piano babble

[mrissa]

On Monday, a good three or four measures of one of the Bach preludes I've been playing sounded like actual music and not just the right notes in the right places. This is good. This is progress.

I got a lot out of playing the piano when I was a kid -- not least that I believe in it for its own sake. I never liked the contrived stories of how One Kid's Music Brought About World Peace Or Whatever, because for me playing the piano well, making music and not just thumping through the notes, was a goal in itself. It wasn't about Bringing About World Peace Or Whatever any more than reading a book was about Bettering My Mind. So there was that, and there still is.

But when I was a kid, there was also the fact that I could work at my own pace, and my piano teacher didn't make noise about it. I knew that I was improving more quickly and spending more intense time on it than the other kids in my class at school, but it didn't have to matter one way or the other, because the piano was just mine. It had nothing to do with them. And my piano teacher understood that while her praise was nice, I was not taking piano lessons to earn praise, I was taking piano lessons to learn to play the piano. This seems really obvious, and yet a lot of the kids around me were extremely praise-motivated, and so it was hard to get a lot of the adults around me to let go of it. (Not my parents, thank heavens. My parents were -- are -- extremely committed to honest praise. So if I'd thumped and sweated my way through some poor fugue, my parents would say reasonable human being things like, "That's getting better," or, "It sounds like you're working pretty hard on that," rather than, "Wow!!! Excellent!!! You're a star!!!" or some other godawful grown-up praise, or, heaven help us, "That's a very hard piece for someone your age!!!" I never kicked grown-ups who said things like that in their bright and cheerful voices, but they fell substantially in my regard.)

And it wasn't just my piano teacher. When I was around other adults who were music teachers or musicians, for things like the PMI competitions in the area, they knew that I was an above-average little amateur. They knew that I was a moderately musical kid with a quick brain and reasonably dexterous fingers. And they did not leap from that to gushing that I should be a concert pianist. Because I shouldn't, and we all knew I shouldn't. And it was okay not to want to. It was okay with all these adult professionals that I wanted to play the piano well for myself and only myself. This was a motivation they could and did respect. At school it wasn't like that. At school I couldn't do well at anything without people leaping on me and telling me that I should become a doctor or a linguist or an economist or whatever it was. I maintain that it was equally obvious within a few minutes of conversation that I would be remarkably ill-suited for any of those professions. I had an enthusiastic, energetic competence in the related school subjects, and that is not at all the same thing as passion or brilliance. Some professions are possible without passion or brilliance, and some are remarkably ill-advised. And it was such a relief to be around the music teachers and the musicians, who knew it and were willing to admit it.

Right now it's very different. One of the things I'm getting out of playing the piano again, aside from playing the piano itself, which is important, is that I can have a fair amount of confidence that if I practice, I will improve fairly steadily. I have no idea how quickly the PT is going to work, and while we see no signs of impending plateau, there may be one. But with the piano, I know that I will, if I practice, get back to the level I want. There's so much I can't control in my life right now, but I can by God count sixteenth notes for half an hour a day. We are back to the all Bach, all the time program. And it feels good.

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Piano therapy--that sounds wonderful.

[songwind.livejournal.com]

I think that some adults never grow in their praise-methods as their kids (and others') grow. Toddlers need that over-the-top attitude sometimes. It's how they approach stuff. 8 year olds, not so much. I like to think that I mix praise and constructive criticism/advice pretty well. "I'm really proud of how hard you're working on that. It's getting a lot better. I did notice that you are rushing the parts you know and then slowing way down on the tough sections. Try to be smooth."

When I was a kid, I took guitar lessons because I enjoyed playing the guitar, plain and simple.

Well, and for the girls, of course.

[lotusice.livejournal.com]

Your experience with music is the diametric opposite of mine, as far as being allowed to do your own thing goes. It's really nice to read about, and to see how that's affected your approach as an adult. I think it's a tremendously good way to relate to anything like that. Even if you are passionate, or brilliant, at least intermittently - which is all anyone really is, ever, and to expect more is mining for trouble, you know?

Bach is a meditation for me and always has been, listening or playing, any instrument.

[owldaughter.livejournal.com]

We are back to the all Bach, all the time program. And it feels good.

All Bach all the time is always, always good.

There's so much I can't control in my life right now, but I can by God count sixteenth notes for half an hour a day.

I never thought about that before. I mean, I understand my sudden desires to cut my hair or colour it or whatever when I'm feeling boxed in by stuff beyond my control, but I never considered thinking about making music that way. Possibly because I generally feel like making music well is also beyond my control; when I play I get frustrated very easily. But reading this helps me think about it differently. Thanks.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

My piano teacher was really good. She let the other kids do their own things as well, even when it meant she had to listen to four different kids butcher piano versions of the soundtrack to Disney's Aladdin in a single afternoon. Like most suburban piano teachers, she had a lot of beginners and not very many people who stayed on seriously, and the other person at about my level was firmly a jazz pianist, which was not as much her thing personally as my firmly classical approach. But she did her best for him and tried to have fun with it.

I scared her the summer before my senior year of high school. I said, "All right, Sandi. It's our last year together, and I'm going to be really busy. Up until now I've let you suggest things, but this year I'm just going to play what I want to play for fun." And she blanched, and I fear she had strains of "A Whole New World" running through her head. "And what I want to play for fun is Bach," I said firmly. And I did. All Bach, all year. She was so immensely relieved. (She did talk me into some Kabalevsky in March.)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

At the time it did make me feel like they thought I was 4 years old and not very bright, sort of the, "YAAAAAY! Now put your other arm in the other sleeve! No, the other one! Yaaaay!" level of praise.

Also, I believe the technical term for what you get for playing the guitar is "chicks" or possibly "babes."

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Heh, and I'm just the opposite: I've never had the desire to mess with my hair as an assertion of control or change in my life. I know I get, like, twenty points off my Girl Score for it. But I just don't have that urge.

[songwind.livejournal.com]

Well, I know you aren't and axeman, so I didn't want to lose you with technical jargon. :)

[owldaughter.livejournal.com]

It's my only Girl Thing, really. I don't diet or mess with food intake, or drastically change my Look in an effort to lash out against society or Whatever's Holding Me Back!!1! (wearing button-up Victorian ankle boots when everyone else wore Docs was pretty much my only fashion rebellion). And even with the hair, I'm pretty tame. Ooh, I trimmed two inches off it! I'm such a rebel! I'm going to put a red tint in it! Now faint highlights! See how bad I am! Drastic change scares the heck out of me.

Come to think of it, the biggest assertion of control over my own life was deciding to start learning the cello at twenty-three, the year after I moved out on my own. Did all the research, called strangers despite my phone phobia to find a teacher, bought an instrument, and took lessons. I couldn't have music lessons as a kid because we couldn't afford it (besides, there's a whole Family Tragedy We Don't Talk About involving my mother, who loved to play the piano, not being allowed to have a piano after she married my father) and I was always redirected into another arts discipline instead. Funny that I've never considered acting on my desire to learn an instrument once an independent adult as a demonstration of having realized control over my life to some degree. Very interesting!

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

Bach. Yes.

The problem with playing the violin rather than the piano is that there are far fewer pieces of polyphonic Bach which do not require outside help. There are a couple but they are Fiendishly Difficult*. Admittedly, polyphonic Bach on a piano is not exactly Chopsticks, but at least it doesn't require you to grow six hands on the same arm.

When I was in my final year of A Levels, I borrowed my violin teacher's viola and a copy of the solo cello suites. That was exactly what I needed.

*See Preludes and Fugues for Solo Violin**, although I can't remember offhand which movements of which.

**I recommend Rachel Podger's recording (although I haven't done an extensive survey)

[elsue.livejournal.com]

>Yaaaay!" level of praise.

My baby sister started doing "Good job!" when she had kids. Including to me (in my late 40s when she started). Really weird.....

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Glad that you asserted control in that extremely constructive way! Many people do far worse.

[owldaughter.livejournal.com]

Thank you for starting my mind down the avenue of thought that led to the realization.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

My second instrument was the flute, and it was a bit difficult to adjust to not being able to do very much all by myself. And the joy of playing in an ensemble is not immediately clear from your average fifth-grade band...or even, frankly, from the particular high school band I was in.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Can you play the bit of the second orchestral suite that goes "Pom tiddle pom tiddle pom tiddle pom, tiddle pom tiddle pom om pom pom pom..."?

I can't play any music at all, but I adore Bach with an unreasonable passion.

[bettybaker.livejournal.com]

I'm a piano teacher in suburbia myself, and have been for several years. In those years, there have been lots of likable kids, lots of talented kids, and lots of perfectly average kids. Only this year did I get a student who's actually musically special, and it was evident from her very first lesson.

I guess my point is that the hardest thing to do as a piano teacher is to dole out feedback correctly. I'd say that teaching the symbol-to-keyboard understanding is only half of the job--the other half is turning on the empathy and making suggestions and comments and asking questions as seems appropriate for that particular student in their particular mood at that particular time. For me, it's all about reading body language and between the lines to figure out what a student will accept, and sometimes, what they need to hear.

That's why piano teaching is just as exhausting as other types of "normal" work.

To wrap up--I agree with the practice of praising effort and progress instead of unnecessarily harping on levels of talent. There are musical tortoises and musical hares, and they're equally wonderful.

[akitrom.livejournal.com]

True. But I will say this: making music in a small ensemble requires an intimacy like nothing else in the world. Dacing with a partner or acting on stage is almost the same.

It's the best thing in the world.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I haven't tried any of the orchestral suites, because I don't know what the available piano parts of them, if any, are like. I mostly prefer to play things that are written for the piano than things that were written for other things, but I do make exceptions.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I really admire teachers who can take kids who don't have a lot of direction -- regardless of their learning speed -- and help them to find it. I was a very self-directed kid, and my teaching experiences (not music, physics) were in situations where most of my students had signed themselves up for my lab sections or shown up for tutoring on their own hook, rather than having their parents decide that it needed to happen. Do you have a sense of how many of your students are there because they want to learn the piano and how many are there due to family pressure? Because I know Sandi got a fair number of the latter category.

[bettybaker.livejournal.com]

You know, that's something I've struggled with. There are some kids who aren't motivated to practice, but they find the experience of lessons pleasant and they enjoy playing the piano occasionally. Those I'll happily teach, although I let them know that their learning speed will be slower than those who practice.

The kids who are genuinely uninterested in making music and are being marched into my living room by an aggressive parent, though, I usually don't accept for lessons or let go of quickly.

But you know, I do need rent money, so during lean times (particularly the summer!) I occasionally go spineless enough to pick up some kid who doesn't really want to be here. It's always been a mistake, even when the kid's a nice one. So, I try to keep the number of force-pianoed kids low in my living room.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I can see why you'd want to keep the number low. I think Sandi used to give a set amount of time, after which she and the kid would stop enduring each other if they couldn't manage to find an angle that would spark interest. I never knew whether to feel sorrier for her or for the kid in question, since on the one hand they weren't always very pleasant to her even though she wasn't the one forcing it on them, but on the other hand she didn't have to go home with parents like that.

And I really do think everybody should know how to read music. I just don't know that force-feeding a kid piano lessons is a good way to get there from here.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

This reminds me a lot of what Copperwise said (http://copperwise.livejournal.com/643307.html) about getting through horrible abusive situations by helping other people (so that you not only do some good but also remind yourself that you are a person who does good things) and also of my own belief in the value of being able to do different things even if you don't excel at them, so that you can change off when necessary. I think there's a general principle working through here, but I haven't figured out how to state it.

[reveritas.livejournal.com]

that's interesting ... the morning i went to the hospital (tuesday) i first sat down and played a bach prelude. i don't remember which one, but it was a little simple thinger. i'm no good at them, but jd is -- but for some reason i wanted to play it that morning.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

We had a reasonable school string quartet, which felt pretty good when we'd been playing together for four or five years. And there was a good county music system as well - the top-level ensembles did European tours, which was great fun.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

No idea why I typed "Preludes and Fugues" when I meant "Sonatas and Partitas". Sorry!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I kept getting sent to junior high "honor bands" where you would practice Saturday mornings and play, or spend all day practicing and then have a concert at the end of the day. It was far better than my normal band stuff, but by that point I was already a pretty firm piano partisan.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

'Sokay; I didn't rush right out and make any dreadful errors.