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[pies]

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[abe]

The ability and potential to play or execute physically finger-taxing passages on the piano. This usally involves intricate passagework at high speeds.  That's my def., i know it's not long.

[mound]

see this:
https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4880.msg46339.html#msg46339

[veryangrystorks]

abe - Piano "technique" doesn't have to pertain to hard things, you know.  Fur Elise requires technique, as does playing a Cmaj scale.

[pianolotus]

i believe its the way in which u make music

"that guy has beautiful technique" = "that guy can make beautiful music"

my opinion at least

[anda]

a necessarry tool allowing you to play for real anything anytime anywhere

[pies]

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[bernhard]

after reading Bernhard's post, I find myself in a hopeless position being self-taught. heh.

Have a look here as well:

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4082.msg37362.html#msg37362

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,4385.msg41226.html#msg41226

Your situation may not be as hopeless as you may think. True, it is impossible to self-teach, but it is inescapable to self-learn. So forget about the self-teaching and make resolute progress in the self-learning area.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[Daniel_piano]

Technique is the ability to the play the right notes, with the right rhythm and tone
Technique is anything involved in the physical-neurological process of moving your arms and fingers to play the piano
Good or amazing technique doesn't guarantee emotional or expressive playing

So we want to make music, but there are two aspect in making music
The fundamental one is to have musicality, appreciate and understand music fully especially its emotional meaning
The other aspect is that in order to concretize our musicality we must use an instruments that require physical movements

The physical part of piano playing is technique
Any time you use your fingers and arm (or whole body) to play something musical, that is technique

The other aspect is interpretation and expression and this is not technique
Piano is 50% physical and 50% emotional/spiritual
The physical aspect is what we call "technique", the emotional aspect is what is called "interpretation"

Daniel

[pies]

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[jeff]

You confused me. What's the difference and how do I 'improve' in self-learning?

i think what he means is this: teaching is when you pass on some knowlege that the person you are teaching doesn't have - therefore, "teaching" yourself is impossible.
but, you can improve your "learning" in a few ways: firstly, by increasing the quantity of resources from which you gather information. and secondly by improving the way in which you absorb/memorize the info, and your ability to recall and use it - for some ideas about this second part, try looking over some of the old threads here about memorization, for a start, and try to find some other books/articles about learning/memorization.

[bernhard]

i think what he means is this: teaching is when you pass on some knowlege that the person you are teaching doesn't have - therefore, "teaching" yourself is impossible.
but, you can improve your "learning" in a few ways: firstly, by increasing the quantity of resources from which you gather information. and secondly by improving the way in which you absorb/memorize the info, and your ability to recall and use it - for some ideas about this second part, try looking over some of the old threads here about memorization, for a start, and try to find some other books/articles about learning/memorization.

Thanks, Jeff. you are spot on.

For “teaching” to take place, one must have a knowledgeable teacher, a willing student and a conducive environment. Miss any one of these three conditions, and understanding will not result.

The ultimate purpose of teaching/learning is the transmission of understanding.

Understanding itself is made up of two components: Knowledge and Level of being .In our society acquisition and transmission of knowledge is stressed to breaking point, while level of being is completely ignored. As a consequence I do not know even how to begin describing it. However, your level of understanding will be limited by both your level of knowledge and your level of being. You can acquire as much knowledge as you wish, if you level of being is low, so will be your understanding. A person with huge amounts of knowledge but no being is unable to do. /he is a powerless sage. Conversely, someone with a hugely developed being and little knowledge has a lot of power to do things, but has no clue how to use such power: S/he is a stupid saint. Just like knowledge is over-emphasised in Western First world societies, and Being is ignored, so in certain societies of the past, Being has been over-emphasised in detriment of knowledge. The consequence is the same: a total lack of understanding. All you can get from books, movies, newspapers, forums and the like is knowledge. However this knowledge is not organised in any particular way. Some of it – if not most – may be completely false. To try to sort out the good from the useless may well take a life time. A (good) teacher may be very helpful here, since it will save you so much time that it is not even worth talking about it.

Being on the other hand is mostly developed through experience. But like knowledge, experience comes in a bewildering array of forms, and unless you have some way of organising it and give it meaning it will not lead to growth and development of being. So again, a (good) teacher will save a lot of time and effort here.

If you are at a point where you – no matter how many lessons, how much reading, how much net surfing you do – finds that your understanding is stuck, have no doubts: your being needs to grow: you must become someone else.

A (good) teacher will carefully craft the environment, supply the information and make you go through certain experiences so that you grow as a person and acquire the knowledge necessary to understand the subject you are interested in. Only with such understanding you will be able to do. This is true for everything form learning how to read to learning how to play the piano to learning how to project and building a bridge.

If you truly think you can travel in such hostile and unknown territory by yourself, I wish you luck. But your chances of finding your destination are slim indeed.

At the same time, nothing is really as it seems. Who is a teacher who can teach you? Maybe not the person you go to have lessons every week. Teachers come in the most surprising guises, and sometimes a lesson that will take a few minutes – and that at the time you would not even consider as a lesson – may keep informing you and unfolding itself for the rest of your life.

So like every good Boy Scout, “Be prepared!”

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[piano_learner]

Bernhard,

I *ENVY* your eloquence, style and imagination.

and you can play Piano!

Are you a member of Mensa?

[bernhard]

Bernhard,

I *ENVY* your eloquence, style and imagination.

and you can play Piano!

Are you a member of Mensa?

Thank you

No, I am not a member of any organisation whatsoever, except for pianoforum

[pies]

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[lostinidlewonder]

I like what Chopin wrote.

["A well-formed technique, it seems to me, is one that can control and vary a beautiful sound quality.”]

[“No one notices inequality in the power of the notes of a scale when it is played very fast... The aim is not to play everything with an equal sound, but to acquire a beautiful quality of touch and a perfect shading of sound. For a long time players have acted against nature in seeking to give equal power to each finger. On the contrary, each finger should have an appropriate part assigned it ... There are, many different qualities of sound, just as there are several fingers. The point is to utilize the differences; and this, in other words, is the art of fingering.”]

[Daniel_piano]

There another of aspect of technique no one has considered in this thread
That is: technique is also the ability to play in a way natural to your body, using movements that make clear how body is natural designed to play the piano effortlessy instead of need to shape our movements according to the piano playing
So good technique is also the ability to play naturally, effortlessy and in a natural way

Could we so say that Rachmaninov, Scriabin, Gould, Horowitz and others had good technique?
No we can't, because their technique resulting in injuries to them or their students and repeating their movements would be like playing in a unnatural way
So technique is also the ability to play naturally so that no amount of tension, dual muscular pulls, twisting, excessive force, static muscular activity can cause the body to move in an unnatural way

Daniel

[RappinPhil]

"Technique is a generic term, compromising scales, arpeggios, chords, double notes, octaves, legato, and the various staccato touches as well as the dynamic shadings. They are all necessary to make up a complete technique"-Josef Hofmann

[jazzyprof]

"Technique is the sum total of skills needed to realise the musical intent of the composer or performer."-jazzyprof