Developing Young Talent

One of the earliest teaching positions I had in my career was as the director of The Juilliard Pre-College Percussion Department from 2003-2007.  During that time I developed some very strong ideas regarding the development of young talent.  I have used some of these ideas as a foundation in my teaching ever since.  Much of what I'm discussing here is focused on very young and talented students from about 5-9 years of age.  However, a lot of the information about language and true inspiration is universal and can be applied to older students as well.

1) The young student must fundamentally perceive music as a language as soon as possible.

Young children have a sponge like ability to learn and absorb things at a rapid pace.  This is especially true for language.  At its core music is fundamentally a language.  One of the most important things a child must do in early music education is begin the process of listening and responding through music. The emphasis should be on communication and new neuro pathways for the language of music must be made as early as possible.  This is because language begets more language.  Once a child knows a few musical ideas, they can then use those ideas to build on and learn more ideas.  Over time, the student's musical tools grow like a snowball rolling down a snowy mountain.

All too often the emphasis is on how many notes a young musician can play.  Rather, the emphasis should be on acquiring listening and communicative skills.  This should be done alongside technical development. While it can be tempting with a young talent to focus solely on the technical and physical aspects of music making this is a mistake.  Learning how to physically play one's instrument is only a part of the process.  The process of learning to play an instrument for a young student is the process of learning to build a bridge from their ears to their hands in order to communicate through their instrument.  This essential process must take place.  When it is prevented and the focus is solely on learning notes, the student is deprived of the fundamental essence of music making. 

2) Music must be fun, inspiring, and engaging at all levels.  A true love of music MUST be nurtured and developed to prevent the young student from the all too common problem of burning out.  

I have encountered many former child prodigies who don't play music as adults.  In many cases, this is because they never developed a true love for music when they were younger.  While they were learning they were pushed and pushed without a single days dedication to the exploration of why music is played and the joy of music making.

A very young student will often excel and show extraordinary promise.  However, this student is only a child and their mind is a wide open blank slate.  If they are led down a path of learning as much music as possible for nothing more than the sake of learning it while their love of music is never developed on an equal track, there can sometimes be negative consequences.  Music may become a painful chore with negative associations.  In the short term some success may be achieved but in time the damage done will become apparent. Years later when the student is older and left to their own devices they often lack inspiration, creativity, and a genuine passion for music making.  The fire burns out and their short lived career becomes a thing of the past.  Nothing more than "something they did" when they were younger.  

Sadly, these students never lacked talent, they lacked inspirational motivation.  The process of developing a deep, joyful, and complex relationship with music must be taught with equal importance alongside technical development.  It is possible and it will encourage more true talent to pursue a life of music making whether casual or professional.  

3) Mindful parental devotion and discipline is important when done in the right way.

In a discussion about developing young talent, it's important to include the parents.  I have a lot of experience working with parents helping their children to reach their goals.  

The job of the parent is to help the very young student develop a routine built around consistent and productive practice habits.  Parents should be a positive motivating force. However, the student must ultimately be motivated to learn on their own.  Parents should be mindful of this.  It is not the job of the parent to force music on the student.  This will most likely backfire even if it produces short term results.  During these formative early years the student absolutely must discover their own personal relationship with music.  A delicate balance must be struck between encouraging a routine and not making that routine into a negative chore.  The appropriate word to describe what is needed is "inspiration."  

I feel it's also important to discuss my views regarding sound lesson participation protocol. Parents may sit in on lessons.  However, the teacher should still be very much in charge. The parent's role in sitting in is simply to help the child retain the information later during practice sessions at home away from the teacher.  The parent is extremely helpful in this way.  The parent may also want to clarify things with the teacher during the lesson to help facilitate this.  This is completely appropriate and sometimes necessary.   However, I can't emphasize enough how important it is to have a healthy boundary in which the teacher is able to do their job to the best of their ability and the parent plays a supportive role. Anything more than a supportive role can potentially inhibit the learning environment and become counterproductive.

Finally. It is the parents job to communicate with the teacher regarding areas where the student is having unique difficultly in their practice routine.  The parent is an ally for the teacher in this way.

Parents can be extremely helpful to the teacher as long as healthy boundaries in favor of the student developing their own relationship with music are adhered to.  

Performance Issues Regarding Percussion and Strings - Part 3

The development of percussion as a major musical instrument is one of the most revolutionary and game changing events to happen in the history of concert music.  This development has had implications far beyond the percussion instruments themselves.  In this series, I am focusing on performance issues facing the combination of percussion and string instruments.

In Part 2, we focused on the issues of volume and historical rhythmic starting points

Now for Part 3...

4. Multi Vs. Mono Instrumentalists

Most percussionists are multi-instrumentalists.  Many string players are mono instrumentalists.  In some cases string players play more than one string instrument but generally speaking a violin player remains with the violin. On the other hand, percussionists are required to fill multiple roles as a fundamental part of learning their instrument.  The percussion repertoire is so varied and diverse and instrumentation makes each work a completely different experience.  A work scored for mallet keyboard percussion is not the same as a work scored for drums, cymbals, and metals.  Going a step further, in the mallet keyboard family, a work scored for marimba is not even the same as a work scored for vibraphone.  Different listening and playing is required for each situation and every single instrument we play has different qualities and colors.  

As a result of this the roles of the modern percussionist are equally as diverse.  As percussionists we can play nearly every musical role from soloist to accompanist. Percussion can also be used to create seemingly random sounds and background noise. While there is often no right or wrong way to use percussion instruments, a thorough knowledge of playing with the many instrument combinations in the percussion family must be acquired.

Ironically, the challenge of the string player and percussionist is actually the same.  When playing with each other, both must learn how to listen differently in every situation.  The combinations when playing with percussion and strings are endless.  It takes years to garner performance experience with different instrument combinations.  Here are a few possible instrument combinations from a few well known works.  The sonic characteristics and listening challenges in each are completely different.  

Violin and Marimba, Legal Highs by David P. Jones

Cello and Drums, Grand Union by Charles Wuorinen

Viola and Djembe, Djembach by Christian Woehr

Remember that instrumentation is only a function of the music being played.  Although instrumentation can and often inspires musical ideas, the ideas themselves ultimately become the driving force that define questions of balance and color.  

5. Body Language is Often Dramatic and More Diverse

While most string players are used to communicating with their body language while playing through bow motion, sways, and eye contact, playing alongside a percussionist expands this concept. Percussion is a full body contact art form.  We often use our entire bodies to create sound. The way in which we strike instruments is interlinked with how we communicate with each other when we play. Cuing and entrances become just as much a part of the music as the music itself.  

Playing among percussionists is truly a dance between instrumentalists. String players must understand this and realize that simple bow motions, sways, and eye contact alone may not be enough when playing with a percussionist.  Body language is often dramatic and more diverse.  It has created a whole new paradigm in chamber music.  My suggestion to string players who are new to playing with percussion is to take the common body language you use when playing and be open minded to expanding it.  This can mean larger more exaggerated motions and more dramatic gestures.  Remember, you are now a part of something more dynamic than traditional chamber music.  You must become a part of this new paradigm.  When a string player plays with percussionists they must almost become a percussionist themselves.  

While it goes without saying that the context of the music should always come first in determining your motions, a new repertoire of physical expressions should be added when playing with percussionists.

Closing and Repertoire Suggestions

In closing, both string players and percussionists must work together and expand their knowledge bases. Playing with each other will change things in immensely imaginative ways.  If you don't work to acquire the experience it will seem avant-garde and foreign

Percussionists can learn a great deal from playing with established traditional string instruments. This experience will raise the standards of the modern percussionist and dramatically improve their musicianship. String players must add a new set of skills into their playing to play with the modern percussionist.  This doesn't mean to give up the excellent qualities unique to the 500+ years of string playing tradition.  It means expanding what is possible and adjusting to the times.  

I have included some repertoire suggestions below that I believe are challenging and fun to play. They will also serve as useful teaching tools regarding what we have discussed.  I hope this series has been helpful.  Good luck!  

Repertoire Suggestions

"21" for Pan or Marimba and Cello by Andy Akiho

"Lingneous" for Marimba and String Quartet by Andy Akiho

"Legal Highs" for Violin and Marimba by David P. Jones

"Moon's Ending" for Cello and Marimba by Andrew Thomas

"Djembach" for Viola and Djembe by Christian Woehr

"Mariel" for Cello and Marimba by Osvaldo Golijov

"Grand Union" for Cello and Marimba by Charles Wuorinen

"Paraphrasesology" for Violin and Marimba by Kenji Bunch

"Violin Sonata" for Violin and Marimba by Peter Klatzow

"Hop" for Violin and Marimba by Paul Lansky

Performance Issues Regarding Percussion and Strings - Part 2

The development of percussion as a major musical instrument is one of the most revolutionary and game changing events to happen in the history of concert music.  This development has had implications far beyond the percussion instruments themselves.  In this series, I am focusing on performance issues facing the combination of percussion and string instruments.

In Part 1, we focused on how strings and percussion produce sound in different ways.

Now for Part 2...

2. Volume is an issue that must be considered

This may seen like a no-brainier but I constantly find this issue presenting itself. Percussion instruments are naturally much louder than string instruments.  Drums and cymbals will easily crush a violin playing at their loudest and a general Fortissimo for a percussionist is usually louder than for strings.  With that understood it's important to first point out that percussionists must be sensitive to this.  When playing chamber music with strings the competent percussionist must adjust dynamics and select mallets accordingly. They must also adjust their expectations of balance.  Assuming the percussionist is competent and cooperative it is then the string player's job to try and project as much as possible where necessary.  It may require some more effort than previously required when playing with instruments other than percussion.  

Both instrumentalists should also keep in mind that the register each instrument occupies will directly effect how much projection is needed.  For example, if the instrumentation is scored for marimba and violin, and the marimba is playing harmony in the low register while the violin sails with high pitched melodies, the goal would be for the violin to be heard in a leadership role as clearly distinct from the marimba.  If the violin part is written in its lowest range playing counterpoint enmeshed with the low marimba, the goal would be to achieve balance.  The music will always determine the rules but register can play a role in what the listener latches on to. 

The selection of percussion instruments will always make a big difference here too.  Both players must play differently depending on the instrumentation.  Playing a work with drums, cymbals, and multi percussion can require different volume considerations than playing one with mallet keyboard instruments like the marimba, vibraphone, and xylophone. I will explore this topic in much greater detail in the next part of this series.

Although I am not a string player myself, as I pointed out in the beginning of this series I am a firm believer that the development of percussion as a major instrument will change the way other instruments play.  In the case of string players I do think a bigger sound with more range and volume must be developed in order to meet the demands of modern music with percussion.  I do not think it's unreasonable to make this request. With that said, it's the percussionist's job to play with a greater sense of depth and context.  The music should always dictate the required adjustments on both ends.    

3. Historical rhythmic starting points and perceptions of rhythm are different 

Regarding rhythm, "exact" is in many cases the starting point for the modern percussionist.  From the moment we begin to learn our instrument, we are taught to "keep the beat" and "play in time."  We take rhythms literally and we play them exactly.  

Obviously string players learn rhythm too.  However, I've always found that due to the influential older repertoire from the Classical and Romantic eras and the historical development of string instruments, string players may have a slightly different perception when it comes to rhythm.  Classical, Romantic, and Neoclassical repertoire will often expand and contract with the music.  So much of this important repertoire is historically relevant.  It is also extremely high quality music.  As a result, string players end up playing a lot of it.  Therefore, string players sometimes get used to there being a constant "push and pull" of rhythms in order to make the music they are playing more expressive. Additionally, sometimes modern music for strings contains the same characteristics because composers are influenced by the master works of the past.  The ultimate point I am making is that when it comes to rhythm, string players live in a different world than percussionists.  These are for historical reasons just as much a pedagogical.  

In many cases this is ultimately a good thing which I believe percussionists can learn from. However, a better balance must be achieved.  Much of the chamber music that has been written in the past 50 years that includes percussion requires a more exact rhythmic approach at least as a starting point.  String players must develop this style of playing and incorporate it into their palette.  Not being a percussionist is no excuse for not being able to understand and produce exact rhythms.  Producing exact rhythms does not make one robotic and unexpressive.  It creates a modern new foundation that when combined with the old way of doing things, makes for even more styles and musical choices for the performer.  

In the final part of this series I will discuss multi instrumentalists (percussionists) vs mono instrumentalists (strings) and body language.  I will also provide a suggested repertoire list for percussion and strings.