So, why having to chose the right teacher matters when we practice? It matters, because the teacher is the person that is going to show us how to practice at home. Therefore, they better have beneficial things to say when they are teaching us, since we do not want to misuse our time when practicing. (more…)
A pianist is any mammal that can play the piano.
“Really? Only that?” I hear you say. Yes, it’s that simple. Sorry to all big-headed “virtuosos”. Whether you play three blind mice with your right hand only or Lutoslawski’s piano concerto at Carnegie Hall, you are too just a pianist. A pianist’s purpose is to make music with this polyphonic instrument that we call the piano, and to give the pleasure of music to himself/herself and to the others.
Every pianist, of course, has started playing the piano for a special reason. Maybe some of you started because you attended a concert that had piano-playing and you got inspired. Others may have been encouraged by your parents that starting an instrument could have been a good idea. Perhaps some other people just wanted to decorate their living room with a piano, and in the process they learned the instrument.
Yet, regardless of what type of pianist you claim you are, the rules of practicing described in this website are universal and apply to all types of pianists.
This website is not about advising you how to physically play the ever various technical passages of the vast piano repertoire (Articulations such as staccato, legato, accents, or ornaments such as trills, appoggiaturas etc.). Trying to explain how to physically play a passage from a piece is a very common literary gaffe, and would have been the biggest mistake in this website.
The reason is that this endeavor needs a teacher; an individual with tradition passed on to him by his respectful professors. It would be wrong to try and describe with words and tot up the inexhaustible varying performance of all possible aspects of a piece, since they need to be approached differently in every piece of music. For example, the building of climax or a staccato scale would be approached differently from composer to composer and from piece to piece.
Bear in mind, that nothing can beat the actual piano teacher. One should not be deluded. I am afraid, that we cannot even start to grasp the art of piano-playing just by reading words written on a piece of paper, no matter how sophisticatedly they are written. This could never happen. I could, of course, give some examples of how to physically perform some articulations in this piece or the other, but this action will be derailing from the core-course of this guide. One would need to write fifteen guides to cover some of them.
So, you want to become pianist. But maybe not just an ordinary pianist. You want to become a pianist that people will regard highly and fall for your musicality, for your effortless technique and for the Goosebumps they get when they listen to your playing! You dream of filling the concert hall with your arresting sound and you wish you could feel thrilled and exhilarated with your own perfromance while on stage! (more…)