer away from family shopping times. You'd be more likely to find me in a store on Senior Citizens discount day, simply for the quiet differences. Night Clubs generally have mediocre sound systems that have been overused and blown speakers. It turns into an awful environment for me quickly. I also had to forgo going to weekly or 1/2 a week of concerts and live music I was accustomed to for most of my life.
It's been 15 years since I was diagnosed with Hyper-acusis. And, It seems like they are bringing back the "super-hearing" idea in Hearing diagnosis. I read an article the other day on Super Hearing. Some of the reasoning is because they want to market devices so that they can prove humans can perceive sound in this way.
Sometimes, I think they should make the majority who have damaged hearing from years of headphones and bad music be the "disabled" and take away their Driver's licenses for not hearing enough. Just on the dual piano frequency being such a Classical Victorian era issue, I think my hearing may have been the old NORMAL a century before electronic music and speakers were invented. So, after months of listening to HF sound waves, it seems to me that I became sensitive to the frequency range. I think that by listening to HF waves, maybe my hearing mechanism triggered a way for the rest of my brain to adjust the auditory perception of decibles so that it became clear. I did not experience any hearing loss or tinnitus.
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