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  Piano Inspirations

The update

America the Beautiful: 2 Pianos 4 Hands

6/27/2016

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Summer and particularly the Fourth of July is a great time to celebrate our country and a patriotic musical favorite is America the Beautiful. This is an arrangement I wrote for two pianos, four-hands. Despite the elaborate sound, the piece is surprisingly accessible using repetitive patterns that are great fun to play. On this performance, my son who was 12 at the time partners with me. Want yo try the arrangement yourself? Check it out at: JWPepper. 
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Collaboration Considerations

6/19/2016

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There are many things to consider when collaborating with others. I find these three to be very important in my own endeavors of collaboration.

Preparation
Doing one's homework is important at all times, but even more important as we collaborate with others. There is nothing worse than being the "weaker partner." I'm certainly not talking about those times we have the privilege of being the "weaker partner" when we get to work with someone who is superior to us and will challenge us to new levels of expertise. I'm talking about those times we become the "weaker partner" because we're not prepared.

I work with a wide variety of musicians from high school students in a Solo & Ensemble environment to college music majors preparing a senior recital or auditioning for grad school to professional situations with other well-trained colleagues who can challenge me to new heights. No matter which situation I'm in, I never want to come in to the practice prepared. I know several great musicians who love to "wing it." Most of the time, this works well for them. In fact people rave about how good they are at sight reading or the fact that they wouldn't have time to look at the music ahead of time anyway--they're so good, they don't need to.  I could personally play that role. I can sightread most anything and can "fake" my way through an audition. But, I don't want to put myself in that position and don't feel it is what I should ever do to someone I'm collaborating with. Be prepared. Mark up your score. Highlight the key signature or accidental you just might miss. Get to know the road map of the chart. It makes you a better collaborator and I've yet to find anyone who looks down at me because I'm prepared as opposed to "winging it."

Adapt to Your Partner
What instrument(s) are you playing with? What is their dynamic range? How can you enhance and play as an ensemble? What types of articulations are they able to do and how does this affect your interpretation of articulations? These are just a few of the considerations when collaborating. As a classical accompanist, I need to think about style and what I'm trying to create. Often times, an instrumental accompaniment is a reduction of an orchestra score. Some of these are written well for a pianist to play, but others are clumsy and need some adaptation to sound stylistically correct. Consider the music you are playing. When I play jazz, I certainly make some major adaptations to my playing according to who I'm playing with. If I'm playing jazz with a solo instrument, my playing incorporates the nuances of the whole rhythm section, but as we add players, I play less. I certainly don't want to add a lot of bass notes when I have a good bass player covering that area. It only messes things up. I think of harmonic ranges. Am I playing the same notes the guitarist is? Is there something I could do so we weren't all "stepping on each other?"

Listen and Learn
Every time I collaborate, I learn something. I might learn something about myself or I learn something about the instrument or voice I'm working with. Usually this comes from simply listening. This helps me grow and become a much better partner in collaboration.

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Accompaniment Repertoire 2015-2016

6/15/2016

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The past school year has been a great year of accompaniment repertoire for me. I've been able to be stretched by some very difficult pieces, brushed the dust off of some "oldies" I haven't played for awhile and learned several new pieces. 

The following is a list that I'm sure is not complete, but highlights many of the instrumental accompaniments I performed either in recital or audition this year.
  • Clarinet
    • Chanson Francaise - Fischer
    • 3 Intermezzi Op 13 - Stanford
    • Sonata Op. 120 No. 1 in F Min - Brahms
    • Concerto Op. 107 K 132 in A (Tposed to Bb) - Mozart
  • Saxophone
    • Classical Concerto - Ewazen
    • Divertimento - Boutry
    • Song Without Words - Mendelssohn
  • Flute
    • Sonata in F - Teleman
  • Trumpet
    • Concert Etude - Goedicke
    • Sonata - Kennan
    • Concerto - Hummel
    • Carnival of Venice - Arban
    • Petite Piece Concertante - Balay
    • Concerto - Arutunian
    • Suite for Trumpet - Gibbons
  • French Horn
    • Valse Triste - Gliere
    • Romance Op 35 No 6 - Gliere
    • Concerto No. 3 - Mozart
    • Concerto No. 1 - Strauss
  • Euphonium
    • Bride of the Waves - Clarke
    • Romanza - Weber
    • Beautiful Colorado - Luca
    • Midnight Euphonium - Richards
    • Rhapsody for Euphonium - Curnow
  • Tuba
    • Concerto - Gregson
    • Sonata - Hindemith
    • Concerto Allegro - Lebedev
    • Concert Piece - Vaughn
    • Suite for Tuba - Haddad
  • Trombone
    • Concerto for Tuba or Bass Trombone - Ewazen
    • Piece - Ropartz
    • Vocalise - Rachmaninoff
    • Romance - Jorgensen
    • Concertino - Larsson
    • Romanza - Weber
    • Trombone Concerto - Jacob
    • Cavatine - Saint Saens
    • Morceau Symphonique - Dobrinescu
    • Blue Bells of Scotland - Pryor
    • Andante and Allegro - Barat
    • Trombone Concerto - Meij
    • Nessun Dorma - Puccini
    • Prelude No. 2 - Gershwin
    • Suite Pour Trombone - Jorgensen
    • Sonata #5 - Galliard
    • Daybreak - Ferro
    • Concertino - David
  • String Bass
    • Concerto No. 2 - Bottesini
    • Czardas - Monti
    • Sonata 1963 - Proto
  • Xylophone
    • Jovial Jasper
  • Vibraphone
    • Vibraphone Concerto - Rosauro
Oh yeah, there were several vocal and choral pieces as well as many jazz numbers that aren't on this list. What is next?? Now that that the school year is over, what am I practicing? I have two major projects started. One is the trombone sonata by Hindemith and the second is a work of short pieces composed by pop singer, Billy Joel. Having tormented myself with the Hindemith Tuba Sonata last year, I'm sure the Hindemith Trombone Sonata will take up most my time. I'll share more about the Billy Joel pieces later. 
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Learning to Collaborate

6/6/2016

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I like to work alone. I feel I find my personal creativity easiest when I'm not distracted by others around me. I personally like the solitude of thinking, creating, and making music alone. 

Some of this comes from my own unique personality, but some of this was taught to me as a pianist. I've spent many hours practicing by myself and to tell you the truth, I do my best work that way. Others can bog me down--slow me and my quick progress is limited by another's understanding or abilities. 
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As many arguments as I can make for working by myself, there are at least as many good--often times better--arguments for working together. I need to learn to collaborate and this can be achieved as I recognize the importance of collaboration, look for opportunities to collaborate, and reflect on what I've learned each time I collaborate.

Recognizing the Importance of Collaboration
I'm limited by my strengths. That sounds odd to say, but it is very true. My strengths become my weaknesses. Perhaps a better way of looking at it is that with every strength, there is an equal and opposite weakness. We see this in real life: I may have great leadership abilities as a strength, but my weakness may be that I use these leadership abilities to be overly demanding of others. I can be assertive or bold and others see this as being pushy or even arrogant. 

This shows in music too. I learn from each person I collaborate. They often have skills that challenge me and help me develop as a musician. When I can see the importance of collaboration, then I start to look for opportunities to collaborate.

Looking for Opportunities to Collaborate
Pianists work alone, but we don't have to. There are many opportunities to play with others and there are a lot of other musicians looking for pianists to collaborate with. A colleague once described a good pianist getting his or her name out among music students at in a university setting is much like a single drop of blood in a pool of sharks. Suddenly, everything is a frenzy and a pianist will have many opportunities for collaboration. Regardless your abilities, look for opportunities.

Reflect on the Benefits of Collaboration
Each time you have the opportunity to collaborate, take some time to reflect on the benefit you've received from the collaboration. What did you learn? How did you help the person you collaborated with? How did they help you? What would you do differently? What would you do the same? What type of collaboration are you looking for next?

Collaboration can be one of the best tools for helping a musician rise to the next level of expertise. Don't miss the opportunity as a pianist to make music and grow as a musician with others!


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