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Some Of The Greatest Pianists Could Never Teach Piano

October 5th, 2009

Analytics Vs. Artistry

It’s true, there were very few great pianists who could master the art of teaching piano, as they spent their entire lives mastering their own training and artistry. Learning and teaching are essential parts of exploring science. However, some of the most well-known pianists who had not received sufficient teaching training were actually pushed into teaching.

By human nature and throughout history, we have looked up to these great composers and pianists for guidance and piece of mind in how we relate to learning piano. If they can do it, they should be able to show us how, right? If you asked a famous pianist how to play a certain piece, he or she would sit down at the piano and play it. Notice that the language of the pianist is spoken by the hand and the piano, as opposed to the mouth.

Not only that, but that pianist may also be completely unaware about how exactly the fingers are moving in the right way to manipulate the piano keys. It literally takes the ability to control thousands of muscles and nerves in the fingers, hands, and forearms to learn how to manipulate the keys the proper way.

Acquiring technical skills can come from two different extremes. The first is the analytical extreme, where every movement and muscle is analyzed. The other is the artistic extreme, where the piano player discovers his or her own way of expressing musicality through body motions and feelings, thus acquiring the correct movements to execute proper piano playing.

And so, technique through the artistic extreme is difficult to communicate to students, because it’s acquired through completely personal and nonlinear musical aspects. Still, even knowing the proper and analytical practice methods is not enough. The correct explanations as to why they work are needed, which usually lies outside the expertise of the pianist.

There seems to be a gap in the development of proper teaching tools. The artist or the piano teachers lack training to develop these tools, but scientists and engineers who may have such training lack piano experience and artistry for teaching piano.

We can’t deny that some of the most well-known pianists of all time were indeed geniuses. Many discovered and theorized new ways of incorporating mathematics and physics to improve piano playing, so we can’t say that absolutely no analytical aspects were combined with artistry in piano playing.

These long-developed and even re-invented technical piano playing aspects have actually never been documented historically in a systematic way as they have evolved over the years. Piano teachers struggle to teach because it’s very difficult to hold the artistic approach while trying to identify what correct theoretical explanations work for teaching practice methods. And unfortunately, without a sound explanation for why these work can cause the teacher and the student to misuse or misunderstand the right practice methods.

This is why no other piano practice methods have been developed throughout history. Learning and understanding why a certain practice method works, is just as important as the method itself.

Elise’s Musical Tip For The Day:

Do you ever see a really great piano player and just think that they have been blessed with pure, amazing talent? Well, don’t. Most conservatories do not accept students unless they are of advanced levels, yet without proper conservatory training, many students are unable to attain the skills required to be accepted. A grey area has been created by the lack of good piano teaching methods, directly translating into a “lack of talent.” When this is all taken into account, it becomes more evident to see why some of the greatest pianists of all time could not teach piano.