Why play the paino

January 13, 2012

NO TALENT ……. Recently a student complained to me that she had no talent – she felt that she was wasting her time trying to become a pianist. She would...

NO TALENT …….

Recently a student complained to me that she had no talent – she felt that she was wasting her time trying to become a pianist. She would probably never go anywhere with her music – she had small hands, rhythm issues, suffered from stage fright etc etc. I asked her …. Do you like to play the piano? She answered, “You know I do! Why do you ask?”  I answered, “You’re getting there – stop worrying!” She was very confused lol poor child … so I told her the following story.

If someone wanted to study with Clare Schumann, they had to audition for lesson. To audition, she would place a divider between herself and the        piano – she wouldn’t know if the student was male/female. She would just listen. The story goes that one day, two students auditioned for Mrs. Schumann. The first student played a dramatic fast piece with little or no errors and then second student played timidly – badly played …with   mistakes in rhythm/notes etc. Clare picked the second student. Clare’s friends were shocked and asked her why? The first pianist has so much
potential – look how he never makes a mistake!!!  Clare answered, “I can fix rhythm, wrong notes but I can not teach feeling.”  The second student will go further – for the pianist was creative and intuitive … another way of putting it … “it’s not whether you win or lose the game but rather how you play the game.”

So some simple ideas on how to take your piano playing to the next level….

  1. Work with a teacher that encourages – points out your mistakes but is supportive and loving.  A teacher who takes you beyond your natural ability.
  2. Attend concerts – watching youtube is not enough! You want to be inspired by the best. A lot of concerts are quite reasonable priced  (http://www.vancouversymphony.ca/concerts/all-access-pass/) Canadian Concert pianist Mark Jablonski once told his audience that he didn’t play for the front row but rather the students in the nose bleed section. You can learn so much from watching the best.
  3. Try to work with other musicians … often pianists will develop tunnel vision because they only work alone.  Try to work with violinist to learn phrasing etc etc.
  4. Try to play for family and friends as often as possible…. The more you have opportunities to play the more you’ll be motivated to practice … then the better you will play.

O’course these are just simple ideas to help to motivate you to become a better the pianist that you can become

Here is a new video I just recorded for one of my students enjoy ….. 

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EpFXVrF3Eg]

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