Hail to Thee...Master CLass!

Remember that scary play "Master Class", all about Maria Callas tormenting young
singers while flipping the channels of her life story? The thought of it went through
my mind more than once the past couple of weeks, while doing master classes for the
South Eastern Piano Festival at USC Columbia, as well as at the Charleston Soutern
Piano Camp at Charleston Southern University. There was one thread that seemed to run
through all the students, and that was the high level of preparation and concentration on the task at hand. I am not a tormentor I hope, but I do think most anyone in that
situation is already nervous and apprehensive and it is my duty to relax them in every way possible so they can open up and do their best.

A master class for me is more about encouragement more than any other single aspect. Obviously the students have worked hard to get to the stage, and I certainly cannot decide in a single sitting if they have the type of talent to go to the top, or perhaps that they might be headed the other way! All one can deal with is what is heard at that moment, be it an up day, or a down day. So it is more like asking the same question over and over..."Are you aware that you are.......?" Once made aware, then one has to offer a solution. That's where the fun starts.

It is certain there are things best not addressed in a master class. Top of the list
would be fingerings. The moment you draw attention to fingering the pianists tend to freeze up. Then there is the quesion of changing a basic technical aspect. Other than just casual remarks that can cause the participant to at least think about technical solutions, it is again best to not try to teach technique in front of an audience. The same goes for pedaling. Many pianist unfortunately have poor pedal techniques, most using a rather generic pedaling technique that has very little room to manuveur.

So just what CAN one do in a master class. I find the most important one thing is to get a hold of the student's imagination by whatever means possible. This is where a limitless vocabulary by the master teacher comes into play. One plays against the personality of the student, probing here and yon for clues to how they THINK! As they relax one can begin to judge how they use their body, how they tend to think musically, and what are their strongest/weakess links to the score at hand.

Its all rather like Plato..."Study the Object at Hand", the object being the STUDENT!
Just the pointing out of a few simple laws of music can transform a performance in
a matter of minutes into a whole new vista of what is possible. I often think that
the things that have helped me the most to be a better musician, have occured by
almost idle comments from others, professionals as well as amateurs. At the top of the list is a "salient example" by a master teacher at exactly the right moment for permament absorption!