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9th August 2022 marks Singapore’s 57th National Day, and also the launch of a new line of affordable, high-quality acoustic guitar – the Sevillana 2101!

RS Event Center was privileged with access to a sneak preview of the Sevillana 2101 at Bechstein Music World on the 4th of August, and here’s what we learned.

Acoustic guitars come in different body shapes and wood compositions – dreadnought, grand concert, jumbo, grand auditorium, parlour, and more plus solid vs laminate wood all contribute to overall qualities of the guitar’s sound and playability. Here’s a quick summary:

Dreadnought – this iconic shape with large shoulders and large lower-ends are your all-around strumming and picking machines.

Parlor – Small but bold, these designs are known for strong projection of mid-range tones.

Jumbo – This one looks like a dreadnought that put on a few pounds but uses that new space to bellow out still more bottom end and bigger sounds.

Grand Concert – This throwback to the mid-19th century is a mid-size body that champions EQ in the mid- and upper-ranges, making it ideal for cutting through any unplugged session.

Grand Auditorium – This design takes the best of the dreadnought but modernizes it by narrowing the waist of the guitar slightly 

Many acoustic guitar makers also enhance fretboard reach with a cutaway.

The Sevillana 2101 boasts an all-rounder performance and responsiveness with its Grand Auditorium shape, and full solid top, back and sides offering the best possible resonance and sustain. Playability benefits from this shape as well, with its narrower waist, this guitar is more comfortable to hold than a standard dreadnought, and the added reach with the cutaway is a definite plus too whilst giving it a very stylish profile.

This guitar features all solid sitka spruce top, and african mahogany back and sides, top grade 1:18 die-cast machine heads, and a Zero Fret that aids in consistency of tone between open and fretted notes.

We got a chance to try this guitar out ourselves and were surprised at how comfortable it was to hold and to play. We found a nice balance of frequencies as well that makes this guitar a great instrument to pair with the RSL Acoustic Guitar material. 

What amazed us the most was the price point of this instrument at SG$399.00. 

All things considered, you really don’t need to spend top dollar for a quality instrument, if you know what to look for!

You can learn more about the Sevillana 2101 and where to get it here.

Wonder what we think of the role of Live Performances in a learner’s journey? Click here to find out.

If you’re looking to improve your sight-reading, we have some tips to share with you.

See what else we have coming up with the Pearl River Digital Piano International Competition.

On 12th July 2022, Bechstein Music World had the honour of hosting the Singapore leg of the Piano Adventures Teacher’s Workshop Series with Dr Randall Faber. The session was conducted via Zoom Webinar and shared with hundreds of piano teachers across Singapore.

During the session, Dr Faber shared philosophies on teaching and the ethos behind the world-renowned Piano Adventures teaching method and series of books – that music instruction “develops the minds and hearts” of the learner. This holistic approach values music performance not only as personal and creative artistic expression, but also as a process of cognitive and emotional development, with the student as the main agent of their own active learning. 

The Piano Adventure series touches on the physiological and neurological aspects of the act of practicing and playing music, which Dr Faber explains, play a significant role in learning, in developing and maintaining brain health in children, and preventing cognitive decline in adults – aspects such as physical motion, “Discovery” tasks with each piece encouraging the Left Brain (analysis), and “Creative” tasks encouraging Right Brain (Creativity) activity by allowing a student to add a twist to the existing piece to create their own new interpretation (i.e. use the same notes to create your own ending for the piece). The progression from one level to the next also strongly reflects how well the Faber method takes into account the way the human brain works and utilizes it to optimize learning and exploration.

Dr Faber also shared a few tips on selecting the appropriate material for each student, as each series has been especially paced & designed with the development at each age group in mind, and a variety of supplementary repertoire and supporting resources for teachers available within the Piano Adventures range. The Piano Adventures Atlas resource was also introduced at the session. This resource features countless technique demonstration videos, teacher guides, references and audio backing tracks to help teachers enrich their teaching even further.

The Fabers’ teaching method features a unique combination of  Middle-C, intervallic, and multi-key approaches, beginning with off-staff reading, and playing across the entire keyboard on all black keys. As demonstrated by Dr Faber in the workshop session, This allows students, especially younger learners to build & develop the motor skills  and dexterity, whilst not overloading information in the initial stages, allowing children to stay motivated. Emphasis on rhythm as an initial connection to music also serves as an engaging starting point for learners of any age. Notes in the Middle-C position are introduced in groups, but the student plays in these positions on white keys across the keyboard. The complete method incorporates attention to intervals, five-finger positions, music theory, and creativity in an inter-organized progression, supported by corresponding books. The series includes music originally-composed by Nancy and Randall Faber. It also includes well-known folk, pop, and classical melodies.

As pianist and educator, Randall Faber has appeared as special guest and keynote speaker at universities throughout North America and Asia, including the Beijing Central Conservatory, the Shanghai Conservatory and the Royal Conservatory of Canada. He has been Convention Artist for the Music Teachers National Association Conference and master teacher for the World Conference on Piano Pedagogy, National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, the Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference and the USA National Piano Teachers Institute.

A Steinway Artist, Faber has given recitals throughout the United States, Canada and Asia. He has appeared on international television and on public radio in live recital broadcasts.

Dr. Faber holds three degrees from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in Education and Human Development from Vanderbilt University. His research on motivation and talent development has been featured in journals and media in South Korea, China, Australia, and at the 9th International Conference on Motivation in Lisbon, Portugal.

Randall and his wife Nancy are well known as authors of the best-selling Piano Adventures(R)  teaching method. Translated to seven languages, their books have sold tens of millions of copies around the world.

The  Fabers are co-founders of the Faber Piano Institute located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.

LA-born polymath Kit Armstrong proved a formidable force on the keys at his Debut Recital at the Victoria Concert Hall in Singapore on 3rd June 2022. The programme featured Bach’s 15 Sinfonias, BWV 787-801, and Liszt’s Transcendental Études, S. 139, said to be designed to be the peak of piano difficulty. 

The added personal touches to the program made the experience a very interesting and engaging one for us, as Armstrong opened the show with, and sprinkled throughout, food for thought with poignant discussion: “Why Classical Music?”, and the value it holds, or has the potential to hold, for modern audiences; How do we appreciate music? What is it that is universal about music?

The masterfully selected repertoire for the evening not only fully demonstrated Kit’s prowess on the instrument, they also allowed him to fully paint a picture on his thoughts and understanding of each movement, each variation and theme, giving the audience the means to ponder, and, in his words, go past the idea of venerating music as an artifact, to transcend, to move beyond and arrive in a mindset where we are actively engaging in finding answers to what it is in the music that speaks to us, that gives us the meaning and value we perceive. 

For example, Armstrong shared with the audience the origins of Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes, and Bach’s Sinfonias, and other compositions, and relates them to the meaning of the word “transcendental”, to go beyond the initial existence. What began as repetitive movements across the keys, over time are transformed, technical elements are taken and shaped and molded into expressions, embodiments of thought and emotion painted in sound. Music in essence is sound. It is meant to be experienced, to be felt as a physical phenomenon, to be appreciated by the senses.

Armstrong’s Singapore debut “Transcendental” inspired not only awe at his exceptional playing, musical maturity and youthful daring, and exquisite expressive ability, but ultimately a renewed appreciation for Music as a whole – as a window to the past, as a monument to culture and history, and as an inward message, one uniquely treasured in our own heart and soul. Kit Armstrong is an absolute must-see.

Emerging from the fog of uncertainty into a post-pandemic world, Dawn & Sublimation seeks to usher in a sense of hope, transformation and renewal.

In Dawn and Sublimation, Haiou Zhang presents the two most compelling Beethoven Piano Sonatas: “Waldstein”, also known as “L’Aurora” (The Dawn), and Piano Sonata 32, Opus 111, the last of his piano sonatas.   

These 2 pieces are the perfect catalysts to fully demonstrate the skills that Haiou Zhang is best known for –  his mastery of every nuance of classical piano, his joyful attitude of exploration and creativity that he brings to performances, and a total mastery of the art of performing and communicating through music.

After braving a 2-year global pandemic and embracing the future in the unknown world, “Dawn” & “Sublimation” are the themes depicted in the most profound moments in Beethoven’s Sonatas, in which the concept of transcendence, of entry into a paradisial realm above language, occurs. Apart from the Beethoven selections are Bach’s two transcriptions of the most beautiful melodies – a path into a realm of serenity.

Based in Hannover, Germany Haiou Zhang’s musical career as an international concert pianist has been characterised by his unique gift of artistic and communicative skill. Haiou Zhang is also an influential ambassador for the arts, bridging Eastern and Western culture with his extensive body of work. 

He co-founded the International Music Festival, Buxtehude, Altes Land, Hamburg which has become one of the most successful classical music institutions in the Hamburg metropolitan area. From January 2020 Haiou Zhang is appointed as the new Music Director of Öschberghof Klassik in Donaueschingen, and is Artistic Director of international concert series CONCERTS GRAND SALON in Zurich, Switzerland since Spring 2021.

Programme

WANG JIAN ZHONG- LIUYANG RIVER 浏阳河

BACH (arr. Feinberg) – LARGO FROM TRIO SONATA NO.5 IN C MAJOR, BWV 529

BACH (arr. Lipatti)- HUNT CANTATA, BWV 208, SHEEP MAY SAFELY GRAZE

BEETHOVEN- PIANO SONATA NO. 21 IN C MAJOR OP. 53 ‘WALDSTEIN’

BEETHOVEN- PIANO SONATA NO. 32 IN C MINOR OP. 111

Find out more about Haiou Zhang’s exciting World Tour stop in Singapore here.

Get your tickets priced at $28, $38 and $58 on Eventbrite.com

For more reads, check out our Blog Archive where we share the lowdown on events, RSL Exams in Singapore and even tips from our community of Educators.

On 12-April 2022, the guitar instructors of Cristofori gathered at the Bechstein Music World Event Hall for a glimpse at the new Guitar Secrets method book by our long-time colleague, educator, international artiste and session musician Hiroaki Maekawa, better known to Cristoforians as Hiro.

Hiro has written this book to share with everyone his tips and secrets to teaching guitar aimed towards more contemporary music styles and exams like Rockschool Acoustic and Electric Guitar. In his teaching career, there has always been an abundance of resources for Classical Guitar teaching, including Cristofori’s own classical guitar method which thoroughly and systematically covers all the skills required for playing classical styles.

At the session, Hiro gave a chapter-by-chapter look at his new book’s current draft, and also facilitated jamming and demo sessions by our teachers to give a better idea of the flow of lessons outlined.

Guitar Secrets features a series of topics covering guitar basics such as notes on each of the guitar’s strings, basic chords, fretting hand techniques like bends, hammer-ons and pull-offs, an approach to scales that breaks out of just playing them for exams (and forgetting them the next day), and introducing students to blues style jams and some introduction to chord extensions, all elements found in contemporary music!

These additions were written in by Hiro to ease students into skills like creativity, improvisation, and maybe even eventually writing their own music. Hiro also included some ear training examples and activities, as well as video lessons for students to refer to if they forget how to do a particular task or exercise that are accessible via QR Code. The book also features specially composed pieces specifically designed to incorporate each topic and skill.

Another unique element that he has included is the use of half-chords to ease students into, and encourage them to continue playing barre chords until they develop enough strength to play the full chord later on in their journey.

Closing out the session, Hiro approached each of the guitar instructors for their thoughts, feedback, and input on what could be added or modified to further improve the book for final publication.

As is customary, the session was closed out with a group photo with our guitar instructors looking especially happy to be able to gather together again after over 2 years, serving as a mini-reunion and catch up for everyone who attended.

Many thanks to our instructors who attended and shared their time, skills and input! It was certainly refreshing and wonderful to be able to gather with our colleagues again.

Hiro’s “Guitar Secrets” is currently under revisions and will hopefully be ready to release in the 3rd or 4th quarter of this year.

Drumming is tons of fun – and it looks so straightforward too!. After all, you are simply hitting different drums with sticks, right?

Well, if you’ve ever given it a try, you’ll know that professional drummers make it appear like a piece of cake compared to how difficult it is to play drums well! What they do not show is the hundreds or thousands of hours of practice and hard work that goes into it. There are no shortcuts. What made these drummers great was their dedication, determination, and patience.

In this article, we’ll share a few of the best drum tips for beginner students who are learning the drums and get down to details on what a beginner drummer needs for their practice sessions. Hopefully, this will get you deeper in the process of learning how to play drums for beginners and develop good habits early on!

BEST DRUM TIPS FOR BEGINNER STUDENTS

Always go into a practice routine with a plan

Before you even sit down at your drums, plan out exactly what you are going to do. If you want to just play around for a bit, then at least plan that (not what you’re going to do, but the fact that you’re just going to experiment for a while).

The point of this isn’t to make your practice routine ultra rigid – and you can still be spontaneous if you’re feeling inspired – but you need to be more intentional with what you want to accomplish with your time behind the kit.

Get your lesson plan from a professional teacher

While self-learning from YouTube videos is all the hype today, getting your lesson plan from qualified teachers is still the way to go. You can get a private lesson with a school instructor, take a lesson from a music school or even go for an online drumming lesson.

Have a balance of technique and musicality

Practicing technique won’t make you a better musician. Playing music will make you a better musician. Technique is easy and fun to practice because it’s quantifiable, but it’s not the be-all-end-all with drumming. Try to balance your practice between technique and musicality.

Practice drums every day

Whether you’re actively listening to music, tapping on your legs, or just playing on the practice pad, do something every day. Even if it’s just 10 minutes each time, it’s better than nothing!

There are no excuses for not practicing. Don’t get into the mindset that the ‘stars have to be aligned’ for you to practice on the kit. Just do it!

DEVELOPING THE BEST DRUM PRACTICE HABITS

Set a schedule

It doesn’t matter whether you’re practicing drums or lifting weights — your ability to show progress depends entirely on building muscle memory. And the surest way to do that is to set a practice schedule and stick to it religiously. Keep in mind that 30 minutes a day will show results more quickly than three hours once a week.

It’s best if you can practice a little every day, but we know that it can be hard to slavishly stick to a daily schedule for much of anything besides eating and sleeping, so try to put in a minimum of five good practice sessions per week!

Tip: talk to your neighbours. Tell them that you plan to practice drums a certain number of times per week at a certain time of day, so that there is some degree of predictability. Be open to negotiations in order to accommodate their needs and schedules. The idea is to communicate openly and to avoid angry confrontations at all costs.

Plan ahead

Think of your practice sessions as stepping stones that lead to your drumming goals. Each stone represents a small step forward and should in itself accomplish a small goal. So at some point during the week, perhaps on Sunday, you need to set small goals that you want to accomplish during the week.

You know better than anyone what aspect of your drumming needs the most work, so plan to address it in your practice time. Let’s say your hands are more advanced than your feet. So create a schedule that gives greater emphasis to your feet during the upcoming week. Perhaps you can dedicate two out of five sessions to working exclusively on your feet. Or alternatively, plan to spend more time every day working on foot techniques.

Practice with a metronome

Metronomes may sound boring, but they are among the most crucial tools for a beginner drummer.  There are several great metronome apps for drummers online, but you can also opt for a standalone metronome. 

Timing in music is measured as Beats per Minute (BPM). Learn basic drum beats and rhythms and practice playing your regular drum fills and beats to a metronome. When you feel that you are not in sync with the beat, slow the BPM down.  Always practice playing slowly, and only accelerate when you feel comfy doing so. 

Feel like you’re not progressing with drum practice? Try one of the best drum classes in Singapore at CRISTOFORI

With CRISTOFORI, you’ll move beyond just the best drum tips for beginner students to launch your drumming skills with great drum lessons and world-class instructors.

We have prepared a curriculum that combines the instrumentation and technical components that are beneficial for every student that aims to hit that musical skill ceiling they always longed for.

It’s never too early or too late to learn how to play drums for beginners in Singapore, so click the “register button” and start training yourself to become a drumming genius!

The violin is a cornerstone string musical instrument. Contrary to other instruments, a violin is far more complex and needs a lot of extra effort. Becoming a perfectionist in the violin requires immense hard work, patience, and dedication, but the rewards are incredibly satisfying as well!

Once you begin learning the violin, young children and even adults often become fascinated with learning to play the violin and this needs to be encouraged. That said, there are plenty of physical, mental, and social benefits when you learn how to play the violin as a beginner.

In this article, we’ll explain the benefits of learning how to play violin for the first time or even step-by-step!

WHY DO PEOPLE WANT TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY THE VIOLIN?

Improved Memory and Attention Span

Many studies have been done on the benefits of playing the violin or some other musical instrument. A recent analysis discovered that musical coaching, even 1 year’s worth, positively impacts the memory and attention span.

Better Overall Mental Function and Health

Most experts agree that musical training improves reading abilities, speech processing, speech, and a number of brain functions. This includes improved brain development, and how playing a violin can help children battle psychological disorders.

Enjoy Enhanced Sensory Development

Long-term musical training has a wider impact than previously thought. Researchers found that artists have an improved ability to integrate sensory information in hearing, touch, and sight!

Improve Your Social Skills

The benefits of playing the violin are also social. Not only does this give a conversational stage, but young kids gain self-discipline from repeated practice. Learning how to play the violin can build self-reliance, self-esteem, and self-awareness – qualities which make them well-liked and well-adjusted.

Gain A Sense of Belonging

Many teens benefit from learning the violin because of the sense of social belonging it provides. Playing in an orchestra requires group coordination, attention, and being included in a social group.

Concerts and contests provide opportunities for accomplishment as well. There are also the physical advantages of playing the violin, including better posture, stronger upper body power, and improved motor skills are engendered through practice.

LEARN HOW TO PLAY THE VIOLIN AS A BEGINNER – KNOW THE BASICS

Warm Up Your Wrist and Fingers

Like a bass, cello, guitar, or any other stringed instrument, a violin will also make a great deal of work from your wrists and fingers. For example, if you are a right-handed person, the violin will make your left hand deal with the violin strings on the fingerboard; and if you are left-handed, your right hand will need to press the fingerboard strings. Your wrist is used to turn and spin next to your neck to get your fingers to move rightly. Warming up your fingers and wrists each time before holding the violin instrument will improve your ability to move your fingers more accurately and speedily. You can visit some online video sites to find out the best violin warm-up exercises.

Make Full Use of Violin Tabs

Violin tabs are the best alternative if you have never learned to read music theory. Some teachers also make use of tabs while teaching pieces of violin music to beginners who are unfamiliar with sight-reading or sheet music. The tabs will help you identify where exactly on your neck you should put your fingers to play a song correctly. Learning tabs will probably take away the time you may need to spend on studying music theory.

Reach Out to an Expert Violin Teacher

Some music exercises require periodic practicing to understand each piece and play them right. A violin teacher can help speed up your music learning process by making you practice some more advanced techniques like rhythm, improvisation, music theory, focusing on some more musical styles, training you to participate in concerts or auditions, learning and reading notes, and more.

CHOOSE CRISTOFORI FOR YOUR BEGINNER VIOLIN LESSONS

Violin lessons at CRISTOFORI is the best way to learn how to play the violin as a beginner in Singapore, hands down. With over 40 years of teaching and 200,000 successful students, we have created an education philosophy that takes the Whole Person Theory approach that focuses on three aspects: academic skills, learning skills and the awareness of the training process itself.

In other words, our students are trained not to be spoon-fed but to seek knowledge and help actively. They find out how to concentrate, learn and organise information into knowledge. As such, students will gain analytical skills, concentration, and abstract thinking skills.

Over the years, we also held firmly to our belief of producing quality musical instruments and selling them at the most reasonable prices.

Find out more about our violin lessons in Singapore!

Born in Hong Kong and based in Berlin, pianist Chiyan Wong’s audacity and vision have captivated listeners, in a repertoire ranging from the early Baroque to the 21st century. He completed and edited the transcriptions presented in his critically acclaimed debut album, Liszt Transfigured: Operatic Fantasies for Piano (LINN Records), which was awarded the 40th Franz Liszt International Grand Prix du Disque by the Franz Liszt Society in Hungary, and has recently completed his doctorate on Busoni at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

In Singapore, Chiyan Wong has stunned audiences with two outstanding recitals at the Singapore International Piano Festival (2012, 2017) and a stupendous performance of Prokofiev’s fiendish Piano Concerto No.2 with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in 2016.

In January of this year Chiyan released his second album “Goldberg Variations”, which features his combination of Bach’s Goldberg Variations with Busoni’s edition of the same work.

Bechstein Music world was honored to host his first Masterclass in Singapore on 30th October 2021. The session was broadcast on Facebook Live and viewers from all around the world joined the stream.

3 aspiring young pianists got the chance to perform for the Masterclass and receive feedback and instruction from Chiyan Wong: Kayserburg International Youth Piano Competition 2021-Intermediate Category Gold Winner Estelle Goh aged 14, Kayserburg International Youth Piano Competition 2021 – Open Category Bronze Winner Tan Jing Yang aged 17, and first-time masterclass participant Fang Jun Cheng age 13.

Each participant had a 45-minute one-on-one session with Chiyan Wong who gave them insightful advice into learning, re-learning, deconstructing, approaching and interpreting their pieces.

We certainly look forward to Chiyan Wong’s next visit to Singapore for more concerts and Masterclasses.

Once again, we would like to congratulate all the participants for their efforts.

We are very grateful to our partners Altenburg Arts for making the Piano Masterclass with Chiyan Wong possible.

For updates of upcoming events, remember to follow Bechstein Music World – Singapore on Facebook and Instagram.