Forumla for Success for studying the Piano.

[lostinidlewonder]

I thought I would share, perhaps very general logical knowledge but which I have found to my suprise quite a few music students don't even think about. I find it important to be able to categorise where you file your new and old musical knowledge. I find there are three places you can place them:

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Not in any order, we target,
1) Physical playing - for instance, how the fingers, palm, wrist, forearm, elbows, shoulders, back, all move at the piano with the given music.

2) Preparation - encompasses some sort of timetable creation mental or written, writing notes and guides on the sheet music, researching music and composers you play. Mental preparation for perfomance, exam, pressure study etc. Monitoring efficiency of your musical progress and tactics to learn.

3) Interpretation - How to develop the way you hear music and use that to make decisions at the keyboard.

Brief elaboration, on each,

i) Physical Playing
A lot of people playing piano have their progress tied down with the issues of coordination, finger independence and dependance.

Coordination is how well you can play notes in one hand or both hands (x notes in Lh against y notes in Rh, syncopation, rhythmic qualities etc) and observe directions (similar, contrary).

Finger independence is where for example you use one hand or both to reveal more than 1 voice in notes written. Finger dependance is how well you can control shapes in the hand, each finger depends on the another to reveal the overall hand form and shape asked for in the music (arpeggios, chords etc).

If this physical nature is somewhat mastered we are still faced with, Preparation and Interpretation issues.

ii)Preparation
Without correct preparation your efforts will become scattered and inconsistent. Music is a subject which grow and develops best with continual contact. Simply you will not learn much if you do not maintain constant contact with your music.

Even with constant contact established we still must ensure the efficiency of our study. Are we absorbing music at the maximum rate for ourselves, or are we adding unnecessary time and effort to our musical development. Questioning our memorisation rate and how we are observing the music, are we using the general shapes of chords, arpeggio and shapes at the hand to help us learn music etc. We must also consider what repertoire is suitable to develop our ability.

iii)Interpretation
Finally, if we have the physical and preparatory side worked out we will play like emotionless robots if we do not develop our interpretive side to music. One must know how to make musical decisions when learning music and playing. One must understand why music gets louder or softer, or why it slows down or speeds up. How well we develop our ear and sense for music will determine our ability to play music with emotion as well as technique which simply should always go hand in hand.

If all of these three are working together and continually targeted for improvement we will ensure a "Better" growth in our musical development.
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Of course i haven't really given advice as to exactly how to maintain any of these three things, rather saying, here is the foundation, how you develop it is various and personal.

I would be interested in people own ideas as to the "best" way for them to maintain and develop these three factors.