The Classical Introduction Podcast

I am happy to announce that the first episode of the podcast is here! You can now listen and learn about classical music!

Head over to the Podcast page or click here to access the podcast on Spotify. If you would rather read or read along with the podcast, the transcript is down below.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Hello, and welcome to the Classical Introduction podcast! I'm your host, Katelyn Martinez, and today I would like to share my journey in the wonderful world of classical music.

I was surrounded by music from a very young age. My mother is a fantastic pianist, and I can remember listening to her practice piano in the house when I was little, and I would sing and dance to the melodies that she played. The Christmas season was my all-time favorite, because my mom would play my favorite arrangements of Christmas songs.

When I was about 8 years old, my parents put my twin sister and I in piano lessons. I don’t really remember much about my early lessons, but my sister and I slowly learned all of the notes and techniques, until eventually, we had our first piano recital.

To be honest, I don’t even remember what piece I played, all I could remember was that I was terrified. Stage fright is something that all musicians struggle with- even to this day performances make me nervous. My hands are sweaty and cold all at the same time, my body shakes with adrenaline, and my mind races to remember all of the melodies and dynamics of the music I’d learned. I am happy to say that I have grown to be more comfortable on stage, but I don’t think I will ever be completely rid of stage fright.

Every year, we would often have two recitals, a spring recital, and a Christmas recital. As a child I didn’t like recitals at all, but out of the two the spring recital was my favorite. I had the choice of playing pretty much whatever I wanted, a hymn arrangement, a song from a popular movie, or a classical piece. I was very comfortable with hymn arrangements, as I have played offertories and specials for church before, and I loved playing the popular songs because they’re just - fun! Classical pieces, however, took me a long time to truly love and appreciate.

I don’t think I liked classical music when I was younger because it was so hard for me to play, so it took hours and hours of practice. Classical music is full of scales, arpeggios, and other techniques- none of which I enjoyed practicing on a daily basis. Due of its complicated techniques, Classical music required much more effort and accuracy than I was used to. I had to be very self-disciplined in my practice -which I was not at the time- and that meant I had to work on the piece slowly, focusing on the correct rhythms, notes, and fingering.

My piano teacher encouraged me to practice with metronome – a mechanism that helps you stay at a constant pace while you are playing – but I hated playing with it. It was annoying to me – the constant tick tock tick tock- it drove me insane, and I felt that it was more of a distraction than a help to me. She had to practically force me to play with the metronome, and I would eventually realize that it was actually improving my rhythm and evening out my speed. One lesson learned, my piano teacher actually knows what she’s talking about!

At this point, I was in fourth grade, and my school required us to be in a recorder choir. Looking back, I have great respect for my music teacher, who had to put up with about twenty kids squeaking and squawking on their little plastic recorders. I am thankful that I did have to learn the recorder because it helped me the next year when we transitioned into band. My school was a small Christian school, and we did not have a very large band at all. When we started, I don’t even think we had a dozen players, but we had lots of fun learning our new instruments. I chose the clarinet, because both my mother and my grandmother played it when they were in high school and they both marched with it in college. My mother still had the clarinet that both her and my grandmother played, so she gave it to me to carry on the tradition. For me though, it meant that if I broke it I would be in serious trouble. The clarinet I play today is the same one I had in middle school, and I’m still scared of dropping it!

My sister chose the flute, so we were a good paring because there are many duets written for flute and clarinet. Since we both played the piano, we could also accompany each other when the other wanted to play a solo. My sister and I never took lessons for our instruments, but the Lord took the talents that we had and grew them in an amazing way. We were able to play in competitions for both piano and our respective instruments, and were able to place pretty much every year in high school. Our senior year was a highlight though, because my sister and I made it to Nationals. We placed first in state with a Rachmaninoff piano duet, and we went to nationals we placed fourth in the nation. I was shocked! I didn’t think we were going to do well at all, but the Lord blessed our hard work and gave us that wonderful opportunity.

During high school I rediscovered classical music in a way, and I soon developed a strong passion for it. I especially loved the Romantic era of classical music and I listened to symphonies and concertos from that era on a regular basis. I think it’s my favorite because I realized that classical music doesn’t have to be rigid and logical, but it can be free and floating with soaring melodies that can express grief, anger, love, or joy. I loved Romantic classical music so much that my piano teacher had to explain to me that I couldn’t play these Romantic and Impressionistic pieces all the time and that I would have to continue learning pieces from the Baroque and Classical eras.

Now here comes my dislike for metronomes again. I liked that I didn’t have to use the metronome for the Romantic pieces as much because they often had something called rubato – slowing down or speeding up at the desire of the musician – to help express it’s musical phrases. Classical and Baroque music however, didn’t have rubato, they were very strict with their rhythms and technical passages, so I had to stay at a consistent speed, or else the piece would fall apart. I did eventually come to appreciate these aspects of Classical and Baroque music, because it was the foundation upon which the Romantic pieces were based off of. It didn’t change the fact that I would rather play a Romantic piece over a Classical one, but nevertheless I learned to play both.

I am very grateful to my piano teacher for making me learn, practice, and play classical music because it taught me to stretch myself musically. I would start off looking at the music and think that I would never in a million years be able to play it, but she worked with me faithfully and consistently, and in the end I would learn the piece and be able to play it. She taught me that even if the music looks extremely difficult, always with some determined and consistent practice I would be able to master it.

I am also very thankful for my parents who put me into music. I didn’t have any say in the matter, but they wanted me to develop my talents for the Lord and be able to use music to glorify Him and be a blessing to other believers. I now know that I will be able to use music in ministry for the rest of my life, and I owe it all to my parents. Yes, they paid for my lessons, but they also had to put up with some horrific piano playing as my sister and I grew into the musicians we are today.

Today I am still using my music for the Lord. I sing in choir for both my church and college, play in our college’s symphonic band, and play the piano for soloists and in church services.

If you are thinking about taking piano lessons or any music lessons of any kind, I highly encourage you to do so. It will give you so many opportunities to be a blessing to those around you.

Thank you for listening to The Classical Introduction podcast! If you would like to learn more about classical music stay tuned for our next episode, or head over to our blog that is linked in the description. Be sure to follow and stay notified for new episodes coming soon! I’m Katelyn Martinez, and I’ll see you next time.