Putting the CARE in sCARE
Have you been using the Fright Playing Checklist? I'm using it more than I expected. It has changed the way I think about playing.
Using it with Trick or Treat with Zombies this year has sparked lots of discussions and creativity in the studio.
Is the piece about kinder-zombies?
Is the trick-or-treater trick-or-treating in the afternoon or at 2 am?
Do you play this piece petrifyingly quiet and grave, or frighteningly loud and furioso?
What's the scariest moment of the piece?
As students are playing their October themed pieces, they are starting to consider their audience- humans or monsters? How do you want them to feel when you are playing? These days the kids want to make the audience feel unsettled.
The Fright Playing checklist loosely follows a cinematic score writing format, so it leans into story telling and drama which is perfect these days.
In deciding how to play, students have to figure out where in the chart they fall when it comes to how loud or fast they want to play.
One of my students used the original Trick or Treat and made it both better and worse at the same time. The left hand is the same, and the right hand changes, but subtly, only a half a pitch here and there.
As part of what they're learning this fall, students are changing pieces from major to minor and back, doing sound experiments. Under the umbrella of Fright Playing, questions like "What atmosphere would you create if you played the piece on white keys only?" and "What would the audience reaction be if you played the melody using cluster chords rather than single notes?"
Monsters don't usually worry about playing wrong notes, they don't care about offending anyone when they make a mistake. They are unapologetically loud, but have also learned how to be terrifyingly quiet when out and about. Playing the piano as a monster is pretty fun.
The Fright Playing checklist has lead to students taking a few seconds to consider how they play, why they play in one way versus another, who they are playing for and what are the effects they use to create feelings. This isn't just happening when you want to scare a sibling, it's also getting them to think more deeply about creating music for connection.
Things I am writing on the Notice Happiness cards (I'm signing with a little ghost for context)
You played that (crescendo) spine-chillingly well.
You had me trembling in my bones when you played that diminished 5th in measure 12
That was spine tinglingly horrifying.
If I were a mombie (zombie mom) I would have been so proud of you
The checklist is being used with Deceptive Cadence, the girl band I have. At the moment, one of the tunes we're playing is, "I Put a Spell on You," by Jay Hawkins. In listening to it, the group is deciding collectively the story we want to tell when we play it. This opens the conversation and gets us playing the same piece.
I'll be rewriting the checklist in November to be more general, but October is a great month for getting the ideas out there.
Scary Playing!
Sarah
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