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(picture from Hand Knitted Things)

Cold weather can play havoc with the pianist’s body – and instrument. Hands suffer in the cold, becoming sore and chapped, and limbs take longer to warm up. Always take time to warm up properly before you play. All of my students coming for lessons over the recent spell of freezing weather in the UK have arrived without gloves and consequently their hands are cold and uncomfortable, absolutely not ideal for playing the piano! I have handcream by the piano and I always wear gloves if I am out when it is cold.

Pianos suffer too. If the central heating is on more frequently than usual, pianos will slip out of tune and some notes may develop an unpleasantly shrill “ring” when struck. Always try to site the piano away from a radiator or heat source, but if this is not possible consider using a protective guard. If you have underfloor heating, the piano should be placed on a heat-reflective mat.

The temperature and relative humidity of the room in which your piano lives is most important to the care and well-being of your instrument. Pianos are made from wood and metal, both materials which expand and contract in relation to moisture and heat/cold. It is worth purchasing a digital hygrometer which will calculate the relative humidity in your home or piano studio. Ideally, it should be no lower than 50% and no higher than 75%. If central heating causes the humidity to drop, you can make a basic humidifier by placing a sponge in a tray of water and inserting this in the case of a grand piano, or in the lower portion of an upright. Or buy an automatic humidifier which sends a light mist into the air and helps regulate the humidity. Keeping houseplants in the same room as the piano can help too. There are also more sophisticated and expensive ways of humidifying your piano, such as the Piano Life Saver.

Look after yourself and your piano and you will both perform better, all year round.

Piano Gloves

DontCrampYourStyle – warm up exercises factsheet from the British Association for Performing Arts Medicine (PDF file)

 

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Who or what inspired you to take up the guitar and make it your career?

Well, mostly luck! A music teacher heard me attempting classical guitar at school, and put me in touch with Sasha Levtov, a Russian émigré who organises a small music school, a recital series, and a guitar club, in my hometown, Bognor Regis. And that was it – I was hooked!

Who or what were the most important influences on your musical life and career?

When I took up lessons, I became a regular at the West Sussex Guitar Club. There were regular club nights, a mix of food, impromptu ensemble playing, and an informal stage to air the latest work. These evenings, and my lessons, entered the bloodstream – I saw music as a social art, a way to bring people together and participate in something positive. More recently I lived for a year (on a sofa) with two composers and a modern artist – that exposure to current ideas stretched the imagination quite wildly…

What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?

Arriving at the Royal College of Music came as a huge jolt to the system… in London I was painfully conscious of being a very little fish indeed. Changing tutor was hard, and being in the city, acclimatising to a new life, affected me profoundly. I had an extremely painful first year at the RCM.

I suppose the biggest technical challenge has simply been reconciling lute and guitar technique. I’m proud that most lutenists like the sound I make, even using fingernails!

Which performance/recordings are you most proud of?

The next one!

Which particular works do you think you perform best?

I think that the most rewarding thing about music is that it invites you to enter the mindset of a composer – his world, imaginary and historical. Different composers have articulated so many things in wonderful ways. That said, I have a soft spot for John Dowland

How do you make your repertoire choices from season to season?

It’s usually the case that I have a project on the go – a big performance or a concerto, or a specific project focusing on a composer. Simply, I have a very long to-play list!

Do you have a favourite concert venue to perform in and why?

In a sentimental mood, the Recital Hall in Bognor Regis. It’s a venue that has seen some world-renowned performers – for me, it’s the first stage I was acquainted with. I do still perform there very frequently.

I played some time ago at Bolivar Hall – the venue attached to the Embassy of Venezuela – in a series organised by Alberto Portugheis. Because of its size, sober tone, and impeccable acoustic, the atmosphere is just perfect for the guitar.

Favourite pieces to perform? Listen to?

Bach’s Suite BWV 997 (the “second lute suite”) is a great honour to play – a huge journey. I’ve loved performing Rodrigo’s Aranjuez, too, it’s very exhilarating.  

My all-time favourite works are Schnittke’s Requiem, Beethoven’s 6th, the Schubert’s ‘Arpeggione’ Sonata, and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon!

Who are your favourite musicians?

Some performers are magic: Fritz Wunderlich; Meredith d’Ambrosio, a Jazz singer with a dark, smoky voice; Pavel Steidl, wild-eyed Czech guitar genius with firework humour; and pianist Dinu Lipatti.

What is your most memorable concert experience?

Bernard Haitink and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe performed Beethoven’s 6th this year at the Barbican… I danced in the street on the way home.

What do you consider to be the most important ideas and concepts to impart to aspiring musicians?

I can’t really say with something so individual… For me, a thirst for knowledge, making imaginative connections, and empathy. Music should be alive and exciting. And always necessary are a sense of humour – and patience!

What are you working on at the moment?

The next big project is putting together a concert and talk on Schubert on the guitar: Lieder, poetry and the Arpeggione Sonata!

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

Happiness isn’t a state or an acquisition, it’s a process – it arises like steam from the way in which we live our lives. It isn’t something to be chased and nailed down: it comes from the way we act, the smiles we give, the work we do. So in this way, happiness is to live, to make the most of the challenge.

What do you enjoy doing most?

RCM guitarists have just established Fika, which is the Swedish verb to have a coffee, with some sort of sweet, with friends, and one or two idle hours. I think Schubert would approve!
Classical guitarist Sam Dixon Brown has earned a reputation for “flair, personality and confidence” with his performances in the UK and abroad.

Winner of the 2011 Chichester Festival Award, the 2012 West Sussex Youth Music Award, and the 2013 Worthing Concerto Competition, Sam studied at the Regis School of Music with Sasha Levtov, and at the Junior Royal College of Music, under full bursary. He is presently a pupil of Charles Ramirez (guitar) and Jakob Lindberg (lute) at the Royal College of Music in London, where he combines his studies with a burgeoning musical career.

www.sambrownguitar.com

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(photo Susie Knoll)

The Croatian pianist Dejan Lazić first came to my attention, perhaps for the wrong reasons, when I read about his 2014 fracas with The Washington Post over the “right to be forgotten” in Google searches. He asked for a review from 2010, which he felt was unfair, to be removed. The incident sparked a lively debate across the networks about whether artists should respond to negative reviews or make such requests, and whether critics and reviewers need to be more careful about what they say. To me, it was a rather neat example of “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”: I read about Lazić, my curiosity was piqued and I wanted to hear him live.

I missed his Queen Elizabeth Hall concert in winter 2014 so I was pleased to see him on the roster of the Wigmore Hall’s lunchtime concerts. And how glad I am that I decided to go to the concert, for he presented an imaginative programme of music: two greats of German music – Haydn and Schumann – were juxtaposed with dances by Shostakovich and Lazić himself, all of which revealed his strengths.

Anyone who makes me smile in Haydn gets my applause……

Read my full review

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I believe that our personal musical tastes should not influence the way we teach, and that we should try not to impose our preferences or prejudices on our students. Our role as teachers should be encourage students to explore as wide a range of music as possible – whether it is purely ‘classical’ music (in fact, a very broad term which encompasses music from the Renaissance to the present day) or a mixture of classical music, jazz, world or pop. This is not to say that I do not enthuse to my students about the kind of music which interests and excites me, and the “what is your favourite composer/piece of music?” conversation takes place regularly in my piano studio. But I wouldn’t dream of dismissing a piece of music a student had, for example, discovered and learnt by themselves just because I didn’t like it or thought it was “bad” music.

As a teacher, it is very interesting to find out what kind of repertoire makes students tick and what music appeals to specific students. For example, I find that boys tend to prefer lively, rhythmic, jazzy music. One of my teenage boy students has developed a real fondness for the music of Kabalevsky, while another, the older brother of this student in fact, is showing remarkable sensitivity towards a piece by Chopin which he is learning for Grade 6 (and I admit I was surprised when he selected this piece to learn). Other students like music with clear melodic lines and opportunities for expressive playing. I encourage my students to develop their musical taste by exploring a variety of repertoire and suggesting music for them to listen to as well (easy to do since many of them like to use YouTube or music streaming services), but I also urge them to learn music which is outside their normal comfort zone to enable them to explore different technical and musical challenges. Of course, if they really dislike a piece there is no point in continuing with it as there is no pleasure or usefulness to be gained from playing music you don’t enjoy.

Interpretation is a far more complex area, and more advanced/mature students and adults often have firm ideas about interpretation, either based on their own musical experience or their listening, knowledge and appreciation of music. Sadly, I have come across teachers who try to impose their own interpretation on students, sometimes to the extant that they seem to want the student to sound like they do: in such instances, this, to me, seems to be nothing more than an exercise in self-aggrandisement. It serves no real pedagogical purpose, nor does it allow the student to develop their own musical voice. (As the pianist Stephen Hough said in one of his blog posts, he would be worried if he listened in on a class of students at a conservatoire to discover that they all sounded identical to their teacher.)

The majority of my students are now intermediate and early advanced level players who are beginning to be able to make their own judgements about interpretation in their pieces based on their ongoing musical development and knowledge. In this case, I feel my role is to guide them into making decisions about interpretation which are stylistically in keeping with the genre and period of the music, faithful to the score, and tasteful. However, I would not dismiss a more romantic reading of the music of Bach or Scarlatti, for example, provided the interpretation offered is both consistent and convincing.

I am fortunate to be working with a teacher who does not impose his interpretation on me, but who sets the bar for me to explain and justify every interpretative decision I make in the music. Nearly all of this is based on detailed examination of the score, rather than preconceived ideas about how the music should sound or any attempt to imitate great/famous performers (which could lead to an insincere and inauthentic version). He allows the music making to be my business and encourages me to take ownership of the music and make it mine (more on taking ownership here). Thus, I feel I am offering a reading which is both personal and also faithful to the score.

Fundamentally, our teaching should be about imparting our musical values rather than our preferences, and encouraging our students to be curious, open-minded and non-judgmental. In addition to offering them a wide variety of repertoire, we should also be encouraging “listening around” the music they are studying to familiarise themselves with, for example, the very distinct soundworld of Chopin, as well as what I call “lateral listening” – a case of “if you like this, why not try?”, which I use a lot with students who enjoy the music of Ludovico Einaudi (I encourage them to sample the minimalist music of Philip Glass and Michael Nyman). Thus students can develop their own individual tastes and opinions about the music they are playing and enjoying.