Why are many of us so obsessed with difficulty?

[lisztener98]

It seems that almost every day there is a new post something along the lines of "What is the most Difficult piece ever written?", or, "How do I learn this Difficult piece without any prior experience or professional guidance whatsoever?", et cetera.

I think what some people fail to pay attention to here is the subjectivity of difficulty. Some people may find certain pieces easier than others due to factors such as hand size, different development in muscle tone, and even the type of piano being used.

In addition to this, it seems people are learning pieces due to the fact that they are "difficult" rather than the fact that they are impressed by them musically. La Campanella and Sonata In B Minor are both difficult pieces by Liszt, but I see many more posts regarding LC. This is because it is famous for its difficulty, and even though the Sonata is much more musically advanced, LC takes the lead because people seem to want to brag about their achievements more than actually play a piece because they like the sound of it.

And don't get me started on people who try to learn pieces like FI/Moonlight 3rd/LC with no experience at all. It is a fast road to injury. Also, piano is not osu! Just because you're pressing the buttons at the right times doesn't mean you're playing the piece. You may as well transcribe the notes into Sibelius and listen to the output. There is so much more to piano than pressing buttons. Dynamics, phrasing, emotional depth.

If we could detatch from playing pieces for the sake of difficulty and instead focus on the musical aspects of pieces, then imagine how many more musically sensitive performers would be developing, rather than someone who has been playing the piano for five minutes bashing out Moonlight 3rd.

Just something I felt I needed to get off my chest.

[ranjit]

I don't think it does that much harm generally. To a beginner, learning a hard piece is an easy, early win. I know that learning some hard pieces was what gave me the confidence that I could actually learn the piano. Initially, coordinating both hands independently seems so daunting that you don't have too much room to think about dynamics,  articulation, phrasing, pedal and so on. You approximate it instead. Also a beginner's ear is often not sufficiently developed to the point where they could pay close attention to those nuances.

Also,  I think that it's a certain demographic of piano fans which obsesses over difficulty. The layman is much more likely to be interested in playing River Flows in You,  or Fur Elise or Richard Clayderman.

[lelle]

I think when you are in your teens/early twenties, it's somewhat common to want to be skilled at things and show your abilities off to the world. It then naturally follows that you want to look up difficult pieces and figure out how to conquer them so you can go "yeah, I did that!". I'm not sure how much that hunger to prove yourself is just a thing at that age, and how much is conditioned into you by society and has to do with low self worth ("I have to be good at something to be valuable"), because I can think of friends/collegues who fell into both categories at those ages.

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Also, learning "difficult" pieces is a way of pushing your technique forward and improving. I consciously did this 15 or so years back and I think it was very beneficial for my playing. I should of course add that there is no point trying to play pieces which are well beyond your current capabilities and that won't be beneficial (eg going from the first movement of the Moonlight to La Campanella, to caricature the point).

[keypeg]

I suppose it also depends on an individual's concept of "difficult".  The "young buck" who wants to play massive fast pieces that are considered difficult, may want to impress.

Where I'm at, I have some major strengths - usually lyrical type music that "sings" is a natural for me.  Studying with a teacher who prioritizes such pieces because I "will sound good', they "fit what I can do well" - that teacher is a no-go.  I want to get at things that I do poorly, where I lack skills.  When you gain skills, you can do more kinds of pieces, and they will sound better and richer.

[thorn]

And don't get me started on people who try to learn pieces like FI/Moonlight 3rd/LC with no experience at all. It is a fast road to injury.

This is the key point for me, not getting injured. The only sure way of avoiding injury with technically demanding pieces is to understand said demands and how to approach them. Of course many people attempt pieces without this knowledge, but in this case avoiding injury is more luck than judgement.

Overall I feel it's a right of passage for most people in the high intermediate/lower advanced stages of piano, most of us have done it!

[ranjit]

And don't get me started on people who try to learn pieces like FI/Moonlight 3rd/LC with no experience at all. It is a fast road to injury.

Also, I just wanted to say that I don't agree with this. I attempted such pieces, but have never faced injury because of it. You just need to relax a reasonable amount and that makes it rather unlikely you'll be injured imo. On the other hand, I have met quite a few people who injured themselves playing Czerny etudes. I came close to an injury while playing Bach because my teacher insisted I play evenly each week without telling me how in terms of physical movement.

In fact, I find myself less likely to injure myself on those harder pieces because they tend to be more pianistic and "free flowing".

[roncesvalles]

Part of it is because classical keyboard music itself has been obsessed with difficulty from at least the 18th century onwards. Expecting beginners to be an exception to this is unreasonable, since the history of the instrument is one of competition, although there are, of course, outliers. Difficulty is a complex term that on one hand suggests a high degree of technical skill, and on the other hand a marketplace differentiator predicated on notions of being or doing "the best." Like many things, there are admirable and objectionable things about the concept.

It's natural that a lot of beginners want to play difficult works. I don't think that this should be something that causes ire--that feels misplaced, since "difficulty" is so ingrained in the institutions of classical music that I think if one wanted to be angry or make changes, the structures of the system are more the culprit than individual enthusiasts who are mainly aware of things due to those structures.

One of the things that I think is a bit problematic is that many of the questions may come from learners without teachers. A teacher can vastly expand the notion of difficulty from that of speed and power (the more or less empty "gymnastics" both derided and rewarded by every generation) to a deeper understanding and engagement with music, and solely chasing pianistic warhorses might set beginners back in their progression.  A teacher can provide a kind of roadmap that can lead to playing Fantaisie Impromptu or La Campanella, but rather than forcing one's way through dogged determination to these works, learning on more of a graded scale would likely allow the student to learn additional skills and interpretive flexibility along the way.

[ammyvl1]

There's two possible explanations:

• They've lost sight of the music, and are engaging with piano for some other reason. Often it stems from insecurity mixed with the sunken cost fallacy. Regardless, once you've lost sight of the music you produce bad music.
• They simply don't know how to articulate what they want to listen to. Easy pieces are usually less intense or less brilliant or whatever than hard pieces, but they don't know the proper word to describe these things so they just flock to difficulty. Chopin Etude op. 10 no. 12 is very difficult, but it's also very passionate and exciting. They may simply be conflating the two accidentally through lack of experience.

[ranjit]

There's two possible explanations:

• They've lost sight of the music, and are engaging with piano for some other reason. Often it stems from insecurity mixed with the sunken cost fallacy. Regardless, once you've lost sight of the music you produce bad music.
• They simply don't know how to articulate what they want to listen to. Easy pieces are usually less intense or less brilliant or whatever than hard pieces, but they don't know the proper word to describe these things so they just flock to difficulty. Chopin Etude op. 10 no. 12 is very difficult, but it's also very passionate and exciting. They may simply be conflating the two accidentally through lack of experience.

Very good points! The second is especially important. Teachers often give students boring exercises because that is what they were taught. And competitive young people often want fiery, intense music as opposed to an endless stream of sonatinas and the like.

[resurrectcodeblack]

I don't think it does that much harm generally. To a beginner, learning a hard piece is an easy, early win. I know that learning some hard pieces was what gave me the confidence that I could actually learn the piano. Initially, coordinating both hands independently seems so daunting that you don't have too much room to think about dynamics,  articulation, phrasing, pedal and so on. You approximate it instead. Also a beginner's ear is often not sufficiently developed to the point where they could pay close attention to those nuances.

Also,  I think that it's a certain demographic of piano fans which obsesses over difficulty. The layman is much more likely to be interested in playing River Flows in You,  or Fur Elise or Richard Clayderman.

This is quite true for me. About a year after I started, my aunt played Rachmaninoff prelude in c Sharp minor for me, and for a whilei thought it was the hardest piece in the world. I just finished learning it a year ago and, to be honest, the Mozart Sonatas that I've played were significantly more difficult musically.

[anacrusis]

Very good points! The second is especially important. Teachers often give students boring exercises because that is what they were taught. And competitive young people often want fiery, intense music as opposed to an endless stream of sonatinas and the like.

That was exactly young me in my preteens! I wanted to play, fiery, passionate music and detested pretty little Kuhlau sonatinas and the like I assumed most people felt like that way until I met pianists who told me they were thrilled to play Clementi sonatinas when they were at that stage. I certainly wasn't haha. So I think it depends on temperament and taste to a large degree.