Waltkeys Publishing

the feeling of creative inspiration is amazing, frightening and real!

Everybody is capable of tapping into the creative flow and producing something from it. It can be frightening and confusing, so many avoid it. But if you allow yourself to be swept up in your own creativity, amazing things will happen. You realize that you are capable of doing things that are beyond your own perception. In short, you can do the impossible!

When I teach piano by reading music, there are two skills I can teach: the first is sight reading, the second is preparing a piece for performance.  Sight reading is one of those “learn by doing thangs”.  Preparing a song for performance is a task that can be simplified with many suggestions and tricks of the trade; the first of which is Practicing Backwards.

The average student begins their practice time by starting at the beginning of a piece and playing the notes slowly and carefully; reading, checking their fingering and figuring out notes that are unfamiliar.  Then, they hit a spot in the music where the hands simply fail them and they play the wrong notes.  What do they do then?  They go back to the beginning and play through the piece again, cautiously playing the part of the song they’ve successfully navigated until, oooops, they hit that same difficult part, they make the same silly mistake, and low and behold, they stop.  Where do they resume their next attempt to learn the piece?  At the beginning!!!  After a half a dozen tries, they’ve successfully learned what they already know.  That part of the composition will be particularly pleasing to the instant gratification crowd, however…

What about the part of the piece that they have been stumbling over?  One of two things have happened: either they have neglected to try that part of the piece or they’ve already taught their hands how to play it wrong!  They may slow down and work on that part of the song and eventually get it up to speed, but the opening strains of that piece will always be more fluent and musical than the remainder of the phrase.  Either way, they will continue to play that section of the song wrong if we don’t do something QUICK.  

Don’t let me forgot to tell you how to fix mistakes permanently.

Even my best students suffer this phenomenon: the ends of their phrases are never quite what they should be.  This is where the chorus enters singing “Practice Backwards” la la la, Practice Backwards”  Thank you chorus, very Shakespearean of you.

“Practice Backwards”  Yes, very nice.  

“Practice back..”  Enough already!!!

I suggest that we all practice from the ends of the musical phrases.  Another lesson learned in the woods: it’s easier to get where you are going if you know where you are going.

It’s a simple process really.  begin working on the piece by dividing and labelling the form: A, A, B, A or  A, B, C or whatever.  Choose one of the those sections to begin with and mark the phrases within that section.  After you have played through the section, checking the fingering you will use, identifying notes that are unfamiliar, making notes for interpretation; find the phrase that appears to be the most difficult for you and begin at the end of the phrase.  Play the last cadence or the final two measures of the phrase.  Again, don’t forget, you are practicing, the connection between the head and the hands is crucial.  Do not allow your hands to get the best of you!  They are stupid with a cruel sense of humor, they’ll mess you up if you are not thinking!  Repeat that small section of music three times, accurately.  Play it again, three times.  You’ll begin to feel your muscles relax as you become more and more familiar with the notes and the rhythm, playing this tiny phrase correctly.  Now… back up a measure or two and learn those notes, eventually playing from your new starting point to the end of the piece.  Play it three times, six times, nine times, until you are comfortable.  Then back up another two measures and repeat the process playing from your new starting point to the end of the phrase.  Without even thining about it, you will have played the end of that phrase maybe thirty times once you’ve practiced the whole phrase from the beginning.  Practice from the end of each and every phrase in the piece.  You will immediately notice the repetitive nature of the song, note the similarities in the phrases and use this to your advantage.  Patience, dear readers.  Done correctly: slowly and accurately, you won’t have to fix your mistakes; you’ll avoid them altogether!

When I think about the objective of walking on the log, I think about what I am actually doing while I practice the piano.  Some of you think that when you are practicing the piano, you are playing the piano.  What are you thinking?  We don’t get to play the piano until after we have practiced for hours and days and weeks.  Only after we’ve forgotten about all the hours and days and weeks of PRACTICE do we get the chance to play the piano!

When we are sitting at the piano learning a new song, we are actually developing our communication between our brain and our hands.  

As the good reverend would say, “I don’t believe ya heard me,  I said, “We are actually developing our communication between our brain and our hands”!

Let’s face it, you can sit at the piano for an hour; but if you are not thinking about what you are doing, you will waste that hour and end up with nothing but a sore neck to show for your time.  Perfect practice comes from thinking about what you want your hands to play and slowly making them respond accordingly.  For instance, if you look at your music, see a “G” on the page, think to yourself “play G” and then allow your hand to play an “F”, what have you done?  You’ve taught your hand a wonderful mistake that it will be only too happy to repeat if you continue to practice unconsciously.  In fact, on a GOOD day, your odds of playing a “G” instead of an “F” even if you are thinking about it are 50~50!  There are 12 notes on your piano repeated over and over.  You keep practicing unconsciously and there is only an 8% chance you’ll hit a “G” when your head says, “play G”.  

When you practice, you must block out everything else in the room, in your head, at work, school and on the street for a few minutes and allow the communication between your head and hands to begin!  When you see a “G” on the manuscript, you must clearly think “play G” and make sure that your hand plays “G”.  You’ve got ten brainless students at the end of your hands, just waiting to be told what to do.  If you allow them to function on their own, they will mess it up, I GAR on TEE!!!  Ten minutes of concentrated effort; quiet, careful practice is better than doodling at the piano for a half an hour!  Believe me, you will be tired after ten minutes of concious practice time.  Take a break, but come back ready to focus and develop the link between your ten students and the head master!  Think about everything you are practicing ~ accurately and intensely.

Mistakes are made when the student does not take the time to play slowly, carefully playing each note accurately, with intent and conscious thought.  Once the student plays a wrong note, the hands are conditioned to play that note EVERY time he or she encounters that part of the song.  After that, the only thing a player can do is reduce the percentage of times that they will, in the future, play the correct note.  The student does this by slowly and carefully playing the correct note, consciously guiding their hands with an unfailing communication from the brain to the hand!  If the brain says play “G”, the hand BETTER play “G”… and the correct “G” in the right octave!  If a student plays that part of the song nine times correctly to every one time they’ve played it incorrectly, they’ve only got a 90% chance of playing it correctly in a performance.  Those are good odds if you are being chased by a big dog and you are weighing your chances of jumping the fence before you get bit in the bum, not playing the piano!  Let’s better the odds of a great performance by slowing down and letting the head tell the hands EXACTLY what to do and how to do it!  Practice slowly, consciously and accurately.  Speed comes naturally, just as a small child eventually learns to walk faster and faster, eventually running, only after they have crawled, pulled themselves to their feet and walked, slowly and carefully from one embrace to the waiting arms of another adult.

‘and while I was away, I couldn’t imagine what she was up to.’ ‘You don’t want to know what she was doing while you were in Chicago.  You can’t trust anyone.’ ‘No.  I mean I simply couldn’t imagine what Jean was doing. It doesn’t matter to me what she was doing, I just like imagining what that might be. Don’t you wonder what Maggie is doing when you’re outta town?’

‘A tie should have two qualities: one, either an emotional appeal OR silk’s ability to change colors as you move around it. And two, a woman should enjoy touching it.’ ‘A tie should have two qualities: one, either an emotional appeal OR silk’s ability to change colors as you move around it. And two, a woman should enjoy touching it.’

‘I can’t burn it from both ends like I did.’ ‘I wish you’d burn it at one end.’

‘She always shows up at these.’  ‘Parties?’  ‘What?’  ‘It’s a party, Darlene.’ ‘These things are a roomful of stages.’  ‘Why is it a room’s not a room.’ ‘Because Cindy’s coming. She makes the room into something…’  ‘and everybody follows suit? Is that what you’re gonna say?’  ‘Well, say it isn’t so!’ ‘You follow suit, Darlene!’  ‘The rest of us don’t care!’  ‘What time was the invite?’  ‘8 o’clock.’  ‘She’ll walk in at 8.45.’  ‘And you’re always here to see it.’

‘If you’d stop watching movies all night, you might get something done.’ ‘That’s nothin’ to do with lazy. I put in a movie at bedtime, when I should be asleep. Bad judgement maybe, but I’m not lazy.’

‘I have no idea what I’m talking about.’  ‘Clearly. I need a beer.’  ‘Proceed.’ ‘Three degrees starboard, captain.’  ‘Thank you, admiral .’

‘I love Earth, Wind and Fire!’  ‘I’m a big fan of the Average White Band.’  ‘A bunch of Scots? That’s apples and basketballs, man! They’re Scots. What do they know about average OR white?’  ‘Yo Mike, here’s yer beer. Why are you staring at him?’  ‘I was remotely curious. What is the significance of his last statement. It could only have been a challenge to drunks everywhere; I dare you to say anything more inane than that!’  ‘What is your malfunction? It’s 8.15 and you’re already acting like an asshole.’  ‘It’s 8.15 and Mikey’s already acting like a drunk!’

‘That’s always bugged me.’  ‘What?’  ‘When did you become Mike, and he get dubbed Mikey?’  ‘We have a winner!’

Most everything I’ve learned that is worthwhile and universal I learned in the woods; camping, hiking and exploring.  There are times when I can relax and walk quietly through this beautiful world God gave us; and there are times when I just have to risk my life for the sake of a thrill!  My first music lesson comes from the experience of walking on a log.  This is not about balance or slippery bark, but the ability to realize the true nature of what you are doing at the piano; or any musical instrument for that matter.  Picture yourself walking through the woods and coming to a revine, a deep valley, a river or creek that is much too wide to step across.  There is one way across this obstacle ~ a large log that reaches clear to the other side.  It may be thin, fat, smooth, round, roughly covered in bark, moss, branches… whatever you wish to imagine.  Now, what is your goal?

To get to the other side.

What is your objective?

Walk across the log.  Period.

What should you be thinking about?

Stay on the log.

Now how simple is that?  We tend to complicate some very simple tasks in our daily lives.  The goal here is absolutely irrelevent.  Thinking about the goal will distract you from thinking about staying on the log.  It is adequate to think briefly about the goal you have in mind before you step out on the log, but then forget about it!  Think only of your objective and you will reach your goal.  Any thought of falling off the log will send you straight to the bottom of the cliff.  Preclude your success.  Decide that you are going to walk across the log and DO IT.  There are times when I am so high off the ground that I must repeat over and over to myself as I am walking, “walk on the log, walk on the log…” We could talk about replacing fear with faith, but that’s another lesson.  We could talk about being distracted by internal dialogue or outside influence, but that is another lesson.  Next time, we’ll talk about what you are doing when you practice your instrument.  Here’s a hint: when you sit down to practice, you’re not playing the piano.  ciao4now, Waltkeys

I’ll be playing with Randy Lippincott’s WaHoomBa! band at Warmdaddy’s Blues Jam on two Tuesdays in June!  June 9th and 16th.  the jam starts at 8.00pm with an opening set by WaHoomBa!  I played this jam session for 4 years straight a while back, so it’s a real treat to visit now and then and welcome some great blues players to the stage.  Join us for some blues, soul and Cajun tunage.

Let’s have some fun!  Waltkeys.com is up and running!  There are several things keeping me busy.  I’m playing rock n roll with Undercover.  I’ll be travelling to Japan again with The 3 Degrees for the first two weeks in July.  Randy Lippincott’s WaHoomBa band is slowly but surely making footprints ’round about the Philadelphia area.  The Jazz Guise have begun our assault on the music scene.  Thanks to Billy Baltera, guitarist and producer of Lonnie Shields’ latest CD, I’ll be joining Lonnie on his upcoming shows.  

…and thank God for Crossroads Missionary Baptist Church!

Listen, I haven’t been doing much in the way of composition, but I have been writing.  In addition to music notes and randoms thoughts, you can look forward to reading Conversations at a Party.  The characters are at a party and you are listening in on what is happening!

Of course, I’ll try to give out more insight on my window paintings, but the best way to explore THAT is www.waltkeyswindows.com  

…and away we go!  ciao4now, Walt