Advice to Young Musicians, by Robert Schumann. 70 great tips.

November 30, 2012 at 9:12 AMThese are 70 great tips, from the composer and pianist Robert Schumann. Many of them made me smile. And with a few I disagree. But they are all interesting.

What is your favorite?

I like 37. XD

1- The cultivation of the Ear is of the greatest importance. Endeavour early to distinguish each several tone and key. Find out the exact notes sounded by the bell, the glass, the cuckoo, etc.

2- Practise frequently the scale and other finger exercises; but this alone is not sufficient. There are many people who think to obtain grand results in this way, and who up to a mature age spend many hours daily in mechanical labour. That is about the same, as if we tried every day to pronounce the alphabet with greater volubility! You can employ your time more usefully.

3- There are such things as mute pianoforte-keyboards; try them for a while, and you will discover that they are useless. Dumb people cannot teach us to speak.

4- Play strictly in time! The playing of many a virtuoso resembles the walk of an intoxicated person. Do not take such as your model.

5- Learn betimes the fundamental principles of Harmony.

6- Do not be afraid of the words Theory, Thoroughbass, Counterpoint, etc.; you will understand their full meaning in due time.

7- Never jingle! Play always with energy and do not leave a piece unfinished.

8- You may play too slow or too fast; both are faults.

9- Endeavour to play easy pieces well and with elegance; that is better than to play difficult pieces badly.

10-Take care always to have your instrument well tuned.

11- It is not only necessary that you should be able to play your pieces on the instrument, but you should also be able to hum the air without the piano. Strengthen your imagination so, that you may not only retain the melody of a composition, but even the harmony which belongs to it.

12- Endeavour, even with a poor voice, to sing at first sight without the aid of the instrument; by these means your ear for music will constantly improve.

13- In case you are endowed with a good voice, do not hesitate a moment to cultivate it; considering it at the same time as the most valuable gift which heaven has granted you!

14- You must be able to understand a piece of music upon paper.

15- When you play, never mind who listens to you.

16- Play always as if in the presence of a master.

17- If any one should place before you a composition to play at sight, read it over before you play it.

18- When you have done your musical day’s work and feel tired, do not exert yourself further. It is better to rest than to work without pleasure and vigour.

19- In maturer years play no fashionable trifles. Time is precious. We should need to live a hundred lives, only to become acquainted with all the good works that exist.

20- With sweetmeats, pastry and confectionary we cannot bring up children in sound health. The mental food must be as simple and nourishing as the bodily. Great composers have sufficiently provided for the former; keep to their works.

21- All bravura-music soon grows antiquated. Rapid execution is valuable only when used to perfect the performance of real music.

22- Never help to circulate bad compositions; on the contrary, help to suppress them with earnestness.

23- You should neither play bad compositions, nor, unless compelled, listen to them.

24- Do not think velocity, or passage-playing, your highest aim. Try to produce such an impression with a piece of music as was intended by the composer; all further exertions are caricatures.

25- Think it a vile habit to alter works of good composers, to omit parts of them, or to insert new-fashioned ornaments. This is the greatest insult you can offer to Art.

26- As to choice in the study of your pieces, ask the advice of more experienced persons than yourself; by so doing, you will save much time.

27- You must become acquainted by degrees with all the principal works of the more celebrated masters.

28- Do not be elated by the applause of the multitude; that of artists is of greater value.

29- All that is merely modish will soon go out of fashion, and if you practise it in age, you will appear a fop whom nobody esteems.

30- Much playing in society is more injurious than useful. Suit the taste and capacity of your audience; but never play anything which you know is trashy and worthless.

31- Do not miss an opportunity of practising music in company with others; as for example in Duets, Trios, etc.; this gives you a flowing and elevated style of playing, and self-possession.—Frequently accompany singers.

32- If all would play first violin, we could not obtain an orchestra. Therefore esteem every musician in his place.

33 – Love your peculiar instrument, but be not vain enough to consider it the greatest and only one. Remember that there are others as fine as yours. Remember also that singers exist, and that numbers, both in Chorus and Orchestra, produce the most sublime music; therefore do not overrate any Solo.

34 – As you grow up, become more intimate with scores (or partitions) than with virtuosi.

35 – Frequently play the fugues of good masters, above all, those by J. Seb. Bach. Let his “Well-tempered Harpsichord” be your daily bread. By these means you will certainly become a proficient.

36 – Let your intimate friends be chosen from such as are better informed than yourself.

37 – Relieve the severity of your musical studies by reading poetry. Take many a walk in the fields and woods!

38 – From vocalists you may learn much, but do not believe all that they say.

39 – Remember, there are more people in the world than yourself. Be modest! You have not yet invented nor thought anything which others have not thought or invented before. And should you really have done so, consider it a gift of heaven which you are to share with others.

40 – You will be most readily cured of vanity or presumption by studying the history of music, and by hearing the master pieces which have been produced at different periods.

41 – A very valuable book you will find that: On Purity in Music, by Thibaut, a German Professor. Read it often, when you have come to years of greater maturity.

42 – If you pass a church and hear an organ, go in and listen. If allowed to sit on the organ bench, try your inexperienced fingers and marvel at the supreme power of music.

43 – Do not miss an opportunity of practising on the organ; for there is no instrument that can so effectually correct errors or impurity of style and touch as that.

44 – Frequently sing in choruses, especially the middle parts, this will help to make you a real musician.

45 – What is it to be musical? You will not be so, if your eyes are fixed on the notes with anxiety and you play your piece laboriously through; you will not be so, if (supposing that somebody should turn over two pages at once) you stop short and cannot proceed. But you will be so if you can almost foresee in a new piece what is to follow, or remember it in an old one,—in a word, if you have not only music in your fingers, but also in your head and heart.

46 – But how do we become musical? This, my young friend, is a gift from above; it consists chiefly of a fine ear and quick conception. And these gifts may be cultivated and enhanced. You will not become musical by confining 24yourself to your room and to mere mechanical studies, but by an extensive intercourse with the musical world, especially with the Chorus and the Orchestra.

47 – Become in early years well informed as to the extent of the human voice in its four modifications. Attend to it especially in the Chorus, examine in what tones its highest power lies, in what others it can be employed to affect the soft and tender passions.

48- Pay attention to national airs and songs of the people; they contain a vast assemblage of the finest melodies, and open to you a glimpse of the character of the different nations.

49- Fail not to practise the reading of old clefs, otherwise many treasures of past times will remain a closed fountain to you.

50- Attend early to the tone and character of the various instruments; try to impress their peculiar sound on your ear.

51- Do not neglect to attend good Operas.

52- Highly esteem the Old, but take also a warm interest in the New. Be not prejudiced against names unknown to you.

53- Do not judge a composition from the first time of hearing; that which pleases you at the first moment, is not always the best. Masters need to be studied. Many things will not become clear to you till you have reached a more advanced age.

54- In judging of compositions, discriminate between works of real art and those merely calculated to amuse amateurs. Cherish those of the former description, and do not get angry with the others.

55- Melody is the battle-cry of amateurs, and certainly music without melody is nothing. Understand, however, what these persons mean by it: a simple, flowing and pleasing rhythmical tune; this is enough to satisfy them. There are, however, others of a different 28sort, and whenever you open Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, or any real master, their melodies meet you in a thousand different shapes. I trust you will soon be tired of the inferior melodies, especially those out of the new Italian operas; and of all vulgar ones.

56- If, while at the piano, you attempt to form little melodies, that is very well; but if they come into your mind of themselves, when you are not practising, you may be still more pleased; for the internal organ of music is then roused in you. The fingers must do what the head desires; not the contrary.

57- If you begin to compose, work it out in your head. Do not try a piece on your instrument, except when you have fully conceived it.

58- If your music came from your heart and soul, and did you feel it yourself,—it will operate on others in the same manner.

59- If Heaven has bestowed on you a fine imagination, you will often be seated at your piano in solitary hours, as if attached to it; you will desire to express the feelings of your heart in harmony, and the more clouded the sphere of harmony may perhaps be to you, the more mysteriously you will feel as if drawn into magic circles. In youth these may be your happiest hours. Beware, however, of abandoning yourself too often to the influence of a talent that induces you to lavish powers and time, as it were, upon phantoms. Mastery over the forms of composition and a clear expression of your ideas can only be attained by constant writing. Write, therefore, more than you improvise.

60- Acquire an early knowledge of the art of conducting music. Observe often the best conductors, and conduct along with them in your mind. This will give you clearness of perception and make you accurate.

61- Look deeply into life, and study it as diligently as the other arts and sciences.

62- The laws of morals are those of art.

63- By means of industry and perseverance you will rise higher and higher.

64- From a pound of iron, that costs little, a thousand watch-springs can be made, whose value becomes prodigious. The pound you have received from the Lord,—use it faithfully.

65- Without enthusiasm nothing great can be effected in art.

66- The object of art is not to produce riches. Become a great artist, and all other desirable accessories will fall to your lot.

67- The Spirit will not become clear to you, before you understand the Forms of composition.

68- Perhaps genius alone understands genius fully.

69- It has been thought that a perfect musician must be able to see, in his mind’s eye, any new, and even complicated, piece of orchestral music as if in full score lying before him! This is indeed the greatest triumph of musical intellect that can be imagined.

70- There is no end of learning.

My Cello Life

by Ariel Witbeck

began playing the cello  when I was 7 years old.  I was then going to elementary school in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra provided individual players to bring their instruments and demonstrate them for 2nd Grade classes. They had an instrumental program going at the school, so this was offered to help students decide what instrument they wanted to play.   When the instrument demonstrations were given, parents were invited to the school.  The story I was told by my mother was that during that program I wandered around, not paying any attention until a woman began to play the cello.   I was riveted, so for my birthday, I was given a cello.   It was after I had graduated from college and began teaching at a Junior High School in Los Angeles, that I realized that even though I was told my first cello was a large viola fitted with an end pin, that I had begun to play the cello an octave higher than a cello, which is how a viola is tuned.

By the time I was 9 I was playing on a half size real cello and able to play in the Carl Moldrum “Baby Orchestra”    I graduated from that to the “Pioneer” Orchestra and soon into the Peter Meremblum Junior Symphony, which was the Youth Symphony serving the greater Los Angeles area. (Many members went into the LA Phil)  I have played in orchestras all my life, so hardly remember when I did NOT play in some kind of music ensemble or played solos.  I thought I would like to become a professional musician and actually joined the Los Angeles Musician’s Union Local 47 at age 19.    Prior to that, I went to Juillard School of Music in  New York.  I went back to Los Angeles to attend L.A. State College (Now Cal State LA) to get my teaching credential. 

During my High School years I realized that being a part of an orchestra or musical ensemble was a special privilege I had.   

Having a Community Orchestra you can support allows many others to not only experience that feeling while participating in it, but enjoying the feeling of being a part of re-creating some of the world’s greatest treasures.  Being part of an audience while listening to these treasures, is a special privliege, too.  During the pandemic. I realized how much I missed even hearing live music, let alone participating in its creation.                

Castro Valley is fortunate to have such an orchestra.  Local citizens can enjoy that privilege without having to travel too far.

Coming back

… by Wesley Siegel
May 2022

My family came to Hayward from Southern California In 1970,  and my father purchased a local motel.  We all worked and it became a successful family business.

While working in the hotel,  I went to school, graduated from Hayward High School in 1982 and then went on to study violin with Nate Rubin at Cal State Hayward (now Cal State East Bay).  Halfway through my music studies, I decided to switch majors and ended up getting a degree in Business Administration.  About the same time, my father sold the hotel and retired.  With all the demands of my new major, and the challenges of my new work world, I stopped playing my violin.

Flash forward 20 years:  As fate would have it, my mom saw a notice in the paper about tryouts for a new orchestra forming locally in Castro Valley.  She called me one evening with her usual passionate personality and said, “Wesley, they are meeting tonight, why don’t you go over there and try out?  What have you got to lose?” 

Despite the fact that I had not played for a very long time, I took her advice, found my old violin, went to the audition, and got hooked almost immediately.  In fact, I’ve been playing consistently with the Castro Valley Orchestra since its inception-20 years now.  It was one of the best decisions I ever made!!

I recently joined the board of directors of CVO, and am now applying my business expertise as Treasurer for the orchestra.  It has been, and continues to be a great experience.

Thanks Josh!  Your guidance has been invaluable to me.  Thanks also to my  fellow musicians for your inspiration.

And a big thanks to my mom for helping me get my dream back of performing classical music.

Here’s to another 20 years!

Music Educators-my view

June 2021 BoardBlog-Genevieve Pastor-Cohen

Over 50 years ago a musical experience forged friendships that exist and continue to this day. I am happy to share this cherished recollection as follows.  This article highlights the impact of a dedicated music educator who influenced many of my colleagues lives through today. This music educator saw the potential of his students and molded us to reach high goals, instill confidence, trust and friendships. To this day, even though he has since passed, he remains highly respected and cherished . . . warts and all.

The music educator is Jack Pereira (1934-1997) who taught in the San Francisco Unified School District at Denman Junior High and Lowell High Schools through the ’60s. As students, we called him “Pots”. He was active in the San Francisco Bay Area in professional orchestras as a percussionist and conductor. There’s more to tell about him; however, I wanted to focus on the influence Pots had on his students.

As a high schooler in the late ’60s, I attended Lowell High School. Before deciding upon Lowell, “Pots” visited all the junior high school’s bands and orchestras to get to know which kids were going to Lowell. I remember “Pots” visiting my junior high (Horace Mann in the Mission District). I still can see in my mind’s eye the exchange conversation between him and my junior high school music teacher, Mr. Jerome Anker.

Upon arriving at Lowell High School, I gravitated to the music department and found many kids like myself adjusting to the awkwardness of our growing years. I signed up for the zero period Band which meant I had to catch the bus in the Mission District by 7 AM to arrive at Lowell in the Ingleside District to attend 8 am band class. I am hoping my memory is recollecting correctly regarding the times.

“Pots” auditioned all of us. The flute section had about 12 kids (piccolo, 1st and 2nd flutes). Being the new kid, I started in the middle of the pack. During the auditions, “Pots” would get to know who we were, our likes and our challenges. He was eager to help us kids build our confidence about our musical abilities and encouraged us to practice. When we finally convened as a “band”, the music Pots chose really pushed our abilities and challenged us to work harder to achieve the best performance we could.

Eventually, I was encouraged to sign up for orchestra, too, even though only two of us flute players and one piccolo would be able to play at a time. In orchestra, Pots selected Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade and in a subsequent year, Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. The Scheherazade needed more percussionist, so Pots taught us extra flute players how to play various percussion instruments. I never mastered the snare drum or tympani. I did enjoy playing the cymbal crashes in the Scheherazade.

For the Firebird Suite, I had the opportunity of sitting second flute to a remarkable flutist, Dave Subke (1952-2014), whose father, Walter Subke, was the flutist in the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. Listening and watching Dave’s flute playing taught me a lot about the technique and style.

Pots encouraged me to join the All-City Orchestra as principal flute. Along with that, he was instrumental in obtaining a grant for me to start private flute lessons with Patricia Fawcett, San Francisco Opera Orchestra flutist. With Pots’ encouragement, many of my peers at the time moved on with commitment and vigor to professional careers in music, medicine, science, law, and more.

When many of us who have remained in touch gather, we share our gratitude for having such a dedicated educator fully engaged in shaping our musical and professional lives. A huge thank you to all educators who commit their lives to shaping young lives for the positives and challenges the world presents us.

What It’s Like to Play in an Orchestra

by Agnes Lingat
April 2021

I often wondered what it feels like being a part of an orchestra. How do they do it? How do they play in perfect unison as a group? How do players know when to come in and play their parts? How do the musicians know when to follow the conductor? These are some questions I used to asked and wondered when I watch an orchestra play.

It has been thirteen years since I joined the Castro Valley Orchestra as part of the violin section. In that span of time I now know the answers to all these questions. You know how sometimes you feel certain emotions when you listen to a piece of music? Imagine the feeling when you actually play a great musical piece with a group of musicians and reproduce the same sound great composers weaved into music notes. It’s very fulfilling. It takes hours and hours of rehearsals to learn and master the pieces. You need to practice (and I mean a lot of practice) and know your part well. You need to know how to connect and blend with the other musicians. It’s not like a solo performance where you only concentrate on your own playing. You need to pay close attention to all the details and the technicalities of the musical piece, the notes, tempo, dynamics, measures, time signatures, intonation, and of course glancing at the conductor every now and then. There are times when you may skip a note or two playing the piece and you pray it won’t be too noticeable. This is where the other instruments playing come in handy. Luckily, they are loud enough to cover the mistake.

Being in an orchestra gives you sense of accomplishment on your musical talent and ability. You’ve invested time and money to learn a musical instrument that gives you joy when playing it. For years and years you may have played solo or with just a small group of people. In an orchestra you’ll learn how to play with a wider group of people. it gives you a different perspective on how good music should really sound with the combination of different instruments. It’s a collaboration to produce beautiful music together.

The highlight of the orchestra is the actual concert. This is the moment of truth. This is not like the rehearsals. This is the time when you really have to play your best and try not to make mistakes. You feel mixed emotions. The audience eyes and ears will be on the stage. You feel the pressure and anticipate their reactions. Will they like it or will they be disappointed? The conductor raises his baton and the orchestra starts playing. Everything else is blocked except your focus on your playing and the orchestra. You can only hope when the music is done you’ll hear the loud applause from the audience and when it happens it’s the most satisfying feeling. All the hard work and long rehearsals pay off.

Dvorak in the time of COVID

by Doris Marx

As I stood in Prague’s City Cemetery gazing on the tomb of composer, Antonin Dvorak, I felt I had made a pilgrimage to honor my favorite composer. Viewing his likeness on the tomb, I was in awe of the musician who brought me such joy and comfort hearing his music. Now we are in the middle of an isolating, depressing period of indeterminate length and have to shelter at home. What better way to pass the time, temporarily forget what is going on outside, and enfold myself in soaring melodies?

Along with Smetana, Dvorak developed a Czech musical vocabulary. He was widely sought after as conductor and was a disciplined maestro conveying to his musicians exactly what he wanted.  He was deeply patriotic and intensely influenced by the music of his country. Many of his works are about places and fairy tales. The contemporary hit, “The Little Mermaid,” has similarities to his operatic fairy tale, “Russalka, ” a tale of the doomed love between a sea creature and a human. There are too many compositions for me to describe and it would take a lifetime to examine all the symphonies, concertos, songs, chamberworks, choral pieces and religious works he completed. I especially appreciate his violin concerto and the haunting cello concerto, especially its soaring conclusion of hope and expectation. A lesser known piano concerto is not as often performed.

Dvorak wrote nine symphonies, the last one, “From the New World,” is famous throughout the world as a musical impression of what he saw during his three years traveling around America. One hears spirituals, and Native American rhythms as well as the noisy din of busy cities and the wistful loneliness of the great American prairie. Having gotten a taste of his style, it is time to explore his other symphonies, each one unique and full of beautiful melodies and chances for all the instruments to shine in solo and combination passages. Other great symphonic works are his tributes to his homeland like the “Slavonic Dances,” full of lively folk melodies, the Carnival Overture” and the tone poem, “In Nature’s Realm.”

How different our musical world would have been if due to poverty, Dvorak had been forced to take over his father’s butchering business instead gaining an education to hone his musical gifts, find powerful mentors and friends like Brahms who nurtured his talent and introduced him to his publisher, and be able to travel in Europe, England and America to gain new insights and impressions to color his music.

His music is life-affirming and  soothing in uncertain times like these. Even though you have been dead for 117 years, this is my Valentine’s Day note of appreciation, dear sir.