Not allowed to play Rachmaninov's Prelude by teacher

[princessdecadence]

I recently just started taking lessons again after years of playing the piano without one.  During those time I have been playing various songs which are above my reach and one of them is Rachmaninov - Prelude op.23 no. 5.  Kinda fell in love with the song and started learning it.  I got by until the first bit of the second them.  In my most honest opinion, I don't think I play it well but am not bad - I can even play the song by memory. 

However, after my 6th lesson (haven't had anymore) with this teacher (he's a student teacher - just learning to major the piano himself).  He told me not to play that certain song because it will affect my finger's flexibility.  Very upset I was when he told me to play Chopin's nocturne (Eb) instead - not that I don't like the song but it's lovely and am handling it better.  It irks me that I am not allowed to practice this prelude.  If I had more of his guidance and practiced the song - I know I'll be able to play it much better than I can currently.  I've been a good girl and stopped playing it (although I slip sometimes).

The big question is, is it a sound advice coming from him? Not to play this song because it might 'ruin' my finger flexibility and he would have to work double hard to correct my fingers if I don't follow his advice. He thinks that the piece is currently too hard for me.

xx

Anastasia

[xvimbi]

Here is my opinion:

I believe that a teacher, even a starting one, with a reasonable amount of experience with the piano will know roughly what is within the reach of a pupil, so I would give your teacher the benefit of the doubt. On the other hand, your teacher should respect your wish. So, a compromise should be found. Your teacher already knows that you really want to play this piece. You could ask for other pieces that build up the technique required to play the target piece. That might be exactly what your teacher is doing, which would be very commendable, because IMO it's the right approach.

At the same time, I think, there is nothing wrong with you already working on sections of your target piece that are already within your reach and even those that are slightly outside your reach. If your teacher is concerned about you acquiring bad habits from bad movements, then he should show you right away what he considers to be good movements. Any reasonable student should then see right away whether a piece is doable or not and should be able to devise a proper path to it.

Have fun!

[maxy]

"He told me not to play that certain song because it will affect my finger's flexibility"

That sounds weird... I don't see how it could do that.

[happyface94]

Well, it does require some huge hands to play this piece. I myself love that piece. However, if this piece is not for your level, do not play it, it is the absolute most mistake students do.

[princessdecadence]

@xvimbi - Thanks a lot for your helpful advise.  I'll give it a break for now( reluctantly)

@maxy - He did say that and something along the lines of Rachmaninov's own style as a composer which, as xvimbi says, would acquire bad habits from the piece. 

@happyface94 - and I have tiny pair

[steve jones]

Out of interest, what is the largest interval you need to reach in this piece? I heard the big fella could manage a 13th, but sure he cant be using this to regularly in his compositions?

Rachmaninov is way above my level, but I do love his music so I hope to attempt some of his stuff in the future.

[happyface94]

How old are you? If you still havent completed grown up, maybe it is a good idea.

Furthermore, the problem isnt really the "reach", its playing the notes in between the reach.

[steve jones]

Im 24 Happyface, so its highly unlikely I'll grow any further. But I see your point on getting to the inner notes, very tricky.

Personally my reach is an issue. Its a shame because all of my fingers are fairly long an thin, other than my 5! I can reach an octave with 1 - 2, and 2 - 5. I can reach a 9th with 1 - 3. Yet I can only just reach a tenth with 1 - 5, and this is at a real stretch.

I hope as my flexibility improves this will to, but I dont expect miracles. Shame, because I love the big mans music and would love to study it when ready.

[robertp]

I agree with xvimbi, as usual  . Just expanding slightly....

If your teacher is otherwise suitable, give benefit of doubt. Even relatively new teachers have a lot of experience. I'm not so sure about the finger flexibility issue. If he had something like risking repetitive stress and you were after, say, a Liszt piece with big fast runs of double octaves, there would probably be a point. You could always ask for clarification.

You could ask for more information, such as when you could think about that piece. And  he might suggest series of pieces which could lead up to it -- Bernhard's always doing this here.

And of course there's nothing which stops you from working on a bit here and there. I did that with several of the bigger Brahms pieces long before I knew I'd get them. Kept me happy, and made me realize I had a way to go. Now that I'm actually playing them, I have no regrets, i.e. the earlier noodling didn't hurt a bit when it came to doing the entire pieces.

[princessdecadence]

I will ask him for a better clarification.  I've stopped having lessons with him now, maybe in my next lesson (7th) I'll ask him when I can start thinking about this piece and I'll definitely prepare my Eb Nocturne nicely so he'll have nothing to say.  I still will do a bit of twinkling just to refresh my memory.  I don't want to lose what I already can play by memory.

I'm 21 years old and I can reach an octave with 1-4 easily and 1-3.  My fingers has gone pretty flexible.  With the Eb Nocturne I'm playing G and F (so less than an octave) with fingers 2 and 5 unisonly, this one's a bit of a stretch but I'm alright.

I don't think my fingers will grow anymore. How I wish I have longer fingers.

I hope I will get to play this prelude soon, last time I played, I was working on how to play the 3rd melody going at the last bits of the second theme. It's a beautiful piece, I get excited just talking about it.