"I have to memorize it?!?"

You may already be hearing grumblings at home about how students are required to memorize the pieces that they will be performing at our Spring Recital, but you might not know why we're putting you and your kids through this "torture."

The practice of memorizing music for performance began during the Romantic Era (1820-1900) when Nicolo Paganini, Franz Liszt, and Clara Schumann were touring around Europe performing. Before that time, performers often used music in concerts and recitals, partly due to the fact that they didn't typically have very much time beforehand to prepare. New music was written and performed so quickly that memorizing it all in a short amount of time wasn't realistic or expected. But beginning in the Romantic Era, music was written and prepared for more slowly, because composers were often writing "art for art's sake" instead of for a quick paycheck.

  Listen to Paganini's music

Nicolo Paganini (1782-1840), one of the greatest violinists of all time, spent most of his adult life on tour performing his own compositions and those of other composers. His ingenuity and skill developed the way the violin was played and the music that was written for it. And he performed most of his music from memory.

  Listen to Franz Liszt's music

Franz Liszt (1811-1886) was quite the lady's man and rock star in his day. He was one of the greatest pianists in history and also quite a sensational performer. Ladies would often swoon and faint during his concerts (picture Beatlemania in the '50s).  In his youth, he saw Paganini perform and wanted to be the pianist version of Paganini. Liszt wrote his own pieces, but also transcribed many classic pieces by other composers for piano... and he performed most of his concerts from memory.

Listen to Clara Schumann's music

Clara Schumann (1819-1896) was one classy lady. The wife of famous composer Robert Schumann, she was also a renowned concert pianist.  She liked to perform the works of famous composers before her like Bach and Mozart, her husband’s compositions, and those of her close friend Johannes Brahms. After her husband Robert died, she concertized throughout Europe and ended her career as a celebrated piano teacher. She taught her students to play all their solo piece from memory so they would perform better.

These famous musicians changed the way music was performed. Other musicians wanted to emulate them and began memorizing their pieces as well, until the tradition of memorizing solo music became commonplace. Today, we musicians spend a lot of time memorizing our solo music in order to perform it better. 


Here are some of the practical benefits of memorizing music:

·      Better note accuracy

·      Better expressiveness and artistry

·      Better ability to engage with the audience

·      Faster speed

·      Comfort performing at the drop of a hat

·      Develops performance skills under pressure than can translate easily to presentations, job interviews, public speaking, and many other aspects of non-musical life

So if your kids are complaining about memorizing music, feel free to blame Paganini, Liszt or Schumann, but their performances really will be significantly better once the music is safely stored in their memories.

What is music theory, anyway?

Many of you piano parents have seen your kids carrying around a theory book and have probably helped them on their theory homework at some point, but you might not know why we bother. The string player parents out there might not even know what music theory is, or how their students use it in their playing, since there isn't a standard theory textbook that we use.

Music theory can be a very intimidating subject for newcomers to the music scene, but it doesn't have to be. Theory is simply the study of the nuts and bolts of music. In English class we learn about nouns, verbs, adjectives, and sentence structure, and music theory is pretty much the same thing. We learn about the basics of how music is created, terms we need to know to play it, and we analyze the harmony so we can better interpret the music. In fact, without music theory, we would have no idea how to play any of the notes on the page.

As a professional musician, I use my training in music theory (which involves years of study in college, by the way) to inform many of my artistic decisions. I can also better appreciate high level music if I take the time to examine how the composer created it. Just like admiring the architecture of a beautiful building, we can admire the craftsmanship of a Bach Partita or a Beethoven Sonata.

So keep helping your pianists with their theory homework (if you can still keep up with them!) and quiz the string players you know on their music theory. All of our students should know about note names, clefs, dynamics, slurs, ties, sharps, flats, tempo markings, chords, and many other aspects of music. You will probably be surprised by how much they already know about the inner workings of music theory!

Big News!

If you've seen me lately you might be thinking to yourself that I really overdid it on the Christmas cookies this year, but Dan and I are very excited to announce that we are expecting a baby! Baby Mattix will be arriving around June 28th this summer. We couldn't be happier and are having fun picking out strollers and debating over baby names.

Our plan for lessons after this school year is to hire well-qualified substitute teachers for the summer and fall, and I will resume teaching next January. Dan will take the summer off and teach again in the fall. We will be interviewing teachers this spring to find people who are a good fit for our studio.

Thanks for sharing in our good news and see you soon!
Katie

Welcome to Our Blog!

We’ll, we’re finally starting a blog on our website! Our hope is that this blog will serve as a place where students and parents can interact with their teacher outside of their normally scheduled lesson. Feel free to post questions or comments anytime and we will do our best to answer them. We are going to start with one post a month and hopefully we will be able to write more once we get off the ground.

Here are a few fun facts about Mattix Music Studio:

Did you know?

-Mattix Music Studio has grown over 600% in the last three years. Name another company that’s done that during the recession, we dare you!
-We currently have 50 students taking lessons each week.
-We have four studio locations: Sycamore, Western Springs, Chicago, and Vernon Hills.
-Our students range in age from preschool to retirement.
-Our students are about half and half piano and violin/viola.
-We started a Facebook page. Please "like" us on Facebook to see posts, pictures and comments from other students.

See you soon!
Dan & Katie