....the problem might be simply that that people who have professional-level mechanical skills had something in their physical makeup that allowed them to master mechanical difficulties relatively easily....
Ah the mysterious unknown gas of knowledge, the golden rod of power which only few can ever have. I wish this was true, unfortunately even if you have this magical gift it will amount to NOTHING if you do not practice. If you do not have a natural musical gift your skills will amount to SOMETHING if you practice hard, it is what always happens, no one DOESN'T progress if they study hard and correct.
....many of us amateurs would simply never get a hard piece.... up to concert standard, however much we practise with whatever method, simply because we were not born with 'pianist's hands' (a shorthand for notions like natural suppleness, finger independence, neuromuscular coordination and no doubt other things).
This is usually true simply because amateur players could not be bothered to sit at a piano until their problems are solved. Where as ALL great pianists have this one thing in common, TIME is of NO importance when practicing or playing, it is not even considered. What is considered is the work that needs to be done and the comfort that needs to be aquired to produce what we need without effort. This motivation pushes us, amature players simply do not have the motivation to work. All professional players sacrifice a huge amount of their time to studying their instrument where amature players will only make time when they are free.
I have proven this exact point to many students who have said to me, how on earth do you memorise "hard" music. So I simply pull out something hard and ask them ok now memorise the first 10 or so bars for me. Then they will see how much work is required to memorise it but it is exactly the same procedure as when you study easier music, except there are more layers of work to get through, more things to learn to control. IN essense to practice harder pieces you will need to have developed your PRACTICING skills to a very good level. Some people never consider how to improve HOW they practice. They mindlessly repeat sections hoping that repetition will solve everything. It does eventually but it is extremely inefficient and to learn hard music will be out of amateur players grasp not because they cannot physically produce the notes but simply they do not know how to practice to attain muscular/sound memorisation of the passages they play.
Many long-term, dissatisfied amateurs like me have exposed themselves to various books and teachers, who ritually contradict each other, each teacher giving advice based on their own experience with what worked for them (with their pianist’s hands) plus commonsense thoughts about how their pupils (who may not have pianist’s hands) could practise to get the required skills.
Music is not Maths, there is many ways to approach music. One of the main problems learning any instrument is finding time to sit down and actually practice alone. This self disipline is really what seperates those who can play a musical instrument well and those who do it half heartedly. I rely a great deal more on hard work than my own talent to progress in music.
Talent is how effective your ideas/musical expression comunicate to a listener, it can also relate to someones physical ability to play the instrument. So talent in itself should be considered in two ways; the physical technical excecution of notes and the musicality of their playing.
A real talented musician does not have to think of both the physical and emotion, instead they simply produce what music they hear from within. This is fortunate for those who know how to get louder or softer, faster or slower in the music they play, but this is definatly not something that cannot be learnt. It in itself doesn't make a great musician. What makes a great musician is one who has a maximum of musical efficiency and musical efficiency generally relates to how fast a musician can memorise music and then perform at a concert standard.
You will find, once you can play a number of intermediate pieces people (who don't play an instrument themselves) will consider you talented. If they realise the amount of work you put behind it then that fantasy of talent vanishes. So too a musical student should release that talent isn't a prerequisite to become a good musician. When those say I wish I was talented I always reply with you should wish you had more time to give to your music. That is simply the issue most of the times when a student is slow in progress. It is because they cannot dedicate time to the music, they cannot make themselves sit down and study the music themselves. Whether because it really is a time issue and if they have many more commitments is one thing, but if it is because they do not have the facility to create a strategy to study their music, target their problems and work towards memorisation, this is something that can be helped with good tuition.
A music tutor cannot magically create time for a student and hope that 7 days a week the student will work on their music. But the teacher can definatly show the student how to use what little time they give to their music in the most efficient way. 2 hours or inefficient study can be replaced with 30 minutes of efficient study.
I think it is essential that you realise studying music, either theoretical or practical, is unlike any other subject you studied at school. Where in mathematics 1 + 1 = 2 in music 1 + 1 = a few things. One example of this might be when studying Bach. A pianist may have a lot of concern as to volume control since Bach doesn't write any volume dynamics. When you encounter fugues one might be tempted to undergo a journey of trying to determine which voive should be "brought out" more than the other. Or you may balance the volume of the polyphony creating another dimension of sound with the mass of voices acting as one.
What about when we consider fingering? A beginner might assume that all people use the same fingers for a passage of music and there is no other way. In most cases we do, but often different hands sizes call for different fingering, there lies also a lot of variation and subjectiveness which one has to understand rather than try to solve.
Things can become even more confusing when you ask yourself what are the volumes of pppp through to ffff, or how would you effectively excecute a cresendo or decresendo? This is an extremely difficult question to answer with a general statement. One has to consider the instrument and the size of the room. These things effect the volume of your playing, where you might strike a note with 80grams of pressure at home, you might have to strike it with 120grams in a concert hall to produce the same effect. This is where the ear becomes such a dominant figure to control your playing and making the right choices.
This subjectiveness of music is what can make the progress of student erratic if they do not realise how to apply what they are learning, and much more importantly, where to store their musical knowledge.
It is important to be able to categorise where you file your new and old musical knowledge. I find there are three places you can place them:
Not in any order, we target,
1) Physical playing - for instance, how the fingers, palm, wrist, forearm, elbows, shoulders, back, all move at the piano with the given music.
2) Preparation - encompasses some sort of timetable creation, mental or written, writing notes and guides on the sheet music, researching music and composers you play. Mental preparation for perfomance, exam, pressure study etc. Monitoring efficiency of your musical progress and tactics to learn.
3) Interpretation - How to develop the way you hear music and use that to make decisions at the keyboard.
Brief elaboration, on each,
i) Physical Playing
A lot of people playing piano have their progress tied down with the issues of coordination, finger independence and dependance.
Coordination is how well you can play notes in one hand or both hands (x notes in Lh against y notes in Rh, syncopation, rhythmic qualities etc) and observe directions (similar, contrary).
Finger independence is where for example you use one hand or both to reveal more than 1 voice in notes written. Finger dependance is how well you can control shapes in the hand, each finger depends on the another to reveal the overall hand form and shape asked for in the music (arpeggios, chords etc).
If this physical nature is somewhat mastered we are still faced with, Preparation and Interpretation issues.
ii)Preparation
Without correct preparation your efforts will become scattered and inconsistent. Music is a subject which grow and develops best with continual contact. Simply you will not learn much if you do not maintain constant contact with your music.
Even with constant contact established we still must ensure the efficiency of our study. Are we absorbing music at the maximum rate for ourselves, or are we adding unnecessary time and effort to our musical development. Questioning our memorisation rate and how we are observing the music, are we using the general shapes of chords, arpeggio and shapes at the hand to help us learn music etc. We must also consider what repertoire is suitable to develop our ability.
iii)Interpretation
Finally, if we have the physical and preparatory side worked out we will play like emotionless robots if we do not develop our interpretive side to music. One must know how to make musical decisions when learning music and playing. One must understand why music gets louder or softer, or why it slows down or speeds up. How well we develop our ear and sense for music will determine our ability to play music with emotion as well as technique which simply should always go hand in hand.
If all of these three are working together and continually targeted for improvement we will ensure a "Better" growth in our musical development.
Of course I haven't really given advice as to exactly how to maintain any of these three things, rather saying, here is the foundation. Each person will answer HOW to develop these differently.
Horowitz used flat fingers even in fast passages, unlike most others, but his finger work was as good as that of many other great pianists. In Schonberg's 'Great Pianists', we read that some good octave players used only their wrists, while others used larger movements. Some say these days that you can't play fast scales using thumb-under (=thumb turns), but is it really true that every fast scale player in history used thumb-over (=jumps instead of thumb turns)?
As you can see there is no one way about doing things, we must go on a journey of SELF DISCOVERY no one is going to hand over to you a set of instructions which tells you how to play at a masters level, you must experiment, experiment, experiment, trial and error, trial and error, listen to advice, try advice, use advice and alter it to your own prefference. My hands are tired now.
Topic: The secret of a concert standard technique = Be born with it (Read 2453 times)