So, it’s now time to start practising. Similar to an athlete starting his daily training with a little bit of jogging to warm up, we need to do the same with our piano playing. By warming up we will avoid our muscles stiffening up. This way, we are going to be able to have a longer practicing session, a less tiring session, and be more productive, since our body will respond quicker to the various musical challenges. (more…)
Together with keeping notes, another way to acquire a sort of documentation of your lessons is to actually record your lesson using a digital recorder. There are many types of recording machines, such as Mini-Disk recorders, tape-recorders etc.
Use you recorded lessons as feedback for practicing at home. Although a recorder can produce faithfully what took place in your lesson, it is not to be used exclusively. The reason is that you will have to listen through the complete recording in order to point out the most important suggestions from your teacher. This can take a lot of time and can be frustrating too; That’s why having a notebook as a map of our lesson is more important. However an actual recording can be helpful for the following reasons:
Naturally, a teacher should be ok with your recording his or her lesson, but ask them first, just in case.
When in class with your teacher it is important to take notes in our little notebook that we have kept especially for the piano lessons. We need note-taking because quite often important things that have been said or thought in class can slip from our minds by the time we practice again later. Thus, the more detailed our notes are the more they will be of help when practising later. (more…)
Blindly following teacher or doing our own thing? Do we have a say when it comes to interpretation? Could our opinion of how a piece should go have merits?
We all wanted to become virtuoso pianists at one point or another in our lives. We couldn’t go to sleep thinking about it, we romantically gazed at the stars in anticipation, we unsuccessfully tried to play the “cadenza” of Chopin’s first Ballade at gatherings, we wept listening to our favorite pianist and we all ate spaghetti Bolognese; sorry, I meant to write we all went to piano recitals; I was thinking about my lunch just then.
We all did things to succeed in becoming a virtuoso. However, we knew that desire wasn’t enough in achieving our goals. We knew that we needed guidance, mentorship and somebody to know more than we did.
First, we needed a good teacher. So, we went to find a teacher. Some of us found our teacher by luck, for others, the teacher found them, and for others the teacher was introduced to them.
Then, we started piano lessons; we practiced at home and we went and played to the teacher. The teacher listened to us and humbly suggested corrections and improvements to our playing. We agreed with some suggestions and did our own thing in other.
Then, we slowly started forming an opinion of how good we were; we believed in ourselves. We thought that we could taste musical success and at times we considered that we were unique and special. We all secretly idolized our wonderful piano sounds. We liked our passionate chords and fast fingers when we played Richard Clayderman, and before we knew it, music was on the horizon.
This article is about the times that we disagree with our teachers. Since, most of us have disagreed with our instructors at one point or another. We all felt that we were right and our teacher was wrong.
But in music, before showing our concrete musical understanding to the world we need to learn the basics, such as what a teacher is and why we need one. So, first things first, here it goes:
A teacher is an individual that teach us things that we don’t know. So, if you already know something in piano, that’s fine, the teacher just repeated it. But the duties of a teacher do not stop there. A teacher is not only there to repeat things that we already know but also to sense things that we cannot sense at the time. And more importantly to stop us getting ahead of ourselves and teach us the foundations of how to play the things we do. Remember, that it’s natural to not always understand what your teacher is on about; you are not meant to always comprehend things. You might just have to wait for a while until you mature musically and then you can come back and have your say. And, who knows, you might become a great teacher as well.
Regarding 1, very often I hear from students that their teacher cannot reach their low or high level of performance. They believe that some teachers are meant to teach refined pianists who already possess strong technique and some other teachers are to teach pianists that need improvement in their technique. Others students believe that their teacher is good no more for them and they have learned everything from them (how is that even possible?). Well, I am an avid believer that you can always learn new things from a teacher no matter how high or low his experience is; you may learn some negative or some positive things. Have you ever experimented by asking an inferior teacher/pianist to you to give you a piano lesson? Well, I have, and the experience is enlightening. Believe me, you can always learn.
Regarding factor 2, a good teacher is not a dictator and won’t try to make all his students sounding alike. He will strive to understand what you actually want to say with your unique interpretation but will also try to restrain any superfluous musical views and eccentric interpretational choices. He will also try not to strongly propagate his own learned way of playing the piano, because he knows that no teacher’s opinion is the only one that is right; otherwise we would only need one piano teacher forever.
Regarding 3 and 4, yes, a good teacher can be a good liar; but a “white” liar if you may. The last thing you want to face when you desperately want to become a soloist is a reality check from your teacher. The good teacher would definitely know if you can make it in the music business or not, however he would never be negative towards your potentials if he feels that you really want to make it; since he is not a medium.
That’s right. Regarding 5, your teacher is not a medium; nobody can proclaim your future as a pianist. Not even you, I don’t think. So, let’s not let others to put us down.
About 6, a good teacher naturally is a better teacher that you, I’m afraid; otherwise you wouldn’t need to experience the student-phase in your life and you would go straight to becoming a teacher. So, you need to always be alert when in his class. Hopefully you didn’t choose a teacher that is worst a teacher than you, did you?
And of course, in 7, a good teacher would be humble enough to accept that he was wrong, to accept responsibility and grant that he made wrong judgements and that you were right; he is human after all.
To a certain extent, yes; you are allowed to disagree with your teacher but only if you possess the information to identify “why” your teacher is wrong. But before you disagree, you need to ask yourself a few questions, such as:
If some of those “tactful” questions above make you feel uncomfortable and cranky then perhaps it’s time to think carefully before strongly disagreeing with your teacher. You need perhaps to evaluate how much you know. It’s great if we are challenging everything and all in life before we accept things, but sometimes we just have to be patient in order to understand things that are beyond our current capacities. Sometimes we have to say “yes, I agree” and “yes, I understand”, even if you don’t fully, because sometimes in life we are just not yet ready to evaluate things. So, let’s be patient. And more importantly let’s not always be a spirit of contradiction. A child, for instance, doesn’t know what is right or wrong sometimes, because it doesn’t have the knowledge and the experience to sense and to assess; so, the parent must be bold sometimes and just say, “don’t fall over”, “don’t walk on the edge of the cliff”, “don’t poke your brother in the eye”, “don’t ask “WHY” all the time”.
Unlikely, but yes, it could happen. For instance, here are some juvenile reasons:
Reasons like the above are mostly trivial and can be corrected even from a non-musician. You have to appreciate that music is a subjective art to a certain extent, so you must avoid dogmatic views. That’s why every pianist is unique; because his personal view of a piece will shine through at the end. You may understand that it’s very difficult to say if your teacher is 100% wrong and you are 100% right; except in very clear cases, such as when the composer wrote that you must play pianissimo and your teacher insisted that you must hit the piano with baseball bat. But when it comes to things like:
Or, how this and that, then I’m afraid it comes down to your uniqueness, to your personal taste and to your teacher to try and explain all those subjective things. That’s why artists like the legendary Horowitz came so close to our hearts, because they proved that there were no musts and absolutisms in musical interpretation. They also showed to us that a composer can be reflected and even championed on any pianist’s individual views.
So: Stop becoming a teacher in a teacher’s class if you are not one just yet, and start using your ears more.
Is your teacher right or wrong sometimes, it doesn’t really matter. In life, everything is going to balance out at the end. So, carry on practising and don’t stop learning, because one day you may realize how little you know after all.
© Nikolaos Kokkinis – 8th May 2012
One of the most common questions I hear from students is how many hours to practise a day.
The answer of course is very simple.
You have three choices:
Yes, it’s as simple as that! I’m only kidding of course.
Many pianists would say that you need to practise at least three hours a day, while others will say that you need to practise six to seven hours if you are at conservatoire level. Some others, together with a snobbish expression, will protest that you must practise at least eight hours a day, while quite a few of them will keep it a secret (especially if they regularly under-practise). Don’t forget that the younger and the more inexperienced the pianist is, the more hours he would claim he is practising.
I would suggest that you practise daily; except, of course, if you are on holidays or have reasons not to practise that are beyond your control.
But before I go into more detail, I would like to tell you some stories from my past.
I remember when I was studying the piano while still at school, my friend who was also a pianist would come and tell me tales of how many hours he practised in any given day. He would often claim six hours but only from time to time four to five. I was listening to him with skepticism and amazement. I was saying to myself, “how is that possible for him to practise for so many hours?” “Why am I so lazy to not study for as many?” I was feeling guilty.
I would painfully keep reminding myself that not only my friend was an excellent pianist, but he was excelling in languages (he spoke fluently German and French), he was an incredible swimmer and he was getting high grades at school. He was smart, forever fresh, stylish, his general knowledge was fantastic and he was answering most of the questions in Trivial Pursuit. He was an ideal musician. I admired him but, somehow, I wasn’t envying him; he was my nemesis.
So how come my friend ended up being an average pianist and when I listened to his recital many years later his chords sounded like he was hitting the piano with a sledge-hammer? How come his scales were like his fingers were dipped in honey and his sound was as flat and dull as an undercooked pancake. I know I sound patronizing and unfair, but if you were there you would have quietly agreed with me. Back then I used to be hypercritical when judging my friends’ musicality (especially when asked) and I expected them to be equally strict and honest with me as well! This can be tricky at times, but remember that just because somebody is your friend it doesn’t instantly make him/her a great musician. Yes, you must be encouraging and supportive but you must also be honest; and to whom to be more honest than to your friend?
Anyway, the answer to why my friend ended up not being the next Arrau was given to me many years later, when I was a graduate at college. And the answer was twofold:
First, younger students generally tend to overstate how many hours they have practised. To put it slightly more gently, they tend to lie and show off to their friends. Thinking about it, a day was never enough for my friend back at school to excel in languages, in school, in sports, in table games and play the Appassionata meticulously. Or was it enough?
As I was thinking about it I started realising a few things: One of them was that I also used to be a student back then and just because my friend was playing the Appassionata wonderfully in my ears, this didn’t mean he was playing it correctly in the ears of an experienced musician or teacher. It slowly started to make sense; he was possibly lying on how many hours he practised. That was the first answer for why my friend did not become a top pianist.
It sounded mysterious to me that my friend practised for an absolute minimum of 180 hours a month (as he claimed) and not becoming a great pianist. So, I came to the conclusion that he was possibly lying and I was too inexperienced to sense it.
The second part to the answer is that perhaps my friend wasn’t practising properly; so even though he claimed he was practicing for x amount of hours this didn’t mean that those hours were correctly used. Bear in mind that it doesn’t matter if you practise two minutes or six hours a day; if you practise incorrectly the result may be the same. If for instance you practise with wrong technique and without understanding of what you are doing for seven hours a day, this won’t get you anywhere.
So how many hours to practise then? I hear you say impatiently. Well, I have no idea.
But hang on a second! I just wrote an article on that subject, so I must find an answer. Bear with me for a second to think.
Well, fun aside, it depends on the following factors:
Thus, regarding factor a, if you only have x amount of hours to practise daily then you have to apply my principles of practising found on the article “which pieces to practise daily”.
Regarding factor b, it depends on how energised you are. Try when practising to be as “refreshed” as possible and not tired. The more tired you feel, the more likely you are to just play through pieces without registering what you are doing, so you could be developing bad habits in technique. You need to be as concentrated as possible. It’s better to practise for half an hour concentrated than five hours as if hitting the keys of a typewriter. I have noticed that when I am concentrated I cannot practise for many hours since I become tired more quickly. Whereas, when I just play through a piece frivolously, thinking about remembering to go to the bank, for instance, or what to have for dinner later that night, I could practise for a longer period of time. Now, guess which one is the most successful practising session.
Regarding c and the choice of repertoire, unfortunately the harder the repertoire, the more hours you would have to dedicate. As if you didn’t know; but this is how things work in music, I’m afraid. I know that we are all familiar with these things but the question is, do we follow them? So, if you only have to practise the “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” for your next recital and have already received a Masters in performance from a conservatoire, I wouldn’t recommend that you practise this piece for more than three hours a day. I know that a piece of music can forever be perfected and can always have room for improvement, but we need be sensible sometimes. I hope you got my gist. So: Harder repertoire = more hours of practice. For more detail on this subject, please read my article “which passages to practise daily.”
Now, concerning factor d, it really depends on how high the quality of your practising-technique is; because practising in itself is an art. So, if you don’t know “how” to practise a piece or a passage properly, then you could be wasting precious time. Ask your instructor to explain in as much detail as possible how you should practise at home. I always ask my students at the end of each piece if they have any questions to ask; I become sad when they say that they don’t have any; could it be possible? I doubt it. Also, as a rule of thumb, try to practise always at the zenith of your concentration. You will see that the more attentive you are, you would need and be able to practise for less hours because you will get tired much more quickly. I remember once I had to be tapped in the shoulder by my teacher at college, because I wouldn’t hear him entering the room since I was so concentrated practising.
Last factor e is also related to the first and the third factor. We tend to practise longer the pieces we like the most. It’s very common that if a student enjoys a certain repertoire more he miraculously finds more free time to practise, whereas when he hates his pieces, unfortunately he resorts in practising much less. It’s only natural I think, albeit wrong; sometimes we need to show “strength of character” and practise with equal force the pieces we like and those we don’t enjoy as much.
To finish, I would like to share a last tale about my piano teacher, the great British pedagogue and pianist Michael Young. (I’m paraphrasing).
I remember it was summer term at college and we were about to close for the summer holidays. I looked at my teacher and said: “Michael I’m so tired, I’m exhausted. I need to lay on a beach for the rest of the summer and not touch the piano for one second”. As always, I was exaggerating. He looked at me and said with a smile on his face: “Well, Nikos you don’t need to do that”. I said, “but I’m beat!”. “I know you are tired,” he said calmly. “What you have to do is to just practise for three hours a day. Just three hours. Then you can have the rest of the day off and do whatever you want.”
I was blown away by the simplicity of his wisdom. It was that simple; just practise for three hours, then go play.
So, to recap:
Practise as much as you can but fully concentrated; this is the secret. The amount of hours is trivial.
Now, are you still reading? Don’t be lazy! Go and practise for eleven and a half hours!
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Notes: This Article contains fiction. My “friend” in this article is fictional.
© Nikolaos Kokkinis – 5th of April 2012.