Practicing Perspectives

“The secret of education lies in respecting the pupil. It is not for you to choose what he shall know, what he shall do. It is chosen and foreordained, and he only holds the key to his own secret.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

In this article I will cover my perspectives as a pianist, improviser, and piano teacher on practicing pitfalls and practicing philosophy. Two of the most important roles of a piano teacher is to, first, inspire the student to WANT to practice and after this has been achieved to show the student HOW to practice. The former of these is largely dependent upon the attitude and personality on the individual student while the latter is, more so, related to self-discipline and musical maturity. Let us assume, for the time being, that the student has already developed this ‘wanting’ and has demonstrated a consistent 30 minutes or more of practice a day. Exactly ‘how’ does one practice? And ‘why’ does it matter?

“Genius is the ability to independently arrive at and understand concepts that would normally have to be taught by another person.”

― Immanuel Kant

While many wonderful and positive things can be said about free-play, creativity, and exploration not all students can rely on a natural instinctive genius to save them from meandering, getting stuck in a rut, or hitting a creative or technical wall. It is in these moments when a good piano teacher will guide a student’s exploration with theories such as fundamental root related chord motions, figured-bass, or galant schemata. When the student is struggling with a fingering for a particular passage the piano teacher should step in and show various possibilities for the student to explore as there is rarely ever one true solution to a pianistic problem. There is a time for creativity and freedom but there is also a time for discipline and rigorous drilling. These extremes both take place in an “ideal” practice session. Creativity, wondering, reflection, and even mediation must be given their due in order for an artist to assimilate information into knowledge on the mind’s own time and in its own way. Only during this time does a student transform data, processes, and facts into musical meaning, practice philosophy, and coherent logic. On the other hand, if time, more time perhaps, is not given to a disciplined practice and drilling of concepts and techniques all of this creativity might just go to waste. You might never see its fruition in musical performance, composition, or improvisation. Let’s now discuss what must be explored and what must be drilled. Remember, however, that successful practice often fluidly switches between ‘drilling’ and creative exploration of what to practice, why to practice, and how to practice.

“Think ten times, play once” – Franz Liszt

I don’t believe I can count how many times I have been reminded of this famous quote by the great pianist, composer, and pedagogue Franz Liszt as the words perched above me on the office room door to my piano teacher’s studio. I often reflected on the significance of these words and still, occasionally, do. The quote clearly emphasizes reflection, inward memory, musical purpose, and searching for the whole artistic image of a composition during practicing yet the great pianist himself is notorious for drilling tricky sections upwards toward 100 or more repetitions. It would seem that for him the development of the artist and the development of the technician should go hand in hand. After many hours and years of practicing and mediation I have compiled what I believe to be the most essential technical rudiments to practice and the most essential musical decisions that must be considered and balanced. I have many that are unique to me and every pianist will have their own list that are unique to them. I will give five in each category.

- Technical -

1.) Scales. In 3rds, in 6ths, in octaves, as chords, in two keys at once. All major, minor, whole-tone, altered, octatonic, chromatic. With proper fingering both hands up and down two or more octaves. Play them musically! Do not just play the notes get creative.

2.) Chord movements. To truly understand this one, we need to understand figured-bass, partimenti, and or through-basses and how they work. But it goes without saying that chords are the building blocks of musical logic. Therefore, they must be understood in relation to one another in the same way these words are organized in a sentence.

3.) Chord voicing. Making specific notes in a chord louder or softer… YES it can be done.

4.) Key control/connection. How deeply is the weight of your finger, hand, arm, even body connection to the key stroke. Do you truly understand the key resistance, velocity, acceleration? Have you noticed that the key weight is very slightly heavier with no pedal? Does the key really have to come all the way back up before you can play the note again? Should it? What type of articulation will this create? There is an infinite number of ways your fingers, hands, arms, and body can move through space to achieve a desired key velocity or succession of key velocities. Every musical phrase requires a unique combination of movements. In the end development of technique will lead to freedom. How is freedom achieved? Surely not by ignoring technical foundations. Development of principles improve technique which leads to a true freedom. Consider these things and more.

5.) The Chopin Etudes. Too much to speak of here and the hands must be mature. They are just about the summit of piano technique.

- Artistic –

Note: It must be said that without the proper technique all art suffers.

1.) Pedaling. The pedal has been called the heart of the piano. Don’t use the una corda by default to cheat a softer dynamic. How wet, how dry, when, why?

2.) Phrasing and gesture. Don’t just run through the notes. There are phrases everywhere. Decisions must be made. Where is the breath? Imagine a singer or violinist. Does it grow, sink, how much rubato?

3.) Pacing. This affects everything. Tone, Technique, pedaling, phrasing, dynamics. Etc.

4.) Rhythm, style. Practice with a metronome. Say your takadimis. What is the difference between a Ta - - Di and a Ta – Di. Etc.

5.) Layering, Color, balance. Strongly correlated to pedaling and pacing. Voicing control brings balance to an otherwise root heavy chord. Can you hear the bass and soprano spelling out the harmony? Is there an interesting inner voice you want to bring out?

I hope this article proven helpful in helping explore what to think about while practicing and why. Remember that it is especially helpful for pianists of all levels to a good piano teacher on their side.