Listening to recordings

[plunkyplink]

My old piano teacher told me to not listen to recordings of songs that I was learning as it might affect my interpretation of the songs. He said I had good interpretations of songs, and should leave it at that. So, for years I have heeded that advice. Now, on my rekindling of piano lessons and such I downloaded some recordings of songs that I finished learning, but still play and work on. My goodness! I mean, they sound REALLY different than how I play them. My SO was very kind and said he liked how I played the songs much better. 

Any thoughts and opinions? Do you avoid listening to recordings of your songs?

[thalbergmad]

If i am learning a new piece, the first thing i do is to listen to a recording.

This is because my sight reading is rubbish.

I see no harm in listening to recordings, as long as you only treat it as an idea and not a template.

[jre58591]

I see no harm in listening to recordings, as long as you only treat it as an idea and not a template.

this is very true. my teacher encouragesme to listen to a recording, but she also tells me to form my own interpretation of it instead o playing like the performer in the recording.

[bartolomeo_]

I trust myself to interpret the piece my own way after hearing one or more recordings of it.

Listening to recordings is for most people the fastest way to get a general idea of what the piece is about.  It saves a lot of time.  So I do it.

For chamber repertoire it is the only way (unless you are the world's greatest sightreader) because the string players won't tolerate you using rehearsal time to figure out how the parts go together. 

[bennom]

How about learning to read music?

[jas]

How about learning to read music?

You're one of those people who thinks it's okay to be rude to people just because you're posting on the net, are you? Get a grip.

I listen to several recordings of a piece when I'm starting to learn it because it can be easy to take in another pianist's idiosyncracies without realising it. Plus you can judge for yourself how you like the piece to sound that way. I suppose if you have a lot of experience with a particular composer you might want your interpretation to be completely uninfluenced by anyone else's, though.
It's up to you. Just do it the way you feel you get the best results. It's the finished product that's important.

Jas

[bennom]

You're one of those people who thinks it's okay to be rude to people just because you're posting on the net, are you? Get a grip.

Jas

This is my 22nd post on this forum, I'm getting there, have patience. I'm actually quite rude in real life too, but I combine it with laugh and charm, so usually, people are not offended.
And, compared to other forums on the net, people here really seems to be offended by nothing.

But I'm trying to become an internet gentleman!!! Have faith,

BennoM

[jas]

This is my 22nd post on this forum, I'm getting there, have patience. I'm actually quite rude in real life too, but I combine it with laugh and charm, so usually, people are not offended.
And, compared to other forums on the net, people here really seems to be offended by nothing.

But I'm trying to become an internet gentleman!!! Have faith,

BennoM

Ok, apologies for my crabby response. But it's kind of hard to tell when it's written down, especially without any smilies!
As to us being more offended than people on most forums, I can't speak for anyone but myself, but the reason I like this forum is because the people who post here mostly seem to be very nice people, and aware that there's a person behind the post they're responding to.

But if you didn't mean anything by it then fair enough.

Jas

[bennom]

Ok, apologies for my crabby response. But it's kind of hard to tell when it's written down, especially without any smilies!

Your response wasn't crabby, it was justified. Don't get to polite, that would get me started again!!!