The majority of musicians mentioned thus far have come from musical families. Often, fathers are musicians, recognize musical talent in their children, and poof, a musical genius is created. Okay, so maybe not every child that studied music because their family was musical was a genius, but I envy those children who came from musical families. So my dad played trumpet in high school, but it didn’t really have much importance in my own education. Had I not chosen to play the piano, I can’t say I would have ever played a musical instrument. I appreciate that Czerny’s father strived to develop his sight-reading ability and musicianship through continuous study of new music.
I like how Czerny was able to create such skill in Liszt’s ability to sight-read by having him learn music rapidly. I have heard teacher’s talk about the importance of sight-reading, but it never seems to be suggested as part of our practice sessions. I am inspired to sight-read new music for an hour each day (if I had an extra hour), or learn music faster while maintaining the same accuracy and sensitivity. If sight-reading was incorporated into daily practicing, then maybe we could play at sight in public.
I don’t know if having a lesson every day of the week is such a good thing. Students need some time to digest the information they are learning, think about it, and to make new information meaningful to themselves in their own way. I do think that two lessons a week would be beneficial. If an advanced student is studying a large amount of repertoire, I could more easily see having a lesson each day if it were on a different piece of music, but it still seems somewhat excessive.
It is highly important, as Czerny states, we should “easily perceive that the works of each Composer must be executed in the style in which he wrote.” It is important that we play Bach differently than Beethoven, and Beethoven differently than Chopin.
Actually, my mother was majoring the vocal in the university and my father loves music. So I naturally met with the music and playing the piano. I can say that I was affected to play the piano by my parents. However, the parents of some my friends who is majoring piano said that they did not be affected by their parents at all. But they doing very well even though they did not get any musical talent from their parents. I think, of course, taking over musical talent from their family is very important and very helpful as a musician, but they who does not take over musical talent from their family can play the piano well and get musical ideas if they make an effort.
ReplyDeleteI think you are right in saying that today having a lesson everyday might be excessive. However I think learning music can be compared to learning another lanugage and we have four out of five days of class for that. So having a lesson more than once a week I think could be benificial.
ReplyDeleteI think that the benefit of having lessons more frequently would be at least two-fold. First, it would inspire students to practice more. If I knew that I was going to have lessons every day, or every other day, you can bet that I wouldn't be tempted to skip a practice session, or become lax about the level of practicing. Secondly, and this more for younger students, it allows teachers to catch problems in technique early on, and correct them before they become in any way ingrained.
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