question on curiosity About YouTube concert pianists and playing the piano

[karenvcruz]

My piano playing colleagues and our professors were having some debates about watching concert pianists in the youtubes..  We were actually discussing about speed in playing some pieces.

One of pur esteemed professors mentioned that it would be better if we learn a piece very well first before watching YouTube piano players.  He said that  everything one needs to learn about speed, rhythm, etc. are all on the score or music sheet, provided, we have a very good piece that are urtext.  According to him, some of the pianists we watch in YouTube appear to have exaggerated the speed of the way the play certain pieces and therefore treat the art of piano playing more as if they were athletes in the Olympics.  He advised us that we should master the pieces first and then when we know it by heart, then we watch or listen to some recordings just for the expression, and eventually create our own form of expression.

Deep inside, I know he is right. Some of my  peers agree and my professors were also debating on this issues.  However, sometimes, I do have a dilemma.  for instance, I play Debussy's Suite Bergamasque.  I have been used to playing Prelude following a speed similar to Cicollini.  however, when I listened to Claude Arrau, he was much slower.  I am starting to wonder whether those I watch in YouTube are really playing the pieces following the right speed, or are they just pulling my leg (e.g. Freddy Kempf's Sonata Pathetique, or Langlang's rendition of some pieces.)

am interested to know what you think of: Watching Youtube pianisits to copy speed, or just really stick to what the score says?

[Bob]

Sounds like a prof spewing out whatever.

Absorb as much as you can.  Watch/listen as much as you can. 

Yes, follow the score.  Doing whatever the larger music culture says is ok is good to keep in mind too.  They usually say follow the score, do what the composer meant.

I don't quite buy the idea of 'infecting' yourself by listening to someone else play a piece.

People are going to play pieces that are more athletic.  Some might push it more to show that they can.  Or maybe that's what they thought the composer meant.  Maybe they're right. 

I'd rather be aware of what's out there and have an opinion on it.  Staying ignorant doesn't sound like a great idea.  If you wait until you perfect a piece, you'll never have it perfect, never need to go listen to anything else, etc.

[awesom_o]

Your professor made a good point.

Young students and amateur players do not yet possess the technique required to play music at virtuoso tempos.

What happens if you try to play at the virtuoso speed without sufficient technique?

It sounds bad! It sounds bad to play with more speed than you can handle musically.

So I'm not disagreeing with Bob. Watch everything you want on youtube. That's what it's there for!
Just don't always assume that the 'correct' tempo for Lang Lang, Sokolov, or Ashkenazy is the correct tempo for you.

[classicalnhiphop]

don't listen to Lang lang first of all

[kevin69]

  He advised us that we should master the pieces first and then when we know it by heart, then we watch or listen to some recordings just for the expression, and eventually create our own form of expression.

Deep inside, I know he is right.

I hope you are misquoting here a bit, or expressing yourself badly, but it sounds like
you are suggesting that you can master a piece without considering how you are expressing yourself.

This sounds a very unmusical approach to me.

Even at my lowly level, i would try express my feelings for the piece from the very first attempt
to  play it to the last. If you practise playing it expressionlessly at first and then try to graft expression onto it later i think that at best you'll waste a lot of time and at worst find this impossible.

I don't see how listening to other peoples interpretations can be a bad thing, unless
you end up ignoring your own feelings in trying to mimic someone elses.
Be true to yourself.

kevin

[dima_76557]

@ karenvcruz

I do not agree with your teacher. I recognize the "philosophy", but I see it as the System of Torture and Suffering, promoting and enforcing its own existence.

Actually, in the past, most people first heard a performance of this or that piece (mostly in a concert), and then decided to learn it to repeat the experience. Nothing wrong with that, since what comes out will always be the person's perception of this or that experience, not real imitation.

Provided one is technically ready to play the piece, I think it is VERY good practice to listen to others first, not only pianists, but also other instrumentalists and good singers if there are such versions available for the piece you want to learn. Deliberately analyzing certain performances in advance can really raise one's own standards of performance and speed up learning tenfold. Doing a Liszt opera transcription without knowing the opera it is based on, for example, is plain stupid.

If one is NOT ready yet, technically, to play the piece, then listening to the virtuoso end result will most likely SLOW DOWN learning because of the "need for speed", which tends to distract from what really counts.

P.S.: I am not very fond of the sound of YouTube recordings, though; it is merely a "canned" version of the experience in a concert hall.