Walter Gieseking and Karl Liemer's "Piano Technique"

[pianobabe56]

I am interested in knowing people's opinion of Mr. Liemer's approach to the piano. I am interested in really studying this book and applying its reccommendations, but I'd like to hear other people's experience with it first.

[Piazzo22]

I am interested in knowing people's opinion of Mr. Liemer's approach to the piano. I am interested in really studying this book and applying its reccommendations, but I'd like to hear other people's experience with it first.

I have that book and I don´t understand his approach to memorize a piece. He says to  memorize the music analizing the sheet before even playing a note in the piano.  I tried hard, but I really can´t.
I can do it only with Czerny. 
Take a Prokofiev´s sonata and try to memorize it with your mind. I just can´t.

[julie391]

yes i bought this book, and i think learning music away from the piano is a very economical, practical and useful way to use time to further your playing

[bernhard]

I am interested in knowing people's opinion of Mr. Liemer's approach to the piano. I am interested in really studying this book and applying its reccommendations, but I'd like to hear other people's experience with it first.

Leimer’s book is superb – it is also one of the few books to tackle in any useful way the problem of memorising music (most advice I read in books was either trivial, wrong or not applicable). He also goes into technique, and much more.

It is not a book for beginners though, although a beginner may benefit from knowing what is expecting him/her down the road.

I strongly recommend it. A classic.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[bernhard]

I am interested in knowing people's opinion of Mr. Liemer's approach to the piano. I am interested in really studying this book and applying its reccommendations, but I'd like to hear other people's experience with it first.

I have that book and I don´t understand his approach to memorize a piece. He says to  memorize the music analizing the sheet before even playing a note in the piano.  I tried hard, but I really can´t.
I can do it only with Czerny. 
Take a Prokofiev´s sonata and try to memorize it with your mind. I just can´t.

Yes.

As it is the case with many “methods” you will not be able to apply the “method” straightaway to your current pieces just because you may have grasped the general principles. Every “method” has strong points, but also has points where it will fail. You must spend time (sometimes a lot of time) exploring the method itself, and coming to terms with both its strengths and limitations. You must also to a great extent “adapt” the method to suit you personally. It is very difficult to write about what Gieseking and Leimer are writing, and sometimes even more difficult to make sense from what they are writing. It is only after you have throroughly understood (not necessarily in an intellectual way) and mastered the method that you will be able to truly apply it to your most advanced pieces and reap the benefits promised.

The way to understand and master any method, is of course to systematically apply it to music. But really easy and basic music. With Leimer/Gieseking, I suggest you start really easy, with something like Edna Mae Burnam’s “A dozen a day”. (In fact I believe you are already having some success with Czerny – it tells you something about Czerny, doesn’t it?). So continue doing that, not in order to learn these easy pieces, but in order to learn the method. There will be a point where you will be able to tackle even a Prokofiev sonata with it.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[BoliverAllmon]

I have used the analyzing technique for a while now. It can work real well. I memorized Beethoven Sonata 2/1 in 5 days. Shostakovich's concerto 2 first mvt. I was memorizing 5 pages or so a day, then just work on those pages for the rest of the week. It didn't take long at all and it was memorized and actually half way decent.

boliver

[IllBeBach]

This is the method of memorization I use. 

When I was a young student this book was recommended to me by my teacher, so I read it but could not do it either.  Every few years I would reread it, hoping to unravel the 'mystery' and get it to work for me because frankly memorization was not easy for me.  Finally, only recently I figured out that I was trying to memorize too much at once.  It's much easier to memorize like this in small chunks.  I suspect that after you become more fluent at it, you can handle larger portions at a time.

[dorfmouse]

Would one need a very advanced knowledge of music theory/harmony etc. to benefit from this book in order to do the analysis people mention?

[bernhard]

Would one need a very advanced knowledge of music theory/harmony etc. to benefit from this book in order to do the analysis people mention?

No. I would estimate that most students with one year of well-rounded piano education should be able to apply the principles in the book.

I suggest that you read the book, and instead of waiting until you have the theoretical foundation, that you use the book as a guide to acquire the theoretical foundation you need. Read the book , and every time you get stuck with a new concept, investigate the concept (google it, ask your teacher, post in pianoforum).This way you can use the book straightaway, and at the same time you acquire the theory to use it. In fact this is a very good approach for anything. It means that you look for answers to problems that have a definite urgency for you now, instead of learning theory without knowing exactly for what ultimate purpose you are acquiring that knowledge. I call it the “pragmatical method”.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.