Naive Young Generation X Pianists...

[quixoticcafe]

This one comes from GREAT PIANISTS ON PIANO PLAYING (dover publications)

"The artist will spend months upon a Chopin valse. The student feels injured if he cannot play it in a day."--Vladimir de Pachmann

He also said "Pearls lie at the bottom of the sea. Most pupils seem to expect them floating upon the surface of the water."

I think this just about sums it up for all of those who think one can just play the whole repertoire as easily as one turns on a faucet to get water. Its just funny to see what some of these teens think. Time for a reality check!

Michael

[Vivers]

I find myself (as a teen) getting into that frame of mind a lot... not on purpose, but just because in schoolwork, it's alright to procrastinate, and everything will still turn out fine if you pull an all-nighter. But with music, things just don't happen like that.

For myself, in order to feel productive and want to practice, I have to set certain goals for a week, otherwise, I feel like I'm being useless and just floating around doing nothing and getting nowhere. I guess we just live in a fast-track world where everything has to happy quickly and there's no room for patience. We can't wait to learn the piece, it should just be there at an instant like you can download music.

I know a kid, he doesn't like to play piano, but he's from a very musical family, so he has to participate in the festival every year. There's a sort of piano season of about 2-3 months right before the festival every year. That's the only time that he'll touch the piano. Mind you, he doesn't actually play that well.

[Ludvig_Van_Me]

"Pearls lie at the bottom of the sea. Most pupils seem to expect them floating upon the surface of the water."

i like that analogy, i think i might use it

[wintervind]

Gen x? Isn't this used to describe people born 1965-1980? Most of us are over 30!

[pianowelsh]

It is quite superfluous to address the many pressures that face young teenage pianists today. What is expected of them is simply not humane they have my utmost repsect. However it is true not everything comes over night but as Barenboim said It dosent get any easier by not playing the big 'virtuoso' pieces in the repertory and I believe many of them are quite wise to do it while they are young as given 10 years they may if they are lucky be asked to record some of these works and they will have had some time to mature into them. The youth are frequently disparaged and far to seldom praised.

[mound]

"Pearls lie at the bottom of the sea. Most pupils seem to expect them floating upon the surface of the water."

i like that analogy, i think i might use it

That quote was used in the book "Effortless Mastery" as well - a great read, definitely check it out!

-Paul

[Dikai]

actually if i want to learn a piece, i'll sightread through it a couple of times first (poorly when difficult), if i just can't, i'll "temporarily" give up, put it aside.  and usually, when the time comes, suddenly, <ding>, it's learned.

i always give up (there must be a better word for this, give up is not quite how i want it to sound) several times before i can learn a piece.  but the key is, no matter how difficult the piece may be, do get through every single note in the piece at least a couple of times, no matter how slow, how many mistakes, then you can put it aside.  the next thing, listen to the recording, or watch someone play (this helps the most), then it'll come to you one day... may be days, weeks, months, but it will...

[timothy42b]

It's not just GenXs who dream of quick results.

Some of us who read Chang and Bernhard with great intensity also had hopes the learning curve would be short and sweet.

Alas, not the case.  ShortER, perhaps, but not short.