PRACTICING SERIES
PLAYING THE PIANO
vs
PLAYING MUSIC
Photo by Catalin Sandru
What is the goal of reading a book, if not accessing and enjoying the meanings conveyed by it? I choose a book to read because I think that the content of a specific book has some interest. By the same logic we should not dream of learning how to play, but how to play a piece of music that we like or that has meaning to us. We are often frustratingly concerned with our limits in playing the piano rather than the difficulties we have playing this or that music. The song, piece, or exercise in front of us loses importance because there is so much that is more important. Except it is not in front of us!
For many years I refused to play Chopin (my favourite since childhood!) because I thought I could not give to his music what it deserved. In other words, before playing Chopin I thought I had to become a complete and proficient pianist. I felt I had to follow a strict path of study; if successful by age 60 I would have learned how to play a few selected Chopin’s pieces, hopefully decently. The most severe method for complete proficiency, at the cost of no pleasure. Needless to say it didn’t work. Thankfully I gave up and I have played a lot of Chopin since. Quite averagely I must admit, quite happily nonetheless.
I believe the dimension of pleasure is the one that should guide our choices on top of everything else: if I am attracted by a difficult score or piece, why not trying it? Regardless how well I will be able to play it, the first thing I should be concerned is whether I want to play it!
I often find students who choose repertoire that do not match their current level. Some would be scared by scores that either “look” or “sound” too hard, missing the opportunity to get better, some others would believe that choosing a hard one will save them time in improving their proficiency (if I want to improve on 10 different technical aspects, I’d pick a piece that involves all those challenges at once, instead of picking 10 smaller targeted pieces). Other times the technical difficulty is what makes a piece attractive to me. I would say to myself “It is all made with notes, and I can read notes, I have played notes before. I can play it.” It is like saying: “Walking is putting one step after another: crossing the Sahara Desert also requires walking, therefore I am ready to cross the Sahara Desert.” Except I am not. The chances I will give up in the middle of it are almost certain. In other words, when priority is given to technical achievement, musical pleasure comes second.
All is fair and we all need to make our mistakes. In the end we must pick a piece we really like: this is necessary if we expect to endure the frustrating and time consuming process of learning it. Choosing a piece of music according only to our taste forces us to do some search among the ones (possibly many) we like: for some of us it might take a while to select a piece that matches our level and that satisfies our musical desire. We would have to try one and realize it’s way too difficult; we’d try another one and admit it won’t be very satisfying to learn. If I look back I can safely say that in proportion I started a hundred times more pieces than the ones I completed. This happened because I let my curiosity lead my search and found myself being attracted by the most different kinds of musical expression. Too often however our judgement on the level of difficulty blinds us on other more interesting dimensions. Ask yourself: are you going to present this piece at the Tchaikovsky Piano Competition? Chances are you are not, so you might as well give it a go and just learn something new.
The piano repertoire in particular is huge to an overwhelming degree. It is easy to get lost in the variety, so picking the next piece might not be a simple task. Ask your teacher. He should suggest you new repertoire considering your strengths and weaknesses, the things you urgently need to fix and the ones you might be curious about.
Alberto L. Ferro
I teach at the London Contemporary School of Piano, open to all students in UK and abroad. For inquiries contact me or the school directly.
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