What makes piano hard?

[ranjit]

I was thinking about this yesterday. It felt like the only thing that makes piano difficult is an ungodly amount of fine motor control of the fingers. Music theory is easy to learn (it's just a system whose difficulty is blown way out of proportion), and musical details can be taught. But the best players seemingly have an ability to control each finger independently to an incredible degree without tensing up, and for those with that talent, it almost feels like it doesn't matter how they learn, as long as they put in effort -- they are the natural pianists who pretty much always 'get there'. So, it feels like the only truly difficult part of it, that may well be largely innate, is that incredible fine motor control of the fingers. What do you think?

[lostinidlewonder]

Saying piano is hard because of finger control is a bit like saying walking is hard because of legs.
The difficulty iis learning how not to fight yourself.

At the piano, “fighting yourself” shows up in things like: tension to chase control, locking the arm while overworking the fingers, holding the hand rigid so notes don’t get missed, micromanaging each note instead of letting musical patterns flow etc. Ultimately all of this points to a lack of freedom, both physical and mental.

What looks like extraordinary finger independence in great pianists is usually just the absence of interference, efficient coordination, the ability to use less effort, not more.

Piano is also hard because you can make good sounds with poor technique and poor sounds with good technique! A bit of a troublesome paradox for many.

[thorn]

As someone who started out as a flautist, the main difficulty of piano for me is always the fact it's a polyphonic instrument so demands split attention. Pianists who don't play other instruments tend to overlook this.

There are many difficulties involved in playing the flute (embouchure, diaphragm control, tonal control, tonguing off the top of my head) but you're only ever focusing technical attention on a single musical line. Don't get me wrong, composers have found ways to create war horse pieces with that single line (go look up Jolivet's Chant de Linos which is one of the most difficult pieces in standard rep) but it's still not the same as a pianist having to manage several parts at once. I mean the piano part for the Jolivet is a b*tch.

And I recognise that monophonic instrumentalists have to split their attention when playing with accompanists, bands, orchestras, but it's still not the same as polyphonic instrumentalists having to create everything with one pair of hands.

[dizzyfingers]

At the piano, “fighting yourself” shows up in things like: tension to chase control, locking the arm while overworking the fingers, holding the hand rigid so notes don’t get missed, micromanaging each note instead of letting musical patterns flow etc. Ultimately all of this points to a lack of freedom, both physical and mental.

What looks like extraordinary finger independence in great pianists is usually just the absence of interference, efficient coordination, the ability to use less effort, not more.

You really summed up my worst habits perfectly.

How does one even work on being relaxed and at ease while playing?

I had a book, never read it, "Just Being at the Piano" by ??   
Maybe I shoulda read it.

[lostinidlewonder]

Playing music that is comfortably within your ability will naturally tend toward relaxed playing, which is already an important clue. Most of us have experienced a passage that once felt difficult later becoming easy, almost automatic and requiring little conscious control. Nothing mystical has changed, the coordination is simply being held together with less effort and there are clear cues confirming it like, how it feels in the hands, how it sounds and simple conscious observations you can make while playing.

You can push beyond your current level and sometimes that’s useful, but it almost always comes with compensations: extra muscular effort, tight control, rough memorisation or constant attention to stop things from falling apart. Those strategies are merely they are steps towards relaxed playing whether they improve or not.

Relaxation appears when the demands no longer require constant intervention. Once you understand this answering the next question "how do you work on being relaxed?” becomes clearer. Relaxation follows preparation, you can’t simply will it.

Many pianists know a piece they can play that feels completely easy and relaxed. Do you have pieces you can play but with less control than that “easy” piece? And can you notice a spectrum of pieces at different levels of mastery, each a step away from that fully controlled, effortless piece?

Observing this spectrum of control helps you map your abilities. Observing these levels can guide your practice and a solid practice methodology combined with carefully chosen repertoire can accelerate this process.