Here are the 10 Taubman Approach Lectures on Youtube

[lynxerious]

If anyone is interested in learning the Taubman approach, I had uploaded 10 lectures of it on Youtube. The videos format is a little bit outdated but the content is so useful. It helped me greatly avoid painful playing in my hands and arms when I started playing a year ago. Even if you don't completely agree with the whole approach, some of its advise on technique are still really valuable.

[lostinidlewonder]

Good on your for uploading it.

I have several qualms with the approach but the main issue I have with it is that it does not explain the process of developing a student to improve which is the crux of the challenge with technical education. You cannot merely copy paste ideas of mastery into a student, they will not understand it naturally and thus cannot apply it in the future nor with their past pieces in a natural manner.

Just look at Taubman's attempt at improving the young girls Arabesque from Burgmuller (~31:45 in video), she asks her to imagine something, the straight road and car with her wrist and forearm, it makes sense but the little girl cannot do it when she plays. Taubman says she would hold up her students arms while they play as a solution, which is quite ridiculous. She also admits that the girl does not feel the benefits of keeping her arm in that manner, well that is because she is building her experience level and has not yet come to a point where doing that will make her personally feel much benefit.  Taubman gives up and says it's something the teacher will have to work on. Well the young student must actually play in an inefficient manner first and get used to that before she can compare different ideas, it is not like the girl is doing everything wrong but of course there are inefficiencies and that is totally ok she is on her journey. Different ideas need to be introduced to her in such a way that she plays pieces that start to demand she makes a change, then she will feel the benefits of adjustment.

Every single pianist with many years experience will admit that they needed to play with less efficient movements and then they became better over time as they improved, they didn't just do things correct from the first day or first year even! This is something that is not addressed and the key problem that all pianists face that is, how do you improve over time in a natural manner and not get stuck playing in some fixed manner.

If you approach the piano with ideas of mastery without having intrinsically come to those conclusions through your experience of testing ideas and agreeing changes are better, you are merely parroting ideas without a thorough understanding. Without having something to compare with you cannot improve with solid understanding.

[lynxerious]

Thanks lostinidlewonder,

I totally get what you meant, I love to do research, I read and watch anything that interests me to collect all the ideas before actually doing it. The same with pianos, I actually did reasearch more than practicing sometimes, (though I don't think it's bad thing, I'm glad I can be obsessed about something), and often you can be bummed that after you think you "get" something you try it on the instrument and it doesn't work rightaway. It took a great deal of patience and trust for something to eventually work, learning piano has taught me that nothing great can be achieved rightaway.

I started learning piano in covid times without a teacher, and have trouble with pain in the hands a lot. Of course, I did research on all the problems I had and found Taubman to be a great source to not injure myself playing. Even though I don't understand everything, I got some idea of it and took into practice, my hands eventually feel better to play. Though I got more hand fatigue from playing harder and harder pieces recently so there is no end to the road of improving and being more efficient.

And I watched all sources of advice and technique and explore all kind of ideas I stumbled upon, not just Taubman, and tried to apply whichever I think is making the most sense and logic to me, it happened that the approach is specific and focused on what it's trying to achieve. These videos are made a really long time ago, I think Golandsky had improved her pegatory with the new teachers of her Institute. Taubman could actually be a bit hard to understand in her way of teaching, I think she wrote her ideas down for a book but it was scraped as it was so confusing to read.

Sorry for rambling on

[lostinidlewonder]

Ahhhh sweet "rambling on" don't worry people hate on me for that often but it's fine I enjoy reading ramblings about piano stuff

When learning on your own it can be difficult to be aware of what you are supposed to be doing. So listening to advice at least makes you aware of certain ideas which is a good thing, at least you know about them and that is better than being totally oblivious to them. With the internet these days there is no shortage of advice so it can be quite overwhelming as you get dragged every which way.

I think you never stop improving upon many things within the realms of the piano, with technique becoming more efficient is certainly something we can work on forever. We do see leaps and bounds during our early/mid stages then fine tuning for later stages when you're well settle into your musical niche. I think all musicians who have played their instrument for a long time would admit that how they play today is somewhat different from last year and certainly vastly different from many years ago, it is something that grows with us which is a nice thought for me at least.

[ted]

I have often wondered what the Taubman approach was and now, after viewing the lot, I know, so thanks to the original poster for that. It seems to be a visual form of the many celebrated written treatises on the topic, containing much wisdom and common sense but also much wind. There is a gross overemphasis on one type of music, one sort of playing, and a total absence of discussion about the interrelation of the physical aspect with the creative drive through improvisation. Aside from the odd useful tip or two, for me it is too much like trying to learn to ride a bicycle by studying its differential equations of motion. My technique is nothing to write home to Mum about but it has served my musical purpose extremely well and, aside from tending to the occasional issue, I hesitate to think about it in such detail at my age. Thanks again for the link though.

[lynxerious]

Aside from the odd useful tip or two, for me it is too much like trying to learn to ride a bicycle by studying its differential equations of motion.

That is exactly why I like Taubman. The techniques to playing the piano isn't very intuitive, at least for the average learners. Unless you're a prodigy that "gets" it right away, for most people I think playing piano is like fighting against their body and instincts, we aren't evolved to push ivory buttons to make sound, we're made to hunt beasts and gather fruits. It could lead to many injuries if we go against how the body work to attempt difficult pieces of piano music. It helps that I'm an engineer kind so I really enjoys something that explains thoroughly how things work and why it works that way. Also Taubman has actually helped lots of injurious souls be able to play piano again after they overdid themselves