Category: Etudes

How to Play with Emotion

Being able to play with emotion is necessary. Being able to fake it is necessary, too. It’s not ideal, but it’s a good skill to know.

Some days you just can’t access that particular emotion, so you need to fake it. Sometimes you haven’t been through enough life to bring the idea across. These are good examples of learning the mechanics behind playing with emotion and learning how to do it on demand.

I’ll talk today about playing with emotion for real and how to fake it. I’ll also talk about how to put emotion into the most bland things in order to make them sparkle.

How to Play with Emotion for Real

Before you start playing, take a minute to bring up old memories or current situations that make you feel the way that this music is trying to emote. Holding that picture in your mind, begin playing the piece.

Allow the part of your mind that holds memories to wander as you play. The piece will hold you in the emotion(s) that the composer wants you to feel. You’ll feel the emotions ebbing and flowing through your body, out your instrument, and into the air.

When you hit the last chord, you will feel free, like everything that your memories were working through were resolved with that last resolution in the last chord.

Notice I only said to allow part of your mind to wander. You still need to concentrate on the notes.

How to Fake Play with Emotion

You’re having a hard time conveying the emotion in this piece. Maybe you haven’t gone through enough in your life so you can’t access those emotions. This is a good thing – it means you have had a good life.

Maybe you’re not an emotional person so you can’t access those emotions. Don’t beat yourself up over that. It’s just not how you’re built. Usually those who are in your boat, though, are really good at following directions. Here they are, step-by-step.

I find that I have to teach 3rd and 4th graders how to fake play with emotion because they just can’t access their emotions on demand, but they’re starting to get into music that requires it.

Step 1: Analyze

Take a moment to analyze each phrase. Each phrase has a sunshine moment. This is usually where the melody goes up, but it can be other things. You get to decide where the sunshine moment is in each phrase because you’re the artist. Draw a sun over each sunshine moment.

Step 2: Dynamics

The piece will crescendo to each sunshine moment and diminuendo away from it. If there are a ton of dynamics already written into the music, these dynamics will be very slight. Same with if it was written before the Romantic Era.

If it’s a piece that doesn’t have much written in there, and it was written after the Classical Era, let her rip. Bring your own dynamics out.

Step 3: Rubato

General rule: Crescendo = faster. Diminuendo = slower.

Rubato should only be used after the Classical Era.

Keep it in good taste, though. It’s all supposed to equal out to the same amount of time in the end.

Adding Emotion to the Mundane and Boring Music

Wait, I’m admitting there are boring things to play? Yup. They’re called scales and technical studies. Sometimes etudes, too.

Scales are a necessary evil – I go into that more here. Technical studies might be even more boring than scales, but they’re also necessary. I go into that more here.

I’ve heard it said that if you don’t play everything musically, then you’re wasting your time. How do you play scales and technical studies musically? Add emotion. You can even make a game of it. Make a list of emotions and alternate between them while you’re practicing your warm-ups.

If you’re having a hard time playing warm-ups with emotion, try faking it, using my directions. It will give you good practice for having to fake your emotions with other pieces.

Conclusion

It’s a wonderful experience to play your instrument with emotion, but sometimes we have to develop that skill. It’s good to have a step-by-step plan to add emotion to anything. It helps with your overall musicianship and adds some sparkle to your music.

The “Divide and Conquer” Practice Technique

This is a practice technique that can and should be done from day one of starting a new repertoire piece. It’s simple, it makes you better, and you may realize that you’ve accidentally done it before.

The only time you might not want to do this practice technique is if you’re in the process of learning all your scales. If you have time to do this in addition to learning your scales, go for it.

What You’ll Need:

You’ll need a metronome, a good scale book, and etudes (optional). I can’t make a good recommendation for a piano scale book, but Pares Scales (affiliate link) would be a good place to start on the flute.

If you don’t have a metronome, there are a ton of good, free metronome apps that you can use on a phone or tablet. If you need a real one because you want to reduce screen time, I really like this Matrix one (not an affiliate link). It’s loud enough for me to hear with earplugs and over the piccolo.

Analyze Your Piece

First you have to ask yourself a couple questions:

  1. What key(s) is my piece in?
  2. Does the piece transfer into a different key for awhile using accidentals?
  3. Double-check. Is it Major, minor, both, or modal?

Scales

When warming up, play in the key(s) of your piece all scales, arpeggios, chords, and thirds with a metronome.  Keep increasing the speed of the metronome over the course of the weeks/months that you’re learning the repertoire.

For variety, use the various scale exercises in your scale book. They’re designed to even out your fingers. They’re also designed to practice the common trouble spots that you might encounter in the music.

Etudes (optional)

An optional part of this is to find etudes that are in the same key(s) as your new repertoire piece. Play a new one each week.

Etudes weave into a melody a problem-pattern that is common in your instrument. If you practice etudes that are in the same key as your repertoire piece, the problem-patterns that the etudes bring up are more likely to be the problems you’ll encounter in your repertoire piece.

These are the reasons I can think of that etudes are optional for this practice technique. I’m sure there are more.

  1. You’re going through a lesson book and you need to go through those etudes in the order given (lesson books are etude books).
  2. You have a goal of going through certain etudes. It feels good to say you’ve played all of a certain composer’s etudes, and I’m not one to get in the way of your goals.
  3. It’s hard to find etudes based on key signature, and you don’t have the time or resources to scour etude books for hours on end.

This technique can and should be used in conjunction with all the other practice techniques.  It helps you recognize parts of the song that may look hard at first, but then you realize it’s just a scale.  It also helps you keep your fingers even.

Sight Reading: How Theory, Technical Studies, and Etudes Help

I’m putting together a new ensemble right now. We’re sightreading a bunch of music to see what we like from each other’s collection and trying to find a good flute/clarinet duet.

The other person in the ensemble is a doubler between the clarinet and the piano. I double with the flute and the piano. We’re both going to play both of our instruments (not at the same time) and we’re going to have a ton of fun!

Music Theory

How does music theory fit into what we’re doing right now? Seeing patterns.

As I’m reading through, I’m not necessarily reading all the note names. I’m thinking in my head things like, “scale going down starting on Bb,” “Fourth, bottom note F,” “octave jump.”

Technical Studies

How do technical studies fit into what we’re doing right now? Finger Patterns.

My fingers already know what do do with the patterns listed above because I’ve done and still do my technical studies during my regular practice times.

Do my fingers still get tangled on themselves? Absolutely.

Do I misread how many notes are in that scale? Yup.

I still do better than I would if I didn’t do the technical studies.

Etudes

How do etudes fit into what we’re doing right now? Rhythmic Patterns and Problem Patterns.

Etudes take whole problems that you see in music and repeat them over and over again in a melodious piece. I’ve tackled a ton of problems, especially rhythmic problems, through the etudes. I try to play at least one per week.

As I’m reading through, I’m thinking “Philadelphia” instead of a 16th note 5-tuplet in a grupetto pattern. I see a 16th note in the middle of the triplet and think Irish Jig. Triplets in one hand and 8th notes in the other? I’ve got this!

Confidence

What ends up happening is you develop confidence in sight reading through the weekly grind of learning your technical studies, etudes, and music theory. You realize that you’ve seen it all before, just not in this particular order.

It’s a good idea to make sure you sight read on a regular basis, too, but that’s for another post. 🙂

Old Lesson Books

Old books aren’t necessarily a bad thing. There’s forgotten wisdom written on those pages.

I teach my own kids how to play piano. I know it doesn’t work for everyone, but it works for us.

My Old Lesson Books

My youngest daughter is in level 3 of Alfred. She prefers using lesson books rather than doing the RCM lists. She’s using my old lesson book and my husband’s old Fingerpower book.

She loves seeing the little notes from our teachers. One page in the Fingerpower said, “You can do it!” I told her that her dad had a really hard time with that page. She was delighted to get it in the first try.

One song (there were words, so it was a song) from my old lesson book had several dates listed on the second half of the song. I told her that it took that many tries to get it down. She didn’t feel bad that she had to take two weeks on it.

Used Bookstore

Our used bookstore has a decent collection of used sheet music. I’m not usually there for the used lesson books, but sometimes I’ll flip through them to see if there are any nuggets of information.

Every once in awhile, I’ll find one that’s written in by the teacher. I haven’t found anything worthwhile for myself, but I’ve known people to find good information in there.

Personal Preference

Personally, I love working from used music in general. Sometimes the beats are already written in for a tough rhythm. Sometimes there are words of encouragement written at the top of the page. I also like the idea that this book has been through someone’s blood, sweat, and tears and now it’s going through it with me. It’s experienced.

I’m in a habit of checking to see if there’s a sheet music section of every used book store that I go to, including Goodwill. I once got a $50 etude book for $1, and this one was brand-new. If you find yourself in one of those kinds of stores, take a look. If you find nothing, you’re out nothing, but you might find a gem.

I know some people like the feel of having a shiny, new book. That’s completely fine. As you write things into your music so you will always remember them, think about how maybe your music will inspire someone else someday.

What Etudes Are and What they Aren’t

When I was in high school and college, my flute teacher assigned me an etude every week. I dutifully learned them, but I had no idea why. I figured they were just a wind instrument thing, but it turns out I was wrong.

When I was in high school and college, my flute teacher assigned me an etude every week. I dutifully learned them, but I had no idea why. I figured they were just a wind instrument thing, but it turns out I was wrong.

What Is An Etude?

An etude is also called a study. Lesson books are almost entirely made of etudes. They take something that’s hard about playing your instrument and helps you learn how to conquer it.

Etudes Are Different than Technique

The definition of an etude sounds a lot like technique, right? It’s related to that genre, but not quite. A big difference is that etudes are melodious, which make them more fun to play.

Another big difference is they don’t break up the hard parts of your music into tiny bits that are easy. They keep those hard parts whole and make you play them several times within those beautiful melodies.

Etudes Aren’t a Substitute for Technique

Etudes are their own entity and should be part of your regular practice routine. They should come after technique and before repertoire. Scales and technique help you learn your etudes better and faster.

Etudes Are A Measure of Your Current Level

Repertoire is usually what people point to in order to show how well they can play their instrument, but they spend months, sometimes over a year, learning that music. That’s not a true measure.

Etudes are designed to be learned in a week. If you’re taking longer than that to learn the etudes, then you should back up to a lower level. If you’re breezing through the etudes, then you need to go up to the next level.

Conclusion

Etudes are a tool, written for you by some of the best performers of their time. They are a gift to you from these people, to help you play like they do. Once you go beyond the lesson book, etudes can sometimes go away. Don’t let them.