Question - need your opinion

[mmro]

Is it bad to listen to a recording of a piece you're going to play before reading it for the first time?

[m1469]

Is it bad to listen to a recording of a piece you're going to play before reading it for the first time?

Bad ? No.
Good ? Yes.

Do you have any other questions ?

[mmro]

Yes. Why? 

[m1469]

Yes. Why? 

Just curious. 

Do you plan on asking them anytime soon ? 

[m1469]

Yes. Why? 

ohhhh... hee hee.  I just realize that you want to know why it's good  and that you are not asking me why I ask if you have any other questions ... hee hee.

Anyway, imagine you are standing in front of your love and s/he stares at you deeply, expecting something wonderful to be said from your very lips.  You open your mouth ... but you have nothing to say  .   

When you listen to a piece of music before you play it, you learn what it is about.  Ideally you will want to listen to several recordings (and study them), as well as study the score thoroughly before you play it -- why ?  Because you want to have something to say by the time you sit by your love and open yourself up  .

[term]

neither bad nor good. Depends.
One can also say it is very valuable to work on a piece without having heard it before, you learn about it's content and decide how your interpretation will be from the first note to the last. You'll be surprised how different your interpretation will (often) be.
When i started i used to always listen very carefully to a piece before practice, but today i just get the score of some piece x i never heard before or just once, and start working it out, and after a lot of work i can come up with an interpretation i can truly call individual, with every aspect of it being thought-out (OR just feeling it must be in a certain way, even if i'm not able to expain it).

[counterpoint]

It's bad, because you will imitate all of the faults of the recording when you don't know what the composer really has written at this moment. And the tempo is always too fast in almost any recording. 

[ramseytheii]

If you were starting to learn the Liszt sonata, and Horowitz was coming to town to give a live performance of the sonata, (and you magically had a ticket ) would you stay home just because you were about to learn that piece and you didn't want to be influenced?  The idea is absurd.  You should hear it as many times as you can, live or in recording.

Walter Ramsey

[mmro]

I ask because I think that if I got used to that with time maybe I'd be dependent on that ç, and couldn't play a piece by myself without listening to a recording first

[pianochick93]

I like to listen to a piece to get the general idea of it, but I don't always.

To learn a piece without hearing how rhythm goes, it strengthens my sightreading, if I have heard the piece before, I can focus more on the notes than on the rhythm.

I generally find something easier to learn if I have heard a recording, but also a piece has to be played from ones own interpretation. If you listen to the one recording of a piece over and over, or even a few recording of a piece over and over, you might adopt the interpretation of the pianist(s) playing the recordings.

When I am half-way through a piece is generally when I start listening to recordings of it. I can see what bits I have got drastically wrong, but by then I would have developed how I believe the finer points should sound.

[anna_crusis]

Is it bad to listen to a recording of a piece you're going to play before reading it for the first time?

Isn't that a bit like asking another person what your own opinion is?

[ramseytheii]

I ask because I think that if I got used to that with time maybe I'd be dependent on that ç, and couldn't play a piece by myself without listening to a recording first

I wouldn't worry too much about becoming a recording addict.

If you get your interpretations from listening to recordings, what will happen to you when you listen to two or more different recordings?  You'll be forced to make a choice.  Then, you will end up with a product that was built from your own choices, that won't resemble any recording.  And anyways, why should anyone feel guilty for being captivated by a recording?  If they are making a slavish imitation, it will wear off eventually, or their teacher will talk them out of it.

Listen to recordings as often as possible, and go to concerts even more.  If you wouldn't stop yourself from going to concerts when learning a piece, why stop yourself from listening to recordings?

Walter Ramsey

[leonidas]

It's bad, because you will imitate all of the faults of the recording when you don't know what the composer really has written at this moment. And the tempo is always too fast in almost any recording. 

Too fast to facilitate your recreation? 

[jinlys]

I like to listen to piano pieces before I play them myself, because it gives me an idea of what the piece is about. Just a general idea...

I find it very hard to work out everything for myself all alone, and it saves me a huge amount of time when I just listen to it for a few times to catch the melody and rhythm. Of course I don't listen to any badly played youtube-videos, I rather try to find something that I really think is extremely well played.

But I do think as well that it would bring me further in playing if I did everything by myself.

[bluepuri]

I like to listen to piano pieces before I play them myself, because it gives me an idea of what the piece is about. Just a general idea...

I find it very hard to work out everything for myself all alone, and it saves me a huge amount of time when I just listen to it for a few times to catch the melody and rhythm. Of course I don't listen to any badly played youtube-videos, I rather try to find something that I really think is extremely well played.

But I do think as well that it would bring me further in playing if I did everything by myself.

Totally agree. But in order not to let the interpretation get into you, maybe you shouldn't listen to it too often.

[thalberg]

In a masterclass, Emmanuel Ax said it's not bad to listen to recordings, because if you can sound like Horowitz, what's wrong with that?