Contacting Bernhard

[elriba]

Hi,
I would like to contact Bernhard to ask him a question.    I tried to send a message through the board, but I don't know if he gets these anymore.
If anyone has his email, and/or are friends with him, would it be possible for you to tell him that I would like to contact him.    My email is edgard.riba@gmail.com.
Thanks,
Edgard Riba

[mosis]

What would you like to know?

I'm sure he has answered the question somewhere.

[pianowolfi]

What would you like to know?

I'm sure he has answered the question somewhere.

Well there might be people who miss him not because they want to pester him with questions but because they miss him as a good person and wonderful human being

[alzado]

"The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on--
Not all your piety or wit can call it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all your tears wash out one word of it."

--Omar Kayam

-------------------------------

I feel in my heart that Bernhard is gone.  Not all our longing can recall one syllable of Bernhard's wisdom or kindness. 

[nightingale11]

 

[berrt]

Bernhard is a busy man.... no time.

You are near him? Send him our compliments.

B.

[elriba]

What would you like to know?

I'm sure he has answered the question somewhere.

I'm a 46 yr. old piano student (about grade 2-3) from Panama (Central America).     My inquiry is not so much about me (because I already have a teacher with his set method), but for my son.   I have a 5 year old son which is about to start taking piano lessons.    I have talked to the person who would be his teacher about Bernhard's methods, talked to him for literally a few hours on his posts, and even given him printouts of his posts.   He seems to be pretty excited about what we have talked, and seems to be willing to try this new way of teaching with my son (e.g. 30 minute classes every day, a set of pieces to work on, etc...).

Bernhard talked about how he had a written set of objectives for what his students would accomplish in the first 6 months - 1 year.

I wanted to ask him if it would be possible for me to get a copy of those objectives to further help me and my son's teacher to set up this.

Other things I wanted to ask him.    For how long should he do the 30 minutes classes every day?   A whole year or more?  Should he start with the list of pieces even though he is this young - what could be that list of songs - , or is there a reasonably good method (given that Bernhard doesn't live in Panama :-))    And just any other piece of advice for us.

I think that as this "experiment" becomes successful, and I'm pretty sure it will be, more and more people will want to learn piano with these methods, and this will become something positive for music in Panama.

At a time I had some mixed feelings about having my own son going through this, but I'm pretty confident now that this would be the best way for him to learn.   The fact that his teacher is so excited to do this has also been encouraging.

Best regards,
Edgard

[mosis]

I'm a 46 yr. old piano student (about grade 2-3) from Panama (Central America).     My inquiry is not so much about me (because I already have a teacher with his set method), but for my son.   I have a 5 year old son which is about to start taking piano lessons.    I have talked to the person who would be his teacher about Bernhard's methods, talked to him for literally a few hours on his posts, and even given him printouts of his posts.   He seems to be pretty excited about what we have talked, and seems to be willing to try this new way of teaching with my son (e.g. 30 minute classes every day, a set of pieces to work on, etc...).

Bernhard talked about how he had a written set of objectives for what his students would accomplish in the first 6 months - 1 year.

I wanted to ask him if it would be possible for me to get a copy of those objectives to further help me and my son's teacher to set up this.

Other things I wanted to ask him.    For how long should he do the 30 minutes classes every day?   A whole year or more?  Should he start with the list of pieces even though he is this young - what could be that list of songs - , or is there a reasonably good method (given that Bernhard doesn't live in Panama :-))    And just any other piece of advice for us.

I think that as this "experiment" becomes successful, and I'm pretty sure it will be, more and more people will want to learn piano with these methods, and this will become something positive for music in Panama.

At a time I had some mixed feelings about having my own son going through this, but I'm pretty confident now that this would be the best way for him to learn.   The fact that his teacher is so excited to do this has also been encouraging.

Best regards,
Edgard

You know, it is amazing that you've found such an open-minded teacher for your son. If I may ask, why did you have mixed feelings about the approach?

I've been going through Bernhard's posts lately, so I will try to answer your questions from what I can remember. You can find all this information buried somewhere amongst his 4000 posts. 

I think he's briefly mentioned examples of what some of his students have accomplished early on. I know there was one post about a little girl who had been playing for 4 or 5 months, and had 9-10 pieces at performance level. There was another post about an older woman who wanted to learn a Schubert impromptu, and in just 6 months she had the impromptu plus some other very beautiful (and not that easy!) pieces.

I think the point he was trying to make is that it just depends. The approach will be different for your son. First and foremost, does he want to play piano, or are you forcing him? It seems the biggest factor at such an early stage in his musical development is interest. Developing music appreciation will also be important at this stage.

Daily lessons seem to proceed for 6 months, on average. Basically, Bernhard is trying to get the student to a point where he does not have to watch everything he does like a hawk to ensure no bad habits are ingrained. Once the student has learned how to learn, lessons drop to bi weekly and weekly, and I believe Bernhard has mentioned monthly lessons for his most advanced students.

Don't expect your son's teacher to teach like Bernhard. Bernhard has many decades of experience behind him. He has been through it all. Perhaps it is better to think of Bernhard principles moreso than the specific method. He stresses learning how to learn above all else, getting the most from the pieces (i.e. everything; technique, history, theory, analysis), and perhaps most importantly, only playing what one absolutely loves, regardless of difficulty. It is the teacher's job to help the student achieve these goals.

Good luck with your son!