Build a Foundation

Dear Greg,
I'm very confused. I just turned 11. I have been playing since I was 3 and studied under the Suzuki method with one teacher until I was 8. I had finished up the fourth volume. Most of the pieces in Volume 3 & 4 are Sonatinas by Clementi, Kuhlau, Mozart, and Beethoven. My teacher moved so my dad hired another teacher. My dad spends most of my practice time with me. I began to learn Beethoven's Sonata Op2 No1. I love this piece but it took me eight months to lean the first three movements. He has me working on Hanon, scales, Czerny Op599, for technique. I am also playing the Inventions and Sinfonias along with some romantic pieces from Denes Agay's book. My current teacher wants me to put the Beethoven Sonata aside and start learning all the Clementi Sonatas because he believes that physically I am not ready for these pieces. He also wants me to avoid playing Chopin for now which I really love listening to. My dad spoke with the former teacher of mine and he said that if you want to seriously compete in the major competitions, which I do, I have to start learning the Sonatas by Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin works like the Preludes and Etudes now. He disagrees with my current teacher because he believes that the teacher may not have the patience or knowledge of how to teach a younger student advanced pieces. My current teacher is very detailed and we spend vast amounts of time on Clementi alone and expects to spend two years on these pieces. I'll be 13 then. He believes that Clementi works are a precursor to Beethoven works. What concerns me is that when I see the bios on winners that win the major competitions most of them were playing concertos among other advanced pieces when they were 9. What are your thoughts about the direction I should proceed with?
 - Celina

Dear Celina,

I responded to a similar question on this "Ask Greg" page, and I'm going to answer yours in the same manner: listen to your teacher. Your teacher, especially in this case, seems to know what he is doing.

You've certainly hit upon one of my pet peeves: students trying to tackle pieces beyond their skill level. It is dangerous physically, pianistically, and musically. If you rush through advanced repertoire, it is very likely that you will miss opportunities to explore your musicality or your personal approach to the piano. It is also likely that you will develop some bad, bad habits in your technique - habits that will follow and plague you for the rest of your life.

I remember being just as confused as you; I heard about the teenage prodigies who brought a new concerto in for their lessons every week, and I thought I had to do the same thing. Instead, my teacher taught me patience. She was extremely detailed in her approach to the music, and that sense for detail opened my ears to a new world of precision and craftsmanship at a very early age. It was invaluable training, in my opinion.

There is no hurry! My parents wanted nothing more than for their three sons to be "well-rounded," happy children, and I believe it made all the difference. I certainly wouldn't be the pianist I am today without having spent all that time outside building tree forts, participating in the science clubs, and visiting the public library on a weekly basis. I know plenty of young pianists who spend eight hours a day practicing, but I think it is completely unnecessary. There are SO many child prodigies out there, and although eight hours of daily practice may give you early fame and a host of compliments, it will do very little to provide any sort of career later on.

Build a firm foundation as a pianist now, and later you will be able to pursue anything you want. Truly elegant, insightful, and beautiful playing is so rare in people your age. Not that it really means anything, but in high school, I won competition after competition playing Mozart and Bach, not Rachmaninoff and Liszt like my competitors. (That is not a slam to Rachmaninoff and Liszt - I love their music - I truly do. It just shows that Mozart and Bach played well can be more impressive than more technically difficult music.) And the Clementi sonatas! Some of them are masterpieces! You shouldn't be complaining! How lucky you are to be able to play them at such an early age.

And now that I've already said more than enough, I feel I must take a moment to state my passionate thoughts on the matter of competitions. Be wary. Please don't turn competitions into your driving force, into your reason to be. Competitions can be so dangerous.

Competitions train audiences and pianists to listen critically. I found that after spending too long in the competition circuit, I lost my ability to listen and enjoy. When I was eight, I listened to a Mozart concerto for the first time and I nearly squealed with delight. It was bliss. After attending competition after competition, I found that I couldn't listen to a Mozart concerto without picking the pianist apart; I listened for what was wrong rather than what was right and beautiful. And even worse, I found myself continually making comparisons; "this is better than that!," "I liked his interpretation better than hers," etc.. Comparison is healthy to a certain extent, but it becomes detrimental when we lose the ability to listen with an open mind or the ability to simply enjoy what each person has to offer. (Please see the Anderson & Roe music video for a satire on the subject of critical listening!) I'm confident that I'm not the only music listener who has been jaded by the prevalence of competitions in our culture.

Not only do competitions transform the way we listen, but they influence the repertoire chosen by pianists for performance. Even if the competition repertoire is "free choice," only a select portion of the piano repertoire is appropriate. Schumann's Davidsbündlertänze is a great work but rarely programmed in competitions - it's too long and it isn't flashy enough. The music of Satie is completely inappropriate on a competition program - it's too simple and esoteric, and it can be very polarizing with the judges. Grieg's lyric pieces aren't serious enough, Handel isn't as good as Bach, too many transcriptions are bad, too many unknown pieces intimidate the judges, and Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies are deemed "cheap" music by some. And goodness, if your specialty is New Music and not music of the Classical era, too bad, because you won't satisfy the judges desire to select a well-rounded pianist. And goodness, if you like to compose yourself, don't try to program your own compositions in competition programs.

Then, there is the whole element of winners and losers. In most major competitions I've seen, amazing pianists (truly amazing) are cut in the first round. It seems that creative and personal performers do not do well. They may win over some of the jury members, but they are bound to offend others. Competitions are kind to the consistent and predictable - very kind - $50,000 kind - lots of engagements and press kind. But interestingly enough, very few who win secure sturdy concert careers. Audiences don't return to hear these winners again, and concert presenters don't reengage them. Who won the last Queen Elizabeth? the last Tchaikovsky? the last Leeds? I forgot.

I passionately believe that competitions have done significant damage to the world of classical music. It has transformed music from an art to a sport.

Instead of playing the piano to win competitions, I offer an alternative: play music to change the world, to discover yourself, to explore humanity, and to bring people together. Play music that is relevant to you and find ways to make it relevant to others.

Happy practicing!

- Greg

Mozart Sonata K. 310 & Competitions

Dear Greg,
Well I would first like to thank you for creating such a wonderful website. It looks like you've fulfilled your mission! And for sure, you are my new inspiration! So my question has to do with Mozart Sonata K 310 in a minor. I've been playing this piece for about over a year, I think. I've performed it a few times and will soon be playing this at another competition. I've received several adjudications on this, and people all seem to have different opinions! I'm especially confused about the beginning of the 1st movement. Some suggested that I pedal every quarter note, and my teacher and I decided to try it because I can bring out more of the tragic feeling that way.. but once I started doing that some adjudicators were VERY strongly against it. Could you offer me any advice on this? What do you think? Thanks!
 - PianoGirl in Canada

Dear PianoGirl,

I am very humored by your question! I played the same piece during my first year at Juilliard and dealt with the exact same issues when I performed it in competitions. It seemed that no matter how I tried to play the opening, every adjudicator objected. Should the grace note come before or on the beat? Should you pedal the eighths, half-pedal the eighths, not pedal them, connect them with your fingers, keep them dry? How loud should they be? Are they noisy, almost ugly, like a janissary band? Full of passion and drama? Should they be respectable and restrained, as if "you were playing on a fortepiano?"

Later, my teacher explained to me that "the piece is bad for competitions," because it's one of those divisive pieces with the tendency to incite strong opinions from professionals (sort of like Chopin's Barcarolle or Fourth Ballade). So I stopped playing it.

It wasn't until later that I realized how much competitions controlled my life in this manner. Nearly every decision regarding the repertoire I learned was made in deference to competitions and judges. Certain pieces, like the Mozart, were out due to their divisive nature. Other pieces were out because they weren't serious enough. Other pieces were too unfamiliar. Other pieces were too canonic (Appassionata, much?). Some pieces were dismissed because they didn't showcase enough (variety of emotions, technical challenges, etc.) in an appropriate span of time. Some pieces don't make a good impact on the audience (or judges) unless they are played in their entirety... and what if the judges didn't have time to listen to the whole piece? And I certainly couldn't play my own compositions...

In the end, you get the same old hackneyed, compact, virtuosic (but serious) competition pieces; pieces I didn't really feel like playing: Rachmaninoff's Second Sonata, Prokofiev's Seventh Sonata, and Ravel's La Valse.

Too much calculation. Too much strategy.

So I cut competitions out of my diet, and now I can play what I want, when I want. I can play a program of music composed entirely during the Classical era. I can play Chopin's Barcarolle. I can play Satie. I can mix children's pieces into my programs. I can play my own arrangements. I can construct my programs to make a statement about society. I can play music I like! Ultimately, this made me a better musician and a happier person.

Regarding the Mozart sonata: I went for dramatic effect. I never got the feeling that Mozart would have restrained himself... and a fortepiano can make a nasty racket when played in one of those old, reverberant European castles. Besides, I like playing the opening that way.

- Greg

Beethoven's Octave Glissandi

Hi Greg,
I wasn't familiar with the Waldstein until I heard you play it last summer. I was quite taken with the piece and I decided to learn it. I have run into a difficulty in one passage and hope you might have some advice. In measures 464-473, there are a series of octave scales that are played almost at the speed of glissandos (glissandi?). My teacher said that when she played it, her teacher had her actually do a glissando with 1 and 5. There is a simplification listed in my copy that uses both hands for them when the other hand isn't busy with chords. What did you do and what do you recommend? Did you find a way to play each octave individually at the required speed, did you do glissandos, or did you use both hands to play them as scales? What would you suggest that I try? Thanks!
 - Joe L

Dear Joe,

The infamous octave glissandi in Beethoven's Waldstein sonata! Woohoo! My hand is big enough that I was able to learn to play the passage as your teacher did, performing a glissando with my first and fifth fingers.

It took me weeks, a great deal of determination, and a ridiculous amount of pain before I really got the hang of it. I can offer you a few tips, but in the end, it simply takes work.

• Eventually, you've got to find the right angle at which to position your thumb and fifth finger. This will depend on the size of your hand. I find that as I play each note, the knuckle of my thumb and the inside of my fifth finger have already begun to depress the next note.
• For all the pain and trouble I went through to learn the passage, I now tell myself that it's the easiest part of the piece. The easier it seems, the more relaxed my hand becomes, and the better it sounds. It may seem counterproductive, but it works for me.
• The octave glissandi are easier to play when you play the section really fast (it is marked prestissimo, after all!).

Good luck Joe!!

- Greg

"Why do you play?"

Hi Greg,
I'm presently working on my ARCT...I'm 46....have a B.MUS. and B.ED (from University of Victoria).... I teach general music and band in the school system full time. I'm also a pro french horn player with Symphony New Brunswick, have 15 private piano students and am a mother to 3 amazing children ages 16, 11 and 8. Could you give me some tips on things I really need to study and know thorougly I've read quit a few books on piano pedagogy....any specific recommendations on reading material? thanks for any insight you can give me. For my ARCT....I'm doing the teacher's part in June and the playing part in August. I travel 90 min 2X a month for piano lessons
 - Cynthia Munn

Dear Cynthia,

Gosh. Cynthia, I have no idea what you should or shouldn't know, and I've never read any books on piano pedagogy.

My only bit of advice: don't lose sight of music's purpose.

Why do you play piano? Why do you think your students should play piano?

Here's my personal answer:

Music brings me great joy. It connects me to the world. For me, music serves as a portal to possibility, to an aesthetic environment that fosters human connection. For me, music is the means to the beauty, the spiritual essence, and the humanity that overwhelm this world.

Music makes life worth living.

I hope that you and your students play the piano for similar reasons!

- Greg

Practicing & Ligeti

Dear Greg,
hello. i'm studying the devil' staircase of Ligeti. Could you bring me some help. how can i do to work the kind of music? thanks a lot!
 - Cyril Cuvier (France)

Dear Cyril,

Help? Hehe.

How to play Ligeti's Etude No. 13, "The Devil's Staircase" in three words:

Practice, practice, practice.

Then, practice some more. Then some more. And then: ....practice some more.

The piece tests a performer's determination and ability to focus. There are other pieces that are technically harder to play, but I've encountered nothing as mentally demanding as this piece ... other than other etudes by Ligeti.

A quick tip: I originally learned the piece by counting 8th notes. Later, I began listening to the various groupings of 8th notes (5, 6, 7, 9, etc.), and now I listen for the bigger picture.

Good luck!

- Greg

Tendonitis

Greg - (I'm a HUGE fan btw) - have you ever gotten tendonitis from practicing too much? A couple years back i did the foolish thing of not taking breaks while practicing and really screwed my right arm up. Now when i practice my right arm seems to have 1/3 - 1/2 of the endurance of my left arm, and i find myself resting it alot. i am genuinely concerned. My technique itself is fine but do i still have a chance in becoming a concert pianist? I love to play and don't want to give up.
 - Rach

Dear Rach,

Can I call you Rachmaninoff?? j/k

I don't have much personal experience to offer you; I've been really, really lucky that I've never had any problems. My teachers worked for years (and years and years) helping me develop a technique that fosters relaxed muscles and avoids pinched nerves.

I've seen a number of pianists come back from the gates of hell to pursue very successful careers as pianists. Some teachers are very good at helping injured students recover. A few words of advice:

• give yourself a 5 minute break for every 20 minutes of practice
• ALWAYS stay relaxed, even in the most grueling passage-work (this is harder than it sounds)
• keep your hand parallel to your arm (or pointing downward); i.e., avoid bending your wrist upward
• instead of stretching your fingers, ROTATE your entire hand

Best wishes to a speedy recovery!

- Greg

Interpreting Meaning

Greg!
I am a big Ravel fan and would like to say that I find your Ondine - as much as I can hear of it on this website - to be a very intelligent interpretation, the same goes for your considertions cocerning its sensuality, I read it in amazement and think it is about time somebody is as straight forward about it as you are. I am only through the first two pages of the piece myself, but am proud to have Jeux d'eau on my repertorie, I am certain you are familiar with the piece and not blind to the similarity between it and Ondine (Jeux d'eau is not exactly sensual, let's face it, but another genious way to make water become music) Your words about Ondine really helped me to understand the piece and I finally feel sufficiently armed to give it a try myself. Could you, shortly and in words, interpretate Jeux d'eau as well? What kind of question is that, you say. Well if nothing else, blame it on my rubbish english and pretty screwed up north european manners.
 - Kristian

Dear Kristian,

Thank you! I'm happy you found inspiration in my essay about Ravel's "Ondine."

I had played Gaspard de la nuit for several years before I published the essay on the first movement, and I spent just as long tweaking my translation of the poetry and thinking about its meaning. I agree with you; I think it's too bad pianists and audiences often ignore the piece's blatant sexuality.

That said, I've dabbled with Ravel's Jeux d'eux, but I haven't given the piece the same amount of consideration I've given to some of Ravel's other works. I'd rather not try to impress you with dazzling but unsubstantiated insight (that's called "B.S.").

Instead, I challenge you to think about the piece really hard. Not sort of hard, but really hard, with 100% focus. Toss the piano aside and study the score. Work metaphors -- everything (including notes and musical passages) has the capacity to stand for something other than what is apparent. Create a narrative -- make it an opera! Be open to new ideas. Go deep -- the deeper you go, the more likely you'll discover something valuable. Read scholarly analyses and then forget about what the research says. Lack judgment. Rely on gut instinct. When you're done, think about it all over again from a completely new perspective.

Music can bear unbridled power. (A recent performance I heard of Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony sure did!). Don't stop at nice, or refined, or somewhat powerful. Make music mean something important, and then take it further.

- Greg (Nov. 3, 08)

Starting Late

Hello Greg,
I have a little question here. Piano has been the dream of my life. When I was 13 yrs old, I took piano lessons and I was crazy about it. I practiced hours and hours everyday, my piano teacher said she rarely heard anyone played so well and made so much progress in little time. I dreamed to be a concert pianist, but got sometimes discouraged since I started late. Then I quitted piano completely only after a few months of piano lessons, since my school notes got down drastically (I never worked for school, I played piano all day long). My parents got worried over my exam results, so I stopped. Now I am 29 yrs old, married and have a boy of 2 yrs old. I need to play piano, something inside me says to me that I need this to make my life complete. So I bought a new piano recently and contacted a good piano teacher. I'm not dreaming to become a concert pianist, but I want to get serious this time and practice hard everyday. Do you think if I continue to practice consistantly, I will be able to play piano very very very well? I have not started the lessons yet, I will start in January 2009 since I am going away for Christmas to another country (I am married to a French doctor and live in France, so far away from my home, and I am going home for Christmas for 1 month). I have a great passion for classical music but never got the chance to have a deep musical education. If I start piano lessons in January 2009 and practice hard everyday, when do you think I will be able to play beautiful sonatas from Mozart or Chopin or the like? I dream of piano everyday, please answer me, I will appreciate that very much. Thank you.
  - Anne

Dear Anne,

That wasn't a little question. ;-)

I can give you a little response though -- If you truly practice hard and efficiently every day, then you can learn anything, even as a 29-year-old. It may be a couple years before you are able to tackle the Mozart sonatas and several more before you get to Chopin's, but certainly, they are within reach.

Practice hard!

- Greg

Memorization

Hi Greg!
I always enjoy your website and appreciate the support you give to young musicians. I have one question--how do you memorize music on a deadline? I'm looking for a fast but reliable method of memorization.
 - Katie

Dear Katie,

Oh, memory! I hate memorizing music! You'll hear a lot of pianists speak about how they play better without music; and then you'll hear them say that all pianists play better from memory -- that a pianist only really knows a piece once it's memorized. I think this is a load of baloney. It is incredibly close-minded too.

Everybody learns differently. Some people have to write things down, others need to see it, and others need to hear it. Some people rely on rote memory, photographic memory, analytical memory, or aural memory. I remember dutifully taking notes during school classes for years; I thought that was the best way to learn. The trouble was: I couldn't concentrate both on spelling words and listening to the teacher. It wasn't until my third year of college that I realized I learned better -- and retained information better -- if I simply listened to the teacher. No notes at all!

With that distinction in mind, I believe many pianists could perform better with the music in front of them, but they have been lead to believe that they are inferior unless they memorize the score. As a visual person, when I can see the curves and shapes of the counterpoint in a Bach fugue, I play very differently. Unfortunately, I usually just bend to conventions and play from memory anyway.

The memory techniques that I use may not work for you; nevertheless, here goes:

• I memorize just a section of music at a time.
• I learn and memorize everything hands separately.
• I have many, many, many "memory points" -- points in the score that I can jump to at any moment. I rarely find myself actually jumping to a memory point; instead, I use them as stability pillars -- they are like buoys keeping me afloat.

Good luck finding what works for you!

- Greg (Oct. 25, 2009)

Tiny Hands

Hi Greg :D
I'm a college sophomore music major with about ten years of formal study under my belt. I've wanted to be a doctor since I was little and had been playing piano off-and-on for about as long until I hit eight years old, I think. However, it took me until college to realize that I love music more than what I thought (had I realized that earlier I'd have applied for a conservatory, but alas, life is life and there's plenty of time for that down the road). I'm still doing the med school thing, but I'm hitting grad school in music first. Okay, my question. I'm a tiny person. Nine times out of ten the piano bench doesn't lower enough for my feet to hit the floor, and I can only hit a ninth comfortably -- even that can be a bit of a stretch for my right hand. It just so happens that I have a strong affinity for Russian music, especially anything composed by The Five. And what piece did I just happen to fall in love with after hearing it for the first time? Islamey by Balakirev. My piano prof thinks I have a "masterpiece syndrome" or something because I have this knack for falling in love with big-handed hard pieces. Understandably, a lot of Russian music requires a pretty big stretch, which I'm not that capable of. I'm trying to grab as many of the reaches (particularly the tenths) with my RH as possible, but I can't grab all of them that way. Stylistically, how would you recommend approaching those? In areas where the texture is thicker I'm having no problem -- it's the D-major passage in the middle I'm trying to address because the beginning of that section is rather tranquil and I feel that rolling the tenth kinda kills the mood a bit. Also, do you have any recommendations as to what I can do exercise- or stretching-wise to try to improve my reach? I'm getting rather sick of having to roll almost every chord every time I play Rachmaninoff. Thanks! - Angel

Dear Angel,

You can always find inspiration in the late Alicia de Larrocha. She had tiny hands (she could barely play an octave) and she could sail through Rachmaninoff's concertos like nobody's business. She spoke eloquently about her trials and tribulations pertaining to her hand size in David Dubal's "Reflections from the Keyboard:"

Reflections from the Keyboard: The World of the Concert Pianist

Also, Aiko Onishi speaks at length about stretching exercises -- a great way to improve flexibility and hand span -- in her book "Pianism:"

Aiko Onishi's "Pianism"

I heartily recommend both books!

- Greg (Oct. 25, 2009)