I want to try and look at this aspect of piano, because I think it's all something we strive for. I want to look at the most minute physical aspects of playing that help us strive for playing the correct keys... I want to look at the psychological aspects that keep our minds focused on the music in front of us.
I look at people like Pollini and Ashkenazy, and Lisitsa as well and wonder what separates their practice regime from ours in general. Do they do something different from us? How do they look at a new piece of music? How do they attain that high level of precision when playing? Is it simply that they spend longer on practicing the pieces than we do, or is there something more?
I tell my students:
You own the piano--it does not own you.
You are the Master and it is YOUR servant.
A piano master makes it look easy---because it IS easy.
Maybe... but how often would you say you have a performance that has had no errors in terms of the technical aspects. Have you managed to play a recital without making a single wrong note? I see many in piano competitions who seem to have the utmost uncanny ability to play with technical precision.
I understand there's no such thing as emotional perfection in playing as people will interpret the music in different ways. I'm not interested in trying to mimic someone elses playing... but at least think about the technical aspect.
I never let these uncontrollable factors go until they are gone. Of course learning a long piece requires that we play it completely with the small mistakes and errors. But we must be meticulous when we go back and remove them, it is tempting to believe they will solve themselves in time and many of them do, but we must give effort to parts which evade this natural improvement and find out why it is stumping us. Stick with them and they will be solved, not everything will naturally solve itself, and certainly our progress can become inefficient if we leave too much to naturally solving itself.
But even there... when is a mistake really solved? Even if you make the mistake once and spend an hour removing it - you'll be surprised to find that days, or even weeks later it will sometimes make an appearance.
I understand the difference between what I like to call practiced mistakes, and spontaneous mistakes. They two types are each in themselves annoying. Although we can take an incredible amount of effort to eliminate any practiced mistakes (like playing scalic passages with not enough evenness in rhythm), after a while I seem to play with small spontaneous mistakes. You blink, or even look away for a second and the brain loses its concentration for even a nanosecond and it can cause really annoying mistakes.
Take for instance a piece you know incredibly well - is it possible to say play it 3 times in a row without even the slightest technical mistake? Is it possible to train your brain to focus all your concentration on that one particular task and keep concentrating at the music at hand. Can you get to a point where you can ensure every single note is right, every movement of your hand is in ABSOLUTE COMPLETE control, and can you guarantee that the physical movements of your hands, arms and shoulders can control themselves to play that piece 3 times without any hesitation or change???
That's what I'd like to really delve into.
Perfection doesn't exist. Humans aren't perfect.
No offense - but I'd say Pollini is the exception. His playing is PERFECT!!!
Topic: Piano perfection...