The Chosen One

My programme in the examination concert is following:

Mozart - Concerto in D major
F. Doppler - Hungarian Pastoral Fantasy
and
J.S. Bach - Sonata in e minor

Let me just say: YAY!!! :D

Exam pieces

Previous exams have been somewhat easier. Not only because the pieces given to play aren't as demanding as the ones we're facing this time, but... well, they have all been ordered. For the final exam we are giving an actual concert and it's going to include a concerto by Mozart and the Hungarian Pastoral Fantasy by Doppler. And one piece by our own choice - the only demands are these: it must be from outside the Suzuki repertoire and if it's chamber music, flute has to have a "soloist-like" part.

Why is it more difficult then, one might ask. First thought would be of course that it's easier, you're able to play just what you like! Noooope. In my opinion. I don't want to have same kind of style that there already is (concertos, virtuoso fantasies), also I want my concert to represent me in some way. Would have Loved to play Carmen-fantasy (Borne), but no can do... :D

It felt like a struggle to know where to start searching or choosing, so I decided to go for my own sheet music piles. Dug out all that I've liked in recent concerts etc. The pile consisted of J.S.Bach (sonatas & solo suite), C.Ph.E.Bach (solo sonata), Telemann (solos), Schubert (sonata), Takemitsu (Air), Piazzolla (Histoire du tango), Villa-Lobos (Assobio a játo), Burkhard (solo suite), Widor (suite), Vasks (solo), Martin (Ballade). Now it's narrowed down to 4 options: one father, one son, one suite and one landscape. I think I'll consult our trainer and then think a bit more. And play a Lot.

Oh and by the way, my Mozart's in quite a good state :) Or at least it's on the verge of "by-the-heart"... :D

Talent Code

Past weekend was our second to last training session. Quite an alarming feeling, I say. One weekend to go during Spring semester, then a day for preparation just prior to the examinations in June. We already know the dates for the latter, Friday the 26th and Saturday the 27th. Yikes... :D

*** I couldn't make it to lectures this Friday, had a rehearsal with our town orchestra for its 80th Anniversary concert. Have to say, I was very Very pleased to be asked for the project. We played a 3-piece work composed to 3 fairytales of H.C. Andersen. Composer was Jan Järvlep. ***

On Saturday morning I got up at 6am, which is somewhat strange for me. But it's never hard to do when there's something interesting & motivating to look forward to. Bus ride went quickly while listening to different versions of Fauré's Fantasy, my homework piece for this session. I don't have trouble remembering it, but I still need to play and play to get it flowing smoooothly the whole way through. When performing it to our trainer Leena & 2 of my fellow trainees, I was of course a bit nervous and stammered on some passages. But all in all I was quite happy with my playing.

Saturday's training began with trainee Niclas teaching Bach's March. Good lesson, I always enjoy observing others as it gives me a lot to think about, not to mention all the new ideas! After the pupil left, us other trainees & Leena gave N some feedback. Then it was some overall conversation and a decision that I would teach the next kid Blavet/2nd movement as Hanna had to leave already. Meri would be teaching Venice/double-tongue variation to the third pupil.

At noon my pupil arrived. I remember seeing her "some" years ago at this group class, just 5 years old, with her mom. Now she was a Young Lady! :) (...and I felt Old...) She played from the book, which helped me, but I think I would have managed ok without it. I've been revising books 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8 & 9 these past weeks. 

After Meri's wonderful class we got our feedback. The challenge with these teaching-training-lessons is how to make it effective in that short amount of time, with an unfamiliar child. Usually we know what piece to teach at least a day in advance, this time I kinda heard it half an hour before. But as the pieces are all familiar and we have prepared lots of exercises for them, it's no problem to start teaching.

The day continued with Meri playing her homework. After lunch it was my turn. The last bigger thing was Meri telling us about the book Talent Code (by Daniel Coyle). I think it's going to be an interesting read, just based on the short introduction we got. Nothing too "high flying idealism, but clear thoughts and some science.

***

On Sunday we continued on the subject (talent & book) with trainer Eija. But that's another post to come shortly. Now I'm off to practice & teach! :)

Last year!

It's beginning to look a lot like... Examination time!

Well, the plan is to have them in the beginning of July, but still. It's less than a year and I can tell you, the days FLY by. I'm revising the books 1-9, but should really take up on a more constructed system with it. And kick my own butt a bit, to practice more often... Aaaand what should I also be doing on daily basis? LISTEN more.

Anyhow, I've been carrying a small notebook with me at work. I write down when I've played, which book and pieces. Many times the books aren't with me, but I play as much as I know/remember. The reason why I don't have them with me all the time is that I teach in 3 different places, so there's a lot of stuff to carry around. But the plan is to take 2-3 books every day: one of 1-2-3, one of 4-5-6 and one of 7-8-9. Maybe I'll call it my "triple system"... :D

One problem still. We had an outdoors Tango Club 2 weeks ago, on a Friday evening. The weather was quite cold and humid. The club was a concert given by our chamber music society, we did it in May also. But, I played in the opening quartet and everything was fine. Then, after waiting for about 45 minutes or so, I played with another quartet. And during the first phrases I knew something was wrong with my flute - the left thumb keys were fumbly and leaky. A piece of felt had dropped on it's own, from the b flat key. So the flute's a bit broken now, but it'll have to wait till I take it to the doctor. In the meantime, I'll play with my old one.

(p.s. The Tango Club was a success! :)

You can find me in Instagram also, under the name iepukka :)

I've been organizing my portfolios into new albums. At the same time I read the essays and check if I want to move any material to another level's album. On levels 4 and 5 I've been taking notes on my laptop during the lectures, so there's some stuff to print out. I like having this/pages I can write on, with a pen. Also I'm a fan of real books.

...and at the moment I'm reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (in English, to practice my skills, haha...) and the first Suzuki book I ever bought: Nurtured with Love (this one in Finnish, Rakkaudella kasvatettu). My goal is to read the other books included in our training also. I must admit, I always dread the interview most, in the examination. The philosophy is so familiar and speaking English ain't a problem, but still. You get all sweaty palms and heart beats really fast... On second place is the teaching part, but that's just because we don't know the piece beforehand. Last time I got (level 4) the one we thought would never be asked! :D It was the 1st part of Cimarosa concerto. But we had a fairly good time with it, with the great student.

And well, I love playing so the exam pieces won't be "too much" of a deal. Don't get me wrong, of course I'll be nervous when the time comes and I do think they're difficult - both to play and remember. I still have to choose the third piece for the concert, as Mozart in D and Doppler's Hungarian are obligatory. There are 3, maybe 4, of us taking the 5th level exam, so we've been talking about maybe playing something together.

And of course the Biggest Problem is... What to wear!!! :D

At my mom's birthday in March -14

Bunch of random thoughts today, I see. But to sum it up: It's Fall and a new school year has begun, time to do new things and get better in the old ones.

One preconception, large-ish answer

I've been writing down thoughts for the blog (bought a small fun notebook to keep in my bag at all times). One of them is this prejudice: "The Suzuki flute repertoire is very narrow." Many times the phrase is presented by people who actually haven't been browsing the books (sheet music material) or don't know the method otherwise. As we Do use other material alongside the repertoire books. And the books themselves are, well, versatile.

1. The (flute) books 1-9 consist of work by quite a lot of composers.

• Ghys
• Suzuki
• Bayly
• Schubert
• Taki
• J.S.Bach
• Händel
• Gluck
• Beethoven
• Reichert
• Genin
• Telemann
• Mendelssohn
• Dvorak
• Drigo
• Andersen
• Woodall
• Szulc & Hennebains
• Bizet
• Blavet
• Cimarosa
• Godard
• Böhm
• Wetzger
• F.Doppler
• Quantz
• Fauré
• Mozart

2. There are three different eras of music covered.

• Baroque (German, French)
• Classicism
• Romanticism

3.Different forms of music are presented.

• Small pieces/songs
• Theme & variations
• Sonatas
• Concertos (solo and duet)
• Old dances (minuet, bourrée, gavotte, polonaise, rondo, sarabande)
• Virtuoso pieces (serenades, scherzino, fantasies etc.)
• Music from opera & orchestra suites & ballet (Orphée et Eurydice / Gluck, L'Arlésienne / Bizer, B minor Suite / J.S.Bach, Harlequinade / Drigo)
• Duets and trios (concerto for 2 flutes, the 2nd and 3rd flute parts for books 1 and 2 / the ensemble book)

4. There's also non-classical music.

• Folk songs (common and Irish)
• Children songs (common and Japanese)

 5. Some classical works (sheet music and recording) are hard to find elsewhere. (And they were completely new to me...)

• A.Woodall - Serenade
• P. Wetzger - By the Brook

Detail from a music poster at work. I love flute & ballet, so it kinda fits me... :)

Why was it Suzuki for me?

As a part of my flute teacher studies in Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia (in 2000-2001) we had a didactics lecture once a week. Our professor happened to be the only Suzuki teacher trainer in Scandinavia at that time, so it was a great opportunity to learn about this method. I think (remember) it took 1-2 lectures when we got the picture of the Suzuki-house and she explained the pieces/bricks shortly. We also got to observe her teaching at the music school where she taught. During this first year of general flute teacher studies we also learned about the Color Keys method and all possible common teaching styles and tricks and got a lot of advice. And went through piles of sheet music material (flute schools, different etude collections like Vester's etc.)...

But it took me couple more years before starting the Suzuki studies. As our last year in  Stadia started, me and some others were informed that there'd be a new course beginning, Level 1 in Suzuki flute teacher training. It wasn't organized by Stadia, but the Finnish Suzuki Association, so it would cost a bit. But the lectures and others would be (very conveniently for me) in Helsinki. Aaaaand of course the trainer would be the familiar lecturer I'd already known for some years! :) (She also guided our "teacher practice lessons" in Stadia during 2nd and 3rd years, where we taught a pupil in front of 1-2 other students and her.)

So all in all, it was kind of a coincidence that me and this method got together. Bit like me and the flute as an instrument (I wanted to start piano lessons as a kid). But a very good one, as it turned out.

Yesterday evening I sat down and started thinking about all this starting business. Also I made a list of what was difficult for me on level 1. And noticed that all of those "problems" have been bygones for ages - which is nice. I was never a Suzuki child myself, so everything was basically new. Here are some thoughts I gathered:

Book 1 had many familiar pieces, but also many of those I'd never heard. And they were tricky to memorize, Kagome Kagome for example. *** Well. I can say now that had I only listened more... ;) It took me quite a while to really understand the meaning of listening, just tried to memorize things the Old Way (playing from the book time and time again, then trying without).

 Learning the philosophy by heart, books and other reading material. It was all interesting from the beginning, but seemed difficult to grasp the whole idea. *** Which is "Every child can." As I've now spent some 9 years with the method and grown as a human being as well as a studying person, I now know that I don't have to hurry and "get" everything right away. It's okay to ask questions, to have conversations (many times the others have questions too), to review and remember to breath.

 Getting the essays etc. done and sent on time. *** I'm ashamed how miserable I was at this part of the level 1 studies. Luckily I can say that I've improved a bit on every level. And have to send a Huge Thank You to our trainer for the crazy strong nerves she has with us... Also I want to add that now it's a joy doing the assignments. I like thinking, reading and typing.

 Teaching in front of others as the method was new to me (there were at least 2-3 former Suzuki children present as trainees) - it made me quite anxious. *** I know now that everyone gets a bit tense doing it - and it's okay! It keeps one on their toes and sharp. And you really do get used to it. Which also helps in your everyday work, with your own pupils. And the parents, too.

 Playing the book pieces in front of others (incl. the trainer). It was maybe even more exciting than the teaching. Funny thing 'cos we all were ready performers, had been doing and training it for years and years. *** As I got familiar with the music and my memory started working, as we all got a bit more bonded as a studying group... Again I can say that these days it's a definite joy. You get constructive advice from not only the trainer but also the trainees, they can put marks on your book as you play (breath marks, slurring, dynamics etc.). And all this performing (as I do take it, though it's only in a class room without a pianist) has made me a stronger performer on stage and other possible situations. Even as a speaker.

I have some more points, shall share them later... Hopefully this is helpful for someone, maybe even interesting! ;) Bye for now!

The beginning

This is what I started with.

Level I. 20 lessons of observating. A camp in July, at hotel Ellivuori. Etc.

Notebook for level 1. Also the beginning of level 2. The little colored things are markings for later levels, as I've been reviewing.