I don't understand why....

[dreamaurora]

I simply don't understand the attitude some people have towards piano playing. I have meet many people , especially teenagers ( I am a teenager myself, only 20 years old ), who seems to think playing piano well is about playing the most difficult and technical pieces they can. And a lot of aspiring pianists seem that they don't understand the concept of progression.

To all aspiring pianists who read this thread, please understand just because you can 'play' Chopin Fantasie Impromptu or C# Nocturne or Flight of the Bumblebee or Pathetique Sonata or ( insert popular pieces here ) WILL NOT mean that you are a 'good' pianist.

A good pianist in my book means a pianists that is well balanced and mature in intepreting and playing pieces from different eras and epochs. More than that , a good pianist must have good knowledge of music theory and a good historical and background knowledge of piano repertoire.

Those so called 'good' pianist i met, they can play the notes 'correctly' ( the sounds come out, but they have severe technical errors, mostly because they try to attempt those technical pieces without guidance of their teachers, resulting in bolched tones, tempo, and phrasing mistakes ). And one thing i notice , their repertoires mostly consist of Chopin's and Liszt's , and they do rather poor job in inteprating the music of these 2 masters.

If you fall into the category i described above, i besiege you, please do learn piano the proper way. I know that those pianists claim they just enjoy the music, but wouldn't it better if you can do the pieces actual justice instead of playing a very crippled intepreatation of the pieces , which will only sound nice to your ears and those musically unaware people. Music is an art, and I believe the journey to be a good music artist is one that requires hardwork and proper guidance. If you don't have a proper teacher now, get one , you will do yourself a great favour and the music of those great composers too. And for goodness sake, don't learn pieces that are way too difficult , and I mean musically difficult, not just technically. And play music from different eras too, there are so many wonderful composers and music to be discovered, even you may not really appreciate them at first.

I used to fall onto the category of pianists i described above, but ever since I get my new teacher ,  who is a very famous performer in my city, suddenly my musical thinking changed completely, i begin to see the errors of my ways and changed for the good. I am now much more proficient in all different eras of piano repertoires, and most importantly, I strive to make music now, not play notes , as I used to be.

Any opinion on this ? Did what I say is correct ?

[amee]

"A good pianist in my book means a pianists that is well balanced and mature in intepreting and playing pieces from different eras and epochs. More than that , a good pianist must have good knowledge of music theory and a good historical and background knowledge of piano repertoire."

dreamaurora,

I agree completely!  My former piano teacher once told me, a pianist must not only have an extensive knowledge of his or her own instrument, but also about the arts and other instruments in general.

[roman]

dreamaurora you speak words of wisdom!

You don't know how many people I've run into who jump to a piano in front of people every chance they get and play Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.

And all they do is play the notes(sometimes not even that ) and they think they have accomplished something great! This is just disrespectful in my opinion to the pianists who spend months working on their technique, working on the musicality of the piece, and trying to play it with passiona and emotion.

Thats the problem with many new teachers, all they care is about money and more money, they don't care if a student will learn the correct way to play the piano.

dreamaurora very well said my friend, you sound like you're someone who knows what they're talking about.

[dreamaurora]

Regarding lousy teachers, I do agree this situation is very bad. I have a friend, she is taking grade 8 ABRSM practical this year, and she's playing the beethoven sonata op 2 no 1 1st movement, and she has a teacher ( and a private teacher to boot ). The horrifying thing is that she DOES NOT KNOW the key signature and the opus number of the the sonata. I was like , OMG, she has been playing the piece for almost 5 months already and she never even bother to know the key signature and the opus number, and she did have a grade 7 theory...

Then her knowledge of the repertoire is very limited, she only knows the very popular ones, and even then, only the most popular pieces. I am really baffled by how the teachers teach, it seems that most teachers nowadays just want instant results and never bother to inspire the students musically.

And anyway, I created this thread because I'm really fed up wit the so called 'pianists' i met. And also becoz these 'pianists' go around, especially in the net, proclaiming their apparently 'superior' learning ways, and creating a sense of false security for people who followed their ways of learnings. I read in other forum, that theres this guy that claims he can play Liszt's un sospiro, hungarian rhapsody no 2, and mephisto waltz in JUST 1 AND HALF YEAR OF LEARNING PIANO, WITHOUT any teachers. If you read my thread about speed learning, there's this guy I know that claim he can play entire Gaspard de la Nuit within one year of starting piano too, without any teachers too.

For me, to see whether a pianist is good, I will want to listen to his/her Bach and Mozart. Flashy pieces by Liszt or Chopin will not impress me. What's the deal , everyone can play the notes with hardwork; although intepretating the flashy pieces will be different story though...

[Bosendorfer_214]

Dreamaurora-

I would have to say that I agree and dissagree to a certain extent.  

I agree that playing the lyrical and "deep" pieces is of grave importance in the development of oneself as a musician.  

However, I disagree with your other point.  There is nothing wrong with playing flashy and technically difficult pieces.  (The way that you bash Chopin and Liszt I begin to get the impression that you don't play the works of these composers well at all, and need to seek affirmation in belittling them.)  

Another reason why people rush up to a piano in front of a group of people and play hard pieces is that they want to get discovered.  In the music business, it is not what you know, but who you know.  Say...you rush up in front of a group and begin playing Chopin's Prelude in e minor Op.28 No.4 , even if there is someone in the crowd who can make you famous, they will see some kid playing a simple piece that everyone plays with in the first 2 years of study.  They will not look twice at you.  They would rather see some kid pull off an excellent performance of La Campanella.  (The latter shows more promise as a performing artist.)

P.S.  You make it seem as that it is not as important to play Chopin and Liszt as it is to play Mozart.  Also, I would hardly recognize the  Fantasie Impromptu,  the C# Nocturne, the Flight of the Bumblebee, or the Pathetique as among the most difficult literature available for the piano.

[dreamaurora]

Im not suggesting that I belittle Chopin and Liszt, in fact I absolutely adore Chopin, and Liszt too to certain extent. It's just that those mediocre pianists tend to play the works of Chopin and Liszt much more often , and will never play works by Bach and Mozart. There's really nothing wrong in playing flashy and technical pieces, but it just irritates me when someone plays flashy and technical pieces without any meaning at all. In fact I believe flashy pieces are very hard to master musically, because most of us will tend to be negligent into looking the musical part of the pieces,  and focus on the technical and 'wow' factor instead.

The pieces I listed above are definitely not the hardest in repertoire, but its just that a lot of people can play the notes for these pieces and start proclaiming that they seem to be very expert in the instrument.

That's another of my 2 cents worth

[BoliverAllmon]

I know your pain. I sit and work real hard on the stepping stones to become a better pianist and I see a bunch of dimwits showing off to non-musical people just so that they feel better. I was once at a recital and this boy played Mozart's Fantasie in either D minor or F minor. I don't remember exactly, I do know how it is supposed to be played though. It is a slow moving piece. It does have some faster sections, but the main part of the piece is just amazing moving. Well, this boy played the piece about as fast as Chopin's Fantasie IMpromptu. When he was finished the boy stood up, bowed and walked away like he was the king of the world. I felt like chasing him down and giving him the beating of his life for down-right disgracing the name Mozart. AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! The pains of doing things right.

Boliver Allmon