Best Advice You Ever Received?

[starstruck5]

Here I am talking about advice from a teacher, or even a fellow student, who gave you a piece of advice which saw a marked improvement in ability or attitude. ?

The one piece of advice which made a massive difference to me was quite early on in my studies.  I was playing the Minuet in G - by Bach. I thought I played it ok - the notes were all there-and it was in time and I thought it was perfect. I expected praise. Instead my teacher sat down and played it so beautifully, it was like I was hearing it for the first time.

She told me that before I learn a piece of music, I should sing through it - I should be able to sing every note - where there are multiple parts, I should sing them seperately. In this way we begin to see the melodic structure and the harmonic structure also.  Then when we play the piece we should sing it with our fingers, as well as with our hearts. I understood thenm why Glenn Gould sang as he played!

 When I could sing the Bach Minuet, and remember it perfectly - my playing of the piece came alive - and I was more sensitive to bringing out the  melodic motifs and the sublime little modulation to E Minor, became a thing of awesome beauty to me.

As my studies progressed I found I could remember far more using this method - and even complex pieces which even a virtuoso singer wouldn't attempt -or be able to pitch - can be sung mentally -if not literally - it always helps me.

Anyhow, what is your most treasured piece of advice?

[chopianista]

My latest teacher told me to imagine the piano as one organism with myself - the keys and strings should be an extension of myself. Really interesting advice, I haven't totally figured that out yet, and I think it'll probably be a while before it totally sinks in. Another great piece of advice from him was to imagine the melody as what a singer would sing - for example, with octave jumps in the melody, a singer would have to make a great effort, so I shouldn't just nonchalantly go from one note to another an octave higher. Really simple stuff, but extremely helpful once I actively applied it.

[caioramos]

PRACTICE SLOWLY FOR GOD SAKE!!!

best piece of advice I ever got 

[ethure]

- Learning to play piano is a lifelong matter.
- It's easy. It's difficult.
- It's only about one word - practise.
...

There're a lot more. I'd crave every word that my piano teacher told me in mind. She is a great one.

[jimbo320]

Play every piece like it's your own.....because it is...

[megadodd]

My teacher and I was discussing speed and she gave me one simple advice, make it feel easier than it sounds. And it will sound harder than it feels. Not the other way around.
So basically, a hard passage (not necessarily have to be fast to be hard, but this one was supposed to be) and I practiced it with light fingers really slowly over the entire time I was practicing the rest of the piece. After each 2-3 bars I would play the passage in 50% tempo really relaxed. It was of no effort whatsoever, and I thought I had slowed down after this week of practice. It sure felt like it, but the metronome proved otherwise.

[pianoplayjl]

I had a discussion with my teacher not long ago. It was on improvement of piano practice and how to use it efficiently. Also about scouting a piece when sight reading and how to improve sight reading as a whole. The golden rule of playing piano, as I remember, is: 'Listen to what you are playing.' I never expected that to be the golden rule. There were other suggestions...

JL

[landru]

Just like pianoplayjl, my best advice from my teacher was to listen - really listen. I think what makes a great player is a great listener.

[autodidact]

"It scares me to think what you could accomplish if you were to actually stop being lazy."
 - a friend of mine about a week ago; I decided to take it as advice 

[gsmile]

I was shy and timid when I was younger-- but I liked loud pieces, for expression, I suppose. My playing was reserved. I had a really dynamic teacher for a while, and one day, she said to me, "You're not going break the piano-- use more power!" And I found it very logical-- I can't break the piano. And she literally changed the course of my piano career-- because once I overcame the shyness, many pieces opened up to me-- and I discovered Liszt.

[caioramos]

I was shy and timid when I was younger-- but I liked loud pieces, for expression, I suppose. My playing was reserved. I had a really dynamic teacher for a while, and one day, she said to me, "You're not going break the piano-- use more power!" And I found it very logical-- I can't break the piano. And she literally changed the course of my piano career-- because once I overcame the shyness, many pieces opened up to me-- and I discovered Liszt.

quite a love story xD

[jesc]

she said to me, "You're not going break the piano-- use more power!" And I found it very logical-- I can't break the piano.

My story is quite the opposite, since my teacher told me to use less force.

Well, in my case though... a Samick, I'm breaking strings all the time. In fact I found pianostreet because of the "breaking strings" thread a long time ago.

Ever since I took my teacher's advice the strings I break went to minimum and I also discovered another side to playing the piano: the real musical, less forceful approach.

TBH, okay, another string broke recently but it isn't as bad as it used to be. However, I'll never forget my teacher's reaction when I told her to let me play the grand piano in the college everyday to see if I'll break its strings (my purpose was to find out if my piano was indeed of "abnormal low quality").

[amelialw]

I just got this yesterday from my canada teacher yesterday... She said that it was good that I was really digging into the keys but that it wasn't necessary for Schubert and said it would be perfect for Beethoven!! She asked me how I was going to play at the actual speed haha

The thing is that i started young but never had good solid training till I was almost 17 so I had to dig into the keys to compensate for my weak technique so much so that I didn't realize how much stronger my technique has gotten to the extent I don't need to do that all the time anymore