Piano Blog

I Don't Want to Practice Piano

"What do I do when my child doesn't want to practice? "

Piano teachers hear this question a lot. I think it implies a more fundamental question: What is the nature of a child's wants and desires? 

The answer to this question can lead to two different parenting approaches:  One approach holds that every moment and decision of a child's day must be scheduled and controlled. The other approach says that a child should be allowed to do however he or she feels on the whim of the moment. 

I disagree with both approaches, because I think they both deny the fundamental nature of what a child is. A child is a potential adult, but not a fully formed adult. A child is in the process of forming values, learning his or her likes and dislikes, and forming a full psychology. 

So what does this mean? 

A child's values and psychology aren't completely formed. This means that a child's decisions and emotions will often be at variance with his long-term self interest. For example, a child might want to eat sweets and candy all day. Or she might love the piano but not feel like practicing because it requires too much effort. In such cases, the parent is obligated to reduce the number of sweets, or encourage or even mandate practice.

On the other hand, a child's values and psychology aren't completely plastic. Although he isn't an adult, he does have some nascent values and psychology. To deny this fact, or thwart early attempts at self-discovery is to invite serious problems down the road.

For example, if a child has a clear preference for drawing or some other activity, and yet you deny this in favor of hours of daily piano practice, you're heading for disaster. In a case such as this, an "I don't want to practice" isn't an out of context whim, but rather the correct response to a value contradiction imposed from the outside.

The answer then to "What do I do if my child doesn't want to practice?" is: "It depends." If your child has other interests, and has had piano imposed from the beginning, you should consider letting her explore. If your child enjoys practicing in general but needs a day off, then let her chill out. If your child loves music but won't practice because of the effort involved, it could be time to find some creative motivation or be a strict parent. If your child doesn't want to do anything, it might be time to look for someone more qualified than a piano teacher for advice.

Piano Practice and Exercise - Similarities

There are no quick worthwhile results.

Extreme amounts of repetition are necessary.

Poor execution causes more harm than good.

A stupid approach means years of frustration and wasted time.

Each session is best planned in advance.

Showing off is detrimental to real progress.

More time is spent worrying than doing.

 

Mastery - A Prerequisite

I promised a post on mastery tonight, but I probably shouldn't write it. Instead here is my best try at getting out of said promise. (Don't worry I'm still writing one!) George Leonard's master is someone almost serene; focused on the flow of ritual and practice. Tonight, this is not me. 

Rather than explain [read: make excuses for] my crankiness, I'd rather divert your attention to a helpful tip for when you're feeling overwhelmed. I first read this technique in the books of David Allen (of GTD fame), but have since seen it elsewhere. This is a great way to clear your mind, so think of this as a "prerequisite" to the Mastery post. You'll be surprised by this exercise if you haven't tried it. 

Here it is: Write everything down.

Literally, take a piece of paper, and write everything down that you can think of. Things to do, worries, chores, future project ideas, whatever comes into your mind. When I first did this, I got around 100 things, which I hear is pretty standard. It's amazing how much stuff is just sitting around up there; tasks and issues that are left as question marks. As David Allen teaches, all this "stuff" bogs us down because our mind doesn't know how to deal with it. It sits at the periphery of awareness, causing stress and anxiety. Once you write it down you can make lists, figure out how to take action, or decide its not important, etc. But first, get it OUT of your head.

This exercise is simply but amazingly effective. The first time I did it, I felt a sense of control I hadn't had in months or even years. 

I'm off to write everything down.

Mastery - Part I

I'm currently re-reading an excellent little book by George Leonard called Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment. I've read it several times now and have a few short posts coming up on it. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning any craft, skill,art -- or learning anything at all. 

In his book, Leonard talks about 3 personality types or learning habits: The Dabbler, The Obsessive, and The Hacker.

The Dabbler starts each pursuit with extreme energy, but soon dwindles out. The process of getting started is addictive, until the new quickly becomes the old.

The Obsessive lives for constant results. Like the dabbler, the obsessive starts out strong, but does not give up so easily. In fact, the obsessive is unable to accept anything but constant progress at all costs, often at the expensive of long-term results. The dabbler quits out of boredom, the obsessive quits out of burnout.

The Hacker gets the hang out things but thats about it. For him, there isn't much use in doing more than good enough. The goal for the hacker isn't to master an art, it's to get by and maybe be part of the clique. 

I see these personality types all the time in both my teaching and my personal life. (Of course you can have different approaches to different areas of your life.) However, as far as Mastery is concerned, each of these types falls short. In contrast to these three types, Leonard discusses "The Master's Journey", which will be the subject of Sunday's post!

 

We are Human

"You do feel emotion don't you?" I once asked in exasperation. I couldn't stand one more soulless note. Especially not in late Beethoven.

"No." She replied.

This student did not last long. 

We are human -- there are thoughts, feelings, and deeply felt life experiences. We carry this into art. 

Today we seem to be in the business of producing thousands of piano-robots; automatons who can play the right notes in the right order in an emotional vacuum disconnected from their own lives and experiences. 

Scriabin gave the following advice to Horowitz's mother: "Your son will be a great pianist, but please, let him be an overall cultured man, and make him understand not only music, but other important aspects of life. There are the arts of painting, of philosophy, of literature. Only then will he be an all-around musician."

Pressure

Sort of a rant?

Stress is a scary thing. In the right amount, a bit of stress can really motivate, but just a bit too much of it can lead to disaster. An athlete under the right amount of stress excels, but under too much pressure he crumbles.

The same is true at the piano. I don't mean just in performing, but also in the process of learning. Sometimes serious students expect too much. I think many young students could be pushed more, but there are some cases where this is the reverse; the pressure from parents or teachers becomes obsessive and overbearing. The child is not "good enough" unless he or she wins a competition or plays perfectly.

Ironically, this pressure often leads to burnout, poor performance, and even complete rebellion or shutdown.

Why is this necessary? Why do we have to beat others to prove our worth? (What the hell does beating others have to do with music or art?) Why does self-worth rest on how accurately you can play a Mozart Sonata? What kind of message are we sending to students or children by telling them they aren't good enough because of a memory slip or a wrong note?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all about new levels of achievement, aiming for your best, improving. There's a reason its called fine art - high levels of playing don't fall into your lap. 

But when music becomes all about stress, pressure, not messing up, and comparing oneself to others we lose interest in the music, because it isn't there anymore.

 

 

Sensitivity Training and Feedback Loops II

In my last post I discussed feedback loops in piano playing and their importance in cultivating physical awareness.* Now I'll try to give you an idea of how you can employ these ideas in your practice.I know that the last post might seem like a lot of information to keep in mind, but in practice its not so bad. So, if this is all new to you, here's something to try:

Take a 5 finger pattern, or a *very* small passage of only a second or two in length. For now do this hands alone . . . so pick a hand. Play this passage (preferably from memory) a few times, each time concentrating on the feel of your hand and arm, as well as the tactile feel of the keys against your fingertips and their movements up and down. Get as much "feel data" as you can each time you play the passage.

Now, take your hand away from the keyboard. Close your eyes and try to visualize yourself playing *every note* of this passage. Visualize as slow as necessary to be exact in your mind. Do this several times, and with each repetition try to make the visualization include a very vivid kinesthetic component. Don't go for speed; be patient and aim for clarity. Try to visualize not only the look and sound, but the *feel* of playing this passage in the muscles of your hand and your fingertips (but without actually moving your hand.)

(There is a helpful German word in this context: spielart, which the famous piano technician Franz Mohr explains as "simply the way the action feels to you, or how the action functions under your hands, in combination with what comes *out* of the piano . . ."** This is what you want to visualize.)

Now return to the keyboard and play the passage very slowly. Your goal is to visualize the sight, sound, and *feel* of each keystroke an instant before playing. After you do this a few times, you can work the passage up to speed, while continuing to visualize ahead. After each repetition, STOP, and consider what the play-through sounded like. Was it under your control? Did you get the sound you wanted? Did it "feel" how you wanted or expected? Use this information to make adjustments to the next run-through.

If you're patient with this, you can make this sort of analysis a practice habit. Although I focused here on the tactile component of the process, reflecting on every aspect of playing is a crucial part of effective effective feedback loops. The most effective musicians do this sort of analysis constantly--probably without even being aware of it. If you take the time to build it into your thinking, it will pay off many times over.

--- 

*(As a side note, I think more than anything else, its this awareness that allows a good pianist to make instantaneous adjustments necessary for a good performance. This responsiveness also allows, after a lot of practice, for a pianist to adapt quickly to a new instrument.) 

**Franz Mohr. My Life With the Great Pianists, pg. 28. 

 

Sensitivity Training and Feedback Loops

Here's an element of piano playing that I think many people are unaware of. To develop a really refined technique, you need to be very sensitive to the *feel* of your hands on the keys. This means, the the tactile sensation of your fingertips, the weight of the keys, the motion of the key going down and how that motion *feels* in your fingers and hands.

Maybe this seems obvious, but a surprising number of people become extremely mechanical the instant they put their hands to the piano.

Why is this important? Really good piano practice, and piano playing,  involves setting up a "feedback" loop. It goes like this:

1) Sound concept -> 2) Attempted Sound Production ->  3) Result -> 4) Analysis of Result -> 5) Adjustment of Desired Sound/Attempt

(Sorry for the clumsy presentation, but you get the idea.)

The result of these steps 1 and 2 is a sound 3 that either matches the "Sound Concept" or not. Steps 4 and 5 can lead to an adjustment of the first two steps, which starts the process over again. This is a feedback loop. 

Many people fail in their practice because they don't really understand Step 2. In fact, most people focus almost exclusively on Step 3 to the exclusion of everything else! Of course this is very ineffective practice. Getting a desired result is worth very little if you don't know how you got it. Piano teachers are fond of saying "slow down". What we really mean is: "Slow down so that you can think about the results you are getting in comparison to the sound you want to produce and your attempt at producing it, and make adjustments as necessary while carefully thinking ahead." That's just a mouthful so we don't say it.

One note about step 2: like any non-habitual action, it involves 2 parts: a "foresight" or "pre-visualization" of the action, and the action itself. For instance if you decide to raise your hand above your head, you first visualize that action on some level and then you do it. For habitual actions, this visualization seems to scope out to larger levels. For instance, because typing is so habitual to me, I don't need to think ahead about pressing the keys of the keyboard, but I do need to think about what words to type. 

Too much information? Bear with me. Just remember, when you DO something (step 2) you have to "visualize" it and then do it. So step 2 has two parts.

Now, in piano playing, there are many elements to Step 2, such as note-reading, finger dexterity, hand position, fingering, and on and on. I want to focus here on one element that is almost universally ignored: the *feel* of playing. 

 When I ask people to visualize playing a certain passage, they often have no trouble understanding that they can visualize the correct key and the correct sound before playing. When you say "think ahead while you play", its somewhat obvious that you would think ahead about what notes to play and what those notes should sound like. It's less obvious to think ahead about what playing will *feel* like.

As an example, when I'm about to play a five finger pattern, I don't just have an image of the keys, but also a feel in my fingers of what it will feel like to produce that sound. This "feel" is a mixture of kinesthetic awareness (the feeling of my hands and their motion) as well as an awareness of how the keys feel on my fingertips and their movement up and down. 

OK This is enough of the details, so the end of part I. 

I'll continue this article in a second part with an exercise or two to help develop kinesthetic awareness and strong feedback-loops in practicing.

Planning vs. Doing

There's a time to plan and a time to do, and those times don't usually overlap.

At least for my dull mind, there's not enough mental bandwidth to do both at once. 

On top of that, the mind is a tricky animal. If I'm at the gym, in the middle of a workout, and my "planning" brain switches on, I can find all sorts of reasons why I "shouldn't" finish the workout. I'm too tired. I might be getting sick. I don't have much time. Is this workout even working? Maybe I should try a different one. It would feel so good to stop right now.

If you're having trouble practicing, I bet one on reason is that you are overlapping planning and doing.

Arthur Rubinstein - An Amazing Person

There is so much in this interview, not just about music but about life. It is worth watching many times over.