Abby Whiteside - "On Piano Playing"

[m1469]

I've just picked up this book again today, but it's more like a first time as I am not sure I even read an entire page last time.  I think it is amazingly perfect for me at this point in my life, as it turns out, and is helping me to understand more about music and myself.

"Never lose sight of the fact that playing the piano involves two very definite operations:  application of power to the key (vertical action) and progression along the keyboard (horizontal action)."

She forgot one.  


*curls up in bed and reads more*

[awesom_o]

I don't like this book very much, because it focuses too much on "Piano Playing". rather than on understanding music as a universal language of expression.

If you have excellent musical understanding, playing the piano will come quite easily. I find many pianists are too focused on "piano playing" and not focused enough on "music making".

I have read the book, although I'm just not a huge fan overall.

I am glad, however, that you are increasing the depth of your musical understanding from reading it! That can only be a good thing!

[m1469]

I don't like this book very much, because it focuses too much on "Piano Playing".

Piano Playing is a pretty important part of playing the piano!

[awesom_o]

Piano Playing is a pretty important part of playing the piano!

Is it as important as the music-making?

[m1469]

Is it as important as the music-making?

Ultimately they should be one in the same and are intimately connected.  What makes one more important than the other, as a "separate" idea, is temporary, and relative to whatever the weaker link is for the individual's concept at the time.

[timothy42b]

I don't like this book very much, because it focuses too much on "Piano Playing". rather than on understanding music as a universal language of expression.

How shocking that a book with the title of Piano Playing would be about piano playing.  

However, the unifying factor for Abby was time/ rhythm, and that is about as universal to music in general as you can get.  

That I think is her most underappreciated leap of insight.  Her break with the finger centric schools of pedagogy is what she's remembered for, and that is an important advance, but her theories on time are even more valuable.  

Chang borrowed much from Abby for his book Fundamentals of Piano Practice.

I'd advise not reading it, you're likely to be horrified when you find out the subject is piano practice.

[awesom_o]

I'd advise not reading it, you're likely to be horrified when you find out the subject is piano practice.

I read it a long time ago

At a certain point, you stop 'practicing', and the time you spend alone at the piano becomes 'rehearsal'.

 

[m1469]

I read it a long time ago

At a certain point, you stop 'practicing', and the time you spend alone at the piano becomes 'rehearsal'.

I can grasp this quite well mentally.  It might be in part true for me already, but at which point it would be entirely true I can't say.  If I had the opportunity for regular, rhythmic practice ... a few weeks?  A few months?  A year?  A decade?  A lifetime?  I don't know.  So, for me it's like knowing the earth is round instead of flat, but not yet having the exact evidence to prove it in the way I think I ultimately could, or that others currently can.  

My current concept tells me that it is possible -even logical- that learning brand new pieces can be a rehearsal, with the right applied principles and concepts in place, even if a massive repertoire is not already in place (which, in my case is not (having started formal training when I did, etc)).  But, I'd of course like the opportunities to discover my higher abilities in experience and manifestation, vs. in theory only.

Reading Whiteside so far gives me permission to be a rhythmic learner, perhaps the one that I naturally am, and that I believe I am on the deepest levels.  I have felt it necessary to squash this aspect of myself for many reasons.  I won't go much further into it, other than to say that there is a very deep, rhythmic learning cycle that I can feel within me as a vital aspect of my being, but which I have never been able to experience in full.  I have known parts, but almost never the whole.  And, it is, I think, this particular aspect of training that I believe others who have been formally trained in "all the right ways" have had, and have no idea what it's like to live without that, can't actually even begin to truly comprehend what it means for that to be missing, and who may very well take it for granted.  Perhaps I am wrong, but there is not much within my experience that would evidence that I am.  All I can hope is that whatever my learning cycle truly is, that it is (quite a bit) bigger than what I can perceive, and that it is actually taking place right now, and that there will at least be times when this is clear.

[awesom_o]

I can grasp this quite well mentally.  It might be in part true for me already, but at which point it would be entirely true I can't say.  If I had the opportunity for regular, rhythmic practice ... a few weeks?  A few months?  A year?  A decade?  A lifetime?  

I would say it depends on your overall level of fluency with the keyboard.

Once you can do something like improvise your national anthem comfortably with both hands in any key signature, you have probably discovered how to run your own rehearsal quite efficiently.

[m1469]

I would say it depends on your overall level of fluency with the keyboard.

Once you can do something like improvise your national anthem comfortably with both hands in any key signature, you have probably discovered how to run your own rehearsal quite efficiently.

I see that this is a kind of theme for you, and seemingly your particular measuring stick.  And, it's where we depart to an extent, regardless of our individual levels, because I can tell it is yours, and I have my own goals and ideas, as well, that are probably (quite) a bit different than yours.  I would need to actually live with what you say, digest it through my own experience, and then decide for myself rather than trying to live up to your particular idea.  And, right now, I have other ideas that are more pressing to me.

[awesom_o]

I see that this is a kind of theme for you, and seemingly your particular measuring stick.......  And, right now, I have other ideas that are more pressing to me.

Once you can improvise, you can do anything you like with any theme you choose! 

What theme are you interested in then, if comfort with improvisation doesn't interest you?

[m1469]

Once you can improvise, you can do anything you like with any theme you choose!  

What theme are you interested in then, if comfort with improvisation doesn't interest you?

Fundamentally I believe you.  I also watched your videos, btw, and have a good sense of our individual ideas on technique and technique development (can you believe I am so rash?  ).  And, I never said anything about improvisation not interesting me.  Do your homework.  

[awesom_o]

Do your homework. 

I quit formal schooling some time ago

Never liked homework much. Always preferred music!

Do you aspire to compose, m1469? Or do you already? I'm sorry, I don't know very much about you yet!

What type of musical work interests you? Mostly solo interpretation? Duets? Duos? Chamber ensembles? Conducting? Teaching?

[lelle]

This book is interesting, but quite dangerous. It's easy to misunderstand her instructions and build a lot of tense habits as a result, even though the purpose of the book is to free up the playing.

[m1469]

This book is interesting, but quite dangerous. It's easy to misunderstand her instructions and build a lot of tense habits as a result, even though the purpose of the book is to free up the playing.

Perhaps you could give a precise example?