Author Archives: Sibylle

Recuperation

One week ago, today, Mark started to write about my gallbladder surgery. The surgery itself and the hours of immediate recovery went extremely well, confirming what the anesthesiologist had cheerfully said in our day-before-surgery phone conversation:  “You’re young and healthy – I don’t expect any complications.”

Young.  Wow.  I’ll be 50 this September.  Haven’t considered myself “young” in a while.

The “healthy” puzzled me at first:  how can one say that I am healthy when I have been struggling with persistent nausea and malaise for almost three months???  Yet, that wasn’t the health he was talking about.  It took me a moment to realize that he was talking about the blessed absence of any other health problems, the items he rattled off his list: no prior surgeries except for tonsils when I was maybe four and tubes in my ears when I was about 14, no problems with any medications, nothing neurological (Thank God), 140 lbs at 5’8″, no asthma, never had a stroke or heart attack, etc and so on – I guess in that sense I am healthy.   Definitely something to be grateful for.

While the surgery and immediate recovery did go extremely well – Mark took a short video of me walking, unaided, across the living room a mere six or so hours after the start of surgery, and I was almost euphoric the second day -, the days since then have been anything but straight-forward, linear recuperation.  I knew that walking and moving around would help with the healing, so I did that, and I am sure it helped.

What I wasn’t prepared for, though I should have known (because I did know but forgot), was the effect narcotics have on digestion:  serious constipation.  I should have started to take a laxative right with the very first pain pill I took, not wait until I realized two days later that, oh crap, I can’t go, with two days worth of stuff in my intestines.  Would have saved me some major discomfort.

Another lesson I learned, the very painful way the second night I was home, was that just because I’m in no pain doesn’t mean that I’m in no pain.  It means that the pain meds are doing their job.  Meaning:  the first evening, Mark set an alarm for 3:30 a.m. in the middle of the night, for me to take another dose of Norco (left-over prescription from the ER) – worked great.  The second night we didn’t (Mark would have but I thought nah, I’ll wing it).  Big mistake.  It took a miserably longer time for the meds to start taking effect than if I had kept the pain under control.  I wanted to get off the Norco as soon as possible, because I don’t like narcotics, and take Aleve or Tylenol instead.  Experimenting with different dosages kinda worked but I would probably not do it again.  Just take one or two pills every 4 – 6 hours as prescribed.

Walk and move and drink a lot, herbal teas for gas and bloating from the beginning would probably have alleviated at least some of the very uncomfortable gas and bloating.  The pictures Mark took of the incisions on my abdomen make me look like I’m pregnant.

The hardest part since last week though has been the return of the nausea.  Nausea is misery.  Every time I have a migraine (very infrequently), even while I am in pain, I say that I’d rather have ten migraines than one case of nausea or stomach flu.  I have had no reason to change my attitude about this.

Two concerns about the nausea:  first, why?  There must be a reason, and I would very much like to know what it is so we can take care of it.  (The thought was that my gallbladder, while perhaps not at the root of it, was at least contributing to it, so the surgery was a very good first step in the right direction.)  Second, even though I’ve been told many times that Phenergan is safe, and it does alleviate the nausea, I am concerned about covering up a symptom.

My mother’s second hip replacement surgery (surgery of the second hip) was unsuccessful, the replacement part never properly fused (?) with the bone.  Nobody knew, though, for many many months, because she was given very strong pain medication and was told to walk, walk, walk, and exercise, and do PT, which she faithfully did – and in effect damaged the hip even more.  She told me several times that on her own, without doctor’s orders, she would have taken much less pain medication, and therefore been alerted to something being wrong much sooner.  So, to be on the safe side, I called my surgeon’s nurse (one of the nicest people on this planet) who said that having the same symptoms as before the surgery is unfortunately not uncommon.  It may take a couple weeks for the nausea to completely go away.  Small meals, take it easy … And yes, Phenergan is safe to take as I need it.  Sigh.

In two days, I am starting to teach again; I asked several parents to move lessons to spread them out a bit – an hour and a half of highly focused attention at a time is probably all I want to handle for at least the next week or two.  My students have 100% of my attention 100% of the time they are with me; normally this is more invigorating than it is exhausting.  For the next week or two, we’ll do that in smaller steps.

Surgery

(The following was originally posted by Mark on December 29 on our Journey site)

Today Sibylle is having her gall bladder removed. All signs have been pointing to this for several weeks now. While the various scans and test all show that her gall bladder is functioning, it seems to be at the root of her symptoms and all the doctors involved have said that it needs to be removed.

The surgery is scheduled for about 12:30 pm this afternoon, but check in was at 10:30 this morning. She is back in the preparation area now getting an IV setup, the blood pressure cuff and pulse monitors installed and being made ready. I will be allowed to join her once all of that is set, and stay with her until the surgery starts.

We both have good feelings about the GI doctor who scheduled the MRCP and about the surgeon who will perform the procedure today. We are both understandably nervous about today and its outcome. If this addresses the persistent nausea that has plagued her for the past three months it will be well worth it.

Update

Sibylle’s surgery was started about 15 minutes ago. If all goes well I should see the doctor for his post-operation report in about 90 minutes. Once Sibylle is moved from the recovery area to the preparation room I will be allowed to rejoin her. I spent about an hour and a half with her once she was prepped, until the surgical nurse came to get her. Sibylle had an IV started and had been given some Valium. The sedative effect of the Valium allowed her to doze most of the time we spent waiting. Shortly before she was taken to the operating room her doctor stopped by and explained what was going to happen.

After her surgery is completed she’ll spend some time in a recovery area, and once she is awake they’ll return her to the prep room.

It is very strange to be seated in the waiting area writing this knowing that she is being operated upon just down the hall. Fortunately I have the room to myself and therefore have turned the television off. I was tempted to hide the remote but decided that was passive-aggressive.

Post Surgery Update

I just spoke with the surgeon. The surgery went very well. Start to finish about 50 minutes. He said that he wasn’t able to inject dye into the duct between the gallbladder and the common bile duct as it was too small. So no imaging of bile flow during the surgery. There will be a follow up visit in two weeks with the surgeon to assess how things are going. Hopefully this alleviates her symptoms. He said that sludge or sand in the gall bladder (which she had) often causes more problems than a gall stone. The stone can’t pass the feeder duct into the common bile duct, whereas the sludge/sand can.

Three to five days of immediate recovery and then a week or so to return to full activities.

Whew.

The Morning After

Sibylle was discharged from the hospital at 6:00 pm Thursday evening. Seven and a half hours after we checked her in to out-patient surgery. She spent about an hour in recovery from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm, and then dozed and rested in her room until 6:00. She was able to eat some red jello (the staple of hospital food), drink some water, and munch on a few ice chips.

After we were home she took a pain pill prophylactically and slept for an hour or so. The hospital warned us that her right shoulder could be quite sore as a result of the surgery and that walking around and movement would help alleviate that pain. So after her nap we took a meandering walk through the house going from room to room. She had a smoothie for dinner and then spent some time sitting in her desk chair writing and reading email. Around 10:30 pm she had a double dose of pain medication and we went back to sleep. (Added by Sibylle: the Norco is actually left-over from the prescription the ER gave me on November 8. Since pain had never been much of an issue, I had taken only one pill, once, not even for gallbladder pain but after the pelvic ultrasound to follow up on uterus issues they found while I was in the ER. The prescription says to take “one to two” pills every 4 – 6 hours. Last night, right before bed, I did take two pills, so I guess technically it wasn’t even a double dose.)

With two cats in the house, one of which loves to climb on and lay on people, she put a pillow over her stomach. With the blankets on top of the pillow to hold it in place she was nicely padded in case Taz jumped on her unexpectedly. We set an alarm for 3:30 am, which was about an hour prior to the pain med’s 6 hour span, and she took one more pill.

This morning she awoke with no appreciable pain or discomfort. One or two of the four incisions made yesterday is a bit tender to touch, but she is not in any pain. She was able to dress herself and make her morning tea.

By any measure this whole adventure seems to be going wonderfully well. We know that days two and three are often the hardest in terms of discomfort or pain, but so far her experience has been a very good one.

A wake-up call

When I told parents that I have to reduce my teaching hours, I explained that it was for health reasons. Some parents were very alarmed and concerned, thinking that I had some terrible and mysterious illness.  I don’t.  But my gut feeling was that I would get sick if I didn’t cut back.

This past Tuesday, I woke up in the very early morning, feeling nauseated.  This happens once in a great while, and a dose of Peptobismol either makes me vomit and consequently feel better and ready to go back to bed and sleep, or it alleviates the nausea = go back to bed and sleep.  On Tuesday, I was on my third dose of Pepto and the nausea only got worse.  Mild cramps, a bit of pain, but mostly nausea so bad I was shaking, had the chills, sweat running down my face and body.  Mark was very concerned when he saw how bad it was.  My robe was soaked with sweat, I was shivering.  He put a towel on the space heater we have in the bathroom and as soon as it was warm wrapped it around me, then added another towel to the space heater, repeat.  The warmth helped with the chills, but the nausea did not get any better.

We had had egg salad for lunch the day before, and I had a spoonful of the left-over in the evening.  The left-over had been sitting on the counter all afternoon; I knew it was probably NOT a good idea to eat it, should have thrown it away, but – stupidity.  We were sure what I had Tuesday morning was a mild form of food-poisoning.

About three hours after I first woke up sick, we decided to go to the ER.  I was practically on my knees, begging the triage nurse to give me something, anything!, to make the nausea go away.  Vitals first, bloodtest, more questions, and then finally an IV with meds to stop the nausea.

We spent most of the day in the ER.  Blood test (nothing really wrong, except something with my white blood cells), later more meds for nausea and then also for pain, more questions, the nurse’s suspicion that this actually looks like something related to the gall bladder, later sonogram, then CT scan to clarify /confirm the sonogram.

By 3:30 they sent us home.  The very powerful nausea and pain meds had made me drowsy, dopey, so Mark put me straight to bed when we got home.  Through texting, we had kept Jonathan and Chris updated throughout the day, and Jonathan decided that he wanted to come up and see me.  He arrived shortly after we got home.  After a bit, he and Mark went to the pharmacy to fill the prescriptions from the hospital.

On Wednesday, I slept most of the day.  Wednesday evening I felt much better but still quite wobbly on my feet – no surprise given that I had eaten hardly anything for two days …

I am still not sure what happened.  The intense and unrelenting nausea and strong but relatively tolerable pain would suggest food-poisoning – but I didn’t have diarrhea; the kind of pain (location and the fact that it was radiating into shoulder, even jaw) would suggest gall bladder – but the (lack of) intensity of the pain wasn’t typical gall bladder.  To cover both eventualities, I promised Mark that I would never ever again eat left-over unrefrigerated egg salad (at this point the mere thought of egg salad – fresh or left-over – nauseates me); and I have made changes to my diet to be more friendly to my liver, gall bladder, and pancreas.

Every day is getting better. Thursday I went for a walk in the sunshine around our “bean” (our block is bean-shaped), yesterday I attended a morning business meeting and a concert at night; but I delayed going back to teaching until this morning.  I chose a family with three of my most favorite students (yes, I do have favorites) and shortened their lessons to half-hour lessons which was still an hour and a half at the end of which I was wiped out.

If I am careful I hope to be back to normal teaching by Monday.

Comments

I get occasional spam on this site, in the form of comments who all think that this site is “full of relevant information” and “best info I could find on this topic” and such.  The topper however arrived the other day:

{Nice|Excellent|Great} post. I was checking {continuously|constantly} this blog and {I am|I’m} impressed! {Very|Extremely} {useful|helpful} {information|info} {specially|particularly|specifically} the last part   : )  I care for such {info|information} …

No comment.

Between competitions

Three weeks ago, my students qualified at the district level for the state level of the KMTA Fall Auditions.  One week from today, they will compete at the state level, same repertoire, no changes allowed.  Which means we will have had four weeks between the two competitions.  Which means we had to find ways to keep the pieces alive and well without wearing them out.  The pieces were already practically perfect (or else they wouldn’t have qualified for state), so “practicing” in the sense of “improving” had to take on a new meaning.

Four weeks / lessons suggested four different areas of focus:  week one, LH alone; week two, RH alone and some hands together; week three, practice to start from anywhere, hands separately as well as hands together, with metronome; week four, get back to practicing to perform.

The first three weeks were meant to find anything that wasn’t absolutely perfect, anything where things might possibly fall apart.  I kept telling my students, “If I smile happily when you make a mistake it’s not because I am mean but because I am glad we found this snag at your lesson – and not at the competition!”  Most students had snags here and there, things they were not aware of, things they thought they had down just perfectly fine …

Next week will see some of the same work we did the week before the district auditions:  the major challenge for pianists is that we don’t get to take our instrument with us, we have to make do with whatever instrument we encounter at a competition / recital / audition.  To prepare for that, I ask my students to perform on the other piano, the one they don’t normally play.  It looks just like the one they normally play but it feels, plays, and sounds completely different which means they have to instantly adjust their touch in order to get the sound they want.  We may leave the bench too low, and not use the footstool which really cramps the smaller students.  They have to kind of crouch, and reach, and – do the kind of playing that when I see other students do it at competitions gives me the hives because it is just so unnatural and uncomfortable and unhealthy, but I explain to my students that this may be what they have to deal with and adjust to at a competition. Kind of like preparing for disaster and hoping that we will not need it.  (So far, we haven’t.)

We may review the videos I took at the district level.  They are interesting and revealing because I had the camera at the very back of the hall = some of the sounds disappeared before they reached the camera – even though the student, up on stage, was able to hear everything just fine.  But – for a performance – we must aim to project the sound to the very corners of the performance hall, not just the few feet around the piano.

For some of the students, it will be their last week of lessons with me.  I hope to make it particularly successful and fulfilling.

Stereotypes and Expectations

There is a stereotype, an expectation, regarding mothers:  the best mother is overworked, under-appreciated, running on empty, comes crawling on all fours because she’s so exhausted, but of course she loves her children, so who is she to say no to their wishes and demands.  A mother who seems well-rested and happy cannot possibly be doing a good job because if she were she’d come crawling on all fours da-da-da.

Sounds sarcastic, seems exaggerated, but is true.  Look around: there’s a certain glamour to being overworked.  Find a well-rested and happy mother and the rumors start:  how does she do it?  Oh.  She’s got help.  Well, if *I* had help I wouldn’t be so exhausted all the time either.  (So, why don’t you get help?)

Private piano teachers aren’t much different, except you need to add “under-paid” to the equation.  There is a certain glamour to being exhausted because you teach so much, to being under-paid (and of course struggling with parents who either don’t pay or who pay late etc.) – the starving artist still seems to have a certain appeal; to not having time “for anything!” – especially for attending performances it seems.  I do not care to remember how many times I have attended a concert or a masterclass, here in town (= no traveling required!) and I was the only teacher from our organization there.

Much of the work of a piano teacher lies outside of the actual piano lesson.  College professors who teach 18 contact hours are considered full-time.  Outside of the actual lesson/class but within the normal 40-hour week there’s preparation time, evaluation time, professional development time, etc.  College professors are expected to do and publish research, attend meetings, etc., all within the normal 40-hour week.

I once had a colleague who told me, regarding a somewhat complicated student who was looking for a different teacher, “I can’t teach him anymore. I would have to prepare the lessons, and I don’t have time for that.”

Say what??

Whenever someone asks me, “so, how many students do you have?” I have to say that I don’t count them.  How do you count the student who comes on average every other week because his work schedule is so busy?  Half a student?  I do know that on average, I teach about 22 contact hours each week but that’s only the private lessons.  On top of that are additional contact hours in the form of irregularly scheduled performance classes, extra lessons to prepare for competitions etc.

However you count it, it is too much.  Part of the problem is that there is not enough time, quality time, to do all the preparing, evaluating, watching and editing and uploading student videos, professional development, etc.  The other problem is that when I get sick – and I seem to get sick more often these days – it is a nightmare to find times to make up a day’s worth of lessons.  Or:  competitions and auditions routinely happen on weekends – I normally teach six students on Saturdays, so when I am at a competition I can’t at the same time teach lessons = need to find time to make those up as well.  I have dedicated make-up lesson days on my calendar and I offer make-up and extra lessons on no-school days but those days are filling up awfully fast.

There have been days lately where I teach from 10:15 a.m. til 7:15 p.m. (with a lunch break).  My lessons are very focused, my students usually have 100% of my attention 100% of the lesson time – I feel bad when I have to take 5 minutes from a 45-minute lesson to use the bathroom (because I teach for such long stretches at a time).  I don’t want the quality of the lessons to diminish just because I am exhausted.

A colleague of mine routinely has to cancel lessons because of illness due to working too much.

In a way, this reminds me of the no-pain-no-gain attitude.  There are fortunately fewer and fewer teachers who disregard their students’ physical (and emotional) discomfort caused by an unhealthy approach to playing the piano, and more and more teachers who pay particularly close attention to injury-free technique and an overall healthy attitude toward playing, practicing, performing, competing, etc.

So, if we are so conscious regarding our students’ well-being, why do we seem so willing to ignore our own? Why do teachers glorify the problems that stem from teaching too many hours, from accepting students who drain the teacher’s energy because they are not a good match, personality-wise?  Why do teachers accept tuition that is too low, given their education, expertise, and experience – and then complain that they don’t have enough money?   Because unless it hurts it’s no good?

All in all not a healthy situation.

I don’t want to be one of those teachers who proudly complain that they are overworked, consider themselves under-paid, who come crawling on all fours because they are so exhausted.  And who get sick because they don’t have the time to take care of themselves.

I see no glamour in that.  I only see that my teaching would suffer.

So.  I have looked at my students and at my teaching schedule, and I have started to think which of my students might do as well, or better, with a different teacher – at least temporarily, if not permanently.  The challenge is how to explain to the parents/students that this is not a weeding-out process, trying to get rid of unwanted students, but an attempt to find what is best for both the students and me.

Of course, this 40-hour work week is my personal choice – it allows time for my family which is important to me.  If someone else chooses to work 60 or more hours, that’s perfectly ok but, I think, only if it can be done without detrimental effects on their health, and, please, without taking pride in getting sick from working “so much”.

KMTA Fall District Auditions 2011

Yesterday, Saturday, Mark and I traveled to Emporia for the KMTA Fall District Auditions.

My first student performed at 9 a.m. so we left shortly before 7:30 a.m. to allow not only for travel time but also enough time to see Ava before her performance and to set things up, mainly the footstool which she would be using.

Ava and her family arrived, their mother quite frazzled – they had left their books at home. Word of our misfortune spread; fortunately one of the local teachers, Shane Galentine, offered us use of his copy of one of the books.  Even more fortunately, the judge graciously said, “Oh, I know that piece” about the other piece for which we had been unable to find a book on such short notice.

Setting up footstool went well, Ava’s performance went very well – she is surprisingly grounded for such a young person, not easily shaken.

The rest of the morning went without problems or upsets; Rachael, Hasun, Chris, Sumin, and Suyeon played beautifully and received high praises from the judge:  “dynamics are perfectly in place” – “You are so well prepared” – “expression that is quite mature” – “Your melody in the LH is just elegant and absolutely gorgeous!” – “very interesting and detailed playing!” – “This performance was absolutely brilliant – so satisfying!” – and about one of the Martha Mier jazz pieces: “This really cooks!”

Actually, there was one more upset:  the floor was rather slippery = both the bench and the footstool tended to slip a bit.  I had adjusted the left pedal for Sumin but as she started her piece, Gillock’s Dragon Fly, the left pedal of the footstool slipped off the piano’s left pedal.  The judge was able to adjust it but Sumin, having started an octave too low, actually had to get up and take a quick look at the score to remind herself of the beginning of the piece.  Once she did, she was able to play her piece as beautifully and convincingly as ever.

We didn’t have much time for lunch, so just drove quickly to Ru-Yi’s Asian restaurant to have a quick bite to eat.  As usual, it felt good to get away from the hustle of a competition, even if it’s just for 30 minutes or so.

Two more students from my studio in the afternoon:  both Gabby and Isabelle performed beautifully.  I was a bit concerned that Gabby would perform for a different judge (too many students overall to be heard by one judge in one day) as every judge has different standards and judging / writing style which makes it more difficult to compare.  However, his comments were as glowing as the other judge’s had been for the other students:  “nice clean playing” – “your touch is solid & confident” – “superb rendition!”

The purpose of the District Auditions is to hear all students and determine who will go on to State on November 5, to compete at the State Honors Auditions.  At the District Auditions, there is (supposed to be) no rating, only “state eligible” or not.  However, for some reason, this year, the evaluation form had a line for “numeric rating” where *I* meant state-eligible, and *II* meant not.

Three of my students received a I rating, five of them received a I+ rating.

After the last of my students had performed, Mark and I took at little break.  Walked to the Granada coffee shop for a vanilla latte and some cookies.  In addition to the normal coffee shop wooden or metal chairs, the Granada has two very very comfy deeply upholstered chairs which felt delicious after standing (in order to video tape the performances) or having sat on not-upholstered chairs at the competition for most of the day.

We walked back to the ESU Music Department where the competition was taking place to listen to a few more students and then were able to meet up with Jonathan who had been busy all day with his band performances for the football game.  We met briefly at the Music Department, and then drove to his house to see the new cat and then to Applebee’s for dinner.

On the way home, as usual, Mark was driving. I appreciated being able to doze off for a bit here and there.  It had been a long day, with a long couple of weeks leading up to it.

Today I didn’t do much of anything.  Uploaded the videos to my laptop, and – took a nap.

:)

Ferien!

As much as I love teaching, I am so very ready for a break now.  There were days recently where I thought that the end of my eight weeks of summer teaching can’t come soon enough.  And it wasn’t that students had become worse or that teaching wasn’t as much fun as usual – I simply need a break.  ~  Mark reminds me that part of what makes the summer exhausting is that because everyone’s schedule constantly changes, no two days are the same, no two weeks are the same; there’s no routine, no predictability, part of me is constantly busy trying to keep track of the ever-changing schedule.  I’m not complaining, as a matter of fact I enjoy being able to encourage parents to take advantage of the fact that my schedule can be so much more flexible in the summer.  But it wears on me.

My vacation now for the next three and a half weeks is of course only a vacation from teaching actual lessons; I will still be busy preparing the fall schedule, catching up on reading and watching videos, among many other piano and teaching-related things.

I have recently become “friends” with a number of pianists and musicians on facebook many of whom routinely post links to very interesting videos, videos of performances (student and/or professional), teaching demonstrations, as well as music and teaching-related articles, etc.  Over the last several weeks I have accumulated a long list of links of videos to watch and articles to read “when I get to it” …

A colleague of mine who studied with Sheila Paige is lending me some of her videos which are so chock full of information that during normal teaching days I cannot digest more than one video a day.  So, I am looking forward to having more time and leisure.

Last summer I had a young Asian student who consistently played one part of his assignment particularly well:  his pieces from Beyer Op. 101 were unusually well-prepared and musical (the other pieces not so much).  When I commented on it, the mother told me that there are videos of a Chinese pianist/teacher available online who demonstrates each piece, performs it, shows how to practice, etc.  The mother made her son watch the videos and follow the instructions.  With beautiful results.  So.  I have started to record videos of my performing some of the pieces my students play, some at practice tempo with metronome, for them to watch at home in order to refresh their memory of what we started at the lesson.  Mostly this is about technique and to set a musical example of what I expect the student to aspire to.  Time-consuming, and not usually something I like to do on normal teaching days when I have only 15 minutes in between so many other things.

And then of course there are the things that have nothing to do with piano or teaching:  I look forward to spending more time gardening (I hand-weed the lawn …), smelling the roses I recently planted (yes, in the 100 degree heat of the summer but I couldn’t resist the “all bedding plants 50% off” sale), watching the immensely cute little frogs and less-cute toads that have decided to live on the deck, the patio, in the planters by the entrance …

I look forward to not having a schedule.  I look forward to doing things when I get to them, not because they’re on the calendar and need to happen at a certain time.  I look forward to breathing space.  Sitting on the deck, in the heat, feet up, dripping with sweat, smiling.

Neal Larrabee

This past Friday, I was fortunate enough to attend a masterclass given by Neal Larrabee.  It made me realize how much I miss excellent teaching. 

And I was saddened, frustrated, and found it hard to believe that NONE of the other teachers of our organization came to attend this unique opportunity.  I have heard some of them say that they are “just not into masterclasses” or that they don’t have the time or that their students don’t play that advanced literature.  Sad, sad excuses. 

Stephen Covey in his Seven Habits talks about sharpening the saw, the necessity of sharpening the saw.  Attending masterclasses, to me, is a wonderful way to do just that:  observing another teacher work with a student – how do you decide what to work on? With some students there are so many things – I wouldn’t even know where to start.  What I like best is not so much hearing what the other teacher works on, but how they do it, what kind of language, imagery, vocabulary they use.  I always learn a new way of saying something I’ve said a million times, but now I have an increased vocabulary. 

So so sad that other teachers elect to miss out on that.

Minute Details

While I remember, from 35 years ago, that my teacher always emphasized that dolce and espressivo were not the same, more importantly that you can play dolce without being espressivo and the other way around, dolce meaning sweetly and espressivo meaning expressively, I do not recall actually unterstanding the difference – or perhaps I intuitively understood, but never to the point that I could explain it to someone else which would be a basic requirement for teaching. 

 None of my teachers since has even mentioned that there was a difference, and in my own teaching I always felt lucky that no student ever questioned how they were different. 

Many years ago, I was fortunate to learn (from a video by Maurice Hinson I believe) one more way to translate dolce:  the literal translation of “sweetly” isn’t really helpful for pianists – “would you care for some sugar on the keys?” – but “gently” is.  So, that’s what I have been teaching my students:  dolce means sweetly which means to play gently, the way you would hold a baby (animal, or human). 

But I still didn’t really know how to describe the difference between dolce and espressivo.

Out of the blue, this morning, I got it.

Dolce refers to the touch, how you play each individual note, how you touch the key.  Espressivo refers to how you shape a motive, a phrase, melody, a musical idea.  As my teacher said 35 years ago, two completely different things.

Now I get it.