Essence of easy?

[m1469]

I am interested in your own words, describing the essence of ease in playing?  Thanks.

[coherence]

Not my own words, but psychological research offers one technical perspective... they use the word "flow" to describe a state of effortless mastery, and there's a lot to read about there. For example, there's this paper about the "psychophysiology of flow during piano playing": https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20515220

[Bob]

(Carnac the Magnificent)

Answer -- Essence of Easy.



Question -- Name Monica Lewinsky's favorite perfume.

[falala]

Not my own words, but psychological research offers one technical perspective... they use the word "flow" to describe a state of effortless mastery, and there's a lot to read about there. For example, there's this paper about the "psychophysiology of flow during piano playing": https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20515220

I read that book about Flow by thedudewiththeunpronounciblename. Thought it was an interesting concept but a little superficial. There didn't seem much to say about it beyond describing what it is.

It seems to describe a state of enhanced awareness where you can do things that are technically challenging, while being completely in the moment - neither losing concentration nor suffering nerves due to too much. Indeed some degree of technical challenge seems to be necessary to induce the state - you get it when doing something difficult enough to be challenging and require attention, but not so difficult as to be frustrating.

While this if probably an optimum state for most realistic applications of piano playing, I think personally I'd describe "ease" more as what it's like to play something so far within your technical capacity that you don't even need to concentrate or pay much attention.

[justanamateur]

I am interested in your own words, describing the essence of ease in playing?  Thanks.

Ease = Something even *I* can play

Edit: Sorry, I thought the OP was asking what defines an easy piece. I've understood from the other responses that this is not the case.

[m1469]

Thank you for the replies.  Methinks the key(s) to playing difficult music with ease lay, in part, in that which is already easy and what it is that makes it so.  It is "that which makes it so" that I am after

[Bob]

Having the technical ability.  And having the ability to control it live.


Those are my own words.  I didn't steal them from anyone.  I came up with them all on my own.

[m1469]

Well, I am currently borrowing every word I type.  If I were not, you would be reading a language that nobody else in the Universe understands.  In most cases, "in your own words" = known/borrowed words, organized with your own understanding. 

[Bob]

I forged mine myself. It takes longer, but I own them that way.

[quantum]

Facility without undue hindrance.  Acceptance of a challenge that acknowledges hurdles encompassing a skill set that enables the surmounting of said hurdles.  

If it were to have an elegant name, me thinks Eyjafjallajökull would do just fine.  

[nanabush]

I can say something is easy when I can just go and do it and enjoy my time doing it.  If I am sweating and making mistakes playing an Etude, I have no right saying it's 'easy'... but I can say that one day it will be.

An 'easy' piece for me that I always go back to and just play for the sheer fun of it is 'La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin'.  I like playing around with that piece, bending the rules, thickening up chords, repeating sections because they are awesome.  I LOVE the the Eb major section that just sounds like a jam straight out of a bluesy piece.  It's incredible, and it comes and goes faster than I want it to.

A piece like that where I can just shape it any way, under any circumstance, I'd consider 'easy'.  But, if someone has never seen the piece before, I can't really explain to them why it's easy, or if it will be easy for them.

--

Obviously, Mary Had a Little Lam is easy.  It's like typing out your name on a computer keyboard... that is EASY. 

[j_menz]

Obviously, Mary Had a Little Lam is easy. 

Easy to play, hard to type? 

[nanabush]

Ouch, that's what I get for staying up late typing up replies 

[outin]

Obviously, Mary Had a Little Lam is easy.  It's like typing out your name on a computer keyboard... that is EASY.  

Is that so obvious? Things that are supposed to be very easy can be quite difficult if you don't care for them

[pianoslav]

I think "easy" depends on your perspective. Someone can interpret this to mean "a composition that I can play perfectly the first time I sight read it". That's what nanabush has mind, regarding "Mary Had a Little Lamb".

My personal definition of easy, is a composition that I can learn with little-to-no technical challenges as I study it. From my experience, something is only easy once your performance level is at least one or two grade levels above that specific piece. I consider it easy if it takes me very little experimenting with fingering, or if I don't have to spend more than a half hour on certain passages to figure them out.

As for the definition of effortless mastery, I've known people to learn some songs by rote and play them with "effortless mastery" and "flow", but they can't do much else. I wouldn't consider that they play piano with ease. "Easy" depends on the context it's in. Do you want to know if a specific piece is easy for someone to play? Can someone play the piano with ease? Is it easy for someone to come up with ideas while they improvise at the piano?

Someone can play very technically demanding music, but have a lot of trouble when it comes to improvising, and vice versa. So to summarize, "easy" can mean a lot of different things when it comes to piano performance.

[zerozero]

Love this topic

A personal mantra: If there is soothing easier learn this first.

The most complex piece is build from little clusters of three or so notes.