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August 08, 2008 |
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Shock Absorber
FOUND by Jonathan
in London, UK
Found between the pages of Brahms Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, checked out from the library. I guess notes from a piano lesson. Most of it makes sense, but I wonder what "chords -- shock absorber" would signify?
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Tiny Apology July 21, 2006 |
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Pssst. May 08, 2006 |
Not Sitting December 13, 2005 |
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We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework,
to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles -
anything that gives a glimpse into someone
else's life. Anything goes...
Jonathan! Woohoo!! Another Found Friend's Find!
That last line sends me....
I thought the second thing said--deep into boys. But I guess that doesn't go along with the theme of the list.
I read "anger gestures" at first. "I'm going to play Bach. GRRRRR!"
No...I guess "longer gestures" would be better.
I love the last one. "Think about faster playing while practicing slowly" Seems so challenging!!
sounds quite nice for homework - plus you do have to love the last line:)
The last line reminds me of the first job I had in an architect's office. My boss would look over my shoulder and say "Faster, faster, draw faster!" It made me think about drawing much more slowly.
I guess the last line is kind of the opposite though.
15102 -- good old Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, USA! They're one crazy piano playing bunch of people.
And they like the zen approach of thinking faster while playing slower.
@ Librarian...
According to the Bethel Park web site, "Community Band South kicks off the 2008 Summer Tower Concert Series, sponsored by the Bethel Park Community Foundation, on Sunday, July 13, 2008 from 2:30 PM until 4:00 PM at the Bethel Park Community Center on Park Ave. There is no charge to attend the concert; however donations are gladly accepted."
It says nothing about their remarkable piano playing though. Maybe the donations are for lessons?
I went to music school as a Voice major. Everyone had to take class piano, in which there were 20 pianos and keyboard lined up in rows and everyone (all novices) were taught to play piano. I had to take the 4th semester of class piano 3 times before I passed it. My piano professor's notes to me were NOT as nice as this. At the top of one he wrote, "D flat Damn it!"
Sorry about the rotten grammer. It is very early. Blargghhh.
A hit! A palpable hit!
At last.
Thanks, guys.
The bullet points, square brackets and meticulous handwriting made me think this was a rather obsessive student, probably a girl?
I was never much good at the piano. When practising slowly I would be thinking about other things, which were not usually to do with faster playing.
For playing the bassoon, however, play the fast bits as if you had all the time in the world, and then you can get them right. Can't remember who taught me that bit of Zen, but it often works.
Terrie - I thought it said deep into boys also...
The last sentence should read:
Think about boys when you practise slowly.
Or maybe it's an obsessive teacher writing notes for the pupil.
Debussy's 'Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum' (from his 'Children's Corner' suite for piano) is a parody of a piano finger exercise study by Clementi which this poor kid is obviously having to learn as a REAL finger exercise. But it goes off into some dreamy music as the young pianist looks out of the window and wishes she were outside in the sun instead of practising the piano, then finishes with a bang as she slams the piano lid shut.
I know the feeling.
Shouldn't the last line read..."Think about playing faster while you practice slowly."??
I guess it doesn't matter...when writing notes to oneself. As long as you know what it means.
GREAT FINDS, JONATHAN!!!! BRILLIANT!
@ Jonathan...
Slams the lid shut??! So it did say "anger gestures"
I can imagine someone trying to play the chords by mimicking the motion of a shock absorber with his or her fingers. (But maybe that's just me.)
@Jonathan, here's a line of conga-rats for you on the published find! Now you may keep you tenure amoung the Foundians.
Chords - shock absorber: Could this be a cautionary note to not pound the chord and let the hand fall dead, but rather use the arms as shock absorbers and hold the hands at a certain level? Totatlly a guess on my part as I don't play music.
I am a musical idiot.
Therefore, I will check back later, when the thread has gone off to something entirely unrelated.
Then I may have a clever comment.
Sammy, please don't let being a musical idiot stop you from commenting. It didn't stop me.
Aww come on, Sammy. I thought your rendition of The Candy Man (Can) was amaaazzzing.
Anyway.. Congrats, Jonathan!! Woot Woot! How shall we celebrate your day in the Found sunshine?
Oh, wait.. that was your Da, wasn't it? (did you get the name from a Kindergarten for the Stars?)
YAY Jonathan! So, does the fact that you found this in a violin sonata book mean that you play the violin? Am I the last one to know this about you if it's true?
@Sammy-- I can try to get off topic for you, but the best I have is this: The handwriting in the note is really pretty!....Whaddya' think?....Not so much, right?
Kudos, our Jonathan! Well done! None of the things I've sent in to Found have ever appeared. So you're one up on me. (How was Italy?)
Some of these instructions are more disturbing than mystifying..."Open shoulders and back...deep into keys"...sounds like a form of punishment for playing too slowly that might involve an axe. Particularly if the student is using arms as shock-absorbers. Helluva shock if they open your back and drive you deep into the keyboard. Talk about "anger gestures!" You don't want to get on the piano teacher's wick!
Certainly not the sort of thing you hope to find in a Children's Corner...Debussy's or anyone else's.
Attempting to change the thread for Sammy...
Horseshoe crabs.
Paris Hilton.
Scottish men.
Green M&Ms
Scottish women.
Chili cook offs.
Pick one and roll with it!
Where's Cherry O'Pepsi?
Alan, it's too early to change the thread on a juicy Find like this one. Let Jonathan have his day.
@ Feeling ... as I understand it, the Bethel Park band was originally going to be the world's first marching piano band, but there turn out to be way too many hills in southwestern Pennsylvania to manage pushing a piano in formation while playing it. Hence, no mention of pianos in the Community Band announcement.
Do any of us REALLY want someone named "Dr. Grodus" working in the Children's Corner?
Night - I stand corrected.
Jonathan - it's your moment to shine - or as Radar O'Reilly once said:
"Ahhhhh, Bach."
Haha. That's about as long a gesture as Radar ever made.
@Alan- That's one of my family's oft-quoted lines from Mash! That, and, "You better keep your brass monkeys inside tonight!" (and many others)
I got your "longer gesture" right here...
http://foundmagazine.com/comments/4208
A MOST excellent Find, Sir Jonathan! Congrats!
(And I don't wanna hear anyone complaining about LISTS today.)
(*Hi, Alan. I thought you were... otherwise engaged lately.)
This is a wonderful list! Great find, Jonathan!
Thinking about playing fast while playing slowly sounds like a frustrating challenge to me. Like trying to rub your tummy and pat your head at the same time. Or one of those moves in Nia, where you make flowing motions with your right arm while tapping fast with your left foot.
Never too busy for you dear Cherry - it's good to see you again. Well, not actually see you, but - oh you know what I mean.
Could a shock absorber be some kind of felty thing on the piano strings?
Did somebody already surmise this?
Can I keep asking questions?
"Think about faster playing when you practice slowly."
*arrgggh-must resist masturbation joke-must resist...*
what does deep into keys mean?
I like that 'playing slowly and thinking quickly', or however it's written. It works for singing too. If i just sing it like i dont think its difficult, it works, even if it is hard.
conga rats, jonathan, for having a found posted. I love it. i can't wait till its my turn.
alan..otherwise engaged? where? with whom?
Librarian...whatare you talking about, bethel what? where? i'm so confussed.
My mom has been a piano teacher for like 35 years, so I will analyze this note to the best of my abilities.
15102 = 15/02 for Feb. 2nd.
Deep into keys means the swaying and pressing with rythm into keys. Ever notice how children in a recital just sit upright and tap w/ sloppy wrists, whereas performances at symphonies or concerts they sway with their entire upper body keeping their wrists level? It helps with the emotion, sound, and rythm overall.
I think the "shock absorber" might be the damper pedal. If you push it, it lowers the felt dampers onto the strings so the piano doesn't have such a high volume.
Think about faster playing while practicing slowly is a hard one. But I've heard many times "You can't play it fast if you can't play it slow." So many times you want to just sit down and bang it out, as written. You almost have to dissect it. Learn only the right hand, learn only the left hand. Slow it down, don't do the accents, etc. Then when you put it all together at the correct speed it isn't just based on momentum keeping it going, it's knowledge of every piece making it a whole.
Hey, anyone seen Flargy? I hope his baboon brain's holding out...
Probably just taking a(n) I-hate-us, huh?
Librarian, why not Dr Grodus? We've had a Dr. Seuss in the children's corner for years.
SIR Grodus, on the other hand...
is the supreme leader of the extraterrestrial organization called the Secret Society of the X-Nauts and the main villain in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
Christina - see just like I said - a felty thing inside the piano.
Mona - as a Renaissance Man - I am always engaged in some worthwhile activity, but never too busy to appreciate the beauty that surrounds me.
'cept for when I'm sittin' in mah underwear watchin' sports on the TeeVee set - then ya better not be buggin' me.
a Renaissance man, hmmm? my favourite kind, of course.
Hmmm. Alan. Renaissance man or bullshit artist?
I've play piano and I always called the little pad under the keys (to stop the keys from hitting the place where your wrists rest) the shock absorber.
But then again I could be wrong.
Night - is there a discernable difference between the two?
Only the remote control, Al.
8-)
excellent...
@ mona lisa -- you mean that underlined number at the top of the Found isn't a ZIP code for the postal system???
@ zip-a-dee-doo-dah -- Ummm, because "Grodus" sounds too much like "grody" and "grotty" (the latter of which we should prefer today, being as how this is a U.K. find and "grotty" came into the common language via George Harrison in 'A Hard Day's Night').
The "think about faster playing etc." makes me think of the acting technique where you perform a scene with the most extreme emotions applicable, shouting and weeping and stomping around, then you when you perform it again you keep it all very subdued but while remembering how it felt performing it madly. Gets the best emotions across in a subtle way. Could apply to music, perform slowly but with the energy of playing fast.
Ohhh the little loopie doopie gees and whys make my little 8 chambered heart go pitter pat (pat pat).
But considering those loopie doopies, the J in f major looks incongruous. Still very interesting. Just.. yeah.
That little .. THING between shoulders and back there at the top is the oddest ampersand I've seen.
Has confussed been added to your Found Lexicon?
Excellent Find Jonathan!!
Well if nothing else I would say this is someone pretty dedicated to fine tuning their musical inclination .
I soooo need to find some cool stuff to send it :|
Pretty handwriting
ah..thats where you were coming from, librarian.
Ok, it still doesn't make sense.
@ Chrome: Isn't the Candy Man a drug song (yes, I know, Willy Wonka, etc).
I like George Harrison. He was my favorite Beatle.
'night
"look out, look out, the candy man..." (GD)
What came first, the Candy Man songs, or the term candy man used in reference to drug dealers? I have no idea.
I think it was the song, then someone had the bright idea it was about drugs, like Puff the Magic Dragon.
At first I though it said "longer geotones". Finally figured that one out.
Any why is "chords - shock absorber" in brackets?
I was a music major in college. This find makes me want to open up my dusty piano lid and play! These are notes I would have written to myself, while listening to my piano teacher back in the day...
I bet the writer was working on a piano/violin duet with another person, thus piano playing notes in a violin book.
OMG...I missed the spam question. How embarrassing. I suck at math.
I took piano lessons for MANY years. These notes could have been written by or to me by any of several talented teachers along the way, in large part because I was not an exceptionally talented pianist. I was technically proficient, meaning that I hit all the right keys in the right order, tempo as written, etc, but only in a very mechanical way. I was repeatedly told to "open" (or relax) my shoulders and back, rather than sit rigidly or hunched over the keys. One should sink deeply into the keys, not just touch the ones you intend to sound. You don't hit a chord "bonk", somehow, if you know what you are doing, each key sings out all together and this has something to do with how your wrists, or better yet your whole upper body becomes the shock absorber. I actually had a teacher hover behind me and physically force my body to sway this way and that (bigger gestures) in an effort to get me to feel what he felt, or to bring out of me what he was absolutely convinced I must be feeling, yet repressing. (no pervert comments, please... he was a great teacher.) As for playing slowly vs. faster... my mother's rule was that I had to practice for 1 hour, or each song 3 times. I was the FASTEST player you ever heard and never practised for more than 20 minutes in a day.
About a year ago my mother shiped me the piano I learned on until I quit lessons 20 years ago. It is one of my most treasured possessions and I now practice slowly while being grateful that I have the emotional awareness that makes the other parts come much more easily now. And my favorites are all Bach.
@Bats.. you are so lucky!
@Bats in the Attic, I think you have it all spot on. And your last paragraph is great news.
I was talking to a non-pianist the other day and she said she would love to be able to play the piano ONLY so that she could play Liszt's B Minor Sonata -- which is my feeling exactly!
@John and Casual Observer -- sounds good to me.
@mlm -- no, I was writing a program note about the Brahms Violin Sonata!
@everybody -- glad this was an inspiring Find! Thanks.
But when she has learned all these things, what will be left to write in her notebook at the next lesson?
It's Dr Gradus not Grodus though. And I love Debussy. (Clementi's exercises were called 'Gradus ad Parnassum' because they were graded steps up to Mount Parnassus where the Muses live, i.e. the pinnacle of musical perfection.
...WYLSNED)
Bats, you are so right about not "bonking" chords. I met a boy when I was about 13 who could "play at" several instruments, the piano among them. But his father, supposedly (*shudder*) a music teacher in a school, had taught him to play the piano by "chording" it. In other words, he banged away at it with rigid fingers, producing loud, metallic-sounding chords instead of individual notes. I don't think he knew how to play your actual scales. That's why I shudder to think what his paternal unit was teaching kids at school. There were 5 kids in that family and I think the dad had visions of launching some kind of classical music group a la Jackson Five or rather Osmond Bros but it never materialised. The kids did however absorb the idea that they were somehow prima donnas--and acted like it. I can't really say which one of them was most obnoxious.