Monday, April 19, 2010

Insert witty title here.

Wow. There was a lot in this chapter about Matthay. He was quite the prolific man and had some interesting things to say about technique. I like his chart about Conception and execution and how it breaks down. He said we shouldn't hit or squeeze the key as it affects our tone production. He tried to advocate weight and relaxation in a more convincing way than Breithaupt. As far as clarity in articulation goes, he blows Briethaupt out of the water. But as far as being able to execute everything, it's not exactly possible. I liked that he said technique is so much more than posture, position and movements.

While reading this chapter, I realized why so many treatises lost favor. Because it is so hard to articulate exactly what you mean without some form of demonstration or individual instruction. This means we will all have jobs in 50 years because people will not be able to teach themselves. *Whew*

He seemed like quite a successful teacher. His suggestion to practice slowly with exaggerated gestures is quite practical and beneficial. As you progress in tempo, the gestures shrink to they point where you can't really see them at all, but psychologically they are still there and aid in relaxation and ease of execution. He also emphasized the importance of listening as we practice and perform. In this book, we've seen just about every technique possible (aside from extended techniques of the 20th and 21st centuries). To resurrect Ivan's question, What technique is right? Well my answer, whatever technique works for you. We all have our individual tricks that come from many different techniques and different style periods. We're all eclectic technicians, and I wouldn't want or expect anything different.

3 comments:

  1. I am somewhat making a reference to my comment on Meara's post. I do agree that many treatises have lost favor because of the difficulty in trying to explain something in writing without actual instruction. I do think that we will have jobs in 50 years because we all need guidance and instruction because it is hard to just learn the piano from scratch without any instruction whatsoever, but I do think that once you the fundamentals, it is possible to teach yourself. At some point, all pianists will be without teachers and have to teach themselves, drawing on their knowledge from their past teachers, but also discovering their own personal solutions.

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  2. It's true that we will one day all have to teach ourselves (O.o), but we will need a great many fundamentals in order to do that. Until that point, demonstration of these techniques is vital. However, as we learn from our teachers and experiment for ourselves, we still should pay some attention to these treatises, because of the alternate perspectives they offer. Eclectic; it's the word of the day.

    Nice title. :)

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  3. Of course I realize that we want to be able to teach ourselves, and we want our students to get that way. But before they can do that, they need the fundamentals, and even then with just basic fundamentals, it's hard to develop solid technique. Hence, the reason why we go to college for 8-10 years learning how to do that.

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