What Is Good Pianist in Classical Music

What Is Good Pianist in Classical Music

by | Jun 1, 2021 | 0 comments

Reader Discretion is advised

Who’s your favourite pianist? A very common question amongst piano afficionados, wouldn’t you say? When you ask this question to someone, they will mention some of the normal names that come up in the everyday pianistic lists: to all those questioned, all these famous pianists will possess some of the following characteristics:

  1. They will be musical
  2. They will be expressive
  3. They will be virtuosic
  4. They will play a particular composer “amazingly”

All those above could make the list of the most desired characteristics of a favorite pianist. But, when it comes to what is considered good pianist in classical music, it depends on who you ask.

 

Audiences

 

Audiences almost invariably, never attest that their favourite classical pianist plays slow music well. They never say, “Oh, I loved the way she played the dotted quavers in the second movement of Beethoven’s Op. 2, No. 2.”, or, “he is my favourite pianist because he plays amazingly the andante from Mozart’s Facile sonata” and just stop there.Well, I’m lying — as an eye-wash audiences might mention a slow piece or two their favorite pianist plays to their taste, but they know full well that their favorite pianist is their favorite because she plays like the clappers. She plays fast.

Audiences — i.e. the people who sit and watch a concert, and 95% of them are amateurs (at best) — will often mention slow and lyrical playings, and how they adore the performer’s touch, eloquence, and interpretational hocus-pocus, but they really want nothing to do with it. Inside them they don’t support slow playing at all. Subconsciously to them, a good pianist is the one that plays maniacally fast.

The worst appreciators of music are the audiences! Unfortunately, we have to play to them, even though they know zilch about the pragmatic side of our art and how to appreciate it. I wish we could only play to musicians — some of them are better at understanding what we are trying to do with this massive block of wood with strings we are wrestling every day. However, audiences are very useful because they gullibly pay us their hard-earned cash. So, we have to smile at them, nod our heads at them, listen to their mysterious gibberish often with stone-faced expressions, marvel at their colossal gullibility, and generally suffering a lot just to steal their cash. Go figure.

 

Performers

 

The show continues when it comes to performers. As performers, we think we are self-entitled to know what good pianism – and particularly “good pianist” – is! We are masters in talking nonsense all day long and can virtuosically hide our titanic musical ineptitudes through our proficiency of eloquent expressions.

See, we are all day long in the company of artistic peers who are equally masters in finding niche ways to describe their nonsensical art, so there’s no surprise there. Words, such as “expressive”, “flair”, “challenged”, and “feelings” occupy massively our everyday vocabulary and are the bread and butter of our artistic quiddity. That means we are extra careful when we express important notions, such as the musical quality of a pianist – As you may have noticed through this website, the use of considerate, graceful expressions that show respect and understanding for our fellow pianists are the kernel of a successful musical career and, dare I say, of good writing.

So, “good pianist” for us performers is, definitely, the one that plays both slow and fast music well. Good pianist is, of course, the one that through his lyrical and precise technique the desires of the composer are revealed. Good pianist for the pianist is the one who is a “pianist” in both mind and body and has the ability to lift the minds of an audience to great heights. Blaah. Just kidding, of course.

Can you spot the pretentiousness? Can you spot the… dare I say, nonsense? You must be out of your mind if you think performers think of anything else other than fast playing! We couldn’t care less about slow movements and Yasashii demeanours — we breathe fastness in our world of false priorities.

You don’t believe me?

Well, show me one pianist that is considered great by only playing slow piano music and has played no fast. Mention just one! You can’t. I know. ( Again, I’m not making any friends with this article).

 Okay. I’m off to practice the Flight of the Bumble Bee.

Copyright © 1st of June 2021, by Nikos Kokkinis

===

 

 

ℹI am indebted to the following artists the images of whom I used to create the composite image used in this article: This image tries to convey false priorities and meaningful things in life. The reader is invited to choose which of the three images is closer to their idiosyncrasy. THANK YOU:

Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

 Juan Goyache on Unsplash

Kristopher Roller on Unsplash

Did you enjoy this article today? Support those thought-provoking writings. Click to find out how.
The Slingshot Effect On The Piano

The Slingshot Effect On The Piano

by | May 1, 2021 | 0 comments

The Slingshot Effect On The Piano, Or How To Increase The Tempo Of Your Piece When Nothing Works.

Do you know what is the most common thing students and pianists want to achieve with their pieces? Is it to make them softer? To make them more convincing, perhaps? Well, none of those noble things. In my minute experience as a piano teacher and aspiring pedagogue, what most students want most of the times, is to make their pieces faster.

That’s good, though! Besides, I do not know of any pianist (dead or alive) that was considered a great by just playing second movements of sonatas. Do you know of any? Most of the pianists that we consider great are the ones that play, as an old friend used to say, frantically.

You’ve got to play frantically if you want to be considered the next Michelangeli in this show-offy world. You will never achieve true greatness with second movements, nocturnes, adagios and the rest of lesser pieces the professional musician secretly despises and frowns upon – well, when you ask a pro pianist if they like second movements and slow pieces they would bend over backwards to persuade you they do like them. But they fully well know those pieces won’t cut the mustard in the 21st century pianistic arena. You’ve got to play frantically… Welcome to human superficiality.

So, it’s no surprise that most of my students always want to notch up their speed and always feel that their playing is not sufficient to enter the sphere of real pianism.

“I have to play it faster, sir,” they would say.

“Oh, I wish I could play it as fast as you, miss.”

“This pianist on YouTube plays my study in less that a minute!”

And so on and so forth – you get my gist. By the way, they never seem to say, “I wish I could play it more slowly and poised, sire.” Oh, well.

❦

But enough of my rumbling and let’s get on with the franticness of our pieces.

So, for the purpose of this article, the initial problem a student wants to solve is how to increase the speed of a piece that doesn’t seem to get any faster. Here’s how most students would practice; they would start from practising the piece at their current fastest speed, and then they would try to push the tempo forwards, starting from that very speed. Most of the time the speed will not increase sufficiently, of course, especially if the piece is virtuosic. When they finally play the piece a little faster, it lacks clarity in both technical and musical articulation, and it feels unbalanced in its structure. 

And so they despair.

They would come to their teachers confused, lacking of confidence. The teacher, more often than not, will resort to saying the same cliché things, such as, “play it a bit slower”, or “just keep at it”, or even, “your technique is not there yet” (Guilty your honor).

Playing slower is, of course, a sage thing to suggest. Who wouldn’t agree. But the secret here is how slow should they play. This is where I suggest my pupils to utilise my “Slingshot Effect”.

The Slingshot Effect 

 

So, what is that slingshot effect that I so pretentiously advocate, then? To start, I would say that the slingshot effect is not a step-by-step analogous action of the slingshot transferred to piano technique. If I was to support this claim, I would significantly add to the preposterousness of this website. 

The slingshot effect is just a sort of freely fashioned expression to get the student’s mind geared towards how they should practise.

To simplify the demonstration of this technique, I won’t use tempo markings but beats per minute (BPM). Follow the steps below with precision.

How the slingshot effect works

Say that your desired ultimate speed of the piece is at 120 BPM.

1. First, stop practising the piece at once. If possible, leave the piece to settle – Three days without practising it should be sufficient.

2. In your next practising session, practise the piece at 50% the speed you normally practise it. Not just a little slower, but close to 50% slower. Repeat at that slower speed for at least a couple of times. Example: You usually practise the piece at 100 BPM. You practise it at around 50 BPM. (Speed 1 = 100 BPM. Speed 2 = 50 BPM.)

3. Right after you complete part III from above, increase the speed significantly and closer to your intended speed of 120 BPM (perhaps increase to 115 BPM). Do not practise your piece at your usual speed (Speed 1).

4. Repeat steps 2 & 3, daily.

That’s it. You will miraculously increase the speed of your piece and, hopefully, keep it up there.

Why the Slingshot Effect Works

 

By significantly decreasing the speed of our piece, we allow our brain more time to contemplate its doings, and also let our fingers to “sit” better on the keys.

The slingshot effect reinforces the influence of good muscle memory practices and just leaves our minds free to apply speed.

Did you enjoy this article today? Support our thought-provoking writings. Click to find out how.
What Is a Piano Student?

What Is a Piano Student?

by | Mar 31, 2021 | 0 comments

Reader discretion is advised.

 

Q: Is a piano student someone who wants to learn the tuba?

A: No.

 

Q: Is a piano student someone who wants to learn to paint?

A: No.

 

Q: Is a piano student someone who wants to learn to play the piano?

A: Yes. 

 

Q: Is a piano student someone who wants to learn to play the piano of his own free will?

A: Yes. 

 

Q: Is a piano student someone who wants to learn to play the piano because his parents made him do it?

A: Yes. 

 

Q: Is a piano student someone who wants to learn something else rather than the piano?

A: No.

 

Q: Is a piano student someone who needs to be told what to do in life?

A: No. 

 

Q: Does a piano student go to piano lessons to learn the meaning of life?

A: No. 

 

Q: Is a piano student someone who wants an identity mentor rather than a piano teacher?

A: No.

 

Q: Is a piano student someone who seeks for a psychotherapist rather than a piano teacher?

A: No.

 

Q: Does a person who needs phycological treatment seek for a piano teacher?

A: No. 

 

Q: Is a piano student someone who wants a piano teacher rather than a counselling mentor?

A: Yes. 

 

Q: Is a piano student someone who wants a piano teacher to teach him how to play the keyboard instrument that is called “piano”?

A: Yes. 

 

Q: Is a piano student someone who seeks for a friend to pour his heart out?

A: No.

 

Q: Is a piano student someone who knows everything about the piano?

A: No. 

 

Q: Is a piano student someone who knows everything there is in life?

A: No. 

 

Q: Is a piano student someone who knows what he wants in life?

A: No.

 

Q: Is a piano student someone who wants to know what to vote in the next general election?

A: No.

 

Q: Is a piano student someone who wants to be told what to follow as a career path?

A: No. 

 

Q: Is a piano student someone who wants to learn to play the piano?

A: Yes. 

 

Q: Is a piano student someone who wants to know right from wrong?

A: No

 

Q: Is there a science today that can tell us what a piano student really wants?

A: No.

 

Q: Is a piano student someone who will find out about his life through the words of his piano teacher?

A: No. 

 

Q: Is a piano student someone who will find out about his life through the act of playing the piano?

A: Yes.

 

What is a piano student? I wish I knew…

======

Copyright © 1st of April 2021 by Nikos Kokkinis

 

Many thanks to the Wonderfull artist Matese Fields for his image used in this article. I downloaded the image from Unsplash.com for free. To see more of this artist’s great images click below:

Photo by Matese Fields on Unsplash
Did you enjoy this article today? Support our thought-provoking, independent writings in this website today. Click to find out how.

The Metronome Effect

The Metronome Effect

by | Mar 17, 2021 | 2 comments

The metronome is this lovely machine that keeps the tempo for you boldly without allowing you to deviate from it.

as a matter of fact, we all owe to have one, so if you can afford a proper old-fashioned one, just buy an electric one. However, as you know, music is not always played in inflexible tempi and needs to swing freely. The vast majority of the piano repertoire is not to be performed robotically. Except if the composer has specifically indicated that you must follow the metronome precisely – However, no great recording or live performance is played with the precision of a metronome. And that’s the point of it all – we should count when playing but not sounding like robots.

However, this little musical dictator that we call “metronome” can be a very useful tool to us if used sensibly and cleverly. Here’s what I mean by that: the metronome, I have concluded, can massively accelerate our mastering of a piece. How? By starting at a much slower tempo and getting gradually to its normal speed. Everybody knows this method. However, I have tried to refine this tactic by using what I call the “Metronome effect’’.

I discovered the Metronome effect when I was studying Bach’s first prelude and fugue in C many years ago. I remember that I had only a day to learn the fugue, and I was sitting on the piano desperately thinking of how I was going to get through this. Then it came to me; I took my little white metronome and started from the beginning by playing each crotchet on 40.

However, and here’s where the secret of the metronome effect lies, I promised to myself that I would not increase the tempo if I haven’t played the previous part with no mistakes. Playing the piece at 40 BPM, felt was so easy. The same was at 41 BPM one. No mistakes. At 42, even though I was feeling a little bit more challenged, I still managed not to make any mistakes.

It was until I reached 42, when the first wrong note came in. That was it. I had promised to play the passage again and at the same speed. Torture? Yes, but three hours later, I could play the fugue really successfully and without slowing down at the more technically complex parts. Of course, I knew that the piece couldn’t have sounded robotic, so I was then ready to practice it more naturally, and giving more thought to its musical flow.

 =====

Copyright ©May 2010,  by Nikos Kokkinis – Republished with a new image from Wikipedia on the 17th of March 2021.

 

Show your support for independent writing

Support the writings of this website today – By buying our music you can ensure that Piano Practising stays alive for the years to come. 

Visit Shop

Online Piano Lessons Setup

Online Piano Lessons Setup

by | Mar 1, 2021 | 4 comments

Reader discretion is advised.

 

I feel ashamed. I feel sad and I feel the worst possible piano teacher on Earth — Not that I am not, but that’s another story.

This online lessons charade has taken me by storm — I feel I am currently at my most pompous and self-important mood, living in a most melodramatic stage of my bumpy educational career.

 I haaate online lessons — In case you haven’t noticed, read my previous article…

 However, here am I, talking about online piano lessons, following their caprices to the letter, and do them with a massive (albeit fake) smile on my fat face. So massive is my fake smile, that if casting for the movie Batman Begins was to take place today, I sure would be snatching the part of the Joker in a jiffy. 

 But, once again, I digressed…

 So, let me talk about online pianistic equipment. Who would have thought after more that than ten years, I would write another article on pianistic equipment, but this time on the online pianistic equipment — The lowest of the low.

So, here is what I use and what I generally suggest you, the piano teacher, should aim to have in your studio to make this online journey less painful:

 

 SETUP

 

  1. A Good Microphone: A microphone of excellent quality will convey your instructions more clearly to the student. As of the early February 2021, you will be probably having your online lessons with one of the major communication platforms, such as zoom, Skype, FaceTime, etc., And that means, you are connecting your microphone to a laptop, or a desktop computer or, (hopefully not) a mobile device, such as a tablet or mobile phone. An external microphone will “offload” the CPU (central processor) of your computer and allow it to work optimally. Here, you need to remember that internal recording sound-cards are not optimised to record with high fidelity. This is the job of an “external” sound card that has been specifically designed to reproduce and receive sound to the highest of qualities — I would strongly recommend that you invest in an external recording device/microphone. For example, an external USB microphone that connects directly to your device, or an external sound card with an extra microphone that it also connects to your device — I use the zoom H6. It is perfect for online lessons. You can do almost anything with it. You can record your playing, you can use it as a sound card and connect to it microphones though XLR, and you can record your live concert to the highest standard. The H6 is also great in the field, in filming, for interviewing and simply on every imaginable live-performance situation. I strongly recommend it.
  2. And talking about computers, you need a Good Computer/Device to make the most of your wonderful microphone. There are zillions of laptops, desktops and tablets around, but only a fraction of them are capable for prime-time. I am not an expert and I couldn’t suggest which is the best computer that will flow naturally with your equipment today, but I go with the flow and I am currently using a MacBook Air. Very good choice and works perfectly well with all cables and bits and pieces. Ideally, however, you would have a desktop computer connected to big external monitor and avoid the laptops and the mobile devices altogether.
  3. A Good Camera: A good camera would compliment the audial side of your studio setup, allowing the students to see in clarity your illustrations. I currently use a Canon M50 DSLR camera connected to my laptop. The advantage of having a DSLR camera, as opposed to a web-camera, is that it can zoom in & out on your fingers, and it can produce HD video that has unparalleled quality compared to any present-day webcam used by consumers. Plus, again, it disengages the internal webcam of your laptop, which is basic, and suited for less demanding applications.
  4. A Good Set of Headphones/Monitors: If you are working with subtle sound nuances though the medium of the internet, you are not in luck, I’m afraid — you would need to hear the piano clearly. Dogs barking, birds chirping and cars passing by do not help in this respect. Through my use of both studio monitors and headphones over the years, I have come to realise that both fit-for-purpose. However, I am currently using the Marshall Major 2 Headphones since I live in a city and the noises of the passing vehicles can be distracting. So, unfortunately, I cannot use my studio monitors and need the headphone ear-pads to seal my ears as much as possible in order to hear my students through their often mediocre recording setups.

Other secondary equipment you might need to compliment the above list:

  1. Α camera tripod to adjust the shooting angles of your playing with greater flexibility. 
  2. A secondary camera to show your fingers from above (placed right above the lid to show your demonstrations up-close). A second camera can also act as a means of simply making your footage more arresting and less rigid — I use my iPhone or my Nikon D340.
  3. A second microphone placed in close proximity to the piano for even higher sound fidelity — In that case, you might opt for a “lavalier” microphone (I use the Rode SmartLav+) on your sternum, so your voice is not picked up too much by the piano mic. For the piano I often use a pair of AKG Perception 100 mics when things get savvy…
  4. Good Lighting: Since the available light is not always sufficient, I would use a spotlight with varied colour temperatures so you can adjust it depending on the season and part of the day — that is, however, when you have windows in your studio, because if you don’t, your lighting conditions cannot be affected, anyway.
  5. Quality cables!

❦

That’s all for now. This I believe is a most basic setup a decent professional piano studio should have.

Now, what about the students and their equipment? Who knows — I care about their equipment and constantly make suggestions, of course, but then again, it’s their life.

Most of the students’ parents prefer to buy a Mercedes and have lessons through their android phone, so good luck to them!

 

======

Copyright © 1st of March 2019 by Nikos Kokkinis

 

All images where used from the Wikipedia.com website. Many, many thanks to all contributors the images of whom I used to create the bold composite image above. 

 

Are you stingy? Did you enjoy this article today? Support our thought-provoking, independent writings in this website today and stop being super stingy. Click to find out how.