For more than three centuries people have known the pianoforte. And no wonder that during such a time, there are a lot of prejudices and myths associated with playing this musical instrument. How to play correctly? Than to amaze the listener? How to become a virtuoso? How many need to learn? .. These and many other questions always excited fans of the piano … We decided to dispel a few myths, based, of course, primarily on modern trends and techniques, well, on our personal experience.
Myth # 1
To learn how to play, I have to learn all my life.
In reality, everything depends on your goals and objectives. If you have never played in your life, but want to learn how to play music for yourself, it’s never too late to master the basic level of playing the instrument. And with this level you can already fully express yourself in music for the joy of yourself and others. Not everyone in our time wants to be able to play Liszt’s sketches, and by the way, now there are enough examples of piano neoclassical composers who do not have a professional music education.
Myth # 2
Before playing the instrument. I must learn a musical instrument and a solfeggio
This is far from true, although if you want to master the instrument properly, musical notation, it is worthwhile to learn. The piano keyboard is not as scary and complex as it seems. It in fact consists of repeating elements, and all sounds are located on it linearly, from the lowest to the highest. Even the first time sitting down for the instrument you can play a simple melody by ear, without knowing the notes. It’s like in childhood: you learned to talk before you learned the alphabet!
Myth number 3
For the development of technology, it is necessary to play boring exercises for a long time
This is a very serious misconception, which is encountered even by professional musicians. Mechanical exercises remain meaningless if your head does not participate in this process. In the head, and not in the fingers, a technical skill is developed. In other words, any training for the instrument must be performed consciously. And then, if you get to play some kind of exercise of Ganon, this does not guarantee that in your favorite work you will immediately get some complicated place. In this case, you can “turn” it into an “exercise” and work on a specific task: both technical and artistic .. And then at least 50% of “boredom” will go away, since. you will know the specific goal that you are working on at the moment.
A difficult place in a work is better to “turn” into an exercise, and work on a specific task.
Myth # 4
I have to practice a lot of hours
This point is in line with the previous one. If you mechanically work for several hours a day, but without analyzing your actions, movements during the game and the sensations, you can still “knock your head against the wall” for many more months without feeling obvious shifts towards improving your game. It is better to spend less time, but to spend it as much as possible, that is, as concentrated as possible. Set yourself specific small goals, and try to fully engage in the process of achieving them!
Myth # 5
I must learn the music gradually: from beginning to end
Again we are wrong. The most effective way to learn the composition is to parse the most difficult places first! Why so? All the usual practice of learning from the very beginning can eventually lead to the fact that you will happily play an easy piece of the initial theme, and further postpone the learning of complex pieces. And if you start with the hardest, then losing it every time, you will constantly improve it, supplementing later with simpler fragments, and then from this mosaic you will get a whole picture of the learned work.
Myth # 6
While playing the piano, I must be able to hold a coin on my hands
In reality, the brush should not be static. This is fraught with only unnecessary clamps, and as a result, even injuries! The legend of a still brush often sounds in music schools, when a zealous teacher tries to eliminate the child’s unnecessary “shaking” with a brush while playing long passages. But to solve this problem by fixing the muscles of the hand is a dead end path. The brush should be mobile, flexible and “breathing”. And its mobility should follow the movement of the melody, but not behind the movement of the fingers (hence the hand shaking when we try to help each finger to press its note: the brush constantly falls after pressing the key).
Myth # 7
If I play a complex technical musical work, then it’s normal, if my hands hurt
Reality: About this “norm” can also often be heard in music schools. The child plays the sketch, his hands are clasped, but the teacher is above the soul and demands, at all costs, to finish everything. If you hold your hands during the game (this is most often expressed by pain in the forearm zone), it means that you are doing something wrong. Do you happen to accidentally try to fix the brush and keep a coin on it? J Or, for example, you have shoulders during the game, you do not notice it, but there is an unnecessary tension. In any case, one must listen to one’s physical sensations so that the muscles do not strain during the game. Experienced teacher sees when the student’s hands are clasped, and he will certainly help and tell how to get rid of unnecessary tension and distribute their strength.
Myth # 8
If I learn to play the piano, then I can easily master any instrument
Some of the best violinists, flutists, cellists and saxophonists have never had piano lessons. The study of any tool has its own characteristics. There are some points that are more understandable on the piano due to the linear arrangement of the notes, so in some cases, when you are learning the scales or the theory of chords, it is easier to understand. However, it is not necessary that the piano contributes to your progress on other instruments because of its earlier mastering.
Myth # 9
At the beginning of the lesson (class), I must play slowly to “warm up”
This is not always true. Sometimes it’s much better to try to play a work at a tempo with a raid, thus getting involved in the workflow. Plus, from the very beginning of the session, it is better to start up your fresh energy supply, to work on willpower and attention for a specific job, and not for playing.
Myth # 10
During the game on notes, I must in my mind call each note
In fact, if we analyze how the musicians perceive the music text, then we can say that they perceive it graphically. They do not calculate each line, and do not remember what note it is written on and how it’s called. This perception of the music text can and should be learned from the very beginning. When, for example, knowing, the reference note or the one with which the melody begins, we perceive this melody as a single graphic line, and play it without thinking about the name of each sounded note. This can be compared to how we read books: we do not call each letter separately, but immediately combine them into words.
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