Lake Elsinore Rotary Competition 2/17/2010

Hello all:

I am happy to let you know that Bret Paddock participated in the Lake Elsinore Rotary competition in both Piano Solo and Instrumental (he also entered double bass) and he received 1st places in both events. He will be competing in the Finals at the University of Redlands.

 
 

Congratulations to Bret's commitment and accomplishments.

Eva

Certificate of Merit Panel 2/28/2010

Alex Few, Bret Paddock and Shanti Ryle successfully entered and performed in the CM ™ Advanced Panel auditions. Bret Paddock passed his advanced theory exam in the 90% - 100% range and is now exempt from taking the exam another time. What accomplishments! Eva

AVSOMC Bach Competition Winners 1/30/2010

Cynthia Phan (age 12) decided to enter this event and came home a WINNER! Of course, for me, she was a winner just preparing this difficult piece. I enjoyed listening to her practice and lesson performances time after time. Congratulations. Eva

LEVEL ONE –Piano

2nd – Cynthia Phan – English Suite II, Prelude BWV 807

Age. 11, Menifee Teacher: Eva Martin-Hollaus

SCJB Branch entry and results 2/28/2010

We had a great time performing the Southern California Junior Bach Festival. Our students were as well prepared as they could be, being so busy with all their school activities. Additionally preparing for such an event shows amazing ability. Congratulations to all. Eva

Cynthia Phan	English Suite BWV 807	Prelude		WINNER
Patrick Xu	Invention #9			WINNER
Sai Sivapalan	WTC I BWV 860	Fugue	Complete Works entered: yes	WINNER
Cassiopea Bostan	WTC I BWV 846	Prelude	CW No
Kelley Rausch	Prelude BWV 927
Anais Perkins	Minuet in G Major 114			Honorable Mention
Ranen Unger Hicks	Invention #8 BWV 779		Complete Works entered: yes	WINNER
Sharmini Premananthan	WTC I BWV 855	Prelude	CW yes
Juliette Beucler	WTC I BWV 866	Prelude	CW NO

Inland Empire Piano Festival Studio Results 2010

	Database for Inland Empire Piano Festival, 2010
Perf.No.	Last Name	First Name	Division	Results	Piece performed
12	Alex Few	Alex	V-A	Honorable Mention	Debussy, Prelude from Pour Le Piano
16	Juliette Beucler	Juliette	V-B		Debussy, Claire De Lune
19	Bret Paddock	Bret	V-B		Liszt, Un Sospiro Concert Etude
39	Sharmini Premananthan	Sharmini	IV-A	2nd	Joplin, Paragon Rag
42	Patrick Xu	Patrick	IV-A	Honorable Mention	Chopin, Nocturn in C# Minor op posth.
66	Song Nguyen	Song	IV-C		Schumann, Knight Ruppert
77	Sai Sivapalan	Janardan Sai	IV-C	Honorable Mention	Liszt, Transcendental Etude #6, Vision
93	Anais Perkins	Anais	III-A	Honorable Mention	Chopin, Waltz in a minor op Posth
109	Cynthia Phan	Cynthia	III-B	3rd	Chopin, Waltz Op 69 #2
156	Mitchell Johnson	Mitchell	V-C	Honorable Mention	Schubert Impromptu Op 142, No 2
161	Shanti Ryle	Shanti	V-C	2nd	Debussy, Claire De Lune
205	Kelley Rausch	Kelly	I-B		Streabogg, The Orphan
230	Ranen Unger Hicks	Ranen	II-A	Honorable Mention	Chopin, Waltz Op 64 #3
241	Cassiopea Bostan	Cassiodea	II-B		Chopin, Waltz a minor Op Posth.

 
 

I am happy to say, that everyone who entered, performed and performed well! Congratulations!

11/14/2009 CAPMT Honors Competition Branch Results

student name	age	pieces	Results
Alex Few	15 E	Debussy Prelude IV "Les fees sont d'exquises danseuses	Alternate
		Bach Fuge 20, BWV 889
		Beethoven Son. Op. 27, No. 2 Presto agitato
Cassiopea Bostan	9 B	Clementi Sonatina op. 36 complete	1st place
		Chopin Waltz a min, posthumous
		Bach Prelude BWV 999
Cynthia Nguyen Phan	11 C	Dianne Rahbee Sonata op. 25, 3rd mvt	1st place
		Bach English Suite, BWV 807, Prelude
		Chopin Valse op. 69, No. 2
Ranen Unger Hicks	9 B	Mozart Sonata k. 545, Allegro	Alternate
		Glenda Austin, Mexican Fiesta
		Bach Invention 8, BWV 779

 
 

Finally, I am finding the time to announce this year's results. Completing my piano manual "Play Piano in all Keys" absorbed my time, and there is still more to go, advertising, it never ends…

I wanted to congratulate all my students who were working so hard accomplishing so much. I consider all my students winners who just GO THERE and PERFORM. Just that alone, I appreciate and think of that highly!

BACK TO BASICS - SCALES, CHORDS, ARPEGGIOS

Oh yes, it's this time of year again, back to basics practicing scales, chords, arpeggios. Over the summer, I am always trying to push for completed pages in the theory books and push practicing scales, chords, arpeggios: making sure the fingering is absolutely accurate, the fingers and hand positions are curved the correct way - no "breaking fingers", but correctly and loosely curved finger position, lose wrist, natural arm weight, beautiful well defined sounds. Each note matters. Working on pulse with the metronome, all speeds. In other words, lots of work is being accomplished. We are also planning out the next year, starting new repertoire in slow motion, allowing a thorough and exacting learning process. Sure enough we always have a few overzealous young pianists who want to perform the new piece yesterday, before learning the rhythm, notes, fingering, arm motions, the phrasing, dynamics in each hand -- and are "noodling" through a piece. Learning how to put your "talent aside" for a streamlined approach to learning a new piece is probably one of the hardest things to master for a budding young musician. I tell everyone: "no one is taking your talent away; you must program your fingers and muscles like a computer programmer creating a game to play; if you do not program a computer game correctly you will never be able to play it and it will bring about viruses messing up your computer. Just be patient; once a game is programmed correctly on the computer, it allows for many hours of enjoyment, the fun of playing the game you created. In piano, once your fingers, pulse and rhythm, notes, arm motions, wrist motions and mind are programmed correctly, you will be able to play your piece flawlessly.  Fingering decisions need to be carefully made. Your memory and mind will hold up under any performance stress and circumstance, while if errors were programmed, they may very well show up in performance. Once your physical motions and memory, mind and visualization is programmed correctly, your talent then will be able to flow through your fingers flawlessly and with great enjoyment and expression. "
Learning to be comfortable playing all commonly used classical scales: Major, Harmonic Minor, Melodic Minor and Natural Minor for 4 octaves and arpeggios in root position, 1st and 2nd inversions, all speeds with perfect control, is quite a challenge but well worth it. All my students use my fingering charts and practice instructions and progress amazingly. The fingering patterns have been used for centuries and were developed to use the right and left brain functions in easy to control cross fingering patterns. Practicing the different scale patterns and spending time until each one becomes second nature should be a goal for each piano student no matter what age. If you are rehearsed in your scales / chords / arpeggios, your fingers and technique is lubricated and you can easily learn new pieces. Many chords are used over and over and once the relationship of tonality, notes of the scale and their relationship of Major and Minor is understood, memorizing classical pieces, in particular, is greatly facilitated.
All the practice suggestions and practice principles are well tested and work very well for every student, with a little practice. All my suggestions work beautifully for literally anyone practicing 20 - 45 minutes 5 days a week. Of course if you put in more time greater progress, better performances and larger repertoire will result.
But then music is for everyone, well rehearsed or not, busy life style or lots of leisure. Piano playing is here to always make us feel better on the inside, relieve our tensions and stress of daily life and enjoy the beautiful music and sounds that we are creating.
Sometimes, I wish I had had my fingering charts and teaching at the times when I grew up. but then, all my efforts and failures brought this about and I am very happy I could make my contribution to help others play beautiful music.
Sincerely, Eva