REading versus performance abilities

[hyrst]

Hi,
Just wondering what people would do in this situation.
I have a student who is a great sight-reader and can read and fairly quickly play at tempo grade 8 plus pieces.  She wants to play pieces that challenge her and is bored by pieces that are too easy to read and memorise.  However, her technique is inadequate for the consistent and subtle musical control of these pieces.  She has worked hard on building technique and does lots of work here without successfully carrying this technique into her performances. 

Would you reduce the complexity of her pieces?  Do you think she needs to play pieces that are easy reading for her to grow technically or is it possible for her to feel a little stretched here and still improve technically? 

My own inclination is to allow her to play 'interesting' pieces - those that challenge her - and to do lots of Czerny type studies.  However, I am concerned that if she is always feeling stretched by the demands of the music she might not be able to relax enough to develop good technique in her repertoire.

What would you do and what would you tell her, please?

[guendola]

Give her a lot of simple short but musically interesting pieces to play. Simple four liners such as many dances by Schubert are great for this. And here comes the crucial point: Go through these pieces note by note (don't forget the breaks) and discuss with here how they can be played and why - technically and musically. This should open up perfectly new horizons and challenges to her and she should realise that learning the physical part of a piece of music is only a small part of the work that needs to be done.

Of course technique is important these days, especially while some people instantly stop listening when they notice the first mistake. But what could any technique be good for when it is not applied properly with the aim of making good music?

Oh, and please her with some larger projects as well where she can apply the new experiences!

[hyrst]

Thank you

[db05]

I hope you don't mind me putting my 2 cents in.

I think it's not to do with the technical level, but the time and intensity she gives each piece. Even if she can sight read, even memorize and reasonably play a piece, doesn't mean she has gained an intimate relationship with the piece. For me it takes months after I learn something, but then I'm just starting so these are easier pieces (which makes me weird yes).

You say she gets bored easily. That is not good. Again, it's not about technical levels. If you like Fur Elise, really really like it, it wouldn't matter if it's just grade 3 or 4. She just hasn't found her thing yet. That's too bad since I think she's very talented. You're a great teacher.

I think the answer is more listening, and discussion about the music. Preferably she should choose a piece and really make it her own. My classmates do it all the time. They never get bored. We'll all just bore each other with our "master pieces" LOL.

[guendola]

"really make it her own"

I have to remember that

To a musician this should be second nature, but I guess that's theory...

[Bob]

I'm not sure if I'm following it correctly, but...

Maybe work on medium-level pieces (medium for her) and focus on the upper elements?

It sounds like she's not focusing on higher level things so much, but she can sight-read pretty well.  She might have good technique too, but if she's not spending enough time on a piece though or might not be focusing on those higher things.

[hyrst]

Thank you, everyone.  Thanks for the affirmation, db05 - you have no idea how much I needed that right now.

I will combine all your ideas.  She plays Romantic music farily well, with expression and understanding.  She is also quite happy doing basic technical exercises.  I think I might be able to help her if together we can find a motivation to stay with a piece not just for the sake of that piece, but for the sake of improving her skill in projecting a range of musical style - thus improving what she can do musically even while sight reading.

I will try her on easier pieces and encourage her to challenge herself with perfection rather than difficulty.  I hoep this works.

Thanks

[guendola]

It is so obvious but I forgot to mention it - lower level thought of the "make it your own" idea:

When she is able to sight-read a piece without mistakes, she might think that she has mastered it. Of course that is wrong. she needs to know what comes next. This is where the small pieces come in: Since there is pretty much no time at all involved in playing them without mistakes you can spend like 15 minutes exploring the musical possibilities there and then tell her to explore it - or a new piece - at home. The crucial point of this exercise though is that she needs to understand what it is good for.

[hyrst]

That sounds good, Guen. I see what you mean more from this post.

[db05]

Thank you, everyone.  Thanks for the affirmation, db05 - you have no idea how much I needed that right now.

You're very welcome, ma'am!  You give me much good advice, I wonder if you are my teacher. LOL! But that student of yours is the exact opposite of me, I wish I could sight read well enough.

This may sound silly, maybe you could watch Nodame Cantabile together. It's about a girl who can play much anything by ear but needs to be taught attention to detail. She improves a lot, and becomes good enough to join in piano competition. 

[hyrst]

   I am flattered!  It's nice to know I'm not useless!  LOL!

I haven't heard of that movie.  It's worth tracking down?

[db05]

ARE YOU REALLY MY TEACHER?!?!

[hyrst]

 

[db05]

  I am flattered!  It's nice to know I'm not useless!  LOL!

I haven't heard of that movie.  It's worth tracking down?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nodame_Cantabile

It is not a movie. It is a series (still ongoing I think). Nodame comes in three flavors: manga, anime and live action. You can have it your way!  Take it all in, or just skip to the parts about piano.

[mcdiddy1]

Well it depends on  where you feel she is not improving in technique. I think the root of this students problem is she approaches music by sight reading through the entire piece without understanding the essence or technical challenges of the piece before hand. This is a time for a sight reading and thiere is a time in practice for learning a piece and this student needs to understand that sight-reading is not learning a piece!

Sight-reading at the end of the day is skill that simply makes music reading easier and quicker but what it is not is not a through clear and understanding of the piece .
She needs to completely change the way she practices.

First when she sees a piece particually difficult pieces she needs to from day one start working on the most difficult areas of the piece or places that require a specific techniques such as wrist rotations, wrist staccatos, fast passages that requiqre strong finger tip or raising the wrist to change the color of the notes. Use techniques procedures to accomplish music goals and you as the teacher have to lead her to pieces that she cannot sight- read and show her ahead of time how to do this. The solution cannot not be to take steps backwards and give her pieces that are not challenging for her read but she is forgeting to apply the technique. You have to infuse the technique from the very begining so it can become ingrained her playing of the piece. She will auto matically always perfrom the technique because that is what she has done form day one.

She should start thinking of the mood of the piece, tempo, character, intention, melodic and rhythmic direction.

She should recogniqe tonal and harmonic relationships, key changes, important chords

She needs to understand form, differnces in structure, dynamic differences, diffent textures, voices and nuance. There is no way you can play all of that just by playing from beggining to end. For example if you give her a concerto or Chopin etude, unless you are Franz Liszt or have an incredible amount of experience you are not going to be able to simply sight-read it all the way through.

As far as her not being bored by being able to sight -read through the material.. change the material! You can find pieces that it would be impossible to read through with out overcoming difficialties first!

This is coming from someone who was is a confessed sight-reader so I have seen the usefulness of sight-reading and well as its short coming and it is far more difficult to ingrain a piece where you used the wrong technique for so long and then put in the right technique after playing it so many times the wrong way. I suggest you give her Bercuse by Chopin. It is a beautiful piece that is decepitvly tough and diffcult to sight read but incorporates many pianisit techniques ..Good luck!