Learn How to Play Piano from Expert

The fault of most players who come to me is that their preparation before attempting to attack a great work has not been sufficient. And for this the teacher must sometimes be held responsible to a certain degree, because, naturally desiring the pupil to make quick progress, he gives him Liszt’s Rhapsodies and .Beethoven’s greatest Sonatas to play, after only a few months of perfunctory study. The students also have a natural desire to astonish their parents and gratify their patrons, and often to justify the spending of a good deal of money on their musical education. Most of them rely on so-called musical feeling, charming touch, and other elusive qualities, which have possibly been “enthused” over by their supporters! Thus they fritter away valuable time in chase of shadows, instead of settling down under a severe and accomplished master to genuine hard study of scales and other exercises.

I am constantly seeing advertisements by teachers of “how to play the piano in five minutes by correspondence!” But I know by my own experience that after thirty years of continuous study there are still many problems in piano-playing that I cannot solve.

To commence then with the study of passages in thirds: A great many people seek to play these in what I term a “player-pianistic style” instead of a “pianistically plastic” one. By this I mean that they make a point of striking both the notes that compose thirds together with exactly the same pressure of tone, thus giving no doubt an absolutely mechanical precision to double note progressions, but thereby taking away from them, in my opinion, all their melodic character and charm. For I maintain that all passage playing, whether it be in thirds, sixths, or single notes, should necessarily preserve a melodic outline,”I otherwise it degenerates into mere sequences of notes for the display of agility and loses every musical significance.

For whereas some regard elaborate passages as entirely mechanical embellishments, the earnest musician will realize that this is not often the case; on the contrary, close analysis will almost always prove them to be intricate and reasoned embroideries of melody.

Now in single note passages it is easy to obtain some sort of musical contour, because the brain has only one line to develop. But with double notes this is all far more complicated, especially as the melodic ideal remains to be achieved here, just as much as in the simpler case. And hard enough as it is to accomplish satisfactory results with only one finger to think of, what is to be done when two are having to be managed at once?

To arrive at any real result in the study of the piano, it is essential to start very young, and to train both the ear and the hand from childhood. In the case of the beginner, the purely mechanical side of how to hold the hand and produce a supple articulation, is, of course, the main object, but together with this, I am of the opinion that elementary instruction should be given in harmony and the rudiments of music, that the pupil may begin to understand a little about the progressions of sounds and the sense of rhythm which is so necessary to musical development. Nowadays, there are many and various systems of teaching children these elements of music, in forms that will interest and entertain them while they learn almost unconsciously. And such teaching greatly facilitates the technical study, as it makes the child interested in what he is learning, and able to appreciate to a certain extent the difference and gradations of the tones he produces.

Now, as regards the mechanical beginning, without which no one can really play the piano properly, the most important thing is to start with a good method of playing. For there is no doubt that all reliable technique is the outcome of a good common-sense system to begin with. Of course there exists many crankisms about this; the student may go to one teacher who will tell him the only way to play the piano is to sit practising at it from fourteen to fifteen hours a day, just doing finger exercises. He will go to another who will assure him he will only arrive at success if he persists for years, never lifting his fingers more than exactly one-half an inch from the keys!

Again, another will pretend that the only way to learn is by always playing pianissimo, another that it is necessary to do exercises only on a table, and never use the keyboard for practising at all, while still another believes in the purely mechanical development of the fingers, by playing hours and hours of scales! Then there are many also who declare that all technique is “Anathema,” and that every one should play as nature tells them to !

Perhaps this might occasionally be successful with a natural-born genius, but it would be an exceptionally gifted being who would go very far without any method or school, as we call it, to start with. For the human mind needs, at the outset, the guidance and direction
in all the arts of certain elementary rules, born of the amassed experience of the best teachers and thinkers; and the complete assimilation of these rules are the best aids and helps to the attainment of a more perfect self-expression, when the time comes for the individuality of a great talent to assert itself.

But what is a good method ? Why, a common-sense one, surely ! And is such a method far to seek ? No, undoubtedly not ! It must be merely a system which does not exaggerate, and that leaves every part of the hand and arm in a natural easy position. The hand will then look comfortable upon the keyboard, and endless time will be saved in arriving at an easy supple velocity of the fingers. For the terrific labour which is involved by the neglect of these simple principles, in mastering swiftness and lightness of articulation, only those can testify to who have had the bitter experience of bad teaching to start with. I am, therefore, going to give here a few of what I consider the essential points to aim at, when commencing to learn the piano.