AAMHL Concert - Part One
This is part one of two parts.
One of the really special events at this convention was an open mic
concert presented on Friday night by the Association of Adult Musicians
with Hearing Loss (AAMHL - http://www.aamhl.org). Wendy Cheng is the
founder of the group and the organizer of the concert. Wendy explained
that AAMHL began as a listserv in 2001 and has been slowly growing since
then. Wendy emphasized that AAMHL is important, because it encourages
people to start or continue playing music in spite of their hearing loss.
Its members want to enjoy music not only by listening to it, but also by
playing it!
Tina Childress walked in just as the concert was about to get under
way. She had been planning to accompany Wendy on the piano for a couple of
pieces, but had been ill all day, and we really didn't expect to see her.
But she showed up to play for us concert-goers, and play she did!
Bethany Boyles began the concert by playing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little
Star" on Wendy's violin. She explained that she chose this piece because
everyone knows it, and also because of some special features that makes
this piece an excellent learning piece for the beginner who is learning
the violin.
One feature is that the first note is the tonic and is played on an
open string. (This explanation soon got way too technical for me, but I'll
include what I think I understood for you musicians. For those who are not
musicians, I promise that the technical stuff will not last long! ;-)
Tonic means that the note is the first note in the scale of the key in
which it is played. An open string is one that is unfingered.)
The second note of "Twinkle" is the dominant note (fifth note of a
scale), and is also played on an open string. These characteristics help
with intonation by establishing clear tonality. Bethany noted that because
a violin has no frets, the only way to be sure the musician is fingering
the string in the right place is to hear the note that is produced. But no
hearing is required to ensure that an open string produces the right note
(assuming the instrument is correctly tuned).
Another characteristic of this piece is that it avoids crossing from a
fingered note to another fingered note, a move that is more difficult than
if one of the notes is unfingered. The most difficult move in this piece
is from an open E to a fingered D on an adjacent string.
The piece also stays within a single octave, from tonic to tonic, so it
can be played on any two adjacent strings with the same fingering on both
strings.
Bethany noted that the first note in a particular sequence is a ringing
tone, which means that a string is fingered so that it plays the same note
as an adjacent open string. It's called a ringing tone, because the
unplayed open string actually rings if the fingered string is playing the
correct note.
The final characteristic that Bethany mentioned is that the piece
contains no dotted (complex) rhythm, so the musician is able to
concentrate on the intonation.
Bethany noted that all musicians who learn violin via the Suzuki method
learn this piece, so they are all able to play at least this one piece
together.
After she finished her discussion of this particular piece, she played
a jazzed up version of "Twinkle" that had the audience rocking!
Following Bethany's performance Sharon Campbell played a wonderful
rendition of Andrew Lloyd Weber's "Memories" on the B-flat clarinet.
Sharon shared that she was an Rh baby, which caused hearing loss as well
as some other neurological difficulties that affect her fine motor
control. So playing a musical instrument presents an even greater
challenge than just that caused by hearing loss.
Sharon notes that she sang along with a player piano when she was a
kid, and her parents encouraged her to take up the clarinet. As she
continued playing, the clarinet music became increasing difficult, but she
noticed that music for the bass clarinet was easier. So she added the bass
clarinet to her repertoire. She later added the contra bass clarinet,
which is really big and has really easy music!
Here's Part Two
