Some years ago, I entertained a pipe dream of cosmic proportions.
Having already taught piano for a number of years, I was well
aware that Scales & Arpeggios were literally brimming with truckloads
of fingering and notation patterns. Slippery things they were,
and a daunting job to organise them into an accessible, intelligible
system. But I would unlock the mystery behind these hidden patterns
and take my place in pedagogical history...
I
never quite got there - Margaret Brandman beat me to it!
Pictorial
Patterns does much more than I ever dreamed I could. Brandman
has turned every scale and arpeggio inside out, given them all
a good hard shake and collected a booty of fascinating and instructive
patterns. Her insights should provide students with a springboard
to Scale Nirvana. In place of mystery and confusion, Pictorial
Patterns presents a neat little package of relatively simple
recipes. For example on p.11, Brandman introduces the concept
of photographic negatives, ie. there are some pairs of scales
where every white or black note in a given scale, is reversed
in its partner scale. This becomes quite obvious when we examine
the blue-print of the following two scales:
The same photographic negatives work for the scales of Db &
D major, Eb & E major, and Bb & B major. This is but one example
of many fascinating patterns that Brandman makes available for
us.
The
book is divided into three sections. The first section provides
teachers and students with some general guidelines concerning
all scales and chords. This section is full of very helpful
and concise teaching tips - eg. thinking of two types of hand
signs (the Peace sign and the Scout & Guide
Salute) as prompts for employing fingers 2 & 3 or
2, 3 & 4 when playing groups of black notes. Section two presents
pictorial patterns for all major scales, their relative minors
in similar and contrary motion, and all the major and minor
arpeggios. Section three provides the student with a really
practical hands-on guide to daily practice.
Despite
the apparent visual complexity of some of these patterns on
the printed page, it is well worth the effort to persevere and
probe, because the end result is quite revelatory. The initial
sense of complexity evaporates quite quickly as the patterns
are examined. Congratulations are certainly due - Pictorial
Patterns promises to be a real eye-opener for students and
teachers alike.
- Abe Cytrynowski
Abe
is a private piano teacher based in Melbourne (Australia) and
examiner for ANZCA. He offers a series of scale-practice workshops
to teachers and students throughout metropolitan and regional
areas in Australia He has also taught and examined for the Australian
Catholic University. He designed and compiled the highly successful
Modern Pianoforte syllabus for ANZCA in 1983, and in 1996 wrote
"From Blues to Bop and Beyond", a textbook introducing the various
genres of modern pianoforte music to the secondary music student.
In
an endeavor to improve the learning of scales, Abe designed
and developed the Scalecard Systemª which was launched
in July 2000. The system is especially designed to facilitate
the learning and revision of scales for examination purposes.
It comprises sets of cards which illustrate in clear musical
notation (with fingering included), all the examination requirements
for each grade of the AMEB and ANZCA syllabi, including Touch,
Tempo etc. A custom made box is used to help students organise
and monitor their progress as they move the cards through the
3 compartments in the box: Unknown, OK, and Perfect.
For
all inquiries regarding either the Scalecard Systemª or to organise
scale workshops for teachers and/or students, please contact
Abe on: Ph: (03) 93708870 Fax: (03) 93709700 or email Abe at:
cyt@ ozramp.net.au
