Academic Studies of Pianists

[toby1]

Hi All,

I read part of the book on the piano memorisation study that was linked from this website's blog and it got me thinking about formal scientiffic/academic (hopefully peer reviewed) studies performed of pianists and various piano learning methods.

Are these things at all common? Sports get huge amounts of funding into studies of physiology and performance improvement. Piano playing, at least in the classical piano world seems to attract much less off that. I've heard many things over the years along the lines of "do this as it builds strength, or technique" but practically never how it is improving it. Or why.

So are there any great academic studies I should read? Things about learning in general or particular to the piano?

Are there any must read academic articles on piano playing and do you have any favourites?

I'd be interested in any discussions that follow from this post.

[Bob]

I haven't seen anything as rigorous as other areas.  Fairly pathetic on the education side really.  Probably because it's so hard to pin down.

If it's exact, the study becomes so precise it's only covering a little bit of the real world or specific situation that doesn't transfer to everyone else.  If it's general, it gets too sloppy to pin anything down.

Or they prove common sense or collect theories on teaching (but you've already heard of them). 

And then there are the studies that sound like someone got their dissertation published... Something like 18th century dance music in x country.  Nice, but... Doesn't tell us much generally.


From what I've seen it's a bit disappointing compared to other fields, and it's not quite cutting edge.

[diomedes]

Memorization as something relating to piano has always been an obsession for me. In university i asked one guy what his approach was and i was so dissatisfied with "i don't know, just do it". But many people have that attitude with life, good enough move on to the next topic. From my point of view, if you can do it, then you can do it better. Obviously, if you care enough, that's a good thing. If you care a great deal it's worth the brain cells to invest in it even more.

It's fairly easy to see also that the link between execution abilities and memory. An enhanced understanding of the things going on the keyboard give command and as a result great proficiency at the keyboard. And that's where my obsession lies. If you keep improving it, it will always improve, but usually it has to be methodical. Like i said, most people move on to other topics after good enough has been reached.

I've never come across any research on these things, but i think there are 2 reasons for this 1) I probably didn't look close enough 2) in some ways why bother, everyone for the most part is their own best doctors. Especially with mental facilities. I'm fairly independent in my thinking as a result of that.

If only I had the mind of Richter. Wouldn't have a single worry in life. My hands are perfectly suited for piano, musical sensibilities very dedicated if probably a little independent again, but my mind is fairly unsuited. So, if you want it badly enough, you compensate. So i do.

Being frighteningly methodical in daily life, i've really gone long ways for being my own doctor, and it's one of my greatest prides. Yes, certainly let's write a book, shall we? Not a good idea, and yes there's probably in comparison much more documentation of physiology studies for sports than this area. Probably the main reason why the books don't get promoted. There's virtually no audience for it. Just like there's a limited audience for Medtner for example.

I'm no idiot but i'm very relatively small minded. I'm ok with that, I just compensate with determination and knowledge of a method is one resulting gift to myself. At one point i was giving myself deadlines and went about memorizing and recording a Scriabin sonata per month up to what i consider high standard. So it can be done. But i can see why there'd be limited activity in this area.

Just my personal experiences, might give you some perspective, if nothing else.

[iansinclair]

At some risk of sounding crass... you are right, there is very little in the way of studies relating to any aspect, really, of piano (in particular) and music (in general) learning and performance.

Why, you ask?

Because there's no money in it.  Consider American football, or European soccer (football).  Some individual players may make hundreds of millions of dollars in a year, if they are pros, or make their colleges hundreds of millions of dollars in a year, if they are "students".  It is well worth spending a few extra millions to study how to keep them healthy (or at least playing) and how to improve their performance.  Music?  Even the very best of the best classical musicians -- think The Three Tenors, for instance -- don't even come close to that (Pop music is another game altogether).

Sorry to sound cynical, but...

[quantum]

I've come across some music related articles by randomly browsing the library stacks of non-music disciplines.  However, as there was no specific need for them I didn't make any notes on exactly where to locate them - just plain curiosity on my part.  Browsing physical volumes as opposed to e-resources tended to bear more interesting results.  Understandably so, the university is now more focused on acquisition of electronic documents rather than physical ones, so the stacks don't get filled as frequently with new and recent publications, especially periodicals. 

You may want to approach the subject from another viewpoint.  Start with a non-music discipline and search for a music or piano related study within that discipline.  If you start out by using music, piano, pedagogy, or like terms, the items at the top of the search results will probably be out of music journals and studies within music.

Perhaps there is already data available, but because the studies were not music-specific, they have not yet landed on the radar of music researchers.  Someone may just need to connect the dots between various data sets. 

Some ideas:

neural networks
artificial neural networks
educational neuroscience
cognitive theories
psychology (of learning)
kinesiology
anthropology

[8_octaves]

Hi,

via this one:

https://core.ac.uk/

we can search for a couple of interesting academic downloadable fulltext-works, some older, and some newer, some short, some long (mostly theses or longer scientific works), from many areas, but there are some very interesting results - in general - concerning music, piano, learning, methods, etc. 

We would, at first, enter a wrord in the search field. eg: "pianist". That leads us to the second screen, where the "advanced search" option appears. This we should use now.

Enter, for example "all of the words": => "memorizing", and exact phrase "pianist" ( or something you want).

Then look through the results.

For example, an old one: (pls note that I only can give examples here, hich are in no way representative for your special interests, but for the resource "Core" and how to handle it..)

"An investigation of the methods of memorizing employed by piano students
Provided by Sycamore Scholars.- 1937" :

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/9424771.pdf

or a newer one, which deals with some other aspects:

"How Much Do We Practice?: Defining a Course of Study for the Applied Pianist
Provided by Columbia University Academic Commons.- 2012"
By Janice Nimetz

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/27295043.pdf

What we should note, would be, that we should refine our searches in "core" very precisely, which is possible, by narrowing, e.g., the results (on the left side of the screen). But we should also note that Core isn't really specialized in Music-topics. But there are very nice documents to grab there, though, I think! 

Cordially, 8_octaves!

[Bob]

Yeah, I was thinking you might have better luck searching for something about learning or teaching, depending what you're looking for in music. 

[8_octaves]

Yeah, I was thinking you might have better luck searching for something about learning or teaching, depending what you're looking for in music.  

Hi Bob,

if the literature wished by th OP (scientific articles, theses, works etc. to a SPECIFIC TOPIC) is too specific, or the OP has got wishes which cannot (or only under difficulties for him) be fulfilled by the "normal" Databases (core, webarchive, google scholar, google, all of the special freely searchable catalogs like hathi trust, digital libraries, "normal" periodicals' databases (like the ZDB (journal-database) or the "EZB" ) or other national licensed, free databases concerning digitizing of sources, EROMM, or digital libraries of any kind, plus virtual libraries, and many others, meta-search-engines or clustering-engines ), then we have to "step up" a level.

I dislike very much to step this level up, because I think with enough knowledge about the mentioned ones we can get good results.

The RILM should be known? pls. read the description:

https://www.sim.spk-berlin.de/en/rilm_349.html

but, unfortunately, the online-RILM isn't free.

But what about the RIPM ?

https://www.ripm.org/

seems to be not free either.

Other services, like, e.g., current contents /  online contents / web of science and others of that kind exist, too, which evaluate / index  scientific periodicals by content / topics, and they evaluate / index academic works, too. But unfortunately, they aren't free, either.

Some libraries are, (at least in Germany) appointed "special collection-area"- libraries, and most of these "specialized" libraries, aside from their normal purpose and function, evaluate very thoroughly the scientific literature belonging to their special area. But, as I said, access to the mentioned "content"-services isn't free . Libraries, though, sometimes offer free access, but only from inside the library. Otherwise we'll have to register...

Another way, of course (and that should be our way, on an internet-forum), is, to check out for any other interesting type of bibliography for our desired wishes, and use the free catalogs and DBs to "suck" the maximum we can, from them. (Free fulltexts, at once downloadable.)

And there are printed guides to reference material, in libraries, or printed current bibliographies of scientific journals, too, and current printed dissertation- / theses- bibliographies, and that's in every country so.

In my opinion, via the -free- databases or bibliographies, catalogues etc. which are easily and freely accessible from our houses or work, we may indeed sometimes have to "walk a longer way". But even then we can retrieve good results, if we are persistent researchers and investigators.

Only for highly specialized and highly actual newest latest academic works which are, themselves, not freely accessible, we have to use the "not free" resources. Because otherwise we won't get the documents easily and without waiting (waiting until they become freely accessible somewhen ). Imho.

Cordially, and many greetings from 8_octaves!

[hardy_practice]

Why did no one tell me about core?   https://core.ac.uk/display/81411 looks interesting (if old).

[8_octaves]

Why did no one tell me about core?  https://core.ac.uk/display/81411 looks interesting (if old).

Yes,   it's a very interesting one (which I saw some time ago, too), and -"historically"-, it's very interesting (as is the one of 1937), too, namely, when students (or their "ghosts") had to type such "beasts" on the typewriter!   And not on helpful computers using "Word" or sth. like that, and printers!

Here some others, which came across:

Learning piano for children on Android platform (Addition: I saw that this one is classified as being in Slovenic language, but for non-Slovenic-speaking people in today's times it shouldn't be a too big problem to have it translated, e.g. by friends, or by a professional translation-service, which exist, too.):

Provided by ePrints.FRI .- 2013
By Anže Marinko
 
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/18423530.pdf

__

Long-range correlation properties in timing of skilled piano performance: the influence of auditory feedback and deep brain stimulation

Provided by Harvard University - DASH | Publisher: Frontiers Media S.A. | 2014
By María Herrojo Ruiz, Sang Bin Hong, Holger Hennig, Eckart Altenmüller and Andrea A. Kühn

...Long-range correlation properties in timing of skilled piano performance: the influence of auditory feedback and deep brain stimulation (Article begins on next page) The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters. Citation Herrojo Ruiz, María, Sang Bin Hong, Holger Hennig, Eckart Altenmüller, and Andrea A. Kühn. 2014. “Long-range correlation properties in timing of skilled piano performance: the influence of auditory feedback...

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/28951847.pdf

(Prof. Eckart Altenmüller is very well known in the area I come from, as accomplished scientist. Check out for books / further publications of his on the web!!  )

______

This is a short one:

Can style be learned? A machine learning approach towards ‘performing’ as famous pianists
Provided by Pattern Analysis Statistical Modelling & Computational Learning EPrints | Publisher: 2007-12-07 .-  2007
By Louis Dorard, David Hardoon and John Shawe-Taylor

...Can Style be Learned? A Machine Learning Approach Towards ‘Performing’ as Famous Pianists Louis Dorard louis@dorard.info David R. Hardoon D.Hardoon@cs.ucl.ac.uk John Shawe-Taylor jst@cs.ucl.ac.uk Dept. of Computer Science University College London London WC1E 6BT, U.K Abstract In this paper a novel method for performing music in the style of fa- mous pianists is presented. We use Kernel Canonical Correlation Anal- ysis (KCCA), a method which looks for a common semantic representation between two...

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/20859.pdf

Cordial greetings from: 8_oct!

[quantum]

Non-free databases are often accessible within a library, or with a library account.  If the library account also includes access to inter library loan, it would be worth looking into.  

[hardy_practice]

Non-free databases are often accessible within a library, or with a library account.  If the library account also includes access to inter library loan, it would be worth looking into.  

@8_oct yes, I know Eckart  - very prominent in his field.  We had lunch together in Toronto.  You must be in Hannover?

@quantum yes, PAMA are upsetting - my Westminster library has access to their online journal which they haven't bothered to upload for two years!

[8_octaves]

@8_oct yes, I know Eckart  - very prominent in his field.  We had lunch together in Toronto.  You must be in Hannover?

@quantum yes, PAMA are upsetting - my Westminster library has access to their online journal which they haven't bothered to upload for two years!

Good morning, hardy!

NEAR Hannover   - good connections there!

That's very nice, perhaps I've got a "nutritive breakfast" to add, then?  

Check out this one:

https://www.eromm.org/

Then enter the name "Altenmüller". Execute the search, and there should be ca. >20 works of him (addition: or his students), many dealing with pianists' activities / problems, via e.g. archive.org ready to download them.

Enjoy your meal!  

Very cordially, 8_octaves!