I don't know what to do anymore. I am studying under an advanced teacher who's been teaching for 40 years. He's had his students win competitions, smoke exams, and move on to being concert pianists and teachers, but he follows the traditional methods. The absolute outrageous things he has told me in regards to the "best and only way to gain technique" include the following:
1. Practice Hanon everyday. Only then will you be able to play the Pathetique Sonata second movement quietly and evenly, as well as any other adagio movements or slow passages. He gave me no instructions other than this.
2. Practice all scales and arpeggios and other sh*t for technique acquisition. Bringing the thumb under is the only way to play the scales (even though when he showed me he was displacing the hand.) I pointed this out to him, and he said "Yeah, but you're not playing that fast yes, so practice this movement now." These scales need to be HT @ 144 BPM for my exam in June.
I also asked him about working on just the left hand, because it was lagging behind. He quoted some guy and told me "The only way to get the left hand as strong as the right is to play the scale with the left hand once, then with hands together, and then with the left hand once more. Do this every day for two years, and your left hand will be as proficient as your right."
3. The major issue is that I'm not progressing in my pieces at all. I've been playing for three months under him (paying $65/h, one hour every week) and I can't play a single piece in it's entirety. We play something different every week and I don't really get to practice more than any one thing more than 6 days at a time (and he expects pages and pages of this stuff). He says that he wants to do any piece over 10 weeks time. That means by Spring time, I will have 5 pieces done. This is the fastest and most realistic way to do it, according to him.
4. He preaches 7/20, but nothing about speed or memory. He just recommends that I practice anything for 20 minutes. He doesn't want anything memorized until much later, and speed means nothing to him as well. This once again, is the best and fastest way to do it.
Now, I want to know, for a guy who apparently has done so much research, and has been teaching all his life, how the *** can he think that this is the best way? He's spoon-feeding me this bullshit and he expects me to believe him. "Do it my way. Trust me. I know what I'm doing." I have no doubt in my mind that we will be done by the time he says, but that is CERTAINLY not the fastest way to go about doing it. I was trying to talk to him, but he would have none of it. His way or no way. I was about ready to cry.
What am I supposed to do? He won't listen to anything I say, I'm being frustrated to sh*t by the bullshit dinners he's making for me. The worst part about this all, is that I thoroughly went to many other teachers before coming to him, and when he told me about 7/20, I actually thought I'd hear more about these counter-intuitive methods. Instead, I get technical exercises and the "best, realistic" deadline of 10 months for 5 pieces. I can't find a new teacher because there is no other teacher. I can't ditch him because I need some kind of teacher, and he is the best there is. And I mean, certainly, his students are amazing, and I'll get the pieces done, but this is so terribly slow and boring (with the technical exercises and scales). Like sh*t, he could at least give me some Dohnanyi or something, but not *** HANON.
Who else has tried telling their teachers about the stuff Bernhard and Chang say and have received nothing but raised eyebrows and stubborn elitism? I hope I am not the only one in such a conundrum.
Topic: That was the most disappointing and defeating lesson ever... what to do? (Read 3631 times)