rant on people complaining about difficulty threads

[pmz310]

    Greetings,

     If you do not know me, allow me to introduce myself: Paul Zambrano (a.k.a pmz310).  Now, I know that difficulty rating threads are extreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeemly annoying and pointless, but is it really worth your energy saying how pointless it is?  People are just curious, even it is most of the time relative comparison, and don't mean to annoy other individuals.  IMO, learning the difficulty of different pieces is actually good, because you can set yourself goals to achieve a certain point.  Anyways, my point is, stop complaining about these "annoying" threads and go with the flow, because no matter how much you complain about them, they will still keep coming

    I rest my case,
    Paul

[gerry]

OK - I'll jump in with a response to this as one who occasionally questions (or rants if you will) why people ask about difficulty. I have no problem with discussions regarding interpretive difficulties; i.e., the obvious difficulties of interpreting Chopin Mazurkas regarding the divergent approaches to rhythmic challenges with the 3/4 dance; the difficulties encountered with voicing in Bach fugues, etc. It's when I sense one is asking, "is this piece too difficult for me" that I react as I do. Bear in mind that the question is being posited to an anonymous group, none of whom you really know or trust other than what they've posted - so, how much can you trust their response. If the response is 60%-40% "piece x is really difficult" - how do they know your (or how do you know their) level of proficiency? What may be difficult to them may be less so for you - or vice versa. And, most importantly, if some anonymous, faceless poster on this forum says, yes, piece x is difficult, does that stop you from wanting to try?

I will always maintain that one should read through the piece, observe the passages that seem insurmountable, and make your own decision as to whether or not you will "shelve" the piece for future or work slavishly to overcome the difficulties. In the end, you are the best judge of what is difficult for you. Your resolve in this matter is what will make you a good, better-than-average, or possibly great musician.

I might be silenced on this subject if someone would just give me a reason what good it does to hear from someone else if a piece is too difficult for you to play without first taking the time to reason this for yourself either through listening or reading through the music.  It just sounds like some are looking for an excuse not to try.

[cygnusdei]

[nanabush]

Lol I find that (I did this as well) that when ppl first join the forum, they post threads like this... usually it's ppl with less than 100 posts who actually create these, and they don't know that they could get torn apart for it... eventually, the search function is discovered, and they don't post these...  I actually like them, though... kinda cool to see ppl's opinions on these, which sometimes have several pieces that I'm playing/ have played...