Keyboard To Kiln

Just Phloooting Around...

2010-01-09T12:39:00.000-08:00

It was 6^th grade when I got my first flute – a Bundy. $135.00 and brand new! I sat in the 4^th seat back in the second row in Mr. Leavitt’s class. The flute sat on top of my desk after band that day and I kept peeking inside to look at the shiny new instrument in the beautiful blue velvet-lined case. I could hardly wait to get home to play with it after my first lesson with my trombonist band teacher, Mr. Myer. My Mother had insisted that I play in the band. I thought the glockenspiel would be the perfect instrument because it was laid out like a piano keyboard and that would be easy for me. No, that wouldn’t do – it had to be something else! Mr. Myer needed more flutes and said I had the perfect lips for the flute – so, the flute it was. (I really had imperfect lips for the flute, but he was right about my fast piano fingers and I’m truly glad that flute became my instrument.)

If you’re a flutist, do you remember how long it took to overcome the dizziness you experienced during your first attempts to blow the flute? No, I don’t either, but I think it was about 3 weeks. It’s easy to hyperventilate on the flute because only half our air actually goes into the instrument! Until we learn to focus and control the air, dizziness is just part of the game.

Probably the first question you want to ask another flutist is: ‘What kind of flute do you play?’ And the answer at least partially determines whether you rank this person as a comrade or competitor! If it’s gold or platinum, the brand will probably be preceded by the appropriate adjective, as well as whether it has open-holes, low B key, C# trill, split E, gold-riser in the embouchure, etc. Partly an ego-trip, but those features do truly determine the way the instrument handles and performs for the player. As with some car lovers, the search is always on for a more perfect union between human and machine.

I loved the flute as much as the piano and became equally adept at playing it. Of course it took away time from the piano, but the two complimented each other in many ways. Usually the piano is a solo venture while the flute is nearly always played in some kind of ensemble where teamwork and intonation are necessary to learn. These are generally not concerns of the budding pianist! For others who play both instruments, there is a novelty piece you really must try: Wilhem Popp’s “Bagatelle” is for flute (left hand) and piano (right hand) – that’s right, ONE performer! It is always a crowd-pleaser!

Dynamics are treated differently, too, just because of the nature of the instruments. Piano bass strings are longer, thicker and even wound with copper in comparison with the thin, shorter treble strings. Thus, bass notes on the piano are just naturally louder, but those beautifully vibrant sounds must not overpower the melody, which is usually in the treble. The flute, on the other hand, generally sings in the treble most easily and can become shrill, if not controlled and the lowest flute notes tend to be airy and soft. So – for an example – the pianist must slightly crescendo going up the keyboard to make the notes equal, whereas, the flutist must decrescendo slightly going higher and higher to make the notes seem equal and crescendo going downwards to try to match the tone quality throughout the registers.

Although playing the flute has brought me a lifetime of joy, there have been those moments when… well, I don’t think I have to explain – you can see the image of “First Flute” and come to your own conclusions. Luckily, each time I acquired a new flute, the joy was replenished and carried me through longer practice sessions to new levels of proficiency. Actually “First Flute” was inspired by the memory of my first real flute teacher telling me about his small son sitting on his flute which had been stretched out across the two arms of a chair. I don’t know if the flute was ever fixed, but I do know the son still lives!

From the Bundy I went to a Gemeinhardt going into college. As a flute minor, the expectation was that this would be my flute for life. HA! By my sophomore year, I was seeing the open-hole, B footed Haynes and Powell flutes all around me and soon just HAD to move up. By telling you that it was $600, you can only imagine how many decades ago that was! Years later when I was having TMJ problems, I thought that a thin wall model might help relieve stress in my jaw. Within a few more years, I just had to go back to the heavy weight Haynes because of the bigger sound I could produce. By this time, Lewis Deveau, owner of the Haynes company, had developed a much better “scale” to correct some intonation problems which had always plagued flutists, so I was doubly pleased to perform on this new instrument. For the professional flutist, it never stops there. We’re just like golfers who continue forever to seek out the newest design for a new putter – only our eternal search is for the perfect headjoint.

The headjoint is the top third of the flute into which we blow. It looks like the simplest part of the flute to make, but, in fact, it is probably the most difficult – and certainly, the most important. It can be of the same material as the body of the flute, or some completely different material – even wood. But, it must fit properly into the body and respond easily in any range of the instrument. Some flutemakers specialize in building headjoints.

And while we’re at the subject of specializations, there are some who specialize in manufacturing flute pads – and here, I have a recommendation: Straubinger pads are the greatest! When I moved to Florida 16 years ago, I had already been using the Straubinger pads for about 20 years. I had just purchased a new flute that did not have the Straubinger pads and the humidity in Florida just didn’t work with them. Finally, after getting the Straubinger pads, my flute would respond quickly again without an annoying wet, squishy sound from pads being released. Check out www.straubingerflutes.com and tell Dave and Joel I sent you!

DO THE WORDS "FUNCTIONAL" AND "CREATIVE" GO TOGETHER?

2009-10-21T19:56:00.000-07:00

Do the words “functional” and “creative” go together? I hope you’ll vote “YES!” (Please let me know!)

These most recent dishes were the result of a request by a gallery owner for some less expensive serving dishes using my whimsical icons. Why serve anything in a plain ol’ dish when something more eye-catching can do the job?

Could this be the distraction for dieters to simply have a discussion ABOUT the art instead of eating everything held BY the art? Or, would that work to their disadvantage by bringing them back for more?

But, getting back to the art, itself…what would YOU serve in these dishes? Olives? Strawberries? Nuts? Mushrooms? Candy? Wasabe dried peas? Spinach nuggets? OK, OK – you get the picture! Maybe for everyday use they could be paperclip holders! I’m looking for other ideas for you to share with me! And, of course, I’m hoping you will want to own one of these items for yourself or for a gift!

Will I ever get to other instruments? Oh, yes – it’s just finding the time. The ideas swimming in my head keep coming faster than I can produce. I will never be bored – and I just keep smiling. I hope the creations help you to smile more, too!

I WAS NEVER RICH ENOUGH OR FAMOUS ENOUGH TO TAKE MY OWN PIANO LIKE MY CHILDHOOD IDOL, ARTHUR RUBINSTEIN...

2009-10-04T05:10:00.000-07:00

…and so I had many experiences of performing on instruments that should have been retired to non-musical uses. I couldn’t help but imagine how they could’ve had legs shortened and been used for “coffee tables,” or had the inside mechanisms removed so that the frame could be used as storage (liquor cabinet?), or “re-arranged” into a sculpture, or even cut up in 2 foot sections to be burned in the fireplace! In some homes I’ve noticed that the piano is just left to languish in the corner as a glorified plant stand – maybe for a good reason. I remember one piano that had supposedly been tuned, but I think it was a jokester who did it – all the bass notes were tuned one step lower than the treble notes. Another memorable one was a very old, large grand piano that swayed away from me as I struck the first chord, then back towards me as if it might fall on my feet. The audience gasped and so did I, but it was during a competition and I knew I had to keep going. (Happily, I actually won that one!) Another time I was playing a Danzi Quintet on an old spinet with clarinet, oboe, bassoon and horn and was given a favorable review in the Indianapolis Star, “in spite of the upright box of rocks on which she performed!”

Now many people think that as long as the piano looks good on the outside and that all the keys play a tone, it is OK. Even for a beginner this just isn’t adequate. Ears are being trained from the very beginning because music is, in fact, a LANGUAGE! In fact, it is considered a UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE that everyone in the world can appreciate and understand. Proper tuning is absolutely necessary to develop the ears. I always recommend that a student have the best instrument the family can afford because it will make a difference in how the student (young or older) will learn to love music and be able to perform it.

Fortunately for me, I not only grew up in a home where my Mother played the piano every day, but the piano was a very good upright. When I was 12 and already knew that I wanted to have a career in music, my parents (with the help of Grandparents) provided a new, baby grand Baldwin piano. I was completely enthralled with this wonderful new instrument and its glorious sound! My practice time must have doubled at that point and it was only 2 years later that I was taken to a more advanced teacher at Butler University and began teaching young students in my own community, too.

About the same time I got my first grand piano, my Mother also insisted that I begin a band instrument. I really thought the glockenspiel would be a good instrument for me because it was laid out like a keyboard and I wouldn’t have much to learn about hitting a few notes on it. I really didn’t want to take time away from the piano, but no, that wouldn’t do! I don’t think I even had a preference for which other instrument, or even got to try out the other instruments on that special night when all the instruments were on display. My band director simply needed my fast fingers on the flute and another body to fill a chair in the flute section. He thought I had the “perfect lips” for the flute! HA! He was a brass player! Although I developed a fine embouchure, it was not without a struggle, because my pointy upper lip is really NOT perfect for the flute. Of course, I quickly developed a true adoration of this new instrument and yet to this day can’t tell which of the two instruments I love the most. I was a piano performance major at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and eventually earned a double Master of Music degree with performance majors in flute and in piano at Butler University in Indianapolis.

It has been a fine life with music – lots of collaborations with other musicians, working under various conductors, and teaching thousands of students of all ages. I really never thought that I would spend my whole life teaching privately. Teaching at a university was a dream I had and I was privileged to do that for 15 years at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana. I had really wanted to earn my fame and fortune as a performer, but realize now how little preparation and guidance I had for that path. I was young, naïve and didn’t know the right questions to ask nor whom to ask. And, I was still in the generation of young women who mostly got married, had families right after high school or college – and stayed home to raise them.

ANOTHER OUTDOORS PIANO...

2009-09-13T18:00:00.001-07:00

ANOTHER OUTDOORS PIANO…

Whatever was I thinking having pianos outdoors where all sorts of damage could come to them in the way of moisture and temperature variations and mice and bugs?!!! Actually not a thought of those things entered my mind as I followed the inspirational path I was on. All I could do was laugh at my own craziness and just hope that someone else could enjoy it, also. Besides, my pottery teacher had announced in January, 2006 that I was to have a solo exhibition in November of the same year. We had discussed the possibility a few months before, but I thought I would have 12-18 months to prepare after being given a date. HA! The pressure was on. Luckily for me the ideas were coming to me faster than I could execute them. I thought I would be lucky to have about 16 items for the exhibit and when it was all set up, I actually had 26 to fill the gallery - hurrah!

TAKE-A-BREAK PIANO TREE HOUSE was my next outdoors piano and definitely inspired by Walt Disney and Edward Scissorhands! On the thought-track of morphing through retirement into another career, after relaxing in hammock on a deserted island, here I was building a tree house in my mind – the tree house I never had as a child! And, as much as I always have enjoyed practicing, I was escaping, hanging up the keys like a string of fish and hiding out in a tree – shaped like a piano. Too bad I’m not seeing a psychiatrist – or maybe I should? I’m afraid to ask what would be said about me!

When you least expect it, do you find your mind “escaping” to such strange locations? It’s really OK, because sometimes these odd daydreams or night dreams lead us to some innovative solutions to real life problems. And, at least, they provide comic relief to all situations!

THE INSPIRATIONAL PATH...

2009-09-13T17:45:00.000-07:00

THE INSPIRATIONAL PATH…

In the last post I talked about the GARDEN PIANO and the GARDEN PIANO BAR. Those were really the beginning of the inspired path I’ve treaded since. From those two piano creations came the GARDEN PIANO PLATE. It just loves to hold a cheese ball! And soon came the PIANO IN PARADISE (which has since been given the Roman Numeral “I” because a second by the same name was created.)

Now the PIANO IN PARADISE I hammock was originally to be a plaid, ceramic one. After 2 attempts with that idea, I wasn’t satisfied and decided that this would become a “mixed media” sculpture. I would like to say that one more attempt did it, but no! This was the piece where I learned about glazing where holes are involved. Even when holes are cleaned after glazing and before firing, the glaze can run into the holes making them useless. Now I take the time to wax the holes with a Q-tip or toothpick before glazing AND clean the dried glaze off the same way before firing –time consuming, but worth it. (When we set up these goals for ourselves, nothing but the best will do – and probably no one but ourselves will know when that goal is achieved.) It was actually fun to weave that hammock and delightful to “hang” it from those palms that seem to sway.

I do wonder how many people actually see the shape of the hammock as a piano and think of the piano keys dangling from the end as the “fringe” on a real hammock. My musician friends will surely chuckle at the thought of Schirmer editions of the classics being “read” while reclining in a hammock on a deserted island.

As for me – I was beginning to dream of being a retired musician who has morphed into being a visual artist. I’ve always been slightly envious of the visual artist: A visual artist can do it over and over to his/her own satisfaction before releasing it for the public to see. The performing artist gets one chance in front of the live audience.

THE GARDEN PIANO

2009-09-13T13:09:00.000-07:00

THE GARDEN PIANO & THE GARDEN PIANO BAR

This piano was a natural for me to make because I loved being outdoors and had grown up with a large garden in the back yard. An eagerly awaited rite of spring was to help my Dad plant the many rows of vegetables after he had carefully plowed and disked the area and created the rows with his one row cultivator.

Actually I had not thought of this Garden Piano on my own – it was a suggestion by one of my pottery teachers! He suggested the lattice lid and tree trunk legs and my imagination was set loose from then on! I tried to imagine what it would be like to have my piano outdoors. A piano is really just an odd-shaped box containing the strings and mechanism, so maybe it could take on an outdoorsy look if it were supported by two tree trunks and a tree growing up through it to hold up the lid. And a tree would naturally have a bird’s nest in it. And the bird’s nest had to have eggs in it. And the tree needed leaves…and perhaps the piano could be textured as if made of leaves and the music rack could be leaf-shaped hanging down over the front of the instrument and the keys. Do you see how one idea leads to another and another? And it didn’t stop there.

Shortly after creating the Garden Piano, I dined with friends at a local restaurant that had a piano bar. A-Ha! The Garden Piano Bar, complete with “electric” piano and “speakers” was born! Nothing like I had seen in the restaurant, but purely from my imagination upon lingering in the garden! Do you suppose someone will actually build a real Garden Piano Bar? Let me know if you hear of such a place!

The Garden Piano Bar was an early creation and with my imagination running wild with little experience to temper my designs, it was somewhat crazy. I had learned by this point that glazing tiny details was very tedious and that sometimes there is a better way. GLUE! Yes, I have learned that glue is acceptable in the art world and is not a cop-out. So, all those leaves on top of the Garden Piano Bar were glazed (3 coats of under-glaze and 3 coats of glaze), fired separately and glued in place! There were 115 leaves and the E6000 Industrial Glue was applied to both sides, a few at a time, and the timer was set for 8 minutes. When the timer buzzed, the leaves were positioned and held briefly in place. That took all of one Saturday morning. Thank goodness the glue instructions mention having “adequate ventilation!” Even with what I thought was adequate ventilation I had lots of strange dreams that night!

And, speaking of tiny details, this was the piano which first displayed blades of grass. No, they were not glued on. They were fired on and had to be glazed in situ. Too bad I hadn’t found my little curved brush at the time! Now it’s relatively simple to glaze the back side of a blade of grass or other detail without getting the wrong color on some other part.

Changes Do Happen...

2009-09-05T18:46:00.000-07:00

When I get an idea for a new creation, my mind is locked into how it will ultimately look, including the size, the shape, the texture, and the color…every detail. Then I begin thinking about how it will be built or “engineered” because there are many details that don’t always “meet the eye.” And this is when I remind myself to “go with the flow” – to remember that I must be as flexible as the clay – and to realize that it will probably change as it is being built.

For instance, when I created WALTZING TO CARNEGIE HALL last year, I wanted the legs to be jointed (arthropod) legs and thought that I would have to make them in 3 sections in order to get the right angles and balance the piano on them. (My husband had been Chairman of Entomology at Michigan State and thus, I have become more aware of all things related to the creepy-crawly world! Insect legs on a piano? Why not?!) So, the legs were made, bisque-fired and glaze-fired in 3 sections, assembled and attached to the separately-made piano with E-6000 Industrial Glue. (It would’ve been impossible in the bisque firing to have the weight of the whole piano on top of angled one-piece legs because pieces going into a bisque firing are just dried clay and verrrrrrrrrry fragile.)

Now I’ve used this same glue many times with complete success, but the angles of the leg joints glued together were just too stressed! How embarrassing that at the end of the opening-night reception, my creation collapsed and shattered into a gazillion pieces!

Back to square one! The piano had been shaped by laying a grand piano-shaped slab of clay over a 6” cylindrical container. Now I realized I needed to match the shape and curvature, top and bottom, of the bottom of the piano. So, I made just the slab over the cylindrical container and bisque-fired it. This was used as a tool to shape the piano above and to shape a base below. Three one-piece legs were attached to the base when it was determined that they would stand firmly balanced. By themselves the legs attached to the base seemed to balance. The piano and the base with one-piece legs were bisque fired separately. Glaze was applied and the piano was placed atop the leg base (after the disastrous glue fiasco, I had decided to glaze pieces together) and placed into the glaze firing. ANOTHER BAD IDEA! Because of the rounded shape between the piano and the base, the top slid off in the glaze load! Because of a half-shelf placed in the kiln for firing other pieces, the sliding piece was caught on the way down and kept from crashing. HURRAH for a small miracle! I was actually able to salvage this prized-possession after some bench-grinder work to remove evidence of the bad decision. Glazed and fired again, the separate pieces were finally and successfully attached with E-6000 Industrial Glue.

However, there was still one problem – the leg balance was not right when the piano was placed on top of the base. Fortunately I had prepared for this possibility by making a small hole in the bottom of each foot into which a small rod could be placed for extension. PERFECT! The front foot now is lifted as if taking a step. This only adds to the illusion of “movement” I had hoped to create. Being open to change is good!

The Beginning...A Lump of Clay

2009-08-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

The Dreaded Blank Sheet of Paper, The Shapeless Lump of Clay, The Silent Musical Instrument – where does one begin? Where would YOU begin? Some say they have no idea, but the truth of the matter is that so many ideas are tumbling around all at once that it takes some sorting out and organizing to know where to start! Once begun, the project becomes somewhat easy – just follow the path! One idea leads to another and to another and yet another. The same idea can expand or contract, be broken into bits and pieces, turned upside down or sideways, repeated, changed by color, medium, or by instrument, stated backwards – or upside down and backwards. Once begun, there’s no end to the magic that can be created. How else do we explain the un-ending lists of art works, musical compositions, dances, books, and all kinds of inventions that just keep growing every day? Even without the usual resources at hand, music is hummed/sung/drummed, pictures are drawn in the soil or on cave walls with a charred piece of wood, dances are improvised in celebrations around the world and inventions come about as solutions to problems encountered!

Whew! That wasn’t so bad for a beginning, right? Yes, I had to begin somewhere – even with the idea of talking about inspiration. I suspect that each of you reading this blog have found your inspiration in many of the same ways as I. But, as an artist, it’s always a question that I get when people are looking at my work. So, let’s share ideas about this!

I grew up on a farm in central Indiana – a hog farm! And, yes, of course we also grew corn to feed them and soybeans, oats, wheat and alfalfa because crops had to be rotated. OK, OK, I know you’re asking, ‘What does this have to do with inspiration?!’ “A LOT,” I say. Whatever you’ve experienced in your life is going to show up somewhere. So… here’s the PINK, POT-BELLIED PIANO.

You see, although I was a piano student from an early age and loved practicing, there were times when my mind wandered out to the barnyard because I loved being with my Dad. Although I didn’t think of a piano in the shape of a pig until a few years ago when I began to consider all the possibilities, it was a way of reminding myself of all the good times I shared with him.

What experience in your life can lead to the creative moment? What problem do you need to solve? Be “off the wall” and “out of the box” – try the unconventional – even if just for fun! Have a good laugh about how far the silliness can take you before you find a sensible, but unconventional, solution. Life is good!