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Introduction by Bruce Berr, Editor
ecause music has rhythm, musicians can become insensitive to rhythm.
What?
Over the past decade it has been impossible not to notice something
that has recurred in many of the TV interviews with the Chicago Bulls' basketball
great Michael Jordan. After scoring forty or more points, how many times
did he talk about "getting into my rhythm"? Likewise, many baseball
pitchers frequently have trouble in the first inning and then settle down
and sail through the rest of the game seemingly with ease (similar to pianists
giving a recital). It is common for them to say in interviews right after
the game, "It took me a while to find my rhythm." Golfers do the
same. I do not believe these athletes are simply using a figure of speech
when they describe these feelings.
In early September, don't we as teachers usually talk about "getting back into the rhythm of the school year"? Think about what that feels like, and again, it is not a metaphor we are using, but an accurate description of something that really is taking place.
It is precisely because music itself is so inherently rhythmic that we tend to miss the big picture-that rhythm is the great coordinator of complex and delicate physical activities, whether the end product seems to involve rhythm or not. Therefore, activities as disparate as basketball, surgery, carpentry, and yes, piano playing, all require a keen sense of rhythm because that is how the human body operates most efficiently. In other words, even if you were going to play a piano piece that was inherently arrhythmic, you would still need a well-defined body rhythm in order to play it with accuracy and ease. This is what I meant at the start of this article.
Abby Whiteside wrote a great deal about this other, more preponderant aspect of rhythm that we as pianists must acknowledge at some point in our development if we are to continue to grow and improve. In both Indispensables of Piano Playing (Coleman-Ross, 1955) and Mastering the Chopin Etudes and Other Essays (Scribner, 1969), she frequently mentions the need for an overriding rhythm and the role of the upper arm and torso in creating that rhythm.
What better way to explore this largest aspect of rhythm than to temporarily turn away from the piano and music, and examine how rhythm is perceived and taught in the other arts. In this issue, we look at figure skating. The role of rhythm in this art form may seem obvious because we all tend to associate figure skating with beautiful and graceful musical accompaniments. But as you read Rick Ziebarth's article, you will see that rhythm plays an even more vital role behind the scenes in helping to coordinate the complexities of the individual gestures, as well as the flow of the performance of the whole program.
Doesn't that sound familiar?
Actually, the piano will not be ignored completely in this article. Some of Rick's descriptions of figure skating techniques rang such loud bells in my head as a piano teacher, that I could not resist periodically inserting some comments on similarities. Please forgive my outbursts.
We hope to follow up on this question in future issues by exploring even more art forms and how rhythm is taught in them.
To get the most out of this article, we strongly recommend that you log on to our website (thank you for doing so!). Rick has done a commendable job of describing figure skating maneuvers in words, but it is almost an impossible task. Unless you are a figure skater yourself, it is very difficult to imagine all of this in your head. The KBC website has some short video clips of Rick performing these gestures so you can see for yourself exactly what is meant by, say, a double Salchow. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video clip must be worth a million, because one glimpse of the video clip will reveal the gist of this article in an instant.
Article by Rick Ziebarth
have many figure skating students at all levels ranging from
novices to high-level competitors. No matter who I am teaching,
one goal remains constant- the teaching of the rhythm aspect. As you will
shortly see, there are some very good reasons for this.
Since I am both a skater and a musician, the parallels between the rhythm
that one must develop in figure skating and rhythm in musical performance
never cease to amaze me. Out of all the maneuvers that comprise figure skating,
I really cannot think of a single element in which rhythm is not present!
Because of this, when I am teaching, I frequently make comparisons between
musical rhythm and the skating gesture the student is trying to do.
Although the rhythms in a musical composition are constantly changing, the timing and rhythm of any particular skating maneuver remain constant due to the positions that the body must assume before executing those maneuvers. To show you what I mean, I will discuss two jumps in particular, the double Salchow (pronounced sal-kow, named after Ulrich Salchow of Sweden, a ten-time world champion in the early 20th century), and the double toe walley.
The figure skating maneuvers that are described below can be seen in short video clips that follow each description. We encourage all website readers to download and view these to make the descriptions much easier to visualize.
A Salchow is a move in which the skater jumps from one skate, completes a full rotation, and then lands on the other skate; in a double Salchow, two rotations are done.
Detailed description of a double Salchow:
What does all of this have to do with rhythm? Believe it or not, most of it! Timing and rhythm are critical for proper execution. The skater must feel a clear sense of pulse (which may or may not correspond to the pulse of the music which might be playing along in a public performance) as soon as stepping into the 3-turn, and the sensed "beat" must remain until the takeoff. In other words, the complexity of the maneuvers done in the air are prepared by rhythmic gestures done on the ice just preceding the jump.
In this particular jump, the count of three will be used as the "meter." For the count to be most effective, it must be slow, smooth, and steady. To make sure that the student gets this, I first demonstrate the entire jump and its preparation. Then, I create the pulse by clapping while the student practices the timing of the 3-turn at the side of the rink. This helps to assimilate the feel of the meter into each position of the gesture. I also like to sketch the overall rhythm in music notation to provide a visual learning tool along with the aural and physical:
Most of my students are already familiar with basic music notation. If they are not, I briefly explain what each symbol is.
Here is how the actual pattern on the ice looks, along with the notation of the overriding meter:
Key:
Once the student can visualize the jump and preparation, along with its meter, practice on it can begin. While I stand at the side of the rink, I count the meter loudly to help the student coordinate the gestures.
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