Universal Piano Essentials

[lostinidlewonder]

I have been writing a book on studying the piano for the last 10 years and it should be complete in 2-3 more years and then a year or so of revision and editing. Here is a overview of what I have been writing on:

Introduction of Axiom:
The following are principles that should exist at  all levels of piano practice. These points help develop the ability to formulate an efficient approach to musical study.

AXIOM I: [Types of memory]
Identifying the three types of memory and knowing when one is using it.
 
Conscious:   Visual and logical observations of the sheet music and keyboard that aid sight       reading and encourage Muscular memory.

Muscular:   Producing a group of notes with a relaxed movement of our hands.

Sound:   How the sound in our minds eye effects muscular and conscious memory.

AXIOM II: [Observing pattern] Conscious, Muscular and Sound Memory
See, hear and use pattern observation in music to improve sight reading, memory and performance of a score. How to one drill a passage of music mindfully instead of brute force repetitions. How to mark/highlight/color and section sheet music to highlight observations.

AXIOM III: [Using building blocks of music] Conscious, Muscular and Sound Memory
Knowledge of the building blocks of music including; scales, chords and arpeggios and how to observe their pattern, shape,form and sound. How observing pattern allows us to learn more of the piece simultaneously.

AXIOM IV: [Listening to ourself and others] Conscious, Muscular and Sound Memory
Observations made when listening to how ourselves and others express music. How to listen, assess, take note of and make changes to what we are producing while playing.

AXIOM V: [Hand movement and rest] Conscious and Muscular memory
Understanding when the hand has to move and when it should remain about a single position. We will term these as “Movement Groups”. Manipulations of controlled pausing in between movement groups to practice “difficult” sections. Coordination issues such as syncopation (x notes against y), rhythmic accenuation, phrasing etc.

AXIOM VI: [Reading music] Conscious and Muscular Memory
   How to read sheet music and how to make improvements to speed, accuracy and “difficulty”    of what we can fluently sight read.

AXIOM VII: [General knowledge of piano] Conscious and Sound Memory
An appreciation of major classical composers for the keyboard (Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt etc) and various piano styles (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Jazz, Blues, Ragtime etc). How a piano is built.

AXIOM VIII: [Discipline and organization] Conscious Memory
How to increase your rate of learning, knowing ones technical/musical strengths and limitations, how to set long, medium and short term goals. Estimating the time it takes to memorize a piece and measuring/increasing your memorization rate.

AXIOM IX: [Physical posture]  Muscular Memory
How one sits at the keyboard and the various positions for our hands. What is an efficient technique and how do we improve our technical efficiency. The logic behind fingering choices.


The book is at the moment around 600 pages with over 2,000 music examples photographs and diagrams describing each of the axioms for a beginner, intermediate and advanced and also shades in between. It is a very ambitious approach and has presented me with a mount everest of work to get through.

It has been a hobby of mine over the years and a culmination of all my musical knowledge for teaching piano. At the moment the book is more for a young adult to adult, I do not believe a child could understand what I am talking about, the book is for those who actively want to research about study of piano in more depth. The hardest part for me is the bibliography, trying to reference everything with what has already been said (a crucial point for proper study, you have to know which other books to look for) and developing their points or highlighting a difference of opinion, that logic web is making me go crazy.

Please comment on what you think might be missing, some things I didn't list in the Axioms because they are a subset of the axiom, so you might find those things missing. I also do not want to reveal the entire map of my book for fears of plagiarism.

[pianowolfi]

I'm looking forward to reading it

[mike saville]

For me Axiom VIII looks the most interesting. Increased rate of learning leads to achievement and in turn increased motivation.

If you can provide real world scenarios of how your ideas can be applied I think that could potentially be very interesting.

[lostinidlewonder]

For me Axiom VIII looks the most interesting. Increased rate of learning leads to achievement and in turn increased motivation.

If you can provide real world scenarios of how your ideas can be applied I think that could potentially be very interesting.

This is one of the hardest thing to develop of all the axioms as well because it asks you to change the way you live your life. I believe that discipline with respect to music is effected by your circumstances, your environment, your reason for life. Most people treat music as merely a hobby, a curiosity, something that is interesting to do to waste some of your time, they cannot connect to it and relate it to their life as a whole thus they will never approach it as seriously as they could if they changed the perspective of their life (this is of course may seem impossible for some people to even consider, they might have a family to raise, a high demand job etc etc).

Learning musical instruments clearly separates people depending on their discipline. Talent is not important ultimately when studying music it is the ability to power ahead with persistence and determination that makes you a great musician. This means that everyone has to create a time table to work off if they want to approach their music seriously, music has to "hip and shoulder" a dedicated space into your daily routine not simply be fit in where it can.

We actively have to make a change to our daily routine to make a commitment to our music if we want to improve upon our disciplined approach. Too many people simply fit music in-between something or at the end of something, it takes second place. Many people would immediately improve upon their approach to music if they simply give it more importance to their daily routine, make it as important as... say a doctors appointment. This is of course asking a lot of most people but that is the choice they have to make. You do not have to perhaps do it daily but give yourself some more time to it, it must be an inconvenience to your daily schedule then this is getting you somewhere, stop just fitting it in comfortably when it suits yourself.

Personally I find most people can never improve upon this because music is just not important enough for them. To some people it is very important but they simply cannot deal with the amount of work that has to get through to achieve the baby steps toward mastery. Some people need to understand how to dream, how to set goals, how to work towards something. Dreams need to be big, too many people forget how to dream, they forget how to excite themselves with great aspirations, they become pessimistic thinking about the work, about their failures, about the challenges that lie ahead, they "aim for the trees and hit themselves in the foot" instead of "aiming for the stars and hitting the moon",  etc etc. People worry themselves so much that they are not willing to risk to take the first step!

This is certainly a very interesting topic to discuss and I have learnt a lot of it from my father who is director of multi billion dollar engineering projects, the organization, goal setting, time management etc etc, extremely important tools which is multi disciplinary. I found it amazing how someone in engineering management can give advice on musical study and it certainly gave me an interesting perspective on musical study from another disciplinary viewpoint.

A second source for inspiration was from Professor Fiona Walls from the Townsville University, who I taught for a number of years when she was professor at Murdoch University in West Australia (she does research on teaching and has published many papers). Our discussions on the need for actual world experience with a subject (not just theory) when teaching was invaluable. For example with students of piano you may be shocked to realize that many of them have never actually attended a piano solo concert. This is a big part of their education that is missing, people think that videos and recordings substitute this but it does not as our senses are effected differently in a live performance than in a reproduction. So I discuss a lot about experiencing music and attaching that to our disciplined approach to music. Actively loan books from library on piano, read about the composers lives, see art work that inspired the music, read about the history of the countries that the composers lived in etc etc. Actively making this a disciplined part of your approach to music will certainly boost your motivation to practice the piano more.

Things like pianostreet are a wonderful source for piano inspiration because people who come here are using their free time to actively read about piano. I am sure a lot of people from reading threads on here have been inspired to go out and practice their piano harder. With the audition room we can be furthermore inspired by peoples playing, we also can explore music that we might have not heard before.