Alerting All Piano Teachers: Playing the Piano is Easy and Doesn't Hurt

  

  Years ago when I first began my university career, I accidentally made waves in the local piano teachers community. One afternoon after a concert, a group of local teachers surrounded me, yes surrounded me, accusing me of not "believing in" scales. Yes, the attack smacked of religious fervor. Somehow the discussion with my students of the use and

importance of scales in the development of pianistic facility had morphed into a sacrilege. Practicing scales routinely for the development of technique is a waste of time, I preached. It's true, like it or not. 

    However, it is essential that pianists know all of the major and melodic minor scales and can play them in a well-coordinated manner for four octaves at a moderately quick tempo. This is a study of keyboard harmony, learning the topography of the keyboard and coordinating thumb-crossings. Once learned and well worked-in, technical studies—even scales—should be extracted from the music itself. Scales that occur in repertoire rarely present in the same way we practice them routinely. No amount of scale practice will prepare a student for a Mozart sonata or a Chopin étude.

 

    I think this dogma about scales comes from the notion that pianists have to suffer the painful indignity of mind-numbing boredom, you know, of the sort that comes from mindless rote (the names Czerny and Hanon come to mind). But I also think that too often we have in the back of our minds "no pain, no gain." This is a reference to physical pain. I remember thinking that if my hands weren't tired after practice, I hadn't practiced enough. (But I was just an undergraduate and didn't yet know any better.) I once knew a very distinguished pianist on the faculty of a major university who declared that she practiced until all of the wrong muscles were tired so that the correct ones could take over. Well, I didn't believe her. But she figured out something because she could play all of the Op. 10 Études of Chopin in concert.

 

  I once remarked to a cellist friend that I thought that if an instrument is really mastered technically, it should feel easy. She was having none of it. "If it were easy, anyone could do it." (What's wrong with that?) Well, I thought, when we observe an accomplished artist perform, do we come away thinking, wow, he looked like he was working hard and having a difficult time?

    My violinist friend studied with the great Nathan Milstein. She is herself a remarkably accomplished performer. Yet, in a lesson with the master she fluffed a cadenza passage. The maestro demonstrated, after which he stated, "It's easy when you know how." Truer words were never spoken and you, gentle reader, will be glad to know that I've finally arrived at my point.

    Forget about scales (once learned). Toss out exercises (Czerny, et. al.). Practice scales and technique in the pieces you want to play. And here's what I mean by practice: First, locate the difficulty; second, solve the technical issue not by repeating it by rote, but rather by analyzing what physical movements (and fingering) are required; third, only then begin working-in the solution. Reject mindless rote. If a passage doesn't feel easy, it hasn't been solved. If the hand feels stretched, find another solution (redivide between the hands?). If there is pain, stop what you're doing and rethink the passage. Don't try to play through pain or fatigue. If you observe these suggestions, you will know how and it will be easy.

            The Pianist's guide to Practical Technique

           The Pianist's Guide to Practical Scales and Arpeggios

                         Piano Technique Demystified