When starting to play again
after a long period of being away from the piano, it is better to begin to
play real music — however slowly — rather than to start with exercises.
This is because real music encourages the muscles to work in a more fluid
and natural way with a wider variety of movements than in, say, Hanon.
Uncertainty and confusion are much to be prized, for out of these can grow much that is creative and original.
An artist who believes he/she is in possession of unshakeable truths is best avoided unless one
has a high tolerance for boredom.
Every day we have to find
our ‘voice’ on the piano, a tone that ‘rings’ and projects, in the same
way that a singer has to daily experiment with resonance and awareness in
the muscles so that a marriage between the vision and the feel of a sound
becomes possible.
Reliable technique is formed
in response to a ‘need for sound’ (to paraphrase Patsy Rodenburg’s title,
“The Need For Words”), just as reliable walking is developed by a ‘need’
to move from ‘A’ to ‘B’. To take a specific example: When practising
overlap pedal, you first have to experience the desire or ‘need’ for a
note, then the need to make the sound richer by raising the dampers - thus
adding sympathetic resonance, next the need to hear two notes sounding
together in the same pedal and finally the desire to hear the first note
cease and the second note continue on its own. No amount of mechanical
counting and up-and-downing of the pedal can produce such certainty and
control, because it is not based on musical needs.
First develop your powers
for imagining the sound — ‘the vision’ — then develop your muscular
awareness so that you can mate the vision with the physical feel of making
the sound. This ‘mating’ can only be achieved by constant experimentation
— by imagining a sound, trying to produce it so that it matches the image
in your head and then by remembering the feel and associating the two
together. All of this practice being driven by a profound ‘need’for the sound. “Feel the sound,” as Warren
Jacobs has said. To which I would add “Listen with your muscles.” Ernest
Empson used to say “The music makes the muscles.” Pupils do not often
realise that this process is the way to develop a brilliant technique.
They think that slow, thoughtful practice produces slow playing and that
fast, mechanical practice, with little thought, produces showy fingerwork.
In fact, once you have developed a reliable connection between mind and
muscles, you have only to think music — at whatever speed — to physically
produce it.
Musical integrity is the
most important single quality a musician has and should be encouraged from
the beginning. Pupils should be constantly faced with interpretative
decisions so that they can develop confidence in their own instincts and
faith in their ability to solve problems. It is better that they develop
these qualities, even if they play with what may be ‘bad taste’ to a more
experienced musician, than that they should have another's instincts
forced upon them — (musical ‘rape’). The teacher should certainly provide
options and examples, insist on accurate score reading and encourage a
responsible attitude to what we can discern of the composers wishes; but
this still leaves plenty of room for individual choice. This is not
subscribing to the cult of “The self is everything. Who cares what the
composer thought? — He's dead anyway.” Far from it. I am talking about
developing a sense of responsibility and the use of instinct to serve
what one perceives as the composer's wishes. However, teachers should be
wary that they do not regard their own instincts as being synonymous with
those of the composer.
Music hooks into meanings
and associations far beyond the notes pure and simple. We should readily
accept this richness into our musical vision.
Do exercises for four
fingers — checking that the remaining finger stays relaxed all the way
through.
Muscular breathing. There
must be a cycle of tension and relaxation to keep the muscles healthy.
The relationship between the
voice and the fingers. Opening a channel between the vision and the
muscles.
Rhythmic curves in
structuring a piece or a phrase. Likened to building a bridge with each
block a different shape, so that every block depends on every other and is
therefore an indispensible part of the whole. Unlike a wall where every
brick is the same size and shape.
Practising pianissimo. First
with no sound, but put the keys right down. Float on the keys.
Pedalling — various ways of
finishing a chord from sudden stop to gradual feathering out.
‘Life’ in the touch.
Develop the left hand's
ability to ‘sing’.
Shape left hand
accompaniments.
Change the condition
of the hand for different dynamics and moods.
The ‘dance’ of the hand.
When the phrasing and articulation are right, the dance is right. The performer's task is to find the right dance for each piece.
Play studies with musical
phrasing — this often solves technical problems and reduces the risk of
injury.
Aural training should be
an integral part of every lesson and practice session.
Conduct, sing and think
through pieces away from the instrument. Dance is a great help, too, in understanding the gesture, mood and rhythm of a piece.
Some developers of AI believe that robots will not learn to think creatively unless they have a body.
Constantly experiment with
the many possible ways of balancing chords to produce as many colours as you
can imagine.
Animal intelligence in the
hands — Ernest Empson advised me to study Maeterlinck's essay on
“Intelligence in Plants,” how roots find their way to water (fingers, to
the notes) Enjoy the feel of the hand constantly changing shape — and the
fingers finding their way to the sounds. ‘Decentralise’. Don't feel
everything is directed from the head, that the fingers are senseless props
to be poked at the keys at the command of the brain. Use spinal
intelligence and all the nerves and ganglia that are part of the brain in
the wider sense. Although not conscious, they are super-fast and
efficient. Develop an awareness of this unconscious intelligence that is
working throughout the body and enjoy the ‘feel’ of using it.
Transpose from memory to
gain greater understanding of harmonic progressions.
Use Schenker-style analysis
in order to appreciate the often extraordinary nature of the composer’s
invention over a simple foundation.
The finest musicians play well because they cannot tolerate rough playing any more than people
with sensitive feet can tolerate walking on broken glass. Practice therefore becomes a need,
not just something they feel they ‘ought to do’.
Music is a kind of hypnotism. The rhythm is vital to keep people ‘under’.
Break the rhythm and the magic is gone - people feel they have been woken from a dream.
We are all babies at heart. We love to be rocked. If the rocking becomes unrhythmic we cry.
For tone control and sensitivity of touch: Take two notes in one hand. Press the keys down slowly right to the bottom of the key, but silently.
Gradually increase the key speed until the notes just sound - but in a whisper. Concentrate on hearing the notes sound exactly together and at the
same dynamic level. Keep the fingers feeling soft and sensitive. 'Listen' with the fingers. Then try the same exercise hands together.
I have frequently noted, when observing piano workshops, that the best pianists often seem flummoxed when trying to analyse a technical problem or
describe how to physically do something, despite most of them having had a rigorous training with a well known teacher. Could this be because they absorb
technique so rapidly into their musical vision that the image of the sound and the physical feel become one and the same thing? Empson (quoting Godowski) used to say
‘The music makes the muscles’. Schnabel said that you had to learn technique and then forget it.
When practising, practise IN a state of mind along with the other things you want to develop. Be confident and happy. Congratulate yourself from time to time.
Feelings of well being can be learned like everything else. When you start to perform in public, the things that you worked on in private will re-emerge and
reinforce each other and the state of mind you became accustomed to whilst practising will come along too.
The teacher should not feel obliged to say something wise and helpful every time a pupil plays. Sometimes the teacher should shut up. Sometimes the performance doesn't need to be ‘improved.’ Sometimes there is a spark of originality
which could be destroyed by the teacher’s well-meaning intervention.
