Dr Barbara Fast
Director of Piano Pedagogy and Piano Area Chair at the University of Oklahoma
Barbara Fast serves on the piano faculty at the University of Oklahoma as Director of Piano Pedagogy and Piano Area Chair, where she coordinates the group piano programme as well as teaches graduate and undergraduate piano pedagogy. Dr Fast was the 2020 recipient of OU’s prestigious David Ross Boyd Professor Award for excellence in teaching, and in 2014 OU’s Regents Award for Superior Teaching.
Her lifelong interest in effective teaching eventually led her to researching and discussing the practical applications of educational research for teaching in the private lesson and group class. A culmination of her interest in effective learning and practicing, and their integration with current and future technology, resulted in the book iPractice: Technology in the 21st Century Music Practice Room (Oxford, 2018). Recently, Dr Fast has presented at numerous webinars and online town halls focused on practicing, teaching group piano, and issues in higher education related to the pandemic and teaching post-pandemic.
An active clinician and adjudicator, Dr Fast has presented at Music Teachers National Conferences, International and National College Music Society Conferences, ISME International Conference, The Classical Music Festival Eisenstadt, Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities, NCKP National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, EPTA International Conference, and MTA state conferences. Dr Fast’s articles and reviews have been published in Music Performance Research, American Music Teacher, The Piano Magazine, and the New School for Music Study blog. Additionally, she has performed in chamber settings in England, Russia, Japan, and India as well as presented lecture recitals and master classes throughout the United States.
A devoted teacher, Dr Fast’s students have won numerous awards and secured teaching positions nationally and internationally, including in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. The OU collegiate chapter won the MTNA national Chapter of the Year award in 2017, 2009, and 2007. In recognition of her guidance and mentoring of students, Dr Fast was the recipient of the Oklahoma Music Teacher of the Year award and OU’s Irene and Julian Rothbaum Presidential Professor of Excellence in the Arts.
Dr Fast co-founded the National Group Piano and Piano Pedagogy Forum (GP3) in 2000, a biannual conference affiliated with MTNA that focuses on group piano and piano pedagogy teaching. GP3 will be holding its next conference in 2024. Currently she serves as Vice President for Membership on the Board of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA). She also serves as Past-President of the Oklahoma Music Teachers Association. Additionally, she serves in numerous national and state MTNA and NCKP piano pedagogy related positions, including the Editorial Board of the Piano Magazine, MTNA E-Journal, and as Associate Editor of Piano Pedagogy Forum.
Former faculty appointments include the University of Northern Iowa, Hesston College, and Woodstock International School in India. Her broad interests are represented in her undergrad degree with a double-major in piano and flute, paired with a minor in English. When she is not teaching, presenting workshops, or engaging in research, she enjoys hiking, traveling, and interacting with family and friends.
Practice Tips Our Brains Like But We Avoid
Our brains learn most efficiently with specific practice habits, but research shows we naturally avoid some of them. How to help students practice in effective ways that really work, are explored in this keynote speech.
The author has successfully utilised the ‘Hardest First’ practice strategy, in group and private lessons. Grounded in sports research, the author-created strategy is based on ice skaters practising many easier moves rather than the intended, difficult moves. Surprisingly, the ice skaters remembered practising more repetitions of difficult moves (Deakon, 2003). Do musicians fall into the same trap: believing they spend more time on difficult areas but in reality spend more time on easier sections?
Cognitive and sports psychologists also recommend learning most efficiently via interleaved practice – returning frequently to an activity rather than extended, blocked practice. Most musicians intuitively use blocked practice. Recent music research indicates that Interleaved practice schedules are more effective than blocked practice (Carter & Grahn 2016). Surprisingly, research demonstrated that performers, even after giving their higher marks with interleaved practice, preferred blocked practice.
Why do musicians avoid doing what really works? Our own natural resistance (Pressfield, 2002) will be explored as explanations for the avoidance of what is most effective.
Useful tips for incorporating practice ideas that really work because our brains find them most efficient, such as ‘Hardest First’, and interleaved practice, will be shared. The presenter has actively employed these practice strategies in teaching both private lessons and group piano classes.
"Pet the Lizard"- Calming our Brain in Performance, Teaching and Life
Biologically our brain, sometimes called the lizard brain, is hardwired to be fearful and alert. While this fundamental aspect of our brain allowed us to survive, the fight-flight-freeze response remains an unconscious reaction to daily events: preparing to perform, getting to practice, or listening to the daily news. Exacerbated by the pandemic, finding ways to calm our lizard brain becomes an essential coping skill for teachers and students in our 21st century lives.
This workshop presents easy-to-use skills for students and teachers to help calm the background of vigilant anxiety that allowed us to survive. Sometimes referenced as "Pet the Lizard" (Hanson, 2018), suggestions from experts in the fields of sports psychology, neuropsychology, and positive psychology will be shared.
"Pet the Lizard" activities, easy to include in our daily lives, are explored in the workshop. They include:
- Breathing technics (Tara Brach, Psychology)
- Name the Stress, followed with …by at least (Commander, Sports Psychology)
- Name the Support, Grateful for (Seligman, Positive Psychology)
"Pet the Lizard" activities related to helping students and teachers "Get To It" – starting to practice, studying for exams, or creating lessons plans, will be shared:
- Pomodoro Technic and current adaptations
- Focusmate
- Tada Lists
Apps and websites that can be useful to "Pet the Lizard," will also be suggested during the workshop.
The presenter will explore the "Pet the Lizard" activities within the workshop with students, both in groups and applied piano teaching. Workshop participants will leave the workshop with technics that are easily applied in their daily lives.
Laurens Patzlaff
Master of the Art of Improvisation
After the release of his debut album, "Reflections on Debussy" in 2012, Laurens Patzlaff was dubbed "Master of the art of improvisation" by the Deutschlandfunk. His second solo album, "The Sorcerer’s Apprentice", was featured in Piano News 2015, describing: "Patzlaff renders himself a ‘magician’ and ‘master’, which, unlike an ‘apprentice,’ has mastered all tricks and knacks."
From a young age, piano improvisation already began shaping the artistic creations of the pianist, who was born near Stuttgart/Germany in 1981. Alongside the classical piano repertoire, he still practised the almost forgotten art of stylistically bound improvisation as well as free, experimental improvisation and jazz. The piano – as an interdisciplinary instrument – is just as important to him as a broad, holistic view of music. Next to the educational musician, Robert Schumann, and the jazz pianist, Oscar Peterson, his role model has always been Leonard Bernstein, who rejected a distinction between serious and light music, pointing out that only the quality of the music was what mattered.
The musical versatility which really makes Laurens Patzlaff stand out was reflected in the various courses he studied at music universities of Stuttgart and Madrid, which he passed with distinction. Even as a teenager, Laurens Patzlaff was active as a chamber musician, forming his own piano trio and playing piano, keyboard, and the drums in several bands. Today, the multi-award-winning pianist is a regular guest at international music festivals in the USA, China, Australia and South Africa.
He has performed as a soloist in the Wiener Musikverein (Viennese Music Association) and in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. He also regularly plays solo improvised piano recitals in many countries across Europe, Asia, and North & South America. He has worked with the South-west German Chamber Orchestra, the Stuttgart State Orchestra and the Neubrandenburg Philharmonic, to name just a few. This is topped off by masterclasses at over 30 music academies and universities worldwide. His speciality is piano improvisation. This has been the artistic and pedagogical focus of his work since 2008. He regularly taught this subject at the music universities of Stuttgart, Trossingen, Freiburg im Breisgau and Frankfurt/Main.
In 2013, he was appointed as Germany’s first professor for piano and improvisation playing at the Lübeck University of Music. The subject, ‘Piano and Improvisation’ attempts to revive the ideal of the universal pianist – which was still popular in the 19th century – by combining improvisation, playing compositions, as well as score-playing and accompaniment in one lesson.
Improvisation in the Piano Education A Forgotten Art?
Piano education in the 18th and 19th centuries followed a holistic approach in which improvisation played an important role. Many famous pianists such as Mozart, Czerny, Beethoven, Liszt and Chopin not only integrated this art into their concerts but also into their piano lessons. Since there are no sound recordings from this period, reports from contemporary witnesses, compositions and instructional works are the only sources that give us a glimpse of the diverse playing practices of the past centuries.
But improvisation in no way stands as a singular art alongside interpretation. The many pedagogical references by Czerny, Cramer, Hering, and Kalkbrenner suggest, that it has played an equal role within the ranks of the arts.
The keynote speech shows historical connections of piano education from the perspective of the Pianistes-compositeurs over the course of time. In addition, the multifaceted relationship between composer, interpreter, composition and improvisation will be illuminated. The following questions arise from consideration of the historical context: Which forms of improvisation existed? In which formats did these come to be performed? Why did improvisation practice change fundamentally in the 20th century? Can the knowledge gained from the teaching methods of the 18th and 19th centuries be used for a (necessary) change in the piano teaching of the present day?
Workshop on Piano Improvisation
Due to historical changes in the piano education worldwide, improvisation is playing more role in the education of children and young people, as well as in the curriculum at universities and conservatories. The approaches to improvisation are highly diverse. While a more playful approach is taken in youth education, an improvisational practice oriented towards contemporary music, style-bound fantasies and jazz fundamentals are mostly taught at universities.
Workshop participants will be offered comprehensive and versatile teaching approaches to improvisation. Four approaches are singled out from the multitude of possibilities:
- Contemporary improvisation on pictures, graphic notation and poetry based on extended playing techniques
- Several improvisation exercises for beginners
- Improvisation with historical sources
- Basics on Jazz improvisation for beginners
For each participant, the goal is to provide an approach to improvisation that she/he can continue to develop through self-study. In addition, didactic and methodological aspects will be discussed on how to apply the exercises in the lessons with children and students.
Besides the practical exercises, the psychological aspects of improvisation will also play a role in the workshop. Questions about the evaluation of creativity, possible benefits for musical development, and how to deal with fears and difficulties in improvisation will also be discussed.
Solo Piano Improvisation Concert by Laurens Patzlaff
Improvised concerts would normally be rather expected in jazz music. In classical music, they have become a rarity. In the 19th century, it was common for classical pianists to improvise in concert on themes suggestions by the audience. Laurens Patzlaff tries to bring this forgotten tradition back to life. The audience is invited to write down suggestions for themes on notepaper, which will be laid out at the entrance. There is no need to write down music, just the name of a famous classical work, a pop song, a jazz tune, a melody from advertising, from film music or a simple folk song is enough to create an improvised fantasy. Be part of a unique performance and witness live as music is created that you have never heard before in concert and that you will only hear once in this form.