SEEKING ARTISTIC GOALS: SUGGESTIONS for PIANO STUDENTS and TEACHERS by Jiayin LI

SEEKING ARTISTIC GOALS: SUGGESTIONS FOR PIANO STUDENTS AND TEACHERS by Jiayin LI Concert Pianist Member Precollege Piano Faculty Manhattan School of Music As a student in China, I had a great deal of exposure to the well- developed teaching methods of my home country. However, when I came to the US and began to study with Solomon Mikowsky in the doctoral program at Manhattan School of Music, I had no idea what to expect. It was an epiphany for me! In just a few years, he has taught me the most important requirements to become a good and successful piano instructor: how to listen and how to apply it into effective teaching. My added experience, first as Dr. Mikowsky’s Assistant, and then, as a member of the MSM Precollege faculty, I have developed a series of concepts that have informed my teaching. I wish to share them with the reader. Before starting on this discourse, I wish to share a selection of the great teachers of the past, included in Kookhee Hong’s “The Piano teaching legacy of Solomon Mikowsky,” where Dr. Mikowsky pays tribute to them. Just as pianists are familiar with the names of some of the most famous pianists, it is time for credit to be given to their teachers. Great teachers in the past: Alfredo Casella (Italian, 1883-1947), Marcel Ciampi (French, 1891-1980), Maria Curcio (Italian, 1918-2009), Louis Diémer (French, 1843-2019), Edwin Fischer (Swiss, 1886-1960), Sidney Foster (American, 1917-1977), Carl Friedberg (German, 1872-1955), Alexander Goldenweiser (Russian, 1865-1961), Ernest Hutcheson (Australian, 1871-1951), Theodor Leschetizky (Polish, 1830-1915), Lazare Lévy (French, 1882-1964), Marguerite Long (French, 1874-1966), Antoine François Marmontel (1816-1898), Tobias Matthay (British, 1858-1945), Moritz Moszkowski (Polish/German, 1854-1925), Yves Nat (French, 1890-56), Heinrich Neuhaus (German/Ukranian, 1884-1964), Vlado Perlemuter (Lithuanian/French, 1904-2002), Egon Petri (Dutch/German, 1881-1962, Isidor Philipp (Hungarian/ French, 1863-1958), Nadia Reisenberg (Lithuanian, 1904-1983), Vassily Safonov (Russian, 1852-1918), Olga Samaroff (1882-1948), Bruno Seidlhofer (Austrian, 1905-1982), César Pérez Sentenat (Cuba, 1896-1973), Leonard Shure (American, 1910-1995), Eduard Steuermann (Ukranian, 1892-1964), Isabelle Vengerova (Belarusian, 1877-1956). PIANO LESSONS FOR ALL? Composers, performers, and listeners play an equally important role in our beloved profession. The musical experience of learning an instrument provides spiritual and cultural enrichment, perhaps none as much as the piano. The appreciation derived from such studies are necessary to preserve music as an art form. Making music on your own or appreciating the art of music as an informed listener has been historically beneficial to civilization. MUSIC READING The lack of good reading skills is the main reason piano students quit after only a few years of studies (or suffering!). Even advanced students are unable to learn the vast repertoire necessary to be a professional performer. When auditioning a student, I request him or her to read a few sentences English. It always goes well. But when I ask for a piece of music to be sight-read, much easier than the ones prepared to play for me, it is always a struggle. Why should there be a difference? For beginning method books, I recommend the use of an intervallic approach, stressing the equality of black and white keys. “All keys matter!” The long-established Middle-C approach keeps beginning students on white keys for too long. Also, learning pieces hands separately first is the worst possible approach. I often ask “advanced” students how they would feel if they were invited to a party and unexpectedly asked to accompany a singer in a song never played before in front of the guests. Would they ask if it is possible to practice it hands-separate first in front of the audience? Any piece assigned to a student should not be too difficult for the student to play hands together decently at sight. Ambitious teachers often assign more difficult pieces, a pattern that deters the student’s development. It is much more productive to assigning short, not too difficult pieces. They will allow the student to learn more efficiently. The unintended result of assigning pieces that take too long to learn is that it keeps the student “reading” the same piece for too long. After one year, he/she can only play three- four big pieces, eventually performed to the delight of parents, teachers, and audiences, who listen to the final product unaware of the exaggerated time spent mastering it. Young children should be assigned easy one-page pieces. They can then cover even 50 in many styles in one year, learning them hands- together (though specific problems can be practiced hands- separate). This will facilitate advancement as the difficulties increases, until eventually reaching the large and demanding ones. A piece that requires learning hands-separately is the worst repertoire prescription. The student might develop pianistically but will never become an artist who must be capable of sight-reading music fluently to be able to enjoy the vast literature for the rest of his/her life. RHYTHM It is important for students to learn how to deal with rhythmic challenges without the burdensome concerns about wrong notes notes and fingering. Those corrections can be dealt with immediately thereafter. Students should tap the notes in the score on the piano lid until perfect.Then play the notes with the best fingering choices. Rhythmic difficulties are not usually challenging in traditional music but can be a major issue in contemporary music. Unfortunately, modern music is seldom taught to young children, Bartok’s Mikrokosmos being an occasional exception. When required by competitions, students offer traditional sounding pieces by Ginastera or Villa-Lobos. Etudes by Ligeti have become attractive, not for their musical content and innovation, but because of the technical challenge they pose (I will address this subject in the section on repertoire). It is imperative for serious piano students to become aware that avantgarde contemporary music is required for professional success and international artistic achievement. Inexperienced teachers often are timid when approaching contemporary music. Finding appropriate scores in many countries can be a challenge. Teachers need to get advice on repertoire, perhaps from young local composers who would presumably be more familiar with Western European and American music. Prokofiev and Debussy are not the answer. They made great contributions . 100 years ago! Traditional art and music represent the beauty in the world. There is also plenty of ugliness. When presented artistically, ugliness can be beautiful! Rhythm consists of sound and silence, both equally important. Students often play the notes with rhythmic precision but are careless with rests. They must be felt as vividly as the notes. I often place my flat hand on top of the hand of a student tapping the rhythm of a piece on the lid and ask him/her to hit my hand at the end of the note value. This approach makes them vividly aware of rests and improves rhythmic precision, as notes start and end on time. A good performance requires a combination of strictness and freedom, always composer dependent. Listening to a metronomic performance is boring. While teaching strictness, teachers must also challenge the student’s imagination, and singing is effective in this regard. Singers must breathe; music must too! Good singers convey the importance of certain notes, because of their tessitura, their time value, or the meaning of the words behind the vocal line. Singing a melody or, at least, listening to singers, can help students achieve the goal of all pianists: to make the instrument sing! SOUND PRODUCTION The wrist plays a crucial role in the achievement of a beautiful sound. Teachers should not attempt to deal with it until a child has enough command of the instrument to control such a demanding task. It is a combination of firmness in the fingers and flexibility in the wrists. The diverse characters of different styles of music require various approaches that are capable to emulate the voice, orchestral instruments and the occasional percussiveness required in some music, particularly contemporary. It is important to achieve mastery to deal with the challenges posed by differences between instruments and with the acoustics among concert halls. Stiffness can also be welcome at times. Demonstration is required rather than attempting to describe it in words. HAND POSITION Hand position is the point of departure for the eventual mastering of performance requirements of a particular piece. Fingers should be slightly curved in the natural way we experience when we drop our hands on the sides of our body. The wrists should be placed slightly above keyboard level so that each finger can move comfortably up or down as a unit. Beginners should be asked to play from C to G, up and down, hands separately, without breaks in the sound, using only the fingers. Then they should do the same with the first 5 notes of all the major and minor scales, hands together, using the same 1-5 fingering (thumbs on black notes when required), first in contrary and then parallel motion, by ear, later reciting the names of each note as they play them slowly, thus mastering tonal theory without the confusion that correct scale fingering can add when taught too soon. HANON EXERCISES These exercises by the 19th-century French piano teacher continue to be used by millions of piano students all over the world. The smartness of his approach is based on the use of patterns that require limited reading skills; no struggle in learning them nor achieving speed. Depending on their application, they can be quite useful.

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