The Yamaha Disklavier: Applications for Studio Use
Allen C. Henderson, Austin Peay State University
In the private studio, teachers wear many hats: teacher, scholar, advisor, substitute parent, disciplinarian, keen observer, and coach, among others. In the private voice studio the voice teacher’s greatest tools are his or her ears and eyes. The student is more likely to receive the greatest benefit when the teacher is able to devote the whole of these two senses to the student during lessons. For those who are "pianistically challenged", like myself, there is a constant struggle to devote as much attention as possible to students while also accompanying, or attempting to do so.
For the past year, through an arrangement with Yamaha, I have been using a Yamaha Disklavier in my studio. It has become an invaluable tool in my teaching. At Austin Peay State University, the typical voice major has a one hour lesson per week. Most students have an accompanist for half their lesson. However, there exists a number of times when the accompanist is not available, due to illness, other engagements, etc. And what about that other half hour? The Yamaha Disklavier has served its purpose well this year in my studio. I have structured my presentation into three sections: A brief overview of the Disklavier, How I have used it in the vocal studio, and how it has benefitted me in my teaching.
The Disklavier is a high-tech player piano. More specifically it is an acoustic piano with an optic sensoring system and computer control unit which measure the speed and incidence of every hammer strike as well as every movement of the pedals. This information is then recorded on a floppy disk for playback. This results in a what you play is what you get reproduction by simply depressing the play button on the control panel. All the nuance, dynamic range, pedaling, and articulation are reproduced as they were played into the Disklavier. In addition the Disklavier has MIDI in/out jacks which allow it to functions as a MIDI controller. The Disklavier opens many creative directions for teachers and students alike.
I have used the Disklavier in a variety of ways during the past year:
1. Accompanying: Each student provides a disk which is kept in my office during the semester. Each student’s accompanist plays their accompaniments into the Disklavier, providing accompaniments for our use in their absence. This helps us use lesson time wisely in the absence of an accompanist. Using the control panel or remote control, I am able to rewind and fast-forward accompaniments. This allows me to begin anywhere within the accompaniment. Right and left hands can also be recorded separately
2. Transposing: Once a song is entered, I can use the transpose function to transpose up to two octaves up or down. This is helpful when a student is having trouble negotiating a particularly high passage. The accompaniment can easily be transposed down and then the student can work back up by half-step.
3. Tempo: When students are learning new material it is often helpful to slow the tempo, especially when trying to learn songs in foreign languages.
4. Repetition Mode: The Disklavier has several repeat modes. The two used most often in the studio are the A- and A-B repeat modes. The A- mode is useful when students have difficulty in a particular phrase and need to repeat it several times. The Disklavier allows me to set point A, and return to it easily. The A-B mode allows me to specify a section which can be repeated.
5. Metronome: The built in metronome is a useful tool integrated into the control unit.
6. Practice: The Disklavier has been an excellent practice tool for my personal preparation. During rehearsals with my accompanist, we record various accompaniments for my use in private practice.
Using the Disklavier has allowed me to adjust my teaching methods in several positive ways and notice several positive observations:
1. When students do not have an accompanist in their lesson, I am still able to devote my full attention to observing their singing. I no longer have to struggle through difficult accompaniments. In many cases, I have observed vocal problems earlier using the Disklavier because of the ability to better observe students in lessons. For this reason, even teachers with good piano skills also benefit from their use of the Disklavier
2. Accompanists have noticed improvements they can make in their accompanying as a result of hearing their accompaniment played by the Disklavier.
3. The Disklavier aids student practice. Although we have only one Disklavier on campus this year, I have allowed students to use my office for limited practice. Providing several Disklaviers in practice rooms is anticipated for next year. We hope to see an increase in practice among students because, apart from scheduled time with their accompanist, they may simply take their disk into the practice room at any moment of the day.
4. Using the remote control provided with the Disklavier allows me control of the piano no matter where I am in the studio. This prevents constant ‘fidgeting’ with the control panel.
5. Lesson time is spent much more efficiently.
Yamaha is also providing help for Disklavier users on the Internet. A Disklavier Users Group was formed by Michael Bates of Yamaha. To subscribe, send a message to dug-request@westnet.com. Leave the subject area blank and type subscribe in the body of the message. You will receive a message welcoming you to DUG and information on how to post messages to the list. Many Yamaha certified Disklavier technicians are members of the group providing many opinions and advice to users. Over the Internet it is also possible to download a wide variety of Disklavier files and play them on your Disklavier. The following sites among others are sources of Disklavier files. http://crca-www.ucsd.edu/bobw/ disklavier.html and http://www.yamaha-network.com/index.html. As a singer and teacher, I have been satisfied with the Disklavier. It is a versatile tool which has enhanced and extended my teaching methods.